Belief: The World’s New Product — Is You.

In this series, professionals share how their beliefs have shaped their careers, businesses and the workforce. Join the conversation by writing a response (please include the hashtag #Belief in the body of your post).

Yes, of course technology will continue to play an incredible role in our collective future. But this same technology needs us.  In many ways this emerging technology -- of all sorts -- will require our evolving world to rely on people even more.  

This technology will need for lack of a better phrase, a central 'belief' system.  Or to quote Jim Sinegal, co-founder of Costco, "culture is not the most important thing in business, it is the only thing in business." 

Belief is the connective tissue of society, and we -- this next generation of the world's leaders and leadership -- are indeed the world’s new 'interpreters.’

Let me explain.

The technology will give us more efficiency, but (you and me) will have to create more real substance, cultural stickiness, emotional creativity, and most of all — execute on the mission.  

The technology will give us more data, but we will have to create and develop more real leaders (leaders aren't so much born as they emerge out of crisis and challenges). 

The reality is that we don’t do business with companies, governments or organizations. We do business with people.  Life is about relationships, and relationships are the connectors to everything that matters most in our lives. Not micro chips. 

People make the difference.  

Empowered human capital is the next big boom in world society. That means that in the future, you have a chance at literally becoming the new wealth. But whether this actually happens in your life or not largely depends on how you begin to see yourself, the world around you, and your place in it.

Your 'belief,’ or lack thereof, will literally set the tone and create the culture that drives the value and values in your life. This I know to be true:

"We are not human beings having a human experience, we are spiritual beings, having a human experience," Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said.

This I also know. 

Capital comes from the Latin root word, ‘capitas,’ or ‘knowledge in the head.’  Meaning, capital at root has nothing to do with money, and neither does the your real value.  Your real value is wealth, coming from worth, coming from (inside) you.  Even a patent is a monetized idea, which also came from ‘inside of you.’  An idea that was based on your ‘belief.'

We spend so much time focused on
what we fear, and what we are against,
we forget how similar we are.
We forget how much we have in common.  

Here are two good examples.

Race and racism.  

Racism is stupid, as 99.9% of all DNA is precisely the same, but we argue over the 1/4th of 1% that differentiates and separates us.  Meaningless things, like eye color, skin color, hair, eyebrows, lips and such.  This is the 1/4th of 1% that matters least, but fear pushes far too many to value it totally. 

Essentially, we are all fundamentally the same, but we spend enormous amounts of our energy underscoring and obsessing about our differences. This is nothing but fear speaking to and through us. 

Science has proven that most everyone on planet earth originated from a single seed, if you will, from Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa to be exact). But you can't really get anyone to acknowledge this obvious scientific fact. Silly on its face, but it makes all the sense in the world when wrapped in the cloth of our fears and insecurities. Or out another way, 'to rationalize, is to tell rational lies.'

Let's use me, as an example here. My DNA report from African Ancestry proved that I was 71% Cameroon, 26% European, and the rest was ASIAN, Indian and 'other.'  So what does this mean, exactly, for how live my life? Here's precisely what it means:

If I hate white people. I hate myself. 

If I hate my EUROPEAN brothers, I hate myself. 

If I hate Asians, or most anyone else simply because of the 'color of their skin,' I hate myself. 

If I hate Black people, or Africans, I obviously hate myself. Or worse, if I decide that I am simply 'not interested' in the African continent, I am also making it clear that I not all that 'interested' in the very real story of my original human self. 

It is entirely possible, that the Grand Master of the KKK is part Black. No, that was not a typo or a misprint.  

If you want to blow the mind of the Grand Master of the KKK, don't criticize him, just give him a simple DNA test. He may collapse from a nervous breakdown. The chances of him being part Black are overwhelmingly 'possible,' as we are most all of 'mixed race.'

Embracing our shared humanity, our shared experience, and our utter interconnectedness, would solve somewhere around 80% of all of the world's problems. 

Religion and belief.  

The world seems pitted in a religious turf battle of monumental insignificance: wrapped in fear, and further rooted in ignorance.  The reality is that Jesus Christ is mentioned in all religions.  That’s right. All major religions.   

He is mentioned in Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, of Christianity, and Islam.  That’s right, Islam too.  In fact, the Koran (Islam) mentions Jesus (in a positive way) more than even the Bible does.  

This is belief and fact based, not fear based or fear baiting.

Ignorance will defend itself to the death. Even in the face of overwhelming facts to the contrary. 

I once asked an attorney what he 'believed' in, and he said nothing but the legal document in front of him. That's what he believed in, because it was created by his own hands and controlled by his own mind. He said he had no use or 'room' for any sort of 'faith.' And so I tested his theory. 

I asked this attorney, 'so what happens when you and your crack team of lawyers create this amazing legal document, which you obviously believe in, but you don't have 'faith' in the honesty and integrity of the two people signing on the opposite ends of the same document?

Does the document, then, have any real value, beyond being a guarantee for all sides to soon end of in claims court? The obvious answer is no. Even a legal document, no matter how brilliantly crafted, still requires faith. 

So what matters most in our lives -- hope, faith, confidence, love, joy, vulnerability, passion, compassion, self esteem -- all require belief. But what we obsess about are things, from how big our office is, to what kind of car we drive, to our wardrobe and of other things, that in the end just don't matter. 

Most people are looking for love in all the wrong places.  And when we wonder why we are miserable. 

The world's new product is you, but that means that you must first BELIEVE -- that you are valuable. That you have a place in this world. That you, and your 'beliefs,' can get this world.  

Watch how you live your life. It may be the only Bible that anyone else reads. 

Let's go.

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To further explore humankind's ongoing search to connect with something greater than ourselves, watch Oprah Winfrey's interview with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner below and tune into Oprah’s groundbreaking television event “Belief” at 8 p.m. ET/PT tonight on OWN.

Other posts in this series:

• Belief’s Big Contradiction — And Why It Works by Deepak Chopra
• 6 Reasons I’ll Never Stop Believe (and Neither Should You) by J.T. O’Donnell
• Conviction in the Power of Altruism, Cooperation and Transformation by Matthieu Ricard

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John Hope Bryant is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Ventures, a Thinker-In-Residence 800-CEO-READ, and an Inc. Magazine/800-CEO-READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass). 

His newest bestselling book is How The Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class (Berrett Koehler Publishing), which was voted aTop Book for 2014.

Bryant is a Member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index with the Gallup Organization, and co-chair for Project 5117, which is a plan for the rebirth of underserved America.

Bryant is the only bestselling author on economics in the world who is also of African-American descent.  

Operation HOPE, founded by Bryant, is directly responsible for the U.S. government establishing financial literacy as U.S. federal government policy in 2008.

Follow John Hope Bryant on LinkedIn Influencers here

Photo credit: Forum of Young Global Leaders meeting in Zermatt, Switzerland. HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, entrepreneur Alvaro Rodriguez Arregu and myself, amongst others.