Compassionate Careers: Making a Living by Making a Difference
288
Compassionate Careers: Making a Living by Making a Difference
288Paperback(First Edition)
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Overview
Compassionate Careers is filled with examples of people who have meaningful jobs in cause-focused organizations. These stories capture their spirit, intelligence, imagination, and heart. The book is an inspirational guide to finding purpose-driven work and offers advice to anyone who feels that sitting on the sidelines is just not enough. It includes:
An old Yaqui Indian proverb reads, "If you have a choice of paths to take in life, take the path with a heart." Compassionate Careers will show you how.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781601633590 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 03/23/2015 |
| Edition description: | First Edition |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Alexandra Mitchell, MPA, has long been an advocate for young people and cause-focused endeavors. She has been a high school teacher, nonprofit leader, researcher, and organizational coach. Currently, Alex is the president of Pathfinder Solutions and teaches at the University of Colorado. She speaks nationally on talent development. Standford Social Innovations Review and Harvard University have published her work.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Path With a Heart
When you have a choice of paths to take, take the path with a heart.
— Yaqui Indian proverb
"I fell in love with Tarzan when I was 11. He had that wimpy wife, Jane, and I was incredibly jealous," Jane Goodall admitted when asked what first motivated her. "I thought that I'd be a much better mate for Tarzan myself."
Since then, Jane's fascination with chimpanzees and dedication to Africa have reshaped how the world thinks about environmental preservation. Jane's vision has inspired millions of people around the world for decades. For more than 55 years, she studied the behavior of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program, serves as a UN Messenger of Peace, and has won some 30 prestigious awards for her work in bringing to light the deeper qualities of nonhuman primates.
"All around the world people are realizing we have environmental problems and social injustices," Jane says, "but the greatest danger to our future is apathy. What is desperately needed is for people to believe that they can make a difference. Somehow we've got to get a critical mass, a tipping point of those who understand that the time for action is now. My mission is to give people hope."
This book is full of stories from amazing people like Jane. Some are famous, many not. These people have figured out how to use the working hours of their day to bring meaning to the rest of their life. By sharing these stories with you, we hope you'll benefit from what others have learned and begin to understand how you can navigate your own "path with a heart."
Ordinary people, extraordinary results
Most of the people we interviewed for this book did not begin with bold ambitions. Rather, the vast majority of them would blanch at the very idea that they are doing anything extraordinary.
Essentially every major social, political, and environmental breakthrough started as the vision of just a handful of people. Habitat for Humanity, for instance, was the brainchild of a couple who never imagined their concept would become a worldwide phenomenon. Most major movements have begun in this way — the result of a few individuals who had the audacity to invite others to join them. That's even more true today, as entrepreneurialism and technology synchronize to address global challenges.
"Heroes show us what's possible for a human being to accomplish. Therefore, heroes are very useful to anyone who is in the process of finally understanding self-motivation. But unless we consciously select our heroes in order to use them as inspiration, we simply end up envying great people instead of emulating them," Steve Chandler writes in his book, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agrees. "One concerned dedicated person can meaningfully affect what some say is a very indifferent world," she says. "Many individuals who have made significant contributions to their communities have done so in the course of ordinary life. In almost every case, major projects have simply started with a single individual who saw a great need and had the insight to envision a solution and the capacity to inspire others to help make that solution a reality. And you know what? Ideas are recession-proof, so we can keep those coming!"
Erick Ochoa started out in his father's carpenter's shop in Todos Santos, a treasure of a town on the tip of Baja California, Mexico. A local painter and sculptor discovered Erick's talent when he hired him to help him prepare clay. Impressed by Erick's gentle nature and search for purpose, the artist and his wife spent several years teaching Erick not only how to paint, but also how to speak English. Erick is now the president of the Palapa Society, a Mexican nonprofit focused on improving the lives of children in Todos Santos. The Palapa Society has grown tremendously throughout the past decade, now serving upward of 100 students in language and art programs, and providing scholarships for about half of them to pay for high school and get a university education. Erick and his team have also added a medical program, a community library, English classes for adults, a writer's workshop, environmental programs, an anti-graffiti campaign, and relief services following a devastating hurricane in 2014.
