Okay, full warning … you are about to be offered the opportunity to read even more of my miscellaneous ramblings!
If you read this blog regularly then you have heard about PathLight. Well, the team there has been brainstorming how to stay in touch with their supporters without boring them. Nobody needs useless updates, and we don’t want to act like PathLight’s work is the most important thing in the world. (Even though it kinda is).
Nonprofit updates often follow a familiar script. My snarky mind imagines something like, “Hello, we have fantastic news! The kids are fantastic! Our staff is fantastic! We can make the world a more fantastic place! Except we’re broke! So send money, or the kids and the staff, and the whole world will be less fantastic!”
I’m guilty of sounding like this, by the way. My apologies.
Instead of a familiar script, the PathLight team asked me to start a weekly email that breaks the nonprofit norm. Make it fun, interesting, and about more than just PathLight, they told me. Write, they said, like my blog and devotions, with whimsy and transparency rooted in faith.
Well, this blog post is taken from my first attempt at a fun, whimsical, PathLight email.
Allow me to start by introducing myself. My name is Roy Goble, and I’m a co-founder of PathLight, currently serving as CEO. (Full transparency: it’s not a full-time job the way I do it, I don’t get paid for the work, and they didn’t even give me business cards.)
So how did I land this overworked, unpaid, ridiculously complex dream job?
At the risk of sounding like a typical therapist, let’s go back to my childhood to find an answer.
I grew up working in our family junkyard business. When I was a teenager, we moved to a small ranch. After college, I started constructing industrial buildings, which later morphed into real estate investing. So I went from grease on my work boots, to horse poop on my cowboy boots, to dust on my construction boots, to polishing my fancy wingtips. (I like that sentence, but for the record, I don’t own wingtips.)
The common denominator in all those experiences? Self-starting and making things happen. Building things, running things, and dealing with people. Everything I’ve done has required leadership, faith, and hope, and all of this is important for what I do as PathLight’s CEO.
My wife, D’Aun, and I have been visiting Belize since 1993, when we oversaw a ministry called Target Earth. We ended up building Jaguar Creek, protecting almost 2000 acres of rainforest, supporting an accredited college program, and hosting thousands of service-minded guests.
In 2002, we stepped aside because we felt we had done all we could. We often joke that we don’t really remember the 1990’s because we were so busy running the real estate business, raising two kids, and overseeing Target Earth!
Then in 2007, the leaders at Target Earth asked us to take over Jaguar Creek. Along with long-time friends Mark and Adrienne Parcher, we jumped at the chance. And thus began PathLight.
This is far too much about me—and, let’s face it, none of it is funny—so I’m going to pull the plug on this week. Next week I hope to be funnier. Or more insightful.
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PS Wondering about the header photo? It’s a junkyard. In Belize. Couldn’t resist using it here.