Promoting the Change We Need

Michael Clayton loves to help others.

An administrator for the Utah Valley Eye Center in Provo for the past 10 years, he’s also found a passion for helping the Malian people in West Africa by starting several business ventures and providing life-changing cataract surgery for over 1,000 Malian villagers.

On one of his many trips, he encountered a young man who had driven 10 hours from his home, Tangafoya, with his tall, rangy 15-year-old brother in the back seat.

The Sissoko family wanted to show Clayton that their brother had the makings of a college basketball player. Since they drove so far for the meeting, Clayton felt obligated to take a look.

The next day, for the first time, Clayton watched Mady Sissoko run, jump and awkwardly play basketball. He filmed the workout on his iPhone, sending the video to his friend, who coaches at Wasatch in Utah.

His friend replied after watching, “God, this guy's got some talent. He's got a lot of potential there.”

Before long, Sissoko had a visa, was enrolled in high school in Utah, and was learning his third language, English. He was a talented athlete but far from a great player.

Using his dedicated work habits, learned from his life working on his family farm some 6,000 miles away, Sissoko improved rapidly, catching the eye of college recruiters. At 6-foot-10 inches with an incredible wingspan, Sissoko had plenty of college options before and choosing Michigan State.

Because he was on a student visa, Sissoko could not use his name, image or likeness for his own benefit. So, he set up a foundation to help his village, which didn’t have running water, electricity, cars or radios. Using the foundation money, he established the village’s first school, a well to provide running water, and an irrigation system to help with farming.

When Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo was asked if he was surprised, he said: “Surprised? No, I’m not at all surprised. That’s the kind of kid he is. He never worries about himself. He’s always thinking about other people.”

What Sissoko did was what Robert F. Kennedy asked all of us to in his famous “Ripple of Hope” speech, ironically, in South Africa.

“Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.”

As leaders, we must encourage the next generation to promote the change we need to help us gain an appetite of adventure over being stuck in the status quo.

Instead of complaining about the younger selfie generation, we can follow their lead of giving back, of doing what Sissoko did and making a true difference.

Kennedy urged us to change the world and believed an act of kindness would be the ripple of hope for a better future.

Sissoko proved that belief to be true. So can we.