Superpowers For Good--Skills to Leave Your Mark on the World

Devin: What is your superpower? Sam: I’m honored that you have interviewed Bill Gates, and you are interviewing somebody from Africa [whose] mother did not have anything, and he was able to travel around the world. I’ve even had jobs that I was not qualified for, but people believed that I could do them. And at the end of it, I accomplished the tasks. So my superpower is to express integrity, the spirit of integrity in anything you do, no matter what it is. Samuel Akwo Adelowo was born and...

Devin: What do you think of as your superpower? Ben: I think I had a really interesting experience coming out of college. I grew up in, you know, upper-middle-class suburbs in New York of New York City. Then after college, my first job I got by happenstance was as an intern for the National Office of the NAACP. I was often the only white person in the room, which is just not an experience that I think a lot of my peers have ever had. I don’t know how to translate that into a superpower, but...

Devin: What do you see as the superpower you’re using today? Isabelle: I would say I’m so grateful for your book because it’s actually has helped quite crystallize. I read about all these other amazing impact leaders in your book and what they were featuring and realized that maybe I’ve also been evolving my own superpowers, if you like, adding to my own skill set and where I would like to go. I’m not sure I’m there yet, but where I would like to go is this concept of generosity. I think...

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Thank you for reading Superpowers for Good. This post is public so feel free to share it. Devin: What do you think of as your superpower? Steve: I think it’s—my wife would say it’s my ability to close my eyes and sleep anywhere. I learned that from the army. But I would say something else I also learned from the army is the ability to deprive myself of any comfort, or sleep, or food or whatever is needed for as long as needed and without experiencing discomfort. Aptera is building the EV...

Listen now | Ali Hogan Launched @rungforwomen in St. Louis in 2021 Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

Devin: Stephanie, what is your superpower? Stephanie: I feel confident that my superpower is my ability to network and network in a way that is both for good and impactful. Devin: Kevin, what is your superpower? Kevin: I think over time, I’ve learned to follow strong, smart women who put things together well. Devin: Steven. Your superpower? Steven: I don’t give up on the folks that I’m working with. I take on challenges to be able to get them the help that they need. These three...

Devin: What do you think of as your superpower? Emily: I love this question because I often think about it as I build internally our teams. I want us all to work cohesively together and very much so. My strength is building client relationships. I have what I call a spidey sense. So I have a very good ability to anticipate the needs of clients, employees, people in general once I build that relationship with them. Today, Emily Lyman is the CEO and founder of New York-based Branch and...

Devin: Kathleen, what do you think of as being your superpower? Kathleen: I knew you were going to ask me this, and I have to tell you, I sat on this for weeks and came up with a lot of things. I think it’s transformation. I’m really persistent and patient. To me, there’s change, and there’s transformation, and we can legislate a change, but transformation takes time. Kathleen Minogue leads Crowdfund Better, a social enterprise designed from its founding to help entrepreneurs access...

Devin: Michelle, what is your superpower? Michelle: I would say above all else, probably I’m a connector. And that I’m very introspective. I’m an introvert. I really enjoy this one-on-one conversation and the connections that can happen. I want to meet in person. I don’t want to meet digitally, but I connect people, whether it’s to another person or to a book that I’ve read or to this, you know, talk that I saw. And I want to build that. I want to build those connections, and I want to have...

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Devin: What do you think of as your superpower? Andrew: I would say that I do have some, some skills that are useful, and one of them is I have the ability, I think, to connect things in ways that make them easier for other people to understand, to be able to take, say, a story in this area and use that story to illustrate maybe a more complex or nuanced concept in another area. I think I’m a pretty good teacher. Andrew Hill is the co-founder and CEO of BurnBright.TV, a microlearning...

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Devin: Abhi, what do you think of as your superpower? Abhi: Devin, I have no idea... What is my superpower? Something I’ve heard often is actually the ability to have these kinds of open, hard, vulnerable conversations with people and see that turn into something meaningful for the other person and myself. “Just because this person is wearing a hat that has the opposite message of what I believe doesn’t mean that we can’t have a meaningful conversation,” says Abhi Nangia, founder of...

Devin: What is your superpower? What do you think of as that singular strength that helps you to be so incredibly successful? Jill: You know, I have a really good friend, Marion Fredman, who told me once when I was a young leader at my first nonprofit Museum of Children’s Art, she said, “Jill, we’re many different people in our lives.” I think similarly, we have many different superpowers. I think more recently, the superpower that has given me the most success has been my ability to...

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Listen now | @MarkTercek Says He Learned Teamwork at Goldman Sachs Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

Devin: Justin, what is your superpower?Justin: What is my superpower? Oh, man, you know, if I was a fundraiser, I’d answer this differently than if I was the founder of a company. So, I would just say, and I’ll kind of explain this a little bit more, but I’m an incredibly optimistic person, which allows me to make big bets and take big risks without the consequence—without the fear of what the consequences might be if we don’t hit that target. Justin Wheeler, CEO of Funraise, a complete...

Devin: Laurie, what is your superpower? Laurie: I think if I have—I’ve succeeded in anything to a certain extent, I think it is by helping to start movements. You know, social movements, professional movements, educational movements. Laurie Lane-Zucker’s success comes from his ability to build a movement. After 30 years working in sustainability and a decade after launching his Impact Entrepreneur network, he’s launching his latest effort with Impact Entrepreneur Magazine. Patiently...