Demand Ethical Leadership

Mom passed away early Christmas morning.  Her passing was a peaceful release from the body she was trapped in.  Thank you for the kind expressions of concern you offered over the past weeks regarding my mother and mother-in-law’s death.  At my age it’s strange to feel orphaned, but that’s my unshakeable feeling.

As I am preparing a eulogy for Mom, one of the things I most admire about her was her ability to somehow both forcefully and gently remind the strong men in her life to be virtuous.  Mom was kind and empathetic.  Living through a massive Depression followed by a World War that involved all her four brothers tends to amplify your compassion.  Today we live in times that call each of us in the same way.

So this morning I am watching the news about thousands of layoffs being announced by various companies across many industries.  Most of these layoffs are unethical acts of powerful leaders who think it’s responsible business.  It’s not.  It’s moral cowardice masquerading as a practical business decision.  I’m not just ranting here.  I am stating the most obvious flaw of financial capitalism that has emerged over the past 40 years.  This flaw is that short-term actions can generate short-term financial gains while destroying long-term value.  Business leaders are incented to cut jobs, investment, research, new technology and worse, pollute, mis-state earnings, corrupt lawmakers, and an endless list of shenanigans that hurt us all.  All of this, whether it’s legal, is immoral.  Here’s why.

The core standard of ethics is the mandate to never cause avoidable suffering.  Period. Is it asking too much?  Or does it ask us simply to be morally responsible for the consequences of our decisions?

One way to judge suffering caused by business decisions is something called switching costs.  Ethics requires us to consider how much it costs to the person my decision impacts to switch to another company.  So for investors the switching costs are very low.  For instance, Toyota recently announced two things.  They will likely lose money this next year, and they will continue their no-layoff policy for full-time employees.  (They are doing extra employee training during their manufacturing slowdown.)  So if an investor in Toyota doesn’t like this policy, they can sell their stock or “switch” to another one in 30 seconds online.  Switching costs for investors are very low.  Next to consider are customers.  The cost of switching from one brand of product to another of equal value is also very low.  There are so many substitute products today that consumers’ switching costs are nearly non-existent.

So what about employees?  Consider your own situation.  What if you involuntarily get laid off from a profitable business during an economic downturn?  What are the “costs” of switching to a new job or industry?  Huge.  Gargantuan.  Brutal.  The American Psychological Association reports that the two biggest traumas that are the most difficult to overcome are loss of a spouse (death or divorce) and job loss.  The suffering caused by these two events has severe long-term consequences not only on the individual directly involved but also their families.  The U.S. Department of Labor reports that 40 percent of white-collar workers over 40 laid off in the past fifteen years never achieve their previous level of income. Illness, chronic pain, abuse, divorce, alcoholism, depression, and suicide are markedly higher among laid off workers.  Is this the kind of society we want?  If a company is making money or has ample resources to continue operating, is pleasing Wall Street the highest moral good?

Is this the best business leadership we can imagine?  The much admired Jack Welch championed shareholders over all others also pioneered the mass firing of workers of GE’s profitable businesses to increase earning.  Fortune Magazine honored him as manager of the century. Right.  What’s hard about firing people and demanding everyone else work harder so we can make more money for shareholders who churn stock holdings faster than bank robbers running for their getaway car?

So if we can agree that willfully causing human suffering is immoral then profitable companies who layoff workers are by definition behaving immorally.  Consider this.  We just “donated” $350 billion to America’s banks without any oversight and they just laid off tens of thousands employees.  Meanwhile they continue to hoard our money, choke off lending to other businesses and pay their executives for their outstanding performance.  Is that okay?  Is that just “aw shucks?”  If a business leadership cannot find productive ways to use bright, loyal, hardworking employees, whose fault is that, the employee’s or the leader’s?

