To enact meaningful change in anything, it takes everyone from every level of operation to perform their duty well and work together. A good example to draw from is the military, from the highest ranked general to the lowest ranked private, everyone has their own set of skills and responsibilities. It does not mean that the general is inherently more important than the soldiers, they all each serve a specific role. A general is nothing without his soldiers, what good is there having impressive large scale and long term plans if there’s noone to execute it? The soldiers are also nothing without their commander, their skills will be wasted without clear orders placing them where they can make the most change. It’s like that with every organization that strives to achieve their mission. 

Each role is equally important, and every single one requires a good amount of dedication, skill and leadership abilities. The only difference is we each work on a different scale, in time and scope. A good plan from the top can easily be corrupted or mismanaged as it makes its way down to the operational scale. And competent, skillful workers will accomplish nothing if the orders they’re given are stupid and innefective. 

It all comes down to the roles we are meant for, and which fulfills us more. Some people don’t like wrestling with high concept ideas and abstraction, preferring instead to take a more direct and hands-on approach to problem solving. For some it’s the opposite, it’s hard to focus working on a small day to day scale, because their minds are always focused on the big picture. 

For the first kind of people, they like to work at the front lines, boots on the ground. These people know how to navigate the rough terrain and work with others, spot potential problems immediately, and can immediately move forward to fix them. People like this value working with their hands and bringing change on a local level. They are often more pragmatic and realistic, and have lots of knowledge gained from real world experience.  Everyday they do the unglorified work that needs to be done, because doing the groundwork and laying in a good foundation is key to building a beautiful house. 

For the second kind of people, they mostly reside in their own head, thinking about abstractions and ideal concepts of the world they would like to see realized. They are the visionaries and idealists who must gather, convince and inspire others to make the ideas a reality. Leadership and communication skills are paramount, because it’s no use having a good idea if you can’t convey it properly, let alone managing other people. But if you can do this, the possibilities are endless. Because they always see the big picture, they can see whether everything is still on track and on schedule.  

We have to make sure that there are skilled, good-hearted people with the passion and knowledge needed for their particular role, and it’s really important to realise that no one is inherently inferior or superior to another. Another thing to remember is in order to bring about real change, everyone who works on the project needs to believe in the cause, believe in what we’re all trying to accomplish together. If we all can come together and make use of our different gifts and abilities, there’s nothing that we can’t do.