At HopeQuestGlobal the purpose that includes the saving of lives of those malnourished works synergistically with the potential profits that our team members generate on their own behalf. We have found a way to connect the two people in this conversation to empower both of them effectively. It’s a fresh idea filled with both high tech and relational support to make participation simple and effective.

Join our Social Business 3.0 model and help eradicate childhood malnutrition.

Handel’s Messiah was composed by George Frideric Handel. He was considered an unpredictable composer and had an up-and-down career moving from one failure to another. In his time, bankruptcy was not an option and he was overcome with debt. As a result, his future included going to debtors prison.

As a last-ditch effort, he decided to perform a farewell concert and at age fifty-six retire a failure. But then his friend, Charles Jennens, delivered to him a libretto, a text used in an extended musical work, based on particular scriptures of the Bible. This is where everything changed.

Handel totally immersed himself into writing. He completed part one in only six days, part two in nine, and the third and final part in another six. He was feverishly overwhelmed and driven. A servant delivering a meal startled the composer, who cried out, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.”

He had just finished the Hallelujah chorus.

After only twenty-four days the astounding 260 pages of orchestration was complete. He had not left his house and was often found weeping with emotion. In consideration of the extent of the work, many have considered this one of the greatest musical exploits of history.

What makes this endeavor the work of a social entrepreneur?

Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland on April 13, 1742, for a charitable benefit that raised enough money to set free 142 men from debtor’s prison. Poverty and imprisonment from debt—the compelling personal incentive that began the work of this musical entrepreneur in the first place—resulted in the freedom of others with the same social fate.

So, the next time you are in an auditorium where Handel’s Messiah is presented and you stand up during the performance—as is the tradition—remember, too, that even after its premiere, subsequent performances did more to feed the hungry and transform the lives of the poverty stricken than any other musical achievement.

Social entrepreneurship at its symphonic best.

Sources: Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, Patrick Kavanaugh; www.philcooke.com

At HopeQuestGlobal our sense of purpose is mission heavy and our sense of profit for helping accomplish the mission becomes a by-product of the genius of a social business model. Therefore we are not preoccupied with money or the things money can buy. However, we are not in denial about the obvious monetary side of things, as this kind of reward for moving the mission forward doubly incentivizes us. Such a dynamic is why we can virtually predict the success of our mission: to eradicate childhood malnutrition. This sounds heady to some, but we see it as doable, especially since we are not tapping limited donor dollars. Instead we turn on the spigot of consumer dollars present in the multi-trillion dollar economy. That is what makes social business what it is.

People were impressed when the Hope Movement generated six million nutritional servings in our first full year starting February 27, 2016. However, we see it as just a tell-tale sign of the day when we accomplish the goal that most effectually and realistically addresses the social issue at hand. And that would not be when we generated six million a year, but six million a day. Now we’re talking.

This would be virtually impossible inside a donor or charity model (did I say virtually?), but a social business model, where the economy becomes the servant of our cause, becomes the nuclear power needed to permanently damage and then ultimately destroy the world’s biggest social issues, especially hunger and malnutrition.

Success in business usually comes from your experience, your education and training or your particular skill set. But with social business success comes from the presence of passion. It comes from your ability to communicate why you are so moved, even intrigued and overwhelmed. Not only with what it is doing for you personally but what it is doing for malnourished children around the world.

When a social business is genuinely tied into the overall cause fiscal remuneration is not based only on what is sold, but on what is the measurable social impact of your business reach. And, so, in our case, compensation of our promoters is linked to the number of children impacted. Therefore, goals and objectives are not only set or measured by dollar amounts, but in children nourished and eventually by lives saved.

Such a statement like, “armed with products that change people’s lives,” which any generic nutraceutical company might claim on their marketing literature, is, at the Hope Movement—because of its social business model—an enormous understatement.

Social business in general and the Hope Movement in particular has captured the imagination of an entire generation that want their life’s work to count for more than just a paycheck.

Here’s to your captured imagination.

Click here to go to blog #45.

This term, “Most Common Denominator,” is borrowed from the mathematical idea of the lowest common denominator, where fractions are simplified for comparison purposes.

Not every one of us brings exactly the same skills and talents to the table. And that’s okay. Everyone is welcome to the Hope Movement table no matter what their skills and talents are, but there is one “most common” thing we all can do as fractions to contribute to the whole.

Our premise is that everyone, and we mean everyone, should be able to do one very simple thing to get the marketing ball rolling.

Our premise asks the question, “Shouldn’t word of mouth marketing be simple to implement?” The minute it becomes complex and makes more and more demands of people is when people start dropping out. The desperate beneficiaries of the Hope Movement—malnourished children—cannot afford such an outcome. Attrition might be a reality to any market, but it won’t be because we let complexity characterize our marketing philosophy.

Now, don’t get us wrong. Just the fact that you are part of the Hope Movement means you will learn more and more as you associate with it over time. That is true about everything in life. But when complexity starts to characterize your participation that is when the learning curve becomes too steep for most. We allow you to participate at your own pace without the pressure of high expectations. Put as much pressure on yourself to grow this social business as you please, but we will not.

