Almost every billboard I see advertising colleges tells that their graduates becomes “leaders.” These billboards advertise the fact that the knowledge, skills, and connections that a person will get from their college will propel them to leadership. And “leaders” are the ones that change the world.
But what does change mean? We think of change as someone who has an outsized impact on the world. As if a humble technician, or the individual artist cannot change the world.
Anyone who chooses to do something to change one person’s life is therefore a leader. They have changed the world.
This is an important point. It is also something that took me far too long to realize.
You do not change the world. You change just one person. You make their life easier, better, happier, more uplifted.
This is available to all of us.
Most of the time, this used to mean operating at the level of products and services. But what if the change you want to make on one person is more subtle?
Liberal arts colleges were build around the idea of changing a person from the inside out. Sadly, this tradition is dying away as more and more people take on a more transactional relationship with their education. And even those who are in liberal arts colleges are doing it as preparation for something else entirely.
Thus an entire world of creators who are sharing their life. These people are filling the gap of this deeper and subtler change that people are deeply seeking.
Some people focus on just the philosophy. Others focus on knowledge. Others focus just on application. And others still on identity shift.
I believe all these parts are interrelated. The vast majority of teachers who are sharing their knowledge online are focused on just 1-2 of these levels.
But for those of us who can focus on all of them, the opportunities are infinite.
That is the space I choose to function in.