I’m at the Unreasonable Institute in Boulder as a mentor this week, and later today I’ll be giving my take on the presentation that has kicked off the stay of each of the several dozen mentors that they have hosted this summer. Since it’s the end of the program, I’m going to go a little meta and talk about the big, meaty bet we’re all making on our generation to change the world.
A Unique Combination of Influences. Our cohort grew up with a strange combination of influences. We got a big dose of the holdover idealism of the 1960s generation. At the same time, we got the skepticism that characterized the boomer echo and Gen Xers. The important thing about this combination is that it has predisposed us to be critical and not shy about critiquing organizations driven by good intentions rathe than real impact, while keeping us generally idealistic and optimistic about the value of social change efforts.
A Strange Historical Moment. The 1990s was a truly weird moment in history. The Cold War ended, and as much as it was supposed to be the glorious ‘end of history,’ it actually was the most violent, turbulent decade since WWII. As we started to get into college in the 2000s, and — in many cases prompted by the horror of September 11th — looked back to see the real state of the world, many of of us found that what we remembered and what we experienced was vastly different than what most of the world was experiencing.
At the same time, the internet was creating the architecture for an expansion in human capacity and human connection unlike anything in history. Travel was becoming easier, and the end of the Cold War had seen an explosion in global civil society and nonprofit organizations.
Learning in Person. Taking advantages of these opportunities, our generation has had consistently growing rates of volunteerism. Study abroad is growing on just about every campus, and the places that people are going and the types of programs they’re studying in are expanding just as rapidly. There is no learning as essential as learning directly from people experiencing the problems, and we’ve been fortune to have a lot of that very early.
A Growing Support Structure. Importantly, along with the growth in young people getting their hands dirty with social change has been a boom in the institutions that are designed to support that work by critiquing it, contextualizing it, and offering it new expression. Undergraduate centers, incubator and accelerator programs, training conferences – there is an entire ecosystem of organizations working to make sure that young people’s efforts have the impact they wish.
Aligned Frameworks. As there has been an expansion in youth engagement, there has also been an expansion in social change efforts of all types. The heightened prominence of “social entrepreneurship” has enabled young people to tap into a language and a field that takes their work out of the context of young do gooders and actually involves them in the global conversation about how best to change the world.
Global Peers. If most of what is discussed here refers to a specific subset of the generation — namely a certain class of American young people — the global peer infrastructure is changing rapidly, and from internet communicaton to global conferences, young people who may have a different history but share a common future are finding one another and letting themselves be influenced by one another.
A Question of “Success.” No generation has ever had as much of what it needs to change the world so early. In the long-run, however, whether we live up to that promise will be largely based on how we define success in our personal lives, and how that translates to our professional endeavors. If we decide in five years that money and comfort is the primary objective, we’ll compromise left and right and quickly learn to the next group to pick up where we left off. If, instead, we define success to include not only money but impact and engagement, it will change the entire structure of our economy.
Photo credit: Mikael Miettinen
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Luz
The Thought Provoking, Irreverent Pearl Necklace Grandmother of the 21st C. Paradigm Shifter, Poet, Storyteller, Marketer, Visionary, Blogger, Coach. Mrs. Fire
“50/50 The Magic of the Middle Line”, Experience Coaching”
Founder Soul Hangout & Co-Creative Circles of Coherence, Soul Mastermind Groups. Consciously Connecting & Combining Intelligence with a touch of “Curry”. The 7 “C”‘s of the 7 Condiments of Cooperation
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Ari Galper, the Pioneer Visionary Sales Guru of the 21st C, who dared to bring truth and humanity to the sales equation." Luz is a precious gift to the world. She has single handedly changed hundreds of lives of our Unlock The Game Inner Circle members.
She has an effortless and natural ability to help people see the truth of why they are struggling and then provide a logical path to happiness, authenticity and success. If you get the chance to work with Luz (I know she has a long waiting list of clients), then grab it while you can!"
Suffice it to say, Luz, that you are on my “Top 10 List of Love & Power-filled Women Role Models”. You delightfully epitomize a woman who seamlessly blends ’spirituality’ with Divine power and fun humor…a far cry from the dour, pious saint of yester-century! A new breed of spiritual personification is permeating our present century, and she wears a huuuuuuuuge smile! Thanks so much for being one of her faces!
I especially want to single out Luz Aguirrebena. I’ve only spent a couple sessions with her on the mindset chat forums but can say that these two hours have been worth the price of the entire system. Her suggestions and serving cold caller coaching have adjusted my approach to one of a much more confident, calm, Luz is a true jewel: compassionate, direct, loving, and ever so knowledgeable
What was most exciting about our time together was that Luz is an acute listener and clearly articulates what can be difficult and nebulous ideas or theories in a way that I could understand and take away with me.
Anyone who senses that he or she has some kind of barrier or confusion around an issue would benefit from a session with Luz who quickly and painlessly escorts you through the Mystery in which you find yourself, shows you the highlights and helps you move on
Luz is a keen and perceptive coach, an honest partner and resilient manager. She is ably and ideally suited to focus her cohorts and clients on the important things in business, in a relationship, in life and in our hearts. She is valued and cherished by those around her as a person full of love, sympathy, concern and a practical nature that values simple, compassionate, common sense based solutions to the most intimate wrenching problems we face. I know this because she helped me through difficult and daunting times
That connection with life that one achieves conversing with you is a wonderful feeling!…time stops and one minute becomes an eternity…Difficult to express it in words…You have a gift to connect the other person with with his or her most profound being and revive situations that come back to clarify themes of the past and position them back in a more balanced and sane place in our lives.
My personal experience by your side has been very strong and I believe you have given me many tools to work in my personal development!!!
From my earliest memories of Luzma’s guidance, to my most recent, she has always been confident in her insights, but equally confident in my ability to determine what I need. I’ve known Luzma as long as I’ve known myself because she has taught me how to learn and embrace who I am.
I could think of no better way for Luzma to spend her time than as a life coach. She has always provoked a natural exchange, often by those who are in need of support most but unlikely to share it with friends or family. By Luzma being so sure in her own skin, the apprehensive gravitate toward her and they too lose all inhibition—I’ve seen it! If given the opportunity to expand her coaching, she will help countless more people reach their potential.
I am very thankful for everything you did for me during my divorce. It was difficult and painful to accept. You taught me how to express my emotions without drama.
I’m in awe of her abilities and effect as a counselor or coach. When Luz articulates her insights about psychological or spiritual concepts that I’m already familiar with, she does it with such a lightness and a clarity that these concepts become new for me and, somewhat ironically, bring on a relieving stillness. Following her train of thought has often enabled the transformation in me that I was struggling for but could barely imagine. It’s very much like Dante describes the effect Beatrice has on him in The Paradiso. Without any emotional or intellectual struggle or physical sensation, by following Luz’s train of thought, my perception of the world and myself is suddenly . . . different. . . . and easier
I was thinking about you over the weekend and about how passionate you are about what you do. I truly believe that you are a success because you have taken your passion and made it your life




I’m at the 
August 5th, 2010 at 7:29 am
I recently decided to make a short video about this, I would be grateful if you would maybe take a moment to watch it and perhaps leave a comment about what you think, I left the movie url in the “website” field, hopefully you can get to it, I appreciate it greatly