So how can we fix this?  Not through laws.  If we pass no-layoff regulation we’ll only succeed in making sure people don’t get hired at all.  One of America’s great advantages is our fluid workforce that allows us to change jobs and careers whenever we choose.  The difference, of course, is that when we have a well-led economy rich with job creation then employees have a playing field where we can bargain with our talent.  When we have a corrupt leadership creating fake economic gains we have mass suffering.

So what’s the best thing we can do?

Make noise.  Buy from ethical companies.  Demand ethical leadership.  A revolution is happening right now.  Employees and consumers worldwide are demanding that Corporate Social Responsibility be more than cosmetic.  We are seeing major strides in the reduction of waste and increasing sustainability.  This is all due to yours and my demands for a better future.

Now is the time to demand that Corporate Social Responsibility begins with responsibility to employees.  If Toyota and Honda can keep their employees when the car business has collapsed then so can nearly every other business if they have a will to.

I once had a large client who was going through a massive financial implosion during the dot-com era.  Their woman President didn’t layoff a soul.  She instead sponsored huge strategy workshops involving every employee in creating either cost saving or income increasing strategies.  The entire process was led by a senior maintenance man.  Yes, crazy, idealistic….well it worked.  Within 12 months the company was minting money and growing faster than ever.  Do you know why this visionary leader did this when her board was encouraging her to slash and burn?  She told me, “Our problems came from bad leadership decisions.  Firing our employees would have been immoral.”

It’s time for a new kind of leadership.

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We are offering a New Year’s special on the products that Will Marre has developed over the years.  Most of the products were originally developed for PBS, and are terrific resources in creating the life you most want to live.  The Lifeology Package, originally $360 is priced at $179 and includes a step-by-step process that will enable you to focus your design, your talents, your desires and get you moving toward
your unique dream.  For more information, click on the RESOURCES link on the top navigation of the ThoughtRocket website.

The Rebirth of Wonder

The holiday season is upon us, along with all of the rare and beautiful opportunities it brings. No matter what name you choose to assign to it, or how you may choose to celebrate it, it will work its own special kind of magic. For just a moment we will stop what we are doing, we will share gifts, spend time with loved ones. Beautiful lights and ornaments will be placed on display, and we will stop to observe them and appreciate their beauty. It may seem like a small thing, but in reality it is a wonderful opportunity. Most of us have been conditioned to live our lives obsessing over what happened yesterday or what is coming next. We spend our lives trying to achieve this or that, and never stop to appreciate those achievements or the wonder and beauty that surround us every day. Make the most of the opportunity, breathe it in deep and take a moment, a day, a week to appreciate your life. Consider making it a way of life; and just in case you need a reminder the next holiday season is only a year away.

Do you remember the wonder and magic the holiday season held when you were a child? The Christmas tree became a shrine to wonderment, and each light glowed with magical warmth. My play would center around it, I would stare at it for long stretches of time that could not be measured because they were time-less. The smell of pine would take me away to a place behind reality, and the occasional trip to the snow with my grand parents, well that was Nirvana. No matter what holiday tradition you might have observed as a child, there were probably one or more aspects that struck you with the same sense of wonderment. And that sense of wonderment and adventure probably didn’t stop there when you were a child; most likely it accompanied anything new that awoke your senses. It is unfortunate that we tend to loose that as we go in to adulthood.

We worry about things which seem important at a given moment, but which mean nothing when observed against the wholeness of our lives. The traffic, other people’s opinions or impressions, how a project will be received, if the kids are going to do their homework correctly, and a million other things fight for every minute of our attention, and we become the slaves of our own worries if we are not careful. We forget to allow ourselves time to just be, and appreciate our relationships and our surroundings In observing the holidays we are given an opportunity to recapture the magic of youth.

So take a moment to quit thinking about what yesterday held, or tomorrow may hold, and enjoy everything you have right now.

What’s the greatest thing you can do to enjoy the magic of the holiday season?

