Uncle Ben Was Right

              Many people attribute the quote “with great power comes great responsibility” to Spiderman, but it comes from his uncle, Uncle Ben.  Some people credit this quote to the French author Voltaire, and this site references a similar quote in the 1793 French National Convention.  Regardless of the origin of the quote, it rings true.  

               This week I was really able to feel this as I listened to a lecture by Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org.  He spoke of how there are entrepreneurs today that are very different from the ones that were around when he was young.  He says today there are men and women who make lot of money while they are very young, and while they are still very young they turn and dedicate themselves to helping solve the world’s problems.  He personally helped in the effort to eliminate smallpox, and he says that the same joint effort of capable people will solve today’s problems whether they be disease, hunger, or poverty.

               An article from the Harvard Business Review in December of 2002 by Charles Handy entitled Whats a Business For? discusses the need for business to solve the world’s problems in a slightly different way. He claims that scandals and dishonesty in the business world threaten to destroy the very capitalism upon which the businesses are built. People trust big businesses less and less all the time, and stock-market driven businesses and executives are always seeking for the quick profit, often sacrificing long-term growth potential. Handy claims that one way to solve this is to remove the dictatorships and oligarchies from business in favor of a more democratic method.  Offering people a salary isn’t enough in a world of ideas and patents.  If businesses switched to offering more percentage of profit-based incomes rather than fixed annual salaries, Handy implies that world conditions would improve.

               As each of us in our own right become rising stars, we need to consider what is our business for?  How will we use our influence?  How do we want to be remembered?  Handy encourages business to create cultures and not just profits, but what culture do we want to create in our businesses, and in turn, what kind of culture do we want in our world?  You want to know why these questions are important?  It’s because Uncle Ben was right.