Virgin Unite

Tonight was very inspirational to me.  Richard spoke on a number of topics that are near and dear to his heart and there was a Q&A.

One of the cool questions Richard was asked in his Q&A tonight was “is there a single thing you can point to that has made you the person you are, and the way that you give back so much?”.    In his answer, he mentioned two things:

a)      When he was young, and he spoke meanly of someone, gossiped, etc. – his mother would send him directly to the mirror to look at himself…because what he was saying was a reflection of him – he said that really had an impact on him to always look for the positive in everyone – when you look for the positive in a person, that is usually what you find! 

b)      The second thing that he mentioned was that most of the businesses he went into, weren’t because he saw them as good business ventures – it was because he saw a lack of something, and aimed to fill that need.

I admire Richard quite a bit for all the things he is doing to make a difference in the world.  I’ve spoken with several people who know him here and they all say, that no one can keep up with him – he has relentless energy to make impacts in as many things as he can.   His passion for being a hyper change agent is truly inspiring to me!

Richard spoke about the other initiatives that Virgin Unite is working on – to me, they are important and they reason I applied for this conference.   What is in red below is from Virgin Unite website and then my comments follow.

Gaia Rocks is all about celebrating Mother Nature by working at the frontline to protect Earth’s fabulous – and fragile – ecosystems and species.   In ancient Greek mythology – the power that creates and sustains these natural systems is known as Gaia, the goddess or spirit of the earth. As scientist James Lovelock says: ‘My Gaia theory sees the Earth behaving as if it were alive, and clearly anything alive can enjoy good health, or suffer disease.’ He goes on to warn that today, climate specialists see the Earth as seriously ill – perhaps even on the verge of collapse.  The good news is that by working to protect, harness and value natural assets we have a chance to develop a new way of life that is more harmonious, productive and prosperous for all of humankind – now and in the generations that follow.

Richard spoke of all the different endangered species that have been brought or are protected by Necker Island:   Flamingos, lemurs, scarlet ibis, tortoises.  He talked about his trip to Madagascar and showed us a film his nephew made on it, which is what propelled him to protect so many endangered species.  It was shocking to see the devastation on Madagascar, where over 90% of the natural forests/species have been destroyed through development and corruption.  He is clearly passionate about making a difference by saving some of these species from potential extinction.  He glows when he is talking about having 3 new flamingo eggs, or hoping to see whether his female lemurs will be pregnant with new babies.  It is inspiring to see someone so committed to doing what needs to be done.  He is truly doing so many incredible things to help Mother Nature.   He talked about the shocking practices of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and leaving to die a painful death.  He has worked with different governments trying to educate and ban this horrible practice.   I love all animals and it was painful to hear of so much neglect, disregard and violence that is being done around the world.   I get to feed the lemurs tomorrow which everyone says is a magical experience.  How can we better encourage people to see the importance of our biodiversity and change our attitudes from one of just taking from Mother Earth, to one of being in harmony with her.

The Elders is an independent group of eminent global leaders working together for peace and human rights – was founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, with the support of Virgin Unite and other donors.  The group’s work is inspired by the role that elders play in traditional societies, where they are a source of advice, wisdom and experience. Working in areas such as Sudan, Cyprus, the Middle East and Zimbabwe, the Elders support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and offer hope where there is despair. The group also works on a number of global issues including gender equality and climate change.

One of the discussions this morning was around how can we change global leadership to one of long term vision, rather than short term inaction caused by fear of not being re-elected or thinking it can’t be fixed within their leadership term so why bother.  This idea of creating a group of Elders similar to what indigenous people did, was “brilliant” as all my UK friends here would say (need to say it with a British accent though for full effect J).    Virgin Unit has spent a lot of time contemplating how to help change global leadership and part of that was examining what are the characteristics of great global leaders.  Their findings were:

·         Ability to listen

·         Ability to be collaborative

·         Ability to learn from Mother Nature (systems mentality)

·         Insatiable curiosity

·         Deep moral courage (how do we care for each other)

What tremendous wisdom this group of men and women have for us – wouldn’t it be great if we had groups of “Elders” around for everyone to learn great wisdom from.

The Carbon War Room was set up with a vision to mobilize capital, innovation, expertise and international collaboration in order to build new business models to tackle carbon emissions and deliver profit.  The goal for all of us is to build a sustainable future. As former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres says… “There is no Planet B.”

In addition to the Virgin Unite people, there are some very passionate people here on Necker on this topic.  Henk Rodgers, very successful gaming entrepreneur (has right to Tetris, kick started gaming industry in Japan with Black Onyx) has a mission to eliminate carbon based fuel on the planet.   As he jokes with me…he is trying to put me out of a job.  Vladas Lasas is a powerful force in Lithuania (Richard jokes that he actually is running Lithuania) and has been a catalyst in TED, and has helped make significant inroads of electric cars in his country.    The oil and gas industry needs leaders to step up and also help catalyze more positive changes in sustainability and better honoring Mother Earth whom we seek to profit from.

The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship supports budding young entrepreneurs, giving them the skills, opportunities and inspiration they need to launch and grow their businesses. Their program is designed to help businesses develop and, in turn, create jobs and stimulate the local economy

Over and over today in the discussions and in the homework that I did prior to the conference, was the theme that raising the standard of living makes substantive headway into so many of our global problems.  This is another much needed support for those that need only some capability and confidence to make their own difference in the world.  It is a great example of the power of teaching people to fish, rather than fishing for them.  One of the cool ideas I read in the homework was Kiva – a marvelous idea of microfinancing that anyone can do for developing countries.  I highly encourage you to go on their website and see how many different entrepreneurial projects there are to support with your contributions and the difference your support can make to changing not just individual’s lives, but the lives of their communities when they change the way they are participating and creating a new future for themselves.