Making a Difference

DREAMS AND INVENTIONS

Many of our great inventions and great humanitarian organizations began with someone’s dream of making a difference: Here are some people who used their challenging circumstances to make a difference for others:

• Frederick Douglass used his experiences as a slave to raise awareness of the anti-slavery movement. By 1845 he was a prominent spokesperson for the abolitionist movement.
• Ben Franklin was an inventor. Every time something bugged him, he invented something to solve the problem. He invented the lending library, the post office, the lightening rod, the Franklin stove, and bifocal glasses — to name a few!
• Shigetaku Kurita created emojis for Japanese cell phones in the 1990s.
• In China around 100AD, paper was made out of silk, but this made it impractical to use for everyday purposes, until Cai Lun perfected a way to make paper out of rags and tree bark. The process spread across China and throughout the world via the Silk Road. 
• Dr. Ben Carson addressed the problem of separating conjoined twin using his skills as a neurosurgeon. 
• Sticky notes were invented in response to the need to mark pages in a hymnal! In the 1970s Art Fry and his co-worker Dr. Spencer S tried some of the adhesive that was being developed at 3M to a strip of paper and solved that problem for the church and for thousands of people through the ubiquitous sticky notes!

YOU HAVE TO BEGIN SOMWHERE

Look beyond your own expectations, and see how you can put your skills, knowledge and values to work to help others with their needs. You are never too old to do this. Making a difference does not mean you have to have a 9-5 job. You can decide how much time, what skills, and what values your actions will reflect. If you are unsure how to get started, here are some suggestions:



1. Conduct some investigative interviews. This means that you take the time to interview people you admire to find out how they learned to do what they do and what helped to launch them into their pathway. (Have coffee with a person you admire; and don’t forget the thank you note!)
2. Volunteer at a non-profit to learn how people turn a passion into a response to human needs. You can also learn how a non-profit works, and how grants can help. Non-profits can help problems with people, animals, and the environment. They can address education, safety, faith, homelessness, food insecurity—- if there is human problem, there is a non-profit that is trying to address it. Non-profits also allow you to volunteer a few hours per week to get started.
3. Review interviews and books by people who share your interests: Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams know a lot about how to apply economics to human situations. Jordan Peterson addresses numerous issues of psychology for people of all ages. Meg Wheatley considers issues around how to make a community. Robert Greenleaf promoted the movement for Servant Leadership in organizations. Voddie Baucham explores contemporary religious issues.  These people all have interviews or documentaries on You Tube, and have published books.

Wisdom and opportunity begin with the willingness to learn from others who went before you and use that knowledge to make a difference.