Let’s sketch a scene. Imagine holding a classic rocks glass—one of those short tumblers used for whiskey. Its thick walls and solid base give it an appealing heft in your hand. Now picture a fancy swizzle stick leaning tall against the rim. Go ahead and grab that stick and give it a good whirl, really swizzle the hell out of that glass.
Oh, and one tiny detail, the glass in your hand, the one you’re vigorously swizzling, is filled with semi-liquified crap.
Feeling queasy? Sorry about that, but it could be a side effect of today’s focus—the art and value of progressive shit-stirring!
TED, TEDx, and Ideas Worth Swizzling
You’ve heard of TED talks, right? Those slick presentations designed to make you feel like you just doubled your learning in 18 minutes or less. TED has spawned a whole litter of events called TEDx. These mini-TEDs take the TED concept into new locations large and small all around the world.
I’ve been on a mission to storm that TEDx stage. Why? Because I have a brain brimming with ideas that I’m pretty sure are worth spreading, which happens to be TED’s old slogan. I’ve even enlisted the help of a program run by a coach named Bobby, who—upon reading an outline of my life story—promptly dubbed me a “shit-stirrer.” He’s right, and that may just turn out to be an idea worth swizzling.
Shit-Disturbers: From Mere Menaces to Provocateurs with a Purpose
Let’s clear something up. When most people hear “shit-stirrer,” they picture that jerk who apparently comes to every meeting just to make trouble for the sake of it. Is that what Bobby meant when he called me a “shit-stirrer?” At the risk of self-indulgence, I’m going to say, no.
Sure, plenty of shit-stirrers are just in it for the thrill. They’re the internet trolls, the playground bullies, and certain politicians—you know the ones. Their entire ethos is to burn the world down and fiddle while the embers cool. But then there’s another breed of shit-disrupter entirely—a sort of noble or progressive shit-stirrer, the swizzler, who swirls away with a higher cause in mind.
These shit-swizzlers are foes of the status quo, churning the filth to uncover precious nuggets of truth. They agitate for justice by whisking away the muck that obscures our vision.
The Toll of the Swizzle: It Ain’t Always Cheap
But, before you run off to join the shit-swizzlers’ guild, a word of caution: You will need a strong stomach—in every sense.
Take it from this life-long swizzler, this is hard work and pays poorly if at all. And sometimes, you’re the one who pays. For instance, when I was a VP at a college in Kentucky, I had the unmitigated gall to suggest, that perhaps—just perhaps—our chronic scarcity mindset was a bit over the top, given the reality of our resources.
Furthermore, I ventured that very scarcity mindset and the paralysis it induced was, in fact, the source of our many woes, and maybe—just maybe—we could try to look at our situation a little more rationally. Madness, right?
In an act of epic recklessness, I even went so far as to offer a small demonstration of how we could make a few tiny tweaks to our systems to reap great rewards. The reaction? You’d think I demanded we bulldoze the president’s house! Unsurprisingly, I did not stay long in Kentucky.
Then there was the time years before that when my wife and I bought our first house. It was in a Baltimore neighborhood that was dominated by drug dealers. We could have shut the curtains and laid low like everyone else, but where’s the excitement in that? In organizing the community to disrupt the drug trade we really swizzled the pot. We worked hard not to displace longtime residents, but we were met with suspicion and derision. These were not my favorite years—filled with misplaced resentment, misunderstand motives, and misguided resistance—but our success was worth it. When we finally moved out 14 years later, we left behind a thriving and diverse community of new and old neighbors.
The Teenage Mutant Feminist Shit-Swizzler: An Origin Story
It turns out my muck-mixing ways go way back—at least to my days at a Catholic boys’ high school. I was the King of the Nerds, co-managing our stage crew and overseeing set-building for the theater when I learned that the girls’ school next door didn’t let their stage crew do anything but paint. I was appalled. Apparently, hammers and power tools were deemed too much for their dainty wrists to handle. The girls were reportedly disgruntled—and rightly so!
I got to thinking. Girls were allowed onstage to act in our plays. And plenty of girls performed in our band. Hmm. That gave me an idea.
I invited the stage crew from the girls’ school over to work with our crew where they could actually build sets. Did I ask permission? In classic shit-swizzler style, hell no! By the time anyone noticed, the girls were full-fledged members of my crew, ripping sheets of plywood with circular saws to their hearts’ content. I did get some pushback, but by then momentum was on my side. A year after I graduated, the girls were still there working alongside the boys.
Yup, I was a teenage feminist shit-swizzler, integrating the stage crew one nerdy kid at a time.
I don’t tell these tales to boast. Swizzling is hardly an occupation to crow about in polite society. I merely offer my experience by way of illustration of both the upsides and the hazards of shit-swizzling.
The Loneliness of the Longtime Shit-Swizzler.
Notice that shit-swizzlers of the ilk I’m describing are change agents, not chaos agents. They want to lift the world up, not burn it down. But change, even positive change, threatens the many who grasp the status quo in their death grip even as it weighs them down to drown in their own filth.
Such shit-swizzling isn’t a hobby, a pastime, or even a part-time job. It’s a full-time commitment. And that shit sometimes needs swizzling just when the last thing you want to be doing is swizzling more shit. It’s a calling, I suppose, and it has a lot to do with leadership.
Shit-swizzlers, like leaders, are the sworn enemies of “good enough,” of “that’s just how we do it,” of “just let it go.” It’s exhausting work and risky too, but you keep at it because you know that beneath all that crap, there's something worth fighting for. It’s a leader’s calling, one most people won’t recognize, let alone acknowledge or reward.
One Last Swizzle
Shit-swizzlers—as opposed to shit-stirrers—are, in fact, leaders who put themselves out there to make a difference. Swizzling is not for every leader. Like I said, it’s a calling, but rare is the great leader who does not have to give a little swizzle from time to time. Of course, that ‘s just the start. Once, you’ve swizzled some shit, that’s when the fun begins.
So, let’s give our highball glasses one last swizzle and raise them tall. Here’s to the questioners, the challengers, the reformers, and the agitators—the restless servant leaders yearning to swizzle. May their vision of changing the world swirl on!
The Shit-Swizzler’s (Mini) Manifesto
1. Conformity and the status quo are themselves choices with consequences and are never the right choice in every circumstance.
2. Progress comes with pain, but stagnation is death. As Bob Dylan said, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
3. You’ve heard the cliche, “you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.” Well, that’s nothing compared to some vigorous shit-swizzling.
4. Remember, there’s always some truth hidden within that muck.
5. The best shit swizzlers—the ones really willing to get all dirty to uncover the truth and discover justice—are servant leaders of the highest order.Have you ever had a hankering to get on a TEDx stage? If so, reach out to me to learn more about how you can do so at jim@jimsalvucci.com. I’d love to help!
Have you ever felt compelled to swizzle for a cause? How did you rise to the challenge?
Great leaders know when a little swizzle is most needed, and I can help.
Unlock the Great Leader Within! Download my free resource, the Transform To GREATness Toolkit, now!
I look forward to hearing from you.
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Swizzle: The Way of the Change Agent