Change Your World summary

A man walks along a windy beach that is full of starfish washed up by a storm. He sees a boy tossing the starfish back into the sea one by one and asks him why he’s bothering. After all, there are thousands of starfish on the beach and the boy can’t possibly save them all. The boy replies, “I can’t save them all, but I can make a difference to this one starfish.”

This well-known story about the boy and the starfish contains powerful truths about how activism works. You can’t save the whole world, at least not all at once. But you can start somewhere. By leaping into action you will inspire other people to do the same.

Sam Yoder is a small business owner who was one of many affected by the relentless spread of the coronavirus in March of 2020. As Ohio shut down, he had sleepless nights trying to come up with ways to keep paying salaries for his 100-strong team. 

The solution came from an unexpected quarter: A printing company contacted him out of the blue; they asked if his company could help them to create plastic face shields – shields that were desperately needed by medical workers. The printing company had the raw materials, but no staff or production facilities. Sam and his staff needed no convincing. They converted their facility into a mask manufacturing warehouse, and managed to produce 35,000 masks every day. Not only could Sam cover his payroll, but company morale had never been higher as everyone pulled together to make a difference. 

The Occupy Wall Street protestors were full of passion. In 2011, they spent weeks sleeping in tents in a New York park. They chanted slogans until they were hoarse. They spent hours and hours in meetings and discussions. And their effort inspired a global movement. But the protests soon fizzled out. Why? 

Well, in spite of their commitment, the Occupy Wall Street protests never cohered around a clear goal. The protests targeted, variously, concerns about Wall Street corruption, income disparity, global warming, and a long list of other causes. But it’s not enough simply to be against something. Real transformation requires a positive goal toward which to work.

Imagine you’re out to lunch with a business leader who has approached you with an inspiring plan for changing the world. You’re completely entranced by his ideas and ready to sign on to his proposal when you notice that he’s short-changed the waitress. Suddenly, you have serious doubts about collaborating with him. 

No one can trust a leader who doesn’t have good values. That’s why embodying good values is essential for anyone who wants to be active in transforming the world for the better. 

When was the last time you sat down together with friends for a good talk? The kind where the food goes cold and the candles burn down while you’re discussing life together? 

Sharing meals is about much more than food. It’s about communicating with other people through good conversation. Conversation is a bridge to overcoming adversity and finding a way forward when you feel very stuck. Conversation allows you a chance to see each other’s points of views and acknowledge the reality of the situation, even when it feels very tough. 

Many activists and leaders evaluate how successful their actions have been by how they feel about them. But here’s the thing: feeling good about something isn’t the same as doing good. 

That’s something that author Rob Hoskins knows only too well. His team was working feverishly to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland, and were sure they must be making a difference. But official figures showed that rates of infections for HIV were actually going up. They were working hard, but they weren’t actually having the impact they needed to have.