Get punchy for a speedy transition to a low carbon future.
Hands up all those who’ve been described as ‘spirited’, ‘determined, or ‘stubborn’. Or who’ve perhaps found themselves coined ‘a force of nature’, or ‘relentless’, with the kind of accompanying sigh that suggests this isn’t considered a good thing?
If this is ringing any bells, welcome to the Wilful club. Wilful people are indeed doggedly relentless, but you won’t find them apologising for it. Nope, wilful folk recognise there’s far too much that needs fixing in the world to sit back and dutifully wait for someone else to sort it out; so best get on with it, and pronto.
Wilful people are excited by the opportunities of human ingenuity when applied to our enormous sustainability challenges, preferring to expend their energies and razor-sharp focus on figuring out how to create and scale solutions that can actually make a demonstrable impact, rather than tinkering around nicely at the edges. Cracking global poverty by 2030? Bring it on. Gigaton-scale carbon removal? Let’s have it. Yes, the challenges can seem intimidatingly insurmountable, but that’s no reason not to give it your absolutely best shot.
For some, such wilful optimism manifests as a sense of relentless impatience, which can sometimes seem pretty exhausting to others in their nonstop orbit. However, there are also legions of brilliant, equable people who are driven by the same steely drive for positive exponential change; but for them, their wilful nature displays as a quiet tenacity and enduring, internal dynamo that powers the way they operate and interact with the world. With these folk, think pragmatic determination on turbo charge.
The common thread here is an enduring sense of impatience at the pace of change in tackling our planet’s egregiously long list of problems. And with UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s stark words from COP27 still ringing in our ears: “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact”, we’d suggest the world needs more wilful people, not less. How else can we reframe and rethink what’s possible at a systems-level perspective, while working with the right enablers to push forward ambitious action at the pace required?
Over the forthcoming weeks we’re going to be shining a spotlight on some of our favourite wilful people and the challenges they’re tackling in realising the transition to a low carbon future. If you’ve got any of your own you’d like to suggest, do drop us a line at +442074675823 or by emailing direct: hello@thewilful.com.
To us, being wilful doesn’t mean being difficult: it means being driven. And if you feel compelled by a relentless urge to help solve some of humanity’s biggest problems, that pretty much makes you wilful too. So we say, embrace your wilful. And to all you wilful people: we salute you.
