A class of ESL students has been reading a book by Eric Dawson, Putting Peace First. He connects with them online, the teacher has done her work to make this book real.
Eric, with only a short stint at Burger King on his resume, started Peace First at age eighteen. Goodness. What was I doing at age eighteen? Listening to Purple Rain. Driving a ‘71 Impala with no real destination.
Eric tells them he is trying to fund the good ideas of one million young people across the world. He wants to raise half a billion dollars. This guy does not think small.
At fourteen Eric and his friends started a program at his high school to help students understand other students with disabilities. He didn’t stop just at his own high school, he expanded the program to all the elementary schools of the district, too. Again, a big thinker.
A student in the class asks him about his childhood.
“I experienced some violence in my life.” I appreciate what a straight shooter he is. I’m guessing the students are picking up on this. He’s real.
Another student asks how his company makes a profit.
Eric explains for-profit companies, giving money back to shareholders, at least some of the money. And government, the students are familiar with government, to an extent. And then not-for-profits. “The company is supposed to serve a public good,” he tells them. Religious, political, he mentions Harvard University and the National Football League in the United States (!) as non-profits. There are obviously lots of different kinds of non-profit organizations.
Eric’s other company, Rivet – the one looking to raise half a billion – is a bit different from Harvard and the NFL. Indeed.
And the last student asks, “What inspired you to write this book?”
He affirms the question, the questioner. “You all should be interviewers for a magazine.” He then tells them how a lot of people write about the story of their company. He wasn’t sure that wouldn’t be interesting. So he went on a retreat and decided not to write that sort of book. Instead he wrote a love letter to his younger self, at least that is how he thinks about it.
The subtitle of the book is “7 commitments to change the world.” so …
17 April 2025
Dear Younger Eric,
I’m going to write to you – and to lots of young people all over the world – about seven things I think are really important, based on what young people are doing to make the world a better place. Here they are.
Remember to Put Peace First, Every Day, that’s #1. Raise My Hand and Open My Heart. Then #4, Take a Stand, before Bring Others Along, Work with My Enemies (that’s a tough one), and finally #7, Keep Trying.
Pretty solid list. Combine those points with stories of young people actually working to make a difference, then stay really disciplined (and get up at 4 a.m. in the morning to write) and after a while you’ve got a book.
I get a chance to ask a question, too. So I ask him how he has gotten so much done, between work, being an author, accumulating graduate degrees, and raising three children. He tells us all something he thinks good leaders do. “I make a not-to-do list every day. Things I’m not going to worry about, things I don’t have to bother with.” He sticks to his commitments, in other words.
“If you take anything away from the book, it’s this. Who you are is always going to be more important than what you do. How you treat each other, particularly people who have less power than you, that is everything.”