In our twenty year experience of identifying and supporting emerging social entrepreneurs, Echoing Green has found that they are as diverse as they come. They come from all over the world, with different educational, religious, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. They have different skills and varying passions. Their leadership styles are different. But, they all display, in one way or other, the four elements of boldness. Over the last six weeks on this blog, we discussed the first three—moment of obligation, gall to think big, new and untested. The fourth and final Be Bold quality I would like to focus on today is the notion of always seeing possibilities.

To highlight seeing possibilities, let me tell you the story of Echoing Green Fellow Katie Redford.

After graduating from college, Katie wanted to spend a year living abroad before starting law school. She signed up to teach English in Thailand, but didn’t realize at the time that she had signed up for so much more.

Katie arrived in Thailand in the early nineties and very soon after arriving, she became painfully aware of the challenges faced by the people she was teaching. The brutal military dictatorship in Burma had created a constant stream of refugees into the already-impoverished border region as the army and the rebel forces battled it out. Anxious to be of more use, Katie headed for a refugee camp to teach English and live with a displaced Burmese family that had escaped to Thailand. She found herself teaching in a bamboo hut, while bombs exploded around her.

Katie’s resolve to become a human rights attorney hit an all-time high upon learning that an oil company, American-based Unocal, had hired the Burmese military to protect the oil pipeline they were building on the border. On the oil company’s dime, members of the Burmese military were torturing, raping and murdering villagers. Katie and her partner Ka Ksaw Wa spent months traveling down the Salween river meeting and interviewing survivors of their wrath.

“Not being bold is sometimes too awful to imagine,” Katie said.

Armed with seed funding from Echoing Green and a newly bestowed law degree and bar membership, Katie and her partners launched the NGO, EarthRights International, and decided to do what any social entrepreneur would do in this situation--sue a multi-national oil company.

This is a dramatic example to demonstrate the Be Bold quality of seeing possibilities. It is more than seeing what can be, it is an unwavering resolve in seeing your vision through. It is more than being positive – it is believing positive. It is being fueled by the roadblocks to stay afloat, do more, and get more done, instead of being stopped. Anyone who takes on big problems needs a healthy dose of seeing possibilities.

Seeing possibilities is an attitude more than anything. Effective champions of social change inherently know that negativity will get them nowhere. They don’t need to browse through the rows of self-help guides to understand the concepts behind seeing possibilities. They know that the more they are clear about what change they want to see in the world, and the more they believe it will happen within their lifetime, the more it will happen. They know the more positive they are, the better they will feel, and the better they will feel, the more positivity will emit from their actions.

Seeing possibilities is what sustains you through the long, challenging journey to reach your vision. More than that, though, seeing possibilities is the attitude that makes the change possible. Katie’s case against Unocal was an ultimate David against Goliath pitting. With little money, but a lot of heart, Katie and her team waged a battle that lasted ten years--even fighting when the case was dismissed in 2000. But, her ability to see possibilities saw her through and Unocal settled the suit in 2005. It was the first time in history that a major multinational corporation had settled a case of this type for monetary damages. In the landmark settlement, the company agreed to compensate the Burmese villagers who sued the firm for complicity in forced labor, rape, and murder.

The key is to be clear about what you see possibilities for and make sure your beliefs and actions reinforce your vision over time.

If you are reading this and thinking about what you see possibilities for, please know that your example will inspire others. Try to share your vision to someone else today.

Eric Rosenthal was not a stranger to the inhumane ways in which people with mental disabilities are treated. During his undergrad years, he had volunteered at a psychiatric hospital, an experience so disillusioning that it made him reconsider his decision to be a psychiatrist. So, in 1992, when he visited the Ramirez Moreno, a psychiatric institution in Mexico City, he decided to answer a question that nobody seemed to be answering, much less asking—how can our society best protect the rights of people with disabilities? Newly armed with his law degree and experience working as a human rights lawyer with the Chiapas of Mexico, Eric was very conscious that the abuse of people with mental disabilities was usually considered as a social issue, but never as a human rights issue. He saw it differently.

