WAY WE WORK
The world is spinning fast…we must spin, can’t stop!!!
The world is competitive, will we catch up?
Will it be possible for us to compete well?
Where shall we go?
“…It does not matter what other people say that Thailand is outdated and underdeveloped, but we earn enough to live, we are at peace with ourselves and we work hard with the aim to achieve sufficiency. Compared to other countries, if we can maintain this sufficiency, we will be great…”
Translated from one part of the royal speech on the occasion of the royal birthday at the Dusit Dalai Hall, December 4, 1974.
From aspiration to principles to action
“Sufficiency” of the people and “Peace” of the determine the work of Follow Father Footstep Foundation. Our foundation adopts Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. This philosophy is a way of life that brings balance to the nation and people, preparing them to accept change.
The “New Theory”, connects with the ‘Buddhist Way’ to develop mindfulness; an awareness, the peace initiating from the inside until finally expanding to the outside and society.
Looking at the big picture to solve problems
Generally, the challenges arise from entities having limited resources to begin with and they aim to solve such problems by using as few resources as possible.
Henceforth, it is very important to apply the techniques by starting to look at the big picture in order to solve each problem step by step. Achieving “Sufficiency” is complex as it involves different parties and different connection points need to be understood without wearing out one’s own capacity to understand and solve the actual root cause of the problem that usually comes from the lack of knowledge in the public sector.
So which group of people to begin with? From existing data in Thailand (The Office of SMEs Promotion, 2016), it was found that 98.5% of all businesses are small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) and there are also more than a hundred thousand of merchants who are startup businesses. We aim to provide equitable knowledge, through adopting Sufficiency Economy Philosophy and the New Theory. Apart from solving problem of ‘insufficiency’ of a large group of people in the business sector, our education platform will also help improve the country’s economic development, stability and sustainability.
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‘Prosperity of people come from rightful behavior and rightful livelihood is an essential fact. For people to rightfully behave and earn a rightful livelihood should have both knowledge and religious principles because the former is an important factor for action and work, while the latter is an important factor in promoting good behavior and performance to be right and fair’
Translated from one part of the royal speech bestowed to teachers at the Raatch School of Islam, 4 Southern provinces, Pattani province, 24 August 1976.
Knowledge and Virtue
Thailand has been through the concept of making “smart people” and changing them to be “rich people” and we have mostly experienced regression rather than progression. Therefore, in order for people to achieve sustainability as well as peace, they must have rightful conduct (virtue) and rightful livelihood (knowledge).
Guidelines for “building people” to have knowledge with virtue (rightful livelihood + rightful conduct) is necessary. Providing equitable knowledge to be equitable to the work standard is not enough; we must educate people to build on wisdom and mental wellbeing to be strong and courageous so that they choose the right method as well. Consequently, the country will be experiencing peace and true sustainability.
Focus on “teamwork” to “self-realization”
With limited personnel, task management requires the voluntary participation of students to raise awareness of the problems and goals. This creates mutual “understanding”, as this gives opportunities to the involved team members to get together to brainstorm, discuss, take action, find the problem, try to solve it, so that they can “understand” the problem clearly. Consequently, every working group involves the current students, who join hands to solve problems, develop work, and strengthen the community.
Although at present we have not reached the goal of “strong urban communities” that incorporates solidarity, yet over the past years, we have been able to “develop” the work quickly by virtue of involvement of all parties. Development must continue to develop including, self-development, people development and community development. Such initiatives must have continuity until everyone is sufficient and strong within and ready to really change from all aspects. Until or unless we experience “the change from within”, then focusing on public relations to make our platform well reputed should not be done.
Public relations should be sufficient with the goal to let people know that there are still options for people to learn how to strengthen themselves. Our platform must support progressive growth, step by step while not focusing on rapid growth, not a huge leap. When the students and project are ready, we will gradually support and connect with the outside.
Work like a poor man
Where does the fund come from? It is a good thing to get funded through donation, it is also good to get budget from the government, but if there is no budget from anywhere, what do we do? How do we even start?
Since we started in 2015, we have tried everything to be able to rely on ourselves to help ourselves. “Working like a poor person”, is the most important approach, which reminds us to fix the problem of insufficiency and inadequacy with full capacity of the intellect.
We must continuously put in effort in working without giving up and/or without being overly theoretical about work, rather we need to be ready to apply, adapt and find ideas and methods that will work effectively while choosing the way to “save, simplify and maximize benefit”. Although this method may not match with others, yet it will be sufficient to create benefits and development in the future.
Loss is Profit
Even though there is no budget to support as long as majority of people can access to the program, the Foundation considers ‘Loss is Profit’ as a budget management ideal.
During the initial stages, losses are required to generate benefits for the general public. For instance, the teachers do not get paid initially and the students can arrange for their own meals and travels, the institute cannot provide free stuffs; as such to start the program, we all stick with the goal of ‘helping one’s self’. Money needs to be well spent and appropriate to one’s budget. People must understand what the expenses are for, so that the financial status can be gradually developed for all parties to live within their own means. Consequently, sufficiency is achieved and budget is properly managed
We create people so people create jobs
Sustainable development of the country is our duty. The work of “building people” is important when people have a readiness for both knowledge and virtue, they will be able to help themselves and they will have enough to live. Henceforth, such people can create benefits to others by developing the country and then, contributing to the world society.
