June 22, 2012
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mission
When I was much younger, I wanted to save the world. I wanted to be an environmental lawyer and literally save the world.
I got a little bit older and realized that almost all of the environmental lawyers who are able to make a living are fighting on the wrong side of the battle.
I felt pretty disillusioned, so I decided that the only realistic fallback was that if I couldn’t expect to save the world, then I should just try to do as little harm to the world as possible. How’s that for an inspirational mission statement, “I want to do as little harm to the world as possible, while still meeting my financial needs”?
So I went to a law firm, where I tried to fulfill that mission for a very short period of time before I realized that I just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t enough, and it made me feel dead inside. So I revised yet again, to something more like, “Improve the world in some way that I think is worthwhile, while still meeting my financial needs.” And that kept me going pretty well, and I stayed in that job for four years.
I realized that I couldn’t go back to just trying to do as little harm as possible.
These days, my personal mission is something like, “Change the world for the better, while still meeting my financial needs, and have fun doing it.” It’s not quite as big of a dream as “Save the world,” but it’s more than I thought possible for quite a while.
