Elevate Your Mood - Count Your Blessings

If you want more energy, think about what you are grateful for. That isn’t just a fairytale. Researchers from Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Department have concluded after looking at rings of research that the single most way to elevate our moods is to count our blessings. The most effective thing I’ve found is to think about one thing you are really grateful for and then embrace it, lick it, smell it, and feel the feeling of gratitude. Let it come over you like someone is pouring hot warm syrup, and really feel your gratitude. That is when you will feel good!

Social Enterprise is the Wave of the Future

We live in an exciting time.  Boundaries are blurring between business and philanthropy like never before, and the result is radical new social enterprises that are taking on the world’s problems with new innovation and sustainable solutions.

In her speech, You Are the Future of Philanthropy, Katherine Fulton discusses the exciting changes in philanthropy inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit.  She calls it a democratization of philanthropy in which the average person has more power than at any other time in history to make a difference.  She explains five categories of new philanthropy: mass collaboration, online philanthropy marketplaces, aggregated giving, innovation competitions, and social investing.  She states, “I’m hopeful because it’s not only philanthropy that’s reorganizing itself.  It’s also whole other portions of the social sector, and of business, that are busy challenging ‘business as usual’….There is a new moral hunger that is growing.”

Leadership speaker and expert, Will Marre, in Social Enterprise: How to Save the World and Grow Your Business at the Same Time, also discusses the changes in philanthropy and business with the rapidly emerging trend of social enterprise.  He explains how social enterprise is enterprise that incorporates the efficiencies, disciplines and rewards of for-profit business with the broader interests of directly solving humanitarian and environmental challenges. 

Marre believes that social enterprise is the future of both business and philanthropy because as he states, “They can grow steadily and produce abundant profits, they are often market leaders, they reward their employees, offer meaningful work and personal growth, benefit their communities, and improve the environment––all at the same time.” 

Marre concludes, “Reinventing the world to be sustainably abundant is the greatest economic opportunity in history.  It is exciting to be at the beginning of our new future.”     

Isn’t this the kind of enterprise you want to be a part of? 

Chocolate, Sex, and Sunshine are Drivers of Optimism

I wrote an article some time ago called, Chocolate, Sex, and Sunshine. I know it sounds crazy, but they are actually drivers of optimism. You see the antioxidants, and flavonoids in chocolate stimulate comfort chemicals in our brain that elevates our mood. And sex, no not the promiscuous random or casual type, but sex in a committed marriage that is frequent makes people more healthy, have stronger immune systems, better emotional relationships, and more optimism, and yes, Dr. Oz agrees with that. And sunshine gives us Vitamin D. As a person who has been out in the sun all his life we are smart to be cautious about skin cancer. On the other hand, lots of people today are sunshine deprived and Vitamin D is essential to our immune system and our full functioning. If you want to read the entire article just let me know via email and I will send it to you. I would be very interested in your response.

The New Normal vs. Old Normal

Saturday, I was at Chapman University in Orange County as a delegate for The Innovation and Humanity Summit. I was able to address the group, along with a panel that included the senior vice president of strategy for Pepsi, a genius professor from Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management, who is the founder of their Kellogg Innovation Network, and a brilliant strategy consultant from Santa Cruz, whose article on innovation appeared on the cover of the Harvard Business Review recently.

We were talking about the new normal versus the old normal. The easiest way to explain it is this; the old normal is the Hummer.  That’s what you get when you view business purely as a materialistic enterprise. When your vision is nothing but numbers you produce vehicles like the Hummer. The new normal is represented by the Prius. This is the development of products that consider people, the planet, and sustainability. Toyota has sold over 1 million Prius’s and now intends to create a whole line that will include cars of many shapes and sizes.

The old normal rewarded hard work, loyalty, and productivity. In the new normal it doesn’t matter. You can be hard working, productive, and creative, but be downsized with a huge knife in your back no matter what. This is business operating at its worst. There were some things about the old normal that were good, and therefore we need a new normal. All we’ve done is succeed in creating a work force of frightened zombies; people who feel they have no control over their economic destiny and therefore are shut down. Fear is rampant in our work place. Executives feel off the status while workers feel off in security. But, fear has made us un-creative, non-collaborative, and pessimistic. If the way that we conduct business produces fear, then we are conducting business in a way that prevents us from being prosperous. It is a vicious cycle.

