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The queer thing about hope is that it lurks in the most unlikely places.  While our eyes desperately search spreadsheets and the corridors of power seeking for some sign that the coming year will be brighter, hope winks its smiling countenance in Sudanese war zones, Mumbai slums, storm-devastated cities, and in a cattle shed.

I have seen it.  Actually, not hope…but the real, practical, sweat-drenched signs – that make hope your most sensible bet.  This year, in our quest for new role models, we initiated the Prometheus Social Enterprise Awards and began searching for individuals whose inventive enterprises brought transformative benefit to our world.  We discovered them in surprising abundance.  They were all around us – heroic people ending conflict in Sudanese war zones, saving victims of human trafficking and bringing coteries of phone-connected safety to those in Mumbai slums.  We found individuals forming volunteer armies to help those suffering natural disasters, and those wanting to save our planet from human destruction.  The top global financial players are launching social improvement funds and investors are lining up to pour resources into them.  And so it flourishes.  The hopeful spirit, and the sheer number these social entrepreneurs overwhelmed us.

And based on the power of these individuals and the surges of heartfelt support I witnessed when we celebrated their achievements – well, I’ll bet ten cents of my own money that these enterprises will juggernaut and thrive beyond our most wished-for expectations.  Personal ambition may generate a warrior, but compassion builds armies.

In the reign of Caesar Augustus, Rome’s Emperor spent his days bloodletting his way to the top: destroying competing political rivals and holding military parades with subjugated rulers chained to his chariot.  More money was spent on gladiatorial combats (in which an average gladiator’s life expectancy was 10 fights) than on feeding Rome’s citizens.  Judea’s King Herod likewise schemed to slaughter all potential rivals and those daring to insult his mistresses.  The corridors of power and spreadsheet expenditures offered no more hope then than now.  And, to its shame, today’s media remains fixed to the venomous belief that the public are jackals insatiably feasting only on disaster, misfortune, and wrong-doing.

So this Christmastide, as the season of hope descends on us once again, please accept my fervent wish that you indeed find that spirit of hope which we all so vitally seek.  And, if you will accept the counsel of an old business pundit, perhaps you’ll have better luck in your search if you turn away from the broad, traditional avenues, (which have turned up empty since the Caesars) and head down some side pathway, advertised by a softer voice.  Or, you might even try building a little hope on your own.  If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Wishing you a jubilant holiday,

– Bart Jackson

www.theartoftheceo.com

Host Bart Jackson celebrates The Art of the CEO’s 300th episode anniversary with a jovial recounting of his guests’ cleverest, and most memorable moments.

Welcome to the Art of the CEO’s 300th Anniversary show. Would you like to hear the wisdom of a seventh-generation oyster fisherman – how the archeologist of the world’s most successful pirate’s sunken ship is amassing another fortune – how to emulate the entrepreneur who exploded with a thousand sales in one day – before he even had a product – the funniest repartee ever made by an IP attorney?   Host Bart Jackson has culled the most hilarious and helpful moments, along with wisest counsel from the hundreds of guests gracing our studios.  This tri-centennial episode distills the essence of our best, and fondly recalls the fun.  Tune in and learn from the nation’s top negotiator how President Donald Trump reveals his fears by inadvertent bits of body language.

Speaker for Tuesday – December 10th, 2019

Bart Jackson, CEO of Prometheus Publishing

Inventors: Building Vital Alliances

The inventor is the root of all business who too often remains buried underground. No one needs to be more connected to the widest spectrum of the business community than that talented individual bringing forth a new invention. He/she constantly requires wise counsel and hands-on help in product assessment, customer demand, funding, promotion, turning competitors into collaborators and an ocean of legalities. And the good news: most of this aid & advice may be gained for free – or darned near.

Speaker Bart Jackson, CEO of Prometheus Publishing, shares tactics for building beneficial alliances, discovering with whom you should be talking, and the art of meeting them thriftily.

Contact me if you need a speaker…https://www.theartoftheceo.com/need-a-speaker/

Former NASDAQ CEO Alfred Berkeley shares his uncommonly wise investment approaches, and the how he artfully launched the United Nations Sustainable Goals Development Fund.

Do your personal investments reflect your personal values?  Can you put your money into socially conscious enterprises without sacrificing profits?  Alfred Berkeley, former NASDAQ CEO and Director of the World Economic Forum USA says resoundingly, “Yes you can” – and proves it.  Host Bart Jackson invites Al Berkeley back on the show to detail how he artfully launched the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund (the “do-gooder” fund which backs companies dedicated to the U.N’s 17 sustainability goals.) Al explains the power and planning of how socially conscious investing can work for you.  And – don’t miss this – Al Berkeley also reveals the selection strategies and approaches you need to take as you enter the market with your own hard-won cash.  Tune in and learn how you can do well by doing good.

www.theartoftheceo.com

In 1621 more than half of the pilgrims who had landed a year earlier and struggled into settlement at Plymouth Plantation were dead. Sometime in November, these remaining 50 joined sachem Massasoit and 90 of his Wampanoag tribes folks in a three-day celebration:  both groups had completed a substantial harvest and would be able to survive through the winter.  The native hunters brought seven deer to the table, supplemented by, yes, wild turkeys contributed by both groups.  A couple of humbling thoughts always strike me when I reread this tale of the first Thanksgiving feast.

1. What’s to Celebrate? Festivals for a rich harvest are as ancient as agriculture. The mystery of Nature’s grown bounty has puzzled and delighted people since the first planted seed bore fruit.  And my guess is that for the Wampanoag this November 1621 feast was mostly a harvest celebration.  But for the pilgrims, came the added observance that they were still alive.  Massachusetts’ drenchingly wet, bitter winter along with an endemic of several diseases had left “but four of our 20 English housewives” who had made the trip on the Mayflower, noted pilgrim celebrant Edward Winslow. Everyone had lost family. About half of the survivors were children and teens.  And despite the fact that the same bleak challenges loomed on the future horizon, the pilgrims rejoiced that, “we have made it this far – after one year in New England, we are still here, fighting on.”
2. The Kindness of Strangers. Rich in faith and little else, it would be difficult to imagine a group less qualified to settle and endure in the frigid New World. In 17^th century Europe, where over 90 percent of the population was engaged in agriculture, the Mayflower pilgrims boasted not one farmer in the entire crew.  Had it not been for the counsel and labor of Tisquantum and several other Wampanoag peoples, the pilgrim’s attempt to plant survival crops would have failed entirely.  Additionally, the lore of foraging and preparing native plants that these Wampanoag shared with the newcomers was literally a godsend.

In Homo sapiens, compassion and the urge to lend a sympathetic hand are as innate as fear, anger, and greed – and they are more evident, if you pause to lift your eyes from the headlines and take a look.

The lessons from these people celebrating the 1621 Thanksgiving are obvious.  May we all pause and give our own thanks.

Bart Jackson