Will You Lead Us Out of Poverty?
When sitting inside my safe four walls, working on my blog posts, I often forget that not everyone is this fortunate. When I share my dreams, I forget that there are people who couldn’t even imagine dreaming of such things. When I lament on my busy schedule and not being able to spend as much time home with my kid as I’d like to, I forget that there are kids out there who need to work days far longer than my eight hours.
Next to me, I see a brand new copy of Seth Godin’s latest book, Tribes
It’s staring at me:
“We Need You to Lead Us”
I guess that means me.
Why me?
And I guess that means you, too.
Will we answer the call and help lead the world out from poverty?
Blog Action Day
Today, it’s time for the second annual Blog Action Day. This year, the goal is to get people talking about poverty. And through open, lively discussion, hopefully create some action.
After all, without action, what’s the point in talking? Words are cheap, so only actions count.
Lately, I have been humbled by seeing Mark Hayward take action.
In the true spirit of Tribes, he decided to take responsibility and not wait for it to be passed to him from above.
Together with Leo Babauta and Dan Clements, Mark started Train for Humanity, a non-profit organization that combines endurance training, social media and humanitary work.
Through this simple act of acting on what he believes in, Mark has inspired over 100 people to join the initiative, and I’m sure I’m not the only one blogging about Train for Humanity today.
He is leading us towards a future with more humanity and less poverty and suffering.
Are We Ready to Lead?
Mark is not the only one: Every effort towards changing the world starts from people who take responsibility and lead. Think Bono, for instance.
A rock star is pretty much the last person you’d expect to see talking to the leaders of the world and representing the poor. It’s a world where he doesn’t quite belong. But that’s exactly what it takes to lead: You need to be ready for some discomfort. And you need to be ready to be the new kid on the block, a bit unaware of what is going on around you, but always ready to take responsibility, and learn.
Or think Blog Action Day itself. At first it was nothing more than a handful of bloggers lead by Collis Ta’eed, thinking about how they could use the blogosphere to make a difference. Today, we are going to reach an audience of over 10 million readers.
All it took was for the small group of forerunners to take the lead and inspire the rest of us to make the idea come true.
Are you ready to take that step — and lead us?
Am I ready to take the step — and lead you?
These are big questions. But I hope that together, we can come up with even bigger answers. If we are to make the most out of this Blog Action Day, we need to read what others are saying, build on their ideas, comment on them, and create a plan that we think will work.
And then, it’s time for action. The world needs us to lead the change
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Thank you, Jarkko! I am humbled by your very kind post. :)
Very true, I have been very fortunate economically. I also lived and traveled in developing countries growing up. And the abject poverty over a billion people face ever day now is staggering. Kiva is a great web site to take action and do something. They also are a great example of how to use the web to engage people.
indeed.
for my part, i turn to sites like freerice, kiva, and goodsearch, as ways to help alleviate poverty online.
saw this post via the front page of blog action day. it’s great that you’re participating. :)
I too am staring at Seth’s new book. I feel like we’re on the cusp of a sea change. New leaders are born every day. Great post, Jarkko. Thanks.
@mark_hayward: My pleasure. I am humbled by your actions. You are a true leader.
@John: I just tried Kiva for the first time today too (after having procrastinated with the thought for over a year), and I was impressed at how quick and painless the process was. It was amazing to see the pace at which the loans were funded.
It seems that people really want to help. All they need is a good way to do so. Kiva is just that.
@kouji: I need to check out goodsearch too. Thanks for the tip! Happy to have you on board as well!
@Writer Dad: It will be interesting to see how our kids take the lead and where they will get us. But before that, we need to do some leading as well. Loved your post about how we need to be dads.
Your post made me feel so humble, I just stumbled upon you and will be coming back again. Thank you.
I really look up to people who can “easily” do this for charity due to them having enough money to cover their costs and the needs of their family. Still it’s usually the poor who give, due to them not having much and helping out each other as a need, while the middle class will mostly change sides and speed up when there is someone asking them for a few pennies at the corner of a store.
When you are able to give wholeheartly you know that you are really rich, this doesn’t mean you have to be monetarily rich though.
So very true, I think we as an entire nation take far too much for granted.
Sorry for the lack of comments and content lately, guys!
I’m focusing my bigger blog posts at insanelyinterested.com, but don’t worry, this blog will get a facelift and refocus soon as well. And get alive again :)