The world needs you.
Yes, you.
Look around. Look at our skyscrapers and bridges. Your computer is a technological marvel and so is your smartphone.
These devices did not come from nowhere.
A few decades ago some entrepreneurial people not so different from yourself set out on a path. They saw a need, an opportunity, and decided to go for it.
Along the way not only did they make vast fortunes for themselves, the Steve Jobs and Michael Dell’s of the world, but they also changed our planet for the better. Can you imagine a world without computers? Remove a few select people from our society and the truth is that’s what we might have right now.
Ayn Rand certainly said some extreme things but there is no denying that she was right about one thing: Our progress in this world comes from a handful. It comes from the people who research and invent, and then the people who apply these things.
Don’t get me wrong, every person is a cog in the economy that plays their part but what we really need are leaders.
This is something Seth Godin talks about in his book "Tribes." His premise is that the world needs intelligent, motivated people who are experts to lead us forward. His focus is not on the concept of a presidential like leader but rather someone who leads on a smaller scale.
Like, perhaps, the manager of a corporation who lead that firm into a brighter future, taking the world with them.
Nobody would deny that Apple has built some pretty spectacular things – items so complex that the average person can barely understand the core concepts, never mind how they’re actually engineered.
How much sheer pleasure has been generated from Apple’s products? Not pleasure in the sense of, "Oh look how pretty it is!" but in the ability to communicate with the people you love, or being able to get work done you otherwise would have been unable to.
Subtract for a second those Apple products from the marketplace. Where would mp3 players, phones, and computers be without Apple? Let’s not forget how far the first iPhone was ahead of its time.
The world needs people like you to stand up and make change. Sure you make profits but you also bring change to the world. Change we desperately need.
It’s easy to get caught up in the corporate world – in the way that your business does things. Ask yourself instead, how can these resources be put to use? Is there something my company can do that doesn’t just generate profits but also pushes us ahead?
Umair Haque writes about this all the time on his Harvard Business Review blog (http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/). His principles build upon not just financial metrics but also social metrics. Haque routinely asks pointed questions about what we can do not just to build better businesses but what we can do to build a better world.
And that’s exactly the point.
If you won’t do it who will? It’s like when Steve Jobs asked a fellow businessman if he just planned on selling sugar water for his whole life.
People in a position to lead need to do exactly that – lead. Luckily innovation in companies is one of the most powerful ways this can happen.
Your firm sits on vast resources and while your job is certainly to maximize shareholder returns it’s easy to do this while building a better world.
We need people to build bridges but we also need people to lead us into the future. Call it a suspicion but I think the people and the companies that can do that, that can lead us forward in a positive way, will build massive amounts of brand equity.
In business we’re trained to see opportunity. Here we’re suggesting that there is another kind on the horizon and perhaps paying attention to it will help catapult your company into the far future. Now that sounds like something shareholder would be interested in.
Those social metrics are already proving to be critically important. Not only is the market rewarding innovation, it’s also rewarding those that do social good.
As managers nobody is in a better position than you are. Innovate to your heart’s desire and if you can throw in some of that human evolutionary stuff along the way well, we would really appreciate that.
So please. Lead us. Do good and push us further. We need you.