Can you imagine a better future?

A philosophy towards a disruptively better economy

In his book The Element, Sir Ken Robinson highlights the importance of Identifying Passion and Redefining Creativity. In The Starfish and The Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom identify the unstoppable power of leaderless organisations and inevitability and need for ever-changing models in our ever-changing and ever-connecting world. 

In Life Inc, Douglass Ruskoff asks should our infrastructures  / governments / education / systems be focused on creating good citizens and well-ness / well-being rather than economic performance and growth? In his books Affluenza and The Selfish Capitalist Oliver James provides evidence that material affluence and extrinsic value(s) can produce the opposite of happiness.

In Drive, Daniel Pink provides scientifically surprising truths about human-motivation and how autonomy, mastery and purpose can far exceed financial reward in the value stakes. In The Social Entrepreneur, Andrew Mawson provides his experienced insight towards the empowering importance of Personal Responsibility. And in The New Capitalist Manifesto, Umair Haque (a thought leader in the field of Economics and Business Innovation) highlights that our current economy, business strategies, policies and mindsets are unsustainable – we need to change or die!

"What good is an energy industry that destroys the atmosphere? What good is a media industry that, with relentlessly intrusive, ever-more persuasive ads, pollutes the infosphere? What good is production that consumes the natural world? What good are banks that catastrophically deplete the financial sphere? What good is a food industry that sparks an epidemic of obesity? What good is an apparel industry that produces insipid clothes in joyless, dreary working conditions? What good are athletic shoes that don't make people fitter?"

These are special words. They weren't spoken by a warrior wielding the buzzwords 'Eco' or 'Green', they weren't (in this instance) written by authors like Naomi Klein, nor were they written by the head of some Corporate Social Responsibility council. In this instance they are extremely important, in print on page 193 of his latest book The New Capitalist Manifesto, they were written by Umair Haque (Director of Havas Media Lab and Economist Blogger for the Harvard Business Review).

In the penultimate page of his book Umair writes:
"my goal hasn't been to write the new economic blueprint – but to give you pen, paper and maybe even a handful of design elements, for writing your own…" "…the future of capitalism begins, in other words, with you. So don't just read this book. Use it. Its not a textbook, its a handbook. The protectors of the past never create the future. And the creators of the future never stop questioning the past. You've got to ask – and keep asking!"

Today, inspired my Umair (and the authors and great thinkers listed above, plus a few others) I choose to take my experience, insights and learnings, and present to you my ever-developing philosophy towards the future – an inter-dependent ecology shaped upon the new rules of Digital Landscapes and Twenty-First-Century Economics.

"Writing is a way of organizing thought. Publishing is a way of receiving feedback." – Frank Chimero

I encourage you to help me (us) re-conceptualise and re-define the words: Economic, Prosperity, Growth, Responsibility, Ethics, Value, and Worth, to develop a set of first principles of value creation with a clear intent and purpose!