it’s what we should do
well a little over eight years ago I
helped start hands for others and in the
past eight years I’ve been a part of
growing hands for others into one of the
largest organizations engaging students
and advocacy work really in the world
and through that I’ve had the unique
opportunity to connect and work
alongside literally thousands of
students and been able to learn a lot of
things from that and one of them is that
every student has a distinct vision for
what they believe their communities in
the world that large should look like
and you know the the funny thing about
this is that you every student has these
strong ideas about what their community
in the world should look like and then
they get these ideas of what should be
different about their communities and
what ought to change in the world and
those are often accompanied by what I’d
like to call strong opinions about those
ideas and those changes what makes it
really fun and one of the things that
I’ve been able to witness firsthand
about these students who care about
changing their communities in the world
is that they really really deeply care
and you know whether it’s regarding
civil rights in our country or an issue
in their communities such as
homelessness or a global challenge such
as the world’s water crisis they really
care about making an impact and yet at
the same time despite all these great
dreams and these great ambitions so few
of them are actually able to take those
ideas put them into action and start
movements to begin to address the
changes that they want to see made in
their communities around the world and
so I’ve sort of been obsessed with this
question for the past eight years which
is how is it that ideas evolve into
movements why is it that so many young
people who have a desire to change the
world why is it only that just a few of
them are able to take those ideas and
that’s in those passions and to make a
difference
and the thing is is I believe that
everyone wants to make a difference but
why is it that only a small percentage
is actually doing so well I have some
thoughts on this question before I get
there I want to make sure we’re on the
same page here’s I’m bringing up a word
like movements I want to make sure that
we are on the same page and so what is a
movement well a movement is a group of
people making okay so not thinking not
dreaming not hoping not waiting but
making a change so when we think of
movements we may think of Martin Luther
King jr. in the civil rights movement
acting on the idea that everyone’s equal
regardless of the color of their skin we
may think of a business such as TOMS
shoes acting on the idea that business
is at a fundamental level can exist to
do good we may think of a local
organization or soup kitchen that’s
feeding the hungry acting on the idea
that everyone in our communities
deserves a hot meal personally I think
of hands for others and that’s acting on
the idea that young people are capable
of making a difference in the world if
they’re given a chance to so what can we
learn from these movements what have I
learned from the students that I’ve been
able to work alongside of well I’ve come
up with what I’d say are three qualities
that I believe any person needs to
embody if they’re going to take his or
her ideas and put them into action and
start a movement of their own and I call
them the three P’s of idea actualization
and the first is passion you have to be
passionate if you want to start a
movement now the best way to really
quantify passion I think is by questions
asking somebody how badly do you care
about your ideas how much do you want to
make those changes that you believe in
happen in your community or around the
world do you ever lose sleep over them
do you wake up every day feeling
motivated to do something about these
ideas that you have is there ever a
point that you’re just sitting around
and you feel overwhelmed by the thought
that you want to make
that you want to impact a certain group
of people and the reason why passion is
so important is because it is
essentially a tipping point for action
and when you care so deeply about
something when you want so badly to make
a difference and to change certain
people’s lives the only logical response
is to do something about it and if
you’re truly passionate about it
you’re gonna persevere yeah some speed
bumps might come up there might be some
hurdles in your way but if you care
deeply about it you’re going to overcome
those because nothing or no one is going
to stand in your way of the change that
you are looking to make the second P of
idea actualization is persistence now
the reality is it takes hard work to
build a movement because you are
essentially going against the present
reality it’s a lot like walking uphill
versus walking downhill and when you’re
walking uphill you have this thing
called gravity which is makes it a
little bit harder to do so well people
who start movements feel this sort of
gravity in a sense as well when they
realize wow you know it’s hard to do
what I’m trying to do and they quickly
realize that it takes a lot of work and
it’s hard work and it’s draining work
and so I like to call this the iceberg
principle or if you look at an iceberg
the top 10% the stuff that’s above water
that you can actually see there’s only
