Activated, with mission

Did you know Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has an asteroid named after her? Or that a year ago she was working in catering jobs to help her bus-driving mum keep house and home together? I didn’t.

I didn’t know anything about her until she won in yesterday’s US midterms, becoming the youngest woman ever to be elected to congress. She’s 29!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on the left in this photo by Kerri Evelyn Harris, Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0

I find it thrilling. It’s not just because she’s pretty, young and smart (the International Astronomical Union named the asteroid after her for a high school research project).

It’s because she came out of nowhere to upend politics. In the primaries she was the first person since 2004 to challenge the incumbent candidate. All the heavyweights endorsed the incumbent, but she still won, her campaign funded mostly by small, individual donations.

Then she travelled around America talking to ordinary people, developing her mission. Yesterday she took 78% of the vote.

When people are activated, with a mission, anything can happen.

Think of the people around you, activated like that. That is the purpose of deep and deliberate delegation.