A few months ago I attended an amazing event in Toronto called WE Day. It’s an event put on annually by the WE Organization which is an international charity and youth empowerment movement. It was founded by two brothers named Craig and Marc Kielburger in 1995. They were inspired by a story they had read in the newspaper about a 12 year old boy in Pakistan who was a child labourer. He had chosen to speak out against child labour and was killed for doing so.

It was after learning of this that Craig and Marc gathered support from their fellow students and their parents and started a movement called Free the Children. Since then it was re-branded and named WE Charity and now is an international organization that has a huge positive impact in many communities around the world. In addition, they host these annual WE Day events to empower and inspire youth to make a difference in the world. You can learn more about WE here: www.we.org

At this particular WE Day that I attended Emilio Estevez was one of the guests. He did a short talk sharing his fear of public speaking (something I think many of us can related to.) The gist of his talk was that sometimes you have to feel the fear and do it anyway. Even if you’re shy sometimes you have to face this fear and speak up. His point was that YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

And this resonated with me because growing up I was quite shy. I hated reading out loud, speeches, participating in plays or anything that involved getting up in front of an audience.

I’ve since learned how to feel the fear and do it anyway but I’ve also realized that there are many ways to make your voice heard.

I chose to write a book on a topic that I think is so important but so often overlooked and I chose to express my voice by writing a book.

I chose to write a book on estate and succession planning because that’s a topic where YOUR VOICE DEFINITELY DOES MATTER!

Your estate and succession plans are the vehicle to use your voice to ensure that you define the legacy you want to leave behind. It’s your chance to leave your mark on this world. It’s your chance to speak up and ensure that all you worked so hard to build up over this lifetime continues to make a positive difference for generations to come.