The nonprofit sector can be a bleak world. Involvement forces you to see the world through the lens of particular societal ills, be it unemployment, poverty, genocide, breast cancer or heart disease.
With my friend Augustine (left), in Ghana, 2002. When naive optimism was my standand.
As a rookie to these causes it’s easy to be optimistic–my generation will solve all these problems, and some! But slowly the optimism of youth wears away, and the complexity and inertia of human tragedy becomes real.
Many burn out. Many quit. Young hippies grow old, convince themselves the world’s fucked and turn into self-serving profit machines.
But stop. Look at this world. The number of people suffering through war is down. Billions have been lifted from poverty. Incomes are on the rise in Africa. Health care is getting better. Fewer people are dying young. Hope is there.
Yes, change doesn’t occur just because you hope it will. It takes time to understand complex problems and develop appropriate solutions. But it can occur. The maturation of a ‘public servant’–in the true sense of the phrase–comes from shedding the unrealistic and naive optimism of youth and replacing it with a mature and complex understanding of real change.
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I left the non-profit sector to work with a for profit company (if you can call the Music Industry for profit!). I decided to leave shortly after visiting children in a landmine victim rehabilitation centre in Colombia…I felt as though I was not mature enough or comfortable enough with myself to work in such a taxing environment. Had I stayed in my position, I believe it would have led to the detriment of my personal being - something which I was not willing to sacrifice. Cocky, yes. Correct decision for me, definitely.