In his 1993 film Faraway, So Close, Wim Wenders employs the dialogue, “Time is the absence of money.” Reviewing the movie, the New York Times film critic, among many others, felt the most appropriate response to such a statement was “Huh?”
Well here it is, New York Times film critic from 21 years ago. Mystery solved.
Addressing challenges of any size isn’t merely about having the budget. The most successful crowd-sourcing campaigns are inspiring not because of their price tag but because they are common sense. They contain an obvious common good. And if you’re light on budget, there are ways to make up for that shortfall with time. In the absence of money, time is your currency.
I cannot afford to fund much human progress right now but I can invest some time in human progress. Time that would be otherwise spent obsessively playing mah-jongg on my iPhone.
So the question is “How much is 1 hour of investment in human progress worth to me?” If the answer is $50 worth of my time, then that’s what I’m investing in human progress. If I was a lawyer, it’d be $150-$500.
What’s the ROI? Maybe we live an extra year. Maybe our children are happier. Maybe we’ve enabled someone else to achieve something worthwhile. Maybe we find great people to team with. Maybe we discover insights that we never knew we had. I’ll leave this list at 5 items; it’s much longer and I couldn’t possibly think of every ROI item that would be present.
Let’s compare human achievement to throwing a stone into a lake. The stone hitting the water is the breakthrough. The ripples on the surface are its effects. The person who threw the stone is the innovator. And the person who chose the stone is the activator.
HeroX offers anyone the opportunity to activate human progress.
Find an hour. Find fifteen minutes if you don’t have an hour. Conceiving a challenge isn’t the only way to invest. Check out the active challenges on our website. Take a minute to add your voice to a campaign that’s meaningful to you. Offer suggestions. Identify flaws. Make a referral.
The more people who take baby steps, the farther their common step is. At the very least, you have a 1 in 7 billion chance of being the person who can make the difference. Even in the absence of money.
