Surfing the Future Shock Wave

Aubrey De Grey suggests that when we can extend human life for 30 years or so, that will give us another 30 years to figure out how to extend it another 30 years.  With the exponential increase in technology, it might just be that those born in the 21st century live to see the 25th…

Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient’s upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

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The phrase, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is considered by many both a truism and an indictment of the free-market system. Typically, this statement is followed by a demand for some type of government controlled “redistribution of wealth” or “stealing from Peter to pay Paul.” Thomas Sowell argues that, in fact, the statistics actually argue the opposite, that the rich are getting poorer, and the poor are getting richer.

…income tax data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service seem to show the exact opposite: People in the bottom fifth of income-tax filers in 1996 had their incomes increase by 91 percent by 2005. The top one percent — “the rich” who are supposed to be monopolizing the money, according to the left — saw their incomes decline by a whopping 26 percent. Meanwhile, the average taxpayers’ real income increased by 24 percent between 1996 and 2005.

Why does this seem to contradict the normal statistics? These statistics (from the IRS) track individuals through time, where as most statistics about income distribution take a snapshot of the entire population at one time. When we look at the population in any given year, the income of the people in the lowest 20% might have grown less than then income of the people in the top 20% (this is often the case). However, the people who were in the bottom 20% in one year have often moved out of the bottom in another. In the same way, those in the top 20% often fall down out of the top position into a lower one. The truth is that most people are constantly increasing and decreasing their wealth, as they gain skills after years of work, or retire from it later on. In fact, as Mr. Sowell reports, in a University of Michigan study, over an 8 year period, half the people in the bottom twenty percent– those we think of as “the poor”– were not in that bracket the following year. Three percent of those in the bottom bracket one year were actually in the top bracket the following year.”

Hence, while the statistics in any one year tell one story, the statistics of individuals through time tell another.

Question - which is the more important story? That the overall statistics show an increasing gap between the lowest 20% and the highest 20%? Or that people often dramatically shift their relative income, moving in and out of poverty, the middle class, and the wealthy with regularity?

I think the answer is, “yes.” They are both important, and compliment each other. For Money, Mission, and Meaning listeners, the key is to notice that just because general statistics say one thing, your own path might look completely different. As the saying goes, “you don’t drown if you fall in the water. You only drown if you stay there.”

To learn more about the extraordinary mind and timeliness of Thomas Sowell, please enjoy how this clip from a 1980 lecture is still as timely today.

About 10 years ago, I had the great fortune to be invited to hear Amory Lovins speak on Natural Capitalism, a philosophy that outlines (among other things) how businesses can use design efficiency to increase their bottom line while reducing their environmental impact. Integrating his then 20-years of experience in the field (now over 30 years), the book Natural Capitalism turns many business and enviromental issues on their head, offering an approach that avoids the often condemning approach of some environmental activists. His ideas (as well as his co-authors Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken) have since become part of the canon of environmental business practices, inspiring consultants and thousands of businesses towards greater sustainability. (for example, see my interview with Jeff Slye )

On November 1st, 2007, Amory was been awarded the Volvo Environmental Award in recognition his lifetime work. The nearly quarter-million dollar prize support Amory’s Rocky Mountain Institute in its work to use design efficiencies to end US dependence on foreign oil, design cars that triple our best fuel efficiency at half the weight (see video below), eliminate the need for heating and air conditioning in buildings, and much, much more.

For more information about Amory Lovins, check out the Rocky Mountain Institute, or for more in depth study, check out this series of five video lectures on Design Efficiencies he gave at Stanford earlier this year.

Congratulations to Amory for integrating his Money, Mission, and Meaning, and dramatically shifting the course of humankind towards greater beauty!

As CEO of Smart Energy Enterprises, Inc. (SEE-Inc. A Beautiful Future Now!), makers of SmartPower Smart Energy Drink, I work to bring my passion and purpose into my business life on a daily basis. Our life-positive branding and superior quality energy drinks 2.0 are my full-time vehicle to make this happen.

As we begin our momentus shift into what I call the First Virtual Age (where we shift the bulk of our lives into internet based mediums), each major step becomes a part of history. We are currently accomplishing one of these steps through a partnership with a Facebook application named Booze Mail, where we created virtual drinks that introduce our physical ones. With nearly 1 million SmartPower based virtual drinks being passed back and forth in the first week, it offers the opportunity for Booze Mail and SEE-Inc. to monetize a Facebook application and create a new type of partnership between virtual and physical worlds.

If you are on Facebook, and want to enter our Giveaway, or want to get on Facebook (which I believe will be the premier social networking application in the world within 18 months - and on into the near future), make sure to download the BoozeMail Application, and make friends with Smart Energy Drinks.

For now, I encourage you to clarify your dreams and take productive action towards their accomplishment!

Mark

Politics, n: [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”] - Larry Hardiman

Politicians say they’re beefing up our economy. Most don’t know beef from pork. - Harold Lowman

In the lastest episode of Money, Mission, and Meaning, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Morler, PhD, MBA, and the author of The Leadership Integrity Challenge. We discussed the provocative model of emotional maturity he uses to increase the integrity and effectiveness of organizations. It cuts to the heart of the central challenge that businesses face and offers practical methods to deal with it - a great show. In this blog, I want to expand on the ideas we discussed and clarify how integrity can be understood in terms of the fundamental paradigm of our day: politics.

Politics. The very word can incite people to both passionately take a position and shake their heads in resigned frustration. It is the social reality and tension between people working together to acheive both common and personal goals. Politics, good or bad, can make or break your community, your nation, and your organization. How can we learn to work with the political realities we face while building projects that further our organizational goals? What would bringing integrity to business politics look like?

Politics can be an expression of personal and organizational integrity or dis-integration; it can be “positive” or “negative.” In governmental affairs, we see leaders who powerfully address pressing issues with honest creativity and politicians who “spin” the truth or out and out lie to increase their power base. In business, we find leaders who generate and execute creative projects that further the companies ability to serve their customer and office politicians who spin the numbers, take credit for other people’s work, and blame others for their mistakes.

Positive politics comes from leaders who integrate their personal goals with the organizations mission without sacrificing one to the other. They maintain and deepen their integrity in the context of the collective. In the process, they bring their passion to their position, and contribute their creativity and genius to the group. They add real value to the whole.

Negative politics, on the other hand, stems from people who cannot integrate their personal goals into the organizational mission. They either sacrifice their own goals to the common goals, or sacrifice the common goals to their own. While the former seems noble, it undermines their integrity, leaving less of their energy, creativity, and essential Self to give to the organization, eventually leading them to sacrfice the organization to themselves - becoming parasites that detract from the real value of the whole.

Ed Morler’s work addresses both how a leader can best integrate his or her own values with the values of the organization and how to facilitate others to do the same. The more we take on The Leadership Integrity Challenge he describes, the more joy and fulfilment we can experience in our work and in our lives. Join us as we explore the relationship of Money, Mission, and Meaning, bringing profit and pleasure to the business of life.