I haven't worn pants in two months- and other stories from working at a startup

I haven’t worn pants in exactly two months. I suppose there are more appropriate ways to announce I am now working at a startup but a bit of embellishment about my pure joy of not having worn a pair of dress slacks for months was more likely to grab your attention.

When I was contemplating the jump to a startup a good friend urged me to take some time to think about it. “Why don’t you wait a few years, build up your savings a bit more, and then think if something like this makes sense?” He had a fair point. I worked with great people and was working a job that I liked. But I could feel the passion that I used to use as a beacon for life choices slowly fading away. If I waited until I was in my thirties, got accustomed to a nice salary and the perks that accompany it, who’s to say I’d still have the courage to make that jump? I believe we’re equally accountable to both heart and mind, and the heart was demanding I fight for it’s very survival.

Transitioning to a startup can be intimidating. We all have those days where we feel unfulfilled, but very rarely do we ask what we would be willing to give up in search of meaning? It’s one thing to declare you’ll follow your dreams, it is quite another thing to do just that when you realize that dreams, the really good ones at least, often come with great risk, cost, and sacrifice. This can be manifested in simple ways like letting go of your comfortable salary or company sponsored health insurance for example. Or it can be as vexing as a creeping feeling you’re not the passionate person you once were or the capable person your new company thinks they hired. When push comes to shove, it sure seems lot easier to never take the risk to discover if our greatest fears about who we are or who we are becoming are true or not.

My first weeks at InVenture have been exciting. And it’s not just about reporting to work most days in jeans and flip flops. There is something bigger going on. I’m surrounded by other people in their 20’s and 30’s who believe their work matters enough to have meaning. There are people all around me who are as curious as they are passionate, and that informs my work in incredible ways.

I don’t know what the future holds. But I do know that for so long I felt that emptiness in my soul that one feels when they aren’t pursuing the work they are called to do. We can ignore the longing by trying to fill the emptiness with meaningless distractions. Or, on trembling knees, we can face our greatest hopes and fears, often woven into one package.

Work here is anything but easy, but that hollow spot in my soul is being filled by a passion almost lost, compassion refueled, and curiosity pushing me to the limits of my own understanding. This is not to say I have attained the meaning I so desperately crave, but damned if I am not pursuing it... in my jeans and flip flops! 

I am a pre-existing condition

I consider myself a great many things: a runner, an entrepreneur, and a storyteller are among just a few. But unfortunately, over the last few weeks my experience trying to obtain health insurance has forced me to see myself as something else: a pre-existing condition.

I left my job at USC, excited to join a great start-up working to create financial access for millions of poor entrepreneurs in India and elsewhere. The organization is visionary, but they’re also young and thus unable to offer health insurance for their employees at the moment. In my excitement to do something I am passionate about, I never imagined the struggles I would have to obtain health insurance on my own.

The cost is exorbitant. Typically $170 a month will get you a modest plan. Two to three visits a year to the doctor for a $40 co pay. I pay any costs beyond that, out of pocket, until I reach my $3,500 yearly deductible. After I have paid $3,500 out of pocket, the insurance company pays 70% and I pay 30%. So something like a broken leg, can easily set you back $7,000, and that’s with insurance!!!

But if like me, you have asthma, things are even worse. Many are denied health coverage because of their pre-existing condition. Me, I underwent multiple humiliating interviews that made me feel like a second class citizen before a top carrier agreed to carry me, for a $50 a month surcharge.

The letter I got from one health insurance company

I am a runner, having competed in multiple half marathons and marathons. I have controlled my asthma since 1995, and never once had an asthma attack. But these facts matter not. At the end of the day, we have a healthcare system built less on cura personalis (care of the entire person) and more on bottom line. Insurance companies see me as two things: a pre-existing condition and $$$.

The Supreme Courts decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act is a landmark moment for our nation. But it is also an intimately personal victory for me, and the countless individuals like me who don’t think asthma or some other controllable condition should in any way be able to influence or limit their desire to be entrepreneurs.

I try to avoid politics on this blog, but this decision feels more than political to me, it has become deeply and agonizingly personal. The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare as some call it, has countless stories and human faces beyond the thousands of pages and heated political debate. I am one of those faces, one of countless stories affected by this decision.

America, at long last, moves slowly toward a standard of care seen in every other industrialized nation in the world. And come 2014, health insurance companies will be forced to see me as anything BUT a pre-existing condition. 

The light is always better than the darkness

There is a story circulating around TV, radio, and the internet about the incredible cruelty four middle school boys showed to an elderly bus monitor this week in Greece, New York. Moments after I brought myself to watch clips of this saddening video, an old professor emailed me a story he had received from Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He simply said: 


"I don't know why, but somehow knowing that 21 year old college graduates like Brittney are spending a year thinking and praying about experiences like this makes me feel better about where we are going as a society."


There is a story of heartless and immature cruelty that is the talk around so many tables and water coolers this week. But reading the reflection that was shared with me yesterday, I was profoundly moved and like my professor, feeling better about the direction our society is heading. I, like many others, have also been inspired to see people all around the world giving small sums of their own money to a fund to help this bus monitor go on a vacation and retire. Last I checked, the fund reached $550,000. The light, it seems, is still better than the darkness, even when it's seems we are surrounded by the night.


