five years ago the first tool lending
library in the state of Illinois opened
its doors for business
or should I say door
we had one door it opened into about a
hundred ish square-foot closet in the
back of a one-room office building right
here on the west side of Wilmington I
know that this doesn’t really look or
sound like much but trust me to a 21
year old college junior that was pretty
sweet just nine months before we had
nothing ten months before I had never
even heard of a Tool Library in case you
haven’t either think book library but
instead of books power tools we did our
first tool loan that day too and even
though I don’t remember exactly what it
was I guess that doesn’t really matter
could have been a hammer screwdriver
nail gun make it whatever you want what
matter was that it actually happened
what mattered was that we were on our
way now fast forward to today and that
same Tool Library now operates in a
6,000 square foot facility has done 9500
to loans hosts do-it-yourself workshops
has built and donated a hundred and
forty beds for kids in our community and
has an amazing group of dedicated
volunteers now this was a Facebook post
from back in December and it’s a prompt
it reads because of the tool library I
because of the Tool Library I’ve been
able to work on my first home without
spending hundreds on tools that I needed
I’ve been able to replace my smoke
detectors secure paneling in my mudroom
to reduce drafts build to raise beds for
a garden sand and repaint a free
dining-room table to look beautiful it
the tool every we get stuff done buying
an old building is a daunting task but
having the Tool Library down the street
from us has made it that much easier the
Tool Library has given me the
opportunity to get more involved in my
community I made some amazing friends
and has helped me with countless
projects that I couldn’t have completed
without the tools and resources at their
show now I’m tempted to stand up here
for the next 15 ish minutes and simply
read testimonials because honestly this
is what it’s all about these are the
stories that we should be sharing and
while I’m not going to do that don’t
worry my hope is that what this
illustrates is we can measure the
success of the Tool Library through
statistics like we did on the slide
before we can also measure the success
of the tool library through stories and
so I think the obvious question here is
how did this all happen
how did we go from this to this and then
ultimately to the thriving and dynamic
organization that we are today now to
tell that story in all of its necessary
detail giving credit to all of the
necessary people we would need a lot
more time than we have here tonight and
so instead with the time that we do have
what I’m interested in is whether or not
the tool library can serve as a model
for others they want to take an idea and
actually make it happen I’d like to try
to package up a handful of lessons from
my to a library experience and share
them so that hopefully others can take
them transform their idea into reality
rinse and repeat so the guiding question
here is how do we boil this thing down
reduce it into a generic enough form
that anyone can use to launch a big idea
I was a community intern it was the
summer of 2012 and I was working for the
Illinois Wesleyan action research center
when I first learned about the concept
of tool lending I thought it was awesome
to me it checked all the boxes
what a good community project should
look like but what did I know I had zero
experience with community work I had
definitely never started a nonprofit I
had never even tried to launch my own
business in my head it was hard to see
myself as being qualified in my head I
was cool with math the accounting
student worm at the soccer player or
even Mathis sometimes does community
service person but I was definitely not
mat the community Crusader grassroots
nonprofit leader social entrepreneurship
poster child what I needed was a nudge
what I needed was permission permission
to see myself in a new way ultimately
that came from Deborah Deborah is the
director of the action research center
and I was working for her that summer
know anyone that knows Deborah knows you
don’t really work for her you work with
her but maybe better son Deborah works
with you she has an ability to come
alongside your project nudging it
shaping it forming it and you at the
same time Deborah was the first person
to say yes I give you permission to be a
community leader the first person to say
yes I give you permission to make this
happen and the first person to say yes
to this kind of crazy to a library idea
and along the way there were many more
guests people people who breathed
positive energy into the project who
opened doors connected corrected and
perfected the tool library there was
Sharon Rick Robert Katie Rose
Danny Todd John and so many more people
and so the takeaway here is find your
yes people build your team and surround
yourself with those that give you
permission they’ll give you permission
to be great they’ll give you permission
to see yourself in a new way and then
give you permission
to ultimately take your ideas and make
them happen no ideas we have them all
the time right they float around in our
head and they usually come out as
questions like wouldn’t it be cool if
but what if there was a thing that or
wouldn’t it be so much better if only
but a lot of times that’s about as far
as we go into actually making them loyal
