45.
Do Your Part
Big question for you: “What are you doing to help build a new and better world?” Don’t blame the
politicians. Don’t blame those around you. Don’t blame your parents or your background. Doing so is
playing the victim and this world has far too many people playing the victim when they could be sharing
their brilliance and making a profound difference. Mother Teresa said it so much better than I ever could: “If
each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.”
Blaming others is excusing yourself. Telling yourself that you – as an army of one – cannot have an
impact is giving away your power. After a hurricane a while ago, a couple of college kids got their hands on
empty school buses and drove them into the ravaged area when everybody else said the city was
impenetrable. A little man in a loincloth named Mahatma Gandhi freed an entire nation. A woman named
Rosa Parks sparked a civil rights movement because she refused to sit at the back of a bus. Ordinary
people really can do extraordinary things. I love what Anita Roddick, founder The Body Shop, once said: “If
you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”
Live by what I call the Jennifer Aniston Rule. In an issue of Vanity Fair, Aniston said that she gives
herself one day to play victim after experiencing a challenging event. After that day of feeling powerless
and sorry for herself, she wakes up and takes ownership for the way her life looks. She takes personal
responsibility for her part in the problem – even if that only amounted to 1%. That’s personal leadership in
action. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from. “The ability to triumph begins with you.
Always,” offered entertainment superstar Oprah Winfrey.
Blaming others is excusing yourself. Telling
Yourself that you – as an army of one – cannot have
An impact is giving away your power.
What don’t you like about your life or the organization you work fro or the country you live in? Make
a list. Write it down. Shout it out. And then do something to improve things. Anything. Start small or go big.
Just do something. As you exercise your power to choose, guess what? Your power grows. And as you
work within your sphere of influence to make things better, guess what? Your sphere of influence expands.
So do your part. Today. Now. The world will be better for it.