Corporate Responsibility OR a Disposable Society

Frankly I am amazed almost daily by the breakthroughs companies are making to create more responsible and greener products and humanitarian services.  I am not talking about superficial PR to re-label factory made food as organic or other advertising buzzwords designed to mislead us.  Rather I am impressed that global companies are making genuine progress to reinvent the future.

I have been most recently impressed when I visited the big financial firm ING to learn of their aggressive micro-credit business in India and their European car leasing operation that buys carbon credit for every mile driven to make their auto fleets carbon neutral.  I am inspired that General Electric is making organic lights that are nearly 10 times more effective than every light sold today.  Even if you’re not a raging environmentalist, you’ve got to be impressed with how companies are paying more attention to making more things more energy efficient.

The reason these trends are persisting is that consumers, especially younger ones, are demanding products that are more responsible.  Companies that are responding to this growing consumer demand will continue to grow while those who don’t will fade away.

Why General Motors is Failing

That’s one of the main reasons General Motors is sucking air.  My brother-in-law once owned a GM Geo Metro, a dog of a car if there ever was one.  As the tin and can aged he noticed that the price of parts was beginning to exceed the value of the car.  Finally a mechanic told him, “Hey, the Geo was designed as a disposable car and guess what, it’s time to junk it!”  A disposable car.  Hmmm.

A Disposable Society

In the 1950’s the big American car company accountants came up with the brilliant idea of planned obsolescence that required engineers to design parts to fail at 50, 60, or 70 thousand miles.  This, they were told, would increase their downstream parts business.  What a tragic idea.  But this has been the mindset of leadership over the past 40 years—create one big disposable society.  Disposable cars, disposable marriages and fast food that has as much nourishment as the cardboard package it comes in.  Have we gotten so seduced by “new” things that we have lost sight of the quality of our lives and the strength of our society?

Americans are Rethinking Their Addiction to Waste

Americans are a resilient people.  We seem to have un-ending ingenuity.  So inventors, engineers, and increasingly companies are re-thinking their addiction to waste.  They are doing so because we are demanding it and our children are demanding it.

So what’s the best thing we can do? We should all be fully engaged, noisy consumers.  We need to demand genuine quality, real nutrition, and yes environmentally responsible products.  We should demand personalized, low-stress service to be treated like a person instead of a problem.  The louder our voices are in the market place, the more it will change.  I am seeing this first hand.  Of course progress is slow and imperfect, but at least there is progress.  Progress caused by us.

So what do you think?  Am I into something or is my view to rosy?  What’s the best thing you can think of to drive business to become more responsible?

Giving Thanks through Gratitude Letters

Gratitude is a powerful mood elevator.  At least that’s what psychologists, neurologists, as well as anyone experienced in fighting back from disappointment will confirm.  It seems that thinking and caressing thoughts that count our blessings actually makes us feel optimistic and positive.  Once the gratitude centers our brain awaken they mix up a batch of warm brain chemicals that energize our entire body that animates feelings of well-being.

In fact, this “optimism effect” is so powerful that renowned psychologists such as Martin Seligman, PhD. are prescribing gratitude letters as a way to fight depression, anger, and hopelessness.

How to Write a Gratitude Letter

1. A gratitude letter begins with thinking of a person you deeply appreciate.  Someone who may have gone out of their way to help you, offer encouragement or given you an opportunity.  It may be someone far back in your life history, a teacher, a coach, or a grandparent who said or did something that made a positive difference in your life.
2. Once you identify the person you write a letter detailing exactly what that special person did and why it had such an impact on you.  Try to be as specific as possible.
3. To maximize the mutual impact of a gratitude letter you don’t mail it at first.  If the person lives nearby you make it a priority to see them in person and read them the letter.  If they live far away you read it to them over the phone.
4. Then you give or mail them the letter.

Gratitude is Life Changing

The mutual impact of a gratitude letter can be life changing for both the giver and the receiver.  At a minimum, it’s life affirming.

