Over the past few months on the The Impact Equation , Rafi Addlestone and I have had the privilege of sitting down with seven remarkable leaders who are each tackling some of the world's toughest challenges.
From healthcare deserts in Africa to grief and loss in our own communities, these conversations have offered me a window into what it really takes to make a lasting impact. This is a short note on what I’ve learned.
One striking pattern emerged: many of these leaders started young. Brett Wigdortz was 26 when he founded Teach First, now the UK's largest graduate recruiter. Richa Gupta and her co-founders were in their early twenties when they convinced the Indian government to bet on their vision for social-emotional learning in schools.
"We had no social capital, no gray hair, just conviction," Richa told me. She led a team that pitched a programme for 1.2 million children when they'd only worked with 300.
There's something about youth that these leaders all tapped into; a willingness to be bold when everyone says you should be cautious. Brett put it perfectly: "I have a love of proving people wrong. People said we'd never attract top graduates to teach in disadvantaged schools."
But here's the truth about starting young: the "valleys of death" Brett described hit just as hard. "For every success, there are at least ten failures," he warned. The difference isn't in avoiding those valleys, it's in learning to climb out of them.
Ask any social entrepreneur about balancing mission and money, and you'll get some hard-earned wisdom. Dan Garrett, who transformed how we think about death through Farewill, was brutally honest: "I've seen it across a lot of 'tech for good' businesses, and we fell into it too, getting so excited by the mission and losing sight of the economics."
Stephen Critchlow found the sweet spot differently. The founder of Evergreen Life and former CEO of Ascribe flipped the traditional model: "We've created an organisation where improving efficiency improves profits, and we're reinvesting those profits into new solutions."
Nick Laing built sustainability into the DNA of OneDay Health. For $4,000, they can launch a clinic serving 4,000 to 8,000 people in rural Uganda, with 80% becoming self-sustaining through $1-2 fees. "If every donation stopped tomorrow, most of our clinics would still operate," Nick explained.
The lesson? Sustainable impact isn't about choosing between mission and money; it's about designing systems where one strengthens the other.
Every leader emphasised the same truth: real innovation happens when you stop pretending systems are neat and tidy. Stephen Critchlow was adamant: "The devil is in the detail—how does it fit into regulation, existing systems, and workflows?"
Dame Helen Stephenson, who oversaw 169,000 charities at the Charity Commission, put it starkly: "The biggest blocker to progress is central leadership making false promises. They announce big plans that never happen, which removes local ambition."
Ian Shapiro's work with Reall proved this daily. Building affordable housing across Africa and Asia meant grappling with everything from climate resilience to AI credit scoring. In Kenya, for instance, a country of 55 million has fewer than 30,000 mortgages. The solution? An AI tool that looks beyond traditional metrics to assess creditworthiness.
These leaders learned to work within the mess, not fight against it.
Perhaps the most unexpected insight came from how these leaders think about human emotion. Dan Garrett captured it perfectly when describing Farewill's approach: "That's the design magic - creating space for moments like: 'I loved the short, sharp beauty of our lives.'"
Nick Laing told me about Agnes, a mother in Uganda who used to dread malaria season. With OneDay Health nearby, "That constant, underlying stress is gone and that's transformative."
Richa's entire mission centered on this: "The world focuses on the tip of the iceberg, literacy and numeracy, but the real challenges - trauma, emotional distress are hidden beneath the surface."
Even in healthcare technology, Stephen emphasised culture over code: "It's not about technology. If you get the culture right, technology can deliver."
Every single leader I spoke with stressed the power of local wisdom. Ian Shapiro learned this early: "The real strength is recognising others' wisdom and learning from them. That drive to be the cleverest person in the room? That probably means you're in the wrong room."
Nick put it beautifully: "Dig into community, listen, learn... People teach better than books."
This wasn't romantic thinking; it was practical necessity. When Richa's team designed their social-emotional learning program, they didn't do it alone: "We worked side by side with public school teachers, our 'master trainers,' to co-create the curriculum."
Dame Helen echoed this at a systemic level: "The charity sector can do things the public and private sectors can't. It creates services around real people, not bureaucracy or profit."
Dame Helen articulated what every leader illustrated: "The sweet spot for real change is when political leadership, social need, and strong partnerships align."
This alignment showed up everywhere. Brett's success came from framing teaching as "a top leadership opportunity - not just a job, but a mission to unlock potential." Nick found that clinics succeed when "the world's poorest, subsistence farmers earning $1–$2 a day" see the value in paying because it saves them money overall.
Ian's approach with Reall demonstrated this perfectly: "We want to disrupt a market, not dominate it... The scale needed is far beyond what we alone can do."
The final lesson unites all the others: these leaders think generationally. Brett wants to know "what other challenges an agile, energetic 20-year-old mind could tackle." Stephen has built "a self-perpetuating business" where profits fund new innovations.
Ian's perspective on Africa and Asia's building boom is urgent: "70% of buildings in Africa and Asia haven't been built yet. The implications are huge; for climate, for equity, for the future."
Dame Helen framed it as the ultimate impact metric: "It's always been about transforming systems; putting people at the centre, challenging norms, and making society work better for those it was overlooking."
Seven conversations, seven different challenges, one overarching truth: impacting the world isn't about having all the answers. It's about having the courage to start, the wisdom to listen, and the tenacity to keep going when everything says to quit.
As Dan reflected on impact as a personal driver: "At the end of the day, when you've made someone's life even a tiny bit better, that becomes a perpetual source of energy and inspiration."
These leaders didn't wait for perfect conditions. They didn't have magical resources or supernatural skills. They saw problems that mattered, believed in solutions that could work, and built the partnerships needed to make them real.
The most encouraging insight? These aren't superhuman stories - they're human ones. Young people believing they can change things. Designers caring about moments of connection. Communities teaching outsiders how to help. Systems that can be nudged toward justice.
Every day, somewhere in the world, someone is starting a journey like these. Not because they know they'll succeed, but because they believe the attempt matters. These seven conversations remind us that the world changes not through grand declarations, but through countless small acts of courage, repeated day after day, until the impossible becomes inevitable.
