1: How many people does it take to make a difference?

• Inquire from a hun­dred indi­vid­u­als what an excep­tion­al life resem­bles and you’ll prob­a­bly receive a hun­dred dif­fer­ent respons­es – but spe­cif­ic respons­es will like­ly be on near­ly every­one’s list.
• Most indi­vid­u­als would con­sent, for instance, that an excep­tion­al life encom­pass­es some­thing worth exist­ing for, per­haps even worth sac­ri­fic­ing for. A sec­tion of a mag­nif­i­cent life would be direct­ed towards some­thing larg­er, supe­ri­or, more mag­nif­i­cent than one­self. Some­thing that moti­vates you, revi­tal­izes you, pro­pels you for­ward. Some­thing that res­onates with your indi­vid­ual tal­ent or touch and, ulti­mate­ly, gen­er­ates an impact in the world around you.
• An out­stand­ing life would organ­i­cal­ly bring more sig­nif­i­cance, pur­pose, love, laugh­ter, amaze­ment, and expe­di­tion to your days. And, at the cul­mi­na­tion of your voy­age, you would rem­i­nisce about a life of impor­tance, rather than remorse – appre­hend­ing in your heart that you enhanced the world rather than found it. Know­ing that you influ­enced the lives of oth­ers. Know­ing that you obtained some­thing excep­tion­al from it, and you bestowed some­thing excep­tion­al in return.
• An extra­or­di­nary life, of course, is not some­thing we under­go, it’s some­thing we pro­duce. That’s pre­cise­ly what this book focus­es on.

How many indi­vid­u­als does it require to make a dif­fer­ence? ONE

• One melody can ignite a moment
• One blos­som can arouse the reverie
• One tree can ini­ti­ate a forest
• One bird can pro­claim spring
• One grin com­mences a friendship
• One hand­shake uplifts a soul
• One star can pilot a ves­sel at sea
• One word can out­line the objective
• One bal­lot can alter a nation
• One sun­beam illu­mi­nates a room
• One can­dle erad­i­cates darkness
• One chuck­le will van­quish gloom
• One stride must com­mence each journey
• One term must com­mence a prayer
• One aspi­ra­tion will ele­vate our spirits
• One touch can dis­play you care
• One voice can express wisdom
• One heart can dis­cern what’s genuine
• One life can effect a difference
• That dif­fer­ence com­mences with you.

The plan­et neces­si­tates more of you with­in it.

• Now more than ever, our plan­et requires more virtue, more com­pas­sion, more con­cern, more action, more “you” with­in it.
• John F. Kennedy stat­ed that one per­son can effect a dif­fer­ence, and every indi­vid­ual must endeav­or. What if each of us gen­uine­ly attempt­ed? What if each of us impromp­tu resolved that, one by one, we gen­uine­ly can be the supe­ri­or world we yearn for?
• This is our moment, yours and mine.
• You have cru­cial rev­e­la­tions to explore. Now is the time to explore them.
• You have crit­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties to cul­ti­vate. Now is the time to cul­ti­vate them.
• You have sig­nif­i­cant gifts to bestow to the world. Now is the time to bestow them.
• You are a marvel
• If we have nev­er been astound­ed by the mere fact that we exist, we are wast­ing the great­est fact of all. –Will Durant
• You are not present by accident.
• Through­out the world and through­out the ages, there has nev­er been anoth­er you, and there will nev­er be anoth­er you. The mar­vel of your exis­tence is now with­in your grasp. You are present for a rea­son. You pos­sess some­thing that only you can pro­vide to the world. Take a moment to pon­der what that might be.
• It is para­dox­i­cal but pro­found­ly accu­rate that one of the most cer­tain meth­ods for indi­vid­u­als to bring hope, aid, mean­ing, and joy to their lives is by reach­ing out and deliv­er­ing hope, aid, mean­ing, and joy to the lives of oth­ers. If you’ve already encoun­tered this exquis­ite phe­nom­e­non first­hand, you are in noble company.
• Mar­tin Luther King, Jr., Civ­il Rights leader: “Life’s most endur­ing and urgent query is: What are you con­tribut­ing to others?”
• Albert Ein­stein, physi­cist: “Each of us is present for a brief vis­it; for what pur­pose, we know not, although at times we sense it. How­ev­er, we dis­cern from dai­ly life that we are present for oth­er indi­vid­u­als pri­mar­i­ly, for whose hap­pi­ness and well-being our own joy relies.”
• Dan­ny Thomas, founder, St. Jude’s Hos­pi­tal: “We are all born for a ratio­nale, but not all of us rec­og­nize why. Achieve­ment in life has no con­nec­tion to what you amass in life or achieve for your­self. It’s what you do for others.”
• Ralph Wal­do Emer­son, poet: “Self­less deeds are the gen­uine mir­a­cles from which all oth­er mir­a­cles emanate.”
• Robert Inger­soll, schol­ar: “We progress by uplift­ing others.”
• Mar­garet Mead, anthro­pol­o­gist: “I must con­fess that I per­son­al­ly eval­u­ate suc­cess based on the con­tri­bu­tions an indi­vid­ual makes to his or her fel­low human beings.”
• Albert Schweitzer, human­i­tar­i­an: “I’m uncer­tain what your fate will be, but what I do know is this: the only indi­vid­u­als among you who will gen­uine­ly be con­tent­ed are those who learn and dis­cov­er how to serve.”

