Anyways, I was eating lunch and reading the New York Times today and I was struck by something I read in the obituary section, of all places... Here is the link:
From the brief obit, it really seemed like this guy figured it out before he moved on to wherever people move on to. A guy who started a huge corporation and became extremely wealthy in the process, Anderson had an epiphany later in life after reading 'The Ecology of Commerce' by Paul Hawken. After that, his whole mindset changed from typical corporate greed to something a lot more environmentally friendly. He became an ambassador to the big corporate industry about increasing environmental awareness. Some quotes from the article that I particularly enjoyed:
In his speeches, Mr. Anderson credited that book, “The Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawken, with changing his perspective. He described reading it as a “spear in the chest experience.”
“I read on and was dumbfounded by how much I did not know about the environment, and the impacts of the industrial system on the environment — the industrial system of which I and my ‘successful’ company were an integral part,” he said in a 2005 speech.
“A new definition of success burst into my consciousness, and the latent sense of legacy asserted itself. I got it. I was a plunderer of Earth, and that is not the legacy one wants to leave behind. I wept.”
and this one at the close, loved it...
In one of his first speeches after reading Mr. Hawken’s book, Mr. Anderson told an audience of business executives: “We are all part of the continuum of humanity and life. We will have lived our brief span and either helped or hurt that continuum and the earth that sustains all life. It’s that simple. Which will it be?”
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