With a seed grant from Echoing Green, Eric went on to launch Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), an organization that would document human rights abuses in psychiatric institutions and campaign, educate, and lobby for ending those abuses. Today it is almost a commonplace, but MDRI’s premise was remarkable at the time-mental disabilites advocacy that focused on enforcing international human rights conventions and reporting the abuses. It all started when Eric questioned the status quo and decided to join the insights from one sector (human rights law) with the insights of another sector (mental disability treatment).

This is the essence of the third element of boldness—new and untested. Innovation is one of the most effective ways to make a real difference. By creating new ideas, services, and practices, innovation improves the way things are done in a particular field. Innovation can stem from completely new ideas or from existing ideas connected in new and effective ways. In both cases, the process starts when you allow yourself to break down mental barriers and make associations between seemingly unconnected concepts. Innovating is hard work-but it is the place where magic happens.

So, how did we bring this element to life through Be Bold?

At the beginning of the Be Bold journey, we surveyed career guides for the nonprofit sector and found...very few. Sure, there were yellow pages of nonprofit organizations whom you could cold call during your job-hunting process. But inspiration? If we wanted to make the connection between why many people join and thrive in the nonprofit sector and achieve a great deal of impact, we needed to give them more than just names and a “how to” format—they need a listing of resources, but they also need to hear real-life stories. We imagined a book that could galvanize a young person into taking charge of their nonprofit career; a book that s/he could dip into for inspiration when faced with hurdles; a book that would tell the stories of nonprofit leaders without mythologizing them; a book that would be a narrative as well a resource.

Have you ever read Po Bronson’s How to Change Your Life? I was immediately attracted to its style—using the stories of ordinary people, it imparts big life lessons. I was inspired by its form for the Be Bold book because I realized that nobody can resist a story, especially when a story resonates or amazes. I firmly believe that all the talented nonprofit leaders we profile in Be Bold, including Eric Rosenthal, are people like you.

And that is how new and untested became a part of Be Bold. We took story-telling, one of the oldest techniques used to engage audiences, and applied it to a career handbook for a sector that did not have one. Think of it as a humble way to take what works and broaden its use.

New ideas don’t come out of nowhere. Innovation occurs at the intersection of rigorous research and vigorous dreaming, so don’t choose one over the other, choose both. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for strategies that you can take from other fields of activity. A falling apple can lead to a physics theory. And of course, be prepared to follow up your new and untested solution with tons of disciplined hard work, testing and retesting, and concrete action.

Go ahead, give in to the temptation to connect beyond the nine dots. What brilliant, new and untested idea do you have for the world today?

In the previous post I wrote about how the Be Bold project grew in ambition and vision. This gall to think big comes from knowing that you are part of something larger than yourself. Cheryl Dorsey and I knew we needed partners—groups that firmly believed in the importance of raising, training, and connecting emerging nonprofit leaders. So we asked ourselves, “Where can we find people or organizations that would be as invested in this journey as we are?” and we started to reach out. Fortunately, we were off to a flying start with Dan Weiss, a publishing wizard and Echoing Green Board Member. Dan has never been one to shy away from big splashes. Cheryl Dorsey and I left our first meeting with Dan with his pledge of support.

Through painstaking research followed by a series of intensive meetings, we started building several different levels and categories of support. Our “anchor” partners are Idealist, American Humanics, the Kellogg Foundation, City Year, GOOD Magazine, and The New York Times Job Market. Together they represent a wide scale and reach within the nonprofit, academic, and media sectors. We also connected with more than eighty partners, who offered us valuable resources in distribution, fulfillment, and outreach. Their support proved that ambitious goals can also be realistic goals.

Over the next year came raising funds; building a team of champions; writing, editing, and designing the Be Bold book; creating a comprehensive distribution system and reaching out to the hundreds of organizations we identified; building an interactive website; and creating platforms for in-person educational opportunities in the form of workshops, curricula, speeches and presentations.

Today Be Bold has gone from being that 20-page booklet to hopefully a keepsake book that combines information about career resources with inspirational advice and practical lessons from the experiences of Echoing Green Fellows. The book in turn is accompanied by a website where young social change-makers meet and exchange ideas. In short, Be Bold has turned into our call for action.

