Making a Difference

I love Steve Jobs’ advice:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

200273462-001How do you argue with that? Well, even though down deep in many hearts they aspire to this, the odds for change on so many fronts today seem insurmountable. How can one person truly change anything anymore? Why should anyone “stick their neck out” and try … you are more than likely to get it cut off or at least whacked.

I love stories about people who do change things. I think Malala Yousafzai is truly inspiring … yet who would have thought the world would respond so well to her? She did what she did because she stayed true to herself and just persevered.

Perhaps we need to change perspectives. Our most likely impact is not this transformative. Maybe we should take the perspective of the girl on the beach throwing starfish back into the water. People come by and tell her that she is wasting her time, what she’s doing doesn’t matter.

I like her reply as she threw yet another back into the surf: “It mattered to this one!”

I can only hope we have this perspective. In any event, it works for me. Several people have read and shared their perspective on my blog posts, which I enjoy seeing, and I’ve had some nice responses to the book I published last year, “It’s the Thermostat, Stupid.” Things are looking up …

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