Sheila Freemantle, Founder of Tintsaba, a social enterprise in Swaziland, had a love for the finest traditional crafts, quality textures, and excellence. This love inspired Sheila to specialize in refined, high-quality sisal basketry weaving.
Part of the Explore your Why – 9 part series
by Suzanne F. Stevens, Conscious-Contribution™ Cultivator, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), YouMeWe.ca
Sheila was educated in societal development and African languages, and she loved handcrafts and connecting with rural women. Through her business initiative over a thousand women have been trained and provided employment. These weavers, in turn, have combined to provide approximately eight thousand family members with food security. With forty-two percent of the Swaziland population living on $1.90US a day, innovative employment was welcomed.
By combining all that Sheila loved, she elevated the handcraft industry by establishing a Master Weavers competition focused on high artisanship and design. This initiative escalated excellence and uniqueness of product development year over year.
Sheila, like so many entrepreneurs, was able to amalgamate all the things she loved to have a profound social impact, profitably.
What motivates you?
What you love is what motivates you to act. You love different things to different degrees. Some people love competition, camaraderie, the outdoors, being accepted, being challenged, being inspired, inspiring ourselves, money—save it or make it (usually it is what money can buy that motivates us rather than money itself)—the list is vast. Each person’s combination of motivators is diverse.
Motivation is inspired by rational, emotional, social, and cultural needs and wants. Regardless of what or who motivates us, at our core, people want to love, to be loved, and have joy in their lives.
Whether you admit it or not, emotions have a high degree of influence on your decisions. When deciding on where or how to contribute, we are tapping into those emotional motivators. Knowing what motivates you will help you identify what you love, and what you love, will motivate you.
As a lover of community participation, Yetnebersh Nigussie, Founder of Modern Academy PLC, in Ethiopia, a lawyer, and disability activist, focused on her abilities, not her disabilities. Blind at five years old, she was compelled to get involved in school, clubs, and councils as a way to prove herself. She wasn’t going to be a victim, and her love for participation propelled her to create a school to empower others who had a similar fate.
“As a baby, you are born into a family. You need to be taken care of. You need to be provided with things. I needed to show my family and the community that I am a person that can also contribute, not only consume contributions from other people. I also need to contribute to the world.
What I am proving for others is that I can do things by myself. I can do things, not as a blind person, not as a young person, but just as a person.”
This determination, sense of responsibility and love for community participation motivated Yetnebersh to establish a school where hundreds of children that are disabled now feel abled.
Depending on how deep your love is, you may find yourself set on a course to collaborate with, work for, or establish a social enterprise similar to Sheila or Yetnebersh.
Consider this list of things that may motivate you toward or away from a contribution you love.
Rational motivators: quality, a particular feature, making money, saving money, safety, saving time, convenience, right price.
Emotional motivators: love, empowerment, being liked, ego, attraction, feeling good, looking good, safety, power, fear, trust, ambition, respect, confidence.
Social/Cultural motivators: correctness, nationalism, regionalism, race, age, environmentalism, political views.
What motivators make your heart sing? Now consciously contribute inline with them. What you love will guide you, but what enjoy will provoke you.
What motivators make your heart sing? Now consciously contribute inline with them. What you love will guide you, but what enjoy will provoke you. #MyContributionCounts #YouMeWeMovement Share on XUntil next time, make your contributions count.
#YouMeWeMovement #MyContributionCounts
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