The Machteld Faas Xander office in downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Last month I facilitated my first workshop through HourSchool on community building in the beautiful offices of Machteld Faas Xander, a design agency located at The Tannery District in downtown Kitchener, Ontario. This workshop was a result of ongoing conversations that I have had with a number of friends and colleagues who continuously inspire me to aspire for more, and are also interested in social change and engaging communities across Waterloo Region towards making a positive and lasting difference.

Based on my experience in organizing a number of community initiatives in Waterloo Region, including TEDxWaterloo, and having had the opportunity to attend TEDActive in California and the inaugural TEDxSummit in Qatar these past few months, I decided to put together a workshop that allowed me to share lessons learned along with my experiences of community building from a TEDx perspective to a group of 20 people who represented a good cross-section of my local community, each with their own ideas of actions worth doing.

My workshop on Turning Ideas Worth Spreading into Actions Worth Doing

I believe these lessons learned are certainly applicable to different sets of communities, be it a neighbourhood, school, city or organization (for-profit, non-profit, government) given the nature of TEDx events that are run in all sorts of communities worldwide; from villages, cities and regions, to high schools, universities, corporations, and even prisons. Yes, prisons, given the example of TEDxSotoDelReal this coming September in Spain where the inmates are both the speakers and the audience for the event, promising to be a transformational experience for everyone involved.

When Chris Anderson, Lara Stein and the team at TED decided to experiment with the TEDx platform back in 2009, they had no idea that this platform would become as powerful as it has become now. I don’t think anyone in the world could have anticipated the broad reach of TEDx as a platform for bringing people together in a local community to educate, inspire and connect people with one another and to discuss ideas worth spreading that are relevant to their own context and lived realities. More importantly, it’s more than just discussing ideas worth spreading, rather, the key now is to take these ideas worth spreading and turn them into actions worth doing, a nod to City 2.0, the TEDPrize for this year where for the first time, the prize was not awarded to an individual, but rather, to an idea on which our planet’s future depends on.

TEDPrize 2012: The City 2.0

At the TEDxSummit held this past April in Doha where over 700 TEDx organizers from all over the world gathered to share stories and lessons learned with one another, as well as to work on action items and discuss the future of TEDx as a movement, it became clear that the “x” in TEDx no longer stood for “independently organized TED event”, but rather, it now stood for “the power of x”, where TED and ideas worth spreading are multiplied exponentially many times over in communities across the planet. Ken Bautista from TEDxEdmonton wrote an excellent blog post on the unstoppable nature of The Power of X where the TEDx community is on the verge of making the red x as iconic and influential for a new generation as the red T-E-D letters were to a generation at the first TED conferences twenty years ago.

TEDx events that have taken place in cities such as Baghdad, Mogadishu, Khartoum and even Cairo, have contributed to the revival of civil society where there used to be none, or perhaps, suppressed, given the political, social and economic sensitivities of the regions. TEDx events in Toronto, Amsterdam, and Singapore are great examples of TEDx events in big cities that bring people together from all walks of life. Both TEDxMuscat and TEDxAlAin in the Middle East aim to inspire youth towards possibilities for a better future that they themselves have the potential to create. TEDxYouth@HongKong was created as a response to tackling the disillusionment faced by young people with the education system, giving them opportunities to explore creativity, placing no limits on linguistic or class barriers. TEDxDoubleRoad in Bangalore, India, is hosted in a hacker space that brings together the best of art and technology, with a strong focus on open education. TEDxGaza also has an arts component to it, where the intent is to showcase the real Gaza that is brimming with culture and full of talented artists, dancers, and musicians, instead of perpetuating the stereotype of Gaza that we see currently in the news. While TEDxAlgonquinPark asks stakeholders how they are invested in one of Canada’s most beautiful provincial parks, and TEDxCSU at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, has a vested interest in cultivating CSU students as well-rounded community leaders.

And I could certainly go on, and on, and on given all of the stories I heard from countless TEDx organizers that I met from all around the world.

