Well, I'm just back from an amazing trip to Florida. I was speaking at the Jane Goodall Institute's Global Youth Summit, which brought together 100 truly outstanding youth leaders from 28 countries. These college and high-school aged leaders and activists are working on wildlife conservation, environmental protection, poverty and water issues in their home countries, and came together to learn new skills and best practices for becoming even more effective change agents.

I was delighted to be invited to speak at such a special event, and the experience was far better than I could have imagined.

To begin with, these youth leaders are a stunningly smart, clear-headed, focused, and accomplished bunch. They have built schools in places where there were no schools. Envisioned animal welfare programs - and then implemented them. Raised money for conservation. For Darfur. Spoken in front of the U.N. Been named ABC Person of the Week. Appeared on Animal Planet. And on and on.



Being around them was like watching Coming Attractions for what you know is going to be a fantastic show. These are the people who really are going to make the world a better place. And they've started already.

Then there was Jane Goodall herself.

Most people recognize Jane Goodall's name and associate it with the tremendously important work with chimpanzees she did for decades in Africa - work that forever changed man's perception of primates and their similarities to humans. Her books and films have been enjoyed by millions. Through absolutely tireless effort over many years she has expanded her sphere of interests and influence to include the overlapping domains of conservation of wildlife, animal rights, protection of ecosystems, reduction of poverty, availability of clean water, and promotion of peace.

Through all her work in all those areas, she has woven a significant thread of youth activism. Her wonderful Roots & Shoots program engages children and adults in all these activities, and more, around a gardening paradigm. She is a trusted advisor to leaders of nations, and a Dame Commander of the British Empire. To my mind, Jane now resides at the top of the pantheon of living environmentalists and naturalists.

As if that wasn't enough, Jane is an amazing person to be around. Her passionate desire to save people, places and animals is infectious, and she possesses an intensely powerful blend of centered calm and focused drive I have never encountered before.

I'm not exaggerating when I say Jane is tireless. At 74 years old, she travels world-wide 300 days a year. One of her staff told me she averages a mere three hours of sleep a night.

My seven year old daughter, whose bedroom contains an array of stuffed chimps, chimp posters, and other primate paraphernalia, has been actively idolizing Dr. Jane for almost two years now, ever since my wife brought home some books featuring Jane. For my daughter to get to meet her hero, have dinner with her, play on the beach with her...it was a wildly exciting time. And a rare gift for a father to be able to give.

It was no less exciting for me. I had a 90 minute speaking slot following Jane's kickoff of the event. One of my rules for public speaking is "If you can help it, avoid following a speaker better than you are". So much for that.



Jane is an absolutely world-class speaker who delivers truly inspirational content supremely straight from the heart. As a lifelong student of the art of presentation, I was deeply impressed with her talent. And much to my surprise and delight, following such a pro helped me give what felt like my best presentation ever. Later, when we had some time alone and I complimented her on her remarkable ability, she said simply and without a speck of ego, "It's a gift." And the way she said it made it clear she meant, "It's a tool I was given to help do this important work".

My talk covered two topics: "Social Entrepreneurship - A Mindset and Lifestyle for Becoming Who You Want to Be and Changing the World" and "Biodiesel University", the latter providing an example of a social venture designed and executed with an entrepreneurial mindset. Apparently, I didn't put anyone to sleep, which was a great relief.

To tell the truth, before I had met Jane, I was surprised by the invitation. She was one of the first to speak out about the dangers of unsustainably produced biofuels and the issues of deforestation, water use, and chemical runoff. I imagined she might not be comfortable having me speak at the conference, because some people hear the Biodiesel University name and infer that we're focused on teaching people in the biodiesel industry better production techniques and mindlessly pushing proliferation. Thankfully, she understood that we're about growing renewable energy knowledge and environmental sustainability mindsets.



She was so very right when she signed one of her books for me, "Together we make a difference".

MSNBC picked up the story here.