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How To Start Over

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Although a lot of voters are in post-election mourning, most of us are at least thrilled to get the election over with. Both candidates saw the country was dissatisfied and said, “we’ll give you a fresh start.” We’ve been distracted and now we can get back to focusing on our own issues at …
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes

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Although a lot of voters are in post-election mourning, most of us are at least thrilled to get the election over with. Both candidates saw the country was dissatisfied and said, “we’ll give you a fresh start.”

We’ve been distracted and now we can get back to focusing on our own issues at home. Most of us have problems in our lives and we were hoping our candidate might help fix them.

But the reality is, no one has more power to fix our problems than us. For example, my health. Tomorrow I’ll do a telemedicine call with my doctor. As I grow older, I want to take control of my health in new ways. I may have changes to make.

And at work, I’m part of a team that is adopting three towns in western North Carolina that were devastated by Helene. Families lost their homes and some saw family members swept away by floods. They need a fresh start. Our team is helping them start over.

The good news is, wherever you are, it has never been easier. There are more resources available than ever and America is still a land full of opportunity. Often the best way to begin is to wipe the slate clean of past efforts.

I was just 22 when I learned this lesson in a hard way. Karen and I were starting our married life in the biggest city in the largest Muslim nation in the world – Jakarta, Indonesia. We had never done anything like this. We lived in the slums. We had no appliances in our house. We used a bunson burner to cook, stored leftovers in a shelf, and had an open sewer that ran in front of the house.

But we also had no expectations and therefore, we were free to have fun. And we learned about starting from scratch. After a year, we moved to the Dominican Republic. We were there to help get a microcredit organization called INDODE going. We were applying what we’d learned in Indonesia there.

Within a few months, we could see that INDODE was built on a bad foundation. After a year, I realized that if my bosses wouldn’t let me start completely over, it was going to fail. I asked for permission to do that, and I got it.

I hired a new board and a new CEO named Rafael Contreras. Rafael was an engineer with little experience in microcredit, but he was sharp and someone I trusted. After training him for half a year, he was a much better leader than the leader of INDODE.

42 years later, the organization we started – ASPIRE has created hundreds of thousands of jobs and lifted many people out of poverty. In fact, they recently won an award as the best organization of their kind.
Back to the present day, looking around, there is so much to celebrate in our world. The good news is that the macroeconomic picture is positive. Extreme poverty has dropped by about 50% in the last 20 years.
More good news:
It’s a great time to begin again. And often the best way to do that is with the clean slate that you may be grieving right now. As we get going in North Carolina, the reports make me smile:
“A first wave of 64 volunteers arrived this week, bringing not only their skills but a 53-foot semi packed with supplies, $30,000 in cash, a 4-wheeler, and an arsenal of expertise.”
It’s just the start. Thousands will follow in their footsteps. Just getting going on a fresh start is often all it takes to bring hope.

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