"The goal isn’t just doing good work—it is doing the best work we can."
"The goal isn’t just doing good work—it is doing the best work we can."
(Second of three parts)
Last week, I began my one-year service as National President of the Junior Chamber International Philippines. I would like to share my inaugural address delivered during my induction on December 13, 2020.
Our world today finds itself in the middle of a global pandemic that has significantly changed the way we live our lives. Unlike past national presidents who would address to thousands, the fact that I am speaking to no more than a hundred in this hall, yet to a much larger audience online, is a striking reminder of how much we have adopted and adapted to the new normal of doing things.
When I was writing our plan of action as national president, I was thinking about the direction to which I would want to bring our organization. The difficult experience we had all throughout this pandemic keep on coming into my mind. How does one become a leader in a time of crisis? Do we stay put and content ourselves with the status quo? Do we stay focused on steadily keeping things together? Do we as they would say—play defense, cautiously buying time and waiting for things to get better?
Then it dawned on me that in the darkest of nights, there is a higher measure for service. The most challenging of times often shape the best of leaders. Real leadership is often exemplified in midst of a crisis.
We are often reminded that JCI is not just any other service organization. We are first and foremost a leadership organization. For JCI, our brand of service is leadership. For us in the JCI movement, to serve means to bring out the best in us. To be more, so that we can give the best of ourselves to others.
To serve the JCI way means to better ourselves so we can share the best of who we are to create an even greater good.
This is the inspiration behind this year’s call to action—more for others.
From my early days as a young leader, I have always believed in the fundamental premise that community and youth development go hand in hand, a community only prospers when its youth prosper, and the youth can only flourish in a flourishing community. By developing our young people in the various areas of human growth, they are given the opportunity and capability to participate in community life and nation building.
Times have changed, and technology have evolved by leaps. Nowadays, it appears that usual ways of understanding the world around us seem to be no longer as relevant as before.
Has the culture of consumerism drowned the will for selfless service?
Has the politics of power debunked the need for purpose-driven leadership?
Has the economics of profit disproved the importance of social equity?
The crisis we face today is a timely wake up call for our generation. For too long, many of our generation has stayed on the wayside waiting for our turn, often trapped inside their self-imposed limitations—if not by poverty, lack of opportunities or the fear of failure.
If JCI envisions itself to the leading global network of young active citizens, the question today is, does the call to active citizenship continue to be as true and relevant in our time?
To be a young active citizen for our times, the first step forward is to break out of this mindset of limitedness.
To lead, our generation must dream to be more. We must dare to be more.
But in order to live even more meaningful lives, we must first seek to better ourselves so we can do more for others—to be full contributors to the community.
Mahatma Gandhi once posed this challenge, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Seeing the increasing poverty, widening inequality, worrying disease and continuing wars happening around the world, one cannot help but be worried or hopeless about even the slightest possibility of change.
But if we continue to hold on to our faith in humanity, that people are inherently good, and are entirely capable of becoming more for others—the miracle that could happen inside the human heart can help in changing for the better the very communities that we live in.
As National President, this is the vision to which I would like to lead JCI Philippines.
For all of us be more for others. ‘Na tayong lahat ay maging higit para sa kapwa.
The call to be “more for others” is a challenge towards growth—in building depth of experience and operational capacity, implementing more meaningful and relevant programs and projects, in increasing and strengthening our membership and in optimizing a proactive organizational culture—for there is no better investment than ensuring the progress and growth of our members and furthering the work they do best in bringing together all sectors of society for real impact.
For JCI Philippines, to be more for others means to challenge the status quo and to set ambitious but realistic goals, and to track our progress towards realizing them. It necessitates that our organization ask itself whether our programs and projects are still relevant for our time—and to have the courage to correct, and if needed to change them.
This year, we shall work hard to inspire and encourage others to take meaningful action through our proposed programs and projects. The goal isn’t just doing good work—it is doing the best work we can, the work that will have the largest, and longest-lasting, positive impact.