Prologue: The Power of Can't Not Do

“I can't not do this.” “It's not that I can do this, it's that I can't not. I don't have time to not make an impact.” “I could not imagine not.” I don't remember the first person I heard use one of these grammatically incorrect phrases. You've heard of can-do people, but the regular heroes you will meet in this book go way beyond “can do.” They can't not do. They make a decision—at some point in their lives—that there is something, some burning issue, that they can't not do something about. There is a reason, a power, in why they say “can't not do.” These people have found a cause that grabbed them and wouldn't let go. It made them dig deeper and find the conviction and dedication to jump into the issue for the long haul.

Introduction: Why Our Social Drives Matter More Now—The Multipliers

Far more than ever before, in the past 10 to 20 years, just a few people can do so much. Advances in technology, connectedness, and globalization are converging to become force multipliers that can either increase the magnitude of our social problems or accelerate the solutions to them. The concept of force multipliers refers to a combination of attributes that make a given force more effective than that same force would be without those attributes. These forces for social progress (or decline) are at an historic tipping point. With a growing sense of urgency, we ultimately need more committed people to become the difference makers driving and utilizing these social multipliers for positive change, tipping the balance toward a better world.

Chapter 1 David Risher, the Lost Key and Eradicating Illiteracy: Are You a Determined Optimist?

If you're going to dive into this change-the-world business, you better believe that solving the problem at hand is possible. Can we eradicate illiteracy in the developing world (and at home)? Can we end homelessness? World hunger? Determined optimists are people who believe a solution to a given social challenge is possible—they are hard-core problem solvers who do not believe “no” is a viable answer. Determined optimists see “their” social challenge as a puzzle to be solved, not a hopelessly entrenched problem. Optimism is a necessity for can't-not-do work because of its exceptional power to spur action and inspire others, but most important, to provide the fuel to burn when the challenges seem greatest and determination is needed most.

Chapter 2 Lisa Chin Is Not Doing This to Be Happy: Who Are You at Your Core?

Core beliefs are fundamental to who you are, to what you truly see and aspire to in yourself and in your world. They form the internal compass that guides you. The idea of your work, your cause, being connected to your core is about optimizing what you are good at and what plays to your talents and passions most intensely. When your one cause is connected to and resonates with your core beliefs, you will give more to it more freely, you will more easily dedicate effort and time, and, ultimately, you and others will earn greater reward. Time matters. Lives can be saved and enriched. The sooner the right cause finds you, the sooner you can make a long-term commitment and the more good you can achieve. A simple four-question evaluation—based on years of experience observing successful and unsuccessful change makers—can assist you in exploring and affirming what is at your core.

Chapter 3 Eleuthera Lisch, Stepping Out from behind the Fourth Wall: Are You Willing to Go to Hard Places?

When you have dug into what you believe you can't not do, the hard places are sure to follow—where you find the real challenges, meet the real people, and confront the unpredictability of the our world. It is where your commitment to can't not do is tested. Can you be effective when the going gets tough? Can you persevere despite the odds and the foes? Each successful change agent I talked with knew with certainty that digging deeply into this work will sometimes be very hard, but they also knew that the hard places are the place where real change happens. And what do you do with those moments where you encounter the proverbial storm and feel like you have lost everything? As would-be change agents, we need to reconstruct our relationship to failure and rethink the role it plays in helping to make us better, stronger, more effective people. Without the willingness to fail, which is what will at times inevitably happen when we dig into the hard places of social change, substantial change will not occur.

Chapter 4 Jeff Tollefson, Losing It All and Becoming Richer: Are You Ready to Be Humble and Humbled?

This is all about deeds, not words. Words don't mean jack when it comes to the kind of authentic, powerful humility that makes change happen. Humility is a critical ingredient in achieving greater impact in this change-the-world work. Authentically humble people have a sort of egoless quality, an openness to others, and a willingness to ask for help and say “I don't know.” I'll call it humility on steroids and when you're around it, it stands out…or not. You also have to be willing to be humbled, to put your ego at risk and be vulnerable. You have to know and embrace that you are going to be put in uncomfortable positions (hard places) where you will not be in control or where you might appear foolish. This is not easy stuff. It's easier to try to help your community in ways that feel good and light-hearted. But, by playing it safe you won't find what you are truly capable of and won't be able to move the needle of change on really tough issues. Being humbled is transformative. Great change agents will go “find” the humility in this work, meaning it may not find you if you resist circumstances in which you might be humbled. This work is neither for the fainthearted nor for the big egos that can't accept more than one dose of humility. If you don't get humbled more than once, you're still on the sidelines.

