Making Work Bigger Than Ourselves
Our biggest motivation shouldn’t be how much we create, but the difference we can make. That’s how to make an impact.
Most of us want to make a positive difference in the layers that surround us: our family and friends; our work; the local community where we live and even on a national and global even.
For me, I can’t say it has been a strategic approach, but I seem to built up a list of actions that felt right at the time. For example, I organised community walk and talks to connect new movers to the area to residents; I jumped in last minute to support the creation of local music event in under 3 months from scratch; and crafting two campaigns that made it onto the news on TV regarding blood pressure monitors for business peers and support the disability campaigner Chandos Green.
Where is all this leading to?
Something has been brewing in my mind. I’ve seen a few people sell their businesses and make a lot of money, which got me thinking. If I finished in business, would there be a payday big enough to do something massive?
Nothing is guaranteed.
My idea further developed after watching a documentary on Netflix about Blue Zones by Dan Buettner.
Then at Atomicon 2024 after a talk by Simon Squibb, I wrote a note on my phone to articulate it when he asked us all the question, What’s Your Dream?
What’s my dream?
To create a new generation of Community Centres to bring back societal cohesion across multiple generations, with making the area a Blue Zone in longevity of living.
I realised that I don’t have to leave work with enough money to buy a building, maybe I just need enough to rent one. It may be that I don’t even need the money to rent one if what I do brings people on board and be ready to say yes when it comes to funding and support.
I was putting too much pressure on myself thinking I need to make a million pounds before I could fulfil that dream. It might just need £1 for the stamp to send the right application form to the right backer.
In work, I take time from work to support local events from my business network, to participate in School Coding Days, to sit on a college committee, to raise awareness of being a Disability Confident Employer, and to support SEND careers fairs. I support our business sector by doing things like travelling the country doing a blog of video interviews around innovation. I think they call it Social Value these days.
Like it or not, this builds a personal brand, by doing it for others. It also means that come the day that you might need to make an outrageous ask for funding, you might just get it because people can see your social values.
We can always dream.
We have to work on ideas bigger than ourselves, that way we are dreaming of a better future.
PS. I do have an ulterior motive in all this. I want to live a longer happy life, with purpose, with the right people and with wine. Just see the following link.