At the end of the day, we must not forget, the light is also so much stronger than the darkness in this world, if only we choose to let it be. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. It truly was my redemption song yesterday.

Redemption Song

A reflection from Brittney Cavaliere

A second-year JV working in Washington, D.C., at Joseph's House, which provides hospice care for people who are homeless.

A dear resident lost his battle with liver cancer earlier this year. My heart ached for him, wishing he was sitting on the front porch to say, "Good morning, Shorty," or in his room listening to Bob Marley.

Watching him die was one of the most challenging experiences, but also a very rewarding one. It was a time when I felt God's presence so clearly, when I was able to bear witness to the beauty that rises out of death.

I spent most of that morning by his bedside, writing him a little thank-you note. There'd been a major change in him from the day before. His breathing slowed, there was no longer moaning or wincing, he was free of pain. As he slept, I watched, wrapped up in the mystery that surrounded me.

In the afternoon, our nurse came to find me. "He is nearing the end. If it's important to you, and I know it is, you should go to his room."

As I entered, I knelt at the foot of the bed and placed my hand on his foot. That's where I remained until he took his last breath. I stayed there for many moments after. He died peacefully, just as I'd prayed all week.  

Three friends and co-workers entered the room soon after. Balaji placed one hand on my friend's leg and took my hand in the other. Tina and Sam joined us in our chain as we mourned together, grieved together, remembered together.

We began the Joseph's House rituals and lit a candle by the bed. Someone turned on his stereo. Bob Marley's Redemption Song played. The word "freedom" kept repeating itself.

That was when I knew he was free. He left this life for one of true joy, singing his redemption song.

The world lost a love-filled man, a teacher, a passionate human being, but we gained an angel. For that, I am eternally grateful.

What Story Would Be Written About You?

The man is slumped in his chair and he looks dead. On a crowded street corner, people and cars fly by, unfazed by the very real possibility that his man slumped in his wheelchair isn’t just high or drunk, but may very well be dead.

I know he’s not dead because when I first got to this coffee shop, I came upon another man checking on him and indeed the man was roused awake. But time and again, I have watched as the masses pass by. Worse yet, a number of people walk by, turn around and stare, but then decide to move on. But hope abounds, because I have watched time and again how when one person stops and tries to engage the man and make sure he is alive, several others stop, and ask what they can do to help.  There is discomfort, uncertainty, and confusion, but above all else there is a certain level of compassion and shared responsibility. And so from a privileged place I watch the best and worst of humanity struggle to deal with a problem that goes beyond one man in a wheelchair.

I must confess of all the social issues I care about, homelessness is one of the most vexing. It’s hard to find the kind of "light at the end of the tunnel" hope you encounter in something like education. No, with the homeless, the weight of the charity we offer indeed weighs heavily upon our shoulders as we are asked to work on a cause and with people where the hope we want to believe in seems to have faded long ago. 

We’re a results oriented culture, but I really believe sometimes we're tasked to just show up and acknowledge in the other the shared humanity and dignity they themselves might not believe they possess. Our task, however daunting it may be, is to somehow make the socially irrelevant realize how relevant they really are.

As I was finishing this post, a man leaving Starbucks approached the homeless man. After he saw he wasn’t dead though, he did something different. He stayed, and listened patiently for about 5 minutes as the man spoke to him. And the man just listened. Then he smiled, handed him a cigarette, split his breakfast sandwich in half, and then got behind the wheelchair, sharing a laugh with the man as he helped, literally and figuratively, move the man a little closer to where he probably really wants to be. He never noticed me, or anyone else whose eyes were fixated on the touching scene unfolding on a gritty and busy street corner. He did what was right most likely because his heart told him to do as much.

Some would say the odds are against us in this world. Now 7 billion people strong, there’s simply too many people, too many problems, to pay each one the proper attention deserved. Well, perhaps it’s true, but I’ll be damned if I don’t count myself among those who still try anyhow. How about you? What story is someone writing about you when you least suspect it?

Short Working Boys Center Documentary and Thoughts on Post Graduate Service

Google Alerts is perhaps one of the greatest things out there yet. Have a topic you care to follow closely? A Google Alert helps you monitor the internet for the latest content about that particular topic. Anymore, it's a must. You can use it to keep track of news about your company or about an organization you hope to one day be a part of. It's also a great way to monitor what sort of content is being released out there about yourself. That's right, set a Google Alert up to track anything that comes up with your name to help manage your personal brand.

One of my Google Alerts is for The Working Boys Center- the organization I volunteered with (and fell in love with) for a year in Quito, Ecuador. One of my alerts for the WBC this morning was a great link that really had me reflecting on the value and merits of doing some sort of volunteer work for an extended period of time right after college. A number of college seniors are reflecting on what's next for them, and for many, post grad service is possible in the cards. Reflecting on my own experience, I continue to see the benefits of my time in South America in both my personal and professional life.

