A fresh road-tested guide to growing a flicker of an idea into a full-blown movement, often using unexpected and even counterintuitive principles.

It’s an age-old question: Why do some great ideas or inventions take off and soar while others never get off the ground? Today, with more and more young entrepreneurs seeking to incorporate social justice, economic equity, climate concerns, and communal health into their endeavors, the need for practical-yet-think-big answers is great. Thibault Manekin has a few. 

In 2002, eight years after the fall of apartheid, recent college graduate Manekin moved from his hometown of Baltimore to Durban, South Africa, on the strength of an idea: What if basketball could bridge even the deepest social divides? Despite enormous obstacles, such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, and fueled by support from figures including Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, he proved that it could. Manekin then took the lessons he’d learned back to Baltimore, where he asked himself how the real estate industry could be reimagined to unite cities, empower communities, and launch powerful ideas. 

Larger than Yourself tells this story but is about much more than Manekin himself. It also profiles the remarkable real-world change makers he has worked with, and the innovative practices he has instituted, in the profitable companies and nonprofit organizations he has helped to create. Manekin makes these methods accessible to all, meaningful to anyone, and inspirational to everyone with an idea, a hope, and a purpose-driven dream.