How to save the world

I was barely 16 when I started my first ‘official’ social venture project. And that first few years working on global development issues lit the fire and desire to save the world.

Right now, I’m not interested in ‘saving the world’. We can still influence the world, change the world, make the world better. But not by trying to saving the world with our might.

Our job is not to save the world. It’s not to save anyone.

It’s to enable people to do their best work and save themselves. It’s to support others so they can stand up for themselves. So they can choose what problem they want to help solve. So they can do the work the quest they’ve chosen requires.

We can create environments that enable those quests. We can hunt for resources to make those quests possible. But we can’t do those quests for them.

I’ve come to understand that ‘change-making’ isn’t about saving the world. It’s about connecting with others to see the gaps together, so that each of us can choose which gaps we want to fill.

Of course, this is just one lens that may resonate with a different phase of life. If ‘saving the world’ lights you up in ways that make you show up with care and dedication to the work, and if it drives you to create things that benefit others in unprecedented ways, then follow that path.

There is no one way to make our worlds better.