TEDx organizers from around the world at the TEDxSummit Desert Day in Doha, Qatar - April 2012. Photo credit: Kris Krüg

To date, over 4,300 TEDx events have taken place in 1,200 cities in 133 countries all over the world, where ordinary people just like you and me are imagining, dreaming and creating a better future for themselves and their communities, using the TEDx platform to make it happen. A recent Forbes article distilled the essence of the widespread success of TEDx down to the individual organizers behind each TEDx event, who do it to make a difference because they are passionate about their communities rather than chasing after money or fame.

Ever since I can remember, I have always been the type of person interested in seeing what happens when you bring together a room full of extraordinary people who are passionate about making a difference in their communities. In many ways, I like to surround myself with people who share the “FIRE, AIM, READY” mindset, those willing to experiment, to fail, to learn from these failures, and to continue to push the creative boundaries of unrealistic possibilities. And then to repeat this creative process all over again.

Now, imagine being surrounded by over 700 people for a week in the middle of the desert who shared the same mindset as well. When I returned from the TEDxSummit in Qatar back in April, I wrote on my personal blog shortly thereafter that I may have just gotten a glimpse of world peace given the 90+ nationalities represented; where we as humanity, with mutual respect, genuine trust and empathy for one another, work through our differences and cultural backgrounds, values and perspectives, in order to achieve a goal much larger than our individual selves.

And perhaps this was the motivation behind organizing my workshop right here in Waterloo Region, my own community, on lessons learned from TED and TEDx: to contribute to re-creating the magic when hundreds, if not, thousands of like-minded individuals come together to experiment with model versions of the future, all with the intention of making a lasting difference in our community.

The future may not be such a bad place after all.

Source: (Forbes) Here's Why TED and TEDx are So Incredibly Appealing

Im looking forward to being in New York City early next month to speak at the upcoming Pilipino American Unity for Progress (UniPro) Summit on June 2, 2012 at NYU.

The UniPro Summit is described as a “multinational forum for Pilipino young adults, students and youth,” where the goal is to reach out to the multinational Pilipino community in order to create a safe space and open forum to discuss regional issues and facilitate cultural workshops.

This year, the theme of the Summit is the “Pilipino Renaissance”, defined as:

1. The awakening of the individual Pilipino’s earnest passions and aspirations.
2. The creation of a community that nurtures the individual Pilipino’s passions and aspirations.
3. The flourishing of the global Pilipino community, marked by the significant representation and success of Pilipinos, determined by the realization of our own potential.

I was asked by the organizers to provide my own definition of the Pilipino Renaissance in advance of the Summit. This is what I came up with:

- The marking of a new era where the talents, creativity and tenacity of the Pilipino people, along with our arts, culture and history, are truly recognized and celebrated worldwide;

- The re-imagining of the Pilipino people having the capacity to greatly contribute to the global community of changemakers, entrepreneurs, creative problems solvers, makers, doers and professional healthcare workers, in the firm belief that a better world is possible.

In my presentation, Im hoping to further elaborate on these two points mentioned above, highlighting the Power of TEDx as one example of a global community of changemakers affecting their local communities in truly profound and positive ways.

On a personal note, I am extremely humbled to have even been asked to participate in the upcoming UniPro Summit. One of my personal heroes for almost a decade now, Tony Meloto, the founder of Gawad Kalinga, will be also be speaking at the Summit, along with one of my good friends and fellow social entrepreneur, Ryan Letada (right there, you know this Summit will be a good time!)

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Alex Cena – Sulu Series, Sulu DC
• Ariel Estrada – Leviathan Lab
• Darwin Dion Ignacio – Founder, BUSOG.co
• Fr. Benigno Beltran – Executive Director, Mga Anak ni Inang Daigdig
• Gerald “Jerry” Topitzer – Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK)
• Illmind – Music Producer
• Jennine Ventura – Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE)/GABRIELA-USA
• Jose Antonio Vargas – Executive Director, Define American
• Kilusan Bautista – Universal Self
• Leah Villanueva – Director for Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs, University of Florida
• Loida Nicholas Lewis – Chairperson, US Pinoys for Good Governance
• Merit Salud – Chairman, NaFFAA Region 1
• Nicole Ponseca – Maharlika
• Ninotchka Rosca – AF3IRM
• Oliver Oliveros – BroadwayWorld.com
• Rafe Bartholomew – Author of ‘Pacific Rims’
• Ray Sison – Art Director, R/GA
• Rich Kiamco – Comedian
• Stephanie Walmsley – Producer, “God of Love”
• Susan Gador – President, Philippine Nurses Association (PNA-NY)
• Yves Nibungco – Anakbayan

