Ampersand Answers: Inspiring Care

Fight for the things you care about, but do it in such a way
that will lead others to join you.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Question: 

How can I inspire others to care about what I care about? 

&mpersand Answers: 

Strangely, this is the step that most of us walk right past, and yet, it’s the one—the only one—that ever really works. 

Above all, you need to know your why. Why you care about whatever this passion is for you. Not knowing, and keeping your eye on, your why is the best prescription I know for burn-out. 

So let’s say you care about the duck-billed platypus. Fair enough. Why? What about it makes you care about it? What about that care inspires you to act upon it? 

Once you know that you’re behind the duck-billed platypus all the way, and why, only then will you be able to inspire others to care, too. 

The difference is that you can articulate why caring for the d-bp matters. 

This is all code, of course, for self-interest. Which is the PRIMARY, bar none, motivator of human beings.  

Okay, okay, maybe it shouldn’t be, in your not-so-humble opinion, but that notwithstanding, it is. Self-interest rules the day. 

You care about the d-bp because … she’s always the underdog, and you can relate to underdogs … she makes you laugh, and you love to laugh … she’s worthy in her own right, and you are too. 

So now you’ve got three motivators for the self-interested. Underdogs, laughter, self-worth.

This works for anything you care about, and anything you want to enlist others to care about. Know the why, articulate the why, and the inspiration will take care of itself.  

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