BIG BETS: A Practical Guide to Changing the World

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Science, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Education

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Rajiv Shah was in his late 20s and didn’t know what to do with his life, he got a job at a fledgling nonprofit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before he knew it, he was a driving force behind a global vaccination program that immunized 900 million children and saved 16 million lives. At 36, he became the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), managing a $20 billion budget, overseeing a staff of 10,000, and leading the U.S. response to global humanitarian crises. Today, as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, he’s finding innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and end energy poverty. What connects these experiences? At every step, Raj maintained a big bet mentality. What is a big bet? “A concerted effort to fundamentally solve a single, pressing problem in your community or our world. Big bets require setting profound, seemingly unachievable goals and believing they are achievable.” In this episode, he shares his methodology for creating large-scale change and making the world a better place. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Rajiv Shah Book: Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn presents.
0:05.0	I'm Rufus Griskam, and this is the next big idea.
0:09.0	Today, how anyone can make large-scale change, even you. So, On a cool night in the summer of 1990, 50,000 fans poured into Detroit's Tiger Stadium, but they weren't there to cheer on the Tigers.
0:45.7	They were there to hear a speech from a lean man in a Navy suit.
0:50.4	How do I even begin to thank you the wonderful people of Detroit and the Midwest?
1:00.0	Right now, I wish I could climb down the stage and join you in the stands and embrace you one and
1:11.5	and embrace you one and all.
1:15.0	You may recognize that voice.
1:18.0	It belonged to Nelson Mandela,
1:21.0	who, five months earlier, had been in prison he'd been there for 27 years locked
1:27.3	away for fighting apartheid South Africa's system of segregation and
1:31.9	discrimination now a free man South Africa's system of segregation and discrimination.
1:33.6	Now a free man, he was on an eight city tour
1:36.4	across the United States to rally support
1:38.7	for the anti-apartheid movement.
1:41.0	Everywhere he went, tens of thousands of people gathered to hear his rallying cry.
1:46.0	Let us together join hands in the struggle against racism, injustice, and national oppression.
1:56.5	Let us together defend with all our might the human rights of all people.
2:06.5	A few miles away, a 17 year old boy sat on the edge
2:09.7	of the couch in his family's living room,
2:11.8	watching with wrapped attention.
2:14.0	Mandela's words stirred something in him,
	...

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