So all this is to say, if you're contemplating a year (or two) of service after college, or really at any point in your career, I'm working on a post to really help break things down a bit. Until then, enjoy the video of one tiny place on the map that provides incredible opportunities for program participants and volunteers alike! If you know of the center, the video might take on even more special meaning. For example, the student speaking at 5:17 in the video was one of my students his first year at the Center. It's amazing to see how much he has grown up!

If you have any thoughts about post graduate volunteerism, let me know as I'll be putting together a future post.


Working Boys Center Documentary // Quito, Ecuador from Anthony Sylvester on Vimeo.

Facebook Timeline and the Implications for Millennials

Facebook Timeline preview from techcrunch.com

Welcome to Timeline.  Mark Zuckerberg, at the f8 Developer conference, said “We’re more than what we did recently” as he went on to announce timeline profile pages.

If you want the idea in under 2 minutes, watch the official Facebook video.  Facebook has created what appears to be a beautiful mosaic that really takes a profile and focuses it into three areas: applications, self expression, and a users story. And they do this, all on one page. The idea, according to Zuckerberg was to more or less move from telling the story of your life in the last 15 minutes and actually captures the whole of your life. Audacious? Yes. Intriguing? Most certainly.

On one hand are the obvious privacy concerns. Many say privacy is dead and we should get over it, but I think I’m of a unique age group that has comfortably lived adult lives pre-facebook and after Facebook burst onto the scene. Privacy, in several aspects, still means something to us even if at times it’s difficult to see just how.

On the other hand, I am fascinated by the potential this has for changing the way we interact through social media. Whether privacy is dead or not I hope is a topic of debate for sometime to come, but there is no denying social media, in one form or another, is here to stay.

So what should tech savy (and career savy) millennials do in response to this roll out by Facebook?

Think about your biography

Because more or less, that's what this is. A biography.  No one likes a story where at the end, you knew there was so much more to it. If you decide to utilize this feature, go all in. Make it interesting. Make it uniquely you so that when friends go to your page, they do feel as though they've entered your virtual home. That doesn’t mean make stuff up, but work with what you’ve got- photos, interests, and everything else to really be strategic about how you present yourself in the world of social media.

About those friends of yours...

They're really the only people who should be able to see what you're up to Facebook. It never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t have some sort of privacy settings on their Facebook profile. In this day and age, there’s no excuse. Protect your profile.

Clean up your act 

There’s the old “don’t have anything on your profile you wouldn’t want your mom to see. Go a step further and think of your  (future) son or daughter.  An even easier rule: if you have to pause to think about whether or not something should stay a part of your profile, it’s time to take it down.

Talk to your friends

If there’s photos floating out there, tagged or not, that you feel could cause you embarrassment, talk to your friends and see if they’ll take them down.  Have one friend always posting things you rather not be a part of your Facebook story- it’s time to have that conversation or cut off their posting privileges.

Face to face is never bad

I don’t know which is more awkward, grandparents on Facebook or teens who don’t know how to interact in person. As we grow more accustomed to communication through social media, the true value of your abilities to connect with people face to face increases. Platforms like Facebook can and should more fully enable our online conversations to serve as an impetus for more meaningful interactions offline. As we communicate more and more over status updates and texts, your ability to communicate in more traditional formats will help you stand out.

Framing the Story: Spike Lee Remembers 9/11 and Martin Luther King Jr.

How do you remember 9/11? What was your personal story of that day? What are some of the stories that still resonate with you?


The LA Times had an article a few weeks ago that really captured the essence of good storytelling.

Day of terror in New York: Pages from a reporter's 9/11 journal is a series of reflections by Los Angeles Times writer Geraldine Baum on the journal entries she scrawled in her journal on that day.

As I was reading the paper a few weeks ago, I came across this line and felt my heart in my throat as though experiencing the moment myself:

"In the months after Sept. 11, Walter was preoccupied with trying to find who led him and his co-workers to a stairwell, saving all their lives. Finally, he was able to identify "our hero" — Pablo Ortiz, a Port Authority employee who had died helping others. A photograph of Ortiz's family hangs on Walter's office wall."

But also noteworthy is what is unfolding in terms of how companies are remembering 9/11 via their commercials today. Sitting here watching football on the first Sunday of the NFL, I’ve been more intrigued with the commercials taking place between snaps than the game itself.

I wrote a few weeks back about a Chevrolet commercial for the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial put together by Spike Lee. The result, as you can see below, was powerful. And he’s at it again. I’ve seen this new State Farm commercial he's directed now 4-5 times today and it moves me each time. In  short, a group of school children sing Empire State of Mind while traveling through parts of New York, ending up at a local fire station to serenade a group of fire fighters.

I don’t know if State Farm will sell any more home or auto insurance based off this ad. I don’t really care about their motivation for making the spot. It’s a fitting tribute to the men and women who lost their lives. It says something about the resilience of New York, of America, really of humanity to never forget but carry on living.

Watch the spots below. I hope like me, you’ll be happy that two powerful spots like these are reaching a larger audience, and framing the story of two important events in a way any of us who believe in the power of storytelling are happy to see. If you like the version of the song, you can purchase it on Itunes and State Farm says that all proceeds will go to a national firefighters fund.

