This week is our Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. It’s my favorite holiday of the year because it is not tied to any one spiritual tradition. It’s just about gratitude and giving thanks. It also comes at a time of year when my work is winding down toward the year-end holidays and I’m looking forward to a rest. So it’s a good time to reflect on all that I’m grateful for.
It’s been a year of many shifts and significant personal transformation for me. Not always easy, yet the rewards in the end are enormous. For that I am grateful. I’m also grateful for the extraordinary people that I get to work with around the world. So many are bringing significant gifts to the world, and I feel honored to play a role in their projects or be a part in some way of what they are doing.
I first met many of these people through one of our big programs here at the Center – the “Transformational Presence Leadership and Coaching” program (TPLC), “Soul Mission * Life Vision,” or “The Manifestation Wheel.” The TPLC, in particular, has taken on an incredible life of its own. In just five years, there are now almost 400 graduates from 26 countries. I continue to stand in awe and deep gratitude for what is happening with Transformational Presence work in the world and how it continues to expand and evolve.
I’m also feeling huge gratitude for all the people who are working to create a world that works. While they don’t get much press in the mainstream media, there are thousands upon thousands of people around the world who have seen a need and stepped in to address that need. None of them knew how they would do it before they started. Most of them had no idea how it was all going to turn out. They just started and found their way as they went.
From time to time I highlight some of those people in this blog. A few weeks ago I introduced Daniel Karslake’s new film, Every Three Seconds, about five ordinary people who are doing extraordinary service to people in need. Each one, in their own way, are making inroads in alleviating poverty and the challenges that people around the world face because of it.
This week, I celebrate a new form of corporate structure, the B Corp, that is beginning to come into the mainstream awareness. “B Corp” stands for “Benefit Corporation.” B Corporation, co-founded by Bart Houlahan, Jay Coen Gilbert, and Andrew Kassoy, started as a movement to use business as a force for good. There are now more than one thousand corporations in eighty industries and thirty countries that are using the “B Corp” designation and are committed to solving social and environmental problems through business.
Maryland was the first U.S. state to pass B Corp legistation in April 2010. Since then, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia have all passed legislation recognizing the Benefit Corporation designation. As the “B Corp” designation is becoming more recognized, more companies are stepping forward in their commitment to creating win-win ways of doing business so that all of the stakeholders will benefit, not just the shareholders. This represents a major shift in the mass consciousness. For that, I am also very grateful.
Watch the clever and informative two-minute video below, “B Corp Anthem – B the Change,” for a quick introduction to what B Corps are all about. And if you want to know more, watch the second video, Bart Houlahan’s TEDxYYC talk, “Redefine Success in Business.”
At the Center for Transformational Presence, we are blessed to have subscribers from six continents. Wherever you are in the world, I invite you to share in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Take time this week to focus on what you are grateful for. And stretch beyond your personal circle to include gratitude for people all around the globe who are making a difference. We all benefit from the generosity and service of others.
Happy Thanksgiving!
B Corp Anthem – Be the Change
2-minute video
If you want to learn more:
Bart Houlahan – Founder of B Lab, which then created the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) category for corporate structures
15-minute video
P.S. To learn more about how you might play a greater leadership role in the world around you, my latest book, Create A World That Works, can be a great place to start. The book is also available in digital format.
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