When they outgrew their original location in 2012, Peter Buck from the band R.E.M. took them under his wing. Peter started the now-annual Todos Santos Music Festival at the Hotel California, which raised $40,000 for the Palapa Society in its first year. In 2013, Mexican-American singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo donated the proceeds of his South by Southwest (SXSW) concert to the Palapa Society.
"I was very fortunate to learn the gift of mentorship," Erick says. "As a community, we believe the future of our pueblo and our world rests in the hands of our children. We are doing everything we can to make their lives more meaningful."
Alexis Owen woke up in the middle of the night with a vision that resulted in the September 11 Quilt Project. Then in her early 20s, after graduating from college in Colorado, she was trying to cut her teeth in New York City when 9/11 happened. Her vision grew into a giant American flag, a third of a football field in size, constructed of individually designed 8x8-inch squares of cloth that came from all over the world. As the quilt toured from city to city to commemorate those who died at the crash site of the Twin Towers, it touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people.
"If I can lie in bed and come up with this idea and make it happen, there's no reason anybody couldn't do the same," Alexis says. "I realized my power, my own personal ability to impact the world. Once you realize that, you can't not do it. It becomes a responsibility. I wouldn't categorize myself as heroic in any way, and I do remember literally lying on the floor, chewing my hair, thinking 'this is so damn difficult.' But it was a totally cathartic experience, and emerging at the end of it all was this new person I am today." In January 2014, Alexis replaced herself as the executive director of the Young Philanthropists Foundation. Her goal had always been to create a community asset that would outlive her, and she did just that. She's now running philanthropic services and corporate citizenship programs for a private bank called First Western Trust.
Jane was a scientist, Sandra a lawmaker, Erick an artist, Alexis an activist. Others are rabble-rousers who nudge governments and prod public opinion. The fall of communism started with a group of mothers in Eastern Europe who were so fed up with the polluted air and filthy water that they assembled in spite of laws that forbade them from doing so. They organized and spoke out. The mere fact that they challenged the government allowed others to realize that they could do so as well. The campaign to make AIDS drugs available in Africa was spurred on by three young women in the same way. These simple acts give substance to Walter Lippmann's concept of "indispensable opposition," which is the notion that we are better off with constructive debate that challenges convention and authority than we are without it. In the end, these simple acts conducted by ordinary people, whether in defiance or not, can have a huge impact on the world.
Listen to the river. Learn from it. — Siddhartha
Sometimes what's lost on us is our ability to communicate. Not just to express our selves explicitly, but to actively listen to what others have to say. Jeff was a river guide for many years. He led experiential learning and environmental education trips for disadvantaged youth and adults and became aware of how he relates to people. This is a letter he wrote to his daughter, Ashley, when she herself became a young river guide:
Listen to the river
The early season on the river was my favorite, with the cool days, high waters, and before the crowds. Tying in boats was a chore with stiff and chilled hands, but the birds and the flowers and the budding box elders and cottonwoods were beautiful, the pale greens giving way to summer's darker greens. The sun breaking through in the early afternoon took the edge off high winds and cold mornings.
I also remember the change in how I related to my passengers, or what river guides refer to as "peeps" — short for "people." In the beginning, we guides knew our place and the peeps knew theirs. We even had a mild contempt for our guests, thinking they were rookies, greenhorns. Each morning, we would start off with a reading or a poem to set the tone for the day. We'd always offer the opportunity for one of the peeps to hold forth on the beach in front of the loaded boats, but we never really meant it. "Would anyone like to share something this morning?" we'd ask. "No, no," the peeps would say. "You're the river guides, you do it!" So we would.