Inquire with­in yourself:

• Who am I?
• Why am I here?
• What am I exe­cut­ing for others?

You are roy­al­ty. You are nobility.

• If you pos­sess nour­ish­ment in your fridge, appar­el on your physique, a cov­er­ing over­head, and a place to rest…you are wealth­i­er than 75% of the plan­et’s population.
• If you pos­sess a bit of cur­ren­cy in the bank or extra change in a dish some­where… you are among the top 8% of the plan­et’s affluent.
• If you can sip from your kitchen tap when­ev­er you desire…you are remark­ably more for­tu­nate than 1.5 bil­lion indi­vid­u­als who lack any access to uncon­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water altogether.
• If you can engage in a wor­ship place or a polit­i­cal ral­ly with­out appre­hen­sion of harass­ment, deten­tion, tor­ment, or demise…you pos­sess the cat­e­go­ry of lib­er­ty with­held from over three bil­lion indi­vid­u­als globally.
• If you can deci­pher this mes­sage, you are more priv­i­leged than two bil­lion indi­vid­u­als who are inca­pable of read­ing at all.
• If your com­mon­place dilem­mas are bur­den­ing you, there are myr­i­ad indi­vid­u­als on Earth who would will­ing­ly swap posi­tions with you instant­ly – predica­ments and all – and per­ceive they have been extrav­a­gant­ly blessed.
• Recall: “From those to whom much has been giv­en, much is anticipated.”

You are already gen­er­at­ing an impact

• Julia But­ter­fly Hill, the Amer­i­can envi­ron­men­tal­ist, scribed, “The query isn’t ‘Can you effect an impact?’ You already do influ­ence an impact. It’s mere­ly about what kind of impact you yearn to cre­ate dur­ing your stay on this planet.”
• Your life can con­sti­tute a route of serendip­i­ty, coin­ci­dences, and for­tune, or it can be inten­tion­al­ly chart­ed to touch the lives of oth­ers and gen­er­ate the dif­fer­ences that only you can pro­duce in the world.

Believe the com­mence­ment of a supe­ri­or world is our con­vic­tion that it is achievable.

• Believe in your aspirations.
• Believe in today.
• Believe that you are cherished.
• Believe that you make a difference.
• Believe we can build a supe­ri­or world.
• Believe when oth­ers might not.
• Believe there exists a lumi­nos­i­ty at the con­clu­sion of the passage.
• Believe that you could be that lumi­nos­i­ty for some­one else.
• Believe that the finest is yet to come.
• Believe in each other.
• Believe in yourself.
• I have faith in you.

Dis­pense affection

Will chal­leng­ing moments unite us… or dis­unite us?