And today there is nothing more important than affirming life and its amazing opportunities.  Yes, I know that what’s happening in our wider world is threatening, unfair, and the joint product of towering amounts of stupidity and greed.  But we don’t live day-to-day in the wider world.  We live in our world.  And no matter what, and I mean no matter what, we can make our world better today and tomorrow.

I have personally met so many people whose outer lives were destroyed by war, poverty, divorce, bankruptcy, illness, joblessness, betrayal, or natural disaster that simply refused to let their trauma’s define them.  Their subsequent victories are the direct result of their inner strength.  Their commitment to string together a chain of positive decisions to make today better that led them to live inspiring lives.  I am thinking of two close friends who survived bankruptcies to become millionaires doing work they love.  I am thinking of two divorcees who were betrayed by spouses who remarried and are living happily ever after.  I am thinking of a girl who lost her mother to a tragic death who started a foundation to mentor parentless children to live a happier life.  I am thinking of Abraham Keech, one of Southern Sudan’s lost orphan boys who grew up, earned a college degree, and has recently built a school in his old village in Africa.  All of these people are like you and me.  No one gave them permission to be extraordinary.  They just choose to be.

Of all the things I am most grateful for, it is perhaps our unique ability to imagine a future better than our present circumstances and to choose to do something extraordinary.  That may be our greatest gift.

Of all the great things we can do at this Thanksgiving, maybe the greatest is to write and deliver a gratitude letter.  And then as our moods are lifted to imagine what we might do to make tomorrow better.  And just start.  That’s how the world changes.

Will Marre

(Feel free to post your gratitude letter for all to read.)

Life From the Ashes

As a tragic fire rages just north of Los Angeles I am reminded of another fire (The Cedar Fire) that swept through the San Diego area in October of 2003.  For those who find themselves in the pathway of these destructive behemoths, their lives will be changed in ways that many of us would prefer not to contemplate. Many people will wake up having lost everything they had spent years working to build, homeless, and without possessions, reliant upon the kindness of family and strangers alike.  Life will offer the survivors of this current fire a choice; wallow in the memory of what was, or build a new life, richer and more beautiful than the one that preceded it. The second choice is a daunting one, but ultimately the most rewarding.  In our lives we may never have to face the literal flames of a fire, but there are other events that offer us (individually and collectively) that same choice; wallow in the memory of what was, or build something better than what existed before.

As I picked up the newspaper one day as fire fighters fought bravely to bring the Cedar Fire under control, I recall reading about the desperate plight of a handful of families living in a very rural area in mountains above the Barona Indian Reservation.  Overnight, winds had whipped the fire in to a frenzy, and pushed the flames through the valley below their much faster than anyone would have believed. The families living in it’s path woke in the middle of the night to an oncoming wall of flame with almost no warning. They fled with only minutes to spare, and many found themselves cut off from the main road as the flames cut off their only path to the main road in the valley below. Eight of those people lost their lives on that perilous night. I did not realize it at the time, but I would soon come to count two of those survivors amongst my dearest friends. 

The years that immediately followed the fire were difficult ones for them, but they never gave up faith. Thanks to the efforts of wonderful organizations like the Salvation Army they were able to return to their mountain home a couple of years later. I went to visit them on their property shortly after they were able to return. Bushes and shrubs were sprouting up amidst the fire stained landscape and leaves were beginning to shoot up from the burnt oak trees. The occasional bird flew past, and from time to time a squirrel would stand upon a rock to survey its surroundings.  Like my friends, nature was beginning to make a comeback. Today humming birds flit to and fro, squirrels and rabbits dot the landscape, and the blackened husks of oak trees have resurrected with thick green foliage. An afternoon on the property is enough to erase every care in the world, as though to say everything is right in the world. It is a magical place.

