The planet is broken. Business is over. What’s next?
Why human fulfilment is more important than the climate crisis, why entrepreneurship can’t save you and what I’m doing about it.
I care about human happiness. Actually, let’s call it human fulfilment. And when I say I care, I mean I really, really care about it. I’d go so far to say that, the lack of it is the most important issue in the world right now. Wait, not the Climate Crisis?! Not poverty?! Who are you, how dare you! I know, I’m an oddball but hear me out.
Lack of human fulfilment is at the root of the climate crisis.
Most of the solutions to environmental issues come down to: reduce your consumption. Reduce your lifestyle, reduce everything.
Great — and if you want to be healthy and fit, eat less cake. I don’t know about you, Superhuman, but for me, it’s not that easy.
When we look into why we are over consuming, it comes down to us seeking that nice, warm fuzzy feeling of fulfilment. For a very brief moment, we get it through the things we consume, the experiences we have, the lifestyles we lead.
And to be honest, I get it.
This life is quite the emotional rollercoaster and we are all doing the best we can. Sometimes that best is buying yet another ASOS dress, for yet another wedding, that isn’t yours, just to show the world and your ex-boyfriend who is going to be there with his new model girlfriend, that you’re doing just fine.
A sustainable solution to climate change needs to address why we are over consuming in the first place.
I’m aware that for someone desperate for some water to survive the next few days, the Climate Crisis can feel like the Oat Milk Flat White of world crises. So I’ll be the first to admit that human fulfilment is the caviar, when we are talking about urgent human needs.
Urgent problems demand fast and practical solutions. But through my work, I’ve seen first hand that we are actually pretty good at this. Organisations like Humanitarian Grand Challenge and the World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator, back exceptional humans that are building very practical solutions to urgent problems.
My issue is that the stories continue to repeat themselves throughout human history. And if the current global political situation is anything to go by, we are a long way off innovating our way out of hate and ruthless power struggles.
Human fulfilment isn’t the most urgent world problem, but it is the most important.
If we trace back to the root cause of most humanitarian disasters, you will find some {insert past perpetrator here} that so badly wanted to feel worthy, to be powerful, to be recognised and patted on the back for being a good little boy by his parents, that he decided that killing millions of people or stealing and selling human beings was the fastest and easiest way to get there.
Humans act seemingly irrationally and can do some sh*t to make you lose faith in humanity. But when you step out of your feelings and dig into why they do what they do, it all comes back to some basic human need. The need to be accepted. The desire to be loved. The need to feel freedom. The fear of scarce resources, that your brain has convinced you will result in your death.
We all have the same needs. Our desperateness to fulfil them just varies based on a our degree of lack. As per the old adage: hurt[ing] people, hurt people. In the fight to get to the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy, we’re knocking others off of it entirely.
In our “western” existence, where we consume to meet our short-term needs, we aim to sustain them by what we produce — through our work.
Much like our romantic relationships, our work now has the immense pressure of fulfilling all our needs, not only our monetary ones. We now expect financial security, purpose, freedom, connection, growth and impact.
No wonder companies are struggling to attract and keep people, it’s a lot to ask. And when our jobs fail to meet our ever-increasing demands, we give up on them completely.
Entrepreneur is the new cool.
Perhaps it’s because of the work I do, but I’ve had an increasing number of people “come out” to me about their secret ambitions to start a business.
To understand whether this was the sounds of my echo chamber or something bigger at play, I looked into the data. It turns out, in the UK, 64% of people have a desire to start a business i.e. the majority of the UK population. This is not an echo chamber at all, it’s a cultural shift. The majority of us are turning to entrepreneurship to fulfil the humans needs that employment has failed to.
SPOILER ALERT: Entrepreneurship can’t do it either.
I’m not one for bubble bursting but starting a business might not give you what you need either.
Despite its pretty packaging, entrepreneurship as a solution to your fulfilment is flawed. Here’s why:
It’s not about you.
This separate identity called your business, product or service is nothing to do with you. None of what supports and sustains your business cares about your personal fulfilment. So unless you fight for it, your business will not hand it to you on a silver platter.
It’s not widely available.
For the single mother responsible for young 3 kids, the risk associated with quitting your job to start a business can be seen as almost inhumane. Or the person who grew up with financial troubles may not feel confident to give up the stability of income to take that kind of risk on themselves. It’s reserved for a very specific type of person with a type of lifestyle, background, support system etc to even consider it.
