Over the past week, High School HeroesX founder Eli Wachs had the pleasure of speaking with firm believers in Globals and their ability to change the world: Mr. Brad Karsh of JB Training and Dr. Ira Harkavy, founder of the Netter Center at Penn.

Eli and Brad’s main topic of conversation was generation Z, or Globals, and what makes them a unique generation capable of changing the world. Mr. Karsh spoke of how globals have had both a figurative and literal global perspective throughout their whole lives– stemming from technology which has in a way shrunk the world. Globals grew up in a very different, post 9/11 and Great Recession world, where they have been willing to work harder and have been realistic yet gritty in their pursuits. To quote Mr. Karsh, “globals are millennials on steroids”, as they are a tech savvy generation (it is in their DNA) who grew up with the internet, a good group working dynamic, and an undeterred attitude in the face of failure. This Al adds up to make them a generator who truly can change the world.

With Dr. Harkavy, the focus shifted towards the framework in place and how the power of multiple teens working together can have an exponentially larger impact than just one global, provided the right attitude is in place. Dr. Harkavy spoke of the importance of identifying where we are now, where we want to be in a desired future state once a challenge has been solved, and how we can use existing resources and potentially new ones to bridge the gap to get to that desired future. The conversation then shifted to a more phycological aspect of problem solving, as what are deemed “market failures” could moreso be attributed to a lack of technology, money, or knowledge, than a lack of will to fix a problem. Perhaps Dr. Harkavy’s most striking words were in the differences between saying “something ought to happen” versus saying “something is not doable”, as ought implies can and can implies act. Meanwhile, if one believes something can not be done, then it will not get done. Lastly, Dr. Harkavy and Eli spoke of luminaries throughout history who have been realistic in their aspirations yet stretched the bounds of creativity to get there, and lastly spoke of the importance of having a creative synergy amongst students.

Overall, these two calls helped Eli better understand his generation and how to best lead it in preparation for the October 26th High School HeroesX Visioneering event.