So I spoke to a bunch of college bound high school seniors yesterday, and were they impressive. In many of my speeches I’ll ask the audience, “How many of you are willing to come up for an activity, it will be fun, you’ll be supported, and you will learn something new.” In most cases, less than 10% of the audience raise their hands. Not this group. It was the opposite, 90% raised their hand for this question. What was different? These students were up to something, they had come to this leadership retreat with the “willingness” to participate. They had an optimistic passion and were dedicated to making a difference. So many teens are bombarded with narcissistic self serving examples of what it means to be successful, (think snookie, charlie sheen, Howard Stearn, and on) and yet these teens were totally “on-board” with the Servant Leadership retreat I spoke at.

In a recent study, it showed the quickest way be happy is to actually make someone else happy. This teenagers radiated with happiness because at it turns out, they are up to making the world a better place. How cool is that?