words of advice

Global Engagement Summit // One Economy Corporation // Prevent Human Trafficking

First of all, Happy Earth Day.

The reason that I have been slow to post over the past week is because since last Wednesday I have been working with the Northwestern University Global Engagement Summit. There I had the pleasure of seeing the One Economy Corporation's Alec Ross deliver the opening keynote address. At the end of the week, I was doubly treated by seeing Christine Arnold of the Prevent Human Trafficking deliver the closing address. In their speeches, they offered plenty of advice by way of discussing the merits of embracing audacity, tenacity, and failure.

Ross, a graduate of Northwestern, went on to work for Teach For America in the mid-90s and would afterward start One Economy Corporation with the goal of bridging technological divisions that stand between the developed and developing world. Since then, the company has grown exponentially and millions of global citizens have benefited from their work. Similarly inspiring, Arnold, against many, many odds, started Prevent Human Trafficking and has worked effortlessly to bring attention to this issue.

As for the wisdom he had to share with the young audience, Ross claimed to have learned two things since graduating from the school almost a decade and a half ago. He first encouraged the delegates to hold onto the sense of audacity that comes with the electrified experience of being a college student. Then Ross encouraged the audience to be unafraid of failure. We learn from our failure, so it is best to not be repelled by it. And since there's not a whole lot to lose when we're around college age, we might as well just do it.

Arnold encouraged the importance of looking beyond the odds, asking for things believed to be out of reach, and looking into the darkness for occasional reminders that things aren't that bad. Mysterious gifts--sometimes in the form of the kindness of strangers and others as the donation of yachts--often await us when things seem like they're at their darkest.

Their words were excellent and tangible forms of inspiration for a young audience who had come from nearly 40 different countries to this one place to exchange ideas, ask thoughtful questions, and plan on how they would best put into action their plans to make their world a better place.

-Editor

Matthew Mowatt, 27, Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan

Being in Kazakhstan for almost two years now has caused me to look at myself more than I would like to.  I have seen many parts of me dissolve within Kazakh culture while others, unknown completely to me, surface out of nowhere.  I had a long conversation with someone on a train to southern Kazakhstan about identity.  I have come to the conclusion that where you are and who you are with definitely shapes a lot of who you are.

If you wish to seek yourself out and know more about your own life, I advise you to be humble when the answers come, because not all of them will be uplifting and wonderful.  Be patient with yourself and with others.  Listen attentively and make an effort to remember the seemingly meaningless bits about a person's life.  Try to separate your prejudices from yourself if you find it hard listening to a person.  Give everybody at least two chances because the first chance is always for you.  Notice your failure without complaining to anybody or yourself, simply correct them.  Laziness eats away at life silently and comfortably; don't let it.  Know that everybody suffers and do not contribute more to their suffering.

Before becoming a Peace Corps volunteer, Mowatt was a record store employee. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a philosophy degree.

James C., 23, coach and law student

When I was a freshman at the University of New Hampshire, the business school brought in a series of successful entrepreneurs to speak to (and hopefully inspire) the new students. One speaker, Patricia Gallup, CEO of PC Connection (personal computer/accessories direct marketer mega-giant), said something that stuck with me over the years. Gallup revealed that PC Connection was not her first business, and that she had in fact driven several other start-ups into the ground. She said that she learned a lot from these failures, knowledge that she would use to found and run PC Connection, but that still doesn’t change the fact that for several years failure is all that she experienced.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I could give a shit about starting a business now—and back then, too.  That sort of thing just isn’t my bag. What never left me, though, was the air of confidence that followed Gallup around. She wasn’t some charming snake-oil salesman, nor was she particularly charismatic in any way. But she was bold; this much became apparent only a few sentences into her introduction. She conceptualized failure in a way that I had never seen before, as a necessary step to inevitable success. There were no excuses made for the failures, no blame on circumstances or other individuals: they were what they were, and she was comfortable with that.

About a year ago, my father and I were having a discussion about my future plans. He is very open about what he perceives to be his own shortcomings, and insists that I learn from his mistakes. In his opinion, the chief mistake of his life has been his timidity: he was never bold enough to take major risks, to put himself out there, before the judging eyes of others, on less than stable ground. According to my father (who is, in my opinion, a genius), he learned Gallup’s lesson too late in life: very successful people are very bold people, and the timid rarely get what they want.

Gallup’s confidence seemed to stem from a deep-seated belief that she would get what she wanted, no matter what. Was this overconfidence? Yeah, probably. But in the end, who cares? Look at where that’s gotten her. Now, imagine where timidity would have gotten her given her repeated disappointments. Right.

But getting over timidity is a bitch. In my opinion, confidence like Gallup’s only comes when you’ve failed so much that the common sting associated with failure just isn’t there anymore, or that it’s at least sufficiently dulled. When you can handle failure, you won’t focus on it, and you’ll look past it to (what you are sure will be) your eventual success. And yes, this sort of self-assuredness will draw out the cynics, the wet blankets, those who live to remind others that disaster and ruin are but a few short steps away. These people—all of whom are timid themselves—are bullies, cowards who stifle those who threaten to leave their frightened ranks.

Fuck them. What have cowards ever done?

James C. is a wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach in Chicago. He will be beginning law school this fall.