???? The School Of Life: How to Reform Capitalism (2017)

Wir könnten lernen, den Kapitalismus für unsere gute Sache in den Dienst zu stellen.

Gelesen: Mai 2019

Maslows Pyramide als Geschäftsmodell

• „Our most successful businesses are those that aim to satisfy our physical and simpler psychological selves: they operate in oil and gas, mining, construction, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, electronics, telecommunications, insurance, banking and light entertainment.“ (S. 52)
• „What’s surprising is how unambitious consumer capitalism has, until now, been about many of the things that deliver higher sorts of satisfaction.“ (S. 52)
• „This is the task ahead of us. The true destiny of, and millennial opportunity for, consumer capitalism, is to travel up the pyramid, to generate ever more of its profits from the satisfaction of the full range of ‚higher needs‘ […]“ (S. 52)
• vgl. Wolf Lotter: Kapitalismus ist ein Werkzeug.

Was uns Werbung verkauft

• „Adverts wouldn’t work if they didn’t operate with a very good understanding of what our real needs are; what we truly require to be happy. […] As they recognise, we are creatures who hunger for good family relationships, connections with others, a sense of freedom and joy, a promise of self-development, dignity, calm and the feeling that we are respected.“ (S. 61)

We need the drive of commerce!

• „Business needs to become more ambitious in the creation of new kinds of ,products’ […]“ (S. 62f)
• „We need the drive of commerce to get behind filling the world – and our lives – with goods that can really help us to thrive, flourish, find contentment and manage our relationships well.“ (S. 63)
• Vgl. VM: Mit Kapitalismus hat seine Vision am besten funktioniert umzusetzen.

Lifestyle Entrepreneure leisten Pionierarbeit

• „To trace the future shape of capitalism, we only have to think of all the needs we have that currently lie outside of commerce.“ (S. 63)
• „We have simply accepted, without adequate protest, that there is nothing could do to address them, when being able to structure businesses around these needs would be the commercial equivalent of the discovery of steam power or the invention of the electric light bulb.“ (S. 63ff)
• „We don’t know, today, quite what the businesses of the future will look like, just as half a century ago no one could describe the corporate essence of the current large technology companies.“ (S. 65)

Werbung ist nicht an und für sich schlecht

• „The very techniques that could be used to sell bullshit can also be deployed to sell wisdom and self-understanding.“ (S. 83)

The repetition of mediocrity

• „[…] the issue with brands isn’t really about repetition, but about the repetition of mediocrity.“ (S. 96)
• „Brands move the focus away from individuals towards the collective […].“ (S. 97)
• „The world is in sore need of better brands.“ (S. 101)
  • Auch meine Ideen sollten eine dieser „better brands“ werden: Ehrlicher, nützlicher, transparenter, herzlicher, menschlicher, hoffnungsfroher, didaktischer, empathischer, gerechter, schöner, besser.

Auch Kathedralen sind Monumente der Werbung

• „Chartres is selling as well: just at a more profound level.“ (S. 105)
• „The difference between Times Square and Chartres Cathedral isn’t to do with selling; it’s to do with ambition.“ (S. 105)

We need to learn to engage commercially

• „We don’t need to stop selling: we need to learn to engage commercially with our highest needs.“ (S. 107)
• Dieser letzte Satz bringt das ganze Buch auf den Punkt.