Elevate Humanity

About a year ago I found myself in a unique stage in life… I had recently completed a successful exit from a startup and was looking toward the next phase in my career with greater scrutiny and self-reflection than ever before. Like many of you, I wanted to know that my life’s work would matter. With the freedom to pursue anything I wanted, I felt a responsibility to architect a future for myself that would be rich with meaning and purpose.

Having long been a proponent of the Strengths movement, I knew that my purpose had to align with my strengths. Wise Aristotle knew, “Where your talents and the needs of the world intersect, therein lies your purpose.”

My strengths are influencing others, and taking abstract, converging trends from ideas to actionable solutions - often through technology. After months of distilling my thoughts and reflecting on my strengths...followed by additional weeks of clarifying and condensing the way I articulated that mission, here’s what I came up with...in two words: ELEVATE HUMANITY.

This may seem overly vague to some of you, so let me shed some more light on how I personally view my life’s mission.

I believe we are in a period of amazing opportunity to be better humans...new discoveries about the way we think and act as humans are made everyday. I believe elevating humanity can best be achieved to unlock our greatest potential through 4 Crucial Commitments:

Start with Strengths

Technology Enablement

Reinforce Great Behaviors

Leverage the Best Science

First, Start with your Strengths. Each of us is unique. According to Don Clifton (the father of Strengths Psychology), each of us has a natural advantage to perform better than 10,000 other people in at least one area. The key is to understand and develop your strengths...because that is where you will find the greatest return on your efforts. At Strengths, Inc., our goal is to someday help a billion people discover their strengths.

Second, Technology Enablement. Years ago, I had the privilege of visiting a friend who was a senior product manager for a major online gaming company. I watched teams implement astoundingly advanced, scientific processes to motivate users to spend a little more time playing games online. They used game mechanics, social cues, and viral engineering to “addict” millions of people to game playing. What an amazing world we would live in, if technology companies applied this advanced science to “addict” people to doing more good, more often!

Third, Reinforce Great Behaviors. I’m not unique in my need to be recognized. Every aspect of our human development and growth occurs through reinforcing positive behaviors. Behaviors that led our ancestors to be better hunters, or that helped us learn to ride a bicycle as youth. Whenever we did something positive, we received recognition from our parents or others that made us feel good about those achievements. This is not just a psychological need, it is physiological, and it is a universal need of all human beings. And yet...in the workplace we largely forget this. I believe workplace recognition is one of the most powerful tools managers have at their disposal. What’s more, recognition is one of the most abundant resources in the world. We might run out of water, or oxygen before we exhaust our ability to give positive recognition. I built a company (www.amptnow.com), to make recognition widespread, easily accessible, and ever-present in the workforce. I believe as we learn to make recognition a regular part of the way we get things done, we will be better as individuals, organizations and a society.

Lastly, Leverage the Best Science. Ten or fifteen years ago, very little was known about the human brain. We could only make general assumptions about brain function, brain chemistry, and brain development. Today we are learning about brain construction, plasticity, and chemistry at a staggering pace. Soon we’ll have expansive competencies in augmenting reality through technology connections to the brain and nervous system. It’s already begun. We’re also learning so much about the way humans form habits, or make decisions, through the proliferation of Behavioral Economics. Behavioral economics allows us to mathematically explain the role human nature plays in just about anything. The more we understand the brain and human nature, the more we can rethink the way we design individual roles and teams within organizations, and the better we can nudge people toward their full potential.

We live in an era of opportunity. Each of you have a unique purpose and mission, but I hope you all choose to build and grow things that elevate humanity. If you’re an entrepreneur, build companies that elevate humanity. If you’re a leader, think beyond P&L’s toward real impact and change - put humans first. If you’re a game developer, build games that inspire and enhance the lives of your players. If you happen to be Mark Zuckerberg, find ways to divert attention from divisive commentary; stop meddling with privacy; and redirect users to meaningful connections and activity that uplifts and unites. Your lives will have more purpose, your followers will thrive, and your rewards will be so much richer.