Earlier this year, our friends at Pave (the amazing crowdfunding/direct-investing platform), put the call out for ‘rising stars’ in our fair city.
From a pool of nearly 200 artists, entrepreneurs, advocates, innovators and educators, 25 finalists were selected. These promising individuals will receive investment and mentorship from experienced professionals.
For the next week, we’re introducing you to all 25 of Pave’s Rising Stars! Please read on to meet the first few.
What Part of the Live in the Grey Philosophy
Resonates most with you?
Chike Ukaegb: Love what you do. Live what you love.
I love what I do. In fact I really love what I do. You see, I’m dedicated to empowering humanity, especially those with little or no representation. For me, helping others is like finding true love – You are passionate and enthused about the person you love; You find true meaning and happiness in caring for the one you love; you choose to love unconditionally regardless of reciprocity; and in fact, what makes the love perfect is all that is imperfect about it.
That is how I feel about what I do. I will therefore not relent to live that which I love.
Janine Hausif: Start with what makes you happy. Identify it and fold it into your life.
When we identify what makes us happy- which takes much deliberation and introspection- we have the unique opportunity to pursue and create the life we love. All of which are extremely important to our overall peace of mind and wellbeing. Our individual happiness the key to shaping our lives, our families, our communities and our society abroad- but it all starts with each of finding our own personal happy.
Nell Derick Debevoise: Collaborate to create opportunity.
I love people, and so recognize the value of working with people from different backgrounds (professional and personal). I’m particularly passionate about collaboration because I work in social enterprise, which requires that professionals from very different fields (e.g. finance, grassroots development, philanthropy, public agencies) work together, despite their different ‘languages,’ organizational structures, and working styles.
I love asking “why.” Asking why leads to astonishing insights. The Dalai Lama says, ‘why’ allows you to “discern what your world is and to know the scenario of this human drama.” My venture BE MORE resulted from two years of asking why. The macro- and micro- whys revealed the intricate human drama that orchestrated our tragic separation through a made-up idea of ‘race.’ It’s as if we’ve been collectively punked! Asking why led to this insight. This insight feeds my passion to activate change agents to act for equality for all beings.
Learn more about Anurag’s work here.
If you’d like to meet Chike, Janine, Nell and Anurag in person, join Pave, Overture and Live in the Grey this Thursday, March 27th, in NYC!
Thank you for sharing our stories!