Happy Children, Joyful Solutions

I'll never forget the anxiety I had my first holiday season in business over how to show my first clients how truly grateful I was they took a chance on me. Other than my daily hard work and passion there was simply no grand gesture or gift I could afford to honor their faith in a 25 year old and his start-up given my limited resources. Aside from “big ideas,” the only assets I had were a $289 word processor and a credit card with an embarrassingly small limit.  

Wandering shopping malls and growing more frustrated by the minute, I finally walked past a toy store. In the window I saw a toy space shuttle, rocket and lunar rover set, and it suddenly hit me: Instead of giving gifts TO my client partners I would buy gifts FOR my client partners and donate them in their honor to children who really needed a smile on Christmas.  

You see, one of my first clients was a Chicago-based technology company attempting to send a rover and IMAX cameras to the moon to shoot a movie there, so the toy rocket and lunar rover set was a no brainer to honor them. Venturing further into the toy store I had to dig deeper. I remembered one client was a big train set hobbyist and collector. I could think of no better way to honor him than by giving kids their first train set. I began having fun and soon found that my client partners loved the toy donation gestures. What I did not realize at the time was that I was starting a fun, holiday charitable giving tradition that has lasted 22 years running.

As (add)ventures has grown exponentially, it became impossible for me to buy all the toys myself. So now it brings me joy to share that giving pleasure with my entire team. Every (add)ventures employee buys toys and gifts on our company credit cards to add to our community donation piles in honor of our client partners who drive our success. Even better, we attempt to buy toys made by our clients from stores owned by other clients as yet another way to show our thanks.  

The primary (add)ventures guiding principle is to "Solve problems, make people happy." This gift giving tradition solved our problem of how best to honor our client partners and make them happy. Most importantly of all, some truly deserving kids have become very happy in the process each year. That's what I love most about (add)ventures and the holidays - finding joyful solutions and giving. Here's hoping you have happy, healthy holidays and a new year full of joyous solutions and all of life's gifts.

Steve Rosa, ceo

Follow Steve on Twitter at @StephenRosa

more like this

article index

tagcloud

get monthly updates

You can always unsubscribe

first name *

last name *

email *

to prevent spam please solve this simple math problem below * 8 + 4 =

let's connect

Providence 401-453-4748
Miami 305-569-7718
New York City 646-216-2271
info@addventures.com

twitter feed

(add)ventures