As the song says... "When I was younger so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way..."

Well today, we all need help whether it is with a personal goal, a business challenge, or in making a difference on a much broader scale.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-s-F7ZmmGbY" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s-F7ZmmGbY">Help by the Beatles</a>

I was in kindergarten in <a href="http://www.brainyhistory.com/years/1965.html">1965</a> when the Beatles released Help!.  It did not mean much to me except as a song with a catchy beat to bop around the kitchen to.  Mom was the one who probably needed HELP! back then with 4 babies under the age of 6 and another on on the way.  Our country needed HELP! too.  Key topics of the day included a war we could not win, healthcare, racial inequality, new technologies, and a generation struggling to make a difference and leave a mark  a new way.  Well the song means a lot more to me now.  It's been a long time since kindergarten - but interestingly, in 2010, many of the same themes remain. The words and the names are different - but there is still a need for help.

<strong>Help Requires Courage</strong>

Whether you are asking for help or offering it, help requires courage.

We often won't ask for help when we need it.  Perhaps because people might think we are weak or don't know what we are doing.  Yet if the fear of asking for help holds us back - we rarely get it when we need it.

Offering to help can be just as scary.  People don't always appreciate you when you offer to help.  I've seen leaders and volunteers alike become targets  personally and professionally just because they stepped out, spoke up, or got involved in helping someone else.  Yet true leaders keep doing it.  They make the time, proactively offer assistance,  take the criticism, and keep moving forward.

<strong>Helping Takes Commitment</strong>

<strong> </strong>I've watched <a href="http://jkw.typepad.com/corepurpose_joan_koerberw/2010/05/turning-round-and-looking-up.html">Lynn Tilton</a> take <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynn-tilton/dark-days-ahead_b_642357.html">her message</a> of how to turn the economy around and create more jobs out across traditional and social media while working 20 hour days, seven days a week to help save companies and jobs.  It must be working - Lynn and her team have saved 250,000 jobs on the last 9 years. (You can hear what Lynn has to say about this when she will be the featured guest on <em><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/huckabee">Huckabee</a></em>, at 8:00pm ET on the FOX News Channel tomorrow (Saturday, July 17th) with on FOX News Channel at 8:00pm and 11:00pm ET on Sunday, July 18<sup>th</sup> she'll be talking about job creation in the current economic crisis.)

<a href="http://littlelifestories.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/being-a-little-bit-different-makes-a-differnce-francine-hardaway/">Francine Hardaway</a> is committed to job creation too.  Working at the ground level with entrepreneurs in the Southwest and around the country, she has not stopped for 30 years.  Whether it is flying to Kansas City on her own dime to learn about programs she can bring back to help other entrepreneurs, launching a <a href="http://www.azec10.com/">conference to bring entrepreneurs and thought leaders together</a>, or just spending time one on one, Francine is committed to making a difference with the entrepreneurs she touches.

<a href="http://jkw.typepad.com/corepurpose_joan_koerberw/2009/02/honoring-a-great-president.html">Dr. Michelle Hanna</a>, founder of <a href="http://www.ribomed.com/">RiboMed Biotechnologies</a>, has dedicated the last ten years of her life to developing new tests that will help us battle cancer.  Today she and her team are focusing on ways to make a major difference not just in the lives of the patients but  have also found a way to do so that could result in billions of dollars in healthcare savings and that affects ALL of us.

<a href="http://www.amilya.com/the-recipe/amilya-talks-about-the-recipe-with-adam-shapiro-of-fox-news/">Amilya Antonetti</a>, founder of Soapworks, today takes what she learned along the journey to help other entrepreneurs bring out products that provide better choices to today's consumer.  Along the way she learned that every leader needs the help of their team - to share it she wove it into a story and wrote a book.

In a quiet manner, one on one, <a href="http://www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/valley-news/200907/a-life-redeemed/">Morris Callaman</a> shares his story and his expertise in helping entrepreneurs with great ideas move forward.  A successful investor and venture attorney, Morris finds projects that he believes will make a difference and help people - and in turn he helps them.

But you don't have to be running a $7 billion private equity fund, be a social media maven, a PhD, a serial entrepreneur, or a certified member of MENSA, to help others.  You just have to have something to offer and be willing to share.

<strong> </strong> <strong>Everyone can help</strong>

<strong> </strong>Take a look at <a href="http://dalvaro.tumblr.com/post/816641383/optimism-101">this post</a> by Domenic Alvaro who graduated High School with my son <a href="http://littlelifestories.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/oh-the-places-hell-go/">Nick</a> this year.<strong> </strong>He has a better handle on how our attitude makes a difference than many adults I know.  And he is sharing it with others so that what he has learned in his life can help them.

Each of us will need help sometime.  And each of us has something to offer that will help someone else.  We just need the courage, the commitment, and the willingness to HELP!

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Thanks for stopping by.  Stay Tuned...
<blockquote>Joan Koerber-Walker</blockquote>
P.S. to everyone who has helped me along the journey -Thank You!  I promise to keep passing it forward to help others too. ~ JKW
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