Tong Family

“How to change the World”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195138058/qid=1078375029//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-4363506-2466406?v=glance&n=507846. I’ve been pretty fatigued on charitable giving. Done the board thing, seen how hard it is to change things and also how hard it is when non-profits become an end unto themselves (that is, where maintaining employment is more important than the cause).
Anyway, “SVP”:http://www.svpseattle.org/ sent us this book. Inspiring to hear stories of folks who really care and who really are making a difference. Not tons of overhead, but folks who really believe. There are some other great quotes about entrepreneurism and leadership too that he got from “The Achieving Society”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0029205107/qid=1078375316//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-4363506-2466406?v=glance&n=507846 which explores motivation and what make an entrepreneur an entrepreneur.
bq. McClelland defined three dominant human motivations–need for power, need for affiliation, and need for achievement–and developed techniques to measure them. What most interested him was the need for achievement which he found correlated with entrepreneurship.
bq. McClelland found that individuals with a high need for achievement tneded to be less influenced than others by suggestions as to what they should do, think or believe. They were “oriented forward in time toward longer-ragne gaols, even when that means foregoing immediate pleasures.” They were less conforming and cared less about public recognition. What influenced them most in engaging problems facts. They preferred the counsel of experts to friends. They were not gamblers. They tended, in fact, to be conservative in games of chance and daring in games of skill, at which they usually overestimated their chances of success. While others viewed entreprenuers as risk takers, McClelland noted that they did not see themselves this wya. They typically accepted challenges only when they perceived that there was an acceptable chance of success and when the main determinant of success was their skill. And, contrary to common assumption, McClelland asserted that entrepreneurs were motivated primarilty by the sense of achievement rather than a desire for money. Profits were important because they gave the entrepreneur “definite knowledge” of his or her competence. But real satisfaction for the entrepreneur came from amking the world conform in a very specific way to his or her will.