Chevrolet MLK Commercial

State Farm Empire State of Mind

Interviews and Extras in their own words (on State Farm Youtube site)

Moving Beyond Generation Limbo, the Lost Generation, etc...

“What it’s like for 20-somethings to go looking for meaningful work- and not find it.” Welcome to the Lost Generation. The other day The New York Times came up for another name for us: Generation Limbo.

So what’s a well-educated 20-something to do? About 14 percent of people who graduated between 2006 and 2010 are unemployed. A greater chunk work in dead-end jobs that pay little more than the rent- if even that. Indeed living at home with mom and dad have less to do with laziness and everything to do with graduating college, prepared for a world that isn’t yet prepared for you.

But the real danger goes beyond the obvious financial woes and dilemmas. Long term unemployment or lack of meaningful employment can give rise to a way of thinking that internalizes the problem as less to do with an economic crisis and more to do with personal shortcomings.

So what can be done in times like these to avoid both the financial and emotional toll caused by lack of meaningful employment?

Consider moving.

Maybe it’s time for a scenery change, and nothing says employment with that change of scenery like Minneapolis, Houston, or Washington D.C. according to Forbes Magazine’s “America’s Best Cities for YoungProfessionals.” Good Magazine just released their own guide of best cities forthe young and broke, with cities like Austin and Philly making the list.  

Keep a schedule

Going to bed late, waking up late, and passing 72 hours in your pajamas is enticing for all of about 72 hours. After that, you’ll need something to stay positive. Set a schedule. Work out regularly. Schedule time for job searching and cover letter writing. Pencil in informational interviews, and be deliberate in scheduling time to grab lunch or coffee with friends and acquaintances who can help you on your search (and maybe pick up the tab for lunch or dinner).

Volunteer

Countless studies show that it becomes increasingly difficult to transition from a job that requires no degree to one that does. So while working for pay is ideal, if you can afford to volunteer part time or full time in a field more closely alligned with your career goals, look into it. Is there the possibility your volunteer work will lead to full time work? Check into it with an organization you've always wanted to work for.

Go back to school

If you were planning to go back to get an advanced degree anyway, well, there’s no time like the present. Depending on what you’re planning to study, there might also be great scholarship opportunities, usually based upon academic potential. So in your schedule, provide significant time to study for the GRE or GMAT.

Teach English Abroad

Always wanted to study abroad but never got around to it? In a way, now is your chance. Teach abroad, experience a new culture, hopefully even save up a little money, and add international experience (and maybe new language skills) to your resume. WorldTeach and JET are the names most people have heard of, but check out Matador Notebook for other leads.

Reach out to your Alma Mater

Call the career development office at your alma mater and see what sort of assistance they can provide. No longer live in the area where you completed your undergraduate degree? If you went to a Jesuit university, I know you can usually contact a career center at a local Jesuit university or college to gain access to the reciprocal services they offer to students and alumni of other Jesuit schools. Didn’t go to a Jesuit university? Call your school’s career center and see if they have any similar partnerships.

Looking for more advice?

Brooklyn based blogger Allison Jones has some great easy to follow advice in a blog post on Brazen Careerist.

And finally, going back to where we all started, keep a positive outlook, however trying that becomes. These trying times are no indiciation of your ability or work ethic. In the words of James Carville- “it’s the economy, stupid!”

Storytelling Fit For a King: Celebrating I Have a Dream

The Martin Luther King Memorial officially opened to the public today! The monument will be officially dedicated on August 28^th- marking the 48^th anniversary since Dr. King delivered his I Have a Dream speech.

Simple lessons can be taken from King’s speech to help you the next time trying to motivate anyone- from a prospective donor to a new employee.

BLUF

In writing, this is known as bottom line up front. Give the main point away immediately. It need not be the first sentence, but it sure should be in the first two minutes of your talk. King gets to his BLUF in the first two minutes. “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free” King says. He goes on to provide powerful visuals (we’ll get to that) and then tells those gathered: “So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Listen to Aristotle

In Poetics Aristotle tells us “A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end”. Easy enough. And yet, how often do we fail to frame a story along at least a loose timeline? King’s speech starts in the past- “five score years ago” but quickly moves the audience along to the present reason they are gathered: “but 100 years later, the Negro is still not free.” And for most of us in the nonprofit world, the end is our ask- what we want the other person to do or believe, etc… For King that end begins (and lives on) with a few simple words: “I have a dream…” 

Imagery

Storytelling in causes and nonprofits is just another word for the combination of imagination and kinship. A good story has visuals that allow the person on the other end to imagine the picture painted, and feel a connection with the people in the story. A great visual example building along “the table of brotherhood” King alludes to can be seen in this ad created by Spike Lee.

Listen

Clarence Jones, who helped write the famous speech wrote in his book Behind the Dream that the most famous part of the speech was not ever written out.

“Martin's favorite gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, who had performed earlier in the day, called to him from nearby: "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin, tell 'em about the dream!"

