Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Craig Kielburger is a New York Times bestselling author who has written twelve books. He cofounded WE Charity, lifting more than one million people from poverty. He is an MBA graduate with fifteen honorary doctorates and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Craig lives in Toronto with his wife, Leysa, and son, Hilson.

Marc Kielburger cofounded ME to WE Social Enterprise, engaging millions of customers to drive social change. He is a Harvard and Oxford graduate, and a Rhodes Scholar. He believes that purpose-driven business will change the world. Marc lives in Toronto with his wife, Roxanne, and daughters, Lily-Rose and Violette.

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In life, we are told that easy answers are hard to come by. Many believe that they simply don't exist.

We respectfully disagree. Not only do simple answers to life's burning questions exist, but we've learned that those that often appear most obvious can be profoundly life-changing. What's more, in our travels far and wide we've learned that the solutions to life's challenges both large and small can be found at every turn both here in North America and around the world. They are simply waiting to be recognized.

What are we talking about?

A life philosophy called Me to We, a way of living that feeds the positive in the world -- one action, one act of faith, one small step at a time. Living Me to We has the potential to revolutionize kindness, redefine happiness and success, and rekindle community bonds powerful enough to change your life and the lives of everyone around you.

You may think we are rather young to be writing a book like this. You may also wonder what business two ordinary brothers from a middle-class suburban neighborhood have extolling the virtues of an idea as powerful as this one. But the Me to We philosophy does not belong to us. It belongs to you, and to all the others we've been blessed to meet through our extraordinary life experiences.

Over the past decade we have had the chance to spend time in more than forty countries meeting with people from all walks of life. We have come to know some of the greatest spiritual, political, and social leaders of our time, and have been fortunate to learn from luminaries like the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II. Countless others have inspired us with the beauty of their vision, the strength of their commitment, and the significance of their actions.

Along the way we have shared simple meals of rice and roti with people struggling in the slums of Calcutta and attended opulent banquets with some of the world's most powerful business moguls at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In the war-torn villages of Sierra Leone, we've had discussions with people whose limbs were savagely amputated by armed militias, and at major United Nations conferences we've sat on panels with heads of state and royalty.

We've spent countless hours playing and talking with street children from Brazil to Thailand, as well as meeting with tens of thousands of students, parents, and educators in schools around the world. We have learned important lessons from everyone, from human rights workers in war zones to moms and dads in suburbia, executives in marble-floored offices, and people without any place to call home. With each day that has passed and each new adventure, we've faced a mosaic of human experience and discovered the most surprising thing: amid the extremes of humanity's wealth and poverty, power, and exploitation, happiness is attainable for all. And the most crucial piece of the puzzle is this: true fulfillment starts with finding the courage to reach out.

The main challenge, we believe, is that many of us don't yet know where to start.

In North America, we have frequently been invited to speak at motivational seminars and conferences, where we have met people from all walks of life who are experiencing a sense of dissatisfaction. Many have difficulty explaining exactly what it is that they are looking for, but instinctively they know that something vital is missing.

We believe that the Me to We philosophy can provide both a starting point for change and an antidote for what ails us. We want you to be a part of it, because in our view, this is just the beginning.

When we first set out to write this book, we asked ourselves four key questions:

1. Why are so many people dissatisfied and seeking a different approach to life?

2. What lessons have we learned about the shift from Me to We?

3. How do people stand to benefit from adopting this way of life?

4. How can people start living Me to We right now?

We will explore each of these questions in the chapters that follow, which are packed with true stories to inspire, studies and statistics to persuade, and tried-and-true advice for getting started on your own journey from Me to We.

As you make your way through this book, you will find that doing so involves more than just reading. At the end of each chapter, we have included three special sections filled with ideas and activities designed to help you learn about the power of the Me to We philosophy firsthand. Start Now! sections contain personal questions to get you thinking about the potential for Me to We in your own life, while Take Another Look! sections offer information on important social issues that challenge each of us to move from Me to We. Finally, Living Me to We! sections provide options for action to help you begin living this philosophy. Our suggestions are intended both to spark your imagination and to allow you to make a positive difference not only in our own life, family, and community, but around the world. In each Living Me to We section, one of the featured options allows you to take action on Millennium Development Goals, targets that the international community has agreed to achieve by 2015 (see Appendices). With a focus on eight specific goals and four important themes -- poverty, health, education, and sustainable development -- the Millennium Development Goals offer us all an important opportunity to reach out and live Me to We on a global scale.

In each chapter, we also include a personal story from someone whose life embodies this philosophy. Friends and colleagues have all contributed their own thoughts and experiences, and it is our honor to include original contributions from some of our greatest heroes.

We hope that you will treat each chapter as an invitation -- an invitation to discover the power of the Me to We philosophy for yourself and to join a growing community of people from around the world who are embracing this way of life.

After you've discovered and absorbed the ideas presented in this book, your life may not end up as you had envisioned. You may not acquire a house on a beach in the Caymans, but you may find your toes firmly grounded in the sand. You may not see an enormous change in your social life, but in your life you may very well see enormous social change. You may not find the person of your dreams, but you will help people young and old go beyond theirs. You may not retire with a gold watch, but you will think of the rest of your life as the golden years, no matter what your age.

We have written this book because we have seen what is possible: one small step of kindness contributes to one large step for humankind.

Let us begin.

Craig and Marc

Copyright © 2004 by Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger

Copyright © 2006 by Kiel Projects

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Craig's Story:

"I'm Only One Boy!"

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked.

-- VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Some people's lives are transformed gradually. Others are changed in an instant.

My own moment of truth happened over a bowl of cereal one morning when I was twelve years old. Sitting at our kitchen table munching away, I was about to dive into the daily newspaper in search of my favorite comics -- Doonesbury, Calvin and Hobbes, Wizard of Id. The cartoons were my morning ritual. But on this particular day, April 19, 1995, I didn't get past the front page. There was one headline that was impossible to miss: BATTLED CHILD LABOUR, BOY 12 MURDERED.

I read on.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- When Iqbal Masih was 4 years old, his parents sold him...