If you are interested in participating in the UniPro Summit, you are certainly more than welcome to attend and meet other like-minded and passionate Pilipinos, to exchange ideas and begin organizing a global network to promote the idea of such a renaissance.

For more information or to register to attend, please visit the UniPro Summit registration page.

Definitely looking forward to this particular trip to NYC!

I had a great conversation over dinner in uptown Waterloo with one of my best friends earlier this evening. As we talked, it dawned on me that one of the reasons why I felt so wound up and restless these last few weeks, including this past week after coming back from Doha, was because I actually hadn’t given myself the space nor the time to really decompress and reflect on everything that I’d been through these past three months: TEDActive, TEDxWaterloo and TEDxSummit, taking place one after another with a few weeks of downtime in between.

All of this while also going through the numerous challenges, including the highs and the lows, of building a startup tech company with a great team right here in Waterloo (keeping in mind that we only incorporated as a company in January early this year).

Although these past three months have been incredible, they have also been a series of ‘Go Go Go’, where I think I’ve now hit a wall, metaphorically speaking of course, with the amount of new information and the range of perspectives that I can take in at the present moment. Using a phrase borrowed from a conference that I attended in Stratford, Ontario last week: ‘I’m conferenced-out’.

Closing TED Session at TEDxSummit. Photo: Kris Krüg

I also wasn’t kidding when I wrote shortly after coming back from Doha that I was still trying to find the words to describe the magic and the ‘power of X’ that took place at the TEDxSummit. (for a great reflection piece, check out TEDxEdmonton Ken Bautista’s blog post here)

To say that the trip to Doha with 700+ TEDx organizers from around the world was transformational, would be an understatement.

And yet, somehow, a part of me believes that the magic experienced at the TEDxSummit in Doha — where we caught a glimpse of it at TEDActive this year given the 300+ TEDx organizers in attendance — CAN be re-created in communities worldwide with local TEDx events IF the environment is conducive to turning ideas worth spreading into actions worth doing for the betterment of the community.

Desert Day at TEDxSummit. Photo: Kris Krüg

With over 90+ nationalities represented at the TEDxSummit, I also realize that I may have just gotten a glimpse of what world peace could look like: where we, as humanity, with mutual respect, genuine trust and empathy for one another, work through our differences in cultural backgrounds, values and perspectives, in order to achieve a goal much larger than our individual selves.

These are some initial thoughts that I have on where I see TEDx heading, and the important role that TED will play in continuing to foster this global movement. I will definitely have more to say in upcoming blog posts, complete with examples and short stories, as I’m still tying to make sense of it all while going through all of my notes and recalling all of the discussions that I have had with numerous TEDx organizers from different parts of the world.

Being surrounded by hundreds of TEDx organizers from around the world, each with a vision for positive change in their local community using TEDx as the open platform, has certainly been inspiring.

All these years where I have held the firm belief that a better world is possible and where we have the power to create the future we envision, and then discovering a whole community of like-minded TED and TEDx organizers who feel, think and act the same way, is even more inspiring. To quote one of my fellow TEDx organizers on the last day of the TEDxSummit:

“TEDx has brought us home… we can share this journey together.”

TEDx Letters at TEDxSummit. Photo: Kris Krüg

My friend Ryan Letada gave an incredible talk at the most recent TEDxYouth@Hewitt in New York City in November two months ago.

In his talk, Ryan painted a very convincing picture of what failure has meant to him as a social entrepreneur and changemaker when faced with the very real and complex challenges of trying to disrupt the education system in the Philippines with his organization, eKindling.

