'Nobody Has Ever Washed a Rental Car'

John Wood the high-flying Microsoft executive who left the corporate world to help children to read was working through his plan and thinking through how his library project would not be a handout. He worked on the principle of ‘cooinvestment’ in which each party would contribute whatever they had to work towards a common goal.

He said: “I always thought that the only way these aid programs would work is if the local people were prepared to also donate labor and small amounts of money. Otherwise the project is just a free gift bestowed by outsiders, and nobody will value it because they have nothing at stake.

John Wood recalled a quote by Michael Porter from Harvard Business School. He points out that in the entire history of the travel industry nobody has ever washed a rental car. If they don’t feel ownership, they won’t do any long term maintenance. That’s the way I feel about our projects,” said Wood.

Source: John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children (New York: Collins, 2006), 84.

My review of this book can be found at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Geoff Pound

Image: Rental Car

John Wood: Advice on Changing the World

John Wood, founder of the organization to combat illiteracy among Asian children, writes this advice:

When I started Room to Read, I declared immediately that our goal was to help 10 million children to gain the lifelong gift of education. Some people told me that this was hubris—how could a guy who had established only a few libraries set such a brazen goal?

I did not allow myself to be talked out of this, as I believe that it's important to think big. There was a saying at Microsoft-"Go big or go home"-and this lies at the heart of my advice to anyone who wants to create change. The problems facing the world today are immense. This is not a time for incremental thinking. If a cause is worth devoting your time to, then you owe it to yourself-and those you will serve-to think in a big way.

The side benefit is that thinking big can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because bold goals will attract bold people.

My favorite "poster child" for this advice is actually from the private sector-Amazon. When Jeff Bezos launched the company in 1995, the home page boldly declared Amazon to be "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" even though they had yet to sell a single title. He was referring, of course, to the breadth of selection they would be able to offer via a virtual store, so the claim was at least plausible.

Many naysayers were of course on hand to point out that Amazon's first-year revenues were less than what a single Barnes & Noble outlet in Manhattan might do during a slow week. I can imagine that his lawyers tried to talk him out of it, but Jeff was bold, and his claim to be building earth's biggest bookstore got him a lot of attention from investors, the media, and customers. They talked about the company, and the buzz led to publicity and sales. Amazon is a classic case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It not only became earth's best-selling bookstore, but also its biggest record store.

John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children (New York: Collins, 2006), 116, 117.

My review of Wood's book is found at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Image: “Amazon is a classic case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It not only became earth's best-selling bookstore, but also its biggest record store.”