There are some people in history who have changed the world. Abraham, Moses, Ghengis Khan, Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, or FDR to name a few. Some of them set forth deliberately to make change. They rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Others, like Moses were reluctant. He argued with God stating that he was not worthy.
There were people like Gandhi who saw injustice and couldn’t sit idly by. He had to take action.
Some people changed the world by accident. Jonas Salk left his specimens too close to the heat only to invent the polio vaccine.
Sometimes it wasn’t a person, but an event that changed the course of history. One example was “the shot heard around the world”. This of course was the shot that started the American Revolution.
Or the recent earthquake in Japan. We have no idea what ramifications this will have.
There are moments, I call them changing moments, sometimes unexplained or unplanned, that change the course of human events. What causes a changing moment? Was the right person in the right place at the right time? What if they had turned left instead of right? Would change have occurred? Perhaps theologians can explain if it’s fate, happenstance or divine intervention that cause these events, but regardless the impact on the world is huge.
I’d like to put forth some current names that have changed our world.
Mark Zuckerberg
Jack Doresy, Evan Williams, Biz Stone
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim
Julian Assange
And Mohammed Bouazizi
We all know that Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook.
Jack Doresy, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone invented Twitter
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim invented YouTube.
And Julian Assange created Wikileaks.
I’m not sure if the inventors of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube knew that they would change the way people all around the world would communicate. Perhaps they were only in it for the money. But regardless of their original intent they did change the world.
I’m not sure what Julian Assange’s motives were for creating Wikileaks, but he lifted a veil of secrecy that has definitely exposed the improper activities of many world leaders.
And then there was Mohammed Bouazizi.
A municipal official, a woman, came by and confiscated his scale. It was worth $100 and Bouazizi knew he'd have to pay a bribe to get it back. This had happened to him before. But this time, he got mad. He complained and the woman slapped him. One slap in the face, and that's how the revolution began.
He ran, screaming, to the government office in the center of town. He wanted his scale back. That's all. But they wouldn't let him in. He went to a gas station, filled up a canister and went back to the government building. His friend Jamil, another fruit vendor, went with him. Jamil says Bouazizi stood in the middle of traffic, poured gas over himself and cried out, "How do you expect me to make a living?"
Then he lit a match. He barely survived.
Bouazizi's mother says her son wasn't political in any way. He just wanted to continue making his $10 a day and send his sisters away to college. But that slap was one indignity too many. It was illegal to demonstrate in Tunisia, but hundreds came from all over town to protest. Nothing like that had ever happened before in Sidi Bouzid. Then the demonstrations started to spread.
Mohammed later died of his wounds. But his action had sparked the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and many other Arabic countries. This single angry fruit vendor had changed history. And the common thread of this revolution was Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It turns out that all the young people in these Arabic countries have Facebook accounts. And anyone with a cell phone can instantly post a video of a demonstration on YouTube. The Iron Curtain of secrecy is gone. The world has changed. And Mark Zuckerberg, a Jew, is a hero in the Arabic world.
Yes, Mohammed’s actions were extreme, I’m not suggesting that anyone light themselves on fire, but sometimes it is little actions that can change the lives of people. Like discovering that a homeless person has an amazing voice and giving him a new lease on life. Or by serving on a board like this and funding a program that will affect the lives of those in need.
The challenge is identifying one of these changing moments when they occur. That is the hard part. We are all busy with life, work, or kids. And then unknowingly a changing moment presents itself. It could be a phone call from a friend asking you to donate your time or money. It could be a neighbor indirectly asking for help. A child whose parents are going through a divorce. Or seeing an employee or coworker going through a tough patch. These situations present themselves all the time. We just need to take notice.
Our first inclination is to say no. To look the other way. To not get involved. That is the easy way. And then a day or a week later we reflect on that changing moment and wonder if we should have acted differently. By that time the chance to make a difference could be gone.
But that is not why we are all sitting here tonight. Most people join boards and committees to make a difference. To help those in need. By getting involved we must realize that we are responsible for making decisions that affect the lives of others. It is an awesome responsibility.
One such changing moment occurred to me seven years ago while I still owned my printing company. A friend recommended that I give a young man a job. Let’s call him Joe. At first glance you wouldn’t hire Joe. He wore old clothes, was overweight and drove a car held together by duct tape. But he was polite and personable. I realized that this was a changing moment. I hired him. Gave him fliers and told him to walk around and knock on business doors. He did and started bringing in business. He was happy to do this; he felt needed. Over time he started dressing nicer, he exercised, dropped 75 pounds; he was proud of himself. A life was changed. Today Joe works for a commodity firm, and has a child. All because he was given a chance.
Since these changing moments are hard to identify it is important to create a frame of mind that allows you to identify the person or the situation that is looking you squarely in the face and know that you must set aside your troubles and concerns and assist. It is hard not to look the other way.
This is what Leigh Anne Touhy did when she saw a young, barely clothed man walking in the freezing rain. She and her family took him in, educated him and gave Michael Oher the chance to be all that he was capable of.
No comments:
Post a Comment