Barack Obama´s 2012 State of the Union Address
If we remember Barack Obama´s 2012 State of the Union Address, we can see that the most of proposed changes are related to invest and create an overcoming team identity between their fellow citizens. I think that spirit is also a real need in our business and a key to make sustainable our current quality of life. He spoke of his military troops as an example in this sense: THEY WORK TOGETHER. This is the first thing we can learn about the new age we are living. The important thing now is not only you but us. Make teams, live teams, believe in teams. I think Obama is not financially a good regenerative role player, but their commitment to join and add value to the identity of his people is admirable. He always spoke from his people for his people. I do not approve many policies he carried out but their role is critical to embrace change in the structures of labor and human relations in the world. He spoke from the concrete, wth a bottom up vision. He knew the power of teams because he executed a team play strategy throughout his life. He defended in his speech retraining skills actions but also spoke in order to retrieve social and human values. In Spain we are not blessed with a visionary and openmind administration since 17 years. No president has looked into the eyes of ordinary citizens invited to the parliament. Is a real fortune and every northamerican can be proud of this, believe me from the distance. If we look at all of state of the union addresses in the last 3 years with his administration, we can see the relevance of the word PEOPLE as an article in Huffington Post said. Let me talk deeper about why this team-play, people-centered and collaborative behaviour is key for our inmediate future beyond the obvious.
There is a notable difference between men who believe in what they say and men who do what they believe. The first can change the world, the second can change themselves. And I admire these seconds. Thomas Edward Lawrence, one of my most admired legends, wrote ever in his work Seven pillars of wisdom this magnificent quote: “We lived and died a day” He was talking about the hard life in the desert but I think that´s all we can do as heroes in our lives.
I recently opened an online platform for talent that meets thousand of my friends in four different countries. I´m talking about extraordinary people who do what they believe. We all need similar places across the globe glocally (thinking globally, acting locally) I called my dream vorpalina initiative and is plentiful with incontable dreams of others. The idea is to add rather than divide efforts. We have a Hospital for enterprises where you teams are rehabilitated and a network of enterpreneurial households where you can live during your stay in exchange for assisting in the living room of these houses to one of our Breakfast at Tiffany´s. Local entrepreneurs attend these breakfasts to give and receive ideas and projects. We call it Breakfast at Tiffany´s because all the people who come are precious stones individually and after this, together. These initiatives are real and talk about people, not the debt of a country or global macroeconomics. They change lives and generate medium or short term revenues providing real value to the attendees because in these informal and personal meetings nobody talks about innovation, rather we talk about transformation.
In the new catalog of the initiative -that is visible through the web- we don´t sell abstract or impersonal things. We know there is a large collection of consultants who do these things with boring and bureaucratic procedures for a very high cost. What you pay is the brand and the reputation of that brand. But think about it carefully because now you don´t have money or resources. The smartest bid is always people. Is a sum of attitude, knowledge and skills. Currently nobody work more than 5 years at a company on average so the selling security and reputation is little more than smoke in the service of a historical prejudgement. For the last ten years I’ve been wrking on horrible and fantastic teams and the brand was indifferent, the differential advantage were always the people: the leader, the facilitator, the executor, the whole team together. So in a world where the top rated companies fall down over and over again, where is the real value but is in the people themselves?
You can trust in large companies, precious numbers in an excel sheet or can retrieve the value of talking to people, away from all that artificial universe we have created to feel safer. Because the reality is that we are not safe right now and that means something didn´t not work. In the top of our initiative we put this famous sentence of Albert Einstein that said: “Insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results”.
So we are convinced that we need to work differently respecting the individual worth of each person and providing projection and development in multidisciplinary teams. So we combine, mix and play with this informal movement. We don´t need planning much or at all because we defend start living, mistaking and learning by doind. So stop benefits plannings and start making profits every day in your environment. We can help you because a thousand of extraordinary people is more productive and creative than a thousand employees hired under a corporate brand that will drown themselves. We co-create with you a new reality and offer the help of extraordinary people who embrace real change because we assume that each person can maintain their independence and autonomy always with a commitment to change and sharing some basic values and goals. The procedure is as follows: the initiative receives a challenge and call to the family of superheroes to solve it. in an original, personalized and agile way. This kind of strange attractors and challenges can change up your economy and reverse the crisis. I believe this with all my strength and I am betting my life on it. During this year I´m visiting more than 7 countries in America, Europe and Asia to improve and streng this movement.
You can be part of vorpalina initiative without travelling or assume heavy liabilities, only by your commitment and sharing your value with others. Very simple, very direct, so real… So I can use the words of Obama´s team to explain our WHY:
“No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we’re joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.“
