Walk in Their Shoes: Can One Person Change the World? By Jim Ziolkowski

I was a goodreads first reads winner of Walk in Their shoes Jim Ziolkowski.wrote of his 20 plus years as a humanitarian who went around the world and helped build schools for the desperately poor.He gave up a career to Join Buildon in the USA that helped teens to volunteer in cities like Detroit, the Bronx. he even lived in Harlem for a couple years.
Over the years Jim and volunteers have built schools in Haiti,Nepal south Africa. to date over 550 schools world wide.I found this book touching, I loved how one person can make a difference. Jim gave up a well paying job so help the needy. before his job, Jim had hiked for months through countries that had no schools, or running water, he saw how desperately poor people around the world were. I was impressed how he also devoted his life to teenagers who were falling through the cracks and reached them getting to volunteer. I liked how he believes that each one of us can change the world.
P.S. I was also glad to see that he is from MichiganGo Spartans
Jim Ziolkowski For non-Christian readers I would like to say, don't be put off by some reviewers references to the author's deep faith. His Catholic upbringing and beliefs really are not there to preach, convert, or judge, but do provide important personal context to the ways he found meaning through the work he started and continues to do today.

Even though I don't share his faith, I feel that by sharing his beliefs, and the things that challenged his faith, his story becomes more intimate and real for the reader. The values of making one-to-one compassionate connections, of speaking and listening from the heart, and of being of service to others and the community are universal, and sadly lacking in many so-called religious people today. This is someone who didn't have to do what he did (leave a good job and the comforts of his home, friends, and family), but chose to listen to a higher voice guide him toward a life's work. Living your values is a message the most and least religious among us should listen to, and act on.

By the way, I'm off to Nepal in January to build a new school as a result of being inspire by this organization (buildOn.org). My college alumni book clubs are also reading Walk In Their Shoes this spring and I trust some lively discussed will follow. Jim Ziolkowski *Spoiler alert*
This is an amazing book. Of course, being an active buildOn (the organization that Jim founded) student who has fundraised money and traveled to Nepal to build a school, my opinions might be a bit biased.
I was lucky enough to get the book from buildOn before it's release, and when I finished I was like WOW... I had known some of Jim's stories before, but this book in it's entirety gave me a complete new perspective on the hardships that he had to overcome for the past 20+ years. After all you don't just start an organization with a few friends and expect it to grow automatically, into today's buildOn, which has built over 500 schools globally.
Anyways, as biased as my views might be, this is one damn good story. It's no coincidence that I could not put this book down the night I started reading, or that after my mother yelled at me to go to sleep I left the living room and continued reading in bed, or that after she came up, busted through the door and yelled at me again, I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet and kept reading.
In this book, Jim first recounts his childhood experiences going skiing and hiking with his father. Then after college he travels around the world, going to India and then Nepal, where he stumbles upon a remote village, celebrating the completion of their very first school. This is when the seed of an idea is planted into Jim's mind. He starts working for GE, but cannot keep his travel experiences out of his mind. After 9 months he quit, and starts this organization with his brother. He has lived in Harlem to walk in the shoes of the students in his programs, and discovers that they want to transform their neighborhood, not escape it; His travels take him to South Africa during Apartheid, where white soldiers points their rifles at his face while he bravely points his video camera at theirs; To Brazil, where he befriends groups of street kids... He is a reckless traveler, but everywhere he goes he tries to help the people, and they always give him back something intellectual or emotional that he then puts back into his programs at home and abroad.
As a high school student, reading this book makes me want to travel and see the world some day. I want to expose myself to the poverty, violence and injustice of the world so I can better understand myself and the career choices I want to make. It also deepens my dedication to this wonderful organization and I'm so proud to be part of it.
This book is also about faith. Jim's son gets a strange and very serious health problem a few years before this book's release, so that he has random seizures that would last up to half an hour or even a full hour (I forget). He can barely go to school, and no matter how many doctors or different kinds of medicine he goes through, Jim's family cannot find a cure.
I have a little brother and I can't imagine what I'll do if this happened to him. Jim spends long periods at the hospital with his son while working at the same time, and it becomes very difficult physically and emotionally. But Jim always has faith, he never gives up. buildOn continues to develop despite this, and I think that it takes a lot to not go crazy under those circumstances. The little boy is a lot better now, and I pray that his entire family stays strong and someday they'll find a cure. I really hope I have the same strength if life ever comes down at me like this.

buildOn is doing very well today. Just this summer buildOn's Student Chapters at high schools and universities pledged to raise 1 MILLION DOLLARS the next school year to build 33 schools. And that's chapters alone, not counting what the after school programs and buildon HQ do.
I recommend this book. I really do.It will inspire you and motivate you like no other.

I quote this book's title in asking, Can one person change the world? Yes, some have done it, and many are doing it today. Jim Ziolkowski It has been a great journey. Reading this book, felt like reading Jim's diary. It was awesome and special. It helps in knowing how things would really go to build something like BuildOn. I enjoyed to the max and it influenced me a lot. Thanks Jim.