“A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a flame to be kindled” - eKindling

What started initially as a dream to bring magical education opportunities to school kids in rural parts of the Philippines through acces to computers and technology in elementary schools, was quickly met with the harsh reality of what that actually meant when the laptops were received by the schools and communities on the ground.

The whole notion of ‘changing the world’ is certainly a sexy idea and is often romanticized as such.

However, it comes as no surprise that passion and the intent of doing ‘good’ are simply not enough as it does require a high degree of persistence and true heart in order to build real change, together with looking at the complexities of the issues at hand while ensuring measurable impact in the process.

Faced with initial setbacks and challenges, Ryan and eKindling were able to turn these initial failures into important life and organizational lessons. In addition to the deployment of technology in elementary schools in the Philippines, eKindling also aims to design learning activities for the base-of-the-pyramid and develop talent among teachers and educators, in order to help re-create an education system that inspires a love for learning.

On a personal note, this talk was a great reminder for me to embrace failure with confidence and courage in my own personal life.

Failure is inevitable and though it may hurt a lot (based on past personal experience) and makes you feel extremely uncomfortable, it does help to build your character, allowing you to refine or change the assumptions that you have of the world around you, including your own view of yourself and your capabilities, making you a better and a much stronger person in the process.

Thanks for sharing your story, Ryan.

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine!”

- Edmond Dantès, The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Having shared personal lessons learned over the years in Part 1, while painting a realistic picture of a world in the midst of chaos in part 2, Part 3 focuses on the art of possibilities and further elaborates on why I share a sense of careful optimism for the world today.

In preparation for my talk, I returned to my roots of social entrepreneurship and social innovation as a means to lift millions of people out of poverty around the world. And in the process, I turned to the writings and works of two people whom I consider to be personal heroes, among many others of course, namely Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, and Paul Polak, author of the book ‘Out of Poverty‘.

For the remainder of my talk, I highlighted four social enterprises impacting and improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries around the world, all within the context of showcasing opportunities that exist within the base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) market that many would-be entrepreneurs, especially those from developed countries, may not even be aware exist at all.

Base-of-the-Pyramid Market

Photo credit: World Economic Forum

When I refer to the BOP-market, I am referring to the estimated 4 billion people who live on less than $2/day in the developing world. Whereas we know everything there is to know about targeting affluent customers in the developed world, in a manner of speaking, it seems we know nothing of how to target the other 90% percent of customers in the rest of the world, representing an estimated market size of USD $5 trillion that is fairly rural and underserved, comprised mainly of an informal economy that is incredibly inefficient with very little competition.

If we are going to work towards lifting millions of people out of poverty, then the key to all of this begins with a shift in mindset where we see the 4 billion at the BOP not simply as passive recipients of aid and charity, but rather, as consumers, customers and clients, and more importantly, as people who want to take control and make decisions in their own lives.

Jacqueline Novogratz has an amazing TED Talk where she points out that when we think about large-scale solutions to poverty, we cannot deny humans their dignity–we need to give people the freedom of choice and opportunity because that is where dignity starts. Jacqueline also discusses some of these solutions within the context of patient capital alongside the work the Acumen Fund is supporting in East Africa and South Asia, where patient capital is capital that lies between the financial markets and aid/charity. This capital, which has, among its many characteristics, a high tolerance for risk as well as a long time horizon allowing the entrepreneur the opportunity to experiment, is invested in social entrepreneurs who know their communities and are building scalable solutions to address issues such as health care, water, housing and alternative energy.

The reality is, people in developing countries are already making transactions every day in cash markets, even if they are only living on less than $2/day. In fact, they are actually more market-oriented than most as they struggle to navigate their way through the informal, mainly cash-based economy when making decisions related to purchasing food, health care, education and other services.

That said however, given the characteristics of the BOP-market mentioned above, people at the BOP are paying more money for lower quality goods and services, relatively speaking, than we do in developed countries for similar goods and services.

If that is the case, what if there was a better way to serve people in the BOP-market and in the process lift them out of extreme poverty, while generating profits to ensure financial sustainability for the social enterprise in the long-run?

