Vision: To level the playing field globally for marginalized communities, starting with the disabled. Action: A virtual employment ecosystem with people working from the comfort, safety and convenience of their homes in more than 20 locations across eight countries. The disabled make up 80 percent of staff. www.Genashtim.org
Vision: A world of abundance, where the basic needs are met for every child, woman and man. Action: Awards prizes to solve humanity’s grand challenges: energy, water, learning and health. The creation of Singularity University, which attracts, educates and incubates exponential entrepreneurs who build companies to positively impact the lives of one billion people. Author of Abundance. www.Xprize.com
Vision: To encourage entrepreneurship and innovation that contributes to improved lives through design and technology. Action: Created an online game for kids that taught them about recycling. It won recognition from the United Nations, which called it one of the top eight digital developments of the last 10 years. www.MilknCookies.tv
Vision: A society that prevents gun violence. Action: A string of public shootings over the last few years has spurred Giffords to find solutions that prevent more violence, including background checks. Herself a victim, she fights entrenched interests such as the gun lobby and finds supportive lawmakers willing to take a stand for responsible policies. www.AmericansForResponsibleSolutions.com
Vision: Sustainability will lead to a whole new funnel of innovation. Action: A key belief is that Unilever will do better business in a healthy society, rather than in an unhealthy one. Healthy business needs healthy society. They have innovated on quality, performance and packaging and brought sustainability deep into their organization. www.Unilever.com
Vision: Youth, service and community coalitions have the power to change the world. Action: When young people have the chance to serve their communities, everyone benefits. YSA has created large-scale mobilization campaigns for young people, made US$1 million available for grants and has an annual award ceremony. www.YSA.org
Vision: To have drug addicts seen as productive members of society when placed within productive environments. Action: The creation of a global village of recovering addicts who are called “guests” and taught commercial skills. Ninety-six percent of residents at San Patrignano in Italy have found full-time employment upon leaving. www.sanpatrignano.org
In a world undergoing constant changes life is a constant learning journey. What we know and understand today may not hold true tomorrow; policies may shift, structures could have collapsed, theories may be disproven, competitors might be on the rise. No matter how many accomplishments are entailed in our bio, therefore, we still have more to experience and absorb. Consider how interactions encourage the adaptability of thoughts, inspiration for goals or a change of heart. Often times it is this shared communication that allow us to understand, alter or challenge a perspective.
Our relationship to the social and material world facilitates a certain awareness – one that might adjust. In 2012, when I was working in Argentina, I had the opportunity to hear two entrepreneurs express their experiences. Especially as an young entrepreneur myself, I admire understanding others path to success.
The first speaker was Mike Cassidy, current Vice President of Google and start-up founder of Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit and Stylus Innovation. It was a rather intriguing theme set for his presentation: speed. Why speed?
He explored how start-ups endure a common process – from idea to financial and labor support then onto the creation of a product. Most ventures generally find that 23-27 months would be an appropriate allocation of time. This is about two years of extreme hard work and much patience all driven by the passion. Yet, Mike Cassidy explained that his personal time for each of the four successful start-ups, he spent 1/6 of the time on the above process. Four months. When exploring ideas, you cannot allow yourself enough time to talk yourself out of an idea.
When raising funds, you want to do it when the conditions are in your favor. To expedite the managerial and creative process, have all the decision makers of your team in one room; there’s no point in calling a meeting when a valuable voice in not present. Competition additionally needs to be considered. So, synchronize the timing of competing offers. Always be aware of who you are up against and be one step ahead.
If your process is faster than your competition, you will automatically be one step ahead! Lastly, make if/then contracts. He put this into context by suggesting that if his company was going to provide search engines that can perform x feature, then will you buy our product for feature, then will you buy our product for y amount? Of course this is a non-binding agreement, but he has found that it instantly hooks people. Next phase, an incredibly short process of 2 weeks he offers, is building a team (including both the people and physical location). The hiring process requires you to get experienced developers whom you may or may not know. A day in the life of a Cassidy interview is simply just a day.
If he finds the applicant as a suitable potential employee, Cassidy would call shortly after getting a background/Facebook check and call the applicant’s references. If all goes well, the offer is on the table, and not even a 24 hours later he expects a decision. In some cases, Cassidy might even ask the interviewee to join him for dinner in order to get to know the real person behind the CV paper. It’s the excitement of one day, quicker than flying to Australia from Chicago. There is not much time to daze off or push off tasks. Priorities are set quite high, and there’s an expectation of rapid growth and action. If you don’t yet see why speed is so important, he elaborated that the probability of a deal closing declines by 10% each day it doesn’t close.
