“I have to admit that I wrote this after being inspired by Steve Clarke’s talk on attitude, aeroplanes and 3 kinds of people. I’ve never looked back since I learnt this from the UK’s No 1 sales mentor – and boy has it done wonders for my charity.“

Seema Sharma

Attitude Determines Altitude!

The key to breaking the cycle of poverty is education and empowerment, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. For that, we need charities such as Apnalaya who bridge the gap while we wait for the economy to grow to a point where it can look after its whole population. How is it possible to go to Primark and buy a shirt for £3? The answer is through women’s empowerment. Apnalaya educates and empowers women in the community to teach within the slum crèches and to take turns to care for the children left on the dump while their mums go to work. It also gives women skills so they can earn a living and shows them how to save and help each other through advice and shared knowledge.

In fact a key finding of international development is that women are the greatest agents of social change. They share experiences, they learn from each other and they teach their children to stand on their own two feet. These are the women who work in sweatshops and many a time we recoil when we hear about their conditions, yet I found myself recoiling even more when I saw the alternatives to having no work at all. In fact did you know that women invest 90% of what they earn back into their households and communities. We save the other 10% for shoes of course!

So why are some people more successful than others? I’ve discovered that the defining characteristic of every successful person is their ‘can do’ attitude, because their attitude determines their altitude.

So based upon my experiences, I would like to invite you onto my bus as it goes past. The bus rides can feel like aeroplane rides sometimes but for as long as you are on it, we will make sure you’re having fun. When the fun stops, be prepared to disembark and wait for the next one, or to at least park for a while whilst you plan the rest of your journey. As a Londoner, I can honestly tell you that there is always another one around the corner, in fact 3 often arrive at the same time.

Remember, there are 3 kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened!

Seema Sharma

***Putting Poverty in Museums***

Filed under: Case studies • testimonials

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!