The answer is that nobody is going to take away our fear but ourselves and the only way to take away our fear is to realize that we are all entrepreneurs; all the CEO’s of our own lives. Our current job is not our career. The people who understand this the best are some of the leaders of Chapman University who have installed entrepreneur classes throughout their curriculum. That is right! If you take dance or music you will study entrepreneurism so that you can set up your own dance/music studio and create your own economic engine. Everyone it seems is going to need to know something about marketing, finance, and about creating value in demand.

We all need to become brands of what it is we do that creates value. I believe that the only way to overcome our fears to become more independent economically. It is great that a university in Southern California has recognized that and is helping to train a new generation of workers who have the self-confidence to take care of themselves.

Gutless Leadership and Health Care Suicide

One of my close friends is a hospice volunteer. Lately he is supporting a vibrant, full-of-life 80-year-old woman who’s got a bad heart and who’s chosen to die as fast as possible. She’s in an independent care facility that costs a lot so she’s decided to voluntarily starve herself to shut off expenses so she can leave some money to her full-grown children. I know. He’s tried to talk her out of it, but she’s determined. She wants to die because she can’t afford to live. Welcome to America.

Meanwhile our leaders do anything but lead. The Democrats are sissies. The Republicans are bullies. I think most of us are sick of toxic, dysfunctional, ego-bloated politicians pretending to lead our nation.

As I have stated months ago, as well as many great comments from the rest of you, (see Outraged at the Politics of Health Care and Will Marre’s Radical Solution to Health Care) the fundamental problem with a financially unsustainable health care system is that the profit motive is its key driver. This creates a crazy maze of confusion, waste, cost, and suffering. Today’s price of health care is driven by cartels and rich interest groups who compete like Gladiators for a piece of yours and my pie.

1. Thanks to the near elimination of antitrust safeguards, 7 big private insurers control over 80% of health insurance in our nation. These companies are designed to take in as much money as possible from you and pay out as little as possible. They make the insurance claims process confusing and time consuming for patients and doctors, which increases costs and time. This also discourages many people and even physicians from making totally legitimate claims, which increases profits by tens of millions annually. Of course we also know that insurance company claims representations are rewarded for denying claims or finding unethical loopholes to deny payments for treatments to insured persons for trivial reasons causing systematic suffering and in some cases avoidable deaths. Lately insurance companies have been raising premiums in huge chunks to make as much as they can before they are regulated. The obvious conflict between investor interests and our nation’s health care is so great it is breaking our economy.
2. Drug companies have created a closed, unfree market in the U.S., which allows them to charge many times, often 10 times, more for a drug than it costs in other western countries. The idea that Merck drugs in Canada may not be as safe as the same drug in Minnesota is an insult to all of us. The argument that American consumers need to pay higher prices to support U.S. drug companies’ research is simply wrong. U.S. drug companies spend much more on consumer advertising than all of their drug research combined. If business believes in free markets and globalism, then let’s have it. Free trade and a common world price for all drugs.
3. The medical profession has too many incompetent doctors doing procedures they shouldn’t be doing simply because these procedures pay well. It has long been known that the most expensive and difficult procedures are done at the lowest total cost and have the best results when they are done in well-equipped hospitals that specialize in those treatments by doctors who do hundreds of those procedures per year. If you need a heart bypass, go somewhere where they do hundreds of them. These “Centers of Excellence” save money and lives. The medical profession also needs to do a much better job of getting rid of incompetent doctors that cause the majority of malpractice claims. It would also be wise to establish special health courts to curb the abuses of trial-lawyers who game the system to win big awards on the basis of emotion rather than science and responsibility.

I could go on, but who would listen?

The core solution I believe is a universal insurance exchange that is set up as a national non-profit co-op “owned” by all American citizens run by competent executives and properly rewarded employees who have one goal—make sure that the most people have access to the best health care. This can be done with excellence and efficiency. Employees should be rewarded for quality and keeping people healthy not for denying sick people coverage.

