– “Lights ON! It’s your time to shine!” someone says, and you are slowly standing up from your VIP chair and walking straight to the main stage to take your award…
Suddenly, you open your eyes and you are simply standing in the middle of your living room realizing that you made that all up.
We are all passionate about something and we all have dreams of having something and becoming someone we are proud of. And isn’t the award one of the best things that we can give to ourselves as an appreciation?
Sometimes it’s important to speak about our achievements, to become aware of everything that we can accomplish. So, let us tell you how proud we are of the recognition for all the hard work we’ve done so far.
The journey
Our journey consists of all the people that have contributed throughout this whole time. The idea of inspiring people to have the same thought – Challenging the status quo of unproductive time is something that has been with us since the very beginning. And to have the ability to accomplish that and to see how the number of people who want to do a good deed is increasing each day is the biggest checkpoint in our notebook.
With more than five countries joining this movement, we feel how the power of doing social good is rising each day!
The people
There is no party without people, and there can’t be any changes without a group of people. Our path started with an individual, but our idea gathered a crowd. We recognize that we are doing the right thing when we see people gathered all together to complete one simple mission – making positive changes for society.
Organizations, companies, and students participate in different types of activities, whether they visit a dog shelter, a home for the elderly, or clean the trash in a polluted area. At the end of the day, the people are those who help us create and continue our story.
The award
Let’s go back to the beginning of this story with you standing in your living room, imagining the reception of your award. What kind of award did you receive?
It’s important in life to have precise goals. It’s why we started our story with a social purpose. A project that can help the world. Imagine how much we can do for society if we dedicate our extra free hours four times a year for a social cause. Social Friday is not just an idea, but instead, it’s a world-changing idea!
And since we are talking about ideas that change the world, in 2019 the third annual World Changing Ideas Awards organized by Fast Company received 2,000 applications across more than 16 categories. Social Friday as a CSR initiative founded by the owner of Breon, Fikret Zendeli, entered the category of honorable mentions.
Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards are organized every year where its editors and reporters create lists of honorable mentions and the judges pick winners in each category. The awards honor innovative designs, companies, products, and creative concepts which pursue purposes good for society. They help them stand out in the crowd and reveal their real potential by expanding their reach and becoming a sensation and inspiration for people who want to change the world.
With a 12 million visits per month, Fast Company’s website is a great first step to take if you want more people to learn about your idea and your vision. And that’s exactly what we did!
Fikret Zendeli – “Yes it’s possible, we can reinvent Fridays!”
We asked Fikret Zendeli, the founder of Social Friday to share with us his vision about the initiative, what inspired him to start this journey, and how the award helped Social Friday influence other people.
Can you tell us more about the journey to the award, how you got there and who was important to the process?
Fikret Zendeli: We applied for this award and then we didn’t hear anything from the people responsible at Fast Company for a long time. So we thought the whole thing was over. But then suddenly, in the Spring of 2019, the news arrived that we were in the “Social Justice” category, alongside projects like Code Next by Google or Fair Trade USA. Giants with considerably more resources at their disposal.
This recognition filled us with pride and even more motivation to work even harder on the cause.
How has the award impacted the Social Friday movement?
Fikret Zendeli: It invigorated all the people involved, mainly from the Balkan area, who worked on the development of Social Friday. The belief that we are working on something that has the potential to make the world a better place was something that moved us forward.
And we are so thrilled that we built our own story and we received an award, despite the minimal resources and zero support from any institutions.
How would you use this award to influence others?
Fikret Zendeli: In some cases, it can serve as a good door opener to strengthen the credibility of the idea, but the development of Social Friday takes place independently of external factors. There is a long-term vision for Social Friday and it will be worked on regardless of whether we win awards or not.
It’s important that the people themselves recognize the incredible potential of Social Friday. In short, we are happy about the recognition and are very grateful for it, but we are not blinded by it.
Be part of our success
Being a part of an initiative like Social Friday that serves a social cause can turn your unproductive hours into productive time spent on making a positive change. The need to constantly challenge ourselves and do things outside of the box can improve our way of living.
Save the date of our upcoming Social Friday event on September 30th!
Learn more about Social Friday events here.