We don’t want you to limit your participation by how well you comply to our expectations. We want you to soar in the skies of generous contribution with the high sense of purpose that characterizes our movement. Such an attitude has its own self-fulfillment.

HopeQuestGlobal provides an online, highly automated, means to do the one most common thing to draw others into the Hope Movement. And without apology, that is exactly our goal: to enlist others into the Hope Movement. Millions of children are desperate for our social business success.

The single most common thing we want your team members to do is:

Tell others about the Hope Movement.

I know, you wanted me to say something more complicated. And my guess is you still don’t believe me.

I will write more about this in other blogs, reference it in other discussions, and even provide a video tutorial.

What we do to empower the automation in the background is indeed complex. Our marketing philosophy has gone through intricate scrutinies; hours, days and months of design; and back-to-the-drawing-board-again-and-again strategy development. It takes such complexity to make your participation simple.

So don’t confuse our complexity with the simplicity it takes to move the Hope Movement forward and afford you the opportunity to earn an income in the process.

Click here to go to blog #44.

Are there people in our ranks who are professionals or who could easily attain professional status? Absolutely. The numbers here are more rare, but more power to them.

Are there others in our ranks who are short on professional inclination or professional training. Also true.

We believe the latter group is the largest group and is the one we seek to serve the most. Professionals can take care of themselves, but the rest of us, the vast majority of us, stay engaged by tapping dedicated support systems like what we have at HopeQuestGlobal.

HopeQuestGlobal uses a “most common denominator” strategy. It is borrowed from the mathematical idea of the lowest common denominator, where fractions are simplified for adding, subtracting and comparison purposes.

Isn’t it true that each of us brings a fraction to the table? Our busy lives and diverse priorities prevent us from full commitment and that’s okay. Life’s juggling act is underway. So, when we join a social marketing effort we are only a part or a fraction of the team. We can try to compare what each of us contributes, but in the final analysis what makes us the most common with each other is to first ask, “What is the one thing we all have as fractions that is the most common or the most true about each of us, as we all contribute to the whole?”

We believe the answer to this question in this modern marketing world of direct sales, affiliate marketing, network marketing and internet marketing and now the business changes introduced by mission-based social entrepreneurship is simple. It is the old and proven practice of word of mouth marketing. It is the passing of information from person to person by oral and verbal communication.

And one of our greatest advantages of this age-old practice is easily accommodated by such things as what is now called electronic word of mouth (eWoM). It’s no longer just the word of mouth of folklore and storytelling; it’s word of mouth mediated electronically via websites, social media, social network platforms, instant messages, news feeds, text messages, and email.

So with all of this in mind we conclude that one thing is the most true. That our marketing and social enterprise runs on one simple dynamic: Word of mouth marketing—electronic or otherwise. This truth can be and is implemented by both the talented professional and, more importantly, by the untrained non-professional.

What is not the most true, what is not the most common about us, is that everyone of us are professionals or that everyone of us should become professionals. And our conclusion to that is: “That’s okay.”

Because what we can ALL do is spread the word.

Our marketing and management premise is we do not advance in large numbers and make large social impact because of professionalism. When boiled down we change the world with simple word of mouth endeavors.

As Sam Caster, social entrepreneur, says, “Institutions have never changed the world; people movements change the world.”

Social entrepreneur and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammed Yunus says that if you will find a way to compensate ordinary (italics mine) people for championing your cause they will drive your initiative to the ends of the earth.

Click here to go to blog #43

Somehow we think it noble, relative to social outreach, that we abandon profit motive even on the most important of all social endeavors. This is indicated by the unwritten expectation that nonprofit workers should be more interested in the good they do than the money they make; that charities should not take risks; that charities not be too visionary about the future, but meet immediate needs; that charities should not waste money on expensive advertising; that charities should not make mistakes; that profitmaking is not but for the for-profit sector; and that charities should maintain a low overhead percentage.

This list comes from the book by Dan Pallotta called Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.

So, with financial incentive effectively taken away from social endeavors by some form of contorted logic, do we really expect the results so desperately needed in all corners of the globe to rise to higher levels? Or will those results in fact be abysmal, characterized, at best, by status quo maintenance of a social concern and nothing more. The sick and the poor continue to die and suffer, but we are contented with how happy we are with the token gestures we threw at the social problem. We break our arms philosophically patting ourselves on the back that the leaders of social movements and organizations that address the most blatant suffering are paid minimally.

This makes no sense. As Mr. Pallotta points out and I paraphrase: Is the mother of a child who just died of malnutrition comforted by the fact that no one earned a decent profit in the failed social effort to save her daughter?

