THE DREAM IN ACTION

I finished reading Leaving Microsoft to Save the World by John Wood, about a week ago and now that I’ve had time to digest the book I’d like to comment.

John Wood has lived a very exciting life. He was a Director of Business Development for Microsoft Asia for years and had achieved all his financial goals. All of his expenses were paid for as an ex-pat and was thoroughly enjoying the business challenges that he was faced with at Microsoft. He worked closely with Steve Ballmer (now CEO of Microsoft) on mulitple occasions and as a single man had many exciting opportunities to travel and see the world. What changed all of that was a trekking trip in Nepal where he met a school administrator in Nepals struggling school system. His story started with a small request from a Nepali teacher, “Can you please bring us books?”

That small request led to the creation of one of the strongest, most influential, non-profit organizations around. Room to Read started with one shipment of about 3,000 books to the Nepali school and now Room to Read works in over 12 counties around the world, mostly in Asia. Room to Read was there to help out with the tsunami victims of 2004 and has built roughly 5,000 libraries around the world year-to-date.

I strongly recommend this read for anyone in the business world who needs inspiration towards starting or working for a non-profit. John faces some very natural struggles of a businessman in his journey to create this strong organization. Well done John, thank you for sharing your inspirational story.