It is not fire and the resilience of nature that I wish to discuss however, but the resilience of mankind, and the lesson that nature offers to us. Death and rebirth is a theme in nature and in history as well. Sometimes the flames that we face are not actually flames at all, but a personal tragedy, or sometimes they are a global economic breakdown that causes people to lose their homes, their jobs, or both.  It is likely that the global crisis we now face is the tip of a much larger iceberg that will sweep through the global economy like a wildfire.  It was made possible by the dry brush of greed and failed economic policies, and it is likely that it will tear down whole institutions as it sweeps across the global economy.  The immediate consequences are tragic, and we must find the strength to unite behind those who find themselves in its path. At the end of the day however, we have a choice; wallow in the memory of what was, or build a new and glorious future, free of old dry brush. Are we going to cling to our burning institutions, point fingers and complain, or are we going to clear them and build something better. We can be the burnt out structure that never gets torn down, or we can be the oak that reaches skyward with new life from an old burnt husk. 

What is the greatest thing you can do to build a better future?

Discovering YOUR Talents

In my recent post, Elect Yourself President, I made the statement that,

“Whatever we do just for the money we do poorly.  Life is simply not just about money. Doing what you love will not guarantee you riches.  But doing things you don’t intrinsically care about will surely put your business or your career at greater risk.”

There were many inspiring comments, and one comment in particular that stood out.  It was from Lili who commented,

“What if you don’t have any skills or interests? What are you supposed to do then? You speak like it is so natural for anyone to just go out and apply these supposed “talents” that we all have and just start a business with them. Some of us don’t have any talents, that is why we end up slipping into menial jobs for huge companies that barely know we exist. That is why we end up unhappy, poor and dependent on them for mere survival. It is not possible for anyone to go out and start a business. Not everyone has marketable talents and not everyone has something they love to do. What are WE supposed to do?”

I believe that each of us has a one-of-a-kind “spiritual DNA.”  Our inner dreams and longings are the urgings of this spiritual DNA trying to fulfill its patterns.  You cannot live a fulfilling life UNTIL YOU DISCOVER YOUR AUTHENTIC INNER DESIGN.  How is this accomplished?  You discover it by becoming aware of your persistent traits, talents, and track record.  Your “Design” is the intersection of traits and talents that you bring with you into the world.  Your track record is the expression of your traits and talents in action.

TALENTS

A talent is simply a natural skill.  Don’t think you’ve got a talent the world wants…neither did Paul Potts, a mobile phone salesman in Britain, who nearly gave up on his talent because of circumstances in his life.

And Potts’ competition, Connie Talbot, six years old, who doesn’t mind if she becomes a famous singer…just wants to sing, inspired millions with her sweet spirit and voice.

How about mathemagician Arthur Benjamin, who combines his talent of mathematics with magic to create an amazing display of the human mind.

Each of us has talents.  Talents are externally geared; they reveal themselves in our interactions with other people and the world.  Some of us are talented at building things or solving logical problems.  Others may be talented at communicating with children, motivating others, cleaning and organizing, impersonating famous people, telling jokes.  Some talents have clear economic value; others do not.  Not all talents need to be turned into jobs, but nearly all can be expressed in one.

Not sure what your talents are?

Use this simple exercise, “Your Talent Inventory,” from my upcoming book “Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner,” which will be published in early 2009, to get you started.

And you won’t want to miss the next LIFE category post on Discovering Your Traits.

Will Marre
founder, American Dream Project and ThoughtRocket

World Peace Through Surfing

I just got back from surfing.  Recently I started riding a Rusty Quad.  I can’t get over how responsive it is.  The board seems to go wherever I “think it to.”  So at nearly 59 I’m doing things on a surfboard I’ve never done before.  And that’s what brings me back to wave after wave for 45 years.

I was 12 when I first saw some college kids surfing long boards in 1963.  I felt hypnotized.  I constantly imagined myself gliding effortlessly on a wall of moving water.  I couldn’t get it out of my mind.  So I worked and worked and talked my parents into a matching grant, and for 80 bucks I bought my first surfboard.  It was a 9’2” green dream.  I remember vividly my first day surfing.  My first wave and my first wipeout.  I was hooked.  I’m a life long addict.  Why?  Why not tennis or golf or the many other sports I’ve played?  Well surfing is not a sport exactly.  It’s more like aerobics for the soul.

