I most definitely feel I must have a purpose in life, a real way to influence the world. That knaws at me every single day.
There are some incredible people I have read about doing such things:
1) One of the most incredible people I read about, although I have to get his books, is Greg Mortenson. He basically is on a mission to fight terrorism through education.
He tried to climb the mountain K2 some years back and failed and ended up lost and almost died. Villagers from a local village found him and nursed him back to health (even though they themselves are incredibly poor). He swore he would repay them by helping them build a bridge over a river in their area and also help them build a school.
So it took some time to fundraise, but then he went back to the area with the materials and the villagers were able to build their bridge and their school.
This resulted in a huge amount of requests from other local villages that asked for aid. So fast-forward and he has gotten over 100 schools built throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.
What is neat is these schools take the place where extremist Islamic madrassas tend to take over and turn the locals into terrorists. Many of the villagers are so poor that they turn to these for help anyhow, even though they really want nothing to do with them. Quite a few really do not like them.
Mortenson's schools prevent them (the madrassas) from going into areas they otherwise would, however. He has a saying: "You educate a boy, you educated an individual, but educate a girl, and you educate a whole community."
Boys are important, but the most important element is to educate the women and girls, as this has wide-ranging effects. He says the people in these villages are very hungry and eager for education, and understand it is a real tool to get them out of poverty.
He has been lambasted for building the schools by certain strict Muslims (it is heresy to educate women to them) and he was even held hostage by some terrorists for a while I believe. It is dangerous work he does, as you DO NOT go into Taliban territory and build schools for GIRLS!
But thanks to his work he has significantly upped the number of girls (and people overall) being educated in these regions. What is very neat is how much money this costs. He says for about $1 million, they can build around forty schools. Yet, the United States alone has given something on the order of $256 million to the Pakistan government for education purposes with zero results. Yet this guy can build forty schools for $1 million because he is directly involved, so the money doesn't get swallowed by a corrupt bureaucracy.
He has written two books thus far:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School At A Time
Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, In Pakistan and Afghanistan
Here are the websites:
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
http://www.stonesintoschools.com/
Mortenson was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. I seriously hope he is nominated for it again this year, as he really deserves to win it IMO. This is real peace-work he does.
2) Another man I greatly admire is Muhammad Yunus, who created the concept of microfinance and microcredit and founded Grameen Bank. The concept from what I understand is not perfect, but it is a big step in providing finance for entrepreneurs in Third World countries.
One of the big barriers to economic development in these nations is lack of financial institutions. With no developed financial system, there is no way to spread risk out, so finance remains solely a tool of the rich. Thus the only method to obtain financing for a business idea is through a loan shark.
Microfinance allows people who would otherwise be unable to obtain loans from normal banks to obtain them to start businesses. As I said, the concept isn't perfect, but it is a big step in the right direction.
Muhammad Yunus created Grameen Bank and both he and the bank were awared the Nobel Peace Prize.
Interestingly, AGAIN, women are a key factor, they make up the majority of the entrepreneurs seeking loans!
Yunus has also written two books thus far:
Banker to the Poor: Microlending and the Battle Against World Poverty
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
3) A third person I am very impressed with is Elon Musk, the PayPal entrepreneur, who has devoted himself to three companies:
--- his Tesla Motors which makes the Tesla electric sports car
--- a solar power company
--- SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), in which he is seeking to significantly lower the cost of launching things into space. His first step is to lower the costs of launching satellites significantly (which right now that market is dominated by the big aerospace firms who have seen no need to improve their technology since they own that industry, thus it is very expensive).
I have doubts about the viability of solar power and the capabilities of electric cars and I do not know if he will succeed or not with his rocket technology, but I very much hope he does and I greatly admire him for putting his money where his mouth is and working hard to improve in all these areas (energy technology, automobile technology, and space exploration).
I am sure there are other incredible people out there too that I am just unaware of right now, but these are three I greatly admire.
So yes, there ARE causes you can devote yourself to and create real change on the planet, you just have to find them and devote yourself.
