A few months ago I did a speech for a crowd of executives about Special Olympics 2014, together with Evy, one of the athletes who inspired us for the new logo of the games. Special Olympics is one of those examples where we try to do good by doing well. We support the games with fundraising and with Herculean people helping them out.
During my speech I said something along the line like: “Come on guys, we all know we have been doing the wrong things in the past 10 years, time to change that right? Time to show our hearts and engage in good things! Special Olympics is ideal!” Magically they all stood up and started applauding!?! I didn’t anticipate that at all and I had a very hard time not to become very emotional on stage.
A few weeks ago we held the inaugural Hercules Trophy in Johannesburg at International Nelson Mandela Day (and Richard Branson’s birthday 
About 2 years ago I met a business leader who explained the concept of coops to me. I immediately new: this is the way forward. We started Herculean – the holding company of all Hercules Trophies – as a coop who wants to inspire fans all over the world to do good and well. No we are not going to go IPO – sorry Facebook, you really did the wrong thing – we are going to allow our fans to join the coop, think long term and change the world with us!
A few months ago Inge and her 2 sisters decided to start the Herculix Foundation as separate initiative to inspire our fans to bring social change through sports. They recently closed a partnership with Ammado to organise fundraisers through the Hercules Trophy teams. They support Randall’s Island Sport Foundation, Special Olympics 2014, International Nelson Mandela Day, Laureus Foundation The Netherlands and many many more to come in the next months.
We all have the power to bring change. We can all do good AND well. We are doing everything we can. Join us? Just do it.