Concrete Baby Steps Matter

A note to ten-thousand Fellow Leaders,

When I was approached to join YPO*, the sales pitch was that there are lots of things that you can do “Only in YPO”. It sounded like a group of self-congratulatory, insular overachievers, so I didn't join. Two years and five or six sales pitches later, I decided that I'd try it for a year and see what all the fuss was about.

Fifteen years later I realize what the fuss is all about. It is the amazing intimacy, friendship, and support that we so willingly and energetically offer to one another. It is our experience in our local Forums, our open-minded being there for each other, that models our behavior to the rest of the YPO world and it is what gives YPO its special soul.

Five years ago, I helped to start a movement within YPO called the Peace Action Network  (PAN). The essence of PAN is to use our special YPO intimacy to gain better understanding across conflicts, and to then combine that deeper understanding with our problem-solving skill set as entrepreneurs, and the unique power of our collective networks, to actually get things done.

In the ongoing effort of the Peace Action Network to opportunistically connect members from different sides of conflicts around the world, we came up with the idea of hosting the first ever joint meeting between the Israel and Palestine Chapter at Sting's concert in Tel Aviv. Almost the entire Palestinian and Israeli membership attended.