It is the brave man or woman who in a boardroom today asks, “Why?” In business, critical thinking often gives way to group-think as companies and startups chase short term profits and goals.
Chasing money and status to find meaning is as inexplicable as using profit instead of purpose as a motivator. If we really want a socially useful economy we can’t dodge the fundamental questions. What are we really serving? Where is our inner compass pointed? And what is our true purpose?
CEO and founder of Create Meaning, Steffen Staeuber, discussed the potential impact of these transformative ideas with Renegade Inc.
In outlining what he believes to be the key driver for business start-ups, entrepreneur, Steffan Staeuber, separates two distinct forms of motivating factors – the narcissistic drive for money, and a form of ‘humanitarian’ entrepreneurship that is “one of the backbones of human development.”
In the view of the entrepreneur, the former is fueling narcissism’s engine devoid of meaning which has created a ‘unicorn culture’ surrounded by an absurd terminology. According to Staeuber, the prevalence of social bullying resulting from this, is part of the cultures democratizing process:
“I love the idea of democratizing connections and blogging…There’s a beauty to it. But what I think…is that the culture is something that needs to be grown….When companies grow just to sell [they do not] have an interest to invest and build something.”
Staeuber, is not against people selling companies per se, but stresses the importance of building a long-term business culture:
“Most of the entrepreneurs I work with are not interested in building companies just to sell them”, he says. It’s the prevailing short cut buying and selling profit motivated culture (ie flipping) predicated on the lottery of the numbers game that Staeuber and his like minded colleagues are principally opposed to.
The prevailing orthodoxy, as Staeuber argues, is the notion that:
“People believe in ideas and then believe they can make more people believe [in them]…so they cash out before things happen… There was a beautiful quote from a former employee at Facebook – Jeff Hammer – who said, ‘The brightest minds of our generation are trying to make people click ads.’…If you look at many business models in startups it’s actually based on advertising.”
Staeuber rejects this orthodoxy out of hand:
“I believe we have way bigger challenges in the world than selling people more stuff to consume…I think that’s what it comes down to is like, yes they’re some of the brightest minds… some of the best psychologists and people work for Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google yet we have a mental health crisis.”
Staeuber believes that technology is the potential key to unlocking many of the challenges people face, but adds that a shift in consciousness away from buying and selling premised on profit maximization towards something far more meaningful, is also required:
“We need to shift our thinking from…people making click ads or…selling data to people who then buy ads on your platform, to creating something…that has a bigger purpose to society”, he says.
As an entrepreneur formerly involved in the advertising industry, Staeuber undertook a slow process of self-realization that he was part of the problem which involved a confluence of factors culminating in the death of his grandparents:
“I had a very close relationship with them and was present during the week before they died. In such a moment you tend to ask the bigger questions [such as] what is the meaning of life? And when you go down that path….you realize, “OK. My meaning of life is to be of service to something greater than my own ego or my own financial success… I think it’s a deeply personal, philosophical question that should be raised in schools because [it relates to the kinds]….of challenges we’re currently seeing in the political and economical fields and in mental health.”
The creative industries, according to Staeuber, have a significant role to play in counteracting crude materialism associated with money:
“They have the potential to grasp [environmentally sustainable] visions…and make them understandable [for] the purpose of taking humanity on a different trajectory instead of selling them s*** they don’t need.”
Emphasizing the importance of companies’ serving society as opposed to reaping profits from it in a structurally pathological way, underscores Staeuber’s core philosophical approach to business. “What I focus on in my company is to empower entrepreneurs to be that role model”, says Staueber, who rejects the notion his approach is no more than lip service:
“Actions speak louder than words….I think every company has the potential and the responsibility to transform and change. I understand there is an immunity to change… but I think…external conditions – from climate change to geopolitical stuff to politics – will demand it…For me, there is no alternative to it, it’s just the questions. Will you be made to be changed or will you transform yourself?”
Staeuber takes a non-reactive (proactive) strategic approach to this conundrum centred on change emanating from within. His emphasis, therefore, is less about fighting the system externally which he tried (and failed), but more concerned with personal development. This raised more questions for the entrepreneur:
“How can I change something in the outside when I haven’t changed it and transformed it in the inside? What it’s playing out in society now has played out… when you look into history, for hundreds of millions of years it’s the same pattern…I feel like we don’t need another lesson… So my question is. OK. What can we change this time? And this time around I feel we need to have more focus on the power of inner development because when we have more people who really understand that deeply, then I believe different outcomes will [ensue]. However, at the moment I feel we’re heading into a direction where there’s lack of that awareness.”
One of the problems indicative of this lack of awareness, stems from the high financial rewards paid to key advertising ‘insiders’ which not only ensures their ‘loyalty’ to the system but also helps sustain the existing structure predicated on the perpetuation of myths and lies as a means to sell ‘stuff’ to people they don’t need largely with money they haven’t got. A major problem of the crisis of capitalism, in other words, relates to the advertising industry that is in no small part maintained by the consistent stereotyping and objectification of women and men.
