Derrick Ashong – Winning From Change
Derrick Ashong: Well, I think identity is the bottom line in a lot of ways, right? Because you know the way we typically form our identity is we have to decide – who am I? And who am I as in part negotiated by who I am not. And who are you? And who are we? And who is not a part of we?
And so what winds up happening is people jump into the simplistic boxes which is we define by nation and race and gender and religion and ethnicity. But for me because I moved to a new country every four years until I was 20. So for me change was just the status quo. That was the only thing you could believe in.
And the irony is that it is the antithesis of most people’s experience, but it is much closer to reality, right. Things are going to change. Tomorrow will not be the way today is. So the trick in my mind was developing an identity that could shift and move and encompass lots of different things.
So when I meet people I have a tendency not to necessarily start with what makes me different from you, but what makes us the same, what connects us. And that when you think that way all of a sudden you realize that your community is massive. You can meet all kinds of people and still engage and feel comforted and connected because there is always a point of commonality. Its just that most times it takes a certain amount of courage to be so open and to show it and to seek it in someone else, that’s easier said than done, but its worth doing.
