Abled and eyes opened
Thanks to one leader, I now see my privilege in a new light
** I recorded an audio version of this issue if you’d prefer to listen: Apple + Spotify + Other **
Hi friends!
I hope you’re enjoying the onset of cooler weather. Frankly, it couldn’t happen fast enough for me. I’ll take 70 degrees in Atlanta over just about any place.
Before I jump into today’s topic, I wanted to share that my latest book, The Great Team Turnaround, is now available in all formats: hardback, paperback, Kindle, and Audible.
And I have an offer for you! If you do buy a copy and leave a review on Amazon, I’d be happy to send you a signed copy of my first book, The 5-Day Turnaround, in the mail. Just reply to this email with the proof (and your mailing address), and I’ll hook you up 😎
Understanding My Privilege
If you know my story, then you know that I first learned about my privilege during Leadership Atlanta in 2012. My class (as all classes do) went through a Race Awareness Weekend early in the program, and my life has never been the same. Coming out of that experience, I began to see just how privileged I am as a person.
Soon after, I defined my personal life Purpose - to have an outsized, positive impact on the world - and began figuring out how to do that. I’ve started four businesses since then (one for-profit, the rest nonprofits) and written three leadership books, all with the hope that they help me have that outsized, positive impact that I’m searching for.
When I would speak about my story, I would talk about the Leadership Atlanta experience and share that I realized I had every checkmark a person can have (unfairly) in our society: I’m white, male, straight, and Christian.
And then I met Aarti Sahgal…
In 2019, I founded my second nonprofit, Ripples of Hope. The idea is simple: help nonprofit leaders grow their businesses.
My experience with most small nonprofit leaders is that they’re some of the greatest humans on the planet. They’ve decided to dedicate their lives to helping others - what could be better than that? However, while nonprofit leaders are filled with passion and energy to do good, they often (but not always) do not come from a traditional “business leadership” background. They typically haven’t studied things like product-market fit, organizational growth, or entrepreneurship in any form.
They’re all heart. But oftentimes they have trouble growing and scaling their businesses, which is where Ripples of Hope comes in.
We started with a cohort of eight leaders, which quickly became six as two dropped out, and those six have worked together for almost two years. They are six of the most amazing individuals I’ve ever met, and you can learn more about them here.
Aarti Sahgal’s organization is called Synergies Work. Their Purpose is to build one world where people with disabilities belong. (How beautiful is that!)
As the mother of a young adult with Down Syndrome, Aarti believes in raising the bar for individuals with disabilities by challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations, and this drive led her to start the organization.
Working with Aarti over the last two years has opened my eyes to another area of privilege that I have: I am an abled person. I have no disabilities of any kind.
Synergies Work runs an incubator program for entrepreneurs with disabilities. I was asked to give a leadership talk to them a few weeks back, and it was such an honor talking with these incredible people. Five of the six people in the cohort I spoke to were blind, which was a new experience for me.
Please considering supporting Synergies Work!
Building Empathy at The Human Library…
Thanks to one of my sisters, I recently learned about The Human Library. As they say on their website:
The Human Library® is a not for profit learning platform, that has hosted personal conversations designed to challenge stigma and stereotypes since 2000.
Essentially, they allow guests to have conversations with people that deal with prejudice and stereotypes in our society.
There’s a section on the website where you can “meet our human books”. The list is long, ranging from people with ADHD and Autism, to people who are HIV+ or those that are experiencing homelessness. Just scrolling through the list of these “human books” is a great way to remind us all of how privileged we really are.
The Point
Thanks to Aarti, I now speak of my privilege as such: I’m white, male, straight, Christian, and I have no disabilities.
Only…
I was sharing this with my 16-year old, who reminded me that I’m also Cisgender, meaning my gender identity matches the one I was given at birth. He also mentioned that it might be better to state that I’m a Protestant instead of a Christian because Catholics certainly have been prejudiced against in our society (I should have remembered that from all the reading I’ve done on JFK and how hard he fought against anti-Catholic sentiment). But I think that might be splitting hairs, so for now I’m sticking with Christian.
Obviously, if I continued this process, I’d likely have a few paragraphs of descriptors to list my many privileges. For the moment, I’ll now stick with this:
I’m a cis, white, straight, Christian, male with no disabilities.
I’m on a journey of building empathy. It’s something I have to proactively focus on because my privilege does not allow me to easily see just how many advantages that I have, and so I have to constantly be searching and growing.
When asked by someone what I wish the most for my children, I always say the same thing. First, of course, is health. But after that, I hope more than anything that my children grow into empathetic adults.
To me, empathy is the cure for so many of life’s injustices. I believe that people who may seem hardened or otherwise uninterested in helping others if they were able to see the world from someone else’s vantage point, their hearts would turn. Because everyone, even if it’s deep down, wants to be good.
I hope you’re happy,
Jeff
PS - (this is my favorite “empathy” dad joke: If you want to criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away, and you have their shoes.)
Recent podcasts
I produce a podcast called, Begin the Begin. I hope you'll consider subscribing. Here are the latest episodes:
“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space!” (with Keith Millner)
Creating a Village of Courageous People (with Nathaniel Smith)
Allyship, purpose, entrepreneurship, and so much more, with Sequoyah "DataBae" Glenn
Talking B Corporations and Conscious Capitalism (with Nathan Stuck)
Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Community Groundwork, and so much more(with Nina Smith)