Paul Polak has pointed out that this can and has been achieved, where some of the common features of initiatives that have truly helped extremely poor people move out of poverty, include:

1. thoroughly listening to poor customers and thoroughly understanding the specific context of their lives;
2. designing and implementing ruthlessly affordable technologies or business models;
3. energizing private sector market forces that play a central role in their implementation;
4. radical decentralization that is integrated into economically viable last mile distribution;
5. and, designing for scale–a central focus of the enterprise from the very beginning.

As highlighted by some of the examples of social enterprises below, there is certainly a world of opportunity that exists out there in the BOP-market; given the right mindset and approach towards tackling poverty and coming up with innovative and scalable solutions that places human dignity right at the centre of it all.

When reflecting on the nature of the social enterprise ‘space’ and all the opportunities that exist, not only in the BOP-market but in the developed world as well, I often find myself returning to the following quote, attributed to Bill Drayton of Ashoka,

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime… Social entrepreneurs and changemakers will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”

If you are interested in learning more about market-based solutions to the challenges of global poverty, although slightly dated, I would recommend reading the following:

• Emerging Markets, Emerging Models published by the Monitor Group in March 2009;
• The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid published by the World Resources Institute in March 2007.

c3 Conference – Connect. Collaborate. Create.

Micro Drip (Pakistan)

In Pakistan, 120 million people directly depend on agriculture to survive. Yet modern irrigation technologies cater to farmers with large fields, leaving smallholder farmers to rely on flood irrigation – an inefficient use of water resources that does not maximize crop yields – or on expensive and polluting diesel pumps.

To address this challenge, Micro Drip markets and distributes affordable drip irrigation technology in Pakistan, delivering water directly to the root of the plant–maximizing plant growth, ensuring major input cost and water savings, and improving farm yields. Its systems reduce the amount of water smallholder farmers need to cultivate an acre of land by 50 percent, improve yields by 40 percent, and lower input costs by 30 percent. And, because they allow for year-round farming, fewer farmers and their families are forced to migrate during the dry season. Micro Drip has already reached more than 3,000 farmers in 2009, and over the next five years has the potential to impact 20,000+ farmers.

The overall result: reduced dependence on flood irrigation and the opportunity for farmers to earn steadier incomes.

Source: Acumen Fund 

Aravind Eye Care System (India)

India has the largest population of blind people in the world. Of the 12 million blind Indians, 80 percent have been blinded as a result of complications from cataracts, including 300,000 children. A simple cataract operation could help seven million Indians regain their sight. Setting the eradication of blindness as its objective, Aravind Eye Care System has pioneered free surgery for poor people, and offers cataract operations costing between 50 and 200 US dollars. What is interesting about Aravind is that even though nearly 60 percent of their patients don’t pay a single rupee, Aravind still makes nearly US$8 million per annum, allowing it to operate the Aravind Eye Hospitals and to function as a research institute, providing international training in eye-care and producing eye-care products through Aurolab.

Aravind’s orientation toward patients and communities has determined its scale and its innovative approach. This patient-oriented philosophy has enabled Aravind to simplify its workflow and boost efficiency, where the secret to Aravind’s capacity for providing cataract surgery for US$50 and intraocular lenses for five dollars, is the hospital’s free clinics. Counterintuitively, Aravind does not lose money every time it performs an operation for free. In the medical business, overhead such as medical instruments and manpower accounts for the highest costs. So for Aravind, the more patients they see and the more operations they perform, the lower their average fixed cost per person becomes. So each time Aravind does an operation for free, they raise their profits ever so slightly.

Source: Commonwealth Magazine – Aravind: Efficiency in a Battle with Blindness

A Liter of Light (Philippines)

A Liter of Light is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb to disprivileged communities across the Philippines. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog (MIT), the Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.

Source: A Liter of Light website

$35 Aakash Android Tablet (India)

The Aakash Tablet,  distributed at a government subsidized price of $35 to anywhere between 10 to 12 million students across India by the end of 2012, is an example of a “leapfrog technology,” a concept where the latest innovations jump directly into areas where legacy technologies never penetrated. Tens of millions of people throughout India who never had access to a landline phone now walk around with cell phones in their pocket. Many of those likely to use or own the the Aakash Tablet will never have used a desktop computer, and it’s possible they never will.