Speed? Yes, speed means you can’t spend as much money, you can’t hire as many, etc. He ended with saying that if you see it, you’ll believe it. Josh Silverman, former CEO of Skype and current President (of U.S. Consumer Business) of American Express, took the stage after Mike Cassidy. He began by revealing that he had aspired to create positive change. Personally, living abroad and having access to a service like Skype have had a major social impact on my life; the interconnectivity and cross-communication that is now possible is incredibly transformational. He gave some insight into how he operates, and perhaps how he got to where he is today. Take advantage of crisis, “never waste a great crisis.”
During the time of heightened tensions and extreme pressure, the truth comes out. People are directed to reflect and realize what should have been done, and come together to brainstorm what can be done now too. So a technique he often practices, during the high times. This allows for a keen awareness to circumstances and functionality. A series of what if questions are ways to advance and get ahead of the game. It’s about how to play the game, and the players of the game.
So he began to highlight the difference between being a founder and a CEO. Being a founder means that you have a special understanding of the brand and product; you are unusually in power and are able to take bigger risks because of that. When you are a CEO, on the other hand, you are an employee, and you report to a board. To reiterate, that reduces some of your freedoms or authority. Additionally as a CEO, there is a bar of excellence that you are expected to achieve.
A common denominator for both CEO’s and founder is the inherent aspect of leadership. When you’re a leader, Silverman explained, people look to you. They look at everything you do: body language, actions, behavior, mood, attitude and confidence. He said that being the youngest “in charge” of people his brothers age, for example, the pressure was high and he began to recognize the significant influence the frontrunner has the rest of the organization.
He could feel the difference within the group on days that he was in a good mood versus the days when he was a little frustrated. There is a certain degree of responsibility integral to being a leader. In business, others adhere to a leader’s opinion or decisions, and tend to follow the values and environment created.
He argues, therefore that this is the reason people are born to be leader. As people with influence, it is up to us to determine how we use that power. We must remain cautious, on point and aware. To create change and to generate impact, well that lies within us. So on our journey throughout life, as we begin to make shifts in the world, the world mutually guides changes in us too.
Be open to listen and learn from others but be aware others are listening and learning from you too.
There once stood a tree. It had stood for longer than the oldest person had lived in that area, and almost longer than America had been a country. It reached higher than our necks allow us to see – a skyscraper of the Amazon, some may say. It’s home to our friends with wings, plants and crawling critters, playing children and the air we breathe. Yet for outsiders it’s simply a tree. It may just be one tree, but for 25 communities living along a river in the Ecuadorian Amazon, there are only three other living trees like this in existence.
In spite of this, in the eyes of some outsiders, this tree is replaceable by the plentiful other trees around it. Foreigners might ask – within a territory covered in greens of all shades and barks of all textures – “what’s the value of just one more tree?” Well, through a local viewpoint, no other oxygen-omitting being would begin to suffice.
An endangered species, they protested. Spiritual symbolism, they claimed. Historical significance, they explained. In a place in which nature and culture are commonly intertwined it felt as if the possible destruction of nature was equally a possible destruction of their society. The intruders, as a few Amazonian’s framed it, began to propose a scheme of deforestation. They cleverly assembled a proposition stuffed with linear logic of growth and capitalistic gain – gain for themselves of course, not the locals. $20 for a 200-year-old tree that could still grow for a further one hundred years.
Perhaps they fell asleep during that part of their environmental science class that explained that, for a tree of that size, at least 200 years more years should pass. They do say time is money, but the locals struggled to accept that $20 equates to 200 years of time. I think they were even further puzzled when the constructors attempted to rationalise the offer by saying it would only take four hours of their time. Four hours pass and the construction site would be a hidden site.
Or on the other hand, four hours pass and the construction site would be a graveyard site to the natural, spiritual, social and cultural elements that stemmed from that tree. Fortunately, a few activists were not willing to put up a tombstone. It takes one thought, one person, one group, one action to change the course of what some believe may be fate. In this case it was one proposal. An outside group stepped into the negotiations and raised the offer by $80.
Rather than $20 to cut the tree down, how about $100 to leave the tree untouched? The team of constructors were not swayed by the three-digit offer. At this point, while some lost hope, others transformed their lost hope into confidence – for saving the tree. Workers from a local social enterprise joined the movement and they made a commitment to each other to protect this historical, spiritual, playful being of a tree.
As I mentioned before, to change the course of the future begins with us.
As I mentioned before, to change the course of the future begins with us. From an idea to initiative to execution of our vision, we are able to achieve our mission. Even when the first attempt fails that does not mean that the second or third shot should also disappoint. The local’s story follows this pathway. Although the foreigners thought they were rather clever, the locals accessed some indigenous genius. They expressed that the tree the outsiders were hoping to kill resided within indigenous territory. These foreigners did not just stumble upon land with the right to claim or destroy any element of it.
