Impact the World: Live Your Values and Drive Change As a Citizen Statesperson

by Carrie Rich, Dean Fealk, John C. Maxwell (Foreword)

Supercharge your impact on global issues and drive transformative change in the world around you

Impact the World: Live Your Values and Drive Change As a Citizen Statesperson is your motivational hands-on, "how-to" guide to becoming a superpowered individual committed to improving your community--and the world--through your values and actions. You'll discover why the intersection of a renewed civic spirit and new technologies empowering individuals at the local level equates to an unprecedented opportunity to channel global impact. .

From poverty and homelessness to violence and corruption, we often see challenges in the world around us and ask, "Why doesn't someone do something?" We look to people with more experience, or people with more influence, or people with more time or resources than ourselves to step up and find answers to some of our biggest problems. But what if we didn't wait for others? What if we stepped up, and looked for ways to employ our skills to solve the biggest and most complex problems of our time?

That's what leaders do. That's what citizen statespeople do.

This book is a call to action. From Latin America to Africa to the United States, from the private sector, to government, to the frontlines of social entrepreneurship, authors Carrie Rich and Dean Fealk explore the benefits and challenges of becoming a citizen statesperson, showing how to pull together disparate threads to solve pressing social, political, and economic challenges. You'll also discover:

The lifecycle of a citizen statesperson, including an enlightening discussion of how to build your personal brand Inspiring case studies of real-life citizen statespeople around the world Explorations of the new technologies that can be used to accelerate the impact of a citizen statesperson on the world
Simultaneously optimistic, inspiring, intensely practical, and engaging, Impact the World will earn a valued place in the libraries of civic leaders, activists, social justice advocates, business executives, politicians, volunteers, public servants, and anyone else looking for a way to magnify their influence and impact in any area that matters to them.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 22, 2022

About the author

CARRIE RICH is the co-founder and CEO of The Global Good Fund, a global nonprofit organization that has helped create thousands of jobs in underserved communities around the world. She is also the founder of the Global Impact Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in socially impactful businesses. Ms. Rich serves on the Board of Directors of Trinity Health and the Atlas Health Foundation. She is the recipient of The Daily Record’s Most Admired CEO, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award, and POLITICO Women Who Rule award. Ms. Rich lives with her husband and three young children in Maryland where they enjoy spending time together as a family in the countryside.

Reviews

[Christian Koehlerschmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be a great tool for establishing one's role as a citizen statesperson. The information is presented in a logical way, giving readers a step-by-step guide that addresses what to put effort into at each stage of a social venture’s development. There are many powerful anecdotes provided from the authors' point of view as well as others. They all detailed some sort of problem that they became aware of in the world, and how they tackled it through the use of various techniques of citizen statespersonship. The authors did a great job of emphasizing that making change isn’t easy, as solutions to social problems require lots of care and analysis. At some points though, I felt that the same narratives were being touched upon over and over again. The reiteration of these ideas made it a bit draining to read at times. There were also some pieces of advice provided by the authors that I found somewhat unrealistic. Citizen statespeople should aim to be passionate, hard-working, understanding, etc., but I don’t believe it's beneficial for them to strive for absolute perfection. Many anecdotes do show the benefits of taking risks in order to reach goals, however I think it's important to be realistic in your work.

I believe that this book would be best used by skimming through chapters for advice on a case by case basis. There is a great deal of valuable perspective and information within it that could be useful to readers tackling unique issues. Social entrepreneurship is a subject that is ideally taught through experience and field work, however Dean and Fealk were able to make it work in a literary context quite well.

[Hasan Jashari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is passionate about an issue and wants to do something about it! Carrie Rich and Dean Fealk take you on an inspiring journey on your path to becoming a ‘Citizen Statesperson.’ Do you want to become a social entrepreneur but do you not know where to start? Do you feel like you are not the right person or that you do not have the necessary skills to make a real difference in your community or the world? Read this book! I felt the exact same way but Rich and Fealk’s advice has given me the push I needed to take action. This step-by-step guide is easy to read and applicable to people from all backgrounds and walks of life, no matter whether you are a student or have decades of professional experience. Their chapters focus on different aspects of your journey as a change-maker (or citizen spokesperson as they call it); how to navigate technological change, gain confidence, build up your network, gain expertise, work together with established organizations, and much more. They cleverly alternate between historical context, real-life examples, theoretical discussions, motivational advice, and concrete action items you can take to put their advice into practice. All of this maks their book much more than a motivational guide; it will help you create a concrete action plan and will be greatly beneficial no matter what your goal is. It is so relatable, easy to understand, and I personally learned a lot from the book. I am sure anyone will have least one major take away from reading this!

