The Ripple Effect

Image courtesy of https://wiki.ucfilespace.uc.edu/

“…to fix our broken systems, we need to accelerate the number of changemakers in the world, and ultimately get to a world in which everyone is a changemaker.” –Bill Drayton

Often, change starts with a vision, an ability to see a different set of circumstances at another point in the future. The path to that endpoint does not necessarily have to be clear, but the endpoint often does.

I saw this personally during my trip to Haiti last month. The leader and changemaker that I was working with received his vision for a better Haiti while he was educating himself in the United States. He saw what it was like to have stable infrastructure, to have efficient systems, to have an orderly and honest administration. Therefore, after he completed his education, he moved back to Haiti in pursuit of this vision.

Of course, change is hard. One of his greatest obstacles is that the environment within Haiti often mutes peoples dreams and passions. There are constant influences and experiences that give their citizens the illusion that they can’t have an impact and they cannot change.

Therefore, this returned leader spends much of his time convincing others to be changemakers. This often meand inspiring passion and inspiring a vision, and giving these changemakers the hope that this dreams can become reality.

If we have the gift to be changemakers with a vision, I feel that we do have a duty to share that with anyone who will listen. To accelerate change, we need to accelerate the number of changemakers.

We have to work on the ripple effect of our individual drop.

This is post #3 of 10 in reaction to ideas posted on fastcoexist.com through Mark Cheng from Ashoka, an organization that provides venture capital to social entrepreneurs around the world. His ideas originate from his attendance at the Skoll World Forum in April 2013 and are entitled "10 Ideas Driving the Future of Social Entrepreneurship".