It's Time For an Upgrade

A new prospect  very candidly asked me:

”I’m struggling with the idea that I should tell people about my philanthropy.  I don’t want people to buy my product because I’m doing good work- that feels manipulative. Can you help me change my perspective?"

This question is way more common than people think, and always reminds me of Dan Pallotta’s talk, The way we think about charity is dead wrong,  in which he observes:: 

“We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make very much money helping other people. Interestingly, we don't have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money not helping other people.”

He goes on:

“You know, you want to make 50 million dollars selling violent video games to kids, go for it. We'll put you on the cover of Wired magazine. But you want to make half a million dollars trying to cure kids of malaria, and you're considered a parasite yourself.”

The idea that businesses can only make profit comes from a business theory created in the 1970’s. (You can learn more about that on my podcast, here).

• Adding social impact into your product or services -> INCREASES PERCEIVED VALUE

• Providing employees with meaningful work -> INCREASES INNOVATION 

• Being a responsible corporate citizen-> INCREASES ACCESS TO RELIABLE INFRASTRUCTURE.

Most of us aren’t relying on technology from the 70’s, So why are we hanging onto old theories that don’t serve us anymore?