“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

According to an online dictionary, “Community service is a voluntary work intended to help people in a particular area. It can also be defined as an unpaid work, intended to be of social use.”

Wikipedia says that, “Community service is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions.”

The question that may likely occur in your mind would probably be, “and why should I read this? Does it really concern me as an individual?” of course it does.

Many of us probably forgot or last hear the word during the one year compulsory national Youth service Corp where every corp member belongs to a community service group and are urged to carry out group community service or an individual project.

As an individual, or a corporate entity, we should imbibe the culture of giving back to the society. Remember, these are the people who directly or indirectly contribute one way or the other to the success of your business. How?

They might not be your major stakeholders, but these are consumers of your products/services. Without them, the company may likely not thrive in business; how then do we repay them?

Apart from the raffle draw of getting fantastic prizes at the end of the year or wrapping several gifts to send to your customers. You may also help make their community a safe one for them by meeting to fill the gap of their needs.

Building water tank for a school that lacks one would make residents of that community happy. There are several community projects that may be done and won’t cost much and if it does, at least you’re doing something worthwhile which would be there for long time. Making others smile is no expense to count.

You don’t need to be rich as Dangote before you can give back to the society. There are several community service that can be done and won’t cost much; like Market sensitization, environment sanitation, control of traffic (depending on the state), educating the young minds on vital issues, to mention but a few.

I'm thus encouraging all entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs, job seekers, employed to do same. As Mahatma Gandhi said “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”