Be Greater. [002]: Leave It Better Than You Found It

On trash, inaction, and why “good enough” isn’t enough. How it all started.

There’s a little hilltop spot hidden behind some trees in my neighborhood that I discovered while skating around one afternoon.

It’s nothing special on paper — just a tall grassy patch elevated above the surrounding streets and houses with a clear view of the horizon. But it became my spot. The place I’d go sometimes to sit quietly, read, think, or just watch the sun go down. In a world of screens and noise, it was a little sanctuary of peace.

There was only one problem: there was litter and trash scattered everywhere.

Every time I showed up, I would see it. Plastic bottles. Food wrappers. Random junk that had been left behind. I was trying to connect with nature, be peaceful, and enjoy the sunset, but I had to look at all this man-made mess.

And yet every single time, I walked right past it.

I always had the normal justifications in my mind:

“I didn’t put it there, so it’s not my responsibility.”

“I’m already doing the right thing by not littering myself.”

And honestly? Most people would agree with that logic. You’re not the one who made the mess. You’re minding your business, living right, not hurting anyone. That’s good enough, right?

But one evening it hit me: every time I walked past that trash, I was making a choice. Not a passive one — an active one. I had the ability to change something. I could see the problem clearly. And I decided, again and again, to do nothing.

That’s when I started to feel like “good enough” wasn’t actually good enough.

Someone wise once said: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Because here’s the thing: if you have the power to improve something and you choose not to, that’s still a choice. The outcome is still partly on you. Doing nothing is never really neutral. It’s a vote. And if you keep casting that vote — let someone else handle it, it’s not my problem, I’m already doing enough — then you are quietly contributing to the way things are.

Whether you’re a teenager visiting the usual hangout spot or a CEO making decisions that affect millions — we all have choices to make. And saying “I didn’t cause the problem” has never once made a problem smaller.

It’s hard to embrace, but I believe it’s true.

The Beginning of the Be Greater. Movement:

It’s Spring 2025, and I’ve been pulling back from the internet. Less scrolling, less streaming, less mindless consumption. More skating, more reading, more going outside and actually being somewhere. After years of absorbing so much content — endlessly consuming without really getting anything back — I felt a genuine urge to actually make something. To put something real into the world instead of just passing through it.

I’d always been a creative person. Growing up I probably started five different YouTube channels with different ideas that never quite got off the ground. But I was genuinely inspired by what YouTube used to be — this wild, personal, anything-goes place where people made stuff because they felt like it. No brand strategy. No optimization. Just people with cameras and ideas and something to say.

I grew up watching creators like Ryan Higa (@nigahiga), a Japanese American kid from Hawaii filming comedy skits with his best friend, a handheld camera, a bedroom background, and no budget. Or Sean McLoughlin (@jacksepticeye), an Irish kid uploading gaming videos from a cottage in Ireland, bursting with energy and personality.

These weren’t polished media productions. They were real people expressing themselves freely — weird, funny, silly, creative — and somehow that came through the screen and meant something. They were digital artists broadcasting their authentic personalities and visions.

None of them were “influencers.” Most of them didn’t even go by their real names. They were just people with an idea and the willingness to put it out there. That era of YouTube impacted me more than I realized at the time.

So, when I decided to start creating again, I started with a YouTube channel. I didn’t want to make a “Firstname Lastname” channel or become another face in the crowd. I didn’t want my life to be a brand or daily content. I was trying to move away from screens, not deeper into them. I wanted to spread a positive message and do it in my own way — short, personal, imperfect videos with something real behind them. I wanted to bring back a little bit of that old internet spirit.

So instead of making a “Garrett” channel, I made a “Greater” channel.

The @BeGreater YouTube Channel was born:

Current YouTube channel @BeGreaterYT (formerly @GreaterWRLD)

Now I just needed an idea for the first video.

I kept returning to my sunset spot. To the trash. To the choice I was making to walk past it.

So I made a new rule: every time I visited, I would bring a piece of trash back with me to throw away. Simple. Easy. No big commitment.

It felt good at first. I was being a good citizen. Doing my small part.

But the spot still looked the same. New litter accumulated faster than I was clearing it. My one-piece-at-a-time approach wasn’t really changing anything — it was just making me feel better about doing the bare minimum.

If I really wanted to be greater, I was going to have to do more than the bare minimum.

So I decided to clean up the entire spot.

My brain put 2 and 2 together and I decided that this little volunteer trash clean-up project would be the perfect first video for the BeGreater channel.

I went to the store and bought a pair of gloves, grabbed a trash bag, and went back to the spot. This time I cleaned the whole thing up. And I filmed a fun little video of the process with my smartphone.

That became the first Be Greater. video.

Video [001] in the “Be Greater.” YouTube series

At the end of that video, I sit down and watch the sunset, with a full trash bag sitting in the newly cleaned background. And I genuinely enjoy that sunset more. Not because the view changed — but because I changed it. I did something I didn’t have to do, not for money, not for clout, but because I wanted to make that small corner of the world a little better than I found it.

That’s the whole idea behind that channel, this newsletter — Be Greater as a philosophy and a movement.

We live in a time where it’s incredibly easy to justify inaction. The world feels big and broken and overwhelming, and it’s tempting to think that nothing you do at your scale really matters. So why bother? Why go out of your way? Why do more than you have to?

But I think that logic is exactly what makes things worse. The world doesn’t improve on its own. It improves because individual people, in small moments, decide to do something instead of nothing. It’s not glamorous. Nobody’s giving out awards for picking up trash or holding a door open or showing up for someone who needed it. But it adds up. It always adds up.

And if the good people of the world allow themselves to get tired and burnt out and settle for “good enough” — well, there are plenty of people out there who are absolutely not settling for good enough. They are taking everything they can. So if the people who actually care decide to check out, the people who don’t care are left in charge. That’s how things get worse.

If we want a greater world, we have to be greater. It really is that simple.

Maybe someone out there also wants to make a difference but doesn’t know where to start. Maybe watching some dude pick up trash for a few minutes is the push they need to go do something — anything — in their own way. That would be enough for me.

Here’s the honest question worth sitting with:

If the world were watching you through a camera — not with your explanation, not your context, not your backstory, just your actual actions and their results — what would they see?

Are you proud of that person?

Is that person making changes or making excuses?

Are they spreading positivity or negativity?

Are they helping at all or just asking for help?

Do they step up or do they wait for someone else to?

Are they leaving things better than they found them?

You don’t have to change the world today. You don’t need a grand gesture or a perfect plan. Sometimes it’s as simple as picking up trash instead of stepping over it.

Start there. See what happens next.

Log off, spread love, be greater.

— [gf]