#28 Male heroes for diversity - How to make a difference with Ali Mahlodji

Those of you who know me well will know that I’ve been on what
feels like an eternal search for a role-model. It may even have
been one of my motivations for founding MyCollective…


And yep - you’ve guessed it - that perfect role model doesn’t
exist. It’s in the hundreds of stories lived by so many of you
who constantly give me cause to stop and think and re-evaluate my
choices.


But speaking to Ali Mahlodji for this week’s podcast I have to
say - if you’re looking for a role model, especially a male
role-model - I think we’ve found him 


Ali works with school-age children, corporate managers and NGOs
to improve diversity everywhere from schools to businesses. So
being a role-model is kind of what he does for a living. But his
whole life story is a role-model for overcoming adversity and
achieving success: after his parents fled Iran when he was a
baby, he grew up as a refugee, had a stutter and didn’t graduate
high school. Today he’s a member of the Forbes Business Council,
an EU youth ambassador and a UNCEF ambassador; he runs his own
business, has authored five books, given thousands of keynote
speeches around the world and won dozens of awards, including the
UN World Summit Award and Innovator of the Year.


We agreed that everyone can be a role-model, a hero for
diversity. If you don’t have a community of like-minded people in
your place of work, start one yourself. “You will see that maybe
in the beginning you are only two people or three,” Ali says.
“But then it grows. Don’t try to be the lone wolf. Find other men
you can learn from and connect with each other, and then you will
see you are not alone. Then there is a community of men who want
to do it better than the people before them.”


We talked about how our workplaces have been transformed in the
past couple of decades, driven not just by those change-makers,
but also by the internet, financial crises and huge global
shifts. We, as individuals, have an important part to play too -
especially after big life events like parenthood. 


"When people take time off - and it can be traveling around the
world, having kids, whatever it is - when you're not your role
for some time and you see yourself from outside, you’re like, I’m
not going back that way!” he told me. “One day when you die and
people are talking about your life,  you don’t want them
saying, he was the guy who raised the share price by 4%. You want
to be the person who was able to touch other people, change
something. Think about how the last months of your life should
look like - this is the end of your story. Always start with the
end. Then you know what to do now.”


Speaker: Ali Mahlodji, founder @whatchado and @futureOne, author,
investor, keynote speaker. 


Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier - Founder @MyCollective


Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach


Picture: @Stefan Joham/Ali Mahlodji 


Graphic & Production: MyCollective


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#getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions #parenthood #superpower
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