Nearly two years ago your president had a dream. The dream was simple.
Built on a foundation of men’s circles, we would seek out and lead more and more men on a journey to mature masculinity and the joy of the leadership that follows.
The journey would start with a compelling event that immersed men of all ages into our core beliefs of masculinity. They would experience the power of a safe circle of men.
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Once home, men would engage in a point team experience allowing them to learn what it takes to be a real team member.
Finally, those men would enter their ongoing circle. That circle would mentor them to be the men they always wanted to be, the men the world needs. Being that is a lifetime commitment, and keeping that commitment requires a team. On our own, we usually fail.
MDI has everything it needs to make that dream a reality.
We have events, we have teams, we have mentoring, we save families, we bolster men in their careers and we make positive impact on our communities. We live our mission.
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We invite hundreds of men every year to join us, we always have. But it wasn’t nearly enough. Men were being left behind. Thousands, millions of men weren’t getting the message through man-to-man enrollment. We needed to do better. My dream was to develop Doug’s Journey and pull thousands of men in via our events.
And yet… though the results I dreamt of have indeed been happening — more than 160 men have joined MDI since last year — they didn’t happen as I’d envisioned.
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In my dream we found them online, through social media, via Legacy magazine, via our new Podcast, and enrolled them directly into The Art of Masculinity (TAOM). Then we graduated them to a point team, popped them on a men’s team, and just basically launched them along the path of Doug’s Journey until they were fully mature, masculine men. Awesome, right?
The dream I started with lives on in my mind and my heart. But in fact, the men joining us on the journey are doing so the old-fashioned way: MDI men are inviting men they know to a team meeting and, because they know and trust that man, they come.
Now, this doesn’t mean we can stop working along the lines of my dream. We must utilize social media — and plans are underway. We must find broader, wider, ways of enrolling men into our events, our circles, into Doug’s Journey.
The podcast you’ve read about in this issue of Legacy magazine must be viewed far and wide by men who’ve never heard of us, but whose interest is piqued by what they see and hear — and it will be. We must get men by the thousands into The Art of Masculinity: it is, I truly believe, our best launching pad.
So yes, that dream still lives in my heart and is being translated into our efforts. But in the meanwhile, the men of MDI have quietly gone about their business and invited their friends, their associates, their customers, and their acquainances, enrolling them the old-fashioned way. My dream is alive. But thanks to the men, MDI is also alive, and well.
I hope your dreams are alive as well.
— Christopher
About the Author
Chris Christopher is the sitting president of Mentor, Discover, Inspire (MDI), an international non-profit men’s organization dedicated to mentoring men to live with excellence, hence to become better husbands, fathers and leaders.
Christopher earned a bachelor’s in economics and political science from Northwestern University and a law degree and MBA from the University of Virginia. He is a partner at Darden Brothers, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1995. It is, among other things, the largest independent battery distributor in Canada.
Christopher lives in San Diego, California, and has two adult children.
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