When
young people tell me they agree with my prognosis for the future of our
planet, and ask me what they should do, I ask them to learn how the
world works, and learn about better ways to live, and then be a model
for others. Essentially I suggest they do the things in the green box
above, 'bottom-up', and then do some of the things in the yellow and
brown boxes above in concert and in community with others.
I
continue to believe that trying to reform our existing political,
economic, social and educational systems is a waste of time and energy.
We have to follow Bucky's advice and create something new that renders
these old and dysfunctional systems obsolete. Likewise I don't believe
technologies will save us, because, as James Kunstler points out, they
are designed to enable us to continue to live the unsustainable way we
do now, a little longer. We have to give up on these ways of living and
making a living.
We must use new ways of thinking to create
something new. To do this we need to experiment, to find out what works
in the midst of a society whose systems are stretched to the limit,
overextended, hopelessly broken, but so pervasive that they, and the
thinking that created them, are monstrously difficult to escape, to
work around. It is like planting seeds in a desert, in soils exhausted
and poisoned. We need to plant lots of seeds, of lots of different
kinds, and nurture them and keep doing so until something catches,
takes root, and grows. And then we need to replicate these 'working
models' of resilience and innovation, so that they're ready to take
over when the old systems finally collapse.
Some of these 'working models' will be better, responsible, sustainable ways to live: Models of radical simplicity, love and generosity, 'let-self-change', self-sufficiency and intentional community.
My book on Natural Enterprise tries to provide a roadmap for experimentation with new models for making a living. It takes you through the seven step process that most traditional enterprises fail to follow, to their great detriment:
- Readiness: Being prepared for what entrepreneurship is about (and not being scared off too quickly)
- Finding the Sweet Spot: Ensuring you have the essential Gifts, capacities and Passion for what the enterprise is about
- Finding
the Right Partners: Whose collective Gifts and Passions are mutually
exclusive and collectively sufficient to realize your shared Purpose
- Doing World Class Research: To ensure what you offer meets a deep (and currently unmet) human need
- Exercising
Imagination and Innovation: To ensure what you offer is (and evolves to
stay) sufficiently different from what others are offering
- Staying Resilient: Learning and applying improvisation methods including:
- flat, self-managed organizational structure
- organic financing
- viral marketing
- measuring success on your own terms (directed to sustainability and well-being, not growth and profitability)
- continuous research and innovation
- Staying
Responsive and Responsible: Building on shared purpose, values and
principles of service to others, and nurturing powerful relationships,
networks and collaborations
The book provides a number of case studies of enterprises that do most of
these things well, and they are remarkable organizations: responsible,
sustainable, joyful places to work. A lot of them have achieved this
accomplishment despite the fact they started out as traditional
organizations and fell for most of the (wrong) conventional wisdom
about how to make a living. This makes them even more remarkable --
their principals were smart enough to realize that they weren't
sustainable, and they have changed them. As models go, they're the best
we have.
But we don't yet have any full 'working models' of Natural Enterprise. We've seen what has happened to lots of enterprises that did most
of these things well -- they lost direction, lost energy, stopped
innovating, sold out their operations or their principles. Even The
Body Shop is now in the clutches of the abominable l'Oreal-Nestle
conglomerate, unrepentant animal testers and high on any boycott list of socially and environmentally irresponsible, wasteful, profit-at-any-cost corporations.
Doing most of these things well is not good enough. We need better models, real 'working models' that are truly sustainable. Models that others can follow, to create a new, Natural Economy.
It's
up to you. The book won't be out until the spring, but it's never too
early to start. I've already written extensively about the first three
steps, and if you start now, just a few hours a week, you can be ready
to move on to step 4 when it's published. If you tell me I need to put
more on the blog on the first three steps I will.
As long as we think Microsoft and Google are the business models to follow and emulate, we're toast.
Doesn't
matter if you're a new graduate moving towards a first career, or a
Boomer considering your second, something no longer working for The
Man. Or if you're a Gen-X or Gen-Y fed up with being underemployed and
overworked and bored out of your mind. We need you. The Earth needs
you.
Could you be a model natural entrepreneur?
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