One Life Can

Recently, Quotationals co-founder, William Beshears, and I took a retreat in a mountain cabin to unplug and reflect on our purpose for driving disruptive education.

Every journey begins with a step and so we decided that we would start with a handful of makers. We would start with our personal networks, asking folks to name the first person who came to mind when asked who had the greatest potential to be a maker of a movement. Who, with the right help and coaching, would change the world.

We started going down the path of defining all the tools and resources it would take to help our makers be successful but quickly decided that at this stage we didn’t have enough information to do it justice. Rather, our effort was better spent thinking about what it was going to take to incite our makers. Once they got going, they would help us define and create the tools and resources they would need to be successful.

When we wrote our agenda prior to the retreat, little did we know that it would be aligning so perfectly with our purpose and mission statement. We spent this time thinking about the characteristics of the makers of movements, what it took to inspire and sustain them and what it would take to be successful.

The most successful companies and groups have a very strong grounding in their culture and it guides them in their decisions and unifies their people. For something as nebulous, far-reaching and, frankly, unpredictable as the making of movements, having a shared purpose and culture is critical. A shared culture will sustain you in difficult moments. It will uplift you when you need it most. And it will unite you as your movement grows.