A Moment of Gratitude for Jim, and All the Supportive Communities in Our Lives

When I was younger (like high school and college-aged) I was excited by the idea of the self -made person. No need to depend on anyone else - success could come from discipline, individual effort, and pure force of will. To paraphrase the standard, "I wanted to do it my way." 

It might be somewhat trite to say now, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Forget for a moment about the parents who work so hard to provide, the teachers, coaches, and mentors who work tirelessly to help us learn, the farmers and ranchers who grow our food, and the countless engineers, scientists, and tradesmen whose collective effort ensure we have clean water, energy, sewage, trash disposal, roads, and access to the internet; the emergency service numbers, military personnel, and other first responders who keep us safe... We are interconnected and nobody's success is a truly individual effort. 

All that aside, instrumental to each of our individual success is the community of friends, family and colleagues with whom we choose to surround ourselves. I got a powerful reminder of this two weeks ago, when I sat down with my good friend, accountability partner, and collaborator, Jim Carter III to record a new episode of Cause & Purpose.

I’d been wanting to interview Jim on the show for quite some time. He worked for years in the impact sector, largely helping social good organizations with their technology challenges, and in the years since, he’s transformed his life and career into being a resource for thousands on AI and emerging technology. (You can learn more about his work here.)  I wanted him on the show because I thought he’d have a lot of great insights to share with our audience, which seems to have a ton of questions and concerns about AI. More than that though, I wanted him on the show because of how he shows up in the world. Jim is, above all else, a kind human who loves nothing more than to help those around him. 

He’s incredibly generous, and the spirit of service is woven throughout everything he does in his professional and personal life. I was fortunate enough to meet Jim during my days at Classy (now GoFundMe Pro), and we built a friendship that’s lasted many years, and spanned multiple career pivots for each of us. Our monthly accountability calls have been invaluable to me, and he’s been there every step of the way on the Altruous journey, encouraging, offering ideas and insights, or just being a sounding board. He’s contributed to the development of the platform in countless ways I’m not going to get into here. 

With Cause & Purpose, I try as much as possible to focus on telling the story of the guest and prioritize content that will be interesting and informative to our audience. Despite dozens of requests from friends over the years to talk more about myself on the show, I rarely ever do it. I’m not into self-promotion, and I respect the audience too much to go into self-indulgent rabbit holes. That said, I know I should do it more, and certainly share more about our progress with Altruous on the show, since that’s particularly relevant to our audience. So, when Jim offered to sit down for an interview, to share his insights on AI, and very intentionally, to ask me questions about Altruous for a wider audience, I leapt at the opportunity. There really isn’t anyone out there who has been closer to my personal or professional journey than Jim has. 

As we sat in Jim’s living room, surrounded by recording equipment, and later on the drive home, I felt very aware of how lucky I am to have the community I do - from my parents, to my teachers, friends and colleagues, to the places I’ve been fortunate enough to live, learn, and work, and all the incredible people I’ve met in my life who have contributed to the person I am today. 

So, as we start bringing Altruous, this project that I’ve been investing countless hours, as well as significant personal and financial resources into, to market, I can’t think of anyone better to ask me about it. We cover a ton of great stuff from AI and engagement strategy in the impact sector, to the purpose, vision, features that make up Altruous platform. Of course, we get to have a few laughs and tell some personal anecdotes as well. The episode is embedded below if you’d like to listen, and the show notes are available here. More than that though, I just wanted to take a few moments to reflect, and express some very real gratitude for Jim - for the difference he’s made in my life, and I know, in the lives of countless others lucky enough to count him as a member of our community.