Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Alex Maras of Savant Concept Alliance NFPO Is Helping To Change Our World
To lead is to serve. To serve the people you lead. Only then can they thrive, and only then can progress happen.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Maras.
A dreamer, a optimist, an idealist. A late bloomer, a romantic, an insomniac. It was always about fun, as serious is boring. The problem with that is that when a young person is all about fun, they’re considered immature, and treated accordingly. As one does get more experienced about social molds and expectations, not to say gets older, one realizes that all those mediocre and judgmental figures actually never matured. And they never had fun. Poor them.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
There were no other paths. There was always just this one path, but veiled with colorful illusions. With time, one realizes it is all about serving. It’s the universal purpose of beings. If one doesn’t serve their family, offspring, friends, teams and communities, one gets lost in chasing some intangible, unreachable carrots. To serve is to grow, to serve is to lead.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Many interesting things will happen to you daily, if you go out to meet interesting people. Perhaps the most intriguing one, lately, was discussing the topic of the upcoming book with Emily, the publishing consultant. We got into debating and discussing the approach and perception of the book subject and got carried away. We spend 45 minutes on the phone, and I requested the transcript in order to make it part of the book itself. That is al l can tell you for now 😊
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The mistake is expecting oneself to fail. There is so much failure woven into one’s development, so much caution, that at the end no progress is made because of all these rules and constraints, molds. The fun part happens once you start breaking every single rule you can think of. Well, maybe the correct expression is jump them, just like barrier running. You’re supposed to jump over, and not go around barriers. But no one tells you that. They’re all too cautious.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
We believe in second chances. We believe in the need of raising awareness of how little it takes to start over, to take that turn, to jump that barrier. We believe that one conversation can change a life and outlooks. We believe that the youth need to be distracted into knowledge, into exploring. We believe that making someone aware of a tool and showing them how to use it efficiently can change the world. We believe in prevention and proactiveness, rather than dealing with the aftermath of failed policies, procedures and programs. For various reasons, people do not get exposed to tools, social systems and mechanisms at their disposal, they do not know that purpose, happiness and reward is just around the corner. They never turn it. ‘Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.’ — Kofi Annan
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
A colleague of mine, my mentor actually, was cocooned and complacent in this role, while actually being exploited, underpaid and disrespected. It is fascinating how many people are not interested in knowing what is around that corner and whether they could benefit from it. It took one conversation, brushing of his resume, and watching a 30 minutes youtube video for him to quit and take on the same role in a different company, with a clear career and success path. He could have done the same eight years sooner.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Open the doors, open your eyes, listen. Give people a chance.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
To lead is to serve. To serve the people you lead. Only then can they thrive, and only then can progress happen.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 . You can do it. The least you can do is start.
2 . Question the rules, but act ethically.
3 . No one works for a billion dollars. If you worked every single day, making $5000/day, from the time Columbus sailed to America(531 years or 194 hundred thousand days ago), to the time you are reading this, you would still not be a billionaire, and you would still have less money than Jeff Bezos ‘makes’ in a week.
4 . Be pragmatic. Be unpleasant. Say no most of the time.
5 . Take your time, but for planning. And then go. However late. The KFC founder started at 62.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Cap income until there is no more hunger.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Today is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday. Now, apply that to today.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Paul Simon.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Alex Maras of Savant Concept Alliance NFPO Is Helping To Change Our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.