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My father, who died a week ago, would write daily emails to his seven children and their spouses. "Good morning, everyone!" he would write, and then share details of the day — the weather, small and big victories among the siblings, local news. One thing you could always count on was his ending: Count your blessings. As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that simple phrase more deeply. Appreciate the moment. Appreciate the people around you. Focus not on what you do not have, but on what you do. Lift up other people. Love one another. Simple ideas, all encompassed in three words that I will hold close, cherish, and try to live by for the rest of my life: Count Your Blessings.

We lost another giant yesterday, a leader who taught us how to be strong and powerful and feminine and not apologize for any of it. A woman who reminded us that one person can change the world if she knows how to bring others with her. Gloria Steinem knew hardship, and she turned it into resolve. Her curiosity and empathy underpinned a lifetime of unrelenting work toward equality. She was courageous. As a teenager in the mid-70s, I found my own resolve to be called Ms. and not Miss. Thank you, Gloria. And she was a listener. Even in her 90s, she made room to listen, gathering in her home, understanding that change starts with being heard. "We are all one human family, and we are responsible for one another," she said. It's the same conviction I see in so many of the leaders Acumen has been privileged to back and to learn from — people who understand that dignity isn't something you're given, it's something you insist on, for yourself and for everyone else. Gloria showed us what it looks like to spend a life that way. We're grateful for it, and we'll carry it forward.

After spending time in five countries in eleven days — the UK, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam — in the midst of war, uncertainty and a fraying sense of trust, I'm reminded of the quiet power of human connection. Of showing up. Of bringing yourself fully. Human connection offers the chance to come alive. When we truly attend to one another, we remember how much we need each other — and how deeply our lives are intertwined. Our horizons expand even as the connections, when they are real, deepen our sense of grounding and belonging to something larger. Wherever we stand, may we find the courage to be the soul of that place. Happy Sunday. 🙏 P.S. Writing this on a 25-hour journey home to NYC on my 36-hour birthday (!). I feel deeply nourished by the diversity of souls I'm lucky to know, the new people I met and the extraordinary hospitality and grace I encountered. So much gratitude to the team and all who gave so generously of themselves.

To be of use — and I dare say, to be effective at making change — requires us to go beyond ourselves, to think about other people's success and not only our own. It can feel thankless, and sometimes it just is. You give your energy to outcomes you don't own and won't be credited for. Until something shifts inside you. Not in the work — in you. Time and events change how you see, and sometimes how you are seen. You look up one day and find you are not the person who set out. The best gift I've received from the people who make up Acumen is hearing them say this work made them more human. They came thinking the task was to help others flourish. And it was. But they were changed too. Isn't that the better story?

Joy is not naive. Joy is the choice to look at hard things and to say yes… Joy is a decision to lean into the cracks where light is possible. It is the spark that reminds us that we’re alive to beauty, to connection. Joy softens us when the world seems to push us to the bone, fueling resilience. Joy is part of the moral courage this moment requires. It is a reminder that moral leadership is not just about bearing burdens but about carrying light.

Purposeful work is love in action.  Don’t let cynics discount you for pursuing ideals.  If you are serious about those ideals and willing to do the work, it will be hard enough without the naysayers.  And in the hard times, just remember that the more you lean into love, the more it expands.

How does a company serving low-income people work when fighting powerful headwinds like 70% currency devaluation and high inflation? To Nick Imudia, CEO of d.light and a teacher of mine, it's about creating real impact. Change is hard. And change is possible.

Divine chaos is love unleashed against broken systems. It is neither sugary nor treacly but sharp enough to cut through. And it is strong enough to risk failure and keep moving. We need more people willing to dance across the world — willing to try, willing to give everything, expecting nothing back. We were put on this earth to love. There are a thousand ways to make it manifest.

No one gets through life without loss, without some sort of tragedy. Yet within both are the seeds of rebirth — if we decide to look for the shards of glass reflecting light. If we remember not just what was lost but what we have. I owe so much of what I know to people who had every reason to be bitter, yet chose to teach. Maybe this is the inheritance: knowing where to look.

I'm relaunching my LinkedIn newsletter to share lessons from change-agents who hear the call of moral leadership. These are people who look to the future not with blind optimism but with a hard-edged hope. People who recognize that every problem is an opportunity for us to act.