Martin clutched the speaker's lectern and seemed to reset. I watched him push the text of his prepared remarks to one side…I have a dream . . . In front of all those people, cameras, and microphones, Martin winged it. But then, no one I've ever met could improvise better.”

Final Thoughts

Muriel Barbery writes that "In order for consciousness to be aroused, it must have a name." Storytelling for good is simply putting a name (and hopefully a face) to what you do and why it matters. Too many nonprofits fail not for lack of good work, but an inability to tell the story of why what they do matters. Give people a reason for why their consciousness ought to care about what it is you do.

Heard It Elsewhere...

Some of my favorite links I stumbled upon this week.

Kiva is trying to spread the word- lending money to aspiring entrepreneurs is cool. And for a short time, trying it out is free. Sign up for a Kiva account here and get $25 to lend for free.

For anyone who's ever had to raise some cash for their nonprofit- a visual approach to Sasha Dichter's blog post about making the big ask.

Let's reinvent the toilet. As perhaps only the marketers at the Gates Foundation can do- a blog and a video about, well, poop. Check out the innovative sanitation ideas here.

Old school vs. new school. Challenging the traditional mindset we have on grouping organizations as for profit or nonprofit.

Managing yourself by managing your network. My friends in The New Leaders Council passed along this Harvard Business Review article about networking done well. Hint:

Going to Grad School After July 1st, 2012? It Just Got More Expensive.

Thanks to the recently passed debt ceiling legislation, it just became more expensive to attend graduate school if you'll be taking out loans. Graduate students applying for a loan after July 1, 2012 will no longer be eligible to receive subsidized Stafford loans. The $8,500 subsidized loan will instead be converted to unsubsidized funding.

What does this mean for graduate students? For anyone who gets a loan after July 1, 2012- interest will accrue on those loans while they are still in school. Before, the government had paid the interest on the loan for the length of time a student was in school. The legislation also eliminates a rebate students get when they make loan repayments on time for 12 consecutive months.

The change will save the federal government an estimated $26 billion over 10 years. To put that in perspective: consider three months of operation in Afghanistan costs roughly that.

Is there any upside for students? For those pursuing their undergraduate degree, yes. Part of the savings from the student loan cuts will help keep funding for federal Pell Grants. These grants are traditionally awarded to the most financially needy students. Republicans slashed summer Pell grants earlier in the year and many have been attempting to eliminate the Pell grant program altogether.

For a more in depth reading on the Stafford student loan issue, check out CNN Money.

Twitter: It Isn't Only About What You Ate For Breakfast

Who do you follow?  I have a number of friends who think Twitter is nothing more than a place to “text” to the masses what you ate for breakfast or declare what you’re about to do, and so they avoid Twitter. But Twitter, like most social media, has the potential to be about so much mroe.

Twitter is about access
Back in December, I sent a Tweet to Andrew Evans (@WheresAndrew) a travel writer for National Geographic who I had been following with great interest. I asked Andrew for his best travel advice in 140 characters or less. Twenty minutes later I got this reply:

@pjfurlong Say "yes" more than "no" & learn "Thank U". Make wrong turns. Treat your horse kindly. Passport & toothbrush R only essentials.

If I had emailed him, I don’t know that I would have received a response that quick, if ever. But with Twitter, the reply was instantaneous and was not only shared with me, but with thousands of other people who follow Andrew.

Take a look at this photo, probably snapped on her iPhone, and Tweeted by @MeredithShiner today outside Speaker Boehner's office as reporters wait for word about what will happen with the debt ceiling vote. Unpolished and real, you can imagine the anxiety the photo captures so vividly.



http://lockerz.com/s/124508214



Twitter allows me to stay in tune with issues that matter to me.

I follow very few of my actual friends on Twitter because I don’t need to read about what they ate for breakfast- I’ve got Facebook for those types of status updates. On Twitter, I've created a nonprofit community of sorts. I follow people, famous and ordinary, as well as organizations who care about and tweet about the same issues that matter to me. By following them, I end up getting exposed to countless relevant articles, blogs, and videos that I otherwise might have missed.

So again I must ask- who do you follow?
If the answer is no one, I'd encourage you to take the plunge, sign up for Twitter. You can even pledge to never tweet about your breakfast (unless it's really good). To start, I’ve included a few of my favorite folks in the nonprofit Twitosphere that I think are worth following.

People you may have heard of: @BillGates, @Jeffdsachs, @thisissethsblog, @NickKristoff, @Tom_Peters

Everyday People: @CynthiaHellen, @Cdilly, @ajlovesya, @socialcitizen, @otreyes,

Organizations: @weblogtheworld, @roomtoread, @Harvardbiz, @Acumenfund, @ynpnla (LA specific), @Inventurefund

Storytelling in the Nonprofit Sector

A couple years ago I had figured out what I wanted to do in life. I saw myself working for a dynamic nonprofit providing education and health services to those in the developing world. And I would be the organizations professional storyteller, not to be confused with development officer or program manager. I would be able, as Blair Miller of Acumen Fund puts it to “travel back and forth from the slums of Kenya to the conference halls of Aspen.”


