There’s actually a simple formula that sums up what it takes to change the world. If you think about it, it’s a universal formula. It can be used on any level, from changing your life; to changing an organization; to changing a nation; to changing the world. I am going to call it the Master Formula:
To give you some confidence in this formula, let’s think of how a group of people in the last century decided to go to the Moon. They developed a clear vision: Have men land on the Moon and return. Then they needed the methods. They needed to build and test a vehicle. Through several stages, a vehicle was developed: the Saturn Five rocket. Since they couldn’t fund the space program themselves, they needed to get Congress to fund it. They had to point out enough benefits to get Congress to appropriate the money.
To get the money, they told Congress and the President that we would develop technology that would help the US defense program against the Soviet Union, and it would help the US regain prestige that was lost when the Soviets launched the first rocket into outer space.
They also had to eliminate doubts that it could be done. There were many unknowns at that time. Among them: whether humans could survive in zero-gravity; whether the surface of the moon was firm enough to allow liftoff; whether the Command Module could withstand the heat of re-entry, etc.
They also needed to eliminate or downplay competing activities. At that time the Unites States was fighting a war in Vietnam. People opposed to the space program said that the money would be better spent to fight poverty. Others said that it funds would be better spent directly on anti-missile programs.
Nevertheless, in the face of these excellent counter-arguments, those who wanted to go to the Moon won out. They overcame every obstacle.
This website is not organized according to the five part of the Master Formula. But all the ingredients can be found somewhere on the website. Right now, you can understand the formula in this way: First, we need to start with a vision: the goal of a hundredfold reduction in suffering and death—and the stabilization of Earth’s life-support systems. (See the Ai Sakai write-up in the Superheroes section.) Second, we need methods to get us to the goal. (These are the CLEAR Method, the rest of the basic program, and the add-ons.) Third, enough people must have enough incentives and benefits to use the methods. These are described on the Benefits page. Fourth, even if people have incentives, they won’t use the methods if they believe the goal is impossible. So, major doubts must be eliminated. Doubts and unwarranted expectations are addressed in some of the materials on the Insight and Stories webpage.) Fifth, even with incentives, methods, and a belief that the goal is possible, people often prefer to do other “competing” activities. These competing activities must be made less alluring. (See the article Advantages of Our Approach over Conventional Approaches.)
I wrote this to give you increase confidence in our approach. Like the people who gathered all the ingredients needed to go to the Moon, we think we’ve gathered the needed ingredients. Of course, the plan will be refined and amended through use. But if you start with the Basic Program and then gradually explore the rest of the website, you will find a lot you can use, and a lot that will give you even more optimism. To return to the analogy of NASA and going to the Moon: the vehicle (the methods) to transform the world are not at the theoretical stage, on the drawing board. The vehicle is sitting on the launching pad, ready for launch. We invite you to climb aboard and lift off!