Walk in Their Shoes

After leaving a corporate finance career at twenty-five, Jim Ziolkowski founded buildOn, a not-for-profit that turns inner-city teenagers into community leaders at home and abroad. Written with James S. Hirsch, his memoir traces his path from thrill-seeking backpacker to Harlem-based idealist struggling to launch the organization, and then to its head. High school volunteers from the South Bronx to San Francisco give hours of community service, while buildOn builds schools in poor countries such as Nepal, Haiti, Senegal and Nicaragua. Ziolkowski presents faith and teamwork as the forces behind the work and argues that helping others also heals the helper.

Seth Godin called Ziolkowski's story amazing and held it up as proof of what people achieve when they step forward and keep their word.