F*cked we are… so just carry on

This blog post looks at some of the author’s travel observations and outlines the actions he has taken in response.

Having traveled extensively over many years what struck me most was the following;

#1. People. We are a virulent virus across habitable space.

#2.  Waste. It is pervasive. Our legacy is plastic. Not the magnificence of Petra, or Antioch or Caesarea, but instead fields of plastic and rubbish.

#3.  Desires / Aspirations. I like talking to people, asking what are your aims/goals?  Inevitably responses are about Maslow’s fundamentals.  Makes sense. For those who are in the red (struggling to put food on table, roof over head, clean water, security and safety) it is impossible to be green, (unlike those in the top 8% who produce 90% of emissions), but behind the need lurks a strong desire for… stuff, more stuff, = success.

Sadly, this ‘more’, is, hey “good for business”.

Business becomes agile, leaner, embracing new technology, shedding jobs.  Profits rise and that helps the 1% get even richer.  Market capitalism is now saying business needs a vision beyond mere returns – it needs to have a social purpose – see NAB Chair’s latest revelations   (if you can, but you have to pay to read it). Even top-of-the-rung are now disenchanted with corporate and shareholder greed.

Muhammad Yunus, is a Nobel Peace Prize visionary and well worth listening to.  I have just read his new book – Three Zeros, which is inspiring. He is coming soon to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Read more at Grameen Australia. and attend his sessions.   His vision of everyone being a entrepreneur (god help us) has helped, but even if  social business’ were to rule the future economy; it doesn’t matter, f*cked we are.

Why?  Simple answer, too many, wanting too much and driven to instant gratification!

I saw a sign recently at a war memorial  in Malta; ‘we gave our today for your tomorrow’ They did,  but what are we doing to secure the future for tomorrow?

We talk about sustainability, give great speeches, focus on corporate values, customer centricity  and building ‘ecosystems’, while universities add new course on sustainability.  We now have social businesses. Great, part of our evolution you may think.

Truth is, we continue as we are; maybe now more aware and caring, but unable to influence the big ticket items because they are too big and too complex.  The basic unchanging bottom line is we need our economies to grow; so buy, make, sell.  Maybe our sign  will be ‘we’ve had ours, so you have none tomorrow

That is why I wrote BECause... we need a revolution.  If we want to save our planet and ourselves we need real change, not a few cats tinkering with peripheries. Bec in my book represents real change.  And do you think it will be peaceful?

but if you decide to play a small part, what would it be?

I can’t talk for you, but I started small in 2009 and now attempt to do the following;

  1. Ride, run, walk, public transport
  2. Share my accommodation, services
  3. Buy stuff that lasts
  4. Fix, mend, reuse, recycle.
  5. AVOID PLASTIC;
  6. Don’t vote for morons (difficult to find candidates with current climate at home)
  7. Use solar and gas power – (No wind sadly where I live)
  8. I support our community bank (we developed our own community bank at our  eco-village, without recourse to the banks).
  9. We are planing a local currency so as to remove ourselves from the traditional banking system and its greed.
  10. Offset my travel by planting and growing my own food.
  11. I avoid global brands, supporting local business and community.
  12. I support a cause and try and do services that help the common good.

So what will be your legacy? Take action.

The Most Influential People in the World – Stranger then Fiction

I FINALLY submitted the manuscript of my new book ‘Enough’ yesterday.  I started it in 2007 after a dinner conversation about how each person’s unfolding capability was the secret engine that provided the energy for their working journey.  And this happens without most of us having a clue about how it works.  One of Nature’s best kept secrets.

The conversation moved to high mode individuals whose working journey’s impact others (like our boss maybe) and to those, whose journey impacted increasingly larger groups (political leaders of substance) and to those fewer still,  whose actions affected and impacted millions.

Finally we ended up chatting about that tiny, tiny group who create legacy, so powerful, so pervasive, so strong;  that their names endure through history and are today household names. Be it for good or bad.

It was then the idea of my fiction thriller book began to grow. What if one such person was born in the 21st century? What would they be like? What would they do?

My work as a Career Path Appreciation practitioner had provided a rare and wonderful insight into how people’s cognitive capability grew and the science behind actualization (we call it flow).  Elliott Jaques Growth Curves gave me a rational, logic tool for understanding and predicting.  I could  explain why,  how and when. I was not only intrigued, I was hooked on how high potential individuals manifested

Over the period 2005 – 2016 I reached out to some well known leaders and was fortunate enough to be able to chart a number of work journeys from a capability growth perspective – (Muhammed Yunus, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Nelson Mandela, Ayan Hirsi and James Lovelock) and I even did an historical piece (Evils vs Good: Similarities between Adolph Hitler and Nelson Mandela). These individuals were on Growth Curves that marked them as unique, extraordinary human beings.

I avidly read  ‘The 100’ – a ranking of the most influential people in history by Michael Hart – and he drew up his list according to some criteria – influence the key one;  not only rear view mirror but windscreen as well and influence NOT through  a movement or event, but individual, personal influence. Hart goes on to say influence is ranked by their individual particular achievements. This is not a general condition applied and he disregards the argument, ‘it would have happened anyway.’

I think Michael Hart missed out one other factor, and that is their creation of a new language, symbols, and practices that forms with their legacy.

Evidence is that many of the people in his list did create a new language for large parts of humanity  – for example – Muhammad (1), Isaac Newton (2), Jesus Christ (3), Buddha (4), Confucius (5), Albert Einstein (10), Euclid (14) and Darwin (16), not to mention Karl Marx (27), Adam Smith (30) and Henry Ford (91). They all created a new language.  Interesting the first five slots are occupied by thought leaders on religion and spiritual development.

So the new book is about a small girl from West Africa who is one of these leaders destined to make it into the first five slots of Hart’s book and I have made her a Mode XVI on our Growth Curves.

She is possibly a human mutant and  may be a force for good or evil.  I originally called the book ‘Prime Legacy’ but changed it to match the name of the movement she would go create – ‘ENOUGH

I hope you will enjoy it… it was one of the toughest and most challenging, yet humbling commitments I have undertaken.