Robert Ingersoll wrote those words about Abraham Lincoln more than a century ago, yet they feel painfully relevant today. I meet so many young people who have lost faith that real leaders exist. They look around and see too many powerful people making decisions based on what is good for themselves, not others. Too many choosing self over service, certainty over humility, greed over generosity. I get the weariness, the cynicism, even the fear. But cynicism is the best friend of the status quo. This past month, meeting leaders across the UK, Switzerland, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia reminded me that good leaders are everywhere. Everywhere I went, I found individuals grounded in moral imagination and determined to be of use — leaders whose actions are rooted not in "I" but in “we.” I met people willing to hold values in tension: compassion and accountability, ambition and humility, courage and restraint. People who give more than they take. Some have gained significant power, yet are not corrupted by it. Power, perhaps more than pain, reveals who we are at our core. I wish I could show you all those for whom it reveals generosity and love. The work of our time is not only to call out the misuse of power. It is to recognize, strengthen, and stand with those who use power to serve. From them, I derive more hope for this weary world than I can say.

I love the Declaration of Independence. Written by flawed, idealistic people — some of whom didn't yet live by their own words, yet who aspired to be, and be part of, something better. It would take two centuries, punctuated by wars, amendments, movements, you name it, for "all men" to begin to mean "all people." And there are some today who fear we could lose it all. I'm not one who fears. I see instead an idea so big it ultimately will include all of us. Indeed, my work has been motivated by the dream of extending the idea that all people are created equal to every person on the planet. And so when I celebrate 250 years of America, I will also celebrate the ideas of human freedom and equality — two ideas that have changed the world and require all of us to cultivate and nurture.

My father, who died a week ago, would write daily emails to his seven children and their spouses. "Good morning, everyone!" he would write, and then share details of the day — the weather, small and big victories among the siblings, local news. One thing you could always count on was his ending: Count your blessings. As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that simple phrase more deeply. Appreciate the moment. Appreciate the people around you. Focus not on what you do not have, but on what you do. Lift up other people. Love one another. Simple ideas, all encompassed in three words that I will hold close, cherish, and try to live by for the rest of my life: Count Your Blessings.

We lost another giant yesterday, a leader who taught us how to be strong and powerful and feminine and not apologize for any of it. A woman who reminded us that one person can change the world if she knows how to bring others with her. Gloria Steinem knew hardship, and she turned it into resolve. Her curiosity and empathy underpinned a lifetime of unrelenting work toward equality. She was courageous. As a teenager in the mid-70s, I found my own resolve to be called Ms. and not Miss. Thank you, Gloria. And she was a listener. Even in her 90s, she made room to listen, gathering in her home, understanding that change starts with being heard. "We are all one human family, and we are responsible for one another," she said. It's the same conviction I see in so many of the leaders Acumen has been privileged to back and to learn from — people who understand that dignity isn't something you're given, it's something you insist on, for yourself and for everyone else. Gloria showed us what it looks like to spend a life that way. We're grateful for it, and we'll carry it forward.

In 25 years of impact investing, Acumen has been asked more often than you'd expect how many unicorns we’ve produced. The answer is humbling: exactly one. And yet our portfolio has reached more than 700 million low-income people, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and reshaped fundamental systems for those historically overlooked. I think of our companies whose impact is transformative in ways the world urgently needs. Yet we have no category, no rubric, no shared recognition that captures what they're achieving or connects them with the investors who would back them. That doesn't feel right. So, how do we create a different measure of success? And what might we call those organizations truly transforming our communities and our world?

Robert Ingersoll wrote those words about Abraham Lincoln more than a century ago, yet they feel painfully relevant today. I meet so many young people who have lost faith that real leaders exist. They look around and see too many powerful people making decisions based on what is good for themselves, not others. Too many choosing self over service, certainty over humility, greed over generosity. I get the weariness, the cynicism, even the fear. But cynicism is the best friend of the status quo. This past month, meeting leaders across the UK, Switzerland, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia reminded me that good leaders are everywhere. Everywhere I went, I found individuals grounded in moral imagination and determined to be of use — leaders whose actions are rooted not in "I" but in “we.” I met people willing to hold values in tension: compassion and accountability, ambition and humility, courage and restraint. People who give more than they take. Some have gained significant power, yet are not corrupted by it. Power, perhaps more than pain, reveals who we are at our core. I wish I could show you all those for whom it reveals generosity and love. The work of our time is not only to call out the misuse of power. It is to recognize, strengthen, and stand with those who use power to serve. From them, I derive more hope for this weary world than I can say.

