Why I Do What I Do

by Jerri Chou

I do what I do because I see two simultaneous future realities: one where we destroy ourselves, and one of immense progress and possibility.

It’s challenging to battle the negative. To know that climate change has probably tipped past the point of no return. That our cities will likely have to move in the next 50 years due to flooding, demanding psychological shifts and hopefully less loss of life than necessary. A world where wars will break out over shifting agricultural resources with farmers failing as the crops they’ve known their whole lives, where there is no such thing as sushi because we have completely fished the sea dry. Where jobs as we know them are gone with a disparity of wealth and civil unrest.

But I’m an optimist, and mirrored in this scenario is the potential for the positive reflection. A world in which we create the technological innovations that will pull us out of increasing climate temperature, and the techniques that will provide alternatives for farmers and resources like water. Where we understand our impermanence and where engineering and ingenuity help people and cities adapt, potentially even becoming more mobile. A world in which we have an economic system and economy that allows creativity and services to flourish.

These are two very different worlds of which I feel the delicate balance. I wake up every day pushing toward the later as hard yet as gracefully as humanly possible.

Because in my mind, I see the possibility in every person I meet, and because there is no other alternative. Once we all wake up is when we will see ourselves in the dream.

Jerri Chou believes we created this world and we can create a better one. Named one of FastCompany’s Most Creative People in Business, she develops progressive branding and marketing campaigns, social engagement programs, and product innovation — not to mention the occasional early morning dance party — creating a new standard for “business as usual.” Jerri is Founder of The Feast.