The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change

by Adam Braun

I was just a regular guy with $25 who wanted to prove that regardless of age, status, or location, every person has the capacity to change the world.

believe that where you start in life should not dictate where you finish.

The biggest difference between the person who lives his or her dreams and the person who aspires is the decision to convert that first spark of motivation into immediate action.

Children want nothing more than their parents’ approval,

Dad’s Rules meant “Don’t do anything that you wouldn’t do if Dad were watching. Choose your actions as if Dad were next to you the whole time.”

“why be normal.”

That sense of purpose enabled her to survive through conditions in which many others perished.

Reminds Viktor Frankl

They saw the chance to realize their American dream and asked us to take them in as their legal guardians within the United States so they could attend our local public high school.

Family supports noutsiderzs

In middle school I opened an E*TRADE account to buy and sell shares of Gap and Nike. By the time I was sixteen I started working at a hedge fund during my summer break, trying to learn everything I could about the financial markets.

At 16 i wasnt aware that share market exist. your surrounding plays vital role in your development

I developed an entrepreneurial instinct and started a revolving door of small businesses. My first paid job at age twelve was manual labor, cleaning people’s yards and moving their furniture for $6 per hour.

Many govt school children work at this age. What they lack is information and opportunities

My desire to become an investment banker led me to study economics at Brown.

Tell students to take subject that will help their passion

My family and friends thought my grand plan was aligning perfectly, but internally I was beginning to ask fewer questions about money and more questions about meaning.

Looking for purpose matters a lot

movie called Baraka

started to explore my spirituality and faith.

Scott Harrison John Wood Greg Mortenson Adam Brauns Palekar all had one common thing Spiritual Inclinations

I read books like On the Road, 1984, and Man’s Search for Meaning, each of which encouraged individuality and discovery of purpose.

I began to see that success in life isn’t about conforming to the expectations of others, but about achieving personal fulfillment.

True self-discovery begins where your comfort zone ends, and mine was about to end far more quickly than I’d anticipated.

Before I got on the ship, I had decided I would ask one child per country, “If you could have anything in the world, what would you want most?” This would give me a chance to connect with at least one kid in every country.

Listening intensely is a far more valuable skill than speaking immensely.

For me that pencil was a writing utensil, but for him it was a key. It was a symbol.

Every great inventor, architect, scientist, and mathematician began as a child holding nothing more than a pencil. That single stick of wood and graphite could enable him to explore worlds within that he would never otherwise access.

DO THE SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE OTHERS FEEL BIG

Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF), which provides housing, education, food, and life-skills training for kids in the most impoverished communities.

It was such a small thing, but those business cards were the best gift I’d ever received.

Business cards to volunteers gives sense of ownership

Purpose can manifest from so many different places, but it most often appears through the small things that enable us to feel connected to a broader whole.

I was a traveler, one who sought to experience more than just churches and museums. I wanted to see each country through a local’s eyes, and something about the humility in this man’s voice made me curious.

For years I had struggled with intense feelings of guilt. I was born into the lottery of life with a winning ticket—a loving family, great education, good health. But what had I done to deserve any of it? Why was I born into those blessings when so many others were born into suffering? Why was I born into a booming city when others are born into villages without electricity or water in war-torn nations? I was reluctant to admit it, but I felt that I owed something to those who were less fortunate, because in my mind I had never done anything to earn the good fortune I enjoyed.

We create a cruel cycle of dependence.

Dont give fish; teach fishing

He showed me the essence of leadership by forging into the unknown so that others could follow. He taught me to approach each new person I met with the dignity he or she deserves.

Can you tell what you learn from others

Find your passion, and you’ll find your strength.

My work wasn’t perfectly aligned with my passion yet, but I now knew that when an opportunity presented itself, I would seize it without hesitation.

We excel in the work we dont like. We should consider it as preparatory ground. Instead We forget our passion.

Linus Foundation, a nonprofit started by students

People think big ideas suddenly appear on their own, but they’re actually the product of many small, intersecting moments and realizations that move us toward a breakthrough.

Clearly my closest friends would help throw more parties to raise funds, but a small leadership team started to develop as well that was interested in more than just our events.

Form a team

Most ventures fail in the early stages because people stop trying after they’re told no too many times.

list an audacious fundraising goal

This is common practice im seeing

It’s in the moments when you feel most confident that you are most likely to fall flat on your face.

We face accidents only when we drive well

In truth we re-create our reputation every day.

if 10 percent or more of the total project was funded by the village itself through contributions of raw materials and physical labor. This would ensure their sense of ownership, and more important, it would increase their commitment to sending their kids to the school once it opened.

I pulled on my sunglasses and looked out the window, hoping the others in the car wouldn’t notice the tears streaming down my face. This school, my dream, was happening right in front of me.

Bob Anderson, the founder of Community Learning International,

Sometimes you know something in your head, and other times you know it in your heart. The mind delivers logic and reason, but the heart is where faith resides. In moments of uncertainty, when you must choose between two paths, allowing yourself to be overcome by either the fear of failure or the dimly lit light of possibility, immerse yourself in the life you would be most proud to live.

The more we speak in the voice of our most aspirational self, the closer we pull our future into our present.

at the brightest rainbow I’d ever seen, and learned that when one family in a village decides to build a new home, the community as a collective participates in the project.

Heard this in Ar.P also

safe transportation is something many parents must consider when deciding whether to send their child to school;

Factorz to be considered for safe learning

David Booth, a brilliant British civil engineer who founded an NGO called the East Bali Poverty Project.

Many Western organizations never transition leadership into local hands, which in my eyes demonstrated a lack of commitment to long-term sustainability.

Good point. Always develop local leadership

Joel Puac had once instructed me to always walk with a purpose. If you look like you know what you are doing, people will assume the same.

Agatha Thapa, who in the 1970s founded the organization Seto Gurans, which now delivers early-childhood-education programs in villages across fifty-nine of Nepal’s seventy-five districts.