The Journey from success to significance

“We should think about the difference between success and significance. Success is about being and significance is about becoming.”
These were some of the many touching words that the main speaker of my graduation said. We don’t remember the successful people but we all remember the ones that touched our lives and had significance to who we are today. As boring as graduations are I always love the speeches that I heard because they give me a bit of inspiration that I need to hear to make me rethink my life. To re-evaluate my present being and what I’m doing to contribute to being a better person, a better friend, student or member of society. It sucks that 4 years I got to go to everyone else’s graduation but I couldn’t be there for my own. It’s just one day right? I guess I’ll get over it. I’ll have more chances to graduate.
He did say something though is that we should spend more time on making significance and so with that I want to work harder to make my time here to make a strong impact. Right now I’m working with bringing more interns into Brazil to work on social entrepreneurship projects. What happens is the interns come to Brasilia to work with some craftsmen and help to export their goods to other countries so they can try to make a living. The intern would help to monitor that the process the products were made were environmentally and social sustainable. For example, didn’t use child labour to make or didn’t harm the environment to produce. This is the product of AIESEC, being able to put forth real actions of making a chance in people’s lives. It isn’t about just saying we develop leadership and whatever else our brand promised but that through our work, you develop those skills and characteristics and that’s how you make an impact on society. In Brazil I see the bigger picture more easily. I really hope that I can see the change these interns make before I leave Brazil.