Dev Aujla - Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money, and Community in a Changing World

Making Good is a must-read for anyone looking to follow their passion and make money doing so. In their introspective account of modern-day trailblazers looking to do well by doing good, Billy and Dev are truthful and inspiring about how to make a positive impact in a constantly changing world.

Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison

My generation, Im afraid, has let our dear country go into steep decline, but Making Good by two of our brightest young people offers solid hope for rebirth. It does that the only true and lasting way, by inspiring people at the personal level to a new way of thinking, living and working.

Gus Speth, former administrator of United Nations Development Program

This book cuts through the illusion of the quick fix and offers real solutions to help you create a life that both makes money and changes the world.

Sara Horowitz, president of Freelancers Union

This is not only the real dealit has to be one of the most important and essential reads of today. What you can learn here will help create the positive shifts we all so desperately crave.

David de Rothschild, author of The Live Earth Global Warming Survival

Handbook and founder of Adventure Ecology

Making Good is a motivating and practical guide for the personal desire, and global urgency, to align our economics with our well-being.

Josh Thome, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and 4REAL TV series co-creator

MAKING
GOOD

FINDING MEANING, MONEY, AND COMMUNITY
IN A CHANGING WORLD

BILLY PARISH AND DEV AUJLA

PORTFOLIO PENGUIN

an imprint of Penguin Canada

Published by the Penguin Group

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Published in Portfolio Penguin softcover by Penguin Group (Canada),

a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2012. Simultaneously published in the United States by Rodale, Inc.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (WEB)

Copyright Billy Parish and Dev Aujla, 2012

Book design by Sarah Stemen

Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, not does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.

Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written

permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Manufactured in Canada.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Parish, Billy

Making good / Billy Parish, Dev Aujla.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-14-318606-9

1. Success. 2. Conduct of life. I. Aujla, Dev II. Title.

BJ1611.2.P37 2012 158.1 C2011-907653-5

American Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data available

Visit the Penguin Canada website at www.penguin.ca

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www.penguin.ca/corporatesales or call 1-800-810-3104, ext. 2477.

For all the people who were with us through The Wilderness

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BY VAN JONES

Maybe youre like me. Maybe youve always been a little sensitive, one of those people who is moved to act when you see people suffering.

Maybe you have wondered why. Why were you seared by seeing injustices that your cousins or even close friends simply ignored? Why were you motivated to take on problems that others said were impossible to solve?

And why were you so intrigued by this book, when so many skipped right past it? Let me offer you one possible explanation: Maybe you were born for a reason.

The whole human dramawith all of its promise and perilhas been leading up to this very moment. Maybe it is not an accident that you came into this world at this time, when we need you the most.

Perhaps you are one of a special breed of people who are born to rethink old systems, uplift the downtrodden, and bring new light and new ideas into this world.

Society has many names for such people: Change makers. Social entrepreneurs. Activists. Visionaries. But the labels do little to resolve the confusion within you about what specifically you are called to door how you might actually do it.

It can be a struggle to discover what your particular contribution is, what unique difference you can make in the world. This book can help you figure out how to use your talent and your calling. I am glad that you found it. In addition to its wisdom, I will give you three pointers of my own, in the hopes that you will find them useful.

The first suggestion seems too simple and obvious to mention, but it is not. This is the one step that so many people never get around to taking: Begin. Just take one stepany steptoward improving any situation that troubles you. If you care about kids, do somethinganythingto help any kid or group of kids. Just by doing something, by beginning to act, you will separate yourself from all the people who are endlessly talking about what needs to be done, or what someone else ought to dobut who never get around to actually doing much themselves.

Number two: Stick to it. Ignore the haters and the doubters, even those within yourself. Just keep going. Making serious change is not a simple one-step process. We are constantly sold myths about great people who seemed to drive straight ahead, from victory to victory, from great achievement and contribution to great achievement and contribution.

That almost never happens in real life. In your journey, there will be great successes as well as setbacks. Each has something to teach to you.

There will be doubters. Being on that personal and social edge and feeling the pushback will enable you to learn how to make great use of everyone elses doubts, including your own. It will make you stronger, better, and carry you through so you never have to give in.

If you choose to be a change maker, most of the time it will feel like you are up against the world. That is because you are on the leading edge of a new generation. If you have a great idea (or even a little seed of one) inside you, you are trying to plant it in the asphalt to grow.