“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”
– Samuel Adams

A little over three years ago I was one of millions of unnamed, unknown homeless people living in a van in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Denver, Colorado. Then I was a little better known, having spoken at TED Global. Now that the video of the talk has been posted my name and my story is known to millions.

The only difference between me and any other homeless, or working homeless person is that “irate, tireless mind willing to set brush fires in people’s minds.” As Margaret Mead said, “”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

It wasn’t my talk, or the video that made a difference. It was individual people posting, blogging, talking and sharing that made a difference. ONE person can spark the conversation or the idea, but it takes other individuals to continue it. This is the butterfly effect…..

My favorite stories are all about this phenomena called the “Butterfly Effect.”

“The Butterfly Effect” – is a belief that the air stirred by a single butterfly’s wings flapping eventually creates a typhoon that hits land on the other side of the world. It’s a principle that viral marketing – or all successful marketing is built upon – one small thing leading to another, and another.

A snowflake by itself weighs nothing. Put it with a ka-trillion others and it will collapse oak trees, roofs and any structure known to man by its sheer weight.

Our lives are the product of a million influences, nudges, comments and knowledge of whose origins we know nothing about. And while the actions or inaction’s of others are impacting us every day, so our actions and inaction’s are impacting others as well.

Most of us know who Rosa Parks is and how her refusing to move to the back of the bus sparked the Civil Rights movement, but how many of us know that she was not the first African American to refuse to move to the back of the bus? Ten years before Rosa Parks took a stand, baseball legend Jackie Robinson was court-martialed (and acquitted) for not moving to the back of the bus. Robinson, a second lieutenant at the time, was on trial not because he had violated any articles of war, his attorney told the board, but because a few officers “were working vengeance against an uppity black man.”

All charges were dismissed, and several months later, Robinson received an honorable discharge from the Army. But the butterfly’s wings had flapped and ten years later the winds of a typhoon called the Civil Rights movement began to stir. “A life is not important,” Robinson said, “except in the impact it has on other lives.”

How true. Some of us can identify the butterflies who stirred the wind that moves beneath our wings. Others only know they’ve felt the breeze and puzzled over the events in their lives that seemed to be a “stroke of luck or fortune.”

And while we all have been touched by the butterfly effect – sometimes we forget that all we do creates our own breeze, or typhoon. It doesn’t take much. A careless remark, a timely compliment, a smile, a welcome, an insight, an email or an invite for a cup of coffee. There are many ways to stir the winds of change. A person you introduce to someone today may change their life tomorrow.

I read a story recently about a man whose teacher ridiculed him for his lifelong desire to be a firefighter. The teacher thought it was stupid and ridiculous to follow such a dream when there was college and a world of other opportunities to pursue. So the man went to college and hated the life others expected him to live. Eventually he gave it all up and went back to his real love – firefighting. Hr became a firefighter and loved it. Then – amazingly enough – he recently one day to a crash site and extricated his old teacher and his teacher’s wife, and performed CPR on him, saving his life. And now he has the story to tell, and does, and it changes lives. People hear it and follow their heart. All because a teacher ridiculed a job choice so many years ago.

How will you change the world today?