There was no equivalent phenomenon to Columbus discovering America “by accident.” For this reason, the foreigners consequently had to play by indigenous rules. It only took some creative, innovative thinking to completely switch the situation around. Now, those wearing the power shoes were the locals, with land, rather than the foreigners with money. If you want any more nights with your families, the locals warned, you’d better hustle out of our terrain.
Of course this was an intimidation tactic rather than one they would straightforwardly follow. Nonetheless, they provide the proof that with dedication to a particular belief, no obstacle stands in the way as a barrier. Although less politically significant or economically established, their drive to lead and achieve was more powerful than imagined. After clearly outlining the importance of the tree and exposing the ignorance of the outsiders, a deal was closed.
With a voice willing to speak up for what they believed in, they not only saved the tree, but also initiated a continual benefit from the tree; each month $100 is dispersed throughout the community which helps to support the families of the village. In what seemed an unfortunate event, fortune was actually found.
Much of our life and what we aspire to achieve is dependent on how we choose to go about living; whether we accept circumstances or take circumstances into our own context.
Much of our life, and what we aspire to achieve, is dependent on how we choose to go about living; whether we accept circumstances or take circumstances into our own context. As these Amazonian’s taught me, there is power in “one.” In the same way a match has the ability to light a candlelight, a bonfire, a devastating house fire or forest fire, our beliefs and goals can also leave an impact of any size. After all, an obstacle is only an obstacle if we perceive it to be.
So, when presented with what seems bad, reconsider how this “unfortunate” event may actually result in fortune.
Since the HeForShe launch in New York last September I think it would be fair to say that my colleagues and I have been stunned by the response. The HeForShe conference was watched over 11 million times, sparking 1.2 billion social media conversations, culminating in the HeForShe hashtag becoming so popular that Twitter painted it on the walls of its headquarters and men from almost every country in the world made the commitment.
Everyone from Desmond Tutu to Prince Harry to Hilary Clinton to Yoko Ono have issued their support or contacted us since September 20th. Everything from marathons being run, merchandise being created, 15 year old boys writing to national newspapers deploring female discrimination, young girls collecting hundreds of signatures – it’s all happened in the last 4 months. I couldn’t have DREAMED it (!) but it’s happened.
Thank you so much for watching and thank you so much for your support. What is Impact 10x10x10? It’s about engaging governments, businesses and universities and having them make concrete commitments to gender equality but I want to hear from the human beings that are behind these organizations.
I spoke about my story in September – what are your stories? Girls who have been your mentors? Parents did you make sure you treated your children equally, and if so, how have you done it? Husbands have you been supporting your female partner privately so that she can fulfill her dreams too? Young men have you spoken up in a conversation when a woman was casually degraded or dismissed? How did this affect you? How did this affect the woman you stepped up for? How did you take action when you became aware a woman was a victim of violence?
Businessmen have you mentored, supported, or engaged women in leadership positions? Writers have you challenged the language and imagery used to portray women? CEO’s have you implemented the women’s empowerment principles in your own company? What change have you seen? Are you someone that has been persuading men to become HeForShes and collecting their signatures for our website? How many have you got? We want to know. One of the biggest pieces of feedback I’ve had since my speech is that people want to help but they aren’t sure how best to do it. Men say they have signed the petition – What now?
The truth is the ‘what now’ is down to you. What your HeForShe commitment will be is personal. And there is no ‘best’ way – everything is valid. Decide what your commitment is, make it public, and then please report back to us on your progress so that we can share your story. We want to support, guide and reinforce your efforts. Impact 10x10x10 is about concrete commitments to change, the visibility of these commitments and the measurability of them too. How has the campaign impacted me so far?
I’ve had my breath taken away when a fan told me that since watching my speech she has stopped allowing herself to be beaten by her father. I’ve been stunned by the amount of men in my life that have contacted me since my speech to tell me to keep going and that they want to make sure their daughters are still alive to see a world where women have parity, economically and politically. While I would love to claim that the success of the HeForShe campaign is a direct result of my own incredible speechwriting skills. I know that it’s not. It’s because the ground is fertile. It’s my belief that there is a greater understanding than ever that women need to be equal participants in our homes, our societies, in our governments, and in our work places.
And they know that the world is being held back in every way because they are not. Women share this planet 50/50 and they are massively neglected and underrepresented, their potential astonishingly untapped. We are very excited to be launching Impact 10x10x10 to bring HeForShe into its next phase. If you’re a HeForShe – and I am assuming you are because otherwise you’d be at somebody else’s press conference right now – I’m here to ask you what is the impact you can have? How, what, where, when and with who? We want to help and we want to know.
If you agree with Emma, please sign our 5050×2020 gender balance pledge here
