A few years ago, I read Start-Up Communities by Brad Feld. This was at a time when I was making a transition in careers. While it fueled my love for innovation, start-ups, and small business, it also gave me a nugget of wisdom that has followed me to this day: "Give before you get." That's it.

Just a few years ago, that concept would have terrified me because I would have been afraid of what and how much people would expect of me once I opened up that door.  Here's the thing I learned - we can't do important work on our own. Sure, we have agency, and there is much that we can do. However, to make transformational and adaptive change in our communities and our world, it takes a generous approach to the way we interact with people in the world.

To elaborate - go into interactions with others, not looking for what you can get from them but how you can be supportive or helpful to them. It's an other-focused approach. It says to people we meet, "your work and your goals are valuable, and if I can be helpful to you, then I want to be." It's that simple.

This is not a strategy to get what you want. It's a strategy to help others get what they want for the benefit of the community.

That is why I love what we do at The Spark Mill. We get to be "Obi-Wan Kenobi" or "Yoda" with lots of different "Luke Skywalkers" in the world. The organizations and companies we work with are the heroes. They are on the front lines of helping communities, families, and individuals to flourish. And we get to come alongside them and work with them to do it better, more fully, for greater impact. It’s never about us - it's all about them.

Imagine how strong the fabric of the community is that is grounded in such a generous approach. If everyone genuinely entered into conversations, wondering, "how can I support, encourage, or help" imagine how the feel of that community and the community itself would be different.