with the Tool Library I was determined
not to just let it be a fleeting thought
that idea floating in my head I had to
give it somewhere to land I had to take
that idea down from where only I could
experience it and had to put it
somewhere that others could interact
with it too and so true to my millennial
roots made a Facebook page and built a
website and had a friend designed me a
logo and while these are by no means
earth-shattering groundbreaking things
what they did was they gave the Tool
Library and identity to library wasn’t
even a real thing at this point but it
now had a face it had a name and it had
a landing page even though we had no
idea where its physical location would
ultimately be we now had a virtual
location that anyone in the world could
enter and so next time you hear yourself
ask one of those questions grab it pull
it down and you give it somewhere to
land you have a great idea but you don’t
know where to even start start here make
that idea look and feel so real at the
conversation shifts from wouldn’t that
be super cool – that is super cool now
when we picture our ideas we usually see
them in their best and final phase I
don’t think we normally picture our
projects in that in-between phase in the
awkward we have a tiny closet and a
handful of donated tools phase and so
when we go to actually make our idea of
real that gap seems insurmountable how
am I supposed to go from nothing
– what I have in my head we get hung up
on the fact that we can’t create it
exactly how we see it right now we stop
before we even get started because we
decide we’ll hold out until everything
falls into place
in our mind we see a day when the money
and the time and the expertise will all
line up perfectly and we tell ourselves
that’s when we’ll seize the day and I
was no different in my mind what I saw
was a full-blown hardware store I didn’t
see this sheet of pegboard with just a
few hammers we didn’t have the money to
rent a commercial space right away we
didn’t have the time either if we waited
too long the idea it would become stale
the momentum would be lost so we had to
embrace the awkward phase we had to find
value in the awkward phase the awkward
phase did was it gave us a chance to
assess the long-term viability of the
project to assess the scope and the
magnitude of what we were truly
undertaking and so while your end goal
might look a whole lot different than
where your means allow you to start
there’s value there to embrace that now
at some point either from the get-go
but most likely as you start to leave
the awkward phase this project is going
to become very real and our lives in
their current form are full of
commitments they’re full of obligations
maybe that’s a family or a job or school
or all of the above but chances are this
new project this new nail very real
thing it’s probably not already baked
into your life chances are it’s going to
disrupt your schedule your flow your
routine maybe that new maybe that
project you’ve been working on at your
job is starting to gain traction and
require overtime maybe that small
business you’ve been trying to get off
the ground starts to require night and
weekend
for me it was the balancing and the
juggling and the multitasking of school
and college soccer and late night work
shifts now I had an extra 20 hours a
week a volunteer coordinating staffing
store hours sorting donations developing
workshops and all sorts of other things
dwelling on that would have been enough
to stop this thing in its tracks well
what I learned was to brace for
disruption not to focus on it to
mentally prepare for the feeling of
imbalance and unsettledness in my day
but not to let it drive my day the
mental game of learning to adjust and
then readjust and then readjust some
more to run with it on the fly that
takes time so brace for disruption but
don’t let it be the reason that you
don’t try pretty soon you’ll find out
that it becomes embedded it becomes your
new routine so let your project fill the
nooks and crannies of your day or be
more intentional and give it a chunk of
your schedule chances are this new
project will probably add more time to
your day results in less sleep during
the week but from my experience it also
leads to an often untapped energy source
called passion and maybe that’s the
biggest lesson here involved passion and
we talk about it very generically all
the time we say things like you should
pursue your passion and we ask things
like what are you passionate about and
we usually get very generic responses
like I’m passionate about art or music
or sports or business but to me a lot of
times that translates into I’m not
really sure and that is perfectly okay
if you had asked Madeleine what his
passions were at the beginning of
sophomore year there’s definitely no
chance
he says tool lending it would probably
be something more like an I don’t know
response but maybe that’s exactly how it
needed to be maybe by not already
defining the things that I cared about
that created the perfect set of
circumstances to be open to a new idea
so be weary of the pressure to
categorize and identify your passions
the things you care about
if you think something’s cool just
explore it
sometimes your passions have a strange
way of revealing themselves and so I
urge you find your yes people give your
ideas somewhere to land embrace the
awkward phase brace for disruption
explore cool ideas but most importantly
visit your local Tool Library thank you
