Corey Booker delivers the keynote address at last Thursday’s Greater Omaha Young Professionals Summit. Photo by Katrina Olsen.

Do something.

The message Newark, N.J. mayor Cory Booker gave as the keynote speaker at the Omaha Young Professionals Summit on Thursday was the same message he got from a neighbor after one particularly difficult day early in his political career, when Booker was on the Newark city council.

Feeling deflated because of political infighting and the perception that his efforts as a councilman weren’t making a difference in his crime-riddled Newark ward, Booker came home one evening in 1999 and had a conversation with an elderly neighbor woman outside the housing project where she lived.

Booker vented his frustrations. The woman vented her frustrations. And then she took a tone that Booker was sure signalled she had something profound to say.

“Do you know what you should do?” the woman asked Booker, who perked up, thinking the elderly neighbor woman had the answer to his problems.

“You should do something.”

The sincerity and simplicity of the message struck a chord with Booker that day more than a decade ago. And, if the standing ovation Booker recieved after his speech Thursday was any indication, it did the same with the crowd at the YP Summit.

In his speech, Booker warned against the dangers of “sedentary agitation” — that is, sitting back and getting angry about a problem without doing anything to solve it — and emphasized that everyone is capable of effecting positive change.

“You all have a power and a reserve of strength,” Booker said, “that you’re barely even dipping into.”

Booker’s politcal career has provided proof positive of that theory.

Not long after his conversation with the neighbor woman, Booker went on a hunger strike, spending 10 days living and praying in a tent outside the project to call attention to its plight. The move inspired an outpouring of support from Newark and beyond. Eventually, it helped bring about a public pledge for change by then-mayor Sharpe James, with whom Booker had been at odds.

It wasn’t the last time unconventional methods turned heads and produced big results for Booker, a rising star on the national political scene.

Now in his second term as mayor of Newark, Booker oversaw a restructuring of the city’s police department that helped Newark lead the nation in reductions of shootings and murders. In March of 2010, Newark experienced its first murder-free month in more than 40 years.

Under Booker’s guidance, Newark has committed $40 million to transforming the city’s parks and playgrounds, doubled the amount of affordable housing and established a mentorship program to help men become better fathers.

The causes Booker has championed are many and varied. But he said people should chart their own course and rally behind efforts that interest them.

“They should start where their passions lie,” Booker said. “There are just thousands of ideas and people (thinking of) things all across America.

“People need to find out what motivates them and what the local community really needs.”

Booker visits a New Jersey classroom for the 2006 Homework Help launch. Photo by Nancy Dowd vid Flickr.

Booker has helped make community initiatives in Newark a popular target for big-time charitable donations. Conan O’Brien has given financial backing to the mayor’s efforts. So, too, has Oprah Winfrey. And last year, Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to the Newark school system.

Asked about the gift from Zuckerberg, Booker expressed gratitude while also stressing the importance of businesses serving as civic stewards.

“We have social responsibility with everything we do because we inherited such a rich legacy of people who didn’t just do what they had to do, they made contributions,” Booker said. “So that’s one of the most powerful responbilties you’ll ever have.”

Undeniably a big dreamer himself, Booker tried to play the role of Sandman to the dreams Omaha’s young professionals.

“You can’t have outrageous results,” Booker said, “unless you’re willing to do a little outrageous work.”

And as Booker has proven, it all starts with a willingness to do something.

After Booker’s address, we caught up with him to ask how his message could be applied specifically by entrepreneurs in Omaha and the surrounding area. Here’s what he had to say: