Like many of you, I watched the Super Bowl on Sunday and stuck through to the end. I actually enjoy the Grey Cup (Canadian Football Championship) a little more; It isn’t so over the top like the NFL championship. Lots of people tune in for the Super Bowl half-time show and the commercials, if not live then online later.
The big controversy this year was the
Dodge Ram commercial that featured MLK’s voice over. At first I thought, “This is cool! Powerful words. Good imagery.” Then as I reflected I thought, “No! This sucks.” I don’t think Dr. King ever imagined his words would be used to sell trucks.
Then I thought, “How much did that commercial cost? How much did they spend for air time during the game?”
The answer may surprise you. Ready? Just under $10,000,000. That’s ten MILLION dollars!
Beside that absurd cost, there is this weird irony; they used Martin Luther King’s voice to sell trucks when he promoted living a life free from the importance of material things. This upset me.
The commercial talks about serving others and making the world a better place. Here’s is where I went from upset to angry. Every day I come to work. I try to find ways to piece together programs that will in fact serve others and make the world a better place. We are running 9 leadership events in a 6 week period this spring:
Global Student Leadership Summit - April 9 to 11.
BC Youth Leadership Seminar - Southern & Interior Schools, April 24.
BC Youth Leadership Seminar - Vancouver & Lower Mainland Schools, April 25.
BC Youth Leadership Seminar - Vancouver Island Schools, April 26.
Spring OSLC - Kingston, ON, May 14 to 15.
SPARK Leadership Conference - Canada's Wonderland, May 29.
SPARK Leadership Conference - Canada's Wonderland, May 30.
SPARK Leadership Conference - Canada's Wonderland, May 31.
Junior OSLC - Canada's Wonderland, June 1.
The
Global Student Leadership Summit will cost around $200,000 to run this amazing event. I thought to myself, “Hey Dodge, why not take that 10 million and run 40 youth conferences across North America? That will actually make a difference and have a lasting impact on an entire generation.” Their name could be on EVERY shirt. Young people saying Dodge is making our young leaders “Ram Tough”. That’s a kick ass idea. I got angrier and angrier the more I thought about it. To me, it’s a waste of money and a misguided commercial.
Then I started thinking, “This isn’t fair!! Why do I work so hard to build these events for thousands of youth? I am willing to literally give it all the money I have to make sure these events happen? Not fair! So NOT fair!”
STOP. That’s not me.
In the midst of my anger, I remembered that it’s not about what’s fair. It’s about hard work, perseverance and a desire to leave a positive footprint on our collective journey. I shook off the anger, pulled out my planning journal and thought, “Back at it Saunders. You know you got this! Keep creating. Remember purpose before profits.”
In life you have a choice every day. You can be angry about this or that isn’t going the way you expected, or you can choose to learn, reflect, grow, and keep moving forward.
For 26 years I have seen dozens of people try to do what we do at YLCC in the hope of making money “helping” others. Almost all of them failed —They put profit ahead of purpose.
In the long run, touchdowns take time; they are earned a few yards at a time by lots of people working together. Moving forward, you win as a team.
In life, victims say “why me?” Champions say “Why not?” I choose to live as a champion.
Onward we go!