Trouble is, I’ve yet to see any postings for Chief of Storytelling or Storyteller Manager I or II. And so, for those of us that understand the value of a story, and want to dedicate our profesional lives telling the stories of the poor and often voiceless, what must we do?

While I don't know the answer to that just yet, what I beleive we all inherently get, even if we don't understand it, is quite simple: Storytelling REALLY matters. Stories, the power they have over us, isn't an exercise in logic at all. Anyone who has ever donated on impulse after a moving talk or video knows it's actually quite illogical  Empathy still means a great deal in deciding where we will give parts of our precious  time, energy, and money. Data matters too, but it ceases to mean anything unless we have a way to connect what we see on a spreadsheet to what we experience in real life. In the end, it's about telling stories, ours, that of another, and the often overlooked challenge Blair Miller addresses of getting out of the way of a good story so that it can be told by the actual person living it.

Listed below are a few links to what I think touch upon the essence of good storytelling.
-Blair Miller at Acumen Fund writes a brief blog entry about The Next Phase of Storytelling

-Andy Goodman's podcast Storytelling For Good Causes

-And of course a couple amazing talks posted on Ted: JK Rowling's Harvard commencement speech and spoken word artist Sarah Kay's talk on the power of self-expression.

For What It's Worth

Some clippings of news and events relevant to those who may have a common interest.

-Charity:water, arguably the world’s most hip, tech savy and media savy nonprofit, attempted a live drill for clean water in Congo- and they failed. What makes this story worthy of attention is how they handled failure- they admitted their own frustration, vowed to fight on, and were transparent in using the situation as a teachable moment of the true challenges of accessing clean water in remote parts of the world. Read about it here.

 

-DonorsChoose founder Charles Best received a phone call that asked one simple question: how much would it cost to fund every California teacher’s wish list on the website. What happened next? A very happy first day of school for every teacher in California who posted a wish list on DonorsChoose. Read about it here.

 

Pakistan. Floods. We know, but do we really? What if the sound bite were reworded to emphasize the reality: People affected: more than Haiti and Katrina- combined. Rabia Ahmed wrote a moving love letter to Pakistan, posted on the Acumen Fund Blog. Read about it here.

  

For those who see themselves as storytellers (marketers) in the nonprofit, Seth Godin has some advice: start marketing. Right now. Read about it here.

 

If you will be in New York September 20th- I envy you. Might be worth checking out The Social Good Summit. Read about it here.

 

Turning a corner: Capacity Building as Millenials Working for Change

Who are we called to be? We are the generation of 9-11, of Katrina, and of the worst depression since that big one in the 1930's. We are living amidst two wars, environmental decline, and an uncertainty almost never mentioned but always present.

We are the children of the internet. We have access to technology unimaginable a few years ago. What will we blog about? Will our tweets be about what we just ate or a tool to link us together with intellectual curiosity just beyond our otherwise limited reach? How will we use the social media network Facebook affords us?

Oscar Romero might have called us prophets of a future not our own and we stand on the edge of a world in need, and our response to this fierce urgency of this very moment will set a tone for generations to come.
This is our burden, this is our greatest responsibility. And if you’re like me, you react in accordance: at times anxious that you aren’t doing enough to reach your potential, to mange genuine and lasting change, no matter how big or small it may be. Other times you an embodiment of what I think is our reality- incredibly confident that we are indeed the leaders we have been waiting for. This much we know: the world isn’t waiting for us as individuals, and paradoxically, the world can’t wait any longer for us as a group of people to come together, “to get it” so to speak.

And so this blog is going to be “turning a corner” if you will. It’s time to shift the tone from one of self reflection to group reflection and capacity building. I hope, In my own small and humble way, to build upon my work with City Year in Boyle Heights and as a graduate admissions counselor with the University of Southern California. To build upon experience as a social entrepreneur with Magis and move the conversation forward on how to do good in this world. And to continue to to build upon experiences volunteering with the Holy Cross Associates and the Working Boys Center.

I know about the power of service, the potential connectivity and solidarity can have on the ways in which we choose to live our lives. And I know about education, the limitless potential good education provides and the vast shortfall of our society in meeting the curiosity and possibility of so many young people here and abroad.

So I hope you will join me on Twitter. I hope you will contribute your input here and suggest other blogs and arenas in which to read, to dialogue, and to learn and grow. And if you would like to discuss volunteerism, post-graduate service, working in the nonprofits, or the graduate school admission process, please don't hesitate to comment here or email me at pjfurlong at gmail dot com.

Impatient Idealism and the War on Poverty: Let's Talk Hope, Not Despair

How do we talk about poverty? It’s something I have been obsessed about a lot as of late. There is this tendency on behalf of us nonprofity do gooders, and yes that is a scientific term, to paint a very bleak picture. Stats seem to be a favorite tool of ours. Post some depressing statistic over an even more depressing photo and suddenly we have our pitch for why caring about poverty and the people who live in it should matter more than say, Lindsay Lohan or learning where LeBron chooses to play ball next year.

People don’t invest long term in response to the depressing, they just don’t. And who can blame them? The human heart is not looking for punishing blow after blow. People get burnt out on bad news. Our focus shifts: why focus on stuff that truly hurts to internalize when we can focus on a world of reality TV that is anything but real?

