Kehinde's Log

Last week I attended a ‘friend potluck’ - to bring, not to eat - put on by a group I’ve never heard of, the National Summit Toronto Network. Their goal was simply to bring together a group of somewhat like-minded folks working in non-profity circles to network. I rarely go to these things anymore, and when I’m nervous in public, I usually rely on inappropriate jokes that lack their usual timing, sweaty palms, and a general avoidance of eye contact. Good thing there was free beer. There weren’t more than 20-25 people, and most of them looked young and upwardly mobile. Some were selected to do presentations to the group, so we could all find out what they were doing, pondering, dreaming about without having to ask.

The funniest part to me was when one of the presenters went off on their belief in the young people and their ability to participate in democracy can reshape the national discourse - and so on - but somehow forgot to name her organization, or what they actually do. Oops?

The most frustrating part was when a guy talked about his plan to get corporations to pay professional consultants from the private sector to support non-profit groups. I kinda wanted to throttle him, but maybe that was just a beer-induced fantasy. My problem with that kind of thinking was the fact that many non-profits are already under-resourced, with the people working in them already grossly underpaid. His words kind of missed the point, and implied that the real value is in consultants and professionals, not the communities or the organizations that serve them. Anyway, I got to vent about it on Twitter later, and got retweeted lots and lots so I’m well over it now (What? Don’t act like you don’t like getting retweeted). 

What I liked the most: I got to spend some time chatting with one of the organizers, Heather Laird, who works for the Ontario Non-Profit Network. I admit that I know more about this ONN than the one she worked for, but the conversation was good all the same. You see, I have this idea in my head that the non-profit world can be pretty limiting and narrow in the types of change and innovation its systems allow. I’m starting to see that there’s a crop of young people just beginning to engage that world and are seeing the same thing. Talking to Heather was refreshing, because it appears that she sees a lot of potential for innovation if we allow ourselves get really creative. 

Going to this event helped me realize that there is a whole swath of young people from middle to upper class families that in another time would see no connection between themselves and the problems of the world. Normally, one would assume that they take the path of school, a professional career path (medicine, law, finance, etc), and happily ever after. But now many of them, connected through the web, inspired by world events, movies (could Hotel Rwanda [2004] have been a tipping point?), and corporatized public campaigns have disrupted the tried and true path. Looking at my own set of tea leaves, I see a whole new set of allies that desire changes to the status quo. I’ve written on this tumblr about the need for the place I work, Grassroots Youth Collaborative, to forge new paths that can support the people on the front-lines on the doing the work (by y’know, socially innovating. Lol). These allies may just be critical to our success.

Overall, I think its a great thing. During my time as a so-called youth anti-violence activist, I felt that things wouldn’t really change until mainstreamy Toronto noticed, and felt touched, empathetic, and motivated to address the systemic roots instead of being judgemental, uncaring, and fearful of poor communities affected by violent crime. There are many activists that spread messages of the injustices that exist in the world, but there aren’t enough people that actively put people in need into their hearts and say, ‘I’m going to care for you, and my love for you will spur me and others into action.’ Huge difference. But the dynamic’s changing. The walls between people from different walks of life are shattering. People are starting to see each other as they are and connect to them. The things we’ve been taught to believe about each other becomes a flimsy paper tiger in the face of shared realities. Don’t miss me: there’s still a lot of de-schooling that we all need to do to safely share the same spaces. But the innate human desire for connection trumps all, and has somehow, imperfectly, stubbornly brought us here. So what’s next?

Home on a Monday night, and all I can think about is work, as usual. The only thing that’s different is that I’m thinking about it in the broader sense. There are so many ideas that pass through us, and the reality is that only a few of them might get done within a week, month, or year. I find myself wondering where all those good ideas go. The unfinished, the incomplete, the ones never realized at all? At the same time I’ve been re-reading “Linchpin,” by Seth Godin. He goes in on the idea that it can’t be done, repeating the Steve Jobs phrase like a mantra, “Real Artists Ship.” Simply put, it means that it doesn’t matter how talented or gifted you are, unless you’re constantly producing. It’s made me reflect on all the times that I’ve attempted to start something new that didn’t make it out the door. It’s 2012, and I feel an anxiety sometimes about experiencing those disappointments again. But acknowledging the anxiety is the first step to blasting right through it. I don’t think its something one can ever get rid of, but to know that its there, and not let it change you, or steer you off course is the key. I have so many reasons/excuses to offer the world/myself, to explain away why something didn’t happen, but in reality I offer them before I haven’t done it, not after.

I’m aiming to increase my input this year, whether its recognized by others or not, whether its funded or not, because at this point I don’t have much to lose. I can do much more for the world than I already have, and its not enough to rest on the perception that I’ve already done more than many others.

The fear of success can be debilitating, although its ultimately our purpose in life to find success at something. Maybe people fear reaching the peak because we don’t know what’s next. I’d say once you reach that point you’ve always dreamed about, well, its time to dream bigger dreams.

Maybe I should put more of my ideas down online. Maybe it doesn’t matter if they get stolen or not. There will always be things that come from my own visions that can’t be replicated before I do it myself. If people pre-emptively copy what I do, I can use their initiative to test my own and refine the idea by observing it in the real world.

What if what they do is really successful? Um… I think there still may be some advantage for me here. By analyzing the prototype, I can begin to ask, how do I take what’s been created and make it better? It becomes a process of getting others to test your ideas for free, and potentially make them better in the process.

We already live in a time where so many things and ideas are shared much more freely than they used to, and innovation has always come from people being able to take different ideas and put them together to create something new. Check the video in my last post for an example.

Great ideas aren’t individual manifestations, but maybe we like to fuel the myths that make others think they are to boost our standing among our peers.

What do you think? Is it wise to share your ideas with others, before they’re fully formed?