But one morning, on the Fourth of July, 1974, a nun from Chicago who was escorting a group of delinquents said that she would like to share something. The other guides and I took a step back, mildly chagrined at the notion that someone else was taking our place. The nun then proceeded to sing "God Bless America" — in not too great of a voice, but a profound insight struck me at that very moment. I had never before really understood that each person who comes on a river has his or her own story, with unique talents and things that are special to them.
For many, the river is an alien experience — being outdoors, coordinating actions, setting up for a rapid or setting up their tent. But I began to admire the peeps for being willing to try something new, to take risks. And I realized that as I blocked people, made assumptions, judgments, belittled them, or built my own little world of self-importance or indulgence, that I would be guilty of prejudice and lose the opportunity to enter the realm of relationship — where people add to each other, gain from each other. "Listen to the river. Learn from it." Siddhartha had kicked me in the ass!
It's too easy to exclude people in our lives. Maybe it's because of their language, lack of money, where they were born, or what clothes they wear. The list goes on and on. It's important to watch whom we exclude and why. Who knows how we would react if the Dalai Lama came on a trip incognito? He'd look like a little old man and perhaps would not have the right gear, and he'd have a funny accent. Would we see him as an annoyance or would we encourage him to share his gifts, insights, and wisdom? My hope for you is that you enjoy this time, listen to the river, and learn from it.
Love, Dad
Why this, why now?
As we've talked to a thousand or more young people in our high school and university classes and elsewhere, most of them can't name living social heroes. It's always Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr. All dead. One goal of this book is to introduce you to contemporary examples of people doing great things for the common good.
We're in the midst of a huge demographic shift. In the United States, there are 75 million Baby Boomers on their way out of the workforce and about 80 million distinctly different and far more diverse young people moving in: the Millennial generation — people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. This creates an interesting scenario.
To begin with, young people tell us they are a bit pissed off; they grew up in an age of terrorism, climate change, student debt, and divorce. And while earlier generations were compelled to demand equal rights, these young people expect equal rights. What's more, a 2013 unemployment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unemployment among young people is at 16.3 percent, more than twice the overall rate. Another issue is that many in the general populace think Millennials are lazy, are pretentious, and that they spend more time checking their online status than learning about current events.
Conversely, there are many people who say they are the most generous and harmonious generation ever. According to a broad study conducted by Euro RSCG Worldwide in 2010, the vast majority of young people in this age range consider it their duty to "make a difference in the world." Another study found that even with the uncertain economy, many young adults want to find something beyond "just a job," and that three-quarters of them would quit their current jobs if they found the right opportunity — or that they'd stay if they felt the company they work for was committed to environmental and social change, and provided opportunities for them to have a part in that. A recent article in Fast Company urges employers accordingly: "The talent you want would be happy to work in an un-air-conditioned garage in New Mexico if it meant the chance to change the world."
We'd be hard-pressed to prove any negative generalizations about this enormous number of young people; how much more constructive, then, to affirm and encourage the positive stereotypes to become self-fulfilling prophecies?
Something new, something different
"If you want something new, you need to stop doing something old," says leadership guru Peter Drucker. But people don't necessarily know the options that are available to them. There are millions of nonprofits, foundations, and corporate social responsibility and social enterprise organizations across the globe that present fulfilling career opportunities. Real jobs. Most people know about volunteer work, but awareness of paid cause-focused positions and "compassionate careers" is next to nil. In survey responses we collected from more than 2,500 nonprofit and foundation leaders, about a third of whom were under age 40, 96 percent said that neither a counselor nor a teacher had ever suggested this sector to them.
When we surveyed 1,532 young people across three states about charitable, nonprofit organizations, one-quarter couldn't identify a single one, and half couldn't name three. So if you're about 16 to 32 years old, this book is written especially for you! We hope you will consider compassionate careers as you plan for your future.
