“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.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About 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 people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs’ quote hangs on the wall in my office. It’s positioned so anyone can see it walking down the hall but most importantly, my chair faces it. The white lettering on a solid black background stands out against the light green wall. The stark contrast grabs my attention when I look up. Occasionally, I find myself glancing at it in conversations when someone is positioned across my desk. I chose to work for nonprofit organizations because I want to leave the world better than I found it. I want to provide access to opportunities that help people grow. I want to leave a world behind that is more sustainable than the one we currently live in. I’m crazy enough to believe I can help create change.
Trying to change the world is a long hilly road. I’m not sure if you know when you get there. I haven’t done it yet, but I can see the ripples in my wake. Seeing change take place is my greatest source of inspiration. I was serving as a senior leader at a nonprofit and providing opportunities for women was one of the principles that we promoted with pride. At the time, I had two women expecting their first children on my team. Each of them came to me for advice on how to navigate taking time off with their babies and the need to pay their bills. We didn’t have a maternity policy. The organization’s unofficial policy was that women should take PTO or unpaid leave when they had children. It wasn’t anything I had personally had to navigate before and HR isn’t my area of expertise, but logic certainly is. This made no sense to me; it felt hypocritical. I was frustrated that this was the situation we pushed women into when we were priding ourselves on providing opportunities for women.
At the next meeting of the organization’s senior staff, I brought up the topic. I explained the matter as simply as I had come to understand it. We touted the advancement of women yet we didn’t have a maternity policy to support them. The irony of the matter is that the CEO didn’t realize it either. She agreed, it was an illogical position for the organization to be in. The CFO was also at the table and we took the time to do some initial analysis and we made a change, in concept, in that meeting. A few weeks later, we announced a new policy that supported the arrival of new children, for all employees. Sometimes being a changemaker doesn’t take a moment of brilliance, it takes using your metaphoric flashlight to bring attention to something in the dark. Being an advocate doesn’t necessarily require a podium, it simply requires using your voice.
Why is it that those who want to change the world are regarded as crazy? Isn’t it our shared responsibility to take care of others, improve systems, and drive change? Change, after all, is how we’ve come to enjoy life as we know it. Any comfort you have today, technology, convenience, best practices, all came from innovation and evolution. Growth comes from evolution. Are we not all in a constant state of evolution?
Outside of my work as a fundraiser, I believe my greatest contribution to date has been mentoring a pipeline of future changemakers. Each of them are people I have worked with over the course of my career and all of them happen to be women. Each is a leader, advocate, and full of limitless potential. Knowing them inspires me. Sure, I can teach them the ins and outs of fundraising, provide advice as they navigate complicated donor conversations, and coach them as they seek to achieve the next level on their professional journeys. What truly makes each of them standout is not what they do, but who they are. These women are able to excel because of grit, their moral compasses, and the willingness to be unpopular for the sake of doing the right thing. They grow because of the reliance they display day in and day out and that is how change happens. Consistency. It’s not a momentary flash of greatness, it’s dedication to ride the rollercoaster of life and know when the ride goes down a hill, it will inevitably come back up. In the end, my ability to move people may be my greatest contribution to change.
