Great books are books that take me out of my element. Books that make me miss my stop. Books that make me wish my 1+ hour commute was just a little bit longer. Books like John Wood’s “Leaving Microsoft To Change The World.” I’ve been reading it every morning for the past 2 weeks and I wait a dreadfully long 10 hours before I can immerse myself in it again.

John writes about his transition from a six-figure Microsoft exec to an unpaid non-profit entrepreneur. Well…it was more of a dive than a transition and all he needed to take that dive was a little dose of reality – in Nepal. But that’s the beauty of traveling and it’s what traveling is. It’s reality. His book is not so much about his travels around the world but about his travels through life.

Here’s the synopsis:

In 1998, John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when he took a vacation that changed his life. What started as a trekking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world. He was soon driven to leave his career with only a loose vision of the change he wanted to bring to the world.

John made the unlikely marriage between Microsoft business practices and the world of non-profits to create Room to Read, an organization that has created a network of over 7,500 libraries and 830 schools throughout rural and poor communities in Asia and Africa.

The organization is now one of the fastest growing, most effective, and award-winning non-profits of the last decade. John has been recognized in the worldwide media as a “21st century Andrew Carnegie,” building a public library infrastructure to help the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the lifelong gift of education.

I use to want the corner office. Now, I want the world. I can only assume John use to want the corner office too. He worked in the corporate world for almost 10 years before pursuing his passion in philanthropy. I just wish I don’t have to wait that long before I pursue mine. Reading his story encouraged me to tough it out.

It’s difficult to have ambitions and not be able to execute them. Most of the time, I have scenarios in my head of what I could be doing instead. Since reading John’s book, I’ve decided that I’m going to raise money to build at least 6 schools in rural China. Each school will be in honor of my grandparents and parents because education has always been so deeply ingrained in my family. My maternal grandparents are retired educators.  Unfortunately, Room To Read is currently not operating in China. Hopefully by the time I’ve raised enough funds to start building my first school, Room To Read would have expanded into China.

Have you read anything inspirational lately? Please recommend it. I’m always looking for some mental stimulation.

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Tags: Causes, Education, Nepal, Non profit