“What one can be, one must be.”
ABRAHAM MASLOW1
When I told my wife I wanted to write another book, she looked at me like I was crazy. Then she told me I was crazy. Her exact words were, “Your next book will be with your next wife.”
Typical Liz humor. As usual, her hyperbole carried a deeper meaning. Having watched me write a second book in the early to mid-2010s, Liz dreaded my becoming completely absorbed in the project, taking months, if not years, to complete it. (She was right.) Since I still have a day job, she knew it would occupy my evenings and weekends, leaving little time for her and the things we do together.
I’m 85 years old. Instead of drafting another tome, I could have spent more time with Liz, enjoying my kids and grandkids, traveling, or just retired like a normal person. At the very least, I could have taken better control of my calendar, office hours, evenings, and weekends.
But I didn’t. (And for the record, Liz didn’t want me to! She knew I had to do it.) Instead, I put pen to paper, quibbling over every word, and did it over and over again, because the efforts described in these pages are my life’s work. This is my latest attempt to share what enabled me to have a wonderful life—the last piece in the transformation that has enabled me to achieve and contribute more than I ever imagined possible.
Even though I didn’t recognize it at the time, empowering people has been my driving motivation since my twenties. Following that epiphany in 1963—when I saw that we can have an unlimited future if everyone has the chance to realize their potential—I have developed and applied my own narrow talents to do my best to bring that vision about.
A bumpy journey, to put it mildly. My life has been one long story of trial and error, ups and downs, two steps forward and one step back. If we learn from our mistakes, then according to Liz, I should be a wizard by now. Yet the application of the principles in this book has ensured that even when I went in the wrong direction, what I learned set the stage for future success. My life is its own story of transformation. Yours can be too.
My life is its own story of transformation. Yours can be too.
I spent my early years thinking I was destined for a career in engineering. At MIT, it became clear that I would be a lousy engineer. So I focused my studies on what I was good at—the abstract concepts on which engineering is based. I was very lucky to have discovered this before I wasted any more time. This turned out to be a powerful way to develop my specific aptitude, which later enabled me to be an effective business and Social Entrepreneur.
Along the way, I have absorbed concepts from more individuals and books than I can count. I approached each with the intent of learning everything I could and applying those lessons in every aspect of my life.
Besides my parents, six people in particular have had the greatest influence on my values, life, and success. I divide them into three groups.
The first includes those I’ve known personally, starting with Sterling Varner, since our relationship began earliest—70 years ago. As you read in chapter three, he may have started life in a Texas oil field tent as a mule driver’s stammering son, but he retired as president of Koch Industries and taught me much about mutual benefit, entrepreneurship, and motivating people. He fit my definition of the ideal partner, as we shared a vision and values and had complementary capabilities.
But the partner who has done the most to transform my life is my wife, Liz. We have been together for more than 50 years. She is good at everything I’m not, leading us to celebrate our differences and dedicate ourselves to helping each other self-actualize. She is loyal, loving, supportive, smart, insightful, courageous, and a constant source of joy, despite—or, more likely, because of—her constantly challenging my foibles. If I searched the world over, I could not have found a better mate.
The next group is authors. Out of the thousands I have read, the two who have had the most influence on me are probably Abraham Maslow and Friedrich Hayek.
From Maslow I learned that to have a happy, fulfilling life, you must be “everything [you] are capable of becoming”2—you must self-actualize. Those who do are essential to the success of any organization or society.
From Hayek I learned that human well-being and progress come through a spontaneous order of cooperation and competition, guided “only by abstract rules of conduct,” and that the attempt to succeed by controlling and dominating people is a “fatal conceit” that will end in failure.
Finally, there are two role models who have inspired me to become a Social Entrepreneur. Each represents the possibility of self-actualizing under the most dire conditions.
Frederick Douglass (chapter five) was able to self-actualize first by realizing he was a worthy human being, then by finding ways to contribute even while still in slavery, and finally, when free, by applying his gift to end that worst of all injustices, as well as others.
Viktor Frankl (chapter one) survived the Nazi death camps by focusing on saving others, rather than just saving himself. This was his highest purpose, and afterward he dedicated his life to helping people find their own North Star, saying, “Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”3
Such is the power of self-actualizing, for the Social Entrepreneur as much as anyone else. When you identify your abilities and use them to benefit others, you find the highest fulfillment. When you continually apply yourself in the pursuit of noble ends, you help people beyond your expectations. When you forge partnerships in pursuit of common goals, you enormously increase your effectiveness.
That is the story of human progress—economic, cultural, spiritual, and every other dimension. The greatest advances in history ultimately came down to principled men and women applying their gifts, empowering others, and transforming society from the bottom up. They became the best versions of themselves, making the world a better place for us all.
What they began, we must continue. Your success, as mine, depends on how we live our lives—the choices we make, the principles we follow, the barriers we break. The concepts you have read in these pages—mutual benefit, openness, equal rights, partnership, and many others—should help your efforts to end the injustices holding millions back. Believe in people, and you will empower them.
I wake up every morning looking for ways to apply these principles to make a bigger difference. It has become automatic. Even at the age of 85, I want nothing more than to contribute and empower others.
My North Star remains a society in which every person can realize their potential—a society of mutual benefit, in which individuals succeed by creating value for others. It would be a more just, inclusive, prosperous, and peaceful society than any yet seen. Such a future is within our reach, if all of us play our part—if all of us believe in people.
My North Star remains a society in which every person can realize their potential.
I will strive to achieve this vision until I no longer can. I take comfort in the knowledge that, when that day arrives, countless people from all walks of life will carry on, empowering others and elevating all. For your own happiness, and for that of everyone else, I hope that you will be among them.