Success stories

Success stories...
the watch industry lately seems to be full of them. We watch fans love to hear and read about the genius who saved a company from the graveyard - Jean-Claude Biver's success with Blancpain, and then later successes with Omega and now Hublot.

And Mr. Hayek who probably saved the Swiss watch industry.

It would be great to be a part of something like that...

But I want to ask all of you who read this - and to my great shock and pleasant surprise, there are many of you out there - what would you do if you didn't get paid on time?  I mean, you go to work, you do what you're supposed to, and you don't get paid? I can well imagine what your reaction would be. Many of you have had the sudden shock of losing your job.  Suddenly, buying a watch is very far down the list of your priorities. Many of you can remember living paycheck to paycheck, but what if you don't even have a paycheck?

And this, in a way, is now an open letter to the Swiss watch making industry as well as the luxury industry as a whole - I get bombarded with press releases daily from the various luxury companies, many of them telling the world how a phenomenally wealthy, prosperous and famous actor, singer or athlete is now the ambassador.  So in other words - this is the big news... they've given another freebie to another wealthy, successful person that can afford to buy this item several times over. The CEO comes out to present the watch, there's the "Grin and Grip" photo opportunity, and a year or so later we tend to have forgotten what the initiative was, and within five years the celebrity has moved on, and the watch company has moved on to the next thing. I want to be clear, any charity initiative is positive, but it is finite. The money is given and that is the end of the cycle.  So please DON'T STOP with your charitable outreach, but... what if there was a different approach? 

What if there was a charitable thing that you could do that was not charity at all? How often do you see those signs of homeless people - "will work for food"? What if you could actually give that person a job so that they would be able to support themselves and not be on the street? And not just any job, but actually help them start a business? And lastly, what if you weren't actually giving anything, but actually LENDING the money to someone so that they could start a micro business for themselves, and then pay it back so that OTHER people could borrow this money and then start THEIR micro business and pay it back... this is the concept of micro finance. And this is the concept behind the MeisterSinger Neo -

You will also notice something new on my blog's page - a banner ad/link to the site where you can order this watch.  A portion of each watch purchased goes to help with micro loans so that someone who REALLY needs the help can start to stand on their own feet and help themselves.

So here is your chance to be a part of a true watch making success story, to be a part of someone else's success story.  And the watch is pretty swell as well!

www.microfinance.at