“The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
HARRINGTON EMERSON1
I have had the good fortune to achieve more than I ever dreamed possible. When I consider what enabled my life’s transformation, I inevitably turn to an epiphany I had when I was 28.
The year was 1963, and the place was Wichita, Kansas. My father, health failing, had recently convinced me to leave my first post-college job in Boston and come home to run the business he had helped start more than two decades earlier. I turned him down, but then changed my mind after he agreed to give me wide latitude to experiment and implement new ideas at the company.
Neither of us knew it at the time, but I had just begun what would become a lifelong journey to better understand the principles of scientific and social progress—principles proven throughout history to bring about progress, prosperity, and peace. I hoped to apply these principles to the business, to enable us to become much more successful.
But my vision didn’t end at the company doors. As I learned the principles of social progress, I wanted to apply them to every facet of my life. Ultimately, this would turn into a commitment to help discover a better way for all of us to live well together as a society—a path of progress for all, a path to fulfill the promise at the core of our country.
So it was that I came to my epiphany: progress happens from the bottom up.
By bottom up, I simply mean that the combined efforts of millions of people, each using their unique knowledge and abilities, are what improve the world. Every person can make a difference, and everyone has something to contribute. All of us can discover, develop, and apply our talents to succeed by helping others. Our individual actions may seem small, but they’re actually immensely meaningful. They can bring us a lifetime of fulfillment and, taken together, the best possible future—not only for ourselves, but for everyone.
Bottom up is not a statement of where people start, or a description of a specific socioeconomic status, but rather a vision of what every individual can do working with others. This includes those who start with many advantages—like me—as well as those who start with little or nothing. All of us have a role to play in improving our country.
Bottom up tends to work better for a simple reason. When people are empowered, they find solutions to the problems they are closest to, as they have the proximity and knowledge to do so. For this reason, the most important contributions often come from those who are overlooked or dismissed. As you’ll read in the following chapters, the effective solutions to society’s most pressing problems frequently spring from what might seem the most unlikely of places and then spread as others see their effectiveness.
Your success is essential to this process. And that’s why I wrote this book. Because I want you to find how you can best contribute.
The more people do this, the better off we all will be. And if every person followed their own best path to contributing to the lives of others, then we could achieve a future beyond anyone’s fondest hopes. It would be characterized by everyone cooperating to foster harmony and progress. Such a society would be more just and prosperous than any yet seen.
As I internalized this, my North Star became clear: do all I can to empower people so they can transform themselves—and the world around them.
This vision of openness, inclusion, and empowerment, based on a deep belief in people, has animated my life ever since. But realizing this vision is no simple task.
Bottom-up empowerment is at odds with the prevailing ideas of our time, most of which are based on the paradigm of control. Look across society, and you’ll see that millions are being impeded, directed, dominated, or worse. You’ll see the widespread assumption that those at the “top” know best and the people they consider beneath them can’t be trusted.
This vision of openness, inclusion, and empowerment, based on a deep belief in people, has animated my life ever since.
This leads to business projects, public policies, and philanthropic grand plans done to people rather than collaborative efforts that enable individuals to discover and apply themselves. This can be summed up as a top-down or one-size-fits-all approach. Far from a belief in people, it is predicated on distrusting and discounting them. At best, the approach says, “We believe in some people, but not others.”
This is inherently unjust—and almost always counterproductive. People are being treated as problems to be solved instead of valued individuals worthy of help as they work to realize their potential. Unable to find and use their unique gifts, they’re being denied the opportunity to contribute and succeed. They’re stifled, trapped behind towering barriers. This obviously hurts them and, by holding them back, hurts us all.
History proves there’s a better way. Rather than being controlled, our fellow citizens need as much support and encouragement as we all can muster—something all of us can do. Fostering that kind of society is my life’s work. It has been so ever since that epiphany back in 1963.
The most obvious way I have strived to empower people is perhaps in my day job at Koch Industries. My goal has always been to enable our employees to develop and apply their talents to create value for others—to succeed by helping others succeed. Insofar as we have done this, the business has flourished.
I previously wrote the book Good Profit to help Principled EntrepreneursTM do the same in their companies. It contained a detailed toolkit for anyone who wants to build a business that empowers its employees to contribute to society and the company’s own success.
But transforming business was never my sole, or even primary, passion. My main motivation has long been the transformation of our country for the better. In fact, I see my work building Koch Industries into a business that creates value for others as helping to advance this larger goal. The same principles behind the company’s success have helped me to achieve more in every facet of my life.
