Lublin: People Want to Help
On my drive home from class last night I listened to Nancy Lublin talk with Reid Hoffman on the Masters of Scale podcast (episode 7). While Reid’s questions focused on “grit” and how Nancy displayed that quality in her work, what really struck me was Nancy’s belief in people’s willingness to help. More specifically, it was stated that we tend to underestimate people’s willingness to help (for free!) when it’s for a good cause.
This was a big encouragement to me as I thought about my project because I want to build workshops that will require alumni and local business professionals to give up a weekend to develop a mentor relationship with junior and senior college students. I had doubts about people’s willingness to help with the workshop, but this podcast showed that if anything, we ask too little of volunteers, not too much. People will do surprisingly sacrificial things when they know their efforts are really valued and causing positive change.
