Last week, PBS featured a story on the dwindling Social Security Trust Fund. An expert said, “We’ve known about this for forty years and done nothing.”
As far as ability to respond on this crucial issue – “RESPONSE-ability ” – one would have to say leaders at all levels in the United States would get a failing grade
How would you grade your own ability to respond to challenges, problems, and even better, to make your dreams happen? The Shift Effect proposes that small steps can have a big, bottom-line impact and support your goals. (By the way, small steps are still possible to save the Trust Fund. 40 years earlier they would have been even smaller.)
Take a moment for an example of someone who demonstrated the ultimate in RESPONSE-ability.
Nkosi Jeju grew up in a village in South Africa, being raised by his grandmother. She died when Nkosi was 7. He lived alone for an entire year with no running water or electricity and going to school. His teachers recognized his intelligence and put him at a Boarding School. He didn’t meet his mother until he was 11 and has never met his father.
Nkosi heard about a program called Camp Sizanani, funded by a non-profit in the US called Global Camps Africa (GCA). The core of GCA’s work is an 8-day camp where kids have fun and at the same time learn key skills like goal setting, teamwork, respect for women, and how to prevent HIV.
For years at the end of camp, one of GCA’s Board members has offered his contact information to the 140 kids who attend, 2 or 3 times each year. Any help they need, David Miller just says, “contact me.”
One camper in all those years has taken him up on it: Nkosi. Nkosi took one small step that dramatically changed his life. He contacted David. David asked Nkosi what his dream was. Nkosi, with no money nor prospects, said, “I want to go to college in the United States.”
David offered to help him with his applications and told him he’d have to do a lot of the work, too. What did Nkosi do? He found himself a scholarship funded by Coca Cola in South Africa. The result: Nkosi enrolled at Wooster College in Ohio.
That was just the beginning. In his first year, Nkosi walked on to the college track team. He broke the school record in the long jump by two feet and was named male athlete of the year. He was so good that he has now accepted a transfer offer to the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Have you ever heard a better story of “response-ability?” Tell us your story – set the scene. Who has done a great job of responding to challenge?
What’s a dream you have? Write a book? Get a position of top responsibility or a job you love? Save the planet? Get healthy?
What’s one small shift you could make that would start you on your path?
