“Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.” – Minor Myers Jr.
Waking up this morning was downright brutal. I was so tired after only getting a few hours after flying home late the night after having gone to speak at the conference in Orlando and I’ll admit that waking up this morning the last thing I wanted to do was to head back to the airport to jump on yet another flight, but I had made a commitment to be in San Francisco today to co-host an event with two incredibly successful businesswomen (and friends), Sarah Ketterer and Nancy Albertini, who both share my passion for helping others to become self-reliant.
The purpose of the event was to introduce businesswomen in the Bay Area to the amazing work of Stand Together a non-profit organization that helps other non-profit organizations to grow and scale their own efforts with donations, mentoring, and teaching the principles of each foundation Market Based Management principles. How could I not drag myself back to the airport to support a cause as meaningful as that?! Even if it meant I’d be showing up with huge bags under my eyes so big they needed their own luggage tags! Oh well…a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.. And why do I gotta do it? I’ll tell you:
There is so much that needs to be done to make our world a better place, yet far too often we sit back and think to ourselves “Someone else will do it.” We rationalize our lack of action by telling ourselves that someone else would be better, or more capable than we are, at handling it. Then we go on with our lives. But we can’t relegate making a difference to someone else, because that isn’t really the point of this life – It’s not about whether someone is more capable, or has more free-time, or more money than us to handle it, and truth is we will always find someone else who can fit that description – what it’s about is that this life is our time to prove to ourselves (and to God) who we are as individuals, and that’s just not something we can relegate to anyone else to do for us. We have to be the ones to do good.
“What are we doing with this life we’ve been given?” and “How are we using our unique gifts and talents to help others?” Two questions we should all be asking ourselves daily. We may all be at different stages of life – some of us have time to give but no money, some have money to give but no time – it doesn’t matter how you give, what matters is that you give. So go and do good…even if it means you have to drag yourself out of bed dead tired to do it 🙂
~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the newly released book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )
