I’m just rereading a book by one of my favourite authors and internet heroes… It’s this:
The page I just earmarked is actually Hugh MacLeod quoting another one of my favourite internet heroes – Seth Godin. He’s talking about the fact that everyone needs an evil plan. Not that your plan is necessarily evil, but that everyone needs a thing that they love to do, preferably something that helps them transform how they think about work and earning money.
That pretty much sums up how I feel about the work I do with ALEC. The particular point that resonated with me just now was this.
Whatever you’re selling isn’t merely a product or service, it’s also a product of a belief system – your own belief system.
Again, this nicely describes the work that I do with ALEC. It’s not just about education in some broad sense, or even about literacy and numeracy in some narrow sense.
Rather, it’s about something that everyone needs… something that has infinite potential to scale. It’s about this:
Belief. Belonging. Mattering. Making a difference. Tribes.
As Seth notes, we have an unlimited need for this. Equipping trainers and tutors with the skills that they need to strength their learners’ literacy and numeracy skills means that we are in the business of enabling human potential.
And that means this work is about making a difference. It’s not always easy, but we believe in it. Our students – the trainers and tutors – are the ALEC tribe. We matter and we’re going to take over the world…