With this book, my goal is to further help those who want to empower people everywhere. Whereas in Good Profit I demonstrated how the principles of social progress can be applied to build a better organization, here I show how those same principles can help you build a better society where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
My goal is to assist not just the entrepreneur in business but also the much larger world of Social Entrepreneurs. If you’re reading this, I suspect you’re a Social Entrepreneur—or perhaps aspire to be one.
Words matter, and I chose “Social Entrepreneur” for a reason. An entrepreneur is someone who discovers (or wants to discover) new and improved ways of doing things. In the context of business, this means driving the innovation that improves people’s lives through an enterprise. In a social context, it’s a matter of finding new ways to break the barriers and overcome the injustices that prevent others from realizing their potential. These individuals disrupt the status quo to help others, especially the least fortunate, rise.
You can find these amazing people near and far.
Social Entrepreneurs are in our history books, ending some of history’s worst injustices and inspiring us by their courage and integrity in the face of hardship, some of it beyond belief.
Today, Social Entrepreneurs are in the most challenged communities, helping families climb out of poverty and turning kids away from lives of addiction and crime.
They’re at the pulpit, preaching about the values of tolerance and respect.
They’re in the classroom, helping students unlock their unique passions and skills.
They’re in the boardroom, telling executives that corporate welfare is not only bad business, it’s self-destructive.
They’re concerned citizens, mobilizing neighbors to support good policies and oppose bad ones.
They’re elected officials—of any party—enacting laws that secure for everyone the opportunity to realize their potential and contribute to society’s progress.
And there’s a Social Entrepreneur in all of us—someone who longs to find the kind of fulfillment that comes from helping others improve their lives. Which brings us back to you.
Where do you have experience? Where have you learned what works? What’s your passion? Is it tackling poverty, finding more effective ways for kids to learn, or fighting a harmful public policy that’s affecting your family, friends, or neighbors? Maybe it’s building a business that better satisfies its customers, empowers its employees, and contributes to its community.
No matter what your gifts are or what motivates you, I wrote this book to help you become more effective. In the pages that follow, you will find the principles of progress that transformed my life. They can transform yours too. And the more you understand and practice them, the more likely you’ll help to transform society.
It’s hard to fit the lessons of a lifetime between two covers, so I’ve organized my thoughts into three distinct sections. The first is my story. The second is our country’s story. The third and final section is what I hope will be your story. Here’s what you’ll find, in brief.
If I had to sum up my life in just a few words, they would be “trial and error,” with an emphasis on “error.”
I spent my formative years rebelling against my family and struggling to find what I was good at. High school and especially college helped me discover my unique gift, which is understanding and applying abstract principles in everyday life. I then set out on a learning journey, leading me to the epiphany that all people have unique gifts and the ability to contribute. (I use the word “contribute” frequently because it’s part of a crucial concept—”contribution motivated”—as you’ll see in chapter one.) I saw that the fewer barriers that stand in the way, the more likely people are to discover and act on those gifts. When they do, they make our society better.
I became a Social Entrepreneur the moment I realized this.
I reached this conclusion through years of studying ideas from all sorts of different disciplines and perspectives. History especially shows what’s possible when people are empowered. Up until 1800, nearly everyone lived in dire poverty. There was basically no lasting progress of any kind. But then Social Entrepreneurs began to break down barriers, giving more people the chance to realize their potential.
The result has been more than two hundred years of unprecedented progress. Where we are now was unimaginable to our ancestors. If we keep empowering people, where we could be two hundred years from now is unimaginable to us.
My study of history and many other disciplines introduced me to the principles of social progress. As I discovered these principles, I applied them to every facet of my life, most notably Koch Industries. (This process continues today.) I believed it would help, but it proved more effective than I could have hoped. Empowering our employees to create value for others is the root of the company’s success. Business succeeds when it’s based on a deep belief in people too.
Koch Industries’ value has grown 7,000-fold since 1961—43 times the growth of the stock market. An investment of $1,000 in the company when I came back to Wichita would be worth $10 million today. Where then we had revenues of $12 million, we now have annual revenues of around $120 billion—a one-million-percent increase. By the time you read this, our 130,000 employees will be contributing even more.
Koch’s growth was generated by what we call “virtuous cycles of mutual benefit,” or “cycles” for short. Because we focus on helping our employees find their greatest opportunity to contribute, they are continually looking for new ways to help the company and themselves succeed by contributing to society. As they build the capabilities to create value, they open the door to new opportunities, which allows us to build still more capabilities. Progress begets progress, in a never-ending cycle.
This phenomenon is the key not just to the company’s success but to success at every level—for individuals, organizations, and societies. In fact, just as we have applied the principles of social progress to break down barriers and empower employees at Koch Industries, we need to do the same to end the injustices that prevent people from contributing to and benefiting from future progress.