Chapter 5 Lori, I Got Married a Little too Early to the Right Woman: Can You Actively Listen?

Being a great listener is one of the most powerful assets a person can possess. Do you study, absorb, process, and try to understand the whole situation and all its complexity and nuances? You can't make the gray world of social progress black and white. You just can't. When you actively listen, you can hear, feel, and see all the gray. You have to; you can't not. If you are a truly deep listener, you will have more power to do good than through almost any other attribute you could possess. Every time you listen deeply and authentically, you do a little more to create another leader for the cause. You help other people see their personal power; you don't just create more leaders but more effective leaders around you. You engender a level of trust and relationship in people around you who will serve you through the hard times, values that are surely needed in the journey to create positive change. And you become more powerful, in every good sense of the word, because your words count for more and you've empowered more and more people.

Chapter 6 Suzi Levine, Learning When Not to Raise Her Hand: Do You Believe 1 + 1 = 3?

Successful social change agents have to be connectors of the parts and people of this work as much and as often as they can. If you want to effect change, you can't just own or solve stuff by yourself. This work requires that you are motivated, even hungry, to connect to the right people and to connect the right people with each other, even when they don't look, act, or behave like you. A lot of what we've talked about so far are the qualities and mindset an individual needs to possess or assume to do this work. But an equally powerful tool is connecting networks of individuals and other passionate people. Networks are everywhere in our lives, but we've just scratched the surface of the power of networks to tackle our toughest social challenges. When you connect your internal potential and passion to networks, you can go so much further, faster—together. It's a virtuous cycle. Those relationships with others will, in turn, impact what's inside each of us and strengthen our internal foundation.

Chapter 7 Heidi Breeze-Harris, a Sick Pregnant Lady with an Idea: What Is Your Can't Not Do?

You will either find this can't-not-do feeling or you won't, and it might not be now or yet, but I sure hope it will be someday for each of you. Because it changes your life in creative, deep, rewarding ways you could never imagine. It is what gets you out of bed, off the sidelines, and into the action. It is the catalyst to achieve your potential to change our world. The change agents I've worked with have told me that to not do what they are doing would be criminal, cowardly, and that “they'd be a charade.” There is a sense of being compelled to do the good work they are endeavoring to do. Even when that work calls them to face, absorb, and overcome challenges at home and around the world that they've never dealt with before. It becomes part of who they are, their identity, and someday a part of their legacy. Not in a burdensome way, but rather, it gives people a more expansive, forwarded-thinking self-image. It's impossible to overstate how much greater impact each of us, all of us, would have if we found our can't not do in life and focused our time and resources there.

Chapter 8 Why Our Social Drives Matter More Now: The Equation

It's not a lack of solutions or funding that is primarily holding our schools or communities back. The simple facts are these: (1) we have solutions to many social challenges, far more than most people think, and (2) we have a significant amount of financial resources to invest in ameliorating those challenges. Combine those two facts with the more recent dynamics we discussed in Chapter 1 about social multipliers, and we now have just about everything we need to make significant social progress in the next generation: Known Solutions + Financial Resources + Social Multipliers = Significant Social Progress!

Those three factors in that equation are forces, just waiting to be focused…and if not focused, they dissipate and are wasted, which happens far too often. Why doesn't that equation add up often enough in our communities and ecosystems? The answer is almost inescapable and it's what this whole book has been about. This book is full of stories of can't-not-do people who ultimately converged and focused those three elements in a way that created significant, break-the-norm positive social progress.

Conclusion: Surrendering to the Intention

This work to help change the world isn't a one-way street; when you really dig in, it's two-way, purpose-infusing, and ultimately positive. Being a determined optimist, connecting to your core self, going to hard places, being humble and humbled, being an active listener and a connector will most surely impact the can't not do you are or will become so passionate about. The impact of a new wave of socially minded change agents, like you, in our future society has the potential to make a profound difference in our communities and around the world. In the next 50 years, the same kind of progress we've seen made in the past 50—on social issues like teen pregnancy and violent crime—is now possible for education, the environment, better standards of living, and more.