Philip has mentioned his desire to make joining an OSR community as affordable as possible so even a single mom could escape the city, if she wanted. Being the son of a struggling single mom, I share that value.
I’m re-reading the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins and am thinking that a group of us could follow the strategies of that book and create an economic stepping-stone to make the transition possible for ANYONE who wanted to participate.
The book shares the results of Professor Collin’s 5-year study of companies that were going along OK, reached a crisis point, and then within 2 or 3 years took off and enjoyed great success. He argues that any company that adopts the same principles that the Great companies all applied would also have great success. My own company has be lumbering along for 17 years now waiting for me to finally figure out that I can’t do it all myself and could really prosper if I would bring together a team and follow a program like Good to Great (or, Gino Wickman’s “Entrepreneurial Operating System”…. or both!).
Collins outlines that mastermind groups in each of the Great companies came to identify 3 core things with deep clarity. One of the three is the answer to the question, “What are you deeply passionate about?”. My company builds, promotes, maintains, and remodels websites for small businesses. Am I passionate about websites? Not really. I enjoy building them and I’m fairly good at it. I DO get great satisfaction of helping other business owners succeed (as I’ve been entrepreneuring since the 7th grade).
But what I am deeply passionate about is finding ways to help myself and others who seek to be self-governing and self-sufficient to accomplish that. I’ve been a proponent of worker-owned co-ops for decades; I’ve helped launch two private schools that follow a proven recipe for creating self-governing, self-reliant adults. I’ve written a book about the LDS concept of Zion of which “economic unity” is a driving force. Cooperation, self-government, and self-sufficiency are fundamental values of mine.
Here’s my thought:
What if several of us former and current business owners, were to follow the Good to Great recipe closely and create a worker-owned co-op where OSR members could work and earn the money they need to (get out of debt and) join an OSR community?
Although my website services company might not be the best fit for such a project, I would be open to repurposing it for this very vision — assuming we could field a sufficient number of “Level 5 leaders” to do the brain work required to achieve the focus necessary to make a success of such a venture.
Has anyone else here read “Good to Great”?
I like the idea. How do you think we can improve already available programs designed to get people out of debt and self-reliant? In my mind the best way to support those without the financial resources to join would be to continue promoting; self-reliance, the PATH education program, and the OSR Co-op opportunity. For those who are sincere, the “PATH” information provides adequate direction that could be used by non-members to getting their finances in order to become a member.
Wasn’t planning on improving existing programs that help people handle their money better. I’m interested in creating a co-op to help people EARN the money needed. Sadly, I’m up to my eyeballs in marketing for the OSR co-op. Not sure I’d have any bandwidth left to do anything but advise and help set up systems.