Don’t Leave the House Until You’ve Cleaned Up Your Room! by Lim C. Subs
where everything was going in boxes anyway. She wanted me to clean a room never to set foot again! Now that was crazy.
I remember the time it took to clean that room, and I felt at that moment. I was twelve and we were forever Papua New Guinea. We moved to Hong Kong . I was leaving all the friends I had in the past four years - and never see again. It was my last day out, have fun, to say goodbye. But I was stuck inside, cleaning.
I remember the time now, as I sit here with the latest WWF Living Planet Report in front of me. The report is based on two key indicators: the Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures trends in the population of the species, and the Ecological Footprint, which measures the weight of humanity's demands on renewable resources Earth.
Between 1970 and 2000, the LPI has fallen by 40%. The 3000 index measures trends in population by more than 1,100 species. From the day he was born, 40% of the abundance of species on Earth has been devastated. The population of freshwater species terrestrial species fell by half and tropical have fallen by 65%. Two thirds of the biomass (or total) of the largest fish in the Atlantic, such as cod and tuna, have disappeared.
During this same period, world population has grown by 65%. That's the equivalent of the current population of the world outside of Asia and the Pacific - 2.5 million new people. Currently there are over 6 million people worldwide, compared with $ 4 million when I was cleaning my room, and compared with less than 2 billion, when my mom was a child, being told to clean it .
Since 1970 the global Ecological Footprint has increased by 70%. The ecological footprint is the total area required to produce food, fiber and wood we consume, to provide living space and absorb the waste we create. This was 13.5 billion global hectares in 2001. Biocapacity of the Earth - which is the total area that can provide sustainably for these functions - is of 11.3 million global hectares. Our footprint exceeded the Earth's biocapacity in the 1980s and in 2001 they were exceeding the capacity of the planet in a sustainable manner to support our claims that 21%. As our planet is concerned, we are living in ecological debt - interest rates of credit cards.
Ecosystems "... We no longer live within the sustainable limits of the planet. Suffer the global climate is changing, and the longer we continue down this path of unsustainable consumption and exploitation, the harder it is to protect and restore the biodiversity that remains."
- Dr. Claude Martin, Director General of WWF International
It may not have seen these specific numbers, but we've all heard this story before - as I heard my mother many times before.
I was recently coaching an entrepreneur looking to make his next million and found it loaded with a credit card debt. This is actually a very common problem with many entrepreneurs. I told him I first had to do was to be disciplined enough to activate the positive cash flow, rather than wait for his habit of binge one day magically reverse. There is no point in making a dollar if it costs more than a dollar to do so. He said: "I've heard it all before. I came to tell you that. I have come to find a way to do something big." I simply told him: "Do not leave home until you have cleaned your room! "
"There is no point in making a dollar if it costs more than a dollar to do so."
I did not tell about the day I sat in my room, March 21, 1980, focusing reluctantly from my cleaning job ahead. I have not mentioned the process I went through: how I began to empty the closets, organize my toys, I began to discover what parts of my story I had forgotten, or how, as I continued, I was surrounded of my life - things I thought were lost forever, now I had taken for granted, gifts that still had the thoughts that count. My task of cleaning up some unexpectedly became a celebration of my little life. He became an extraordinary exercise, in gratitude ... and pride! I do not say these things because I was not sure that it was important - even though they somehow felt it was.
As entrepreneurs, our business and our teams usually produce more than the average person. They also consume more. Many entrepreneurs consume more than they produce. So the power to cleanse the world's ecological debt is in part to its consumers, but especially the owners of their businesses: You and me.
Where does the motivation come to put the cleanup as a priority, when you could be offside? Can not someone clean as we leave the house anyway? And each of us can really make that much difference? After a day, I left my room, every one of my treasures is no longer taken for granted. I sat quietly at the dinner in a contemplative mood. So did my brother and sister who had been cleaning their rooms as well. I felt a strange sense of accomplishment - in my room and my life. I felt a strange sense of connection with my family. I felt a lightness, a purpose - a new vision of my place in this world.
I can not tell if my childhood story is relevant to you as you read the report of WWF, but it seemed relevant to me. As we enter this world with the option of being a giver or a taker network network. As we increase our ability to create, we also increased our capacity to consume - or contribute. Take responsibility for this choice can lead to a transformation in the way see his place in this world.
United Nations projection of average growth in world population of 9 million in 2050. If the current consumption remains unchecked, by 2050, WWF estimated consumption exceeds the ability of our house to deliver a 120% per year, creating an ecological debt which can not afford to service. Even if you do not clean for those who live in our house when we're gone, do it for yourself: Becoming debt free is a liberating experience. Becoming debt free in ecological worldwide is a commitment that we share, and will lead to a liberating experience in the world that we share our lives.
"Some people act like the world owes them something. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
AND FINALLY ...
A group of our members living in Bali Entrepreneur Business School, I met one of the waitresses Meridien, 21 years old Wati. In conversation, she told her dream for the last six years was to open a bar. This is what happened next, in the words of one team member, Peter Taggart:
"We asked" why do you want to open a bar? Wati said that I wanted to help support and care for the people of his village. We asked where he would establish its first bar. Wati responded with an address in Kuta. She had been researching the best place for your bar. We ask our meeting the next day with his plan. The next day, bringing with it left us all away. I just spent four days at the European summit on the vision of learning, attraction and a greater purpose, we were surprised that this young man had a better grip on these concepts than any of us. Eight of us - from Australia, Singapore and England, committed there and then to help Wati dream to life. That day, he opened a bank account in the name of Wati, bought a mobile phone to stay in touch and establish an email account. "
That day, seven of the crew flew their separate ways, while the remaining member was with Wati Kuta see your proposed site. The next Saturday night, five of the team gathered at the Gold Coast to discuss the forecast Wati. That was the night the bombs.
"We sent a text Wati message as soon as the bombs exploded in Bali. She said he was still committed to his dream, but understand that if they were not. We are online all the night around the world and we all decided unanimously to keep the commitment of all Wati and her dream. "
I'll let you all know when Wati has its open bar. Meanwhile, my hat's off to eight people. That week, the worlds have changed in Bali, in more ways than one.
Together, we will always be able to create value faster than anyone can take it away.
"We must not lose faith in humanity Humanity is an ocean. If a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." - Mahatma Gandhi
Belief, courage, ACTION.
