I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.
How does the world change?
An event, circumstance, disaster, or similar can achieve this. Witness World War II, 9/11, and Covid.
A person with ill intentions can achieve this as well, witness Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Napoleon, and others.
And a person with enlightened perspectives is equally capable of accomplishing same, witness Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and others.
The reason I adore this aphorism is because the world seems to evolve with a spark that ignites. Peter Gabriel, in his song Biko, shines a spotlight on this phenomenon in his recount of the imprisoning of Steven Biko in S. Africa, and how his death created a movement that would not be extinguished. This song was written at an age for me in which everything was far more influential.
You can blow out a candle
But you can’t blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Changing the world for the better has been a life ambition for me. The opportunity to be influential in that regard has been a direct stimuli for the fortitude necessary to build Sizzle. With each and every aspect of our invention maturing, I continually put it through a filter of which components could be strong enough that, when paired with the right people and the right circumstances, could be viable enough to stimulate a positive change of magnitude. I have continuously felt that the right tool, paired with the right need can ignite changes of consequence that may potentially better the lives of millions.
In my quietest moments of self evaluation, I continue to put the choices we are making through that filter. Because, to Mother Teresa’s point… it is wholly immaterial to me if I personally accomplish this. It is absolutely imperative to me that I work to cast the stone that creates many ripples. If one of those ripples becomes the galvanizing variable that catapults humanity into a higher state of consciousness, then how amazing would that be?
In delivering these musings on a daily basis allows just one of them to light up an idea in the right person, just as the writers of each of the aphorisms have done for me, then I will have become a person who has cast a stone. And in the end, it is never the money, the fame or the glory that define greatness. It is the internal spirit that elevates as a result of the effort.
Every time I read one of these thoughts and allow their perspective to filter through my mind, and stimulate another musing…. The greatness of each of these people continues to elevate. It has zero financial upside. It defies glory or triumph. It is a cornerstone in the collective human spirit that so desperately teeters on the brink of annihilation. Thoughts are the genesis of change. They are the spark of evolution. They are the instigation of a cause that becomes so much larger than any one human being.
To me, that’s the prize. It’s a means of giving back for all of the wondrous experiences that life has been so gracious to allow me to enjoy and learn from.
If every one of us were to embrace that small detail. The idea that sharing positive ideas with others will network their way to the proper receiving minds and elevate them into action, imagine how much safer the world might become…
Happy Monday!
If you like what you are reading in the blog, you will even love the book more. Take a free preview below and watch the Sizzle Reel. It will give you a sense of how this book might be of help in your life when you are looking to make some tough decisions.
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