The Graythorn Group Admires: Life is Good

Certainly you are familiar with the fun and funky designs from "Life is Good." If you don't know about the company itself, go read their story. They have parlayed their gentle enthusiasm for life into a world of good, including millions of dollars for kids facing unfair challenges.

I was on their website because after years of coveting their designs I finally bought a t-shirt today at lunch (Happy Hour). I was curious what else I might find on the web and the good news is that it's more of the same.

Congratulations to Life is Good for sticking to their dreams and making something good come of their efforts. Good on ya.

The Graythorn Group Supports Project 10 to the 100th

Project 10¹⁰⁰ is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. - Google's Project 10 the 100th

Make sure to add your ideas to help the world.

Smart People. Big Ideas.

"I respect smart people with big ideas who have the guts to put them out in the world, no matter whether I agree or disagree."

"...building a business that is an expression of who is it you most want to be in this world ... a business that actually makes a difference ... that, to me, is truly something to celebrate."
~ Michael Cage, What I hate about the 4-hour work week

Check out Michael's website, Entrepreneurs Life for some great advice on entrepreneurship.

Honoring Our Creative Impulse

"For when you come to think of it, the only way to love a person is not, as the stereotyped Christian notion is, to coddle them and bring them soup when they are sick, but by listening to them and seeing and believing in the god, in the poet, in them. For by doing this, you keep the god and the poet alive and make it flourish."
~ Barbara Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

Graythorn Vision

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today about six billion people woke up and started their day. Some are rich but most are poor. Some are educated but more are not. Some are full but more are hungry. Some believe that tomorrow will be better but many have given up hope. From a biological standpoint, the human race is thriving. On a more individual basis we are surprisingly unsuccessful at using our knowledge and technology to create an improved life.

Meanwhile we continue to raid the Earth’s bounty at an alarming rate. The rain forests are disappearing. The oceans are being emptied. Rare animals are being hunted to extinction. To the best of our knowledge this little blue spinning jewel is the only life-supporting planet in a million miles. What are we doing?

Sitting here on the leading edge of our millennium we have greater technologies than our grandparents could have dreamed about. We are poised to make significant changes in how we live our lives and affect our planet. But first we have to understand that if we keep doing what we’ve done, we’ll keep getting what we’ve got.

At this point you may be thinking, “What does the state of the world have to do with creating a business?” Well, everything. The word business dates back to the 14th century and its original meaning was “purposeful activity.” What is the purpose of your activity? The best business people realize that they are part of a community first. They realize that their profits are dependent on the health and wealth of those around them. They realize that there is a reason economics and ecology share the same root word. A business is part of a greater whole, an interactive part of the social and economic environment that it both moves and is moved by. And because it is a method of wielding great power, that power must be used carefully and gently.

What would we do if we won the lottery?

by sue@graythorn.com

What would we do if we won the lottery? (Let's assume $25 million, it's a nice number.)

First, we would make sure that we had a financial manager in place to invest those funds, ensuring our long-term stability and ability to support our core mission areas of public health and nutrition, education, ethical business practices, and the environment. We would continue with our initial goal of focusing first on public health and nutrition through the creation and expansion of our healthy fast food restaurant concept. We would expand through franchising since franchise ownership spreads the wealth.

We would take the following actions immediately:
- Hire a nutritionist to finalize the menu
- Hire a tech to finalize our systems design (we have cool stuff planned like SMStext ordering and online diet/nutrition tracking)
- Select our first location

Within the following six months we would:
- Have construction of the first location well underway
- Hire a full-time operations manager
- Hire central staff to develop franchisee operational documentation
- Begin scheduling franchise expo appearances for the following year

Within one year we would:
- Have our first location operating
- Begin tracking our benchmarks
- Begin to promote franchise opportunities

Then what? Work on the next Graythorn project, of course. Next stop: education.