One thing is certain: Americans from all walks of life are searching for a better way. This was the case before the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s more true now. Despite the promise of new advances in medicine, communications, travel, and other fields, many people are terrified of what tomorrow holds—and understandably so. Even if they know a brighter future is coming overall, many don’t see how they could possibly fit into it.
The signs are all around us. Entire communities are coming apart at the seams. Upward mobility is fading for huge numbers of people, especially those who need it most.2 Suicide rates are rising, as are deaths from drug overdose.3 This partially explains why life expectancy declined in the late 2010s, a phenomenon not seen in roughly a century.4
America is on a trajectory toward a two-tiered society—one in which fewer people get ahead and more fall behind.
These tragic realities are the result of a deterioration of the core institutions that people rely on, even in the toughest times. Those institutions—community, education, business, and government—are increasingly characterized by the same control mentality that held people back throughout history. As a result, they are falling down on the job, preventing millions from rising and finding fulfillment in their lives.
Transforming these institutions so they consistently empower people to succeed is the job of Social Entrepreneurs. Throughout American history, many inspiring people have applied their unique gifts to do that by ending injustices that kept people down. In this book, you’ll meet well-known leaders like Frederick Douglass, who used his abilities to help end the most monstrous of barriers, slavery.
You’ll also meet modern-day Social Entrepreneurs, many of whom are closest to the problems they’re trying to solve. They are making headway on seemingly intractable issues, from failures in the criminal justice system to poverty to a lack of economic opportunity and many others, helping countless people realize their potential.
I am privileged to partner with many of the inspiring people you will encounter in these pages. They are demonstrating how to overcome some of society’s toughest problems. Their lessons apply to me and you, and anyone else who wants to move America forward.
As a Social Entrepreneur, you have the ability to transform society’s core institutions so that more people are empowered and succeed. Whatever your gift may be, you can use it to help others improve their lives. But beware the temptation to double down on the failed approaches of the past. Many, if not most, Social Entrepreneurs risk becoming captive to the control paradigm. As a result, despite the best of intentions, their efforts can often hurt the people they want to help.
Whatever your gift may be, you can use it to help others improve their lives.
In this section, we’ll take a look at each institution and how the current approach holds people back. Then I’ll describe a bottom-up method that actually helps people succeed. Many Social Entrepreneurs—some being those you would least expect—are using that approach, applying the principles of social progress to empower others. Whatever your own passion, these inspiring people hold lessons for us all as we work to bring about a society where every person can rise.
Take the institution of community. With nearly 40 million Americans living below the poverty line and many more teetering on the edge, essentially everyone agrees that large numbers of people are struggling to get by.5 So why would we try to enact more one-size-fits-all programs and policies—whether from philanthropists or policymakers—that treat the least fortunate as statistical problems instead of as individuals with unique abilities that can be unlocked with help?
There is a better way: believe in people, trust those closest to the problem, and empower them to transform their lives and those of others to escape poverty forever. Get ready to meet some truly inspiring people who are doing just that.
Within the institution of education, people recognize that more and more students are struggling to learn the skills and values necessary for success, especially in a fast-changing world. Unfortunately, the most common approaches in both public and private schools push students the wrong way. They tend to focus on a one-size-fits-all approach that limits both teachers and students.
A better approach is to think outside the typical classroom model (in both K–12 schools and universities) to foster individualized education. Meet each student where she is and help her get to where she wants and needs to be instead of forcing her to be something she’s not. One of my favorite examples is a program called Youth Entrepreneurs. Its graduates tend to do markedly better than students who are stuck in a one-size-fits-all program.
Or look at the institution of business. Most Americans see businesses trying to enrich themselves at the public’s expense, through corporate welfare. Corporate welfare, as we’ll discuss in chapter eight, arises from collusion between businesses or other organizations (such as trade associations, unions, and nonprofits) and government. It allows the privileged to gain or keep power and wealth at the expense of everyone else. It is an insidious form of unequal treatment, which is to say, government-sponsored discrimination. The response to this very real problem is often more mandates, more handouts, and more opportunities for the wealthy and the well-connected to rig the economy in their favor. In other words, more of the same.
A better way is to unrig the system by ending corporate welfare, period. We must also cultivate and celebrate principled businesses that succeed by improving and enriching people’s lives. This is “Good Profit,” the title of my 2015 book. Companies that earn good profit are those that do well by doing good. More are needed.
Finally, there’s government.
At this point, you may be thinking, “Oh no. Here comes the anti-government rant.” Prepare to be disappointed. While it’s true that government policies can hold people back, it’s also true that government is a crucial institution with an important role to play. Sound public policy is essential to empowering everyone. A properly functioning government is a precondition for individual success and a thriving society—and a major focus of mine.
