Having returned from vacation, and getting my game face on for a busy week, I spent time catching up on the major technology threads, and was wondering what I was going to write about this week. Then I ran into this video of a young Fred Rogers (of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood fame), and it had a pretty profound impact on my thinking this Sunday evening.

When I am working with smaller companies, one thing I always stress is a belief in having “Google-esque” aspirations – having a bold vision of what you are trying to accomplish. Google’s “Organize the world’s information” is as perfect an example of a simple, bold vision to center an organization around as I have ever encountered.

In Google, you have 12,000+ employees trying to change the world. But how many times is someone going to have that same scale and talent level to attack a problem?

Take a look at the video below, and see another extreme. You see a young Fred Rogers helping make the case for federal funding for PBS in 1969 (they are pitching for an annual budget of $20MM dollars, with Nixon wanting to cut the funding in half). Listen to him, and you can’t help but be moved. He talks about his own funding ($6,000 annually) to produce his show, but the real story is his vision for what he is trying to accomplish, one child at a time. It is a simple message of hope and love, and is incredibly moving.

You CAN change the world, whether you have billions in assets, or $30 (Fred’s starting budget 15 years earlier). All it takes is passion. I think I am going to change my own vernacular going forwards: we all should have “Rogers-esque” aspirations.