Two Year Birthday Celebration Reflection

My wife likes to say I do things rickety boat style. The idea is I take a piece of plywood, a hammer, some rusty nails, and a bunch of old wood and I push out onto the lake. My goal is to try to build a boat before it sinks. Sometimes the boat sinks. Other times, people join me (like all of you!), and we are able to build a boat that works.

In the beginning the boat was nothing fancy. Some wouldn?t actually call it a boat. People would laugh at it. They?d cruise by in their big boats and watch us scramble when the waves hit. That didn?t stop us though.

We just kept working on it - we kept throwing the water over, plugging holes, building, laughing, and getting it tighter.

We?d be a bit further out on the lake and those same people would come back and they?d be a little bit surprised by how much the boat had shaped up. Not that they?d ever want a boat like that, but they had to begrudgingly acknowledge that the ?boat? was now actually a boat. It works. We kept working on it and it kept getting better.

Much later, perhaps when we were way down river or in a separate but connected lake, they saw us again. Somehow - in some indescribable way - we had actually made the boat better than their boat. They muttered to themselves, ?How in the HECK did that happen? How were they able to make a boat that looks better than my boat?! They don?t even know how to make a boat for crying out loud!?

Still later they saw us and guess what happened?

We were cruising in a yacht! That?s right! You heard it. We built a yacht! It had a water slide down to the water. It had super nice comfy chairs. We were eating some good food and enjoying a beautiful day on the lake. The sun started to go down. We sent a dinghy over to the people on the other boat and they joined us.

We didn?t say anything. We were bigger than that. We enjoyed their company, shared our food and drink and we watched the sun go down together. Towards the end of the night they said, ?You know, this is one heck of a yacht you all built. We didn?t think you could do it.?

You know what we said?

We said: We didn?t either! Amazing right?!

The beauty of 7 cups, for what it is now, and what it will become, is not a consequence of some grand vision or some strategic brilliance. The beauty arises from a bunch of people who decided to get on a ?boat? and see what we could build, see how far we could take it.

How did we get here? We got here by simply caring for one another and solving problems. Turns out that those two things can get you extremely far!

The great news is we are just getting started. Ultimately, we are going to build a boat that can hold anyone looking for safe passage. A boat that you don?t need a special name, ticket, or resources to board. You can come as you are and we will welcome you with open arms. We just ask that you in turn care for others and help us problem solve.

They say the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. When we started 7 Cups we were doing 50 chats a week with a handful of listeners. Now, we are doing 130,000 chats a week with over 80,000 listeners providing support in 138 languages across 186 countries (we only have 10 more to go!!).

We have apps for iPhone and Android (Yes, they are not great right now, but in true rickety boat style I can tell you the next ones are going to be awesome).

We?ve got an awesome staff, amazing team of ambassadors, strong mentor leaders, committed mentors, an army of peer supporters, awesome teen stars, a small country of listeners, and a growing world of members and guests.

Listeners of all stripes have come and joined us. Many first sought help on 7 Cups. They took those first very hard steps to overcome. They were cared for by other listeners and they decided to give back. They shared their time, energy, hope, and most importantly their faith - their belief in the dignity of the person on the other side of the chat. Their confidence that that person will get better, that things will turn around, and that they can lean on them for support.

What is better than that?

In my book, not much.

That right there means the world to me.

Members too have joined us. That first step to get help is so hard. It is so challenging. Our societies, in so many ways, make it so difficult for people to be vulnerable.

It takes HUGE courage to come forward and ask for help. It takes perseverance to continue to move forward even when it feels like the waves are crashing down all around you. It takes hope to believe that things will get better.

Members, I?m incredibly proud of you. Keep moving forward. Keep reaching out. Keep growing. We have your back!

When you are in it, like we are all in it, you have to take a minute, zoom out, and really look at what we?ve accomplished.

You know what we have done? You know what all of us together are really building?

We - together, all of us - are building a compassion engine that is slowly but surely changing the world. Engine doesn?t quite capture it. It is a network. It is a community. It is alive and all of us together are pouring into it to make it better.

It is beautiful and I?m incredibly honored to be a part of it.

Thank you for joining me on this rickety boat and believing along with me that we could make something beautiful.

Somehow, against the odds, we?ve managed to pull it off. This 2nd chapter is now closed.

We have a LONG ways to go, but let?s not focus too much on that now. Instead, now, let?s celebrate and enjoy what we?ve accomplished!

Onward and upward my friends!