You can change the world! Here’s How…
Start a Wow Project!
Use your Passion & Talent to make the World a little Better & yourself a lot Happier:
Wow Projects:
- Make the world a little (or a lot) better
- Make our hearts glow
- Make optimal use of our passion & talent
- Help us grow and develop ourselves
- Give us a sense of purpose and meaning
- Are not primarily aimed at money
- Make us happy
In short: a Wow Project is work as it's supposed to be
Why Wow?
Work
Work should be Wow; yet for the majority of people, it isn't. A study by Gartner shows that 87% of all employees are not satisfied with their work... People are bored, frustrated, burned out and often deeply unhappy.
World
The world should be Wow, yet for the majority of people it isn’t. Hunger, disease, pollution, repression are but a few of the problems millions of people experience everyday. And now even the world itself is under serious threat.
Companies
Companies face ever-growing problems in recruiting and binding the best people. Classic incentives (salary, corner offices, company cars) are no longer enough when the work itself is devoid of purpose and meaning (not Wow).
Wow
The Wow Project is meant to help with a simple but powerful approach: start a Wow Project to make the world a little better and find passion, purpose and meaning doing work you love.
Quote
“Find passion, purpose & meaning doing work you love"
The Gap:
We think there is a gap in our lives that is preventing us from living happy, meaningful, and fulfilling lives.
5 years old
At 5, we are all heroes-in-the-making. We have big dreams for our future: joining the Thunderbirds, becoming a famous inventor, turning into Superman... (those were my dreams at 5)
40 years old
As adults, we spend our days in endless meetings and our nights falling asleep in front of the TV. No Thunderbirds, No Famous inventor, No Superman cape…
At life's end
At the end of our lives, we regret the things we haven't done. The steps we didn't take, the plans we didn't realize, because we were too afraid to try. Because we prioritized safety over our passion. Because we buried our dreams.
Ambition vs reality
There is a gap between our ambitions as a child and the reality we accept as adults. When we grow up, we start living according somebody else's definition of life. We follow the herd. And we settle... That's why most of us feel unfulfilled and unhappy.
Quote
"Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from."
How did this happen?
As a child we have big dreams, when we grow up we settle into someone else’s definition of life. How come? The short answer: You got brainwashed.
We’re like elephants Baby elephants were traditionally trained by tying one of their front legs to a stake in the ground. Because the elephants are small, only a thin rope is required. When they grow up they are conditioned to believe the rope can still hold them so the never try to break free.
Schools put 'ropes around our leg': - "Don't follow your impulse" - "Listen to the teacher" - "Do what everybody else does" - "Forget about your passions" - "Always make the safe choice" - “ Do NOT make mistakes” When we grow up, the elephants in us still believe these limiting thoughts.
Society strengthens the ropes. We are greatly influenced by the world around us. We hear and see the same messages millions of times: - "Don't follow your impulse" - "Do what everybody else does" - "Forget about your passions" - "Always make the safe choice" - “Do NOT make mistakes”:
Companies strengthen the ropes At work we learn - to ‘fit in’. - to follow our job description - to forget about our passion - to ask permission - to avoid mistakes like the plague
Our fears are holding us back Everyone is afraid. All the time. Even the successfull people have to deal with their fears everyday. We are afraid to fail and we are afraid to lose face in front of other people. That social fear holds most of us back.
We prefer the Comfort Zone. Most of us are downright lazy. We prefer the comfortable life. Watching TV, clicking on social media posts, doing the easy stuff. Wow Project demand you to get out of your comfort zone, but the good news: that's where the magic lives.
Quote
"People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life."
The Solution
Become a Chief Wow Officer
Instead of waining and complaining until magic happens, you can actually create some magic yourself. And you can do it quite easily, by changing your mindset and becoming a Chief Wow Officer:
This is not just a fancy name in a shallow attempt to impress the world. It's a serious commitment. Chief Wow Officer is not what you are, it's an intention:
Chief Wow Officers Use their Passion & Talent to make the World a little Better & themselves a lot Happier:
Start a Wow Project
Once you’ve decided to be a Chief Wow Officer, start doing something. Find a cause, wake up your passion and talents and start your own Wow Project.
Quote
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Chief Wow Officer… ?
Chief Officer…
Means you take charge, you are in the lead and you take full responsibility for creating Wow. Even if you’re not formally a chief officer.
Wow…
Is everything that takes our breath away, makes our eyes sparkle and gets our hearts beat a little faster.
AND
Lets us use our passion and talents
AND
Helps to make the world a little (or a lot) better
Quote
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
Why Wow is Important
The World needs it
We desperately need people who not only leave comments on social media, but take the initiative to actually do something about the problems all around them. Who take the responsibility to change the world.
