Be the Solution - Hardcover

Strong, Michael; Mackey, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470450037 ISBN 13: 9780470450031

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2009

Synopsis

Praise for Be the Solution

"In the past, many believed you either went into 'public service' to do good, or you 'went into business' to make money. Few realized that the long-term success of business depends on serving people, not making money. Few realized that perhaps the best way to serve the public was through free enterprise. Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey, visionary thinker Michael Strong, micro lender Muhammad Yunus, and a few others understand these truths. Be the Solution is the best single book to read to understand the emerging ways in which entrepreneurs can change the world."
―Gary Hoover, serial entrepreneur, founder of Hoover's Business Information Service, Hooversworld.com

"Michael Strong speaks the truth. A must-read for our new American government."
―Sam Wyly, founder, Green Mountain Energy; author of 1,000 Dollars and an Idea

"This book is totally fantastic. Treat your mind to a feast. Use it to tune your vision towards what really works."
―Charles Harper, Senior Executive VP, Chief Strategist, John Templeton Foundation

"Perhaps more than ever before, young people today are motivated by the desire to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, many have little idea about how to do it, and their educational studies provide them with little direction. In contrast, this book is a road map about how we can get from where we are to where we want to be―to a more peaceful, more prosperous, and more environmentally sound world. Plus, it is exciting, uplifting, and adventurous. Indeed, it provides the recipe for a better world."
―Dr. James Gwartney, coauthor of Economic Freedom of the World: 2007 Annual Report; Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University

"This is a very thoughtful and timely book that asks us to look around―and to look within―the amazing opportunities that entrepreneurship offers to the world. I recommend this book to anyone interested in finding solutions to the current crisis."
―Giancarlo Ibarguen, Executive President, Universidad Francisco Marroquin

"At last, a book about the heart of capitalism as a force for creating good in the world for solving many of our tough societal problems. I hope our political leaders read it."
―R. Edward Freeman, Olsson Professor of Business Administration, Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, University of Virginia

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

What if the distinction between business and doing good vanished? What if all those who engaged in business were committed to a deeper purpose, and all those committed to doing good were entrepreneurial and enterprising? What would it take for a world of seven billion such people to solve all the world's problems?

More and more people are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives as employees, as consumers, and as investors. More and more people have more than enough material goods and are more interested in the qualities of the goods they buy; in the experiences associated with the services they provide and buy; in the way the companies they buy from act as citizens; and in self-actualization--rising up Maslow's hierarchy. As an increasing percentage of the population reaches the point at which they no longer need more stuff, what will they do, how will they live their lives?

If you are one of these people, wondering where to go from here, how to "be the solution" in the twenty-first century, Be the Solution provides an original perspective on how to create a better world. Focused entirely on entrepreneurial and Conscious Capitalist solutions to the challenges and opportunities facing humanity, Be the Solution shows how the entrepreneurial passion to create a better world, in combination with Conscious Capitalist business practices, can solve far more of the world's problems than any other approach.

In combination with leading Conscious Capitalists such as John Mackey writing on "Conscious Capitalism," leading social entrepreneurs such as Muhammad Yunus writing on "Social Business," and leading legal reform experts such as Hernando de Soto writing on "Is Economic Freedom for Everyone?," entrepreneurial educator Michael Strong lays out a philosophical, social, and legal framework for a FLOW vision through which all problems may be solved entrepreneurially.

FLOW, Inc., is an organization cofounded by John Mackey and Michael Strong to promote Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow as optimal experience--the state in which we are so immersed in challenging, creative activity that we forget that time is passing. To be engaged in flow activities is happiness itself. Whether we are creators of enterprises or entrepreneurially creative within our life as employees, we can embody the entrepreneurial spirit and, in the words of Michelangelo, "criticize by creating."

In addition, FLOW refers to the global flow of goods, services, capital, humans, ideas, and culture, in a positive win-win-win world based on love rather than fear. Combining the best of the positive psychology and human potential movements with the best of free market thinking, FLOW offers a unique perspective on how to Be the Solution in the twenty-first century.

About the Author:

Michael Strong, educated at Harvard, St. John's College, and the University of Chicago, has created several high-performance private and charter schools, including a school that was named the 36th best public school in the United States on the Washington Post's Challenge Index. The author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice, Strong has consulted for hundreds of educational institutions around the world. Prior to his career in education, he was a doctoral student at the University of Chicago working on a dissertation on "Ideas and Culture as Human Capital" under economics Nobel laureate Gary Becker. Strong is currently the CEO and Chief Visionary Officer of FLOW, Inc., the nonprofit organization he cofounded with John Mackey.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0470450037
• ISBN 13: 9780470450031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 374