Style Post: Giving Back

In the book, Small Giants by Bo Burlingham, there is a lot of discussion about a business’s “mojo.”  Specifically, he says that “Mojo comes, in part, from an active appreciation of a business’s potential to make a positive difference in the lives of the people it comes into contact with.”

Our company, Lifestyle Builders & Developers, recently made a decision to donate net proceeds from the sale of our Homearama entry to the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

While we are still in the process of putting this project together, we are finding the generosity of our trades – the product and service providers – that make building a home possible, to be overwhelming.  Many are stepping up to the plate to offer free or discounted products and services, in order to benefit this worthy cause.

It may seem like a strange time to be making donations such as this.  Times are tough for all of us in the homebuilding industry.  But this is only a season in a cyclical industry.  Over time, the industry will recover.  Families that have been touched by tragedy, however, will live with those realities for the rest of their lives.

Going to work every day is about more than profits and losses.  It is about more than balance sheets.  It is also about the impact that we have on other people’s lives.  It is about community, service, and giving back. It is about the “mojo” of our companies.  As businessman Danny Meyer puts it (in Small Giants), it is about “business having soul.  He believed soul was what made a business great, or even worth doing at all.  ‘A business without soul is not something I’m interested in working at,’ he said.”

Our team at LifeStyle Builders & Developers has soul.  I see it every day.  I am proud to be a part of a project that benefits our community, and gives our people an opportunity to show their soul.