Love is Winning: Blake & TOMS Shoes

Blake really liked business.  He started five by the time he was 28 years old.  He was pretty successful at a pretty young age.  His dream was to make a lot of money, retire early, and then spend the rest of his life helping people with the money he made from all his businesses.  Pretty good plan, eh?

Well, his plan changed when he took a vacation to South America.  He went to have fun with his family and to see a part of the world he hadn’t seen.  He went to have fun, and it changed everything.

While in South America, he began seeing a bunch of people, especially kids, walking around with no shoes on.  Their feet were torn up, they were getting sores and diseases because they had no protection.  Blake was struck by this and he ran into some social-workers that told him what the deal was.  They said that people unable to afford shoes to protect their feet was a huge problem.  They said because people could not afford shoes for themselves or their children, foot diseases were running rampant and many kids were not able to go to school because, “no shoes meant no education.  Schools require kids to have shoes to attend.

This is when Blake got an idea. ”Why did his plan to make a lot of money in order to help people have to wait.  Couldn’t he do both now?  What if he made a business out of helping people?”  This is when his God-given gift for making money and business fused with his God-given compassion for the shoeless poor and hurting of the world. 

He decided to start a company that could make money and help people.  He thought, “what if, for every pair of shoes I sell, I give another pair away to a shoeless person so that they can go to school and stop suffering from sores and diseases.”  A “One-for-One” model of business.  Smart people call it “conscious capitalism” when a company is not just concerned with making as much money as possible to get richer quicker, but rather exists to help people as a part of their mission.

Here’s what God has done through his company in 4 short years to show over 1 million people that Love is Winning!

Comment on one or both of these categories of questions:

How does this Inspire you?

Isn’t it cool how Blake helps people by using his God-given gifts?  How does this inspire you?  How do you think God might fuse your passions with your compassion to show that God’s Love is Winning? Do you know anyone who has done this?  Comment and tell their story and let us be inspired by them! 

How does this change the way you shop?

Child slavery and unlivable work conditions is a major problem with just about every kind of company out there.  Shoes, coffee, clothes, and jewelry, and even your cell phone are often made by companies that don’t care for people at all.  Do you think how we shop and from whom we buy matters in showing the world that Love is Winning?  Would you rather buy from a company like TOMS shoes that treats their employees well and exists to help people OR a company that exists mostly just to make money and doesn’t care as much for its workers? If we are going to show that God’s Love is Winning, How important do you think it is for us to be aware of the kind of companies we buy stuff from?

You may want to check out this previous blog:

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