Try Bending The World To The Shape You Want
It’s graduation season and each year at this time The New York Times runs excerpts from some of the choice commencement speakers.
Here’s some fine advice for all of us, not just the Class of 2015.
Author Salman Rushdie: “Sink or swim. Well, if possible, don’t sink.” And … “don’t make jackasses of yourselves.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook: “The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena.”
Actress Maya Rudolph: “… put away your damn iPhone once in a while … be nice to jerks, because we still don’t know the criteria for getting into heaven yet.”
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden: “… resist that temptation to rationalize what others view is the right choice for you, instead of what you feel in your gut is the right choice. That’s your North Star. Trust it. Follow it.”
I was especially struck by the remarks of Nigerian novelist and poet Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivered to the graduating class of Wellesley College.
I think her insights are helpful not only to recent grads just entering our trade, but perhaps even more so to those who’ve been in it for years.
- “We cannot always bend the world into the shapes we want, but we can try. We can make a concerted and real and true effort.
- “You have already been given many of the tools that you will need to try. Always just try. Because you never know.
- “Minister to the world in a way that can change it. Minister radically in a real, active, practical, get-your-hands-dirty kind of way.
- “Hire more women where there are few. But remember that a woman you hire doesn’t have to be exceptionally good. Like the majority of men who get hired, she just needs to be good enough.”
Roger
2 responses to “Try Bending The World To The Shape You Want”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Brilliant. Loved this. Thank you, Roger. I’m also partial to John Carlton’s never given graduation speech, Congratulations…Now, Stop Being a Wuss. Some terrific takeaways for our industry. “The concept of taking control of your own education seems kinda threatening and foreign to the majority out there.” http://www.john-carlton.com/2015/06/congratulations-now-stop-being-a-wuss-5/
Oh, if we could “put away our damn IPhone for a while”!