We need something more than the best we get from compromising with the huge health care industry that has spent $425 million lobbying against us in the past 4 months. There is a role for private insurance companies, but we must level the playing field by creating a force of citizen power to create realistic and sustainable economics for health care. (The rest of my proposals are in previous blogs.)

Today our health care strategy is a mess because we are trying to turn a rusting ocean liner into a rocket ship. No matter what modifications we make to the rapidly sinking boat, it will never fly.

We must have a whole new system. One that gives people choice and confidence. One that rewards people for healthy lifestyles. One that is uniquely American. Not run by the government but by well-informed citizens who can blend the best of our fierce independence, distrust of bureaucracy and our collective heart for our common good.

I do not claim to have all the answers. But I am disgusted with Democrats who turned what should have been a health care revolution into a poison stew of who-knows compromises. The “brand” of the Democrats is whiny, victim, poor me thinking. They are also ready to compromise because they have no visible backbone and few ideas they are ready to fight for. The Republicans sicken me. Their “brand” is arrogant know-it-alls who only want to lower taxes, fight wars, remove regulations and promote a new aristocracy. Their “I’ve-got-mine and no-one’s-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do” mind set is a cowboy philosophy completely at odds with the higher purpose of society.

As far as health care goes, I am most impressed with Jesus’ advice. When the Samaritan came upon an enemy who was left for dead by the side of the road, he didn’t say, “Well, he probably deserved it.” Instead he took him in and got him medical attention and paid his bills. It seems clear to me that moral maturity demands we seek to reduce all avoidable suffering. If that were our motive and we didn’t compromise with the moneychangers, we just might come up with something simple, practical and affordable.

I, for one, don’t want the status quo. I don’t want some two-bit, best-I-can-get superficial leftovers approved of by the special interests. I am sick of hearing what’s possible.

What I want is a radically new way of looking at this challenge and the leadership courage to make our country a better place to raise our children.

How about you?

–Will Marre

An Economic Revolution

A few mornings ago I was on 2 morning shows on Fox 5 and CW 6 talking about my participation and innovation in the Humanity Conference that is coming up. I will be speaking there with 40 other world-renowned experts in sustainability, social innovation, and a new form of enterprise. It is a very exciting time. The world is going through an economic revolution and there are many good people doing good things to create a better world.

We are in a Productivity Bubble

We are going through a productivity bubble. Large corporations are announcing their bloated earnings through Wall Street analysts this week. What has happened? Companies are making money by wide margins; wider margins than normal because they have laid off so many people. Productivity is four times higher than normal because so few employees are being paid to produce the revenue that companies are generating. In the end this is only exploitation.

Education - Our Greatest Investment

At a time when education budgets are being eroded it is actually a time to recommit to education. Education is the one thing that leads everyone to a better life, more life satisfaction, stronger marriages, a longer life, and less crime. The more educated people are, the more they contribute to the economy. It’s a virtuous cycle. It is time to commit to equal levels of education. The Hallam Charter schools send nearly 100% of their graduates to college. Education is our single greatest investment. We are foolish indeed to shortchange it.

Socially Responsible Leadership and Wise Leaders Who are Investing in the Future of Humanity

It’s easy to be outraged at the incompetence and greed apparent in business leadership. Titanic ethical failures like Enron, failures in judgment by General Motors and greed-induced insanity by our major financial institutions have caused millions to suffer. Leadership failure is so bad the Economist magazine reports that only 2% of consumers worldwide trust business leaders to do the right thing if it costs them profits. With business institutions having the most trans-global power on earth, that is breathtakingly bad.

But there is a strong minority of courageous and wise leaders who use their resources for much more than self-interest. More needs to be known about these wise companies who lead their industries, embrace sustainability and are investing in the future of humanity.

Take FedEx and Johnson & Johnson for example. They have partnered with Heart to Heart International, a health-based nonprofit whose main focus is to get life-saving medicine and supplies to victims in crisis. Their work has never been as important as now as they rush to get much needed supplies and medical support to help save Haiti earthquake victims.

