The Essential Leadership Inner Guide To End Poverty

"You have to do it, Scott!” 

My longtime friend and spiritual counsel of more than 44 years said it with authority. She was right. I had latent talents in music and art that, combined with my writing, could create a deeper, lasting impact on emerging leaders inspired to do the inner work required to make any lasting change to end poverty.

When I finished the first four decades of a career that included founding and leading Circles USA, I started a new company called The Poverty Solution and decided to blend my music and art with my message. I collaborated with a composer to orchestrate my original piano pieces, worked with two recording technicians to refine the songs, and partnered with a poet to bring words and imagery to the seven stages. Three diverse artists inspired me with my fledging interest to paint, and another writer helped shape the final vision. 

If I learned one thing, it’s this: don’t overdo it. What started as an inspired idea became a complex, two-year undertaking. But in the end, my hope is that the songs, paintings, and poetry plant more seeds than words alone for the essential leadership that we need to end poverty. 

Essential leadership is about clarity of vision. In my early thirties, I realized I no longer needed to participate in meetings that didn’t advance my mission to end poverty. I started saying no to unrelated projects, freeing my time and energy for what truly mattered. The result, decades later, is a robust Circles network demonstrating what it takes to help people fully move out of poverty and into a new life. 

I believe the world is shifting toward a deeper desire for happiness. What does it mean to be happy? How do we create it? Research from Gallup and Harvard explores this, and for me, it often comes down to three essentials: money, meaning, and friendships. Any effort to reduce poverty must also help people find greater meaning and connection.

Essential leadership begins with the decision to listen to our calling. Joseph Campbell outlined universal stages in The Hero’s Journey, and I’ve adapted them once again:

1. The Call to Happiness
2. Too Good to Be True
3. Help Me Please
4. Game On
5. O’ Wise One
6. It Can Be This Good 

Let's dive into this guide!