Next week, I officially become a "woman of a certain age" or in her late forties. A lot has happened to radically change my life over the past year and it gives me pause for thought about how I want spend the second half of my life...
I've always been a big believer in the 'common good' and being true to yourself. Given that we are daily at risk of tripping over into a Moral Abyss, I tend to check my moral compass daily, be it in my personal or professional life.
In my formative years, I became involved in what has become a life-long commitment to work with others to improve peoples' lives and environment. What challenges me nowadays is that I that I want to continue these efforts as an entrepreneur. How to balance the pursuit of profit as a woman business owner, with 'making a difference'.
Ideas of 'empowerment' and 'citizenship', of achieving the greatest benefits for the greatest amount of people, through combined team effort is one of the ethical decisions I have made in my business.
I am not alone it seems, Price Waterhouse Coopers recently undertook research about the effects of the recession on women and found: "The research that we have done on women in the recession shows that 72 per cent say that it has got them thinking about a new start," she says. "And nearly half of them want to shift into a small business or a social enterprise". (Dame Julie Mellor quoted in the Times Online)
Collaboration is a survival strategy amongst entrepreneurs, especially in times of economic challenge in order to 'raise the boat for everybody'.
Lofty business ideals, maybe. I certainly don't lay any claim to easy answers.
I recently heard a speech from eminent philosopher and author, Mr Michael Sandel. I was gripped. How to express that it could be ok for people to make money and not burn the earth or each other in the process had been on my mind for weeks... He offered me some comfort I was heading in the right direction.
If my business entails sharing ideas on how people can achieve dreams of wealth, I need to be clear that this is indeed a 'worthy' goal, given the belief I wrestle with about money 'being the route of all evil'.
Professor Sandel called economics "spurious". This seemed counter-intuitive to me. I had been listening to debates on taxation, inflation, employment and economics on the radio for years; I thought I was gradually figuring out how we all fit into place with these big systems; I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Knowing that he was wiser than me, I turned the radio up and listened - my practical business activities could wait! This was far too important.
What he was getting at, was that economists tell us what we SHOULD be doing for the health of the economy: GDP, employment, inflation and so forth (work harder, for longer hours, accept high taxation, etc) - as if it was all about the Economy and money. But all of these subjects are MORAL and political issues; they have to be weighed up in terms of justice, fairness, ecology and so on. We, the community, has to have their say in order to discover ways to go about our daily life which enables the future of our communities, our families AND our environment to be secure...
The role of economics is merely to inform us of what might be the practical results of our decisions, no more than that. The crucial words here: 'might be'. We are still learning all of the time, because the world is constantly evolving, as we learn new things about our world on a daily basis. Answers are not carved in stone!
So, if our everyday behaviour as individual local citizens and even nations of people and international communities effects the balance of payments, distribution of welfare, health of the planet, the future of all living beings, for instance, then there are ethical implications of ignoring getting involved with each other in subjects about which we care passionately. In other words, "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem".
When I worked for other people in the past, we shared the same ideas to some degree, but quite often the politics of different personalities and value systems working closely together could get in the way of positive results. In the words of my all time favourite song-writers, Neil Peart and Geddy Lee: "Glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity."
So now here I am, a mature woman, a newbie woman business owner; I get to CHOOSE whom I work with. I select my team carefully. If I am not convinced that they want to raise the bar for themselves and others, then I really have little interest in supporting them. It's just not how I want to live my life. Fortunately, there are plenty of would be business owners out there who will.
I set out in my working career in paid jobs working alongside or on behalf of communities in the belief we were changing lives for the better. I am still that person. Nowadays my methods are different, but the purpose remains. There's hardly anything more exciting to me than hearing from someone who wants to change their own life, but who also has big dreams.
Some might say that knowing how the world really is, is depressing and de-motivating. Not for me! I know what change is possible when people work together; the trick is finding the right people to do the job and who want the same results. I always did like a challenge! Hope, combined with action and combined effort are the only way any of us will achieve success and fulfil our dreams.
I want more and better for more people and planet and I intend to build a team who feel the same. So what about you? What would you change if you had the economic power to do it?
I go into this subject in more depth in my blog and would really appreciate hearing others views on their aspirations beyond making money and having a successful business and how you intend to fulfill those ambitions.