Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems – Michael Strong, John Mackey
9 years ago
9780470450031: Amazon.com: Books
An inspiring look at the positive effects of conscious capitalism In this turbulent economic environment, capitalism has had its fair share of critics. But despite the position we currently find ourselves in, there is much good that can come from this system. Be the Solution is a manifesto to conscious capitalism–how it works and what it takes to make it happen–which will inspire everyone who reads it to liberate their spirit to the cause of social entrepreneurism. No matter what we do–whether it’s making widgets or high finance–doing it right by serving key stakeholders first (from customers to clients), taking a larger role in community and society, and believing in the value of products or services you offer can make capitalism a force for good that reverberates around the world. In Be the Solution, top thought leaders John Mackey, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Kartar Singh Khalsa, and other well-respected individuals in this field lay out a path to personal and global prosperity that anyone can put to work immediately to unleash the social entrepreneur that dwells within. Throughout these pages, readers will become familiar with how practicing conscious capitalism can create jobs; provide investments for infrastructure, education, and training; develop new technologies to meet human needs; and cultivate financial wealth for all. Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this unique book will ignite readers’ passion, inspire them to make the most of their life, and expand their sense of what is possible. Michael Strong (Austin, TX) is a pioneer in education and independent learning. He is the founder of innovative Socratic, Montessori, and Paideia schools. Strong is also cofounder and serves as CEO and Chief Visionary Officer of FLOW–a think tank, inspirational organization, and catalyst for inspiring social entrepreneurship and conscious capitalism globally.Review
“If Be the Solution is a bold title, the subtitle is even bolder: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems. . . Author Strong’s point, however, is not just that there is plenty of room for idealism in the capitalist system. His main argument is that, to the degree that the world’s problems can be solved at all, conscious capitalism is the only possible solution. For example, in the chapter called “Solving All Environmental Problems,” you’ll find the best argument I’ve ever read on why government is part of the problem, and why property rights are fundamental to the solution. If you know some young, or old, person who would like to change the world, Be the Solution would be an ideal present.” (Barron’s)
From the Inside Flap
What if the distinction between business and doing good vanished? What if all those who engaged in business were committed to a deeper purpose, and all those committed to doing good were entrepreneurial and enterprising? What would it take for a world of seven billion such people to solve all the world’s problems?
More and more people are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives as employees, as consumers, and as investors. More and more people have more than enough material goods and are more interested in the qualities of the goods they buy; in the experiences associated with the services they provide and buy; in the way the companies they buy from act as citizens; and in self-actualization—rising up Maslow’s hierarchy. As an increasing percentage of the population reaches the point at which they no longer need more stuff, what will they do, how will they live their lives?
If you are one of these people, wondering where to go from here, how to “be the solution” in the twenty-first century, Be the Solution provides an original perspective on how to create a better world. Focused entirely on entrepreneurial and Conscious Capitalist solutions to the challenges and opportunities facing humanity, Be the Solution shows how the entrepreneurial passion to create a better world, in combination with Conscious Capitalist business practices, can solve far more of the world’s problems than any other approach.
In combination with leading Conscious Capitalists such as John Mackey writing on “Conscious Capitalism,” leading social entrepreneurs such as Muhammad Yunus writing on “Social Business,” and leading legal reform experts such as Hernando de Soto writing on “Is Economic Freedom for Everyone?,” entrepreneurial educator Michael Strong lays out a philosophical, social, and legal framework for a FLOW vision through which all problems may be solved entrepreneurially.
FLOW, Inc., is an organization cofounded by John Mackey and Michael Strong to promote Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow as optimal experience—the state in which we are so immersed in challenging, creative activity that we forget that time is passing. To be engaged in flow activities is happiness itself. Whether we are creators of enterprises or entrepreneurially creative within our life as employees, we can embody the entrepreneurial spirit and, in the words of Michelangelo, “criticize by creating.”
In addition, FLOW refers to the global flow of goods, services, capital, humans, ideas, and culture, in a positive win-win-win world based on love rather than fear. Combining the best of the positive psychology and human potential movements with the best of free market thinking, FLOW offers a unique perspective on how to Be the Solution in the twenty-first century.
