Week 10: Hybrid Business Model. OpenBook is born

 I don't like the word "altruism."  To me it means to have disinterested selfless concern for others. That's not how I roll. 

If I feel concern, it is because I care. Caring makes me who I am. I serve my higher value and purpose by serving. Altruism would have me lay aside my love and serve with no feeling. That, I will never do. 

That is the part of reading/videos that I didn't agree with this week. I don't think that the people Peter Singer cited were "altruistic."  I think they were loving, soul-self serving humanitarians who do what they do because they can and they love others. There is no disinterested-ness about it. 

And that, too, is at the core of what make s a Hybrid successful: the heart. The wise business models, funded by like-minded investors who are willing to be paid off as long as the goal is met. The hybrid business model allows for goal to be at center stage in all transactions and activities. It allows the company to make money, pay off debt, and grow all without loosing site of the beginning goal. It puts in balance the consumer and the beneficiary, for they become one in the same. 

I was glad to do this one because although I had no idea what business or product I could possibly build for my issue, I decided to ask my 18 year old son and together we realized a core problem: that filter systems cannot keep up; that kids are too scared to tell their parents they saw something; that parents are too scared to ask, etc.  So together my son and I came up with the OpenBook App. I call it that because I hope that by creating frank discussions about what we see, flagging where and when we see it, we become an open book - nothing to hide from one another in this area. 

It was an incredible exercise to discuss this and create it with my son - to see how there could be a little something might actually help such a huge problem. 

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