A surefire strategy for success, Part 2

Solve a problem.

Problems exist everywhere. There are the big ones, like world hunger or the AIDS epidemic that you can work on (HT: Charlie Hoehn). There are also smaller ones, like a lack of a sense of community in your neighbourhood or the negative feeling you get when you think of opening up a gift only to find a pair of socks.

If you want to wake up in the morning with a clear conscience and a sense of purpose, spend your time solving a problem. Size doesn’t matter — there are way more small ones than there are big ones, anyway — what you should work towards is an effective solution.

Measured by effectiveness, my neighbourhood’s block party this past year was just as successful as Live 8. Both events:

1) brought people out to support a cause

2) drew attention from people who weren’t actively involved with the events

3) prompted people to examine their behaviour, to spend the next week, month, or year trying to make whatever difference they can — whether it was picking up after their dog or donating an extra $5 to help “Make Poverty History”.

It’s virtually impossible for you to fail if you start noticing — and solving — problems around you, big or small. So what are you waiting for?

*****

I’ve been thinking about this today because of an email conversation I had. That story is more specific and doesn’t fit with the general tone of this post, so I’m splitting them. You can find the story-post here.

I should also mention that this thought was initially prompted by Kevin Kelly with his blog post, “How to Make New Things”.