Me to We
By Tian Huang
I’m not a big fan of motivational books. So when I received a copy of Craig and Marc Kielburger’s Me to 
We: Finding Meaning in a Material World (Fireside Hardcover/Simon & Schuster, Oct. 2006, $23) to review, I was initially skeptical that I could really learn anything from it.
By page 15, I was hooked.
Me to We isn’t a book that preaches at you. It’s a blueprint for changing the way you look at the world. In the authors’ words, the “me to we” philosophy is “a way of living that feeds the positive in the world—one action, one step of faith, one small step at a time.”
Really, it’s acting for the good of someone else instead of merely for personal gain. “Could anything be more obvious?” asked the skeptic in me, and yet I found myself warming to the simple, narrative style the authors use to make their point.
You may think that two 20-something brothers would barely have enough experience between them to write two chapters, much less an entire book on how to live. Then again, the Kielburgers are anything but conventional. Craig, the younger of the pair, founded Free The Children—a youth-driven organization to improve the world through education—at age 12 and has thus far helped more than a million children worldwide. And Marc is the cofounder of Leaders Today, the world’s top youth leadership training organization. The two have traveled the world, inspiring others to do good and initiate change, while hobnobbing with Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and probably anybody else you care to name.
Each chapter of Me to We weaves in the brothers’ personal experiences, anecdotes from Oprah Winfrey, Richard Gere, Jane Goodall, Desmond Tutu and more, as well as tips on how to live the “me to we” philosophy in daily life.
The book’s real power, however, lies in the stories of the everyday people who have gone out of their way to do good for others. Like the cab driver who realizes one day how much the pollution from taxis affects the city, and who now gives talks and seminars on the subject. Or the mother who invites a hungry, tired boy into her home for a hot meal on a whim only to have her entire family change for the better as a result.
It’s easy to say, “Well, I’m no Mother Teresa,” but, confronted with stories like these, it’s clear that you don’t have to be a saint—you just have to care enough to want to make a difference.
So yes, it’s a motivational book, but don’t let that turn you off. If you open your mind to it, Me to We may inspire you, as it did me, to think about the kind of legacy you want to leave the world.