• Issuesspread dimin­ish, brav­ery is infec­tious, each indi­vid­ual holds the pow­er to impact the exis­tence of our fel­low cit­i­zens, and that a cri­sis presents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to unite rather than divide:
• In the eyes of the world, you might be just one per­son, but to one indi­vid­ual, you could mean the whole world. –Josephine Billings

Which avenue of assis­tance is yours?

• There exists a cause or a con­cern with your name writ­ten on it, some­thing that stirs your pas­sion, some­where you can con­tribute or make an impact in a man­ner that is unique­ly your own. Dis­cov­er it – and pur­sue it.
• Every indi­vid­ual pos­sess­es a skill to offer. If we can tap into that – if peo­ple can uncov­er ways to con­tribute what­ev­er their spe­cif­ic unique tal­ent or gift may be, then that tru­ly has the pow­er to trans­form the world.

– Bill Shore, founder, Share Our Strength

Engage in goodness.

• Aid pub­licly. Assist pri­vate­ly. Sup­port through your actions by recy­cling and con­serv­ing and pro­tect­ing, but also sup­port through your mind­set. Help bring clar­i­ty where con­fu­sion reigns. Aid in bring­ing ratio­nal­i­ty and regard to dis­cus­sions and debates. Sup­port sci­ence in find­ing solu­tions and faith in pro­vid­ing solace. Aid law in enforc­ing jus­tice, until jus­tice becomes the norm. Assist, and you will erad­i­cate apa­thy – the empti­ness swift­ly filled by igno­rance and malev­o­lence. ~Tom Hanks

Envi­sion the next 10, 20, 30 years of your life. 

• What are the most sig­nif­i­cant mat­ters you will ded­i­cate your time and efforts to –your ulti­mate callings?
• How will you per­son­al­ly con­tribute to address­ing the plan­et’s deep­est injustices?

Who holds the utmost impor­tance in the orga­ni­za­tion? Everyone.

• In the finest orga­ni­za­tions, there exists no dis­tinc­tion between “them” and “us”; there is only “we” – all of us col­lab­o­rat­ing togeth­er. In the grand scheme of things, every­one has a dis­tinc­tive role to fulfill…everyone has a piece to the puzzle…everyone, includ­ing and per­haps espe­cial­ly you, plays a sig­nif­i­cant role.
• Your job is going to occu­py a con­sid­er­able part of your life, and the only way to achieve gen­uine sat­is­fac­tion is by engag­ing in work you believe to be exem­plary. And the sole means to accom­plish out­stand­ing work is by ador­ing what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep search­ing. Don’t set­tle. Stay eager. Stay uncon­ven­tion­al. ~Steve Jobs
• There’s an unseen destroy­er that preys on indi­vid­u­als. It’s known as “rustout” and it’s much more threat­en­ing and alarm­ing than burnout. Cer­tain­ly, burnout can deplete your phys­i­cal strength, but rustout can oblit­er­ate your soul and your spirit.
• “Rustout is the grad­ual demise that fol­lows when we cease mak­ing the deci­sions that keep life vibrant. It’s the sen­sa­tion of numb­ness that aris­es from con­tin­u­al­ly choos­ing the safe path, nev­er embrac­ing new chal­lenges, con­sis­tent­ly sur­ren­der­ing to the day-to-day rou­tine. Rustout sig­ni­fies that we are no longer pro­gress­ing, but at best, are mere­ly sus­tain­ing. It implies that we have swapped the essence of life for the secu­ri­ty of a salary….Rustout stands in stark con­trast to burnout. Burnout is overex­er­tion. Rustout is underbeing.”
• There are only a lim­it­ed num­ber of tomorrows
• You, by the quirk of des­tiny, are alive dur­ing an exceed­ing­ly crit­i­cal junc­ture in the his­to­ry of our plan­et. Any oth­er inter­ests you har­bor will remain unful­filled if you are unable to breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t side­line your­self. Take action. ~Carl Sagan

Cher­ish the ver­dant earth

• When faced with a chal­lenge, don’t feel disheartened—get enthu­si­as­tic, get involved. A prob­lem is an occa­sion to engage in gen­er­ous or pos­i­tive actions for the world. ~Hei­di Wills
• Nev­er inform a young indi­vid­ual that some­thing is unat­tain­able. God may have await­ed cen­turies for some­one naive enough of the impos­si­ble to achieve that very feat.

