Capitalism vs The People

Find something to chase in life. An obsession that drives you.?However, do not confuse chasing something with running from something.?

Greed, status, and fame are pursuits driven by fear. These only lead to a life of running from something and destinations that leave us feeling unfulfilled. At times we lie to ourselves as we attempt to convince our hearts and minds that the path we are on is good and the right “why” for waking up. But deep in your gut, you know something is off. It could be the right work, but you may have the wrong motives. It could be the wrong work and misguided desires driving you.?

The best framework I know to evaluate your obsessions and pursuits is to continually self-asses the question; “How is what I’m working towards adding true value and beauty to the world? ”?

If you can say with conviction and confidence that who you are seeking to become and what you are wanting to create does add true value and beauty to the world, then I and others are here to cheer you on, resource you, and help you learn the skills needed while holding you accountable to delivering on your obsession.?

This is the purpose of work. This is the purpose of education. This is the purpose of community. This is the framework for true economics. This is the purpose of your life force - use your mind, skills, passions, and abilities to solve real problems that add real value and real beauty to the world. In turn you will experience real value for spending your life force well.?

So where are we now??

Currently, government policies and incentives, education, business models, social services, and the built environment of cities have been designed and optimized to serve corporate growth. This is at odds with our humanity. We blame the machine for misleading us, but we are the ones to blame for continually following the status-quo construct.

We have continued to utilize the post Industrial revolution capitalism mindset to serve our desire to have excess and live like societal monarchs. We believed this would bring us satisfaction and joy; “happiness”. Instead, for many it gifted us ‘cheaper stuff faster’, larger homes with broken hearts, bustling cities full of lonely people, restless minds that are deeply depressed, mountains of debt, an education system delivering confused and lost youth, biologically stressed bodies, and delivering work that feels bottomless and empty..?

We want to know, with calm confidence, that we have run the race well. That we have spent our life force in service of something worthwhile instead of living in a constant state of exhaustion because we spend our days chasing things that never fulfill or satisfy our actual cravings.?

I believe capitalism is amoral, neither right nor wrong. It is the best system I know of that incentivizes the production of innovation and goods to advance the human experience. Still, if those who are operating the machine of capitalism do not measure with the right metrics, we will then deliver the wrong results. We can humanize capitalism by choosing to measure things we value and build market-based incentives/solutions that unleash a more humane existence.?

We do not need to throw the baby out with the bath water and become communist or install a Universal Basic Income as we further incentivize the masses to exist without mission and purpose. Your birthright is that of a creator, not a mindless consumer! We need to collectively own the mistake we have made in pursuit of wrong things and begin the hard, good, and fulfilling work of righting our wrongs.?

We must ask, does everything exist to serve capitalism, or does capitalism exist to serve us??

So how do we move forward?

If this speaks to you, and you are ready to realign the “machine” to serve humanity and our deep longings versus allowing it to destroy us all, please reach out to me.

We have a set of 5 teams/companies focused on healing communities and economies. We do this through an events and training company deploying a robust social infrastructure in cities and towns hyper-focused on activating the whole town as a creativity and personal growth engine. We pair this with a real estate company building and managing apartments and offices that operate as work, live, play, learn, create campuses. And we make available a venture fund investing in and supporting founders from our communities of good-hearted creators, a software company building tools to connect and empower a global movement of creators, and a policy team working on legislation around economics and education.?

Each of these entities has significant projects underway; a bi-partisan education and innovation bill that was introduced on the Senate floor, our third campus that is a 300,000 sq ft innovation and entertainment campus with creative offices, a food hall, maker space, and studio lofts, a second venture fund we are actively raising, deploying our events as a talent and innovation initiative for a publicly traded company, and software to empowering a global creator social and skills network that serves as access to skills, capital, and community engine. We are even exploring a co-op model that tracks civic and economic contributions to incentivize engaging in helping your neighbor create and build solutions for the world. Truly a rising tide that lifts all boats.?

We believe that as a family of companies focused on creating solutions to unlock human flourishing, we can, with you, rearchitect the machine to create more beauty and value in the world by unleashing the primal creative nature we all possess and together build the tomorrow we all want; through community today.?

Join us in the work of harmonizing government incentives, education, business models, social services, and the built environment to be more humane because we are individually and collectively becoming more thoughtful in our own lives.?

To learn more about our work please reach out.