Now imagine the educational potential of the world’s lowest-cost tablet being unleashed to hundreds of millions of Indians eager to join the world economy. At the heart of the Aakash tablet is an HD video co-processor that will connect viewers to one of the largest educational libraries ever assembled: YouTube. When the Aakash tablet reaches villages across India, an entire generation will have instant access to rich educational content such as the Khan Academy. And with the Aakash tablet in hand, students across India will be free to do what their global counterparts do — or should do — with their computers, including the educational basics such as creating documents and spreadsheets, and browsing the web for research materials.

Source: VentureBeat - Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

I am SUPER DUPER EXCITED to share that my application was accepted and I will be heading to Palm Springs in California towards the end of February to attend TEDActive 2012 Full Spectrum.

I have been a TED fan for a number of years now, and having been involved with planning TEDxWaterloo, TEDxAlAin and TEDxUW held at the University of Waterloo recently, attending TEDActive will prove to be a dream come true as well as a huge opportunity to connect with and learn from the TED speakers, TEDx organizers and TEDActive delegates in attendance.

I look forward to bringing the inspiration and passion of TED back to the Waterloo Region as well as to the University of Waterloo, especially with TEDxWaterloo 2012: DIS CONNECTED taking place shortly thereafter on March 21 at the Centre in the Square.

As for TEDxUW 2012, very BIG things are on the horizon…

Over the next two months, I will be planning the logistics of my trip as well as drumming up community support and sponsorship to help me out from a financial standpoint as attending TEDActive does not come cheap. If you would like to help out, feel free to drop me a line and I would be happy to take you out for coffee to discuss this in a more in-depth manner.

In the meantime, I am just going to take a moment to sit back and let all of this sink in, before picking up my pen and notebook, of course, and scheming ideas with the intent of bringing to life projects designed to create a better world.

Will definitely be aiming for the stars on this one, giving my mind permission to travel as far as my imagination will allow.

About TEDActive

TEDActive is an opportunity to let your mind travel the world of ideas while watching the live-hosted TED2012 program in a comfortable, customizable space. When the talks are over, your conversations with other passionate people begin — a chance to engage in inspiring discussions and projects.

Whatever you’ve been meaning to build, or learn to build, you can. Innovation happens when you tinker, explore and play. These opportunities awaken latent creativity and let you rediscover the joy of making something with your own hands. Attendees can sign up for workshops to learn to use the tools in these spaces or dig in and share skills by leading their own workshops. Think bike repair, hacking, sculpting in cardboard, 3D printing, homebrewing beer and more.

Included in the TEDActive mix are TED leaders from around the world who are helping to foster TED’s mission of spreading ideas: Volunteer translators, independent TEDx event organizers, rock-star TED Prize wish contributors and spectacular past TED Fellows. Special events create opportunities for these community members to meet face-to-face and exchange best practices.

As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword, with the capacity to influence and change people’s opinions and perspectives, launching revolutions and inspiring generations for years to come.

Though the commencement address by Paul Hawken at the University of Portland is from 2009, I decided to re-publish it under the ‘People Who Inspire Me‘ section of my blog and share it with all of you, as I often find myself referring to this speech whenever I look at what is happening in the world today and a part of me begins to lose faith in humanity.

It’s not hard to imagine why given all the unfortunate news and headlines that we’re seeing every day.

But then I turn to the speech written below and something happens when I read Paul’s words.

Even though I must have read the speech transcript way too many times to even count, I am still moved to the core of my being that the world, in fact humanity itself, will reconstitute given the willingness and determination of countless people all across the globe to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider the world around us.

TIME Magazine even named ‘The Protestor’ as Person of the Year 2011.

Indeed, words truly are powerful, but only if they are brought to life through the actions of people just like you and me.

By Paul Hawken

Commencement Address, University of Portland, 2009

 When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.

Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

A World in Crisis

Given the headlines we are seeing in newspapers and publications all over the world, there is no doubt in my mind that the world is going through a monumental shift in the way we operate as humanity, in light of the complexities of the global challenges we face.