People need it.
We don’t get happy by consuming as much as we can. We get happy by using our passion and talent in service of something bigger then ourselves.
Organisations need it.
Organisations of all shapes and sizes need Chief Wow Officers: people who take initiative and make a difference. Not waiting for permission or delegating it to someone els.
Quote
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now."
21 signs YOU need it
So how do you know if YOU should choose to become a Chief Wow Officer? The short answer: when you are not happy at your work...
When in doubt, fill in our checklist. Cross of the sign you recognize in your own life. And see how you score...
The Checklist
Your Score?
The more boxes you ticked, the more you need to start an Wow Project
How wow is your current job?
Here’s another way to score tot wow-factor your currrent job.
The Work/Wow Matrix
2 questions:
Start by asking yourself 2 questions: 1. Does my work make the world (a little) better? 2. Does my work match my passion and talent?
4 outcomes
Level 1: Sisyphus
Your work does NOT make any contribution to a better world and there is no connection to your passion and talent. We call this Sisyphus work: it feels like you’re trying to push a big rock up a mountain, day in, day out.
Level 2: “Work”
Your work does NOT make any contribution to a better world but is DOES make use of your passion and talent. It feels much better then level 1, but in the end you ask yourself what’s the meaning of it all.
Level 3: “Work”
At level 3, there surely is meaning to your work, but unfortunately there is no connection to your passion and talent. So in the end level 3 is not satisfying either.
Level 4: “Wow”
In level 4 we have the perfect match between your passion&talent and ythe needs of the world. Your job really makes the world a little better
What to do?
We think everybody deserves level 4 work. If your job doesn’t fit into this category, you may want to switch jobs, of start a Wow Project yourself.
Quote
“You can’t let other people set your agenda in life.”
Examples of Wow Projects
Jadav Molai Payeng (The Forest Man of India) has singlehandedly planted and tended trees on a sandbar of the river Brahmaputra turning it into a forest reserve, bigger then Central Park in New York.
Johan the sandwich man has been preparing packed lunches for children who go to school without food because their parents cannot afford it. "If you have money for only one meal a day, you will choose the warm one."
Sander van Bussel started Human Rights Tattoo a movement that sparks social change through the power of art, traveling around the world to tattoo the complete Universal Declaration of Human Rights onto the skins of 6.773 human beings.
Quote
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life"
For who is this?
Who?
You don’t need some special talent or a sophisticated education to become a Chief Wow Officer. You don’t need money or resources.
Small
Even the smallest of contributions can help to make our world a little better:
- Talk to a lonely neighbor
- Bring a bowl of soup to a sick friend
- Do the shopping for an elderly lady
Big
Of course you can make it as big as you want.
- clean up the oceans
- solve poverty
- eradicate illness
Anyone
The important message is that everybody can make a difference in the world.
Everybody can choose to become a Chief Wow Officer. Just change your mindset and take the first (little step)
Quote
"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"
How to become a Chief Wow Officer?
Suppose your’re convinced and decide to become a Chief Wow Officer. What exactly do you need?
Top answer your first question, we created a (not so) secret formula:
The Formula:
🧠 Mindset x 😎 Attitude x 💪 Action = 💥 Wow
Quote
"We are all capable of so much more than we know."
Mindset
Mindset is probably the most important element in our formula. The way you perceive the world and attach meaning to everything that happens makes all the difference in your life and in what you will accomplish. Let’s look at alle the elements that are of importance.
Growth vs Fixed Mindset
According to psychologist Carol Dewck people either have a growth mindset OR a fixed mindset.
In a fixed mindset you believe you are who you are, and there is not much you can do about it. Fixed People say: I can’t do this (ever).
In a growth mindset you believe you can allways keep growing and learning. Growth People say: I can’t do this yet.
Everything is Figureoutable
Chief Wow Officers believe that everything is figureoutable (brilliant book bij Marie Forleo). It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to do something yet, you are able to figure it out. This belief prevent us from quitting to soon, because we don’t know how, or we don’t oversee the steps.
Failure=learning
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
Chief Wow Officers believe that failure is just an essential step on the road to wow. When a child learns to walk, she falls a thousand times and she uses the falling to improve.
When an adult falls, he says: this is probably not for me. Let’s quit.
Quote
“Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.”
Attitude
Attitude is the second part of our secret formula (mindset*attitude*action=wow). It contains of three elements: curiosity, fearlessness and disobedience.
