How to Play a Role in a Very Big Game

Very few of us play a big role on the world stage pivoting the trajectory of history and changing where the world is headed.

What if we could be in such a position to change world history? The answer is, we can. Most of us have just never seized the opportunity or created it for our self. Many of us have never really considered we could or how we would put ourselves in that position.

Horace, as far back as 300BC used the term Carpe Diem – seize the day to encourage us to not wait for someone else or another time to do it.

Ilana Landsberg – Lewis is an inspiring woman  who simply seized the day and  is changing the world trajectory. She deserves our recognition and applause for what she is doing yet many of us don’t know her name or role.

She is the director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which she started at the kitchen table, with her father Stephen Lewis. She has grown it tenfold and taken on the role of supporting and speaking for the thousands of women in Africa fighting to make their world a better place and healing an entire continent of the ravages of aids and inequality.

The inequality and degradation of women has existed in Africa for centuries, certainly as far back as written history of the continent. Now is the right time  to make a dramatic change.

Changing the fairness and social justice equation in Africa is a big game, possibly bigger than the game played by Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln or Aung San Suu Ky.

Illana, through the foundation she began with her father, has taken on over 700 initiatives with 300 community based organizations in 15 countries and established a pattern of supporting the local women rather than leading the initiatives themselves. Local leadership is more accepted, more effective, and more sustainable leading to permanent, rooted change.

Illana Landsberg Lewis is an inspiration to us all, because she has shown us that you don’t necessarily have to lead to maximize your success and impact. Sometimes it is better and more effective to support and amplify.

It does not matter if you are not famous, powerful, rich or brilliant. With passion and a plan you can attract and marshal these skills and resources.

In many ways what she teaches us is counter-intuitive. You don’t have to be at the front of an army or the top of an organization, or even in an organization to lead it. Sometimes it is more effective to influence it from outside by bringing a key resource or a new strategy. Her counter-intuitive lesson reflects her personality and resonates clearly with tremendous authenticity.

Take a moment to listen to how she uses the best resources to reach the goal rather than building a larger infrastructure of her own. Hear her insight in her own words about fitting in to something much bigger than you and finding your best contribution click here (we apologize in advance for the quality of the sound).