Last week, I saw this very interesting image posted on Facebook. It shows the true size of Africa! I thought I had a clue… obviously I don’t. Africa is as big as big parts of Europe, China, the US, India, Japan and the UK combined! The map shows countries by their area in square kilometers, and then fitted into Africa’s borders.

The map is created by Kai Krause as means of combating immapancy, or insufficient geographical literacy. Something, I’m sure, most of us suffer from.

Our perception that Africa is much smaller remains from a seemingly outdated mapping project, The Mercator Projection from - 1569! Read more under Uses, (more myths!) regarding the Marcator Projection. Google Maps and other similar services are based on a variant of the Mercator Projection. This is how we view the world - and it’s WRONG!

Read more here and here. Some critique here.

Ahhrgg! All these myths that we surround ourselves with, and base our world view on, REALLY bug me…

xo,

Evelina

Some seven years ago my boyfriend at the time, Stefan took me running on my birthday, as my birthday present. Since then I’ve been a period runner. A few years ago I ran a few races and tried a few beginners triathlon. Then I started by MBA studies, and simultaneously worked like an idiot. Not a very good combination, and of course I ended up more or less quitting running.

Since a year my husband and I live on a beautiful Austrian mountain, and here the running and trekking possibilities are endless. And since the snow disappeared last spring I run several times a week again. Now I’ve even started to run along the snowy streets. Works like a charm!

My running practice is to decide before I go out, approximately how many kilometers I want to run. With some running app I’ve measured some of my frequent distances. I never bother about the time, I usually never bring a watch or my iPhone. Running is a stress free zone! An exception would be when I don’t find anybody in the family to tell where I’m running, incase something would happen – then I bring my iPhone. When running, with my pre-set kilometer goal in mind, I run as far as my body and brain enjoy. That sometimes mean shorter than my goal, but most often according to my goal, or even longer. Most of the time I run distances between 5 and 10 km. During a good week I gather 30 km.

Cat encounter along the street when I was running on Saturday.

During the autumn I’ve developed a regime where I alternate trekking and running every other day. That makes negotiations with myself short when I don’t feel like running, since there is no option really… The best motivational quote regarding any workout, which I always embrace when my own motivation is lacking, goes something like “You’ve never felt worse after a workout than before”. That’s very true for me!

However, running is not only about moving my body, it works miracles for my brain. It reduces stress levels and tension dramatically. Most often I feel a rush of happiness already during the first few hundred meters. It always works – I always feel good after a run. Last week I had some kind of flu and was couching a lot, and I tried to stay calm except for a few short slow walks. During the beginning of this week I felt better and better, but my body felt worse and worse. Every fibre of my body and brain were aching for movement. Now after two rounds in the cold, some stretching, and the prospect of some trekking in the sun in the afternoon I feel good again!

xo,

Evelina

I’m very excited to announce that we (as in Michael Bauer-Leeb and I) are preparing to go out and talk about our research on facilitating business relationships between social entrepreneurs and business angels.

This is what I dreamt about all last year, during the reading and writing, to tell people about our findings. And perhaps more importantly – to engage in dialogue on how to develop the sphere of social entrepreneurship. And definitely most important – to conduct better business in order to take better care of ourselves and our planet.

Here are some of the topics we’re going to talk about.

• What is social entrepreneurship (and why it is so difficult to define), and its role in the currently changing economic paradigms.
• How to enhance communication between social entrepreneurs and investors and increase social entrepreneurs’ chances of finding an investor.
• Differences between social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship.
• How can my business benefit from including social and environmental, along side profit seeking in the core business.

Read more over at The Good Tribe.

Let me know if you have any interesting and fun people we should talk to! :)

In general I’m very proud to say that there’s loooootttss of stuff happening behind the scenes in The Good Tribe right now. Stay tuned!

Have a great weekend!

xo,

Evelina

Photo: Rupert Pessl

It’s always a bit nervous for me to speak German in public, when a lot of people are listening. No exception on Monday, when The Good Tribe had its workshop premiere in Vienna. German is after all my third language, and getting all the verbs right is a horror. But it was so much fun to be back in the facilitator role (after a year of only reading and writing,  and very little workshop facilitation) that I soon forgot being nervous and focused on the task.

Our task in Vienna was to provide Social Impact Award’s idea generation workshop with our two methods: Sparks (intense and fun getting to know each other) and Vision board (find your professional path in life). We got great feedback on both methods from the participant. Sparks is like always a hit (it really always works perfectly!), and it was absolutely great to see how hard everyone worked on their vision boards, first silent and smiling and then in vivid discussions.

A big thank you to the participants and the Social Impact Award team for having us! Again to all of you who participated: if you have ideas or questions, please contact us :)

Later this spring, on the 12th and 19th of March to be exact, The Good Tribe will support Social Impact Award with pitch trainings. More information to come!

xo,

Evelina

Photo: Michael Koschutnig

This year I celebrated Xmas on the mountain for the third time. I like it a lot! It’s very different from my Swedish Xmas, especially the food.

There’s one Xmas tradition on the mountain that I especially like, wichteln. LEO translates wichteln with “to do a secret Santa”, and that’s exactly what it is. Everyone writes their names on pieces of papers that are put in a jar. Then everyone draws one name each. This is the person you should get/make/buy an Xmas gift! You can’t tell anyone which name you drew, because everything has to be prepared in secret.

In the name of sustainability, wichteln certainly has advantages. It reduces stress, eases pressure on the wallet, and reduces the amount of stuff that tend to pile up… Perhaps something you’d like to try next year?

xo,

Evelina

On Monday, 16th of January The Good Tribe co-organize an idea generation workshop with the Social Impact Award team. Our aim is to guide you through the experience of generating ideas to solve social problems. The workshop is open for everyone, and extra super perfect if you want to participate in the Social Impact Award competition later this spring. It doesn’t matter if you already have an idea or not, the workshop will take your idea (and your thinking about your future!) to a whole new level!

When: Mon, 16.1. 2011, 5pm
Where: The HUB Vienna
Register: Sign up via Facebook or send an email to chaska.armbruster [at] googlemail [dot] com.

If you want to prepare yourself for the workshop, think about the following question: What annoys the hell out of you? The answer to this question might be your most important clue to your future entrepreneurial activities evahhhh.

I’m really looking forward to see you on Monday! This is the first workshop we’re organizing in Vienna :)

xo,

Evelina

Some interesting criticism on the book here, apparently only the black women have accent in the book. Didn’t cross my mind until now. But this is actually also the case in the swedish translation.

Very well worth a ready though.

xo,

Evelina

Nail polish is a weak spot of mine… Not very smart from an environmental point of view.

Here, here and here are a few hints towards more environmentally friendly nail polish. Are there any environmental friendly nail polish brands that have distribution in Europe that you have tested? I’d love to know!

Here are also two articles on nail polish removers; this doesn’t sound too bad, but this does (toxins entering your body through your skin and nails… brrrr).

For Xmas I gave my sister a few bottles and she gave me a few bottles. One of them, almost the same shade it turns out. Great minds think alike. The shade above is 718 Bronze Patina, from IsaDora. IsaDora makes conventional nail polish, but they do seem to put much effort into product safety.

Nail polish is a fine symbol of something totally unnecessary, and even harmful to the body and the planet. Still I like it. Or perhaps the concept of it. Hm… where should I draw the line… Where do you draw the line between vanity and saving the planet?

xo,

Evelina

xo,

Evelina

xo,

Evelina