08 Jul Redefining Resilience and Leadership
Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, interviews philanthropist and entrepreneur, Greg Carr, in “Return to Gorongosa.”
Greg’s passion is rebuilding and repopulating Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park which had been devastated by years of war that wiped out a million people and 95% of the wildlife.
What emerges is a profile of amazing resilience and leadership.
After undertaking the challenge, Greg encountered enormous roadblocks — a civil war that lasted 6 years and a cyclone that leveled 100,000 homes.
When asked: “Was there ever a time you ever thought, ‘I did my best but this isn’t humanly possible?”
Greg replied: “Not for a second! Not for one second. I just think, every time something like that happens it makes you more determined not less determined. And when you’ve got people suffering in a war who need help… or people suffering in a cyclone who need help, you’re more committed.”
The implications for the wildlife and the people of Mozambique are huge.
For the first time, 13 and 14-year old girls from poor families who, historically, would have been married off now have access to education and the expectation of a career as a teacher, a nurse, or a conservation park ranger. (After-school clubs, attended by 3,000 girls, provide the resources and support to get into high school.)
Greg’s non-profit gives coffee trees to the 868 farming families who plant the trees and in so doing, repopulate the forest on the mountain. Carr buys the beans above market rate and also built the farmers a roasting plant.
Pelley comments that there is “no better model for lifting people and healing the wild.”
Pelley also concludes Greg Carr is “an entrepreneur with the empathy to see, the humility to listen, and the optimism to act.”
When we ask, What is leadership?, in Greg Carr’s case, leadership is the expression of his humanity, his resilience, and his optimism. It’s no surprise his “hero” is Nelson Mandela.
Before Greg Carr intervened, there were only 5 or 6 lions in a million acres of park. As of this interview there were likely 200 lions in the park. Sadly, Scott Pelley notes:”Since 1950, Africa’s lion population has fallen from a half million to 20,000 due to habit loss and hunting.”