Pick A Corner Of The World And Clean It Up
Pick A Corner Of The World And Clean It Up
I recently spoke at One Young World summit in manchester. 2000 people from 200 countries came together to network and share ideas on how they solve some of the biggest problems in the world. It was simply amazing, you can watch a video about it later. When I stepped off the side stage, a member of the audience came to me and asked me a question I'd heard many times over my career. They asked,
'I have so many passions and interests, how do I know what to do'.
My answer to this question is always the same and sometimes can be annoying to people but allow me to explain.
I replied,
Just choose a corner of the world and clean it up.
I find so many people spend so much time thinking and theorising about social change, and impact and not enough time actually getting on with it. The truth is, we all have a range of passions and desires, sometimes, they are even competing. There is no one choice that will satisfy all of your passions and interests. No job or area that will fully satiate all these passions. You just need to make a choice. Make a small choice and commit. I think commitment is far more important than the choice of the area because if you get good and effective enough at something, it will naturally birth other opportunities and what you are doing will naturally grow.
Focus on the commitment.
Commitment and consistency are words alien to this generation. The barrier to starting new things is so low that, we readily start and begin new projects or hop jobs every other month. This means we build a reputation with ourselves for half-baked, poorly executed ideas. I believe it's important to note that every half project you start deepens and cements the reputation you have with yourself and with others. It makes it harder to trust yourself when you say things in the future. Following through and being committed is so key to being effective.
When you look out into the world, the sheer scale of the brokenness can be overwhelming and disorientating. In the face of this, my advice is to localise the problem. You don't need to commit to fixing it all but you can pick a small part and deeply commit to that. Don't spend time talking about global and large forces. Instead, think about the locals and what you can do.
Make a deep commitment to a small corner of the world and commit to it.
Stay with it, long enough to see all the wonderful fruits that will come from it.
This is how you make a deep impact.
Have an amazing week,
M.T. Omoniyi