Getting Good at Doing Good: Robert Workman is in Business to Solve Problems and Give Back

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Doing good for the world and doing well in business aren’t mutually exclusive. It is possible to do both at the same time, and Robert Workman’s success—and impact—with Tifie Humanitarian, Goal Zero and Barebones Living is a testament to that fact. As Robert and his teams like to say, “When you do good, you get good. It’s magic.”

Tifie, Goal Zero and Barebones are a trifecta. All founded by Robert in the last decade, their teams collaborate to help people out of poverty around the world.

For-profit businesses Goal Zero and Barebones make and sell quality products that people—from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich—need and want. Tifie, a nonprofit organization, teaches people how to run sustainable businesses in their communities and gives them the tools necessary to do so, thus empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Goal Zero prides itself on creating portable, reliable power. Portable chargers, solar panels, solar kits and lights are all part of the company’s product lineup. Barebones makes products that elevate life outdoors, such as camping gear, cast iron cookware and gardening tools. Goal Zero’s giveback is power while Barebones’ giveback is shelter.

The success of Tifie, Goal Zero and Barebones didn’t come overnight. It took time, hard work, reality checks and perseverance. “It’s a process,” Robert says. “I call it stumbling forward. When we first started, we were putting out fires and fixing problems. We’ve since developed into a more thoughtful organization, and we’ve learned to team up with other really good organizations, like Doctors Without Borders and Direct Relief, because they do things better than we do.”

Since 2009, Goal Zero and Tifie have provided power to communities in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as many others. Barebones and Tifie have delivered more than 250 shelters to provide safety and dignity to disaster survivors in the Philippines, Nepal and Fiji. Most recently, the trio teamed up to deliver power and shelter to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

Robert says listening, asking questions and understanding are the keys to making a sustainable difference. “You don’t know all the answers,” he says. “You’ve got more to learn than you’ve got to give. Find out what’s working, what’s not working, what do they really want. If you can understand first, then you can start truly helping.”

Running three businesses with global impact has taught Robert a thing or two about our planet and the ties that bind us.

“When you work with different cultures,” he says, “you find out that we’re 99% the same. We all want to take care of ourselves and our families. We all want something better than what we have. The difference is what I call ‛top-down.’ If we’re lucky enough to be in a country that has good government, we’re lucky. When you get into a third-world country, they’re poor not because they wanted to be poor. They’re poor because they have a corrupt government on the top that keeps them poor. We’re all the same, but with different opportunities.”

Of the past decade with Tifie, Goal Zero and Barebones, Robert says, “I’m most proud that we’ve stuck to the task because there’ve been many times we wanted to give up. Everyone has their wilderness. Everyone has their time when you just have to find out who you really are and what you really, truly believe in. And that’s the difference sometimes between success and failure—some people just give up a little too soon.”

Images courtesy of Tifie Humanitarian.

xx Emily Hopcian

This article was originally published in RANGE Magazine Issue Eight.