Curious
We are all born curious. Most people lose it when they grow up. Chief Wow Officers stay curious. There is allways something new to discover and something new to learn on their path to wow.
Fearless
The biggest human fear is being rejected by the group. While this made sense in prehistoric times (being abandoned meant getting eaten by a tiger) it is less usefull now.
Because of this fear, people conform to the group and avoid being different. Chief Wow Officers might feel this fear too, but they don’t let it restrict them.
Disobedient
Disobedience might seem a negative thing, but not doing what others tell you to do, is in some cases a very good choice. Chief Wow Officers, do listen to others, but then draw their own plan, following their own judgement and intuition.
Quote
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."
Action
Action is the third part of our equasion. Chief Wow Officers are action oriented. They start doing as soon as possible. Even if they don’t know all the steps ahead, they take the first one asap.
Thinking vs doing
Most people tend to overthink things. Chief Wow Officers don’t. They start doing as soon as possible, even if it’s just a tiny little first step. They learn from doing (action learning) and adjust their nest steps accordingly. They think along the way.
Procrastination
Most people tend to procrastinate: I’ll start tomorrow. Chief Wow Officers know that tomorrow never comes (there will allways be a new tomorrow.) The best time to start was 10 years ago, the second best time (the only time) is Now! Just take the smallest step possible and do it now.
A million small steps
Chief Wow Officers realise that any giant leap actually consists of a million small steps. So they start taking small steps and keep on doing that untill they reach their goal.
Daily habits
Chief Wow Officers work on their Wow daily. They make it a habit. Because if they don’t do that, there will always be something that seems to be more urgent.
Quote
"If the path before you is clear, it’s probably someone else’s"
Chief Wow Officers Checklist:
Quote
“We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands to make a difference."
Shortcut to happiness
Creating wow is the shortcut to happiness. Using your passion and talent, doing work you love AND serving something that’s bigger then yourself is scientifically proven the best route to happiness.
Quote
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
What to wow?
Maybe you allready know what you want to work on. If you don’t, try one of the following suggestions.
Small or Big, both are ok
First: it’s important to state that you can wow anything and everything. Wether it’s delivering the best coffee and thereby making people happy, or wether its ending world hunger. Or anything in between. Small problems or big problems both are OK.
Things you care about
Don’t just pick any problem, pick something you really, really care about. An unjustice that makes you angry, a suffering that saddens you, a cause you feel compassionate about. You will need this emotional fuel to get going, even when things get tough.
Make a list
Start making a list of all the things you care about that need to be improved upon and where you think you might make a difference. If you can’t choose the right one upfront, start working on two of three problems. The choice will be clear soon.
Start a problem diary
If the list thing doesn’t work out, you might want to start a “problem diary”. In it you should write down all the problems you encounter in your daily life. That might be your personal experiences, as well as things you read about in the news or on Social Media. Write them all down for two weeks, review them, pick the one that moves you the most
What to wow?
Maybe you allready know what you want to work on. If you don’t, try one of the following suggestions.
Small or Big, both are ok
First: it’s important to state that you can wow anything and everything. Wether it’s delivering the best coffee and thereby making people happy, or wether its ending world hunger. Or anything in between. Small problems or big problems both are OK.
Things you care about
Don’t just pick any problem, pick something you really, really care about. An unjustice that makes you angry, a suffering that saddens you, a cause you feel compassionate about. You will need this emotional fuel to get going, even when things get tough.
Make a list
Start making a list of all the things you care about that need to be improved upon and where you think you might make a difference. If you can’t choose the right one upfront, start working on two of three problems. The choice will be clear soon.
Start a problem diary
If the list thing doesn’t work out, you might want to start a “problem diary”. In it you should write down all the problems you encounter in your daily life. That might be your personal experiences, as well as things you read about in the news or on Social Media. Write them all down for two weeks, review them, pick the one that moves you the most
Pick one of our suggestions
As mentioned before, you can make small or big.
Small Projects
Bigger Problems
Quote
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be…”
Your contribution
What do you bring to the table?
Once you’ve picked your cause, you should ask yourself what you will actually DO to improve it. What unique talents and competencies do do you own that can make a difference in the field you picked.
Find your superpower(s)
Find your superpower(s). Everybody has at least one thing that they are very good at. If you don’t know what your superpower is, start asking people you’ve worked with. They’ll know.
What do you love to do?
Think back on all the things you’ve done in the past. Which of them really made you happy? What could you be doing for hours on end and would you have continued gladly even if you weren’t get paid for it.
Quote
“Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.”
