Remarkable Work

6/09/2015

I recently discovered the remarkable work of Seth Godin.  Seth is an American author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker [1]. His work has inspired me, and in particular the following few words ignited it all.  In one of his talks, Seth mentions a quote by a great friend,  

“I have no doubt that people in this room will succeed, the question is are you going to matter?  I hope you will. ”  [2]

I reflect back on why we decided to launch Wingpact.  Clearly we were successful in our lives, and could have been very comfortable, enjoying the time we have.  Time, after all, is the most precious resource we have, ever more so than capital.  Instead, we chose to stay up late after our kids go to sleep, squeeze in conference calls right after a 10-hour work day, burn the midnight oil to write (or rewrite and rewrite) a few more words, ideate all day on giant post-its boards on inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem models, reiterate on the right look and feel of our brand identity and logo, get google-eyed with legal contracts and financial projections – all in hopes to inspire a few more women to not only be successful, but to matter.   

In fact, there is no shortage of women’s events – talking about gender imbalance is not new news.  It is an ordinary idea.  If you really want, you can fill up your calendar every night of the week, finding other women to talk about women’s issues with.  And I have to say, after many of these nights, on one  particular evening, Geri Stengel said something very clever (and in hindsight, so obvious) to our team.  “We have to stop talking to ourselves!”  It was followed by ALL of our giggles, but it was so true.  We knew exactly what she was talking about.  Which leads me to the second quote by Seth that rings true for why we started Wingpact.

“The easiest thing is to react.  The second easiest thing is to respond.  The hardest thing is to initiate.”  [3]

We have done a hard thing - initiate to mobilize a community of women to get involved.  Wingpact is at its core a social network to inspire and mobilize women to invest to create impact.  

The Clayman Institute for Gender Research coined a new way of rethinking time, as “multipliers”. [4]  For example, if you join a running club with your friends, you are socializing and exercising in the same activity -  you have created a multiplier.  It’s important to note that multipliers are distinct from multi-tasking. In order for it to be a multiplier, the two different activities have to add to the effectiveness of each other, and your presence in each activity is not diminished.  Likewise, Wingpact, as a community to connect women from all over the world, who have a desire to matter, through their investments,  has the multiplier effect of a social network and investing to create impact.   

As we continue to work on the vision for Wingpact, tell us about your thoughts on how to build a social network that is remarkable for you.  I will leave you with a third piece of wisdom from Seth - we are in a “century of idea diffusion,” and “for ideas to diffuse, they have to be remarkable.”  [5]







[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Godin
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76qx7ZzFs4
[3] http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/reacting-respon.html
[4] http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2013/multipliers-are-key-rethinking-time
[5] http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread?language=en

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