As International Women’s Day approaches, March 8th, I am getting calls from media asking me my thoughts on women in government, women in business, where are the role models they ask?  Women are slipping backwards they say, to echo the studies that are being published.

None of them want to hear that the stats are skewed that it will take builders, not leaders working within old patriarchal silos to advance women (and men). They continue to measure women’s leadership by the old model, missing the emergence of a powerful unmeasurable “buildership”.  But then why would they listen, they are perpetuating the old models of health care, education, media and so on. They are living it.

Watching journalists get laid off all around them as media goes into a new direction, it will be the builders within media too who dare to monitor their blogs to ensure anonymous fearmongering is not permitted and provide context and fresh information that will help readers to thrive with an international scope.

It will be the builders in health care who create new partnerships and take tougher, (although unpopular) action on epidemics like obesity through strategic private sector initiatives that will reverse our challenges. And you can count on any tough action being unpopular with 60 per cent of Canadians being obese or overweight. Regardless, it must be done or this off course ship will sink. (I was obese for many years so I know it’s not easy, but I have kept 60 lbs off for 25 years, I know it is possible with a builder mentality)

It will be builders in the public education sector who recognize it’s time to remove the bureaucracy and allow principals to run their schools like entrepreneurs  if they want to beat the futurist, Faith Popcorn’s prediction that public schools will be gone in 50 years. It will all be online learning. My 15 year old son, who is taught all kinds of subjects in public school, has had his photos published internationally (he was the photographer) and has begun to build a solid portfolio outside of school by simply being noticed in flickr. Most teachers are not aware of how to use such tools. If this is any indicator, all of us, no matter what our industry can become builders by following this simple philosophy, “never stop teaching, never stop learning.”

And yet, gripping, white knuckled some of us cling to what were taught to do, so long ago.  Well, women, the fastest rising group of self employed are builders and many women as the stats show, just don’t feel we need to bang heads against the wall working within an old outdated model.

We have one, sweet, life on this earth and as we shift out of the patriarchy, it will be the builders, both men and women who will create harmony, refusing to live within the confinement of paralyzing silos or labels. I am not a feminist, I am not a leader, I am a builder with no labels and a clear mission to create harmony with a goal to end war and poverty through empowerment.

Personally, watching the old models of government, business and trade I decided I could not stand by and be an armchair critic about the global issue of war and poverty. So I began doing trade with people of Afghanistan.

I will launch my long time vision of Afghanistan Orange Blossom Eau de Parfum in three cities. I purchased the licit orange blossom crops which they converted into the finest oil for production of the Eau de Parfum. The more perfume I sell, the more crops I buy. This makes their economy stronger, I have built new friendships with their government, our government (CIDA), their Canadian Afghanistan Business Council, and just maybe if one day they choose to live in another country, they will say, “We have friends in Atlantic Canada, let’s go there.” And now we reverse some of our immigration issues. UNESCO said do not wait for government to fix the issues of war in the world. I believe they are right, it will take trade and anything that advances the community of another will advance the economic issues of our own community. Philosophically it just feels right.

“Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, “I’ll do nothing until I can be sure”. Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don’t be one of those merchants who wont risk the ocean.” – Rumi, 13th Century Poet born in Afghanistan