Karen Tse, Founder of International Bridges to Justice, about whom I talked in my previous post, recalls the teachings of her Buddhist teacher, “Whatever you focus on will grow.” The gall to think big is the culmination of such focus.

Big problems require big solutions. If you had the power to take on one big social problem, what would you choose? Imagine a world where this problem has been eliminated, whether it is poverty, racism, or war. Now imagine the kind of solution that can bring about this sweeping change. How can you break it down into a series of smaller steps? Who can you reach out for support and inspiration? The gall to think big is ambition and spirit.

It is natural to feel fear and apprehension at the thought of the big league problems which demand big-league solutions. The gall to think big comes out of a vast reservoir of self-belief. It is the knowledge that you have the power to take on governments, change societies, and be remembered in history.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think you have the gall to think big? If so, how have you actualized this skill in your own life? What prevents people from having this ability? If you don’t have it, what’s the best way to build it?

In 2001, when Karen Tse arrived in Beijing to launch International Bridges of Justice (IBJ), a nonprofit that aimed to build criminal justice systems in developing countries, she did not even have the money to hire a translator. Mandarin was the language of business, and Karen spoke only Cantonese. This was the least of her troubles. Experts, friends, and family had told her that she was crazy to take on the complex problem of human rights abuses in criminal justice systems. But Karen was absolutely unfazed. She was convinced that IBJ had the power to spark a worldwide movement that would restore the human rights of ordinary people around the world. Nothing could stamp out this vision.

Spending her own savings and soliciting donations from friends, Karen took a leap of faith and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, a hub of peace-building NGOs. Maximizing Geneva’s worldwide reputation and network, Karen slowly built a support system for IBJ. Even her parents who had nicely suggested that she use her degrees in law and divinity to get “a real job” started to be convinced that their daughter was onto something. Karen logged thousands of miles flying between Geneva, China and the United States, introduced herself to funders, met with government officials, and enlisted their support for IBJ.

As she built IBJ from scratch, Karen knew that she needed to seem established, well-funded, and powerful even when she wasn’t. When Karen secured high-level meetings with her title as Executive Director of IBJ, only she knew that IBJ had a staff of one. Soon she was able to negotiate a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Chinese government to work with them in instituting a criminal legal development program within the Chinese legal services system. Today, a campaign that began in China when one young woman decided that prisoners in judicial systems should be treated with dignity has become a global crusade. After training 1000 lawyers and supporting 2800 legal aid offices in China, IBJ went on to establish itself in Cambodia and Vietnam and is expanding to Paraguay and Zimbabwe.

What gave Karen the confidence to create this huge architecture of social justice from nothing? The answer lies in her gall to think big.

Gall to think big: believing you can take on the world and creating a clear and expansive vision for change. It is also the second of Echoing Green’s four elements of boldness. And a crucial part of building a meaningful career in social change.

Truth be told, I learned this the hard way. I believed in the concept, but when it came to the Be Bold initiative, I didn’t follow it at first.

When we started Be Bold, I didn’t have funding or time, and I certainly didn’t know a thing about publishing or distributing a book. So, thinking that I was being realistic, I thought a twenty-page booklet with one half-day conference would suffice. But as the weeks passed and I started fleshing out the goals for the initiative, I knew something was wrong.

First of all, my goal was to help re-brand the image of a nonprofit leader. A booklet was simply not going to cut it. Second, for anything to have lasting power, more groups needed to be invested. Third, I wanted to reach tens of thousands of emerging nonprofit leaders that were not already part of my organization’s network.

Afraid as I was, I remembered what my mother always told me: “fear means go.”

Is gall to think big innate – you either have it or don’t? I don’t think so. I think it comes when you believe in something with great emotion. When a goal motivates you so much that you will do anything to do justice by it, the gall to think big becomes second nature...

I fundamentally believe in the Law of Attraction: that which is like unto itself is drawn. Whatever you believe deeply in, whatever you think about with emotion and intensity and purpose, will be realized. If you think small, you deliver small. If you think big, you realize big.

