Narrator: In front of 25,000 people at a Walmart shareholder meeting, an associate named Carolyn Davis stood at a microphone, her hands trembling. She wasn't an executive or a high-powered investor; she was an hourly worker from a small town in North Carolina. The speaker before her had been booed off the stage. Now, it was her turn to challenge the corporate giant on its paid family leave policy, a policy that offered executives ten weeks of full pay but left hourly workers like her pregnant colleague with only half pay and financial hardship. This single moment, a seemingly small act of courage against overwhelming odds, raises a fundamental question: where does the power to create change truly come from?

In his book, Becoming a Changemaker, author and UC Berkeley instructor Alex Budak argues that this power isn't reserved for CEOs, activists, or politicians. It's a potential that lies within everyone. The book provides an actionable guide for anyone, at any level, to develop the mindset, leadership, and action skills needed to drive positive change in their life, organization, and community.

Narrator: The book's foundational argument is that becoming a changemaker begins with an internal shift. It’s not about being born a certain way, but about cultivating a specific mindset. Budak asserts that this mindset is practicable, learnable, and achievable for anyone. He illustrates this through the story of a student named Hana. Initially, Hana was deeply cynical, telling Budak she had lost all hope in her ability to create change after a frustrating internship where her diversity and inclusion initiatives were repeatedly blocked.

Through mentorship and a class assignment, Hana was challenged to present on a changemaker who inspired her. Though she doubted her own abilities, her presentation was so powerful that it inspired another student to pursue their own changemaking journey. In seeing her impact on someone else, Hana realized that she, too, possessed the power to create change. Her journey from skeptic to believer shows that a changemaker mindset can be developed. Budak breaks this mindset down into three core beliefs: first, believing there’s always another way, like the employees who outperformed colleagues simply by choosing to download a different web browser instead of using the default; second, innovating at the edges by combining different fields, like the company Saathi creating sustainable sanitary pads from banana fibers; and third, cultivating "learned hopefulness," an active optimism that fuels perseverance, powerfully embodied by Dadarao Bilhore, a father who, after losing his son to a pothole accident, began filling potholes across Mumbai, inspiring a city-wide movement.

Narrator: Changemakers are fundamentally unwilling to accept the world as it is. They are driven by a deep-seated curiosity and a courage to challenge established norms. The book points to the work of Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), as a prime example. Instead of pursuing a conventional, lucrative legal career, Stevenson chose to move to Alabama to represent those on death row, questioning the very foundation of a justice system biased against the poor and people of color. His work has led to the reversal of over 125 wrongful convictions.

Budak argues that this drive to question the status quo is a skill that can be honed. It starts with dialing up curiosity, as demonstrated by Laila Ohlgren, a Swedish engineer in the 1970s. Her team was struggling to create early mobile phones because calls would drop during the slow dialing process. Ohlgren questioned why a mobile phone had to work like a landline. Her simple question led to the groundbreaking invention of storing a number on the device before connecting to the network, a principle that underpins all mobile phones today. This principle of nonconformity, of "zigging when others zag," is what allows changemakers like REI, with its #OptOutside campaign, to defy industry trends and create new, values-driven paths forward.

Narrator: The book systematically dismantles the traditional idea of leadership as a title or a position of authority. Instead, it redefines leadership as the ability to make meaningful things happen through and with other people. This is the essence of "microleadership," the idea that leadership is a series of small, conscious decisions to serve others, accessible to everyone, every day.

Consider the story of Sedona Prince, a college basketball player at the 2021 NCAA tournament. She noticed the stark disparity between the men's fully equipped weight room and the women's, which contained only a small rack of dumbbells. Instead of just complaining, she took a small action: she filmed a 38-second TikTok video exposing the inequality. The video went viral, sparking a national conversation and forcing the NCAA to provide equal facilities. Prince didn't have a formal leadership title, but she saw an opportunity to serve her fellow athletes and took action. This is microleadership in practice. It’s about giving yourself permission to lead from where you are, whether that means starting a composting program in your office or, like the founder of the Be My Eyes app, creating a tool that allows millions of sighted volunteers to lend their eyes to blind and low-vision individuals for everyday tasks.

Narrator: To lead effectively, especially when change is hard, a changemaker must foster an environment where people feel safe to contribute. The book heavily emphasizes the importance of inclusive leadership and psychological safety. Citing extensive research from Google's Project Aristotle, Budak shows that the single most important factor in a team's success is not who is on the team, but whether its members feel safe enough to take interpersonal risks.

An inclusive leader is one who is visibly committed to diversity, humble, curious about others, and aware of their own biases. They actively create psychological safety. The book offers the example of Reach for Change, a Swedish organization that normalized failure to build safety. At every weekly meeting, every team member, from the CEO to the interns, would answer two questions: "What was your win of the week?" and "How did you fail forward last week?" By celebrating the learning that comes from failure, they made it safe to take risks and innovate. This contrasts sharply with noninclusive leaders who shut down dissent and create fear, ultimately stifling creativity and collaboration.

Narrator: A changemaker mindset and leadership skills are meaningless without action. Budak presents a simple formula: Impact = (Mindset + Leadership) x Action. Action is the multiplier that turns potential into reality. However, the fear of taking a big leap often leads to inaction. The book advocates for a strategy of "firing bullets, then cannonballs." Before launching a massive, resource-intensive initiative (a cannonball), changemakers should conduct small, low-cost tests (bullets) to validate their assumptions.

This is illustrated by the story of Samar, a swim teacher who had developed creative new techniques but whose manager refused to let him deviate from the curriculum. Instead of giving up, Samar fired a bullet. He asked to try just one new technique with a single swimmer. When that swimmer's times dramatically improved, his manager gave him the leeway to try more. This incremental approach allowed him to prove his concept, build trust, and ultimately implement the changes he envisioned without a major confrontation. This lean, experimental approach is crucial for turning an idea into a validated, impactful project.

Narrator: Every change initiative will encounter three types of people: champions, who are early and enthusiastic supporters; cynics, who are often disappointed idealists quick to point out flaws; and fence-sitters, the silent majority waiting to see which way the wind blows. The key to success is engaging each group strategically.

The story of Carolyn Davis at Walmart provides a masterclass in this. Her champions were the colleagues she first spoke with and the 100,000+ associates who signed her petition. She empowered them to spread the word. The cynics were the executives and the booing crowd at the shareholder meeting. She didn't argue with them; instead, she appealed to their values with a clear, heartfelt speech, turning many of them into supporters. Her success gave the fence-sitters—the thousands of other associates who were too afraid to speak up—the social proof they needed to join the cause. By understanding these dynamics, Davis built a movement that was too powerful for Walmart to ignore, proving that even when change is hard, a well-led community can overcome any obstacle.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Becoming a Changemaker is that the ability to create positive change is not a gift reserved for a select few, but a skill that can be systematically learned and applied by anyone. The book demystifies the process, breaking it down into the core components of mindset, leadership, and action. It replaces the myth of the lone, heroic genius with a more realistic and empowering model of a collaborative, service-oriented leader who starts small, learns fast, and builds community.

Ultimately, the book leaves us with a profound challenge. The world doesn't just need more people who wish for a better future; it needs more people who are willing to summon the courage to build it. The question it poses is not "What grand vision do you have?" but rather, "What small, courageous step can you take, right now, to become the leader you wish you had?"