Yesterday was a travel day for me – I’m back in San Francisco after being home (sigh!) on beautiful eastern Long Island for two weeks. I have an Inspired Life book signing tonight in Berkeley, CA and one in Pleasanton, CA next week.
Whenever I have a flight across country I imagine that I will get loads of work done on the plane – but the truth is that more often than not I watch TV – and yesterday was no different. Initially the Food Network, Bravo and HGTV captured my attention. Then while I was channel surfing I saw that the Republican Presidential hopefuls were debating – and thought, “here is another form of reality TV,” so I watched for an hour.
What I saw and heard were accusations slung back and forth, one person after another saying that their plan was the best, although I wasn’t any clearer about their plan. People interrupted one another and I thought, for the most part, there was very little listening, not a lot of respect and alot of, “I’m right, they’re wrong.”
Then I remembered the Op-Ed column I read in The New York Times by Joe Nocera earlier in the day:
We Can All Become Job Creators
Howard Schultz. God bless him.
When last we left the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, in mid-August, he had written a widely publicized e-mail lamenting the poisonous state of our nation’s politics. That led him to his first big idea: a call for a boycott of political contributions until Democrats and Republicans began to act in a nonpartisan way for the good of the country.
The idea had undeniable appeal. But it was also – let’s face it – pretty quixotic, fun to dream about but impossible to turn into reality.
Here we are two months later, and Schultz is back with Big Idea No. 2. It is every bit as idealistic as his first big idea, but far more practical. Starbucks is going to create a mechanism that will allow us citizens to do what the government and banks won’t: lend money to small business. This mechanism is scheduled to be rolled out on Nov 1. This time Schultz is not tilting at windmills. (read more…)
While politicians point fingers, blame, and get lost in the old paradigm of who is right and who is wrong each one of us has the opportunity to be the change. As Occupy Wall Street has spread across the country and across the world I am reminded of Margaret Mead’s inspired and empowering words, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Beginning Nov 1, I’m going to give $5.00 or more when I go into Starbucks (and I don’t even drink coffee!). It just occurred to me, I’m a small business, maybe it’s the time for me to grow and hire more people to be part of my dream team.