Booklets can be tossed. Books are permanent. One day I took a deep breath and changed the word “booklet” to “book” in all the project documents. Instead of being intimidated, I felt even more inspired. Once I internalized that we were writing a book (something that once seemed foreign and daunting to me), I started riding on a new wave of energy – much more seemed possible.

But it is not enough to merely be ambitious. The gall to think big has as much to do with the breadth of your vision as it does with your ability to carry it out. How did Be Bold translate its broad vision into a tangible reality? Stay tuned for the next post.

To date, Echoing Green has helped over 400 individuals to launch social change organizations in thirty countries. Each fellow is unique, and they range in age, life experience, passions and talent. But they all have one thing in common: They have built their careers and delivered unimaginable change because they are bold.

The Be Bold journey started as an idea— to bring the lessons, experiences and stories of our fellows to inspire and inform emerging social change leaders. It has resulted in a book, website, and I am sure some things I don’t even know about yet.

The Be Bold journey came from our belief that the yester-year stereotypes of nonprofit leaders as dim do-gooders who are not as savvy as their counterparts in the private sector are outdated and simply wrong.

This Be Bold journey came from our desire to help confirm that joining the nonprofit sector, building social entrepreneurial skills, and spending time and energy trying to create social change, is honorable, laudable, and worthwhile.

The Be Bold journey was created because more people want to enter the sector, yet it is a challenging sector to navigate.

In this blog series, we would like to share with you the four qualities of boldness that are highlighted in the book, and why we think they are important. Just so you know, these are:

• Moment of Obligation: identifying what means the most to you and committing to carrying out your dreams
• Gall to Think Big: believing you can take on the world and developing a clear and expansive vision for change
• New and Untested: questioning the status quo and creating new solutions to address seemingly intractable social problems
• Seeing Possibilities: identifying solutions when others can’t and having hope when others don’t

Also in this blog, we’ll give you the behind the scenes look at how we tapped into the same qualities to bring you this book, the website, and the rest of the Be Bold movement. What we are trying to do is, simply put, show how every day in the world of social change is an exercise in boldness.

We hope you will respond by telling us about your boldness. After all, what else is more important?

If you are reading this, chances are that you, like me, want to make a difference in the world we live in. Perhaps that means volunteering or giving money to organizations with a social mission. Maybe you joined a nonprofit organization that you liked and admired for its great work. Or maybe like Adam, founder and Executive Director of Rocking the Boat and Echoing Green Fellow (1998), you designed your own path. Boldness comes in many shapes and all these are its different manifestations.

Adam Green, pictured above, does not always have a copy of the Be Bold book tucked into his back-pocket. But he embraced his inner boldness to create an alternative model to education and youth development in the South Bronx. Today, Rocking the Boat runs programming in both boatbuilding and environmental science, coordinating three after-school and summer programs in each discipline, working directly with hundreds of young people each year.

Stories like these abound at Echoing Green. Young people who have ideas for social change that raise the eyebrows of traditionalists have always found an ally in us, because in our experience, strategies that deliver deep and wide impact always start as breakthrough ideas. Each Echoing Green Fellow is a living, breathing, world-changing answer to the question, “Why Be Bold?”

My guess is that if you frequent SocialEdge, you are in the same club. Most people interact with and join the nonprofit sector because they want to leave their social footprints on the world.

I just came back from a very well attended Net Impact conference, 1,200 deep of MBAs and young business professionals who want to use their talent, skills, and business education to build a better world. In my panel on transitioning to the nonprofit sector, recent MBA graduates who have just entered the for-profit sector exclaimed that they wanted more “meaning in their lives.”

In fact, more people want to enter the nonprofit sector on both ends of the work lifeline: According to a recent study by Paul Light at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (New York University), 62 percent of graduating college seniors are interested in careers related to public service, yet, only a trifling 9 percent actually know how to go about finding a job in the nonprofit sector. On the other end, a MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures survey found that half of Americans between the ages of fifty and seventy years want jobs that contribute to the greater good now and in retirement.

So far, so good. But, the big questions remain. How can we translate this vision into impact? How can we build careers that are the most meaningful they can be?

These are the questions that have prompted a journey that I could have never imagined over the past year. And yet the answer can be summed up in two words: Be Bold.