Surfing takes me away from every distraction.  It offers an immersion in nature’s huge mineral bath.  It allows me to sit in tranquility waiting for the next wave.  Then it jacks me up in anticipation as I paddle for a wave that is always unpredictable in its flow seemingly creating itself drop by drop underneath me as I pump across its face.  It jacks me up because when I push myself over the ledge of an overhead wave I don’t know what the outcome will be.  Surfing ceaselessly demands vision, faith and when it’s fierce, guts.  Yet even when I wipe out the landings are nearly always soft.  Surfing also takes me to a world away from the ever-noisy grid.  The emails, texts, phones, media, all disappear confined to shore as I escape to the deep blue.

Sometimes I can sit on my board and gaze at the glorious mess called Southern California.  As I look toward shore I can see traffic snaking down the freeway full of people rushing to what is important that day.  Meanwhile I can turn my board seaward and frequently see dolphins playing within 30 yards of me.  Of course there are many times that I join my fellow commuters jamming to the airport to keep my promises.  But I carry with me the rhythmic memory of my last wave.

The ocean is my monastery.  It’s my place of active meditation where I connect to a divine force that keeps reminding me to do what I came to do, but to do it with wisdom.  It keeps me anchored in the knowledge that what I do is not as important as what I am becoming.  Some days as I walk down the sand stepping over shells and polished sea pebbles that litter this little used beach my unconscious pops a new idea on the movie screen of my mind.  Often it’s the opposite of what I was previously thinking.  My mind feels blown open with new possibilities.

The surf was amazing today.  Head-high sets, clear green water and only four people out.  The October sun shone bright and there was not a breath of wind.  Why do I surf?  Because it renews me.  The real me.  Sometimes I wonder if world leaders all surfed maybe there would be no war…World Peace through surfing.

Awaken To The Possibilities

The drama of human existence is ripe with the darkest of tragedies and the noblest of dreams. Frequently the tragedies feature people blinded to a particular ideology and conditioned to obey. World War II and September 11^th provide two striking examples of the kind of tragedy that is made possible when people are blinded by the ideology of hate. The dreams however, feature heroes with the courage to see things from a different point of view, unrestrained by the limitations and conditions placed upon them by society. Our founding fathers shrugged off the belief that we were dependent on the protection of the British Empire, and dared to establish a bold new form of independent government unlike any other in existence. A visionary scientist by the name of Albert Einstein dared to question the very laws that govern our existence and rewrote the laws of physics that had stood unchallenged for over 200 years. Like the heroes in those noble dreams, we must learn to open our eyes and discover our own truth.

The choice to live life with open eyes and question accepted standards is not an easy one. Humans, by instinct, seek the safety of the pack, and the pack seeks the safety of the status quo, as defined by its leaders. Who among us has not seen an individual face ridicule for not adopting the accepted standards of a group? In those instances where the behavior poses a clear threat, the response can be understood. But even behavior which is non-harmful or even potentially beneficial can evoke the response. A style of dress that differs from the group or a progressive idea intended for the benefit of the community, can result in derision and ridicule.

My own awakening occurred as a young man serving in the U.S. Navy. Shortly after completing training at the Presidio of Monterey and San Angelo Texas I was sent to the Republic of Panama. The prospect of living abroad filled me with excitement, and I took it upon myself to learn a little about the history of the place I would call home for a brief time. Even before I arrived however, a conflict was in the making as Manuel Noriega tightened control over the country in response to a drug indictment by the U.S.  The heightening tension could not restrain my thirst for adventure however, and I traveled far and wide throughout the country upon my arrival. In doing so, I discovered an interesting thing. The attitudes and opinions expressed by my fellow Americans (many of whom rarely left the base) did not match what I was seeing as I traveled throughout the country. Even the stateside news I watched about the events unfolding in Panama, while not directly dishonest, created a perception that did not match the reality that I was observing.  Even my own values and ideas about what makes for a happy society were challenged as I watched life conducted in a way that was somewhat foreign to what I was used to, but which served its people equally as well, if not better.  Internally, I began to question everything that I was told, while simultaneously opening myself to the fact that there were other possibilities.