Advertising is focused on recurring patterns related to the communication of product branding in order to sell things. As Staeuber acknowledges, these patterns – concomitant with the workings of capitalism – mirror the deconstruction of fundamental human values characteristic of reciprocity and sharing:
“What….are we actually doing here?”, asks Staeuber. His method of tackling the problem is to make personal ethical decisions around the underlying issues rather than to tackle the system itself head on.
In the above sense, Staeuber doesn’t necessarily envisage the profit motive as the principal problem:
“Every business needs profit….The question is, how do we do it. There are great examples of enterprises that build schools, [take] care of…employees that [have]… a system in place where they [are] part of the company…and where they profit from it together. At some part of the journey that got detached….What I find very encouraging with a lot of people that I work with and that I’ve found on my travels around the world, is entrepreneur’s that really mean what they say and leaders that really lead by example.”
For Staeuber, the issue is not that leaders are unaware that employers are rewarded better financially than employees, but rather that they refuse to lead by example in order to address the widening gap between the two.
Staeuber acknowledges that on the occasions when leaders do lead by example, “people are happier [and] more committed.” At present he says, 87 percent of employees are not engaged in their work [and] 17 percent of these 87 are actively disengaged.”
The continuing prioritizing of money over a lack of a bigger purpose, according to Staeuber, is “turning people against themselves”, adding: “At one point there will be a revolution and it won’t be nice.”
The basis for happiness and success for Staeuber, is not the bottom line ‘greed is good’ philosophy of Gordon Gekko, but a very different set of values predicated on a far broader palette aimed at servicing the needs of humanity – the greater good – that transcends money.
“I’m curious to hear and understand [these types] because…I’m sure they will understand that when they are of a bigger service, they will be happier and more successful in that sense. They might have way more money than I ever earn in my life but this is not how I measure my success.”
“The topic is not so much finding your purpose, I think that’s the easy part. The [crucial] part [of the equation] is living it”, says Staeuber. “So one of the key things what I’m trying to work with my clients on, is purpose as practice. It goes down to how you treat the cleaning woman when she walks into your office…Purposes is a practice of all these different things. And this is also where I feel much of the confusion is because people suddenly have a purpose statement and they… “Ah, all of this magic of purpose doesn’t work. People are not more motivated and whatever…” Yeah because you’re not living it. And that’s the power of purpose, if you live it, it can unlock the potential of your company.”
But there are dangers attached to this. For example, by ‘talking the talk’ rather than ‘walking the walk, potentially gives companies a convenient ‘get out of jail free’ form of ‘Green-washing’. In other words, it will provide them with the justifications they need to carry on with their unscrupulous practices the way they did previously.
“The difference with purpose is that it goes down to the core of the DNA of your company. It can’t be just stated it needs to be lived”, says Staeuber, adding, “I think we’re at this point where people understand that and if you don’t do it, you don’t unlock the potential – this is the one part – and if you try to do it and you pretend to do it but don’t want to change, you’re in trouble because people will sniff it. The people who buy from you will sniff it; the people who work for you will sniff it; the people who invest in you will sniff it. And, you know, who wants to work with a liar?”
Staeuber seems to suggest that – in the context of meaning and purpose – it can’t, rather he implies that happiness and success has to ensue when people are dedicated to a greater cause than themselves – a notion that appears to be at odds with the hyper, individualist advertising industry Staeuber used to work in.
The entrepreneur points to the way the lack of meaning and purpose in people’s lives, is related to both the crisis in mental health and the way mass consumption impacts on it. Problems associated with both the former and latter are further compounded by debt which adds to the complexities.
In grasping how these complexities are best navigated, Staeuber, emphasizes the need for people to open up meaningful conversations “about deeper things in their life… I believe once they have the power to have this conversation they will find solutions to their own challenges at hand….I’m not here to tell anybody how to live, but I believe we should have a conversation collectively [about] how we want to live because we are all affecting each other”, says Staeuber.
“People….instil hope for me in humanity and where we [are]. What is happening right now is that more and more people are realizing that the old is not working and more people are looking for something new”, says Staeuber.
He continues:
“The only solution…possible is to equip everybody to deal with…complexity. Technology is one part of how this is already happening, but it has to be done in an ethical way and with the intention of helping to shift human consciousness in a different space that it is in right now.”
Given that the mindset of the vast swath of leading capitalists appear to have the writings of Machiavelli hard wired into their collective conscience’s, the task for Staeuber is unlikely to be an easy one. The entrepreneur doesn’t profess to offer any prescriptive solutions, Rather, his aim is to set a good example for humanity in general. He takes the criticism that his philosophy is idealistic with a pinch of salt and is even encouraged by it:
“I meet other incredible and idealistic people that are really successful financially so, you know, I don’t mind them saying, that’s idealistic – that’s one part. The other part is, what I think what is missing is the notion of inspiration and beauty… I think [it’s when]…we get exposed to more beauty and more inspiration that these things change… themselves.”
Staeuber argues that since all things are learned, everything can be deconstructed and made into something else:
“Humans learn through narratives [and] storytelling… I think we….need to shift different stories… If you think about it, everything – including our money; including a corporation – is made up from a story…It’s a narrative that we told ourselves… [These things]…aren’t real. They can’t suffer or be hurt. They are a construct of how we see [them]… And so [in that sense]…I’m an idealist.”
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