Since starting this project six months ago, I’ve been drawn into many different worlds, including those of social entrepreneurs, book authors, non-profits, serial entrepreneurs, public policy activists. It can be hard to keep my bearings for what to focus on, as the ABV model can be applied to so many different situations.

What I’ve been clear about from the beginning, but maybe didn’t articulate as well, is that I’m "cause agnostic."  By that I mean, the wisdom that ABV helps to draw out, package, and distribute to create a community of kindred spirits need only satisfy the following conditions:

• Has both emotional truth and intellectual innovation.
• Comes from the experience of living life.
• Allows one to see/feel/know something old in a new way.
• Ignites others and leads them to a new place.
• Important for others to hear, because it improves a human condition or situation.
• Serves a higher good, rooted in all-encompassing love.

This is taken directly from my page on what it means to have a bigger voice. I’ve bolded the last bullet for emphasis. Quite honestly, if these conditions are satisfied, it doesn’t matter to me what the cause is. I don’t identify with any single cause other than to help those with remarkable wisdom have a bigger voice. My focus is on the "how" vs. the "what."

This seems to be especially important when the cause goes against the mainstream thinking. It’s easy to support the green movement, eliminating poverty through traditional philanthropy and a change in the White House. The oddball thinker is the person we should be listening to more often. The following article provides an example of a provocative cause that satisfies the above conditions on remarkable wisdom:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16kidney-t.html

The author subsequently published this opinion in the Wall Street Journal last Friday.

Look for the provocateur as the under-appreciated innovator. This Fast Company article provides another example with Dov Charney, the CEO of American Apparel, who has figured out a way to make US-based manufacturing profitable while providing a decent wage for his employees. He’s provocative in that sex sells. He’s wise in this statement: "If you want sell something, appeal to people’s self-interest."