The Math­e­mat­ics of effect­ing change

• The prin­ci­ple of accu­mu­la­tion: The total of numer­ous small acts is not insignif­i­cant. ~Dan Zadra
• Serv­ing oth­ers has its indi­vid­ual math­e­mat­ics. Unite two or more well-inten­tioned indi­vid­u­als in the pur­suit of a shared cause, and sud­den­ly one-plus-one tran­scends the val­ue of two. It’s referred to as syn­er­gy. Each of us can under­take a small action, but togeth­er we can accom­plish some­thing tru­ly remarkable.
• If we all embrace the math­e­mat­ics of ser­vice, there is no issue in this world that can­not be resolved.
• If you are dis­sat­is­fied with the cur­rent state of the world, alter it. You have a duty to change it. Just take one step at a time. –Mar­i­an Wright Edelman

How will you con­tribute some­thing beau­ti­ful to the world?

• …the tragedy in life does not stem from not attain­ing your objec­tive. The tragedy lies in lack­ing a goal to pur­sue. It is not a dis­as­ter to pass away with unful­filled dreams, but it is a dis­as­ter not to dream; it is not a calami­ty to be inca­pable of reach­ing your ide­al, but it is a calami­ty to lack an ide­al to pur­sue. It is not a dis­grace to fall short of reach­ing the stars, but it is a dis­grace not to have any stars to aspire to. ~Ben­jamin E. Mays
• Nev­er doubt that a small group of thought­ful, com­mit­ted cit­i­zens can alter the world; indeed, it is the sole thing that has ever done so. ~Mar­garet Mead
• Why are you dis­con­tent with 99.9 per­cent of every­thing you do serv­ing your­self – and not oth­ers. ~Zen saying
• Rab­bi Harold Kush­n­er famous­ly stat­ed, “The hap­pi­est indi­vid­u­als I know are those who don’t even pon­der about being hap­py. They sole­ly focus on being good neigh­bors, good indi­vid­u­als. And then hap­pi­ness nat­u­ral­ly creeps in through the back win­dow while they are occu­pied with doing good.”

Two Wolves

• A Chero­kee elder was edu­cat­ing his off­spring about life. He told them, “A fierce bat­tle is rag­ing with­in me. It is a bat­tle between two wolves. One embod­ies joy, love, hope, kind­ness, and com­pas­sion. The oth­er embod­ies fear, anger, cyn­i­cism, apa­thy, and greed. The same bat­tle is being fought with­in you and every oth­er per­son too.” The chil­dren reflect­ed on this for a moment, and then one child inquired, “Which wolf will tri­umph?” The elder respond­ed, “The one that you nurture.”

Life is…

• Life is either an auda­cious escapade or noth­ing at all. Helen Keller
• Life is a melody. Love is the har­mo­ny. Cindy Vail
• Life is a ves­sel bestowed upon us to fill. William Brown
• Life is an excep­tion­al gift. There is noth­ing insignif­i­cant about it. Flo­rence Nightingale
• Life is not a ques­tion to unrav­el; it’s a present to cher­ish. Don Ward
• Life is some­thing to be immersed in, not some­thing to endure. Dustin Hoffman
• Life is to be sensed, not deci­phered. Thomas Hardy
• Life is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to nur­ture a soul. Pow­ell Davies
• Life is what you cre­ate. Always has been, always will be. Grand­ma Moses
• What’s your life philosophy?
• The only pos­ses­sions you car­ry with you when depart­ing are what you leave behind. What will you leave in your wake?
• Here is the tri­al to ascer­tain whether your pur­pose on earth is ful­filled: if you are alive, it isn’t. – Richard Bach
• May God bestow upon you the reck­less­ness to believe that you can effect a change in the world, so that you will under­take tasks which oth­ers assert can­not be ful­filled. You have many splen­did days ahead of you. May they be plentiful.
• Wher­ev­er you find your­self is the start­ing point. Dive in…and let your benev­o­lent deeds prop­a­gate outward.