Everyone Wins When You Create Opportunities For Other People
I had a friend and business mentor named Larry Enkin who helped me navigate the ups and downs of running a business for almost 25 years. We also collaborated to bring the stories of the 1948 Tailor Project families to life. These families were brought to Canada by leaders in the garment industry and given the opportunity to rebuild their lives after the Holocaust. The most important thing I learned from Larry about leadership is that when you create opportunities for other people, everyone wins.
In personal and family life, this means creating opportunities for people to discover their paths, feel proud to share their stories and become successful on their own terms. In business, Larry believed creating opportunities for other people is the way companies find their purpose, engage employees and customers, contribute to making the world a better place and have enduring success.
Here are a six things I experienced this year that remind me of why creating opportunities for other people is at the heart of what it means to have social impact.
At the Impakt Foundation For Social Change, our amazing executive director, Fatemeh Alhosseini, created an ideology she calls “for newcomers, by newcomers”. This approach is based on giving refugees opportunities to define what’s important to them and then helping to make this a reality.
I’ve created the opportunity for my colleague Niluka Kottegoda to lead our work at Impakt. I’m finding this immensely rewarding and the work is better too.
As a musician, I’ve re-learned why listening to others in more important than playing myself. Giving others opportunities to shine elevates the music for everyone.
This year I’ve tried to create opportunities for social impact leaders to share what they believe is most important. (See: Social Impact Leadership: How To Walk The Talk In 2025, Marketing Social Impact: How To Get Noticed In 2025, Social Change Under Trump: A Playbook For Business Leaders. Going into the new year, I’m looking forward to using this space to give others a voice.
Throughout the year we gave college students with virtually no real world experience opportunities to help advise senior business executives. It was wonderful to see the contribution that these young leaders made.
Next year, consider how you can create opportunities for other people. That’s how everyone wins.