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.

Inspired

My dear friend Sean Harry and I were discussing my career and personal interests over coffee this morning, and my love for various humanitarian and social causes came up. Additionally, I am intrigued by the philosophy behind social entrepreneurship, and that is that innovators can and choose to do business in a way that solves human problems and evokes change, not simply pads the founders' pocketbook.  I like the way Bill Drayton, leading social entrepreneur and founder of Ashoka, said it best when he said: "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry."

Sean also pointed me to an interesting international social venture: Play Pumps International. Play Pumps International is a non-profit organization that installs and maintains merry-go-rounds that not only provide entertainment for young children, but also pumps clean drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa.  These pumps fill a tangible community need, in villages where water must often be carried in buckets and walked back to town, causing countless other health and social problems.