Proverbs 11:26 says that “the people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.” Selling, and the financial incentive that goes with it, is a form of contribution to the needs of a society. Think about it. After you buy your groceries at the market, which is more appropriate; for the clerk to say thank you or for you to do so? If they withheld the groceries, you would complain, even curse. But the market owners are incentivized by the potential profit so they sell it to you and your complaining turns to gratefulness. A “blessing will be on their head” as they realize profit from the sale, but you are the one the most grateful because you are relieved that they have it in their heart to offer their products to you at a price. Get this; their profit incentive is what makes the groceries available to you. Just how grateful should that make you? Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, but who considered his greatest life’s work a treatise on human morality, described it well, “It is not from benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” As a matter of fact, consider that a long supply chain of personal and corporate profit incentive is what eventually and effectively meets your need and feeds your family. This represents a large social impact. And it was all delivered to you on multiple platters of monetary incentive.

Then, if dire economic straits become your reality, and the local food pantry is much needed, are you relieved that no one there makes a high salary? That no one there has any profit incentive to effectively help you beyond that of a handout? You’re not any less grateful for the provision offered you there, but you sure wish you could be better off and back at the local grocery store thanking them for the provision they make available, albeit characterized by the presence of better paid employees and even better paid corporate executives.

The point is that profit incentive is not immoral. Make no mistake; it is the most moral of practices especially if you want to affect a social cause, any cause, with moral results and effective influence. There is but little proof that the social nonprofit sector does too much more than babysit the status quo; their obvious care, honorable concerns, and observable outcomes not withstanding.

What if the food pantry took on a staff of professionals who not only accepted the work of volunteers, and collected and distributed food to the needy, but who took on a visionary approach to poverty and economic struggle also? And what if they were paid well, not at all like they are paid now, so they had a realistic incentive that took their clientele beyond handouts to creative and innovative ways to overcome the distress in which they find themselves?

This and other related arguments are reasons why social business is an effectual way to address social concerns because the business model refuses to dismiss financial incentive. To do so would be embarrassingly shortsighted, even immoral. It would also be entrepreneurial suicide and immediate failure of the social impact they hope to make. Instead, such incentive empowers the main reason why the business exists, to deliver change to a particular social focus and go beyond status quo expectations in social sectors to the point of even breaking records that transform lives.

Click here to go to Blog #41.

I believe there are special kinds of people and organizations that could take the HopeQuestGlobal social business challenge and start a business, who are generally not known for starting businesses. I will list some here and challenge those who fit my description to join our team, then they can prove that it CAN be done, and perhaps change their future and that of others.

The first unlikely entity to start a business is a child. I am looking for children of any age who want to help nourish the malnourished of the world through our social business model, who want to pick up the Hope Movement banner and spread the word. No, children under age 18 are not eligible according to the terms and conditions of our direct sales international distributor who represents part of our hybrid business model. But why should that stop them? All they have to do is make an agreement with their parent or some supportive adult to get started. The parent or adult will assume the position needed in the company because he or she can qualify for independent distributor status. As soon as that qualification is established a child could go to work recruiting friends, neighbors, relatives and others to join the Hope Movement. The results would be lives nourished and rescued and profits generated for a given child’s family. Just like young people are this culture’s experts on all things digital; they, too, can take initiatives to problem solve as social entrepreneurs. And just like children maneuver the remote control for adults who struggle with the digital age, these same children can be leaders in generating income through a social business.

According to the writings of David Bornstein, he said that the social entrepreneur Veronica Khosa of South Africa “found that youth tended to be overlooked when problems needed to be solved. She found them to be competent, less judgmental than adults, and always eager to help.”

I know, you’re skeptical. But why not give children permission to pick up a social business idea, and the Hope Movement would be a great start.

The next improbable participant is anyone in the disabled community. Now, it’s no secret that many disabled citizens rise to the occasion when called upon. All of us have heard of their various heroic efforts, stories about successfully struggling against the odds, and summits ascended in spite of the obvious upward climb. So my challenge to this incredibly valuable community is that they address the social impact brought through the Hope Movement by becoming a proponent and promoters through our HopeQuestGlobal team. They are the best candidates for participation in recruiting others into helping the most vulnerable of the world. I know that seven to ten percent of the world population constitutes the disabled community, and there are those who can still make efforts to deliver a difference on behalf of others.

And then there’s the ordinary citizen. Though no one is truly ordinary, there are those of us who haven’t fit well into something professionally intensive. Your expertise and mine doesn’t necessarily have the rigor like that of others. But so what! Social entrepreneurship is trying to make its appeal to this large group and mobilize them in underserved markets. The ordinary fits in really well here; they are some of the most qualified, because all we are doing is spreading the word.

The next picture I paint is nonprofit organizations. I have written five blogs on this great group and it is my opinion that they absolutely must diversify with the Hope Movement in mind. Read more about nonprofits at my other blogs, but I challenge nonprofit leaders to come aboard. I would like to see a nonprofit organization prove that new levels of fundraising can be accomplished on their behalf because of their involvement in the Hope Movement.

The Hope Movement has to happen. And it can happen through children and teens, the disabled and handicapped, the ordinary citizen, and nonprofit organizations. If you are a part of any of these groups in reality or by implication you are invited to accept the challenge to become a part of the Hope Movement. Our marketing support team provides many resources to make it very possible.

Click here to go to Blog #40.