Patrick Mosher left his consulting job at Accenture to focus on making a real difference. He built a network of 2,200 contacts from his life and work, arguing that small actions matter when multiplied. His message: have faith in yourself and keep going, even when the problem feels too big.
Chapters
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate harmony in the world right now? 1 being low, 10 being high. I've asked my friends, family, and my Wisdom for Humanity community this question, and most rate world harmony pretty low right now. There's so much going on. No need to drag you down by listing all the things, but my next question typically is, so what are you doing to raise world harmony? I asked a colleague, a very conscious human being, socially responsible and acutely aware of what's happening in the world. His heart is breaking. Where do I begin? I'm overwhelmed. Whatever I do won't make a difference, and I'm so busy with everything I can't do anything. My to-do list is so full. One more thing will break me, just break me. I could feel a combination of tears mixed with anger bubbling up. Any action I take is small, too small to make a difference. It's like spitting into the ocean. Like spitting into the ocean. As a result, you stop. Please don't. Don't let overwhelm stop you from taking the first step. Don't buy into the argument that you're too young or too old are not influential enough to make a difference. So what can you do? Well, my suggestion is to turn to that big ocean, peer into the sun glimmering off the water, listen to the continuous flow of the waves, smell and taste the fresh salt, lean back and spit. I left a job I loved at Accenture to fundamentally change how I was giving back to my family, my community, and my profession. I was going to change the world for good. But how was little old me going to change the world for good? Well, I made a list, a comprehensive list of all the people from my life experiences. Clients and colleagues from my 28-year consulting career. Friends from my 25 years participating in ceremony on Pine Ridge Reservation. Fellow Franciscans since my first national convention in 1972 in Pennsylvania. College friends from my 10 years and 3 degrees at Purdue, school buddies from grade school and high school, and of course family—brothers, sister, aunt, nieces, nephews, and cousins. I put all the names on a spreadsheet, 850 in all, and I called this list the 850. This is my power network. Just activate this network and surely we can make a difference. Upon leaving Accenture, I joined a mastermind group to learn how to be an entrepreneur, and that list expanded. As I reached out to the 850, the list expanded. So the 850 is now the 2,200. If you're reading this blog post, there's a high probability your name is on my list. So la-di-da, you're on Patrick Mosher's list. So what? Well, thank you, by the way. Look, I won't make much of a difference in the world myself, but I'm 100% positive the 2200 can. You are my team. Together, I'm more than confident that we can change the world for good. Wait, wait, wait. What's that? What's more than confident? Well, spitting into the ocean and expecting results goes way beyond confidence. It requires faith. And I have faith in you. You make a difference every day. And I have faith that together we can make a huge difference. Not only can we change the world for good, we can alter the course of human history. How? Well, this blog post you're reading or listening to right now is my spit into the ocean. Every week I cast wisdom into the world. Am I sure that it has significant impact? No. But I have complete faith that it does and will. If one idea here makes you think a little different, gives you a little hope, that ray of hope ripples and spreads into the world. If I get one person, just one person, saying this blog post made a difference, well, I'll write one next week. Just one. Gives me hope. Please be that person. So let me know what your spit into the ocean was today. Was it a happy birthday post on social media? Sitting with your dog to watch the sun go down? Raising your hand to volunteer? Or maybe it was just a random act of kindness for a stranger. Look, you may never know if it made a difference, but you did it anyway. So I'd love to hear what you do to make a difference. Those little things you do. Yep, that's how you spit into the ocean. Have faith, because we are changing the world for good.
