There is a great scene where Leslie Knope who is the congresswoman or the City Councilwoman/Parks and Rec person goes and then asks for the help of the police chief and because they're doing a harvest festival, and the police and her then-fiancŽ Ben is the one who was sent into ask and he says, "Well, I've got a big ask for you and it's going to be expensive, and I don't know if you would be willing to do it," and he sort of hedges and he basically says, "Well, I need the police to do this," and the police chief says, "Absolutely." He said, "That easy?" He's like, "Anything Leslie Knope asks for, she gets, because she only asks for things that will help other people." I was really struck by that because I really feel like I try to do the same in my life with my network, with the people who I work with. I reach out to folks and say, "Hey, can you help with this because it's helping other folks?" And if it's helping Out Leadership, obviously, it's helping me because it's my organization, but I never frame it that way. I always try to make it a win-win for everyone else and making sure that the people in my network really understand how they can change the world, and what I love about that from a CEO platform is so many of these leaders are really, not just CEOs, are really hungry for the opportunity to do something that does make a difference. On their day-to-day world, maybe if they're on Wall Street, they're selling stocks or bonds or doing mortgages, or there's something that they don't really feel like changes the world but if they can, through Out Leadership or through my network or connections, feel like they're able to leverage what they do every day to then do something that helps make the world a better place, it's really exciting.
