Everyone’s a Changemaker

Bill Drayton, the man who coined the term Changemaker, also coined the expression “Everyone’s a Changemaker”. 

If Drayton had attended the SponsorshipX Changemakers Summit in Toronto last week, I think what he would have seen is that everyone wants to be a Changemaker. Some are there and others are on their way. 

 At the Summit, over 200 attendees and some four dozen panellists, speakers, and session leaders connected in small groups, plenary sessions, on the soccer pitch, in networking lounges, and even in a nightclub to assemble the energy needed to be an entrepreneur, innovator, advocate, collaborator, and changemaker. 

Our North Star was Diana Matheson, the amazing co-founder of the Northern Super League, whom we watched in The Pitch documentary, listened to at our NSL Presidents Brunch, and applauded when she presented, for the very first time, her namesake trophy to the NSL Champion Vancouver Rise. 

We need more Diana Mathesons. We need more summit alumni. We need more changemakers. This era of precarity, where people feel challenged and just one stumble away from losing their security, is not going to be solved by the establishment, our governments, or profit-obsessed corporations. 

It will be solved by leaders who emerge from every corner of the planet. Leaders who are driven to obsession by the challenges of today, Leaders who will take on problems as their purpose, Leaders who will passionately recruit others to their cause. Leaders who will build resilient structures to do battle. 

Leaders who will ensure that their own physical, mental, emotional, relational and intellectual capacity is constantly being pushed so they can serve even more strongly. 

There is a Changemaker in all of us. Whether you were at our Summit, know someone who was, or watched from afar, I invite the Changemaker in You to the battleground. 

We need you.