Why Inspire?

Every day, someone asks us if inspiration is real.

If it can truly be a “cause” – a result worth investing in, an ideal concrete enough to be measured, a state of mind that is anything more than fleeting, ephemeral, and useless. We love these questions. We asked them, too, searching the world for an answer to our foundational question: how can The Future Project make the highest impact possible on young people everywhere at this moment of historic educational and social transformation?

The answer was so simple it literally astounded us.

Inspire them.

Inspiration isn’t everything, but it’s at the heart of everything great.

When Thomas Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, he was not – despite common misperception – arguing that inspiration hardly matters. Rather, he was pointing out that just a touch of inspiration can fuel the kind of work ethic and capacity to dare mighty things that leads to the invention of light bulbs and phonographs. That sparks movements and revolutions.That pushes the human race forward. Inspiration is incredibly resourceful — if you allow it in at just the right moment, it can fuel a lifetime of wonder.

It is more than genius. It’s also goodness.

When someone is inspired, they are, so often, more authentic and generous. They see win-win opportunities where there were once only zero-sum games. They want to involve their friends. They want to share the excitement. And they can, because inspiration is infectious. An inspired person is a ripe candidate to become an agent of inspiration and build, one person at a time, an inspired community.

But apathy, inspiration’s enemy, is also infectious.

Less of a choice than an unfortunate cultural norm, apathy is gripping the modern world—most notably, we believe, in America’s underserved, overtaxed public high schools. And so, The Future Project is beginning its journey there, partnering with educators to create inspired school communities in which the reforms and good intentions of teachers, policy-makers, parents, and most of all, the students themselves, can be multiplied, maximized, and made into the success stories that transform the way we think about what is possible out of education, out of young people, and out of our world.

As you’ll see throughout this site, it is already happening.

The story of young people in partnership – not just Future Fellows, but Future Coaches, too – finding their passions and turning them into action-oriented projects, is playing out in New York City, New Haven, and Washington, D.C. every day. It is the story of inspiration driving students to overcome injustice by taking the future into their own hands — creating youth-led non-profits and anti-violence dance groups and documentaries on bullying. But it doesn’t stop there. One principal is reporting a transformation in the way her school works. Students want to be there. They want to be in action. They want, more than ever before, to learn and do great things. And this is just the beginning.

But enough words on a screen.

Take a step back, shut off the computer, and reflect on what makes you most passionate, most alive. Think about how you can use that passion to change the world and, in due time, share your inspiration with everyone. That’s what members of the Future Corps do. And it’s what you can do, too, if you want to get the very best answer to why inspiration. Come see for yourself.