And that’s exactly why we need a new framework for how we communicate about poverty. Our stereotype of the poor as hopeless and helpless is at best, often misinformed, at worst, patronizing.

And so I’d like you to imagine a new way of addressing poverty. A photo that highlights the beauty, possibility, and the resilience that is typical of so many of the people in Latin America and other parts of the developing world that speak to the real reality of so many: entrepreneurial people, primarily women, who are ready to make a change in their lives and those of their children and community. Instead of unconquerable despair we focus a bit more intentionally on untapped and eager potential. Doing so empowers a community, it empowers women, and it empowers us to pass by a world consumed by junk consumption for something more authentically life giving.

I am not saying this should be the way we communicate about things all the time. The reality of AIDS in Africa, education in the inner city, and so many other issues is that once in a while must speak to the great disparity. But what I believe is that we error when the message is so focused on that, with almost no messaging around potential and hope! This new communication works!

Don’t believe me- look at what Kiva is doing. They connect people like you and me to entrepreneurs on the ground in the developing world. You read their story, see a real photo of them, and “loan”, yes loan, $25 (or more) to help them start a business. Money is pooled amongst other lenders like you and suddenly you are invested in kinship without ever leaving your living room. Kiva started in 2005 and already has made loans to 378,862 people totaling $147,673,750. Over 80% are women and the repayment rate: 98.27%. These numbers are as of July 14, 2010. Other groups like Inventure Fund are taking their own approach to the microfinance craze and experimenting with some really cool ideas to bring out the best in investors, entrepreneurs, and the community.

Poverty sucks. I doubt you will find much disagreement. It is romanticized only by fools. But having been on the ground, what upsets me aside from this unnecessary poverty is the fact that we are failing the people living in this context in other ways when we fail to share stories of success in the battle against poverty. But don’t take my word for it, take 30 seconds to watch a video from “The Living Proof Project” from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: evidence impatient idealism can improve the world.

The Answer is Compassion

Activist Dorothy Day once remarked how we all imagine ourselves to be so wicked, when really we’re just ordinary people who stumble from time to time and try to do what’s right.

I heard it said that we should “Just assume the answer to every question is compassion.” Can you imagine a worldview colored by that philosophy?

I am not a theologian, but I’ve come to believe through my own experience, shortcomings, and stumbles that what God wants most is for us to be madly in love with life. Whoever we are, whatever our background or beliefs, God I imagine yearns for us to yearn for kinship. I think God beckons us to trust that he trusts us in what is needed to fall madly in love with life. We are tasked with recognizing where God dwells, not only "out there" but in our own being and in the existence of all those we encounter.

I went to a talk by Greg Boyle earlier this year where he said that “The Lord comes to us disguised as ourselves. We do come to believe that we grow into this. The only thing we know about Jesus growing up is he grew in age, and wisdom, and favor with God. But do we really grow in favor with God? Did Jesus become increasingly more favorable to God or did he just discover over time that he was holy, favorable?” It is perhaps in this spirit of compassion we are called to view ourselves, and view those around us.

If we are to assume compassion is the answer to every question, then at once we stand less in judgment of the burden “the other” carries and more in awe that they are able to carry it at all. And we also cleanse ourselves of the shame in which we view our own stumbles and shortcomings. Liberated to just be present to life, we understand what so often evades us in this culture: we are worthy of love not for what we are able to do but simply for being who we are. Like Father G says, we live ever present to the possibility of living our way into a new way of thinking, a thinking that recognizes we didn’t grow more favorable to God; we just discovered how favorable we have been all along.

This reflection came about from reading Greg Boyle's Tattoos on the Heart. I highly recommend it.

Earthquake in Chile

As you all know a large earthquake struck the central part of Chile early this morning.

There isn't much to say other than the images that are coming out of the country are heartbreaking. It's made more intense of course when you look at images and recognize them not as disasters in a foreign land but disasters impacting people you came to know and love living in the country for a brief period.

Some news is good. Most of our friends appear to be OK. We have received a fair amount of messages via Facebook and through a loosely formed network of former volunteers alerting one another whenever we receive news. Most news goes along the lines of "I'm okay, my family is alright, our house is a mess." One friend reported that in my former neighborhood, close to 80% of the houses had a wall collapse. I am still waiting to hear back from a couple friends in that area, one friend who is a volunteer there. I can't get anything about the kids I worked with there, as the houses split apart sometime ago but I pray they are all safe.

A friend Ryan shared the following sites as helpful resources.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html - This has some pretty vivid and telling photos- buildings split in two, bridges collapsed with cars turned upside down.

Google has set up a site to help people communicate about missing people in Chile. http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/

In terms of giving- the Red Cross, World Vision, and Save the Children are all dispatching either teams or supplies. Un Techo Para Chile is a great organization on the ground already, but their website is down. If I hear of any initiatives that are more grass roots from the people I know in Chile- I will be sure to pass it on.

Again, not much more to say except that Chile has one thing going for it- it's people are some of the most proud and stubborn people I have ever encountered. In a crisis- there wouldn't be anyone I'd want beside me more.

