Incremental Theory: Making a Difference

Since you asked…

Many people have asked me what do I think I am doing with my Blog…

I usually give them my favorite two word replies: I am making amends.

Then, after the blank looks, I feel duty bound to respond in detail.

I have spent most of my career doing things that can best be described as “making better” and “putting a happy face” on things for some of the top international companies…

What I am doing now I consider pay-back for the soul.

It took me a long time to realize that few of my clients were interested in the truth. What they were interested in was the proverbial “putting out fires” and making sure that their financial and customer bases kept the faith, all bottom line considerations. In corporate La-La land, everything is about profits—make no mistake about it; nothing about humanity, feelings, helping others. In fact, in many cases, such a predisposition would be diagnosed as a form of weakness to be cut out before it could spread and affect the thinking of others. In the end, virtually 98% of all corporations are just heartless, empty entities that suck up your labor and turn out profits and make you old before your time.…And that’s all they do—and all they are expected to do. That’s a far different cry than shouting out the truth…

Not having a great memory and one disinclined to rewrite history, I always tried my best to tell the truth through-out my career. And I’ve paid a price for that kind of independence. On more than one occasion, I’ve lost clients for being honest and frank. But my old homespun philosophy that has stood me in good stead all along is that if you are willing to trade what you stand for to reap profits, you can’t probably stand for very much… It has been my experience that people who do that are people who wind up with a center, without a core. And you have to ask yourself up front if anything in life is worth that. As a result, I managed to keep my integrity and pride but not always the top salary I was earning at the time…

Later, I vowed, I would never be persuaded to sacrifice the truth for a salary… and I don’t think I ever did. But when I had an opportunity to work in a field that allowed me to represent the best interests of people, I felt regenerated. It was cathartic. In many respects, it felt like I was being reborn. After selling everything under the sun for my clients, I was now unconstrained to tell it the way I saw it. And that’s what I’ve tried to do now for the last seven or eight years since I started increasing my involvement in the things that mattered to me most: good, honest politics, a health friendly environment, protection of the wilderness and species, honest business and human rights.

Sure, I’ve made lot’s of enemies along the way. But I expect that goes with the territory. You’d be surprised how many people want to suppress the truth; keep us in the dark! There is little profit in the truth, I’ve learned, for those who exist only to make profits!.... But I also learned that those who focus only on profits are usually those who are not too concerned about the truth in the first place. Many of them try to make my life miserable. They send me nasty letters; email me with threats! And do all the dastardly things the rich can do when they want to stay rich—usually at the people’s expense.

Usually, they call me “unpatriotic, a pinko liberal type…” This conversation usually ends when I ask them if they were so patriotic, when did they serve and where?

Silence usually follows…

So, I try not to get discouraged by small bore people. I try to maintain what is sometimes a lonely vigil, a vigil that not even my wife or family may understand, but I keep at it because I feel that in some small way I am doing something good…and that’s all the motivation I need.

In the larger scheme of things, it not add up to a hill of beans but all it takes is a kind word, a thank you, or just some movement in the right direction, to get me energized enough to keep at it….

Right now, I cannot help wonder where are all of those learned people—those prime movers who love to prognosticate on the future and usually stand so firmly on principle.
Where have they all gone? Have they given up? Discovered Vegas? Retired? Joined the other side? Or in hiding?

If ever the country needed people to stand tall, I feel it is now!


And it just isn’t happening…

My only hope is that every day and in every way, we can win over someone who will see the light—just one person per day would be enough…

I keep thinking that Rome wasn’t built in a day…And maybe America won’t be rebuilt in a day either…maybe it won’t even be rebuilt in three years either. But I hope I will be there when it happens making a difference in my small way!

Les aaron.