Social Starters
Make changing the world your business
by
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INTRODUCTION You must do the things you think you cannot do. (Said the wife of a very famous man) Vocation vs vacation You know the phrase living for the weekend? It might be you have been living for your vacation, holding out for those one or two very important things you do every single year since you got into the corporate system and - frankly - knew what annual leave was. Plenty of rational, sane, purpose-driven people (like teachers, firefighters and nurses) are living for their vacays. Only, what if you could have a life and career that doesn’t need to be escaped from, one that aligns with the things that matter to you most, where you can do good, in a supportive community that nourishes your soul… and be your weird ol’ funky self? Want a career that you don’t need to escape from? Now, the oil crisis, a pandemic, economic instability and conflicted feelings about air travel are making it harder to justify your much-loved escape from it all. And now I have to think of carbon emissions too? Sheesh. In the mid-2000s I was an itchy footed, but successful, corporate professional. From the outside, it looked as if I had it all: great friends, a cool-sounding job in magazine publishing, and my whole life ahead of me. However, at 25, I had my first major breakdown. For many years I jokingly called it my ‘quarter-life crisis’. Is this all there is to life? This cycle of ‘eat, sleep, work, repeat’? Is this…. it? Scratch that: this cycle of ‘party, eat, sleep, work, repeat’? A thought in my mind gnawed at my skull like an unforgiving need for a scratch: Is this what I was put on this planet to do? Is this… it? Social Starters is written for all those whispering, “Is this it?”, almost too afraid of the answer. You are curious about changing the hand you have been dealt. You yearn for more, right? I suspect you feel capable of much more too, which is the kicker. Yet, whatever this elusive “it” is seems out of reach. And you don’t know where to start. You don’t have to settle for a life of mediocrit Are you spending money on stuff you don't need, distracting yourself, and drowning out nagging voices in your head? Taking expensive holidays to recover from the stress of the daily grind? Only to return home feeling like your vacation is no longer long enough to get over the exhaustion and impending burnout? Do you carry on, unaware of any alternative, possibly resorting to moaning about it as a release? Are you growing increasingly resentful? Conjuring up your next money-spending (or money-making) scheme? If this sounds familiar, you might be settling for ‘mediocrity’. Let me explain. For this illustration, I’ve invented a person called Angela (suspiciously similar to my name). Angela is excited about getting a new bathroom suite (or upgrading to a kitchen island). She sees herself rallying her friends to debate various tile samples and numerous options for bar stools. To live this life, she works as a corporate executive, in what has otherwise become known as a ‘bullshit job’ (by late anthropologist David Graeber in his 2018 book of the same name). Nobody in her family understands what she does Now, don’t get me wrong, I love thinking about home decor. Nothing excites me more than velvet cushions (made out of recycled Coke bottles, you say?), particularly velvet cushions with tassels. But my point is - is that all you are living for? Upgrading your home, and planning to escape from it all? Welcome to mediocrity. (You are not alone.) Nervous that you don’t have a “vocation”? Many don’t explore their “true calling” out of fear they don’t have one. Fear is known to keep us in states of discontent or unhappiness, settling for a - in some ways a quite luxurious - standard of life. We drown out the voice of that fear with shiny distractions: new toys, holidays, relationship dramas, promotions, pay rises, and expensive drug habits. There may even be a nagging voice in the back of your head saying: “You could have been anything you wanted to be!” “And you chose… this?!” Ok, let me tell you something. That deeper desire you have to be more successful, more free or more creative, comes from an innate belief that you genuinely can be. This is good - hold onto that belief. It will stop you from chasing seductive shorter-term satisfactions (like bigger jobs, newer cars, and fancier vacations), and carry you through to longer term, more truly satisfying, happiness-inducing fulfilment and purpose. Anyone can find their purpose - whether it's to raise a family, care for your cranky grandma or be a wing walker. You may just need a post-grad in patience. Want to find your true calling? Social Starters are people who want to make changing the world their business. They do it by creating social or environmental change in the community, in their company, or in the world at large. Social starters are professionals who make money working toward a mission that is important to them, whilst finding time to do all the things that matter, be it having a family, travelling the world, or volunteering in their community. Finding this level of purpose is not so much about a religious experience (although some might describe it as a spiritual one), it’s about Vocation 2.0: committing to yourself and your life in a whole new way. Exploring a life that will invigorate, inspire and give you a newer, more true sense of meaning. Many also make working less and living on their terms their reality, and you can too. Social Starters tells a personal story spanning 22+ years. Pursuing the question, “Is this it?”, I transitioned from living for my vacation to doing work that gives all the things that a vacation does - thrills, escape, adventures, exploration, rest, discovery - and vacation time on top! This book presents 30 assignments tried and tested by hundreds of aspiring social starters who participated in our programmes, proven to help solve even the most personal life and career crises. These assignments help you do more of the things you love, by fundamentally releasing the things you don’t. They will prepare you for something your teachers probably did not: a truly fulfilling working life that aligns with your core values and stretches beyond your glass ceiling.
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About the Book
Social Starters: Make Changing The World Your Business is a call to action for anyone seeking meaning beyond the grind. Do you long to leave the world in a better place than when you entered it? Are you asking the question ‘is this it?’ about your life and career? “Andrea Gamson is a brave writer and her wonderful book, Social Starters, will nourish the spirit of the reader. Written with a sense of humour, this book will help to arouse the courage of those who are struggling to find meaning and purpose in their work and in life. With some inspiring stories and examples, the book shows that being a social activist is not just an ideal for the few, but it is a necessary and effective way to be for the many. With imagination and determination, we all can be social starters and good leaders in our fields.” - Satish Kumar This isn’t your run-of-the-mill business book, it’s for professionals who care about the environment, their communities and the people in them. You long to do something meaningful with your business gifts and talents. The mission, should you accept it, is to explore your role as a social starter through six steps, including action-oriented ‘assignments’. These are more than stories, tasks and coaching tools, they are a blueprint for business leaders to transform themselves, their careers, their companies and the world. The life you currently lead does not have to be it.
About the Author
Andrea is an award winning learning designer, consultant, trainer, career coach, convener and system shifter, rooted in place. She is also a self-confessed over-thinker constantly on the prowl for improving the status quo whether it’s in her life or the lives of others. She has been working on being more humble and leaving ego at the door. Andrea has been exploring how to align our leadership, culture and organisations with the living systems of the planet and find new ways of operating that slow things down, improve authenticity and wellbeing, and be more inclusive without jeopardising a healthy productivity. Whilst shifting businesses toward net zero and beyond. Starting in magazines and newspapers in the 2000s, passionate about the media as a tool for change, and shaping public opinion, Andrea learned fairly quickly that the media is a complicated beast, responsible for many abuses of power. She became interested in the very people it let down. Young marginalised people. Those who weren’t born into power, money or class. On a journey through Kenya, India, Sri Lanka and Brazil, Andrea launched volunteer programmes that supported social entrepreneurs, and helped hundreds of international professionals to explore their potential roles as social starters and system shifters. Andrea is an advocate for another way of doing business, and believes in time we can move more towards something fairer and greener through collaboration, but first, through shifting our individual and combined consciousness.