We only have to look at the Arab Spring Revolution from earlier this year as well as the Occupy movements right here in North America to get a sense that all is not right with the world today.

Europe currently finds itself in the midst of a euro zone debt crisis calling into question the very existence of the European Union as a political and economic entity. And in recent days, we have seen tens of thousands of people turn to the streets in Russia to protest alleged ballot-rigging in the recent parliamentary elections, demanding a re-run.

One headline that many people may not be aware of is the fact that rising food prices are currently adding pressure to already fragile political and economic systems, sparking food riots in many developing countries across the globe. We are also seeing an increasing frequency of natural disasters together with the further degradation of our environment  leading to unprecedented numbers of climate refugees worldwide.

Indeed, there is a lot of pent up frustration in society with more and more people recognizing that the systems we have in place, from the financial and housing markets to healthcare and education, don’t seem to be working.

Returning closer to home, in a recent op-ed piece to CNN, writer and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff points out that if you think the Occupy Wall Street movement is just a phase, you don’t get it.

That’s because, unlike a political campaign designed to get some person in office and then close up shop (as in the election of Obama), this is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. As the product of the decentralized networked-era culture, it is less about victory than sustainability. It is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus. It is not like a book; it is like the Internet.

Occupy Wall Street is meant more as a way of life that spreads through contagion, creates as many questions as it answers, aims to force a reconsideration of the way the nation does business and offers hope to those of us who previously felt alone in our belief that the current economic system is broken.

With all of this in mind, if you were to ask me whether I was optimistic or pessimistic about the future, I would say that I share a sense of careful optimism for the following reasons: the very powerful ideas of social enterprise and social innovation brought to life by changemakers and the incredible (often, youthful) idealism of people wanting demanding that there must be a better way to do things.

Of course, this is not to say that the systems keeping the status quo in place won’t give up without a fight. As JFK once said, those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. 

The world is changing, no doubt.

The question remains, what side of history do you want to be on and what role will you play?

Next: A Better World is Possible (Part 3) – Opportunities in the BOP-Market

I was invited to speak at the recent C3: Connect. Collaborate. Create. conference and in preparation for my talk, I was reminded why I became passionate about the field of social entrepreneurship in 2007 in the first place.

More importantly, I recalled why the concept of ‘doing good while making money’ –as social entrepreneurship was described to me back then– captured my imagination as an undergrad in my final year at the University of Waterloo, allowing me to make decisions that have led to where I am today.

As my parents have always taught me, we are defined by the choices we make.

Over the years, I have learned a lot from numerous successes as well as failures; from family, friends and yes, even relationships.

When I thought about the lessons that would prove most useful for the mainly student audience trying to figure out next steps beyond university, I came up with the following three lessons that proved key to where I am in my career right now, only a couple of years out of school and not much older than most people in the audience.

In the later part of my talk, I provided an overview of the huge market potential that social enterprise in the base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) market offers today, in the hopes of igniting the imaginations of audience members and showcasing the art of possibility. I will be covering this topic in two separate upcoming blog posts (A Better World is Possible Part 2 & Part 3).

Experiment. Experiment. Experiment.

I can’t stress this enough.

You are never going to find out what your ‘passion’ is and what keeps you awake at night (a nod to my good friend Kristina, currently in Tanzania pursuing her ‘heartwork’ in the mobile health space), if you don’t actively seek what you want/don’t want through a gradual process of experimentation and elimination.

You only get to know what it is that you are made of, what moves you, by experimenting with a number of different projects and working on different teams. As the saying goes, life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.

Where do you begin putting experimentation into practise you might ask?

As I have written in the past, JFDI.

In addition to experimenting, I would also encourage many of you to start a blog. On any topic. On whatever happens to capture your interest. It doesn’t matter.

Though this advice may seem trivial, not only is keeping a regular blog a great way to document your learning journey over time, in this day and age of uncertainty where our generation seeks full-time employability rather than full-time employment, a personal blog preferably with the url www.yournamehere.com, will go a long way towards establishing yourself as a thought leader in the space you want to work in.

