By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World
“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.” Henry Thoreau
THANK YOU Los Angeles Public Library please donate today! And thanks Justin for the two tickets to your Young Literati Event. Like you said, “You don’t have to be young just think young.”
Young Literati Event ALOUD Los Angeles Public Library
It was a great event! ALOUD featured two entrepreneur’s who are changing the world one quick step at a time.
“Civilization is really sweet thing! Being here! We’re so lucky.” Ben Goldhirsh founder of Good Magazine reflecting on the privledge of living in this day and age. The age of Conscious Capitalism. Ben inherited more than money. His father, Bernie Goldhirsh, founder of Inc. Magazine left a legacy of philanthropy and Ben got the gene. In 2006 he decided to go to print for social causes ONLY. His business strategy was Good from the beginning. By donating the magazines subscription fees to charities subscribers were offered the option to pick which charity their fees supported.
Goldhirsh explained the reasoning behind the strategy in an interview with Inc. Magazine: “The idea was that we would incentivize consumers with the added benefit that their money goes to charity, incentivize these charities to reach their constituencies for the $20 donation, and enjoy the added marketing and public relations that would come from having an innovative strategy.”
Blake and Ben Two Good Soles
And Blake Mycoskie, not “Tom” as in Toms Shoes pioneered, the “one for one movement.” You buy one pair and the other is given to a person in an impoverished country. He tells the story of discovering people barefoot in Argentina. Struck by the notion that he could make life better he held fast to his visionary dream and today is one of the most successful shoe manufacturers in the world. One shoe at a time, whether its worn with or without socks (he prefers without) Toms Shoes is a huge success and brilliant business model. His book, Start Something That Matters, is the Cliff Notes for other young, and not so young but like minded people who question the inevitable. Should you focus on just earning a living or can you achieve both by pursuing your passions and devoting yourself to causes that inspire you?
Hello! Is this not the most dismal time for young people who are searching for jobs? Are college grads with degree’s still waiting tables while business is being shipped overseas? Are companies outsourcing products that could be made in America? I think so! Obama we hear you loud and clear!
Blake Mycoskie tells his story, TOMS, with hubris and vigor. “It all started in a garage.” What matters most is that Blake, not Tom, has great ideas. The One for One movement claims, “you don’t have to be rich to give back and you don’t have to retire to spend every day doing what you love. You can find profit, passion, and meaning all at once—right now.” That’s good stuff. I just wish his business model and shoes were made in America rather than China.
Like most of my friends, I take my used shoes from a box I store in my garage to Out of the Closet, a series of thrift stores that benefits people suffering from HIV Aids. My shoes, the good ones, are made in Italy. I have some Keds made in the US which I will never give away. Never. I like the brand. Made in America.
What’s really good about these two (old souls) Ben and Blake, is they help inspire others find their own innovative paths for sharing wealth. Not just money but knowledge. Together they share a common bond, a unique gift to transform their life experiences coupled with a fierce creative inertia into a mighty goal. To let go of fear and never doubt that giving back is just good business.
And their kind is as good as it gets.
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Nancy Chuda is a seasoned broadcast journalist, television writer/producer, talk show host and author. Her career spans over three decades having appeared on both national and cable television.
In 1971 she authored one of America’s first low-calorie cookbooks, How To Gorge George Without Fattening Fanny, published by Hawthorn Books. Appearing as a regular guest on Dinah’s Place, Dinah Shore’s ABC daytime talk show. And later on The Johnny Carson Show, The Today Show with Barbara Walters, Merv Griffin, Phil Donahue, and David Frost. In 1972, Nancy and ABC’s Good Morning America co-produced Michael Krause produced a cable program, The Low- Calorie Gallery, based on her best selling cook book. In 1975, hired by Warner-Amex as part of a creative team, she was responsible for hosting and producing content for Columbus Then and Now, a program, the invention of QUBE, an interactive television system which played a pivotal role in the history of American cable television. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE
In 1978 she developed a series for ABC’s Good Morning America based on an article which appeared in Mother Earth News magazine. The Integral Urban House, a case study project and model for a sound urban habitat sponsored by the Farallones Institute in Berkley California was the first example of green architecture ever to be televised.
In 1979, Nancy co-produced and hosted Sunnyside a Los Angeles based public affairs program viewed on the CBS affiliate station KNXT, From 1980-1984, she appeared on KABC’s Eyewitness News as entertainment reporter and film critic.
Her environmental advocacy began when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. In 1990 she co-produced an Emmy nominated ABC Variety Special, An Evening With Friends For The Environment to benefit Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet one of the first national children’s environmental health advocacy groups in which she served as a volunteer.
Currently, she is the co-founder and President Emeritus of Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit organization established to honor the Chuda’s only child, Colette, who died in 1991 at the age of 5 from Wilm’s tumor a nonhereditary childhood cancer. She is also the co-founder of The Colette Chuda Environmental Fund, a donor-advised fund which supports major epidemiological research on children’s health.
Nancy has won numerous awards for her advocacy. In 1996, the California League of Conservation Voters Environmental Leadership Award, The Healthy Schools Heroes Award, presented to both her and her husband James Chuda by California Governor Gray Davis for their legislative efforts in securing The Healthy Schools Act which was signed into law in September, 2000. In 2003, Parent’s Magazine published an article Mom’s On A Mission and awarded Nancy for her environmental leadership for children’s environmental health.
She serves as an associate of the Director’s Council of Public Representatives of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was appointed by President Clinton’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, to serve as a member of the National Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) a position she held for four years.
In 2010, along with her husband James she founded LuxEcoLiving.
