Episode 40

craving water

If we all discount our own power, then we forget that if we all act together, things can change. It is now on us to alter ourselves to recognize the interdependent web that we are a part of, engaging with all of those people to ask the question: what are we going to do? How are we going to be different? Who do we know who can make an even bigger difference? How can we collectively make a bigger difference? This is all about using your power, my power, our power- for good.

Recorded September 19, 2022.

Transcript
Leela Sinha:

I am craving rain. and Puerto Rico and Pakistan are

Leela Sinha:

drowning. There's something wrong here. And it's not just

Leela Sinha:

the climate, although the climate cannot be discounted.

Leela Sinha:

But the problem is more than that more than the imbalance, it

Leela Sinha:

is the utter disregard for the collective awareness of our

Leela Sinha:

collective existence. We cannot not be aware, that is not

Leela Sinha:

possible our human brains don't do that. We can, however, choose

Leela Sinha:

not to engage, not to interact, not to be part of that

Leela Sinha:

awareness. Not to allow that awareness to creep into the

Leela Sinha:

backs of our brains not to allow that awareness to keep us awake

Leela Sinha:

at night not to allow that awareness to affect our

Leela Sinha:

investing choices, our business choices, our building choices,

Leela Sinha:

we can't allow that. And it seems that people are, it seems

Leela Sinha:

that people do it seems that we might have a problem. Because

Leela Sinha:

people are doing that a lot. People are making space for

Leela Sinha:

themselves at the expense of others an awful lot. There's

Leela Sinha:

this rush of investment in Puerto Rico right now. People

Leela Sinha:

want to invest, but they don't want to invest in like giving

Leela Sinha:

Puerto Rico an independent, but government run infrastructure

Leela Sinha:

for their electrical grid, so it won't all go down at once.

Leela Sinha:

Instead, what they want to do is snap up land or property at a

Leela Sinha:

low price, so that then when Puerto Rico is rebuilt, they own

Leela Sinha:

wealth, at the expense of the people who have lived there this

Leela Sinha:

whole time. That's not good business practice that's not

Leela Sinha:

using your power for good. It puts a foul taste in my mouth.

Leela Sinha:

It disgusts me. And I wish it disgusted more people than that.

Leela Sinha:

Puerto Rico and Pakistan are drowning. And it's going to take

Leela Sinha:

months if not years, to bring them back even to the state that

Leela Sinha:

they were in before the flooding started. And we know that we are

Leela Sinha:

entering an era of more flood and more drought at the same

Leela Sinha:

time. I myself sat in my comfortable home and watched

Leela Sinha:

thick rain clouds whiz right by. Microclimates are a blessing.

Leela Sinha:

Sometimes microclimates are a curse, we need the rain, we need

Leela Sinha:

the water, we need the thing that connects us all. That

Leela Sinha:

center, that base of life, we need it. But we do not need it

Leela Sinha:

in the ways that it drowns places, we do not need it in a

Leela Sinha:

way that it impacts poor and marginalized areas more than

Leela Sinha:

wealthy areas. We do not need the thing that it does, where it

Leela Sinha:

augments the imbalance of power. And the only people who can

Leela Sinha:

change how that works are the people who have power. Now most

Leela Sinha:

of the people that I know who own businesses own tiny

Leela Sinha:

businesses own small businesses, and apparently, we are in the

Leela Sinha:

majority. The vast majority of businesses have very few

Leela Sinha:

employees. Have very few contractors, are mostly a

Leela Sinha:

bootstrap, and a shoestring and an idea and a passion. But if we

Leela Sinha:

all discount our own power, then we forget that if we all act

Leela Sinha:

together, things can change.

Leela Sinha:

We can change how the world is as these tiny little pieces of

Leela Sinha:

the world. I am not the first person to point this out. But

Leela Sinha:

one mosquito in your bedroom at night can ruin an entire eight

Leela Sinha:

hours of sleep. It doesn't take much. But it does take engaging.

Leela Sinha:

We have to engage. We have to engage and engaging at that

Leela Sinha:

level begins with engaging with our people. It begins with

Leela Sinha:

engaging with each other. It begins with having these

Leela Sinha:

conversations out loud as though they are normal because if they

Leela Sinha:

are not yet they need to be. It begins with engaging with the

Leela Sinha:

people over whom we have the most direct influence. Some of

Leela Sinha:

those people are our contractors and our employees. Some of those

Leela Sinha:

people are our customers. Some of those people are our

Leela Sinha:

families. Some of those people are our neighbors, all of those

Leela Sinha:

people engaging with all of those people to ask the

Leela Sinha:

question, what are we going to do? How are we going to be

Leela Sinha:

different? Who do we know who can make an even bigger

Leela Sinha:

difference? How can we collectively make a bigger

Leela Sinha:

difference? Because the thing that's keeping me up at night is

Leela Sinha:

the way that everything feels like it's sliding downhill at

Leela Sinha:

