UNLEASH the Hustle
Firstly, to those of us that were chosen by the dragons and organizers to represent the sustainable solutions of the future, congratulations! You have the attention of people who have the means and inclination to effect change, and much responsibility rests on your shoulders. That being said, this message is not for those people. This message is for the 95% that were not chosen. This message is for the 95% that watched the awards show and asked: “Why not us? How are these ideas better than ours? Why is this so hard?” To the 95%, I’d like to say two things:
1. Welcome to the SDGs. Welcome to caring about huge, insidious problems that may take more than 3 minutes to understand. Welcome to problems that have plagued humanity for millennia, problems such as gender inequality, poverty, and world hunger. Welcome to problems that may require intensive domain knowledge for people to understand the brilliance behind lyour solutions. Welcome to misunderstanding and being misunderstood.
2. Work. That. Hustle. Turn 2 paper clips into a pack of cards, turn that pack of cards into a radio, turn that radio into a carton of cigarettes, turn that carton of cigarettes into something else and so on and so forth until you have wind turbines in Africa. Work. That. Hustle. When your peers don’t select your idea…work that hustle. When the experts don’t like your business case…work that hustle. When the dragons select an amazing pitch with less substance…you definitely NEED to work that hustle. Don’t whine; work.
Because in the end, we don’t need the experts or the dragons, we need to lean on the community of the unchosen, the disenfranchised unleashed who weren’t granted an audience with those with the means and inclination to effect change. We are the down-selected, left-for-dead, unheard unleashed; we are the passionate hustlers that will start with paper clips and end with wind turbines and biodigesters and education apps and volt banks and slum incubators and water footprint labels and last mile funds. We don’t need to be chosen; we need to choose to take one step forward, one day at a time. We are the unleashed, and all we need is a couple of paper clips, a pot of coffee, and each other’s support to keep us going, keep us working, keep us hustling.
Because in the end, we don’t need the experts or the dragons; we are the experts. We are the dragons. We are the unleashed that will the change the world.