When it comes to a life of making change, there are no shortcuts. It is hard work, but it is time well spent.

→ Jacqueline Novogratz, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution

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I hope when we look back at this time that we see 2020 as a catalyst. I hope we look back & know that it was the year we finally came face-to-face with the many ways our tendency toward short-term thinking has led us astray.

The short-term thinking that puts people over profits & politics over progress. The short-term thinking that puts a premium on convenience & instant gratification, regardless of what it does to our health & well-being. The short-term thinking that amplifies fear & quiets questions, that optimizes for clicks, likes, & followers over actual connection & actual satisfaction.

I know that's a big lift. I know change comes slowly & that the status quo has a strong gravitational pull. I know it feels impossible to sort out even where to begin.

But despite all the talk of systemic change in our politics, our health care system, our policing, our culture, the only place to begin is within ourselves.

Because culture is pulled in the direction we push it. If enough of us push for patient progress, for conscious & generational investment, then we will, all too slowly, begin to pull things in the right direction.

You & I can't change culture, but we can change ourselves.

When enough people do that, culture changes.

I hope when we look back on this time we see 2020 as the year each of us determined to take more seriously the responsibility we have to positively influence the world around us. That we fulfill our potential of doing so by modeling the behavior, the posture, & the decision-making of a true leader.

The first rule of leadership is that you must go first.

I hope you do.

We need you.