once. Mudslides are also the effect of water. Where I come

Leela Sinha:

from in New England, we have fewer of those because

Leela Sinha:

underneath the mud, underneath the pile of dirt, is rock. And

Leela Sinha:

rock requires a different timescale to be altered by

Leela Sinha:

water. But here in this part of the West Coast. The hills are

Leela Sinha:

just piles of dirt, there's nothing under them. There's no

Leela Sinha:

structure, there's nothing keeping them there. They're like

Leela Sinha:

slightly damp sand dunes. And a lot of water can send them

Leela Sinha:

sliding off, reconfiguring, rearranging. That's fine. That

Leela Sinha:

is the world we live in that is this terrain. That is the living

Leela Sinha:

landscape. And also, and also, how are we going to live in

Leela Sinha:

concert with this living landscape that we have partially

Leela Sinha:

made? How are we going to be leaders in that change? Instead

Leela Sinha:

of taking it as a dominion that we are supposed to alter? It is

Leela Sinha:

now on us to alter ourselves to recognize the interdependent web

Leela Sinha:

that we are a part of. And to engage with that web in a

Leela Sinha:

sustainable way. Sustainable for all of us. I'm not saying we

Leela Sinha:

should sacrifice massive numbers of human lives just because the

Leela Sinha:

way that we're living now doesn't work. But what are we

Leela Sinha:

going to do? What are we going to do? We have to begin by

Leela Sinha:

recognizing that as a leader of a business, we influence all of

Leela Sinha:

the lives of the people who work with and for us, who buy our

Leela Sinha:

product or our services. And figure out how to make that even

Leela Sinha:

more humane even more just.

Leela Sinha:

I saw a TkTok

Leela Sinha:

Yes, I'm on TikTok, and no, I don't make videos, I just watch.

Leela Sinha:

I saw a TikTok about an autistic-friendly city that was

Leela Sinha:

being kind of crowd imagined by this person and all of their

Leela Sinha:

followers. And the person just rattled off a list of features.

Leela Sinha:

And by the end, both I and one of my partners, were crying. To

Leela Sinha:

imagine living in a city with that kind of environment with

Leela Sinha:

that kind of culture with that kind of support. We can imagine

Leela Sinha:

what could be better than what we are doing now imagine first

Leela Sinha:

and then work backwards to how we're going to do it. That's our

Leela Sinha:

strength as intensives. And that's our strength as founders.

Leela Sinha:

We know how to start with a vision and work backwards to the

Leela Sinha:

mechanics instead of starting with what we already know and

Leela Sinha:

believe and think is possible and working forward to what we

Leela Sinha:

think we can do from here. That old way just gets you breeding

Leela Sinha:

better horses the new way, gets you cars. Now, I know cars are

Leela Sinha:

not the fantastic 100% perfect thing that we all wish they

Leela Sinha:

were.

Leela Sinha:

But we have to

Leela Sinha:

imagine first. So we need to be imagining first, what kind of a

Leela Sinha:

work environment would be so good. What kind of a life would

Leela Sinha:

be so good, what kind of people would be so good, what kind of

Leela Sinha:

international relations would be so good that we would be

Leela Sinha:

delighted that we would be joyful that we would feel like

Leela Sinha:

we had all the extra mental and emotional capacity we needed to

Leela Sinha:

imagine something even even more delightful, even more caring,

Leela Sinha:

even more interconnected.

Leela Sinha:

What do we need to do

Leela Sinha:

you to take care of all the people on the planet? And how do

Leela Sinha:

we start with our own organizations, our own

Leela Sinha:

microcosms? California, California is moving towards

Leela Sinha:

socialized medicine. We keep expanding the state paid health

Leela Sinha:

care system, and involving inviting more people into it. I

Leela Sinha:

am so excited about this, not because I live in California,

Leela Sinha:

although also that, but because I want the places that I live to

Leela Sinha:

use the resources that we have. And this state has tremendous

Leela Sinha:

resources to model what is possible. We are so large, our

Leela Sinha:

economy is bigger than some countries' economies. We have

Leela Sinha:

the means and the tools and the structure to model what

Leela Sinha:

socialized medicine could look like in the United States. And

Leela Sinha:

so we're doing it. That's what I want each of our companies to do

Leela Sinha:

figure out what we can model what we can show off. Is it a

Leela Sinha:

four day work week? Is it better pay? Is it better working

Leela Sinha:

environment? Is it something even bigger? What can we do that

Leela Sinha:

will ripple outwards and show what is possible and

Leela Sinha:

collectively put pressure on larger organizations, companies

Leela Sinha:

and governments to

Leela Sinha:

behave differently so that nobody is drowning?

About the Podcast

Show artwork for PowerPivot
PowerPivot
...Where we talk about business, ethics, community- and the way it all fits together.

About your host

Profile picture for Leela Sinha

Leela Sinha