Why I left my well-paid job, what I’ve learned, and why we are in big trouble …

… if business is not boldly stepping up to help solve the world’s most difficult problems!

If you are one of the growing number of people seriously concerned about the state of the world, the role of business, and your own role in it, I know how you feel. 

After an intense 20 years in financial services, I saw an urgent need to upgrade my own operating system and gain new perspectives on change, innovation and the state of the world. My career had lost purpose, and the definition of success and progress as defined by my surroundings increasingly did not match with my own. Consequently, as some of you know, I dived right into a self-directed and equally inspiring and challenging learning journey.

Here are my key takeaways

1. The next decade will show whether the world can come together as one and resolve an ever-growing number of severe challenges in a sustainable way. The one system uniquely positioned to facilitate rapid change is the world of business. In fact, it’s the most potent and powerful tool available to humanity today. If we finally get serious about using it!
2. Sustainable and regenerative economic frameworks and respective business models will be at the core of the „next normal“. The question is not „if“, but „when“ and „how“. Business leaders and all of us need to answer for ourselves: Will I be part of shaping the future or will I be left behind? 
3. “Knowing” about the profound and interlocking crises we face and allowing it to fully sink in are two very different things. It’s pretty impossible to get there without stepping back and shifting perspective. Therefore, the common default mode of restless action and running even faster is not a promising path to a sustainable economy.
4. Apart from destroying the planet’s ability to sustain life as we know it, the prospects of unsupervised exponential tech and overpowered AI, are daunting. So is the fact that the dominant reality of economics and finance, unfortunately, forms much of the root cause. 
5. A wealth of new frameworks and promising pathways that aim to establish a more balanced economic model and reality already exist. Many people are very actively engaged in what seems like a parallel universe pretty much ignored by the mainstream and mainstream media. 
6. As a result, truly progressive leadership continues to happen mainly at the edges. Center stage is primarily occupied with preserving the status quo and half-heartedly adding a “sustainability” label to the business model while the clock is ticking. This needs to change!

From niche to landscape!

Right there was the answer to the question why I had started a journey filled with so many uncertainties in the first place. I decided to dedicate the next phase of my life to contribute to making business part of the solution to 21st century challenges. To support business leaders make the shift from reactive to future-proof, and become champions of successfully innovating for the long-term considering the whole – while regaining a deep sense of purpose by aligning personal values with outer actions. 

And yes, it requires courage and a substantial shift. The will to adjust business models, markets and industries, reflect on the mental models we favor, the beliefs we have, and to substantially upgrading our own thought-ware. No one has said that it will be easy, but boldly stepping into the field of possibility (and admittedly uncertainty) may well be far more rewarding than holding on to something that is in the process of dying.