Dear friend:
This last week I had a very enlightening conversation with a fellow social entrepreneur that I wanted to share with you. I was telling her a bit about our work with All Bay Area when she asked me the following:
Social entrepreneur: “So what does All Bay Area do?”
Me: “We envision a future of California without homelessness, without exploitation, without human trafficking, without recidivism, and without unemployment. And like Abraham Lincoln said, we believe “the best way to predict the future is to create it.”
I could tell she liked the ideals of my answer, but also with quintessential San Franciscan skepticism she was thinking what does that actually mean? She expressed that politely as: “So how do you do that?”
Me: “By being the stupidest guy in the room…”
Collaboration is a Best Practice
It’s all about collaboration. Let me give an example—I passionately believe human trafficking is a horrific thing that shouldn’t exist, but I’m not good at helping victims of trafficking. That’s super hard, and it takes a lot of work to get good at it. But I know Vanessa Russell, the founder & leader of Love Never Fails. She is really good at helping survivors! She has also built an amazing team. Rather than trying to be good at what she is good at, I’d rather support her and help her be even better. Seems to me I can have exponentially greater impact this way. Click here to watch Vanessa's presentation at one of our recent events.
This is what All Bay Area is about. Finding leaders who are better than me, providing a context where they can collaborate together, striving after goals that are far bigger than any one organization or movement could possibly achieve alone—a vision that demands collaboration. My role is to serve them as best I can. Fill in gaps make the connections. I try to focus on what I feel I am uniquely qualified for or what is absolutely mission critical with no one else to do it.
An Example
Another one of the All Bay Area ministries I am engaged with is R-three. As we've shared in previous letters, R-three is addressing homelessness by building manufactured micro home villages through two innovative pilot programs. One is inside Soledad prison where the incarcerated individuals build the homes, the other is in Rancho Cielo where at-risk youth build the same units. Rancho Cielo is a world class alternative high school educational facility in Monterey County. They have several career programs in addition to the building program: welding, AgTech, culinary, and classic car repair and restoration among others. Each of them has a pathway to career employment. But they don’t currently have an IT tech training program. I don’t know how to start one, but I can connect the dots and introduce Vanessa to Rancho Cielo and see what happens. This is what I did, and now they are working together. I'll keep you updated!
Studio Gangsters
Charles Barkley, a famous basketball player and commentator, put it this way when asked to compare himself to Tim Duncan, another very famous basketball player. He said Tim Duncan was a better scorer than him even though he, Charles, scored more points than Tim. “There are these guys we call studio gangsters, they score lots of points and have great stats but that’s because they are on a bad team and they just get the ball more.”
Here is a how the apostle Paul articulated a similar idea:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9,10
A Personal Invitation
Speaking of learning from people smarter than myself. Dr. Ed Silvoso is regarded by many as the father of the transformation movement. He is brilliant and has an incredible team around the globe who are transforming their communities in dramatic ways. He is bringing his whole network right here to the Bay Area this October. I asked him to write a letter to personally invite you:
