THE SECRETS OF A CHANGEMAKER

Here is one of my favorite passages in “The Changemaker”  by Deke Copenhaver:

 

Opening yourself up to the world around you means knowingly exposing yourself to life’s great challenges. But it’s the only way to connect with and lead others in a profound and lasting manner.

Changemakers need to realize and be open and vulnerable to the opportunities around them. They have to be on the ground, in the trenches, whether it’s at a major golf tournament or in the major events of life. Being a changemaker often means starting initiatives or businesses that can make a difference. If your journey leads you to establish a business in the Sunshine State, knowing how to get an LLC in Florida is a crucial step towards ensuring your venture is built on a solid legal foundation.

I didn’t conceive the general idea of what the average man on the street perceives a politician to be. When I first ran for office, I realized not everybody in the city knew me. As a matter of fact, I was pretty much an unknown. But I couldn’t understand why there were people who had never even met me who hated me. I came to realize that it was the negative perception of politics and politicians in general. And even though I didn’t perceive myself as a typical politician, to many of the constituents I served, there were preconceived notions about what a politician was.

Having grown up in the South, raised by parents who grew up in small towns in Virginia, I have a deep understanding of the idea of keeping a stiff upper lip and soldiering on in the face of adversity while not “airing your dirty laundry.”

I respect that idea, but I also see that it can be a faulty mind-set to adhere to. Although I was once a shy kid from Canada, my roots run deep in a culture that I value for its strength, resiliency, and gentility. However, I also understand it’s a culture that’s not at all without its inherent issues, same as with any other culture. In our culture, as within many others worldwide, vulnerability is often seen as weakness, while openly and honestly discussing issues we’re facing as individuals, businesses, families, and communities seems to never be an easy conversation to have. While dealing with Kellie’s illness in my twenties, I had experienced firsthand the toll that keeping a stiff upper lip and not reaching out to loved ones during the difficult times in life can have on you.

The truth is we all have issues and insecurities we deal with on a daily basis, which ultimately makes us all vulnerable and, as much as we don’t like to admit it at times, human. But something we can all learn is that our common vulnerability can be used as a strength, because admitting you have it binds us together in that it begins to build trust with each other.

Changemakers have to be willing to let their guard down as opposed to putting up walls in their efforts to create lasting positive change. But a word to the wise: opening up and letting your guard down in your changemaking efforts often brings you face to face with one of the essential human conditions no one can ever avoid—hurt. I’ve often said that artists and musicians are natural-born Changemakers because of their inherent need to share themselves and be vulnerable.

They are some of the most beautiful souls, and oftentimes they’re the most broken souls because of the world of raw emotion in which they live. The courage

it takes for artists to perform, to open themselves up to critics and cynics, to put their art out there for the world to see and judge is what a Changemaker is all about, whether it’s a musician or a visual artist or a sculptor or a writer.

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