10% of an iceberg and it’s held up by
the 90% underneath the water that keeps
it afloat and keeps it intact
well movements are really not all that
different you have your top 10% there
which is what people can see which is
all the exciting stuff the big ideas the
glamorous vision the incredible change
that you’re making in your community or
around the world and yet all of that can
only be sustained and held up if you
have that foundation built and the
foundation is things like hard work you
know late nights a lot of coffee
meetings you know a lot of rejection
along the way people are telling you I
don’t know if this will work and dealing
with that it looks like doing a lot of
very boring repetitive tasks over and
over and over again because you have to
and it looks like messing up
occasionally and having
learn from those mistakes and failures
and address them and get back up and
keep going you see there’s no shortcut
to movement building there’s no growth
hack this foundation has to be built and
if this step is skipped or if you avoid
it
well that top 10% the thing that people
see it’s got it’s not going to float for
long or it’s going to melt pretty quick
so the last P of idea actualization is
patience you have to be patient to build
a movement you know a lot of the
students that I get to work with they
all have some incredible ideas for
nonprofits for businesses for social
enterprises and so they like to ask me a
lot hey what do you think about this
idea before they begin I always say hey
wait one second I have a question for
you and the question I asked them before
you tell me this idea I want to know
right now is this something that you are
willing to spend the next five to ten
years of your life on because that’s
what it may take if you really want to
do this if you want to solve this
problem if you want to create this
change build this movement that’s what
it can take and so the reality is is
that it really only takes an instant to
create a movement and to create a lot of
excitement and a lot of energy behind
something but it takes a lot of time to
build an organization of sustainable
greatness and sustainable change
you know I’ve mentioned Martin Luther
King jr. earlier and the reality of that
many people overlook is that he started
his work in civil rights in the early
1950s but it wasn’t until 1964 that the
Civil Rights Act was actually passed and
of course it’s been an uphill battle
every since ever since then so it takes
time to build a movement real change is
hard work and it requires you to be
patient so here’s the thing everyone has
ideas everyone has a thought on what
they believe their community and what
the world should look like and that’s a
great thing it’s important that we hold
on to those ideas because that’s the
only way that we ever can create change
is by having ideas of what should be
different but the sad fact is that not a
lot of people act on their ideas
it’s because of sort of what we talked
about here is that it’s hard work and
there’s a lot of it and it’s emotionally
draining work and it’s not easy but
here’s the other thing that you have the
opportunity to not be most people so to
speak you can take those dreams you have
those ideas you have the vision you have
for your community and for the world and
you can put it into action right now you
can make it happen who says that you
can’t be the next great civil rights
leader of our generation who says that
you can’t start a movement that ends
homelessness in your community who says
that you can’t start a global movement
that ends human trafficking
you see I’ve worked with a few college
students who literally barely were able
to graduate college because they had a
hard time in their classes and I’ve kept
in touch with a few of those students
and some of them are doing incredible
work in their communities and around the
world
conversely I’ve worked with some
students
college students that were straight a
student’s way smarter than me and they
got out and tried to start their own
movements and didn’t end up working
because maybe they weren’t patient
enough or persistent enough and so I
bring that up not to say that grades
don’t matter because they do but I bring
it up because this whole thing of
movement building it’s not about how
smart you are
it’s not about where you’re from it’s
not about who your parents are how much
money you have it’s not about whether
you’ve been perceived your whole life as
a leader or whether you’ve been ignored
so you feel by everyone that’s not the
point that doesn’t matter what matters
is how much you care what matters is are
you willing to roll up your sleeves and
do the hard work that most people are
unwilling to do what matters is are you
willing to persevere and keep at it when
the next time you get that big idea or
you have this this urge in your heart to
create some type of change in your
community or the world I encourage you
to remember that it’s right here
but it’s at your fingertips and that if
you are passionate if you are persistent
and if you are patient you can build
movements that change your communities
and change the world I believe in you
and I believe that we as a generation
can be known not only for our big ideas
and for our deal ISM but for our
activism and for the great things that
we’re doing in our communities and
around the world thank you [Applause]