Grasshopper.com did a great job with their recent marketing campaign using social media. They created the above video, while a bit cliche, I thought it was nicely done.
The video works because its message rings true of the human spirit. We’re all summoned to create, risk, lead, and change, at least in some area in our lives. Whether we’re able to hear that calling, or do anything about it, might be a different story altogether.
I pour my heart into a lot of different things that I think are worthwhile, but I question if I’m changing the world. I’m in a city of nearly six million where a simple stroll through the downtown core can make you feel like a speck of dust.
I think when you’ve changed a life (including your own), you’ve already changed the world.
Am I thinking too small here? What do you think?
I think the whole “you can change the world” mantra ultimately turns out to be immobilizing and demoralizing… a human being does not change the world, they change themselves, and the collective impact when people change is what changes society at large…. but that only happens when somebody sets off not to “fix” the world, but to not BE the problem.
I wouldn’t want people to get tired of the change-the-world mantra – but it’s overdone – it was overdone when I was in the corporate world, it’s overdone at church conferences. I still like the idea of it, but it seems more right if it’s a tiny hidden hope we hold out for, as we practically change ourselves.
I think those who believe they can ‘change the world’ know that change starts with ‘me’… and inner change happens by God’s spirit working through his people. So no, not small at all. As the hymn goes: little is much when God is in it. Thanks for sharing the video. I liked it.
Good hearing from you SW – You’d be surprised how many people are making inner-change even without God… or at least without their own conscious awareness of it all…
Fortunately, not only entrepreneurs change things. All of us, whether we have the ‘brilliant idea’ or not are completely able to do something, somewhere, that will be a plus instead of a minus. Like James said above, to not BE the problem.
My new version of the golden rule is: If everyone else lived like you do, would the world be a better place, or worse? Would there be more love, more generosity, more honesty, more politeness, more building up, less war, less complaining, etc. etc.?
I think being happy with doing small things is MUCH more effective than being unhappy about not doing large things. Very few people have the huge ideas. Like your post ‘Crazy Guy #1′, only one guy is the first out of the gate with the wild wonderful new idea that might actually change the world. It takes a whole bunch of guys #2 and 3 and 4 to work with guy #1 in order for things to actually happen. And then it takes another whole bunch of guys to add the fine nuances and slight adjustments that make the first idea even more effective.
So, be happy when you make someone else happy. If your smile makes someone else smile, then there are now twice as many of you bringing joy into the world. And that is bound to ‘change the world’.
Awesome Al, I like your golden rule, I’m stealing it!
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