I recently read a great book called The Promise of a Pencil about a 20-something year old kid who started a charity, Pencils of Promise, to help build grammar schools in poor cities, villages, and towns throughout the world.

The book is great because of the story, the success, and the business philosophies that helped it succeed. But it was most inspiring because of its significance. It has changed the lives of so many children and communities across the globe in such a short time.

Despite the very positive message which I really enjoyed (and would highly recommend the book), I could not help but question my own life a little bit. Did I have enough significance? Am I making the world a better place?

After a little contemplation, I have come to realize that, although I am not impacting the world on the scale that this kid is, I do have my own smaller callings. Like many of us, we are called to be role models and raise good kids; we are called to serve our clients and impact them in the most positive way we can – always; we are called to make the world a better place with random acts of kindness and our own charitable endeavors every day.

promise-of-a-pencil bookMy business coaches, Misty Durando and Brian Buffini, remind me always that the road to significance is a sequence that has to be followed step by step. It starts with survival, moves to stability, graduates to success and it is the success that enables us to mature and evolve with significance where we can “pay it forward” in so many different ways possible.

Will I ever impact the world like the author of The Promise of a Pencil? Will you? Who knows? But for now, we can continue to impact the lives of the people we love and the clients we have the opportunity and honor to serve and volunteer our time, energy, and money to worthy causes. And, when we ALL do this a little bit at a time, the world is a better place – significantly.

~Joe