I could go on and on about the merits of starting a blog. Instead, if you’re interested in learning more,  feel free to drop me a line, keeping in mind that I enjoy good sushi and a great cup of coffee!

Building on the notion of experimentation from lesson 1 above, you should not let the fear of failure paralyze you.

Instead, just like in the art of jujitsu, embrace the fear of failure and use it to drive you, using the principle of leveraging an attacker’s energy (in this case, fear) against them rather than directly opposing it.

On the topic of failure, the famous inventor Thomas Edison, once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

On this note, I will be the first to admit that many of the projects and initiatives that I have been a part of in the past, including the startup non-profit Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship that saw a brief period of success from 2007-2009 in the Waterloo Region, failed.

And that is perfectly ok.

There were certainly many lessons learned from the Laurel Centre and other similar experiences that I have taken to heart. I have kept many of these lessons learned in mind as I find myself continuing to experiment and work on other projects, including a number of community initiatives, most notably the Ignite Waterloo and TEDxWaterloo series, that have found a great deal of success these past few years; as well as the early stage tech startup that I am currently in the process of building with a great team right here in Waterloo.

On a side note, I have also begun laying the foundations for a writing project that I want to bring to life, aptly titled ‘The Failure Manifesto for the Aspiring Young Changemaker’, hoping to co-create it with other like-minded individuals who have gone through similar ‘failed’ experiences and are willing to share their lessons learned.

Interested?

Shoot me a message.

And finally, in the spirit of ‘walking the talk’ using the proposed ‘Failure Manifesto’ writing project mentioned above as an example, the third lesson that I have found key to my success thus far, is to simply ask for what you want.

Whether it is reaching out to your network of trusted friends and mentors for help, advice, or at times, a couch to crash on when you happen to be embarking on a solo road trip across Canada, or perhaps, requesting a meeting with the President of the Philippines when you happen to be visiting the country, the worst case scenario is that people say ‘no’ and don’t offer to help you out.

The best case scenario? People –family, friends and even complete strangers– actually say ‘yes’ and step forward to help you out, providing boundless opportunities and promises of experiences that you would never have imagined otherwise had you not asked.

When I visited the Philippines earlier this year, instead of meeting with President Aquino, I was put in touch with an incredible organization called the Philippine Centre for Islam & Democracy by way of my friend Alia and her connection with former Senator Santanina Rasul, that provided me with a more human perspective of the conflict taking place in southern Mindanao and the important work that organizations like PCID and the UN-based Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) were doing to bring lasting peace to the region.

Although I have yet to meet President Aquino in order to provide him with my perspective of how I would govern the country if I were president, this particular experience in the Philippines and other similar experiences where I have simply asked for what I want, has strengthened my belief in the notion that the moment you buy a one-way ticket to the world, possibilities abound and the universe works with you, never against you.

Next: A Better World is Possible (Part 2) – A Sense of Careful Optimism

Im looking forward to attending the inaugural TEDxUW at the University of Waterloo this Saturday, November 12.

Prashanth and his enthusiastic team of volunteers have been hard at work over the past year to turn the vision of this event into a reality: a platform to showcase the best ideas from the University of Waterloo to the world.

If you are not able to attend, I would highly encourage you to check out the livestream of the event at www.tedxuw.com/livestream beginning 830 AM EST this Saturday.

About TEDxUW:

We live in an age where ideas can spread like wildfire, where tools can be harnessed to connect people across vast distances and where people can be mobilized en masse with the click of a button. Social movements across the world are now being spurred on by the use of incredibly powerful, highly-scalable technologies that can turn desire into action within minutes. The gap between our ideas and ability to take charge of our reality can be crossed in a single stride. We are inspired by revolutionary ideas, but we are also inspired by revolutionary leaders and agents of change.

Why?

Because they took action.

This is what TEDxUW captures – the excitement of taking action and showcasing the achievements of those people who defied the naysayers and created things, built relationships and brought their ideas to life.

And that’s just today.

Can you imagine tomorrow?

]]> http://www.renjie.ca/2011/11/07/tedxuw-at-the-university-of-waterloo/feed/ 0