Just a few weeks ago, at Summit Palm Desert, we had a special Summit Fellows event with a featured conversation about leadership. With 73 dynamic, leading social entrepreneurs sitting in a circle at the La Quinta Resort, Summit Fellow Mubarak Sumaila interviewed international best-selling author and long-time Summiter, Alex Banayan.

The talk was deep and vulnerable, an interactive exploration of what it means to be a leader. Toward the end of the conversation, Alex tried an experiment. He asked everyone in the room to close their eyes. Then, once every single person had done so, he said “Raise your hand if you have ever seriously considered giving up, walking away from your organization or your work. Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt like you just couldn’t do it.”

He then asked us to open our eyes. The room was full of raised hands.

A few minutes later and before we were about to leave, Kadeem Dunwell, a Summit Fellow and incredible entrepreneur from Atlanta, stood up and asked the group to join him in another exercise. He said, we have all felt that moment where it feels too tough to move forward, but we can’t just leave it there. Because we’ve also all persevered, all found a way to keep going, to keep building. And he asked us to take a minute to share: what has kept us going, in moments that were the most challenging? What has motivated us to get up every day and dedicate ourselves to this work?

With Kadeem’s invitation, Fellows shared beautiful reasons that have kept them going, even through the hardest of challenges. We shared why we work to keep our organizations alive, why we care so deeply about the people we serve through our work.

Ulu (Moana Ching), shared the perspective that she has never had the option to put down the work, because it is not only hers but the work of her ancestors, of generations. She shared how she is part of something much bigger, her life interwoven with others. As she spoke, she helped us remember this essential quality of being human, that we are all so deeply interconnected. We are never holding our work alone, because we are always part of the larger fabric of humanity.

What does it mean to feel such a strong degree of interconnectedness and interdependence, as a social entrepreneur? To feel not burdened by responsibility, but connected and uplifted? To feel responsible, but not alone?

Leadership positions come with a higher level of responsibility. Our greatest hope at Summit Impact is that social change leaders, those responsible for leading the way to our shared future, experience the power of community and feel uplifted by a network of supportive relationships. Through the Summit network, we aim to increase their leadership growth, accelerate their most critical objectives, and cultivate a sense of belonging and community support as they grow their impact.

Here’s to a new start in 2023, where we all look around the room, see our raised hands, and remember that we’re in it together.

With gratitude & commitment,

Shira Abramowitz