We are here to save the world!
Today’s confession is a bit different and I think you’re going to like it. = )
It all began Wednesday morning (October 29th) around 9:00am in Building V at the SAS World Headquarters. As I walked in the building the air felt charged…charged with opportunity. The event I was charged about was hosted by SAS as part of Tim Sanders’ tour promoting his new book, Saving the World At Work.
I realized that the old adage is true, “the early bird gets the worm” or in this case the early bird gets the Tim Sanders.
Within minutes I had met Beverly Brown, who has worked on SAS’s PR for 14 years. Soon we were deep in conversation about crazy PR stunts, social media marketing, futurist visioneering, and must read books.
Naturally, I shared my College Hunks Hauling Junk affiliation with Beverly and told her how we haul away non-hazardous unwanted items from anywhere on the property and load them into our truck for people.
But you’re not going to believe what I found out about SAS’s CEO Jim Goodnight…It turns out he used to haul his OWN junk with an old school Buick that had a truck “bed” in the back. Sounds like I need to interview Mr. Goodnight and learn how its done old school style.
As I’m contemplating all this, I cross paths with the Lovecat himself Tim Sanders. Tim and I were talking about one of his earlier books Love Is The Killer App which has been acclaimed by brilliant marketing minds like Tom Peters and Seth Godin.
As Tim and I excitedly spoke, Gary Davis author of Networking in the South, filmed our exchange about 20 minutes before his introduction of Tim Sanders.
Spellbound by 60 minutes of magic
What happened next can only be summarized as hypnotic, magical and inspiring. I’ve never been so spell bound by a speaker before.
“Do you realize the party is over? Yes, the party is over”, Tim began. By creating an image of a party bus symbolizing the greed, pillaging, taking, and wasting by many corporations Tim got us to visualize a moving party that was now coming to an end.
The people who want to make a profit at any cost are no longer valued
Tim described the old paradigm bluntly as “intergenerational tyranny” that is “stealing from the future generations.” Tim emphasized that people are just not willing to foot the bill any longer from the excesses of old paradigm corporations. People will not stand for externalized costs of take waste corporations burdening federal, state and community budgets.
The reconstruction of a new “Leave Grow” paradigm
The good news is that the THEM generation are composed of people asking, “well, what about them?” Them meaning everyone else affected by our actions. Tim mentioned a group of people who believe in Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) and how they are thinking differently about our involvement in the world. (Such as crazed marketing hunks with too much creativity…yeah…= )
3 Simple Ways to Save the World
(1) Learn interdependence – Tim cited the example of how Hurricane Katrina made New Orleans’ problem everyones’ problem. He encourages us to think how our actions can affect the whole world.
For example, companies rely on talent to keep them running. If there’s no talent, the companies can’t function. Be conscious of who you share your talent with and it will make a massive difference.
(2) Take care of your body – Interestingly enough Tim mentioned how when people take care of their bodies, they take care of the planet. (Maybe if we went back to living off the land we’d notice that food actually doesn’t resemble boxes, cans or packages.)
(3) Treat saving the world as a serious project – Make an effort everyday to pay attention to the little things you can do that add up. Read on to reduce your impact…
4 ways to reduce your environmental impact
- Think before you print. “1 page is printed every six minutes.” – Tim Sanders
- Reuse old paper. Tim keeps a stack of used printer paper and uses the other side when printing is needed.
- Use thumb drives. Tim cited a study where the data stored in one 2 GB thumb drive saved a financial company $1600 in printing costs
- Unplug things. Electronics continuously “phantom drain” your power, even if they are turned off
Here’s my confession for the day: I am officially committed to saving the world at work, home and every where else I am. I’m honored to join the ranks of Tim Sanders and SAS as true Super Heros who gain more power by doing more good.
Welcome to the rise of Conscious Capitalism!
Thanks for reading!
Aaron Mangal
Director of Marketing, College Hunks Hauling Junk
