Jean-Philippe Courtois: According to the author David Brooks, most changemakers lives follow a two mountain shape. You get out of school, start a career, and begin climbing the mountain you think you are meant to climb, to be a success, to make your mark. To experience personal happiness. But guess what? When you get to the top of that mountain, something happens. You look around and you realize this is not your mountain after all. When we come to the realization, we start on a new journey two worlds or second mountain victory for social justice and protecting the environment. These days, this generation doesn't want to wait to get to their first mountain. Eager to start their second mountain ascent right away. I sit in so many of my guests on a podcast like Boyan Slat was only 14 years old when he had his wake up moment scuba diving in Greece.
Boyan Slat: And I was hoping to see all these beautiful things under water. And instead I looked around me and saw more plastic bags and fish. Yeah, it was quite disappointed by that. But rather than sitting around and feeling sad about it, it my engineering mind just quickly went to, okay, so how do we solve this? Right? How do we how do we fix this?
Jean-Philippe Courtois: Today Boyen's, the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization developing scaling technologies to read the world's oceans of plastic.
Boyan Slat: Having an idea and then seeing that become reality. There's no better feeling in the world than that.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: I have had the privilege of speaking to some of the world's most inspiring leaders on the podcast, who have climbed theire second mountain. So, how can you do it?
Cheryl Dorsey: First, you need to grow your social and environmental consciousness.
Learn more about the issues and challenges that affect your local and global community. Read books, articles, blogs, podcasts, documentaries on topics like climate change, biodiversity, pollution, or social justice
Cheryl Dorsey: As I became more exposed to the world, I became really fascinated by a fundamental question that I think a lot of African Americans ask why don't people like me matter?
Jean-Philippe Courtois: Cheryl Dorsey's commitment to social justice started back in the early 90s, after she read an article in local paper that looked at the rate that black babies were dying in inner city Boston relative to their white counterparts.
Cheryl Dorsey: And the rate was a 3 to 1 disparity.
Cheryl Dorsey: 3 to 1 Jean-Philippe. And that seemed unconscionable to me.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: Seeing the issue as her problem gave Cheryl a clarity of purpose. A trainee doctor at a time she set at up a mobile health unit serving the community. When we find our purpose and live with it, we can make a difference for those around us and change the world for the better.
Cheryl Dorsey: What is that thing? You will bleed for? The hill you will die on? And for me, it was looking at women who could have been my sister, my cousin, my best friend, and thinking of what might it mean to have to bury your baby? I couldn't turn away from it.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: Take responsibility for your actions. Find out how much you consume, waste and emit. And by the way, corporations can and should do the same.
Vincent Stanley: You have to understand what your impacts are, and those impacts go well beyond your doors.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: Vincent Stanley has been with Patagonia on and off since his beginning in 1973.
Vincent Stanley: Patagonia owns no factories. We're not responsible for the dyes that are put into the products. technically. We're not responsible for the labor practices, technically. But over the years, we've come to accept responsibility for everything that goes into the product that has the Patagonia label on it. And then the second is to act. Simply stop doing what you can stop doing things that hurts people and that hurts the world. And then share what you learn because it gives people courage, and they say, well, okay, well they can do that, we can do that too, that's possible
Jean-Philippe Courtois: To build a business consistent with your values be open about your practices and hold the company accountable for its actions through regular reporting and assessment. And don't be afraid of the constraints that come with reducing your environmental footprint or promoting an ethical supply chain.
Vincent Stanley: Those constraints have led to innovation both in products and in business practices that then become the model that differentiates us from competitors, that all of our stakeholders identify with our customers and employees, our suppliers.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: And remember, whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
Jean-Philippe Courtois: You can find my full conversation with Vincent Stanley in the archive and for more practical tips from purposeful corporate leaders, I can suggest listening to the episode with Paul Polman and the one with Jesper Brodin Ikea CEO. I'm Jean-Philippe Courtois. You've been listening to Lesson 7 of the nine Powers of Positive Leadership. I hope listening to this lesson has help you and moves you forward to make a positive impact. If so, then please do leave us a comment or even better, a five-star rating. And if you'd like more practical advice, then head to my LinkedIn page to sign up for my newsletter Positive Leadership and You. Thanks for listening. Goodbye.