Big Idea 2014: Be an Actual Superhero

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. See all the ideas here.

Let me get right to the point: make 2014 the year you become an actual superhero, saving people who desperately need your incredible powers.

I'm serious.

You already have at your disposal technology that matches what many comic book superheroes possessed. In 2014, you will have access to even more powerful tools. Use them to help others.

Technology makes it possible for you to help more people than ever before, in ways that you may have not yet imagined. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a consumer, find ways to take new-fangled technology and use it to help others. Use the latest innovations to:

• Monitor elderly relatives and neighbors who live alone.
• Keep young children away from swimming pools, electrical outlets and other dangers.
• Equal the playing field, and detect high potential among students in poor and remote areas.
• Share your best talents with people anywhere in the world who can benefit from your skills. Stop thinking about having drinks with your neighbors and start thinking about using the time to tutor online a kid 3,000 miles away.
• Attack intractable problems like pollution, energy waste and hunger... by banding together with others in gathering and analyzing data. Anyone who travels with a smartphone has the potential to be a 24/7 gatherer of useful data.

Being a superhero is never just about technology or superpowers. It is about strength of character and a genuine concern for humanity.

If you are reading these words, you already possess great powers compared to most of the human beings who have ever inhabited this planet. You have access to the sum total of all human knowledge. You have the ability to benefit from lessons that stretch thousands of years into the past.

There is a word for creatures who have incredible powers and sit around in stunning lairs surrounded by piles of gold. They are called: supervillains. Don't be a supervillain.

Being a superhero won't be easy. You will have to open your heart and sacrifice many of your personal needs. You may miss a few Saturday nights out with friends, because injustice doesn't take weekends off.

Don't let this dissuade you. Helping others is a spectacular way to add meaning to your life. When appropriate, use technology to leap over barriers, to overturn obstacles, and to make the world a better place - simply by the force of your will and actions.

This, to me, is a much more powerful vision than using technology for silly or trivial purposes. Why race out to buy the next generation smartphone if all you plan to do with it is ignore the actual human beings who are standing next to you?

There has to be a purpose to new technologies. We are human beings, and humans need meaning in our lives.

In the days when Wonder Woman, Spiderman and Iron Man were born, ordinary people did not have the type of tools these superheroes possessed. Increasingly, we do.

Go save someone. I bet you'll soon be addicted.

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More from Bruce Kasanoff: To book Bruce Kasanoff as a speaker at your company or event, visit Kasanoff.com. To see more of Bruce's articles on LinkedIn, click the "follow" button below, or follow@NowPossible on Twitter.

Images: Header courtesy DC Comics; other images by emmastory/Flickr.