Big Think

Question: What should we be asking ourselves?

Robert Menendez: I really do think everybody should be asking themselves, “How do I make this world a better place?” And it doesn’t have to be the big things, although certainly the big things are great, too. And I think . . . As I’ve said before, I think sometimes ordinary people get asked to do extraordinary things, and they do. And the results are pretty big. But I think . . . I truly think that if we are all asking ourselves, “How is it that I make the world in which I live a better place?” and think about the collective power of everybody asking . . . not only asking themselves that question and thinking in that direction, but acting upon it, more powerful than all the money in the world; more powerful than all the armies in the world; the incredible output that can take place from that would be enormous, and they are in small and large ways. It might be I’m gonna make the life of one person so much better. Some child that we’ve mentored; somebody who doesn’t have a parent; a child that gets adopted. It might be, you know, some contribution of time to our church or synagogue. It might be some contribution of time to the public discourse. There is just such an infinite number of ways in which a person saying, “How do I make this world a better place for me, for those I love, and for collective humanity to be better off?” . . . that it’s unlimited potential with an unleashing of incredible positive power. And if we were all doing that and having a little bit . . . each one of us taking that opportunity to do something, then I think, you know, we’d be a much better world. And I think that’s something that people probably very often in the challenge of their daily lives don’t think about. And so . . . But I think there is enormous potential in each and every one of us to do something. And if we asked that question and acted upon it, the world would be a much better place.

Recorded on: 9/12/07