We are 1 in 7 billion

At a seminar I attended last night,  prior to economist and philosopher, Ian Goldin  talk titled, Humanity at the Crossroads, the organizers shared a national Geographic video on global population.

Now, Ian was both inspiring and depressing -- his optimism in the face of some of the startling  facts and projections he shared on world economies, growth and globalization is what inspired me. But, some of the information he shared absolutely terrified me. Fortunately, I was too engrossed in what he was saying, while trying desperately to keep up, to take notes and so have forgotten most of what he said. (Seriously? There are people this brilliant in the world doing all this work, creating graphs and charts and mapping genomes and tracking trends that they can predict -- best, worst, and possible case scenarios for which two countries will overtake the US as the economic engine of our world in 20 years?). 

Fortunately, Ian spoke at TEDGlobal in 2009 and many of the comments he made there were included in updated format last night -- so you can still learn what I struggled to learn last night -- which is why I'm watching his TED talk this morning and including his TED talk below.
At the end of his talk, Sharon Watkins, CEO and President of Sandstone Asset Management, organizers of the event, said in response to Ian's comment that 'no matter what, what we cannot afford to do is to do nothing,' "When we take action, we take the scary out of the equation."

So true.

Doing nothing, avoiding anything, keeps us locked in fear. It keeps us stuck with our heads buried in the sand, or the clouds of our imagination.

Not speaking up, not taking that step, not letting go -- all hold us back from living free of our fears.

We are one in 7 billion. And the number keeps growing.

How do we as individuals make a difference?

Mother Teresa once said, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

If I do nothing, my difference will be nothing to the world.

If I live, fearlessly in the rapture of now, if I choose to speak up, speak out, speak -- the world will receive my special brilliance and no matter what it does with it, my difference will mean something to me. I will have done something to make a difference in my life.

We all have the power to make a difference. We all have the power to share our brilliance. For brilliant we are!

How will you make a difference? How will you share your brilliance?

Will you? 

The world needs all our brilliance to light a path out of the darkness of fear.

And in case you're wondering, the answer to which two economies will be the 'super powers'... China and India -- with Africa a close runner-up.