How Far Ripples Reach!

Have you ever dropped a pebble in a pond, and watched as the ripples spread in increasing concentric circles, often reaching far beyond the spot where your stone hit the water?

In just the same way, things you say, think about and begin ripple and grow in the cosmic whole of humanity that connects us all together.

Today, I woke up to fantastic news on Twitter. Terry Wygal said this:

A thrill of deep gratitude surged through my body, awakening me once more to the awesome, incredible and limitless power I was in contact with – the collective force of our humanity.

Everything I do online is connected, in some way or the other, with my core purpose of helping children live. As a heart surgeon treating seriously ill kids born with heart defects, my biggest challenge and fondest hope is to live in a world where children live out their potential, happy and healthy.

It is this mission, driven by a deeply held stubborness expressed in the phrase, “I will NOT accept a child dying!” that has kept me on course for 13 years now.

It has woken me up (or forced me to stay awake) at unearthly hours, exploring ideas and putting into place systems to help generate the money needed to fund expensive treatment for those under-privileged families who cannot afford it.

In the beginning, I worked in dark isolation, with few if anyone believing in the concept (at times, I doubted it would work myself!)

Slowly, as I carried on with persistence beyond any logic or rationale, there was an impact. The first ripple.

When I raised enough money to fund the first operation, it was a landmark, a watershed, a touchstone… one that validated what had been only a hope, a prayer… and proved it could actually happen.

And at critical moments, the right people appeared… to create ripples that again spread and reached new shores.

My friend Paul Myers introduced me to the Warrior forum. This brought thousands of highly successful marketers into contact with the work I’m doing – and resulted in enormous support and encouragement that has helped fund many operations.

John Reese is one of our biggest donors – and he created many ripples of his own, each of which spread further, creating awareness and donations for CHD.

My friend Seth Godin included my case study in his “99 Purple Cows”, exposing my CHD efforts to another large group of people, creating another ripple.

The always generous Ian del Carmen dropped another pebble that made ripples – when he saw my CHD video, and then created a software tool that anyone could use… and made it a vehicle to spread the CHD message.

My role model, mentor and good friend, Willie Crawford, was responsible for making many more ripples take off from the intial one. It was through Willie that I first heard about Carrie Wilkerson, the ‘Bare foot Executive’ – who just last month raised funds that will sponsor one more heart operation.

In fact, it was Carrie’s post on Twitter that drew my attention to Terry’s fundraising efforts at this event – which will fund one more child’s operation.

Carrie and Terry are also exposed to another ripple – one created by my teacher and motivator, Yanik Silver. They are both members of Yanik’s Maverick Mastermind group… and (coincidence?) Yanik is one of the longest standing and generous supporters of my work online.

There are hundreds of people I haven’t mentioned by name. People like Rosalyn Bronstein who, even when she had to work on a public access computer, didn’t let that stand in the way of helping spread CHD awareness – she actually posted notes on hospital bulletin boards in Boston!

Many more people made ripples reach further. Some of them are listed in our honor roll of donors (you’ll see the latest at the top of this blog).

They are folks who saw the ripple created by my first ‘pebble’.

They created new ripples of their own.

And many others saw those ripples – and realized it came from the first ‘pebble’.

Today, we have a wide spread, only tenuously connected, yet passionately supportive network of donors and helpers who are spreading the word about congenital heart disease awareness, raising funds to help little children live.

I am proud of having cast the first stone.

I will be throwing many more.

I know how far the ripples reach.

Won’t you join me, please?

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