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Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems by Michael Strong
Review by: Daniel Zoltani
I picked up this book in the hopes of grasping a deeper understanding of the “Conscious Capitalist” movement. Be the Solution most definitely helped accomplish this goal while providing a fresh and invigorating stance in regards to the endless possibilities of the liberated entrepreneurial spirit. The book went far beyond what I had expected. It not only provided a reasonable and sound argument on how and why free markets can help solve many of the world’s largest problems, such as global poverty, failing education systems, and environmental deprivation, but more importantly how through entrepreneurship we (all 7 billion of us) can live healthier, peaceful and more meaningful lives. I thoroughly enjoyed Strong’s optimistic and idealistic vision of the future.I also enjoyed the books attempt to present its fundamental message, neither for nor against, the Right or the Left, or liberal or conservative, but simply as an overarching solution –“Criticize by Creating”.
Essays from John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods,Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of theGrameen Bank, Donna Callejon, COO of Global Giving, Candace Allen, Educator, Karter Singh Khalsa, CEO of Golden Temple of Oregon and makers of Peace Cereal and Yogi tea, Hernando de Soto, founder of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia, Dr. Don Beck originator of Spiral Dynamics, Brian Johnson, Philosopher and Entrepenour, and Jeff Klein, Executive Director of FLOW all contribute to the book in separate chapters. Each provides their own unique perspective and experience regarding business, development and their visionfor the positive transformation of the world.
Be the Solution argues that economic freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity are the best conditions for innovation, wealth-creation, and increased prosperity for all. In order for entrepreneurs to bring theircreative innovations to scale, they need access to “The Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit”,
1.Secure, well-defined, and transferable property rights.
2.Rule of law rather than rule of arbitrary authority. For business purposes, reliable, timely, and fair contract enforcement is especially important.
3.The freedom to create, manage, and grow legal enterprises, often referred to as “economic freedom.”
What if those who thought that they were finding meaning in status and consumption were to discover a more direct and satisfying path to meaning through flow? What is Flow you ask? In a culture of freedom, respect, and integrity as entrepreneurs continue to solve problems by creating solutions, the value added acts as the main driver of our human advancement.
Flow is:
“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”Ilike that!
A few other topics discussed throughout the book that I found intriguing:
1.The first section of the book celebrates the astounding accomplishments, often overlooked by politicians, media and academia in regards to the decrease in armed conflictsaround the world, global poverty, and positive developments concerning health, the environment and wealth creation for all. Human beings have historically risen to the occasion, and continue to address and overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.
2.Much of the value added to products in the future will come from improved aesthetics and richer more rewarding experiences rather than bigger and more. The growth industries of the future will be led by entrepreneurs who specialize in excellence in beauty and design, in style and fashion, in taste and elegance, in better living environments and better social environments, in more harmonious workplaces, more empathetic and patient-respectful health care, in more humane education, and the like.
3.The potentialvalue of a monetized prediction market. Such a futures market has the potential to establish and record invaluable information concerning the efficacy of government programs, the prerequisites for economic growth, the effectiveness of educational policiesand the validity of social theories
.4.The entrepreneurial creation of coherent modern tribal structures (or virtue cultures), initially in the context of what is now known as K-12 education, provides a better means of solving all of the foregoing problems than has been or will be provided by the exertions of academic researchers and public policy experts.
5.We need global peace and prosperity for all, but the vision is ultimately not satisfying if it is based merely on mindless materialism. Thus we also need to envision a growing well-being industry.
In the words of John Mackey, “Ultimately conscious businesses creates lasting value as the world evolves to even greater levels of prosperity, helping billions of people flourish and lead lives infused with passion, purpose, love and creativity —a world of freedom, harmony, prosperity and compassion.
In these regards, while reading Be the Solution, I couldn’t help but in my mind keep referring back to a quote I once read by the Dalai Lama:
We have bigger houses but smaller families:We have more degrees but less sense;more knowledge but less judgments;more experts but more problems;more medicines, but less healthiness.We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,but we have trouble crossing the streetto meet the new neighbor.We build more computersto hold more information,to produce more copies than ever,but we have less communication.We have become long on quantitybut short on quality.These are times of fast foods,but slow digestion;tall man, but short character;steep profits, but shallow relationships.It is time when there is much in the windowbut nothing in the room.
How this perfectly relates to the theme of Be the Solution.Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs similarly identifies the same issue:
Once peoples more basic needs for food, shelter, and safety have been met, they then crave love, esteem and self-actualization. In the developed countries, almost everyone’s basic needs have been met. Regarding the emerging economies, we know that opening the world will allow the basic needs for almost everyone on the planet to be met. Thus the fundamental problem is how to allow people’s needs for love, esteem and self-actualization to be met more effectively.
Be the Solution celebrates the accomplishments that have been made thus far andcreates excitement about our human potential to solve the next set of transformational challenges.
