Hi. I’m Victor. We may not know each other yet, but I think we could do something great together.
I have always been a dreamer.
I blame it on cartoons, video games, and my mother’s cooking.
As I grew, though, I realized that everything was not animated and that happy endings weren’t normal. A broken family and a few trips overseas opened my eyes to the fact that there is a lot of pain in this world. Thankfully, I was around just enough great people to allow me to believe that we could change that. Because of their influence, I put aside the expectation to become a doctor and went to serve middle school and high school students.
Over the past six years, I grew to love those students and that community, but I continued to stumble upon amazing people doing great work through business, art and design, entrepreneurship, and social enterprise. Some friends and I started an organization called The Prop to see if/how we could start making a difference. I even took the GMAT & contemplated an MBA in Social Enterprise, but I was unsure if I could handle the cost.
The dreamer in me became a learner.
Get this: 2012 is a leap year.
In April, I wrote an eighteen-month plan to learn about ways to change the world practically and create avenues to help my friends develop their ideas.
By May, I began sharing the idea of LYP with people and asking them, what would you do if YOU could take a risk to make something better? Their responses were incredible. They ranged from things they would do to better their family, their vocation, a certain cause, group of people, etc. When a friend mentioned that 2012 is actually a leapyear, I began to wonder how — and if – there was a way to invite people around the globe to actually take their own risk to make something better, share what they are learning, and tell their stories.
So, I have left a job I loved to take the biggest risk I’ve ever taken: create a self-made MBA in design, business, & social change through 12 apprenticeships/experiences in 12 months. This project, however, is not about what I have done, am doing, or even will do. People have taken far greater risks for good, and there are people who will come up with more amazing risks than I can even imagine. I simply hope that this year creates the space for you to take your risk—small or large, short or long. I hope that this project becomes a part of how you tell your story, motivate others, and—more than anything—change our world for the better.
