Do you ever think nothing you ever do will make a difference because of the power other people have in the world?
This past week Bill Gates made the news, sharing how he will donate the rest of his net worth over the next 20 years to make the impact it can make today, specifically targeting saving lives in parts of the world where that money will make a huge difference.
At the same time, he called out Elon Musk for using DOGE to cut USAID programs which will literally kill millions of children. “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he said in a chilling quote.
I bring this up because I often think about the (insignificant) impact I make compared to historical titans. There are individual people in our world that can make unilateral choices that affect millions of lives.
It can get pretty overwhelming and hopeless.
I have to remind myself to stop comparing and run my own race. I’m not playing a billionaire’s game.
I also would never trade what I have to be Bill Gates or Elon Musk. The things that I have in my life that are most important to me go beyond money and net worth.
AND I need to acknowledge the impact I HAVE made, and continue to make.
My DJ memoir is filled with multiple letters from fans who share with me versions of “You saved my life”. I still get emails like this to this day. That I’m proud of, and will always be true.
When I was a stage hypnotist working high school shows, when it was time to call for volunteers, instead of letting all the jocks and Prom Queens race the stage, I’d ask for those interested to raise their hand, and I walked through the audience randomly selecting a mix of all sorts of people. My wife remarked once that it felt like we were righting historical wrongs making sure the “freaks and geeks” also had their moments on stage in our show.
One specific time I remember having a quiet teen on stage for the entire show, and a teacher approached me after saying that that student had ADHD and she had never seen him sit quiet for an hour like that EVER, and yet there he was. It opened their mind to how it was possible for him to overcome his urges with simple hypnotic (or meditation) techniques. I think about that student now and how their life changed because I chose him to be in my hypnosis show.
This past week a long-standing Frolic 100 member, Tim Forrest, sent me a copy of a receipt for a scholarship to liberate a child laborer in India and send them to school. He created the scholarship in my name in gratitude for my help and assistance on his mission to help these children.
And also this past week, my oldest child who is going to college attended a new class where the professor didn’t show up. After 10 minutes, Sylvia turned down the lights, and introduced herself as the professor, and then taught the class for the next 90 minutes. She told me she was directly inspired by some of my crazy stories, and saw an opportunity to create her own.
“Your life changed in that moment,” I was able to report back. I know this, because I’ve lived it.
I started writing this article from a place of feeling insignificant, but I’m already feeling transformed from reflecting on those few examples above. My entire worldview is changing.
Billionaires like Gates can donate billions, but will they ever know what I felt to see my own child embody the lessons learned from me as they created their own story?
The billionaire model is easy to measure with numbers, but my hypnosis example demonstrates ripples that transform individual lives in ways statistics can’t capture.
The story with Tim Forrest came about because I was willing to go “Beyond the Pale” with Tim, and take him with me, which changed both of us. How does one measure that?
Perhaps I’m not “running my own race” in parallel to billionaires, but playing a completely different game. Maybe even a better one.
What would happen if we stopped trying to play the billionaire’s game, and played more of our own?
What if person-to-person impact was even more powerful?
Take a moment and reflect how you’ve already made an impact in one person’s life. Pick a single person, that then created a ripple effect that no billionaire donation ever could.
Use that awareness to drive your next action, knowing you’re playing a better game entirely.