Unfortunately, decades of failed policies have made some of the worst ideas from history appealing to politicians from both parties. Nationalism, socialism, protectionism, intolerance, corporate welfare—ideologies and ideas predicated on controlling people and pitting them against each other are gaining ground.
They are the wrong answers to the right question—How do we help people who are being left behind?—and they are sowing division and discord that threaten to destroy the country. A better way is to unite people behind policies—not parties—that treat everyone equally and give every individual the opportunity and support they need to flourish.
Take it from me: it’s easy for Social Entrepreneurs to use the wrong methods. As we’ll discuss in more detail in chapter nine, the philanthropic community I founded temporarily took the typical, yet often counterproductive, partisan approach to politics.
In the lead-up to the 2010 elections, we started engaging directly in major party electoral politics. (I had steered clear of this for 45-plus years.) We did it to help cure the many ills caused by bad public policy, such as dangerous foreign interventions and wars, and debt-fueled government spending. We bet on the “team” whose policies we believed better enabled people to improve their lives. You only get two choices in our system, so we chose the red team.
By the mid-2010s, it was clear that this foray into politics wasn’t going to be successful in helping to remove the biggest public policy barriers holding people back. The experience taught me what George Washington had warned two hundred years ago in his farewell address: partisanship is not the answer. It was a hard-earned lesson that has led to some big changes in how our philanthropic community engages in politics.
I’m still passionate about removing barriers in public policy, and that requires participating in politics, but not in the usual partisan way. A superior approach is partnership—cooperating with people to accomplish public policies that help improve people’s lives regardless of which political party our partners belong to.
By building coalitions and looking for common ground with others—even those we disagree with on other issues—we have gotten much better policy results. I remain committed to engaging in politics as a way to help remove barriers and end injustices, but now we do it in a way that unites rather than divides and truly empowers people to be part of the change that’s needed. The results have been remarkable, as you’ll see in chapter nine.
No matter which institution you’re focused on—communities, education, business, or government—progress is possible. But it won’t happen on its own. Breaking the biggest barriers and transforming institutions requires movements of millions of people.
History shows that Social Entrepreneurs can inspire people from all walks of life to break down barriers and end injustices. It has happened before, from the women’s rights movement to the civil rights movement to the movement for marriage equality, all of which applied the principles of progress to achieve success. It can—and must—happen again if we hope to right today’s wrongs, transform the institutions, and empower every person to chart their own path to success.
History shows that Social Entrepreneurs can inspire people from all walks of life to break down barriers and end injustices.
Can such movements happen today? Absolutely. As you will see, Americans are ready for a new approach. It’s up to you to help demonstrate what it looks like, and how to make change happen.
I don’t have the answers to our country’s problems. No one does. Solutions will only come from empowering the millions of dedicated people across America who know we can do better.
I suspect you want to make this happen. If so, this book is for you. It contains the principles and lessons that I have learned over a lifetime of study and application—a toolkit that can help you transform yourself and empower others. It will enable you to better accomplish your goals and greatly increase your effectiveness, ultimately helping to transform society.
But my offer to partner with you extends far beyond this book. In 2003, I founded an organization now called Stand Together. Its mission is simple: find and empower the Social Entrepreneurs who are effectively tackling the biggest issues of our time.
To accomplish this goal, we unite people from all walks of life. At the time of this writing, we are partnering with:
• More than seven hundred of America’s most successful business leaders and philanthropists.
• Over one thousand professors at three hundred universities and other organizations involved in postsecondary education.
• Tens of thousands of K–12 teachers and educators in the skilled trades.
• Nearly two hundred community-based groups helping over a million people struggling in poverty every year.
• Millions of grassroots public policy activists in all fifty states.
Working with so many different people, and learning from so many sources, has helped me understand much of what you’ll encounter in this book. We have vastly different backgrounds, beliefs, and abilities. Yet whatever our differences, we share the desire to remove the barriers holding people back. We are using the power of the bottom-up approach to discover new and better solutions on issue after issue.
Through these partnerships, we have accomplished more in the past few years than I did in the previous 50. I have never been more optimistic about what can be achieved. A society of unlimited opportunity and prosperity—a society of mutual benefit, in which all of us succeed together—has never been closer, if we act on our deep belief in people.
I hope you will do your part to help reach that future. You have a role that no one else can play.
After my father died in 1967, I discovered a letter he wrote to his sons. In it, he expressed his hope that we would experience the “glorious feeling of accomplishment.” No matter your passion, no matter your gift—no matter who you are, what you do, or where you live—you can help make this country better for everyone. When you do, you will find that glorious feeling that makes life worthwhile. My hope is that this book will speed you on that journey.