library in the state of Illinois opened
its doors for business
or should I say door
we had one door it opened into about a
hundred ish square-foot closet in the
back of a one-room office building right
here on the west side of Wilmington I
know that this doesn’t really look or
sound like much but trust me to a 21
year old college junior that was pretty
sweet just nine months before we had
nothing ten months before I had never
even heard of a Tool Library in case you
haven’t either think book library but
instead of books power tools we did our
first tool loan that day too and even
though I don’t remember exactly what it
was I guess that doesn’t really matter
could have been a hammer screwdriver
nail gun make it whatever you want what
matter was that it actually happened
what mattered was that we were on our
way now fast forward to today and that
same Tool Library now operates in a
6,000 square foot facility has done 9500
to loans hosts do-it-yourself workshops
has built and donated a hundred and
forty beds for kids in our community and
has an amazing group of dedicated
volunteers now this was a Facebook post
from back in December and it’s a prompt
it reads because of the tool library I
because of the Tool Library I’ve been
able to work on my first home without
spending hundreds on tools that I needed
I’ve been able to replace my smoke
detectors secure paneling in my mudroom
to reduce drafts build to raise beds for
a garden sand and repaint a free
dining-room table to look beautiful it
the tool every we get stuff done buying
an old building is a daunting task but
having the Tool Library down the street
from us has made it that much easier the
Tool Library has given me the
opportunity to get more involved in my
community I made some amazing friends
and has helped me with countless
projects that I couldn’t have completed
without the tools and resources at their
show now I’m tempted to stand up here
for the next 15 ish minutes and simply
read testimonials because honestly this
is what it’s all about these are the
stories that we should be sharing and
while I’m not going to do that don’t
worry my hope is that what this
illustrates is we can measure the
success of the Tool Library through
statistics like we did on the slide
before we can also measure the success
of the tool library through stories and
so I think the obvious question here is
how did this all happen
how did we go from this to this and then
ultimately to the thriving and dynamic
organization that we are today now to
tell that story in all of its necessary
detail giving credit to all of the
necessary people we would need a lot
more time than we have here tonight and
so instead with the time that we do have
what I’m interested in is whether or not
the tool library can serve as a model
for others they want to take an idea and
actually make it happen I’d like to try
to package up a handful of lessons from
my to a library experience and share
them so that hopefully others can take
them transform their idea into reality
rinse and repeat so the guiding question
here is how do we boil this thing down
reduce it into a generic enough form
that anyone can use to launch a big idea
I was a community intern it was the
summer of 2012 and I was working for the
Illinois Wesleyan action research center
when I first learned about the concept
of tool lending I thought it was awesome
to me it checked all the boxes
what a good community project should
look like but what did I know I had zero
experience with community work I had
definitely never started a nonprofit I
had never even tried to launch my own
business in my head it was hard to see
myself as being qualified in my head I
was cool with math the accounting
student worm at the soccer player or
even Mathis sometimes does community
service person but I was definitely not
mat the community Crusader grassroots
nonprofit leader social entrepreneurship
poster child what I needed was a nudge
what I needed was permission permission
to see myself in a new way ultimately
that came from Deborah Deborah is the
director of the action research center
and I was working for her that summer
know anyone that knows Deborah knows you
don’t really work for her you work with
her but maybe better son Deborah works
with you she has an ability to come
alongside your project nudging it
shaping it forming it and you at the
same time Deborah was the first person
to say yes I give you permission to be a
community leader the first person to say
yes I give you permission to make this
happen and the first person to say yes
to this kind of crazy to a library idea
and along the way there were many more
guests people people who breathed
positive energy into the project who
opened doors connected corrected and
perfected the tool library there was
Sharon Rick Robert Katie Rose
Danny Todd John and so many more people
and so the takeaway here is find your
yes people build your team and surround
yourself with those that give you
permission they’ll give you permission
to be great they’ll give you permission
to see yourself in a new way and then
give you permission
to ultimately take your ideas and make
them happen no ideas we have them all
the time right they float around in our
head and they usually come out as
questions like wouldn’t it be cool if
but what if there was a thing that or
wouldn’t it be so much better if only
but a lot of times that’s about as far
as we go into actually making them loyal
with the Tool Library I was determined
