Several years ago, after finishing reading Sapiens, a book about human history, I was thinking about the powers that have shaped our development. First, creating communities to harvest grains and domesticate animals, the growth of kings and religions as a hierarchical center of power, followed by a move toward greater emphasis on the individual, and how business now ran the show, when I had what I thought was a powerful, if not totally novel, insight.
Business and the free market has the most power to shape the world. So if we want to change the world, harnessing the power of business is the best way to accomplish that goal.
I’ve been obsessed with that idea ever since, writing (if not publishing) all kinds of paragraphs and articles around that concept. However unable to dedicate myself to sharing my ideas with the world at large.
After several years of quietly working through the ideas and frustrated with my inability to “put it out there,” In the fall of 2019 I decided to go all in on the idea. I quit a job I had worked at for over a decade and started building this website along with what you could describe as a business plan of how to reach as many people as possible.
It was a leap of faith, subjecting myself to economic uncertainty (not to mention the lack of health care), but I decided the benefits outweighed the risks.
It might have been a naive decision, wagering my future on the hope that my idea would resonate with enough people, but I decided to wager on our collective capacity for goodness, to believe most people would do the right thing, if they knew how.
Honestly it’s been a little tougher than I initially thought. I haven’t always been as productive a I thought I would be. And financial worries have pushed me to spend time working construction or helping others with their websites, rather than devoting myself to Impact Consumerism full time.
But I gotten to the point where I can present the ideas and a (still evolving) strategy on how to make progress.
We’re all writing the future right now and it’s quite early to know if I made the right decision.
What do you think?
Please email info at impactconsumerism.com to get in touch, looking forward to hearing from you!