Our secondary motivation for writing the book is to urge you to change the perceptions and nature of the cause-driven sector itself. As we've worked in this field for decades, or, as Jeff likes to say, since the dinosaurs roamed, we're acutely aware of both the sector's strengths and its challenges. We recognize that the path to a compassionate career is riddled with holes. Our aim is to help fix the path and to mobilize you — to urge you to see that you can change the world.
You may have watched Dan Pallotta's TEDTalk: "The way we think about charity is dead wrong," he says. "Let's change the way we think about changing the world." He exposes the bind we impose on nonprofits when we praise them for spending the least amount of money possible, instead of acknowledging and rewarding them for the amazing work they get done — the critical work, the most important work, the stuff that keeps us alive as a species, and that brings our moral principals to bear.
Our greatest fear is that we will die with the music still inside us.
— Dan Pallotta
Ultimately, our vision is for people of all walks of life to feel empowered to create the world they want to live in. We welcome you to see and share the gifts you have to offer to the world. A million Millennials making waves. That's our goal!
Discover the fastest-growing workforce
Many people aren't aware of the variety of compassionate careers that exist. Cause-driven organizations offer unique job opportunities for young people. These organizations range from CARE International, with thousands of employees, to three people running an organization that delivers food packages to people after an earthquake. In the U.S. nonprofit sector alone, there are estimated to be 2.3 million nonprofit agencies, of which 1.6 million are registered as tax-exempt with the IRS. That's about one nonprofit for every 175 Americans, employing 13.7 million people, and accounting for nearly 10 percent of the nation's workforce. In fact, nonprofit workers outnumber the combined labor pool of the utility, wholesale trade, and construction industries.
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of nonprofits in the United States grew by 24 percent, according to the Urban Institute. This growth rate is substantially higher than in either government or business, although more college grads are seeking employment in government as well.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Compassionate Careers"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Jeffrey W. Prior and Alexandra Mitchell.
Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword 13
Preface 15
Chapter 1 Path With A Heart 17
Chapter 2 Overcoming Social Stigmas 33
Chapter 3 Change Begins With a Spark 63
Chapter 4 Turning Angst to Action 87
Chapter 5 Explore Your Options 109
Chapter 6 Navigate by Choice or Chance 137
Chapter 7 Jobs Without Borders 163
Chapter 8 The River Keepers 193
Chapter 9 A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started 223
Resources 239
Notes 265
Index 275
About the Authors 281
What People are Saying About This
It's no accident that the world's happiest and most successful people all seem to have one very important thing in common—they chose a life of passion and purpose, not paycheck. Compassionate Careers is an intimate look into how many fascinating people have achieved the well balanced life, and how you too can reach the same plateau. If you want to turn your career into the vehicle you ride into an amazing future, this book is for you.
—Jeff Hoffman, Co-Founder of Priceline.com
The generation coming up is the most optimistic and idealistic group of people that I've ever run across and it's really encouraging. What we're seeing is that a sense of being socially responsible is increasingly a ticket to play for employers to hire the best and most talented people. And life's too short for you not to wholeheartedly pursue something that you're gifted at and have a passion for. How much of your life do you want to spend doing something that really doesn't give you a sense of fulfillment? If you find the right mission, and the right role within that mission, that's such a powerful thing. But Compassionate Careers also does a favor for people in that it's not candy coated. There are real tradeoffs, and it helps people think about how to navigate that path.
—Jonathan Reckford, CEO, Habitat for Humanity
What I see when I look into the eyes and hearts of the people who serve is JOY. My invitation to you is to join them on the path with a heart.
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I'm a hopeful, optimistic person and I want to help people understand that it's not too late to save the world if we all get involved, roll up our sleeves and do something about it ourselves. We've got to realize that our own life and the choices that we make actually make a difference. Somehow we've got to get a critical mass, a tipping point of particularly young people who understand that the time for action is now.
—Jane Goodall, author of In the Shadow of Man