Fed Ex and Johnson & Johnson make these efforts possible. Not only has FedEx provided significant financial support and transportation services to Heart to Heart, but they also have created Forward Response Centers—FedEx warehouses full of relief supplies that are ready to go to virtually any disaster zone in the world quickly and efficiently. These centers take up valuable space in FedEx warehouses, but they do it because they understand that business is about more than money. When the tsunami hit Thailand in 2007, FedEx planes were among the first to land medical supplies. These Forward Response Centers have made it possible for Heart to Heart to be among the first responders to the Haiti disaster.

Johnson & Johnson is one of the main generous providers of these supplies which include The Ready Relief Box, otherwise known as the portable pharmacy that contains such items as pain relievers, antibiotics, vitamins, first aid supplies and doctor’s essentials such as a stethoscope and digital thermometer; The Medical Surge Module, which can increase capacity at healthcare facilities by providing enough medical supplies for 2,000 patients; and The Personal Hygiene Kit, which provides hygiene care for up to two weeks and is vital after a disaster to prevent contagious diseases from running rampant.

And wise leadership is not limited to a few visionary corporations. Today the non-profit Grameen Foundation is focusing their efforts on economic recovery—both short- and long-term. In partnership with Sèvis Finansye Fonkoze (a Grameen Foundation microfinance partner in Haiti), the Grameen Foundation will build upon their existing efforts in Haiti of using microfinance and technology to help Haitians, especially women, move themselves out of poverty and build a more self-reliant future. The President of the Grameen Foundation, Alex Counts, states, “Please help us help the nation recover from this recent disaster and try, as hard as it may be to imagine, to help our local partners build a Haiti that is more prosperous than pre-earthquake conditions.”

So what’s going on with these enterprises? What drives their leaders to do what others refuse to do? In my 30 years of working with senior leaders I can only conclude it is, at its core, one thing. Wisdom. Plato defined wisdom as “a knowledge of the Good and courage to act accordingly.” He further described wisdom as the commitment to seek the right balance between “all that exists.” What we today might call sustainability. At the core, wisdom is moral courage. As philosophers from every culture, across time have noted, it is not enough to know what is Good. We must also act on that knowledge. The responsibility of today’s business leaders to act from wisdom is essential for our future. We are all increasingly connected and to act only on self-interest is poisoning the water that our children drink.

Sadly, nearly all leadership failure I have witnessed up close has been the result of many small decisions that compromise the wise choice into simply an expedient one. Too many leaders are driven by fear. Fear of being criticized by the Wall Street money-changers or fear of being second guessed by their own hard driving executive team. Fear makes leaders stupid. The neurobiology of fear literally extinguishes creativity, open-mindedness and moral reasoning. We need leaders who have the everyday courage to act on the “Good” as a way to create more value for all. When I counsel senior leaders I often ask them, “How much good can you do, right now? When I get a response I simply say, “Do that.” You see doing the best thing you can imagine in a sustainable, wise way always creates value that makes you and your enterprise stand apart. So it not only ends up being wise but also smart.

Most of the few great companies that are doing the most to restore environmental balance and benefit humanity don’t toot their horns about it. (Who knew FedEx planes were landing in Haiti full of medicine?) No, that’s not a good thing. In 2003, I founded REALeadership Alliance to do just that; help leaders and companies become clear on the good they can do. The wisdom of courageous leaders needs to shine as a beacon to inspire those who fear to wake up and get busy saving our world. It’s actually just wise business.

So what’s the best thing you can do? Transcend your own fear. We are all leaders. All CEOs of our own lives. Be wise. Stand for something that matters. Speak up every day for the best thing you can imagine. Everyday courage accumulates. Our consistent small acts of integrity change the future. We all need to lead.

Haiti - Our World is One of Suffering

Haiti – The death and suffering are beyond understanding. Anytime like this some question God. If he is all powerful how could he let this happen? Our world is one of suffering. Sometimes intensely personal and sometimes hugely tragic, but the central theme of spiritual experience itself tells us that God is transcendent. In this way, God helps us transcend suffering. God is not causing and controlling us, but inspiring us to be his hands of compassion.

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