Make the Connection
To paraphrase the famous Aristotle: “Where your passions and talents meet the needs of the world, there lies your Wow Project.“ So try to combine the things you found in “What to Wow”, with the passion and talents you discovered in “Your Contribution” and see what comes up.
How Wow should you go?
A Wow Project can be very big (ending world hunger) or very small (setting up a food project in your street) or anything in between: you decide. Whatever alines with your passion AND makes the world a little bit better, is a wow project.
Your 3 choices:
Quit Your Job
For the brave: Quit your current job and go all out on your wow project. Build your own startup and maximize your chances.
Side Project
Keep your dayjob to pay the bills. Start a side project, where the real magic happens. And who knows, in time it might become your real job.
Wow Your Job
Don't quit your job, Wow it. With a little creativity, almost any job can be turned into Wow. We offer inspiring examples to get you started.
Our advice for most people is to start a Side Project: you can take your time to slowly build your Wow, without the pressure of earning money right from the start
Quote
"The human individual lives usually far within his limits"
Is it Realistic?
Yes, It's realistic
Creating Wow is possible and realistic. But just like the elephants in he story above, we are conditioned to believe we can't.
Time and time again, people like you and me prove the rope can't really hold them back. They start a Wow Project and turn into the heroes they were meant to be.
The Best Time Ever
This is the best moment in time, to start a Wow Project. You are in a far better position then anyone in history. You have far better tools then Julius Caesar, Mahadma Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela had.
And as we all know: If you do NOT start right now, chances are you will never do it.
So, what's stopping you?
But What if I Fail?
Fear is the main reason most of us hold back. It's because growing up we've learned to avoid failure like the plague. But failure is our built-in superpower to learn new things. We fail-learn-fail-learn until we succeed. You will fail, and that's a good thing. Because it's your best chance to succeed.
Quote
"What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible."
How to Start?
1. Make it official
If you are serious about changing your life for the better, then you have to make it official. You can do that in our business card ceremony:
Now you signed a contract with yourself: you’re officially a Chief Wow Officer
But beware: this is a serious commitment: you’ll have to live up to the promise.
2. Start NOW
For many people, starting the most difficult thing to do. There are two very simple tricks to overcome this form of procrastination:
- Start Now with the smallest possible step
- Keep taking small steps every day..
Quote
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
The Wow Process
1. Find your Cause
Maybe you allready know what you want to work on. If you don’t, start making a list of all the things you care about that need to be improved upon and where you think you might make a difference. If you can’t choose the right one upfront, tart working on two of three problems. The choice will be clear soon.
2. Explore and learn
Submerge yourself in the world of your cause. Forget everything you think you know, get very curious and discover new things. Online and in the real world. Talk to people. Make notes of everything that draws your attention. Try to formulate the problems you want to tackle with your wow project.
3. Generate Ideas
Generate ideas to tackle the problem(s) you identified in step 3. Use your creativity, think out of the box.
The best ideas come from our subconscience mind, usually when you stop thinking about it. To activate this generate ideas over multiple (even many) days.
4. Build -test - build
Try to build something simple you can pout out in the world and test. It might be a product or a prototype. Make sure you get lots of feedback. Now make a second version on the basis of the feedback and tekst that again. Repeat until you’re ready.
Quote
"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
Tools to help you wow
Streetcombing: Find opportunities everywhere
Ideas and opportunities are all around us, but most of us can’t see them. Streetcombing is a simpel yet powerfull technique to make them visible and spot ideas and opportunities everywhere
Museum of Birdshit: Reframe problems and setbacks
Visit our International museum of birdshit and learn how to reframe “reality”. Once you’ve mastered this with birdshit, you’ll be able to find opportunities in all the setbacks you’ll experience on your way to wow.
SkipMeetings: Create time to wow
“I Don’t have the time”, is the most common excuse that’s keeping us from creating wow. Yet we all have the samen amount of time. The problem is not the time that’s available to us, the problem is what we do with that time. So stop things that don’t add value. Like (too many) meetings.
Quote
"It is never too late to be what you might have been."
Watch the Ted-Talk
Watch the introduction of Chief Wow Officers at TEDx Dordrecht. The video registration wasn’t “wow” (especially the sound), but once you get over that, you’ll be fine (and -hopefully- inspired!
Quote
"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves."
Our services
Keynote
Founder Richard Stomp takes you on an inspiring tour in a presentation that just might change your life.
Fill in the contact form below for more info
Workshop
Founder Richard Stomp helps you kickstart your Wow project in a very practical and inspiring way.
Fill in the contact form below for more info
Quote
"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
Contact
Got Questions or feedback? Fill in the contact form below and we’ll get back to you asap.