We are a month away from the Global Entrepreneurs Summit 2005, XL Results Foundation's first visit to Australia and first WDW event in London, and we will soon be bringing the first half of 2005 to a close. How are you doing against your 2005 goals? As with every half-time, a thorough review can make all the difference for the second half (just ask Liverpool FC), and so this newsletter is about the bigger picture. I hope you enjoy it!

At one of my coaching sessions last month, one of my clients said "You mentioned there is a cost to everything. What about purpose? When I step up to my Life Purpose, and live every day fully with contribution and compassion - what is the cost of doing this?"

"The cost is responsibility, which is why so few are willing to pay it." I replied "I'm willing, but I'm unsure. What if I contribute fully, and then find it is more responsibility that I can afford to take? How can I be sure I have the capacity to pay it forward?" he asked. That's when I told him about the Promise Box.

I was in Bali in April on holiday with my wife, Renate, and our three kids, Kathleen (10), Theresa (8) and Luke (6). On the day we were leaving, the kids had promised that if they could stay up late they would pack their own bags in the morning. When it was time to leave, the bags weren't packed and the kids were jumping on the beds. The bags got packed in a rush, we were late, and on the way to the airport I asked the kids to come up with their best ideas on how to keep promises.

On the plane, Kathleen reported on behalf of the team following their mini-conference on promise keeping: "Dad, we all came up with different ideas so I'll tell you all of them. I think that the best way to keep promises is to write them down so that we remember. Luke says if you don't make them in the first place you can't break them. And I think both of these are good ideas. But we like Theresa's the best!"
"And what would that be, then?" I asked.
Theresa interrupted by proudly presenting a colour drawing of a box she had scribbled on the way to the airport. "It's a promise box."
"What's a promise box?"
"Well it's like my wish box, where I keep my wishes. But this one is made just for promises. I think maybe sometimes is difficult to keep promises because we have nowhere to keep them. Look, it's got a padlock so the promises can't escape."
"And the padding around the box?"
"That's so the promises don't get broken, Silly."
"And that little person?"
"That's not a little person. That's a normal size human being. So you can see the box is huge. Just in case you want to keep a really huge promise."

Mahatma Gandhi saw our compassion as a bank account, and that we determine the size of our own account. When he said "Breach of promise is no less an act of insolvency than a refusal to pay one's debt", he meant that our responsibility lies as much with the promise box as with the promise. The larger we choose our promise box to be, the larger the promises we can keep. Our promise box determines our capacity to contribute. When we choose the size of the box, we are choosing the size of our purpose.

At the age of 16, Paul Hewson answered a note on his Dublin high school bulletin board to join a new student band. After 18 months of practicing, the band won a talent show in Limerick and got the financing for their first record. The band change its name from "Feedback", to "The Edge" to "U2", and Paul changed his name from "Paul Hewson" to "Bono Vox" to just "Bono". That was in 1978. In 1984, Bono took part in Live Aid, became exposed to the plight of the poor in Africa, and from that point on became involved in every major initiative to make poverty history.

One thing led to another. Over the next 20 years, $289 million was raised. By 2002 he had set up DATA (Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa) with funding from Bill Gates and George Soros, to hold Western governments accountable to their 2002 collective promise at the UN to end extreme poverty. Through the Make Poverty History campaign this year, over 100 charities have come under one banner in the UK - led by the star power of Bono and Nelson Mandela - to pressure the G8 nations to cancel African debt and pledge the necessary funds to end Africa poverty at their summit in Scotland on July 6th to 8th 2005, and to influence the UK government's commitment to this cause as it takes on the EU presidency later this year. In the US, the ONE campaign has brought together Holywood's star power to pressure the US to increase their aid budget to Africa, and Bono is leveraging his current Vertigo Tour to spread the word across the US and Europe.

So what led a Dublin boy to become a leading voice in one of this generation's great causes? How did an Irish rock star end up becoming a candidate for the World Bank Presidency and get nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize?

The size of our promise box will be a measure of our capacity to contribute. Each day we all strive to keep the promises we have made. In Bono's case, his promise just happens to be bigger than most. From our promise box, our promises grow into our legacy. Our life purpose is our life promise. Our life promise is our life commitment to others. How big will you make yours?

As we flew over the Pacific Ocean, I asked my 8 year old daughter, "So do you think you will be making really huge promises?"

Theresa answered, "Of course, Dad, I'd have to! My Promise Box would be too empty otherwise."

And Finally
I met a wonderful lady at our Hong Kong Momentum night last week, who I hadn't seen for over a year. She came and heard Charlene Low talk about her property developments in Macau, heard Andrea Gutwirth talk about how she had raised the funds for her Soultalk Loving Home through the network, and heard Dr Myo talk about the amazing progress of Myopractic. She also listened to me talking about the purpose behind XL Results Foundation, and the progress we are making towards it.

She came up afterwards and said "I thought I understood what you meant about networks having connected power, but today I really felt it. I can't believe I've been away for so long!"

Woody Allen says 80% of success is showing up. So show up at one of our events this month. Connect to a higher source of power to fuel your own journey. In every gathering, every one of us adds new light, and in the brightness our own paths become clearer. As Mahatma Gandhi said: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others". So I look forward to seeing you soon!

Belief, courage, action

-Roger Hamilton

Chairman
XL Results Foundation Pte Ltd
30 Robinson Road
#11-01 Robinson Towers
Tel: 65-63723383
Fax: 65-63231131
Website: www.resultsfoundation.com