“Intention rules your life” -Jason Russell, Co-Founder, Invisible Children

By ewbexec

“Write this down: Intention rules your life.” -Jason Russell

At the closing plenary on Sunday for MCC, Jason Russell had the hundreds of students in the crowd mesmerized. Within his first minutes on the stage, he began urging the crowd to copy down his words–words of wisdom, advice, warning, and passion.

With sweeping hand motions and long strides across the stage, Russell urged us to find our passion, the thing that made us feel the most alive, and grab it. Not to let fear of judgment or failure inhibit us, but to celebrate it. “You are what you do everyday,” he said. So, be brave and do what you’re meant to do, every single day.

“Write this down: You are so powerful.” -Jason Russell

He spoke emphatically of the power we have to change the world as young people. As you get older, you don’t always have the freedom to take risks and be bold. There’s more at stake. But now, at the brink of adulthood, we are limitless. So take the chance and step out of the crowd! Tear down the walls of tedious expectation and comfortable complacency and begin your journey because our generation’s window of time to generate real change is closing quickly.

“Write this down: They will try to cut your wings.”

He also warned that naysayers and cynics will try their best to ‘ground you’. His response? “Don’t listen.” We can dream big and be crazy in order to face the incredibly urgent and serious issues facing our generation. Because if we aren’t willing to be a little crazy in order to solve these problems, then what’s the point in being grounded in an ugly reality?

“Write this down: Make a friend.”

Russell’s NGO, Invisible Children, was created because he made a friend from Uganda who had experienced the horrors of being forced to fight in Joseph Kony’s child army. Hearing his story caused Russell to travel to Uganda, film the atrocities, and spread awareness around the globe. He stated that if we just make more friends then if they’re in trouble we’d be racing to help because “you don’t leave a friend in need.”

To conclude his impassioned speech, Russell quoted Apple’s “Think Different” campaign.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
are the ones who do.