The World Domination Summit
Post by Ryan Lupberger ’18
How do you live an extraordinary life in a conventional world? That was the question being asked by the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. With the support of the Babson Undergraduate Professional Accelerator Fund, Ryan Elcock ’18 and I had the privilege to attend a 4-day conference from August 11th-15th. The week was a mix of inspiration, impactful conversations, and rock star speakers. It was called the World Domination Summit because it asked its attendees to reevaluate their lives and to live constantly being aware of three pillars. These pillars were adventure, community, and service.
The adventure pillar was interesting to experience. For this topic, the conference invited the founder of The Good Life project. He challenged the audience to each add adventure in his or her life on an everyday basis. Without adventure, it is impossible to understand the limit of one’s own comfort zone. In the Babson context, the adventure can be a new business endeavor or club you join, but it is nearly impossible to live an extraordinary life without adventure. After the conference I am inspired to live more adventurously.
The second pillar, community, helped me feel refreshed and to reexamine Babson. The conference defined community and defined the characteristics of the most successful communities. What was interesting, was the diverse characteristics of the most successful communities. At Babson, I think that I have the tendency to push for accomplishment and excellence. I see the Babson community as a group of highly motivated individuals who all feel the same way. The conference helped push a different way of viewing communities. The strongest groups, were the ones who had a diversity of individuals. Some care about being more social, some care more about volunteering, others care about building a business, and others are pushing the academic excellence. The conference reinforced that the strongest communities were not made up of the strongest individuals but actually they were made up of the most diverse group. Those who are filled with only alpha types, often self-combust.
The third pillar, service, helped me settle into my purpose at Babson. We who are given much have much to give. The conference brought together social entrepreneurs who were making profit while growing their business. The speakers asked each audience member to identify why they were living. At Babson, I can lose myself in the pursuit of grades and I think it is also important for all of us to ask, why are we at Babson? What are our goals? Who will be impacting during our time here? We have been given much at this school and I think that we all have the responsibility to give to society and to the community and individuals at this school.
Looking back, the conference was a perfect way to start the new semester at Babson. As Babson students, I think that we should all begin to reexamine our lives and adding adventure, community, and service into our everyday affairs.