“You mention briefly in the book that you were estranged from your family. Do you want to go into what happened?”
He smiled his practiced everyone always asks this question smile, “I won’t get into details, but I have talked about the generalities. When I was in college, I made a decision that was the right decision for me. My father did not see it the same way. He cut me off from my trust fund and disinherited me. Which most people have neither of those things, so I don’t expect a lot of sympathy about it.”
“But to be cut off from a fortune like that must have been hard.”
“I don’t view it as hard. At the time I had a scholarship for my schooling, so I was able to live on campus and attend classes. I got a part time job to cover my incidental expenses and I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. In a way it was very freeing. Before he cut me off my future had been planned for me, at 18 when he cut me off, I got a chance to chart my own path.”
“So, you don’t regret it?”
“The only thing I regret is that my father died before we had a chance to reconcile. Though knowing my father I’m not sure reconciliation would have ever been on the table. I did have a chance to be part of my mother’s and my sisters’ lives again I am grateful for that.”
“One more question on this topic, your book is all about being the change in the world, don’t you think you could have had a bigger impact if you had reconciled with your father? The amount of good you could have done with access to that money is staggering.”
“That is the point of my book. You don’t have to have access to a vast fortune or a famous name to affect change. Everyone likes to say be the change you want to see in the world, but what I’m saying is that you already are changing the world. It’s up to you to decide what change that is going to be.”
“You say all of these things, but you don’t have to live them.”
“What do you mean I don’t have to live them?”
“You talk about having influence no matter who you are, and making change from wherever you live but you prove the point that to actually make changes and have influence you need to have more than just a desire.”
“I understand why you would think that…”
“Everywhere you go in this state there is something named for your family. I don’t think a Berranger has ever lived in this town and there are two parks, a street and multiple buildings at the University named after you.”
“Well, first to correct you, I lived here for almost a decade.”
“While attending the University.”
“Yes, while attending the University. And the second point is that those things are named after my family. Not after me. I had to find my own way in the world.”
“Are you saying that being part of the Berranger family didn’t pave those streets for you?”
“Absolutely not. Having a famous last name has opened a lot of doors for me. As has being married to a best-selling author. I’ve used all of those connections at times to have access to spaces where I could advocate for the changes I’d like to see.”
“That is my point.”
“But what you are missing, and I address this in the book, that, yes, I have a famous name and a famous wife, but I also was a TA in college and worked with a lot of people who grew up to have their own spheres of influence that I can now access as well. We all have networking groups. Everyone knows someone. And those people know people as well. Those are your spheres of influence.”
“It sounds like a multilevel marketing scheme.”
“Exactly! That’s exactly what it is. But it’s not marketing as in selling a product. It’s marketing as in selling an idea.”
“I…”
“Again, everyone likes to quote Ghandi, to be the change you want to see in the world. But the point I try to make in the book, and I hope everyone who reads the whole thing takes this away, is that you are already the change. What you are doing right now is the change. What you have to decide is what change you want that to be. Is what you are doing right now what you want to put out there in the world or do you want to do something different?”
“But how much change can you make if your last name isn’t Berranger and your wife isn’t releasing an average of one best seller every other year?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows. I don’t even know how much change you can make if your wife is a bestselling author, and your last name is Berranger. But what I do know is that you can make a lot of difference in your circle. You can advocate for the things that are important to you. I focus on income inequality. I work with lawmakers to fund affordable housing and scholarship opportunities. But you could be passionate about food deserts, or environmental areas, or peace talks. What is your passion? What difference do you really want to make?
It could be as simple as you want to spread a little more joy in the world and so you make sure to smile at everyone you pass, it could be as complicated as you want there to be peace in the Middle East so you are studying all of the history and talking with people who are familiar with the area and working with organizations that are also headed toward that goal. You speak about it with your friends. You break down the complicated issues into ideas that are easier to understand.”
“Again, how do you know you will make a difference?”
“It all makes a difference. Think about your job. When you are going to interview someone, I bet you have had the experience where the person has come in friendly and open and ready to talk and I bet you have had the opposite. Where they seemed hostile, and they were closed and didn’t want to answer questions at all. Both of those people made a difference that day. And it wasn’t just a one-on-one difference. Sure, they made a difference in how your interaction went but that made a difference in how your audience viewed them. Then that made a difference on if they were going to be asked back on. They might not have intended that to be the difference they made, but it happened anyway.”
“Okay…”
“Think about Bob Barker. He ended every broadcast of The Price is Right with a phrase. Do you know what that was?”
“Something like ‘Please help control the pet population and remember to spay and neuter your pets.’ I think, that’s close anyway.”
“See? That’s a difference. That was important to him, and he took his sphere of influence, which granted was large, and he said that simple phrase and I guarantee you that there are people out there that spayed and neutered their pets because he told them to. But what I’m saying is you don’t need a massive audience to have an impact. If every time you see your friends you tell them that you love them and that they are important to you, you are making a difference in their lives. And because of that difference they will go out and make a difference in other lives.”
“You make it sound simple.”
“It is simple. And it’s also profound. That’s what’s great about it. It’s simple because you just have to decide what you want to put out in the world. And it’s profound because it works. You are the change you want to see in the world, it’s in your hands to act like it.”
“You’ve certainly given us all something to think about.” She turned to face the camera, “If you’d like to read more, Change Is What You Make is available from all major retailers now. Our thanks to Peter Berranger for stopping by today. You can also see him at…”
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