One of the biggest influences on my life the past eight months has been a book written by John Wood. Wood left a very successful career at Microsoft to start his own non-profit, Room to Read. Inspired by what he saw during a trip he took to the Himalayas, namely the lack of books at a local school, Wood put together a fund raiser, reaching out to family, friends and business contacts all over the world. It went so well, the response was so overwhelming, Wood didn’t want to stop there. Soon after, Room to Read was born. Less than a decade later, Wood’s organization, with staff all over the world, has built dozens upon dozens of schools in poor, third world nations (mainly in Asia) and supplied over 1 million books. I stumbled across Wood’s book, “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World”, published in 2006, by accident at a Barnes & Noble in New Orleans last summer. On my way out I happened to pass by one of those tables with the New Paperbacks, did a quick scan, saw Wood’s book, and said to myself, “this looks like a book I could glean some great info from”. I’ve done that, and much more. It’s inspired me, filled me with great ideas, picked me up when I’ve been frustrated by fundraising efforts, made me smile and given me hope.
There’s an insert at the end of one of the later chapters, written by Wood, that I just found so motivating that I wanted to post it on the blog and share. I typed this, verbatim, from Wood’s book. If I’ve broken any copyright laws, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t turn me in. Trust me, this is worth the read.
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YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? ADVICE ON CHANGING THE WORLD
Stop Talking, Start Acting
If you are thinking about making some adjustments in your life to allow you to help change the world, my heartfelt recommendation is not to spend too much time thinking about it. Just dive in.
I know that all kinds of practical considerations make this advice difficult to embrace. There might be student loans to be repaid, the need for advice from friends and family, and the desire to write a serious business plan. I am not saying that you should not do any of these things – just that you should not spend too much time on them or you will lose momentum.
The biggest risk is that a lot of people will try to talk you out of pursuing your dream. The world has too many people who are happy discuss why something might not work, and too few who will cheer you on and say, “I’m there for you.” The more time you spend navel-gazing, the longer you give those negative gravitational forces to keep you in their tether.
As an example, I would cite our work in Sri Lanka. After the devastating tsunami, I had to prove to myself that I had the guts to follow my own advice. News reports indicated that hundreds of schools had been destroyed in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Room to Read did not work in either of those countries, so it was difficult to decide how we could help. But I knew deep in my heart that “We don’t work there, it’s not our problem” was not an answer worthy of a bold, young charity that had never been willing to accept limits.
So I proposed to our team, and to our board, that we immediately launch operations in Sri Lanka, raise a million dollars to get started, and begin to identify communities whose schools had been destroyed. There was, needless to say, a Greek chorus telling me why we couldn’t do this – “We don’t have staff there.” “Room to Read is not licensed to work in Sri Lanka.” “We’re already busy enough with our existing five countries.”
On January 3, I convened an emergency call of the board of directors, and we included Erin, our chief operating officer, to gain her invaluable perspective. All of us were united in our desire to help tsunami victims, yet also scared of diving into something so new. I made my case.
“We’ve been working in South Asia (Nepal and India) for over five years now. We’ve partnered with over fifteen hundred communities throughout Asia to get new schools and libraries built. We know how to do this. Yes, Sri Lanka will be new for us, but it’s not as though we have not launched new countries before. And I think it’s important to remember that Room to Read is an organization that has been built on an ethos of bold thinking and direct action. Do we want to say to these devastated communities, “Sorry, but this is not part of our business plan, so we can’t help you?”
There was dead air on the phone. I was sweating. This was potentially a moment that would cause me to lose faith in our team’s ability to think big about creating change. The silence was broken by a member of our Board, whose opinion I greatly respected. “We know very little about Sri Lanka. If we want to make this decision, we should do a three-month study of the situation, then decide.” More dead air. Now I was really sweating.
Another Board member responded immediately. “With all due respect, if back in 1998 John had decided to do a three-month study of the situation in Nepal, he would have probably never even launched Room to Read. The study would have revealed so many daunting obstacles that he would have become a pessimist, and none of the great accomplishments of the last six years would have been reality. I think that we should go in.”
A third member of the Board opined, “You’re both right in your own way. We should move quickly because the children of Sri Lanka should not have to wait. But we have to realize that with a fast launch without a detailed study, we will hit obstacles. We should think about them in advance and plan our responses. We also need to trust our team to adjust and to figure things out, just as they always have.
Internally, I cheered, then suggested a vote. The board was unanimous in approving the immediate launch of Room to Read Sri Lanka. In our rookie year there, we began construction on 40 schools and also opened 25 libraries.
Sometimes, it’s really important to move with all deliberate speed. If there is something out there that you want to do to make the world a better place, don’t focus on the obstacles. Don’t ask for permission. Just dive in. Don’t let the naysayers get you down.
I know reading about non-profit work isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if interested, it’s a good read, a very inspiring book. For more info on it, check out:
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