Friday, November 19, 2010

What Will Our Legacy Be?

What motivates today's young leaders? What factors from our collective youth have given this generation its unique character? What legacy will our generation leave behind? These are the questions David Burstein, author and founder of Generation18, is trying to answer. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with David over VC from Ghana about my work, his background, and our opinions on where this generation is headed.

David's a fascinating guy. When he was in high school, he set out on a two-year project to make a documentary investigating the disproportionately low number of young voters. He ended up interviewing a host of public figures ranging from senators to famous actors. In 2008, he founded 18 in '08 (now known as Generation18), which would become the largest national nonpartisan political engagement organization aimed at and run by youth. Since then, he's been interviewed on CNN, NPR, and C-Span, among others. But it was actually David's newest project that led us to connect with one another. He's working on a book about our so-called millennial generation and what makes it tick, set to be released next year. As a side project, he's also co-authoring a series of articles in Fast Company, one of my favorite publications, along the same lines. The series, called Change Generation, profiles a number of "risk-taking, do-gooding young entrepreneurs". The articles thus far have highlighted a range of young leaders from activists to business leaders to philanthropists. Definitely check it out; I've certainly been finding inspiration in it.

Finally, I pose the question to you: What will this generation's legacy be? What will we leave behind?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Another highly informative post, Ben! When are you going out to Singapore? Keep these excellent posts coming! - Randy Summers