Asia Trip 2009

I hope to provide updated entries while I am traveling through Asia this next month. I am curious about the sustainability initiatives I will find there, and am also interested to compare and contrast what is different, better or the same. I leave Sunday, March 1st, and will be updating as frequently as I am able. Are there any specific areas of interest? If so, please leave a comment, and I will report on those topics.

Thoughts about life

My dad continues to be one of my greatest heroes, and one of the things he taught me is to, "Reject apathy, lead courageously, and believe in a higher cause." If I were a business, this would be my mission statement. This is the reason why I make many of the decisions I do, including joining Net Impact, working with local non-profits and small and sustainable businesses, volunteering with Big Brother, Big Sister, and continuing to innovate and move forward no matter the appearance of circumstances around me.

I think this life goal has greater social and economic implications, however. Think about it, when we were in Economics 101, the instructor taught us that trade benefits everyone involved, and local economies and nations have different levels of factor endowments (i.e. land, labor, and capital), and when countries, cities, municipalities, etc., trade they are all better off. These theories are based on Keynesian economics, Ricardian and Hecksher-Ohlin models. There are numerous arguments and theories questioning the validity or fairness of this principle, but for our purposes let us assume that these issues of injustice are the exception and not the rule.

I would liken these factor endowments to the different skills and core competencies each individual possesses in varying degrees, like the Myer's Briggs type indicator or Multiple Intelligences Theory: each individual is given a set of "factor endowments" if you will to trade for use with others, and when we trade our skills to do things for others everyone is better off. Sometimes other "nations" or people will take advantage of our trade, not pay us back, or commit other unthinkable acts against us, but again this is the exception not the rule. This is also why social networking works, and how people who can navigate well socially and emotionally are more successful in life than those who struggle in these areas.

I think in our current economic environment, we need not forget these principles, but cling to them all the more. As we continue to do the right thing, others will follow and the rising tide will indeed lift all boats.