A review by tdrapeau
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children by John Wood

5.0

In 1998, John [Wood] took a vacation that changed his life. Trekking through a remote Himalayan village, he struck up conversation with a schoolteacher, who invited John to visit his school. There, John discovered that the few books available were so precious that they were kept under lock and key - to protect them from children! Fewer than 20 books, all backpacker cast-aways, were available for more than 450 students.

The above quote was plucked from an "About John Wood" section at the end of the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, by former Microsoft executive John Wood. John tells a great story of a life and career change from hard charging Microsoft (where he worked from 1991 to 1998) to running a large scale non profit called Room to Read. This organization helps to build libraries, schools, reading rooms, computer centers, and funds scholarships for girls in countries as diverse as Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, South Africa and Zambia.

This book is chuck full of inspiration and engaging stories. pp85-86 tells a tale of John Wood's young life where at 5 years old, he made a stack of nickels and dimes selling paintings he had made to neighborhood families. After a stern talking-to by his mother never to go door-to-door selling paintings again, John was found counting out a bigger bounty. When asked about it, he replied that he hadn't gone behind his mother's back and sold another batch of paintings door-to-door - he had merely passed that job onto his best friend Jimmy, who took a penny commission for each sale, leaving John with the remaining 4 cents.

Going into a room of high earners and explaining to them how your charity is different from the 10 they heard of last week is difficult. If Room to Read had anything working for them, it was that John ran the operation with extremely low overhead. If you donated $8,000, there was a library built. You knew where your money went. This immediate visual pleased lots of donors and caused a great influx of funds for Room to Read. On one such fund raising event, John speaks to a room about donating money that would pay for 100 girls to continue their education. In the back of the room, laying in wait, was Don Listwin, legend in Silicon Valley, #2 executive at Cisco, then CEO of Openwave. Pleased with what he was hearing, Don enters (pp196-197):

I'm going to interrupt our regularly scheduled slide show with an announcement, and a challenge. There are more than fifty of you here tonight. For every one of you who sponsor a scholarship, and you have to write the check tonight, I will match you, dollar-for-dollar, girl-for-girl, year-for-year. You fund fifty and I will fund fifty. We need to do this. No excuses.
...
Furthermore, there are some people here who used to work for me at Cisco, and a few who work for me now at Openwave. I want them to pay attention to this next part. For every school that one of you underwrites tonight, I will match you school-for-school." Dramatic pause. "How about it, Mark?"
Mark, sitting one row in front of Don, emits a nervous laugh. He pauses, probably doing the math on how much money he's made while working for Don through some flush years in Silicon Valley. Realizing that $8,000 is probably a rounding error, he replies, "Count me in, Don!"
"Great. And how about you, Bill?" Don's eyes are laser-locked on his next target.
Poor Bill. He not only has Don's pressure on him, but Mark's example. "Count me in too, Don."

This book is filled with great stories of personal, organizational, and governmental generosity. For those who have worked a number of years in a field and want to do something different, John Wood gives us all a towering example of what is possible. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it without hesitation. Bravo John!

Room to Read is operating today, and is taking donations now.

Room to Read website: roomtoread.org
To donate: roomtoread.org/involvement/donate.php