From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
In my case, and for many people I know, a European identity is something that was denied to us for 50 years. For 50 years, Estonia was occupied by the Soviets, and so- for us- for our people, who were under communist domination, we were comfortable and happy to take on a European identity when we gained independence.
Ultimately, we want to make it unnecessary to be a B Corp – we want it to be just the norm of how all businesses are run, but that means we have to change the rules of the game and the role of business in society.
The true measure of success for United Way and other philanthropic organizations is bottom-line results: the lives that are changed and the communities that are shaped.
We believe that by being open, honest and transparent with communities- they are more likely to protect, respect and patronise our projects. Our primary responsibility is to make money for our investors. That however, is not mutually exclusive to making positive change.
So many of us think that we don't have power as individuals; and that makes us unwittingly complicit. Every time someone doesn't do the right thing in any given situation, it allows that situation to go on longer, and in that way, there's complicity – and that's dangerous culturally, and dangerous to our forward momentum as we try to move towards being the free people we're meant to be.
The neo-liberal capitalist mindset has also been a huge contributor to loneliness. Since the 1980s, alongside Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, a new form of economics came to the fore which enshrined the pursuit of self-interest over the pursuit of collective good. That generated the mindset we see today- me first, dog-eat-dog, greed is good… that inevitably begets a world where people feel less connected to each-other, more atomised, and many ended up feeling marginalised and unseen.
The twentieth century has been called the century of the homeless man. The number of persons permanently displaced for political reasons as a result of wars, treaties or sometimes obscure reason is startling.
The story of modernity is a story of scientific advance – but in reality, with every step forward, we're taking half a step backward in terms of making ourselves more fragile.
The only people I've come across who don't have impostor syndrome are the real impostors. The conmen, con artists, the deceivers in our society who have no problem pretending to be who they are not.
Status hierarchies help us navigate choices which would otherwise be impossibly complex. It dramatically reduces the cognitive load we face in making decisions.
In the advanced countries, it is a very challenging time for people in the middle-income and middle-education range. They are being subjected to greater competition from labour saving technology.
As a collective, we tend to look at progress as being linear, especially where it concerns women's rights. This is a huge mistake and breeds complacency because we risk losing the hard-won gains.