Seth Godin is my marketing mentor. He had the following post entitled “Without them” to his blog a few weeks back:

One of the most common things I hear is, “I’d like to do something remarkable like that, but my xyz won’t let me.” Where xyz = my boss, my publisher, my partner, my licensor, my franchisor, etc.

Well, you can fail by going along with that and not doing it, or you can do it, cause a ruckus and work things out later.

In my experience, once it’s clear you’re willing (not just willing, but itching, moving, and yes, implementing) without them, things start to happen. People are rarely willing to step up and stop you, and often just waiting to follow someone crazy enough to actually do something.

I’m going. Come along if you like.

This spirit is a part of the Surgance culture. Our mission is to transform communities and change lives. Our strategy to achieve that mission is to empower social entrepreneurs and innovators at the grassroots level. We do this by helping them take new ideas to help people and turning them into impact locally, nationally or internationally as a part of the Surgance movement.

Once their new program or place is official, we bring uncommon partners together on their common ground issue to change lives. By utilizing the Surgance platform, these social innovators have immediate leverage, legitimacy, a distribution network, a national and corporate board, centralized operations and the track record of an organization and/or leaders that have run social programming in over 50 nations and from coast to coast in America. “They” become “us” when they get on the bus.

Our bus is headed to community transformation and life change for those in need. We will get there by bringing uncommon partners together to work collaboratively on common ground, nondivisive issues. We’re looking for people who have the spirit to get that done without having to have everybody on board or everything in place before moving forward with a new idea. Together, we’ll find a way to make a difference.
brian AUDIA
President and CEO