[Eliana Morano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Impact the World. Before reading this book, I had never heard of a citizen statesperson and I had not previously learned very much about the social side of entrepreneurship. I thought reading this book was a great way to not only learn about the world of social entrepreneurship, but also to learn how to get started in that world. Before I began reading the book, I was skeptical about how helpful it could actually be. It can be easy for already established entrepreneurs to speak very vaguely about how everyone can work hard and do what they do. However, Carrie and Dean break the path of social entrepreneurship down into manageable and realistic pieces. In essence, the two authors really teach you how to take meaningful, accessible first steps. Thus, I was happy to find that this book was actually much more helpful than I had originally thought it might be. Besides being informative and helpful, the book was also really inspiring. In addition to Carrie and Dean’s own inspiring stories, the book also contained snippets of a lot of other inspirational stories as well. It was really cool to hear about how normal people, just like me, have been able to take a problem, find a solution, and really make a difference in the world. Thus, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how they too can begin to take meaningful steps into the world of social entrepreneurship.

[Haley Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

When considering your approach to impacting the world, a book like this can be very helpful. They identify ways to create sustainable social progress rooted in experiential learning, empathy, and the delegation to and empowerment of other individuals on the way. Reading the book, I continually felt like I was absorbing knowledge that I, perhaps intuitively, knew or have already heard. That being said, I also feel the challenge of expressing and analyzing what might be “intrinsic knowledge” is really helpful in the development of critical thinking and social reform. The authors provide a hearty amount of real life examples of the success of citizen state people throughout their 10 chapters, some entitled “you can do it” and “change starts with you.” This is where the book falls short. Without providing much tangible advice on the relationship between realism and optimism, they seem to lean into the clichés of bottom-up change and the power of hope while doing little to address systemic change. Rather, they encourage the keen participation in and the “leveraging” of “established institutions” whose “benefits and opportunities” can help a citizen statesperson to further their cause. I feel they make, too comfortably, the assumption that change need not be systemic in nature as well as the assumption that citizen statespeople will have ensured and continual access to those institutions.

[Niko Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found two really key ideas in this book. One, impact/change can begin now, and two, you can make this impact/change happen. These, to me, are the two most important ideas the authors are trying to convey. The authors want you to recognize that what seem like unbreakable barriers or unbridgeable gaps can actually be broken and bridged through effective and efficient work. This idea plays into their other main point, and they emphasize that this work can be done by you, the reader. Rich and Faulk are very keen on impact, regardless of scale. They simply want you to make things happen. To this end, they give you life and financial advice, along with a host of examples of people who followed this framework and achieved impact.
I would say this book is a good purchase. It is priced decently, and it is a relatively easy read. Beyond these considerations however, it is a very good jumping off point for the realm of social entrepreneurship, but can also be helpful for those who have done work in or been involved with social entrepreneurship. I would say the best quality about this book, and why I’m recommending it, is the effect it has on your confidence. I have worked in the field of social entrepreneurship, and I suffered (and still do to an extent) greatly because of very low confidence. This book makes you realize you can do these things, and that you can create change.

[Sophia Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impact the World was a fantastic read. As a college student currently learning about social entrepreneurship, the way that the authors bring in stories and provide in-depth steps to each of their tips was extremely helpful. It isn't easy to see positive progress in today's world at times. It seems as if everything is a competition, and people are so used to acting out of greed and self-benefit that they forget to act out of love. By this, I don't mean romantic love. I mean love that makes people work out of kindness and compassion. Those who take ideas and bring them to reality to help people instead of tearing them down. This is what Impact The World makes me hopeful for in the future. In providing examples and steps detailing how we can all be social entrepreneurs and make a substantial change by following several different fundamental principles, the authors inspire each and every one of us to stop waiting around for change and make it happen ourselves. If people acted the way that Carrie Rich shows them how to in this book, the impact that could be had on the world is so positive and will lead to a brighter future.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impact the World by Carrie Rich and Dean Fealk covers the idea that anyone can bocme a citizen statesperson and they provide very practical and relatable examples of how to achieve this. A citizen statesperson is anyone taking an active role in change that starts in their local community and expands to a more national and ideally global scale. It is about harnessing connections, time, effort, knowledge and money to drive change throughout the world. Before you dismiss this as some sort of idealistic hogwash you should read the book closer. They are VERY practical in what they lay out and offer concrete examples, strategies and ideas to advance a chosen cause. This is not about putting out one viewpoint but embarrassing a marketplace of ideas to bring people together. A very engaging read.

[Michaela Gualano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impact the World in terms of a starter guide is a well written book. But, where I struggled to get through the book is when it came to the more obvious and repetitive ideas that fall under the meaning of a citizen states-person. For example, in chapter 1 it defines the 10 key traits of a citizen states-person and then in the second chapter it defines what it takes to become a citizen states-person, in which majority of the main ideas (leadership, prioritization and openness) overlap. I felt that chapters 1,3,4,6, and 9 were the backbone to this book and all other chapters I believe can fall under subcategories.