I think about this a lot. What if nobody had given me a chance? What if the person who hired a 17-year-old to build a website had said, "You're too young. You don't have the credentials." My entire life trajectory would have been different. Not because I lacked ability, but because nobody opened the door.
That's the reality for millions of kids right now. They have the talent. They have the drive. What they don't have is someone who believes in them enough to give them a shot. And without that shot, talent means nothing. Drive means nothing. Potential stays unrealized, and the world loses something it never knew it had.
The world is full of brilliant people who never got the chance to show what they're capable of. That's not a personal failure. It's a systemic one. And it's a problem worth spending real time on.
The most powerful thing you can do for someone isn't give them a handout. It's give them a shot. Open a door they didn't even know existed. That's how you change a life.
What changed how I thought about giving back
About eighteen years ago, I met an organization that changed everything for me. The Ron Burton Training Village, founded by the late Patriots running back Ron Burton, takes young people from under-resourced communities and teaches them what no classroom ever will. Respect. Determination. Self-belief. What it actually takes to succeed.
I'll be honest. Before RBTV, I was skeptical of most youth charities. I assumed the money rarely made it to the kids. RBTV was the first place I saw the opposite clearly and completely. Every dollar, every hour, every volunteer pointed at one thing. Giving young people the foundation to build a life they're proud of.
That organization introduced me to people like Don Rodman and Jack Connors, two of Boston's great philanthropists, and two of the most generous men I've ever known. They didn't just write checks. They built infrastructure. They opened doors for thousands of kids who needed what I once needed. Somebody who saw them and believed they were worth investing in.
Access is necessary. It isn't sufficient.
Removing barriers means more than mentorship or advice. It means opening doors that were closed for reasons that had nothing to do with the person in front of them. It means backing initiatives with real infrastructure, real capital, and real accountability, and measuring whether any of it actually changed an outcome.
But access alone isn't the whole picture. Opportunity has to be recognized to be taken. One of the gifts I had growing up was the ability to see the opening when it appeared, even when I wasn't sure what to do with it yet. My parents taught me that, even if neither of us knew it at the time. That's a skill most kids never get taught, and it's one of the hardest things to pass on. Giving kids the space to actually be kids, and helping them learn to spot opportunity when it shows up in front of them, is part of the barrier break too.
What investment actually looks like
Real investment in the next generation means creating ecosystems where young people can thrive. It means thinking about the whole picture:
- Safe environments. A kid can't learn, create, or dream if they don't feel safe. Physical and emotional safety is the foundation of everything.
- Exposure to possibility. Kids can't aspire to what they've never seen. Bring them into rooms they've never been in. Introduce them to people doing work they didn't know existed.
- Patient mentorship. Not one conversation, but an ongoing relationship where a young person knows someone has their back.
- Real responsibility. Give young people actual work, actual challenges, actual trust. That's how confidence is built.
I didn't have every advantage growing up. But I had enough people who saw something in me and acted on it, often before I could see it in myself. That debt doesn't get paid back. It gets paid forward.
The next generation is the one that builds the world we haven't seen yet. My job is to make sure more of them get the chance to build it well.