It has an appalling success rate.
50% of new businesses fail within the first 5 years, rising to 66% in the first 10 years. It’s even worse in Technology, where 70% of tech startups fail within the first 20 months. So wait, you’re telling me the majority of the UK population want to jump on a ship that has a 66% chance of sinking?
Not to mention that turning to entrepreneurship for financial stability is like seeking refuge from a hurricane under a leaf. And if freedom from having a boss is your motive, think again. If it’s not ‘micro-managing’ Mike, it will be ‘can-never-be-happy’ customer. Better yet, ‘step-up-your-game-or-I’ll-oust-you-from-your-own-company’ shareholder.
Work out what the question is before entrepreneurship is the answer.
I didn’t get into business because I hated employment. I didn’t hate having bosses or the idea of structured working.
Right before I started working for myself, I actually had the best job of my career. I was intellectually stimulated most days and loved the people I worked with. It was like getting paid to do cool work with your mates.
So why did I leave?
I didn’t feel like the work we were doing mattered enough. I was looking for purpose and impact through my work. Although the company did a bit by way of giving, it wasn’t the kind of impact that resonated with me.
I wanted to put my brain to work on some of the problems that were affecting humanity more broadly, not a few rich CXOs. Specifically, I wanted to use my skills for the betterment of humanity.
So what if we also worked on solving urgent human problems, would I have stuck around? Highly likely. There probably is a company out there that does all this but I don’t know it exists. If I found it, would I still want to be an entrepreneur? I can’t be so sure.
At the time, I had no idea what I was really asking for but, blindly so, entrepreneurship was the answer.
Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t want to be an entrepreneur, because that could truly be the best path for you. But to be open to all options based on how well they actually meet your needs, will no doubt lead to the best outcome.
That’s my mission behind The Alt Culture. In this society where what we do is inextricably connected to our personal desires, it’s about time we make work, work for us and not the other way around. The Alt Culture is about rethinking the future of work, by putting humans and our human needs at the centre of it.
The approach is two-fold.
First, unpack exactly what it is you are seeking through your work.
Then, guide you through an unbiased, truly exhaustive view of the options available to you. I’m working on a model to do both. Something accessible, unconventional but above all personal.
Let’s end work schizophrenia — for once and for all.
Employment, freelancing or starting a business are rather rigid solutions to the same desires. As are the titles: marketeer, designer, strategist, lawyer. Things are changing . We need to scrap the boundaries of these mutually exclusive solutions . We need to support portfolio careers, suitable for the polymath in us all.
Let’s consider the skills and interests we cultivate inside and outside of work, while building unconventional and iterative careers. Let’s accept the blurred lines that an entrepreneurial lifestyle creates between our personal and professional lives. Let’s find and create spaces where we can be seen and accepted for exactly who we are. And let’s be rid of the schizophrenic demands of our “work self” and our “real self”.
I’ve purposefully avoided talking about Artificial Intelligence and the dwindling future it promises us, in terms of our work. All I will say is that my outlook is positive. Creating a sense of agency and human-centred workplaces will no doubt put us in a strong position.
Now here’s where you come in.
This mission is huge but my vision is clear.
More fulfilled people, with fuller cups, will create greater capacity to tackle our worlds most urgent problems — our short-term fix.
We all know how hard it is to help another when we are barely staying afloat ourselves.
Better yet, I’m certain that finding a sense of belonging and fulfilment in our day-to-day will stop us hurting the planet and the people on it — our long-term fix
Here’s my ask from you:
If any of this letter resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you. Even if you don’t know exactly what you want from this, that’s ok too — grey is good. But to help you out, here are some ways you can get involved:
“Yeah sure, it’s interesting.”
Hit the *clap* and click one of the social media links below to help spread the word.
“Yeah, I really like this sound of this.”
Drop your email here and I promise to keep you in the loop as things progress.
“You’ve got my attention but I have some questions”:
Connect with me directly on Email: zaisha@thealtculture.com or on LinkedIn: Zaisha Smith
“You’ve just pulled on my heart strings, get me involved now.”
Great! I’ve already started working on a solution so I’d love to talk to you about it and learn more about you.
Specifically I’m looking to connect with people with these expertise: Tech — esp. big data/NLP, Human Resources, Psychology/Human Behaviour, Future of Work, Investment. If this is you, feel free to book in a call here. If you don’t fall under these areas, but are passionate and believe you have something to bring to the table, book in a call too, I’d love to chat.