The open-mind and the skeptical mind are not mutually exclusive. Together they can allow us to open our eyes and see the full range of possibility spread out before us. It is a path that requires courage, but it is also the path of freedom. It allows us to control our own destiny and weakens the control of those who may not have our best interests at heart. We live in historic times and we must seize control of our destiny or risk having that control taken from us. We must have the courage to journey forward into a brave new world of our own making and our own dreams, and it all begins with the willingness to see life in new and exciting ways.

What is the greatest thing I can do to be of service to you… as we explore that great frontier?

Happiness and the American Dream

We can clearly see the sources of discontent that drive the 4th American Revolution when we take a closer look at the unhappiness of America today.  We all like to imagine America as the pinnacle of the good life, but Americans are not even in the top tier of world citizens when it comes to personal happiness. We now know this through global research studies performed by economists and psychologists.

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Taken from Will Marre’s,
The 4th American Revolution: What We Can Do Together

DOWNLOAD PDF: Happiness and the American Dream

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Americans are overworked, overstressed, and overstuffed.

• The average American man works 51 hours a week.
• The average working woman, 43 hours a week.
• 17% of us work more than 60 hours per week!
• On average, Americans work 7 weeks more each year than workers in most of the developed nations.  We even work more than Japan.  And that doesn’t include commuting time.
• For many Americans, the ride to work costs another 8 to 10 hours a week, or more.  Another 60 days a year.

Who takes real vacations anymore?  Who has time to be happy?  We swallow anti-depressants by the truckload so we can slog through another work-year.  This is the good life?  This brings happiness?

It’s not just the quantity of work that is killing us.  It’s the whole way we look at life.  Happiness research performed in over 46 countries combined with data from the World Values Survey and additional research performed by The American Dream Project indicates that our current version of the pursuit of happiness is out of gas.

• We’ve created a society that consumes 40% more than any other citizens of developed nations.  But by every other measure: debt, health, education, family, marriage, leisure and happiness…we are trailing.
• In 30 years among first world countries we’ve nearly gone from first to worst.  On average we have the most debt, worst health care, poorest education, most criminals, highest divorce rate, lowest leisure time, and least happiness.   I know this is hard to believe.  It was for me too.
• Thirty years ago we led the world in almost everything that mattered, including happiness.  Today, of the 19 most developed nations, we languish in nearly every category.  For instance, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we trail Poland in education.
• We trail Iceland and Ireland and seven other countries in both adult literacy and life expectancy.
• And only tiny Aruba has a higher divorce rate.  It’s sad.  No wonder we’re not happy.

Increasingly our society seems to have no unifying “North Star.”  Our compass needle spins in a crazy free-for-all of frantic ambition, consumerism, and self-inflation.  If we are to believe the media, self-indulgence now seems to be the way to self-realization and credit card debt the route to the American Dream.  But as most of us know, external things do not buy happiness.

Andy Stern as posted on the Huffington Post on October 3rd, commented that:

“Neither you, nor I, nor many of those who voted for it believe that this bill is going to solve the pressing issues American families are facing: rising unemployment, stagnant wages, skyrocketing health care costs, a tax system that favors the wealthy over the workers. The enormous challenges facing American families are real and they aren’t going away. But when your ship is taking on water and starting to sink, a bucket looks pretty good.”

If self-indulgence has become our way to the American Dream…has anyone stopped to think that the root problem lies within ourselves… apparently the government can bail out banks, but it can’t bail out behavior!

Whats the Greatest Thing We Can Do?
Question #3: How can we get Americans to face the reality that the government can bail out banks, but it can’t bail out our collective behavior?