One of the through lines of my life is the idea that angels and monsters live in each of us; and that, in times of insecurity, it is easy for too many leaders to prey on our fears and broken parts and blame others. We live in such a time, and it is more important than ever that each of us becomes a light in the darkness. I’ve spent this week on the ground in and around Hargeisa with Somalis of all backgrounds, people who carry their communities forward in myriad untold ways. I’m proud of the work we are doing with them, and I’ll be writing a bit about it over the next few days. May you focus your own efforts with hard heads and soft hearts. And may you hold fast to love as the antidote to all that makes us smaller and more afraid.

Happy Holi! Wherever you are today, may your world be full of color, love and the promise of new beginnings.

The world feels heavy. Too many people are carrying deep personal burdens as well. Too many are melting into despair. I've been carrying these words: "To be alive: not just the carcass." And I'm reminded of Tennyson's: "As if to breathe were life." Yet Orr gives us something more: the spark. I've lived my life in places where the carcass is real. Yet in those same places I've met some of the most hopeful and brilliantly alive people on Earth — people who dare to express joy, who refuse to be extinguished, no matter what. They are the ones who inspire hope. If we dare to dance in the dark times, if we dare to seek our spark when light feels elusive, we have the chance to discover our best selves.

Eleanor Roosevelt's quote has become a practice in my life. My own leadership journey has taught me that we become courageous by practicing courage — not through massive leaps, but small steps. Ask the question in a group where you feel intimidated. Call that colleague to see what more you might do together at work. Sign up for the class or workshop you've been avoiding. We grow when we push into the untried parts of ourselves. So do one thing every day that scares you. Before you know it, you'll grow into your own kind of courage. And the world needs the best of all of us.

This is a moment to look forward, to reimagine our systems, and to find those who would build them with us. It is why I love builders, those who see what is wrong and even terrible, yet lean into creating something better. For twenty-five years, I’ve seen what happens when moral imagination meets patient capital — when entrepreneurs are backed not just with applause for their vision, but with the venture, proximity and stamina it takes to climb the stairs. I’ve seen how much change is possible. So, after a week at Davos, I’m sitting with this question: what would it take to create an alliance of all those builders and those who support their vision, people who dare to put our humanity and the earth at the center, not just profit, not just power?

We love the idea of a clean slate, but most real beginnings are not clean. They often come after disappointment, exhaustion and endings we didn’t choose. Renewal is not simply about intention and optimism. It can come when you feel you’ve just about hit a wall. It can require effort, a bearing down to hold nothing back, a leaning into risk and into the courage needed to find new rhythms and patterns. And even if we did choose this place where we start the new year, we may feel pulls of both exhilaration and being daunted, each keening in an opposing direction. Yet if we are not daunted, we may not be challenging ourselves. I, for one, am excited for the new page that is 2026.

I’ve started many New Year’s mornings with John O’Donohue’s beautiful poems. I love this one because it carries the kind of hope I trust: grounded, unsentimental, sturdy for the world that is. It doesn’t promise easy, but wishes for us the inner resources to take on what this next year brings. I also wish for you a slow wind to encircle you like an invisible cloak to give you gentle, yet fierce and even joyful bravery. This I wish you most of all, as we all have the chance to turn the page into newness. Happy New Year.

What we notice, we begin to love. And what we love, we are called to serve. But attention is not passive. It can be a radical act, one that connects us to those too many don't see. When we truly pay attention to the person in front of us, we have the chance to see our commonalities. For those who are suffering, we start to hear what they desire, not what we think they need. In our world of distraction, what more can we do to notice, to pay attention, to listen? We will not solve our problems if we don't hold affection for one another. Attention is the beginning of devotion.

Purposeful work is love in action.  Don’t let cynics discount you for pursuing ideals.  If you are serious about those ideals and willing to do the work, it will be hard enough without the naysayers.  And in the hard times, just remember that the more you lean into love, the more it expands.