I will miss all characters mentioned in the book too. Jim Ziolkowski Amazing book by someone who truly walks the walk! Yes, one person clearly can change the world for the better. Inspirational!! Jim Ziolkowski

The powerful, personal story of Jim Ziolkowski, the man behind the organization buildOn—which turns inner city teens into community leaders at home and abroad—and his inspiring mission to change the world one community at a time.

Jim Ziolkowski gave up his career in corporate finance to create buildOn, a service-oriented program that goes into high-risk areas around the world to work with students in their communities. Under Jim’s leadership, buildOn volunteers have contributed more than 850,000 hours of community service, and the organization has constructed more than 430 schools worldwide, from the South Bronx, to Detroit, Chicago, and Oakland, to Haiti, Senegal, Nicaragua, and Nepal.

Walk in Their Shoes is packed with the ingredients of a powerful bestseller as it traces Jim’s story from his transformation from a thrill-seeking twenty-something backpacker, to a Harlem-based idealist trying to launch a not-for-profit organization, and finally to the head of buildOn.

Ziolkowski compellingly chronicles his exciting story of worldwide travel and adventure, creating a moving portrait of the power of faith, teamwork, and the boundless potential of the human spirit. Blessed with relentless optimism and an unshakable faith, both of which have fortified his commitment to the poor and the underprivileged, Jim Ziolkowski’s inspirational memoir reveals that helping and empathizing with others can help—and heal—ourselves. Walk in Their Shoes: Can One Person Change the World?

This book was so bad that I read quotes from it to my friends for a laugh.

I can hardly believe it was written in 2013 with the things they had the audacity to think are admirable.
After reading this book, I am now incredibly skeptical of his organization’s work. Any progress BuildOn has made seems to have been done despite the guy who wrote this book aka the founder. I’m glad that he is no longer a part of the daily decision-making process. Hopefully he also has a minimal say in their strategy and practices as well. He’s a great connector and fundraiser, but I probably would be too if my values let me pander to people who don’t want to tackle systemic issues and want to be vacationteers. Fingers crossed the organization has grown past this man’s limited perspective.

On the bright side, if you are hoping to accomplish something that you are in no way skilled at but you have almost unlimited access to high-performing volunteers as well as organizational access to global corporations and NGOs, this book is the inspiration you’re looking for!

Oh! And don’t forget to have values that tell you that paying for ANY TYPE of labor, skilled or otherwise, doesn’t make the work “pure.” Because people having to earn money instead of volunteering for you is an obstacle to your organization’s timeline and goals.

Throw this book in the trash! Jim Ziolkowski A good book about discovering the pressing needs of others and taking direct action to help. I have traveled the world for business and have seen extreme poverty and look for ways to help alleviate it.

Jim found a way by taking things one step at a time and has built upon his success. It's a beautiful way to accomplish multiple purposes, build schools, get inner city kids involved in helping others and educate young people.

I'm going to try to get involved with BuildOn in Phoenix for kids I work with that are at risk. Jim Ziolkowski I have to make a disclaimer that I currently work with buildOn and that was what brought me to read the book but it was an amazing read. I truly understood what Jim went through to start the organization and the drive and passion he has for changing the world. I personally could relate as I have felt a calling since college to make a difference in the lives of others and have selected my career path based on that. I am lucky and fortunate to get to work with the students at buildOn and I hope others will read this book and it will light a fire within them to make a difference in their communities. We really only have each other as human beings and it is better to care for others and have compassion than not. Jim Ziolkowski I was privileged to read the galley proof this May. While I recognize many of the themes and anecdotes having known Jim for nearly twenty years, I was impressed by the depth of his spiritualism that forms the foundation of his beliefs and drive. buildOn, the organization he founded, has made a lasting positive impact stamping out illiteracy and empowering kids and adults across the globe. Jim has been an inspiration for me and so many others around the world. I hope others will equally be touched, and perhaps become swept up in the buildOn movement. Jim Ziolkowski The great life of Jim Ziolkowski can only be understood through faith. Since he was very young, he wanted a way to life his faith in the real, modern world and he found one by serving the poor and connecting the great needs in Africa and America through BuildOn. The stories he has lived are out of this world, from leaving GE to getting Malaria in Africa and being friends with drug dealers in Harlem. The whole book is a testament that life can be great if you live for others, that you can change the world only if you walk in other people’s shoes and see them like they really are.

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La vida de Jim Ziolkowski solo puede entenderse a través de la fe. Desde que era muy joven, quería una manera de vivir su fe en el mundo real y moderno, y encontró una sirviendo a los pobres y conectando las grandes necesidades de África y América a través de BuildOn. Las historias que ha vivido son casi increíbles, desde dejar GE hasta contraer malaria en África y ser amigo de narcotraficantes en Harlem. Todo el libro es un testimonio de que la vida vale la pena si vives para otros, que de podemos cambiar el mundo solo si nos ponemos en el lugar de otras personas y los vemos como realmente son. Jim Ziolkowski

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