Are satisfaction and impact becoming more important than money?

Here's a growing trend I'm interested in and excited to see catch more eyeballs: satisfaction and impact are replacing money and power as the sole focus of what we do with our lives. 

That sounds vague, speculative, and basically like any other ThoughtCatalog article published in the last year. But what I mean is that thought leaders are starting to consider the larger world in which they operate. 

In 2012, Chris Hughes, one of the cofounders of Facebook, bought The New Republic. At the time the publication was dying, declining in readership by 50%. His reason for the investment, as reported by Fast Company is a desire to tackle the "cultural deficit of longer, more thought provoking journalism." 

Hughes adds on to this comment: "There is a strong group of people who value getting past headlines and the hype of news cycles, spending more time with an issue."

The Fast Company article goes on to highlight several other instances including Rachael Chong's Catchafire, a skill based volunteer matching platform, and Ev William's very popular Medium. There's even a term for the types of people orienting their careers towards longer impact goals: Tech Humanists. 

The name itself is regrettable and will likely be lumped in with the laughable lexicon of Silicon Valley's latest. But what this signifies is a growing language around mindfulness. 

TIME magazine's The Mindfulness Revolution is also getting plenty of circulation around the web these days. The feature includes John Kabat-Zinn's popular work on mindfulness and a few more thought out applications of meditation towards businesses. TIME cites Janice Marturano's corporate mindfulness initiative initially introduced to General Mill's employees in 2006. In corporate human relations that means about 500 General Mill's employees have attended the course and conclusive evidence is just now starting to be drawn out. Meditation found a place front and center at Davos in 2013, and my humble employer even has it's own meditation course called Google's Search Inside Yourself. 

I certainly haven't solidified any conclusions on the Tech Humanist rise but my thinking (and hope) is that the penetration of mindfulness into our work and careers is developing a breed of Tech Humanists (or whatever you want to call them), people who care about tackling issues that require long term thinking. 

Having newly acquainted myself with meditation, I'm excited to continue exploring what this new trend means.

 

More info

The effective business personality?

My friend and I have been having a conversation lately around business philosophies. What gets work done? What kind of business personality drives results? 

Empirically, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Bezos, and most recently, Uber's Travis Kalanick would prove that a balls-to-the-wall, sharp-elbowed salesmanship style is what brings successful entrepreneurs out from the crowd. Nearly all the business and start-up self-help literature I've read places value on bringing an aggressive approach to a company. Can't say I've seen the ill-fated Jobs movie, but nearly everyone knows about Steve Job's almost sociopathic disregard for how his actions had an impact on other people. 

This personality goes against the values most kids are taught growing up. Share your toys. Be fair. And yet, now that Uber is gaining immense popularity at a current valuation of $3.4 billion, plenty of coverage is being spun out around Travis Kalanick's bull-headed work style:

"There is absolutely no way this business would have gotten where it is without Travis and his arrogance,"

says an acquaintance of Kalanick's. "Not without him being like, 'I'm going to take over the world.' He has the Steve Jobs mentality that 'It's my way or the highway.'"

Here are a few more examples of Kalanick's stubborn, nearly tyrannical methods:

1) On convincing New York Taxi and Limousine Deputy Commissioner Ashwini Chhabra to let Uber taxis give rides in New York and compete with yellow cabs: 

That said, the deputy commissioner admits the hard-knuckled tactics can be effective. "That approach actually works if you want to come in and you're challenging an orthodoxy," he says, noting he personally has no hard feelings toward Kalanick or criticisms of his business style. "He's a good and tough negotiator, and when you're negotiating, sometimes there is some posturing on everyone's part, whether it's as the regulator or disruptor."

2) On responding to public criticism from frustrated Uber customers:
Later, when Uber was criticized for charging fares eight times higher than usual during a snowstorm, Kalanick posted an email from a concerned user to his Facebook page.

"Get some popcorn and scroll down," he wrote.

3) At Failcon, an annual conference for startup founders to study their own and other's failures:
"VCs ain't shit but hoes and tricks." 

In short, and as summarized in Business Insider's feature, "Kalanick's form of hustling also means doing things most people wouldn't: picking fights, bending laws, challenging governments, and throwing tantrums." 

And so it seems that out-of-ordinary success necessitates out-of-ordinary drive and duplicitous personality. Plenty of successful CEOs exude this philosophy. 

What my friend and I are focusing on, instead of blindly adopting a Kalanick-like business philosophy, is finding counterexamples. Is there a way to become a selfless leader and thrive with equal success as Kalanick? 

Right now I'm looking into the following books and resources to build up a library of examples of the patient, kind, giving, and human leader:

If you have any, please share!

 

 

 

 

 

More info