not to just let it be a fleeting thought
that idea floating in my head I had to
give it somewhere to land I had to take
that idea down from where only I could
experience it and had to put it
somewhere that others could interact
with it too and so true to my millennial
roots made a Facebook page and built a
website and had a friend designed me a
logo and while these are by no means
earth-shattering groundbreaking things
what they did was they gave the Tool
Library and identity to library wasn’t
even a real thing at this point but it
now had a face it had a name and it had
a landing page even though we had no
idea where its physical location would
ultimately be we now had a virtual
location that anyone in the world could
enter and so next time you hear yourself
ask one of those questions grab it pull
it down and you give it somewhere to
land you have a great idea but you don’t
know where to even start start here make
that idea look and feel so real at the
conversation shifts from wouldn’t that
be super cool – that is super cool now
when we picture our ideas we usually see
them in their best and final phase I
don’t think we normally picture our
projects in that in-between phase in the
awkward we have a tiny closet and a
handful of donated tools phase and so
when we go to actually make our idea of
real that gap seems insurmountable how
am I supposed to go from nothing
– what I have in my head we get hung up
on the fact that we can’t create it
exactly how we see it right now we stop
before we even get started because we
decide we’ll hold out until everything
falls into place
in our mind we see a day when the money
and the time and the expertise will all
line up perfectly and we tell ourselves
that’s when we’ll seize the day and I
was no different in my mind what I saw
was a full-blown hardware store I didn’t
see this sheet of pegboard with just a
few hammers we didn’t have the money to
rent a commercial space right away we
didn’t have the time either if we waited
too long the idea it would become stale
the momentum would be lost so we had to
embrace the awkward phase we had to find
value in the awkward phase the awkward
phase did was it gave us a chance to
assess the long-term viability of the
project to assess the scope and the
magnitude of what we were truly
undertaking and so while your end goal
might look a whole lot different than
where your means allow you to start
there’s value there to embrace that now
at some point either from the get-go
but most likely as you start to leave
the awkward phase this project is going
to become very real and our lives in
their current form are full of
commitments they’re full of obligations
maybe that’s a family or a job or school
or all of the above but chances are this
new project this new nail very real
thing it’s probably not already baked
into your life chances are it’s going to
disrupt your schedule your flow your
routine maybe that new maybe that
project you’ve been working on at your
job is starting to gain traction and
require overtime maybe that small
business you’ve been trying to get off
the ground starts to require night and
weekend
for me it was the balancing and the
juggling and the multitasking of school
and college soccer and late night work
shifts now I had an extra 20 hours a
week a volunteer coordinating staffing
store hours sorting donations developing
workshops and all sorts of other things
dwelling on that would have been enough
to stop this thing in its tracks well
what I learned was to brace for
disruption not to focus on it to
mentally prepare for the feeling of
imbalance and unsettledness in my day
but not to let it drive my day the
mental game of learning to adjust and
then readjust and then readjust some
more to run with it on the fly that
takes time so brace for disruption but
don’t let it be the reason that you
don’t try pretty soon you’ll find out
that it becomes embedded it becomes your
new routine so let your project fill the
nooks and crannies of your day or be
more intentional and give it a chunk of
your schedule chances are this new
project will probably add more time to
your day results in less sleep during
the week but from my experience it also
leads to an often untapped energy source
called passion and maybe that’s the
biggest lesson here involved passion and
we talk about it very generically all
the time we say things like you should
pursue your passion and we ask things
like what are you passionate about and
we usually get very generic responses
like I’m passionate about art or music
or sports or business but to me a lot of
times that translates into I’m not
really sure and that is perfectly okay
if you had asked Madeleine what his
passions were at the beginning of
sophomore year there’s definitely no
chance
he says tool lending it would probably
be something more like an I don’t know
response but maybe that’s exactly how it
needed to be maybe by not already
defining the things that I cared about
that created the perfect set of
circumstances to be open to a new idea
so be weary of the pressure to
categorize and identify your passions
the things you care about
if you think something’s cool just
explore it
sometimes your passions have a strange
way of revealing themselves and so I
urge you find your yes people give your
ideas somewhere to land embrace the
awkward phase brace for disruption
explore cool ideas but most importantly
visit your local Tool Library thank you
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