No, You’re Not Too Busy: At Skoll with Professor Paul Farmer

Published March 28, 2009 @ 08:03AM PT

I'm busy. You're busy. All social entrepreneurs (and, for that matter everyone) is busy. Often, we let this get the best of us, and fail to quickly respond to emails, or return calls, or give the folks around us the attention they deserve. Spending just a little time with Dr. Paul Farmer yesterday was a good reminder that no matter what, we're not too busy to do a better job relating to others.

Among the rockstars of the social entrepreneurship scene, few are more in demand than Dr. Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health. Farmer's ability to combine a deep structural critique of the modern global health enterprise with models of a more systemic, community driven approach has made him one of the leading inspirations for young changemakers in particular. Because of this (and his public email address) he's one of the most in-demand people around.

Yesterday, I had a fascinating experience. I was waiting to talk with Dr. Farmer for the blog when I ran into a friend, Chas, who I hadn't seen since studying abroad in Cairo in 2004. Chas is just finishing up his Masters in Medical Anthropology thesis at Oxford and had been corresponding with Dr. Farmer for a week or two. He had invited Chas to talk about it a little bit that afternoon. So far, nothing remarkable, although it's pretty cool that at the Mecca of Social Entrepreneurship, he was still interested in making time for a student.

What was remarkable was when the three of us sat down, Dr. Farmer immediately started asking Chas questions about the particular parts of his thesis. It wasn't just that he had seen the file, he had actually engaged with it. He complimented Chas on a section where he had applied the thinking of a philosopher to a health concept, and questioned another section where he thought the thesis tried to strongly to valorize local knowledge.

The point was that here is a guy who has projects around the world that are literally saving lives and trying to rebuild health systems, who has to jog around the planet giving speeches and raising money, and who probably receives one trillion emails per day, and he still found time to help a young guy sort through his own thoughts.

Why does it matter? It matters because by spending a few minutes of his time consciously engaged in someone else's life, Dr. Farmer probably just gave a future health leader inspiration to run on for months. He validated his work while pushing him to think differently and the ripple effects of that are inestimable.

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Comments (5)

I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder last year, which documents Paul Farmer's life. I was left feeling two things. One was more hope than I have felt in a long time. This man is a visionary and an action-oriented agent of change - each of which on an impressive scale. But even more impressive is how very rare it is to find a combination of both. The second thing I felt was a reinvigoration of my own sense of purpose in the world. I don't think that I could do all that he does, but I do think that I can do more. If he can find time to do good and make change, then so can I.

Posted by Sarah Burns on 03/28/2009 @ 05:37PM PT
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Paul Farmer is one of those people who not only talk the talk but walk the walk about building a better world. His lifetime of unselfish service to the world's poor is unquestioned and is an alternative to those naysayers who want to sit around and complain about things as they are.

Farmer's example is to simply get out in the world and find an area where you can be a beacon of light and hope for others.

Thanks for focusing on something positive, Nathaniel.

Living Positively, debbie :)
www.mpwn-uganda.org

Posted by Debbie Kreuser on 03/29/2009 @ 10:30AM PT
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Great story Nathaniel. It can be so hard to remember this when we're wrapped in the bubble of our to-do list but we contribute to building the world we want to see by how we interact with and treat people and our values are expressed most powerfully not by our vocalizing them or by our professional commitment to them but by how we live them, one day at a time. Thanks for the reminder.

Posted by Tom Dawkins on 03/29/2009 @ 10:12PM PT
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I'm too busy too read all the comments on this post. In all serious, wonderful post. Paul Farmer is truly commited to humanity at the personal, communal, and global scale. I just want to know if he sleeps.

Posted by Charles Harding on 04/01/2009 @ 09:15AM PT
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Great story. Can we expect to see a Paul Farmer video on the blog then?

Posted by Manuel Rosaldo on 04/01/2009 @ 11:15AM PT
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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.