It’s Not An Opportunity – It’s An Obligation

As you know, most blogs written on Live It Forward are written by me.  However, from time to time, I find something that impacts me so much that I feel obligated to share it with you. This is one of those times.

The following few paragraphs are taken from the stellar book by Seth Godin entitled Tribes:  We Need You to Lead Us. I highly recommend it!

Not too far from us, a few blocks away, there are kids without enough to eat and without parents who care. A little farther away, hours by plane, are people unable to reach their goals because they live in a community that just doesn't have the infrastructure to support them. A bit farther away are people being brutally persecuted by their governments. And the world is filled with people who can't go to high school, never mind college, and who certainly can't spend their time focused on whether or not they get a good parking space at work.

And so, the obligation: don't settle!

To have all these advantages, all this momentum, all these opportunities and then settle for mediocre and then defend the status quo and then worry about corporate politics–what a waste.

Flynn Berry wrote that you should never use the word “opportunity.” It's not an opportunity, it's an obligation.

I don't think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe possible.

– from Tribes by Seth Godin (pages 134-135)