Keep em in your thoughts and prayers, and let's pray for some reprieve from mother nature for a little while.

A Different Type of Volunteer: Meet My Neighorhood Council Hero John

John is my hero. You don’t know John, most likely never really will. That’s not his real name by the way but in a lawsuit happy country, you never can be too safe. You see, to know John like I now know John, you have to sit through a three hour neighborhood council meeting in Westchester. A meeting full of Robert’s Rule of Order, various public comments that peak my curiosity but baffle my mind, and sometimes painstakingly boring presentations by certain speakers who make it obvious within the first 30 seconds they did not prepare for their moment of shinning glory in front of this auspicious crowd.

Back to John, he’s my hero, in a neighborhood council, I’m glad you’re doing this because I don’t think I’d ever care to sort of way. John has fought tirelessly against the expansion of LAX and had a fairly successful track record. Personal feelings you may have aside, expansion of LAX would be bad for a community right next to LAX, especially as Orange County and Long Beach refuse to accommodate their people thus exasperating the crisis in LA. And so John fights. And he fights against power lines with high unsafe levels of electricity running down residential streets they shouldn’t run down. And he does it with energy uncommon a man his age, and with a twinkle in his eye I am certain none of us could maintain after years of these battles for his neighborhood.

And so John has me thinking. I admire him greatly and yet if we sat down and spoke about politics, we would most certainly disagree, and disagree like water to hot oil. We probably wouldn’t see eye to eye on much, most likely on a local and national scale. But in the spirit of Dr. King, I have been thinking a lot about service and volunteerism. For a lefty like me, it’s easy to look at Americorps and the Peace Corps, and religious projects like the Working Boys Center or Jesuit Volunteers- groups where people literally give of themselves in the name of improving some aspect of society failing the poor and oppressed. As a nation, we are able to recognize the value of service in our men and women deployed overseas, regardless of whatever our feeling is about the conflict that has them stationed there.

But I wonder when we as a nation might wake up and do a better job of recognizing folks like John. People who spend hours a month at meetings that bring new meaning to the adage “more boring than watching paint peel” or people who comb through every dreary public announcement by agencies big and small and then cause a ruckus in the name of true public debate.

John fights a good fight for the neighborhood of Westchester. Whether you agree with him or not to me is beside the point. He does it for free, he does it out of convictions he holds dear, and he does it with a smile and with a dignity that is lost upon many of us. And so a big thanks to John, for the hours he spends on projects to improve my community, and for helping me to consider with a more wide angle lens the spirit that is service and volunteerism in America today.

Dueling Realities

Reality is complex to define. While in South America, I was often subjected to conversations with friends back home who knew nothing of my reality and thus dismissed my volunteering as a cheeky avoidance of reality- an extended spring break of sorts if you will. What I have seen in my time back in the United States is at once simple and complex: the world is limitless with definitions of reality, each one different, real, and wholly unique from the other, and each equally important to understand.

And so I live the reality of a man who has not just seen developing world poverty but lived amongst it and attempted in a rather amateur way to repair it or at least heal some of the wounds that develop as a result of it. And now I am a mid 20 something, surrounded by a haunting reality of a world I can’t and don’t want to forget. And yet I am increasingly entrenched in a world where like it or not your bank statement and your 401K mean something- not so much in terms of competition or prestige but in the simple matter of being able to provide for yourself. Suddenly, the question “what do you want to do with your life?” weighs heavy upon my shoulders.

Living in debt sucks. I know this first hand because it is perhaps the greatest characteristic of my time back in the United States. Working for little pay, I have found myself with a monthly credit card statement that can’t always be paid off on time. And my digs have ranged from a former convent in South LA where my room was the size of a closet to an apartment in a freshman dorm at my alma mater. In that capacity I try, sometimes with limited success, to expose freshman to the challenge and opportunity that is discovering the poverty that lurks in our midst and what we all can and should be doing to respond to it. Life giving as this role is for me, I am faced with the realization that one can only be a coupon whore and live gratis in church attics and dorms for so long.

And all this has me thinking, or more accurately said, worrying, about what my future contains. This I know, I am happiest when directing my energy towards making the world a better place. To take it a step further, I imagine I would be in my element working for a nonprofit focused on combating crisis of health and sanitation in the developing world. But at what cost? I attended a conference of nonprofit leaders in LA last year where the keynote speaker lamented about one of the greatest problems in the nonprofit sector: how are we to eliminate poverty in this world if we entrap our employees within it?

And so dear reader, now 18 months back home, I find myself adjusting to the world that I imagine many if not all returned volunteers face: how does one live with the urgency to expend every ounce of your talent towards fighting against a reality you were exposed to that is poverty, that you know is unjust and in need of repair. And how do you do that while juxtaposing it with a sincere and indeed acceptable desire to make enough money so that an unplanned expense such as a root canal doesn’t bring the prospect of financial misery for many more months to come? I wish I had an answer, but more often then not I find myself overly obsessed with a most frightening question: what if you are fairly certain of the career path that would bring you the greatest satisfaction and horribly uncertain if it can provide for a modest but comfortable lifestyle?