49. Alex Budak on Helping People Become Changemakers

Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol

Alex Budak is a social entrepreneur, author, and faculty member at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. His new book is called Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level, and is based on the transformative course (of the same name) Alex created and teaches.

Previously, Alex co-founded the social impact platform StartSomeGood, ran Sweden’s leading social innovation incubator, Reach for Change, and worked at Change.org. Alex teaches, speaks, consults, and advises organizations around the world, with the mission of helping people from all walks of life become changemakers.

In this episode we discuss:

• The magic that sparks movements
• What elephants can teach us about daunting goals
• Why giving yourself permission is the first step to change

Key Takeaways:

• Alex tells his Changemaking students that they don’t need to know yet the change they want to make, they just need to believe that change is possible. This is an important message. The truth is, throughout our lives each of us will gravitate toward changes someone else has already started. The biggest challenges our world faces—like climate change and inequality—will take lifetimes to fix. These challenges require countless people to step into the same arena to help out, support each other, provide different perspectives, and solve from different angles. You do not need to be the originator of a change idea to have a significant impact. What you need is the belief that change is possible and the bravery to step into the arena to create a better future.
• Change can be a mixed bag. Sometimes change is good, and sometimes it’s not. What change always does though, regardless of impact, is it disrupts. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. If change were to never happen, we’d all live our lives mindlessly on autopilot. The blessing of change is that it can wake us up, and with eyes wide open we can look under the hood of the status quo and decide if we like what we see. By doing this, change creates the opportunity for something better.
• There’s a lot of power in reframing failure. The fear of failure can mean not trying and, in many situations, not trying is the worst failure of all. While many things in life are out of our control, trying is one of the few things that is in your control. Don’t close the door on your dreams because you’re afraid someone else might close the door on you. Give yourself permission to try. You might just discover what’s possible is way bigger than you ever imagined.

References:

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level by Alex Budak

Changemaker Index

Changemaker Canvas

Learn more about the Becoming a Changemaker courses at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley here

Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative

Damon Centola discusses the 25% tipping point in his book Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

“Boardroom Racial Diversity: Evidence from the Black Lives Matter Protests”, by Anete Pajuste, Maksims Dzabarovs, and Romans Madesovs, Stockholm School of Economics, Riga

“Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy” by Derek Sivers

Former mayor of Palo Alto and Sr. Director of Philanthropy, Microsoft, Sid Espinosa on LinkedIn

The Long View: Some Thoughts About One of Life's Most Important Lessons by Matthew Kelly

Blackbook University

StartSomeGood

Connect & Share:

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them!

If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good!

Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don’t miss future episodes.

This podcast is for you, the listener. I’d love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at [e-mail].