Bryan Stevenson by Geoff Blackwell

Author:Geoff Blackwell [Stevenson, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2020-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

What qualities have been most critical to achieving goals during your life and career?

I think you have to be willing to accept help, and embrace help where you can get it. I started with virtually no staff, and had a really hard time getting people to join. Over time, that’s changed. I’m really fortunate that we have a whole community of mission-driven people. It wasn’t something we could demand. It wasn’t even something we could expect, but it happened because we were open to it.

I think you have to be strategic; when you’re dealing with big problems, you can’t just do the thing you immediately want to do when you see inequality and injustice. You can’t just be reactive. You have to think about, ‘What’s the proactive thing we can do that will really have an impact?’ I think you have to put the people you serve first, and always be thinking about what their needs are, which are not always aligned to what your needs are. When you are client-centred, when you are service-centred, you make different choices than you might otherwise make.

And then I think you have to love what you do. I hate that I’m in a state that has such a horrible history of inequality, such a brutal history of lethal violence and punishment directed at disfavoured communities. I hate that I’m in a state with a level of poverty that is so great, where there’s so much inequality and suffering. But I love that I have just a little bit that I can give in response to these problems, and that I’m allowed to do it, that I’ve been able to do it. For me, that gives me joy. It makes me feel like my life has meaning and purpose, and value. And humans that can live lives they believe are purposeful, that are valuable, that are joyful, are really the privileged people among us.

Being able to see the value in what we try to do has made it incredibly meaningful and affirming. When you feel affirmed in that way, it really does allow you to kind of take on things that you might not otherwise be willing to take on. Service is at the heart of it; I really think prioritizing the needs of the people you serve can orient you in ways that are critical for doing what we’ve been trying to do.

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