Oct 4, 2018
For those of you who are new to the Enneagram and listening, Eights are called the Challengers. Sometimes they're called the Boss. Eights are typically people who are real forces of nature in the world. They live larger than life. The deadly sin or passion of Eights is lust. That doesn't necessarily mean in the sexual sense of the word, although Eights do have a hunger for excess in every area of life. For those of you who don't know, it's a lust for intensity. They just want immediate engagement with other people. They walk in a room and think where's the engagement, where's the juice? They go right to where the energy is and want to either challenge it or engage it or just feed on it.
This intensity is easy to spot in an Eight’s concern with justice. Eights are very concerned with standing up for the underdog. They love to defend the defenseless, to be the voice of the voiceless. It gives them great satisfaction to stand in the line of fire for people who are vulnerable. And you’ll hear that in my conversation with today’s guest, Scott Harrison.
If you haven’t heard of Scott yet, he spent almost 10 years as a successful nightclub promoter in New York City before leaving to volunteer on a hospital ship off the coast of Liberia, West Africa as a volunteer photojournalist.
Returning home to New York City two years later, he founded the non-profit organization charity: water in 2006. Turning his full attention to the global water crisis and the world’s 663 million people without clean water to drink, he created public installations and innovative online fundraising platforms to spread international awareness of the issue.
In eleven years, with the help of more than over 1 million donors worldwide, charity: water has raised more than $300 million and funded over 28,000 water projects in 26 countries. When completed, those projects will provide over 8.2 million people with clean, safe drinking water.
Scott has recently been recognized in Fortune Magazine’s 40 under 40 list, the Forbes Magazine Impact 30 list and was recently #10 in Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business issue. He is currently a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
His new book, Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World (published on October 2, 2018), recounts the twists and turns that built charity: water into one of the most trusted and admired nonprofits in the world.
For more information on Scott, visit www.charitywater.org.