for W3c validation

I love reading Umair Haque, who always make me think about the issues he discusses in his writing. I started following Umair when my former boss David Gibbons clued me into him a few years ago and I’ve been following ever since. I’m as big an Apple fan as the next guy, but here is a fascinating quote from his recent “Apple’s Real Achilles Heel” article that should make you think — “what if someone as brilliant as Steve Jobs put his mind to REALLY changing the world (and not just changing the world for a select few)? THAT would be something…

Consider a small slice of history. When Steve Jobs was searching for his own replacement after his first tenure as Apple’s CEO, he audaciously said to the front-running candidate, then-Pepsi CEO John Sculley: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Perhaps, today, I might gently ask the same question of Steve: “do you really want to spend the rest of your life selling slicker gadgets, or do you want take this chance to change the world radically for the better?”

The future of capitalism isn’t about making prettier, cooler gizmos every year; it’s not about helping sell more movies, music, or apps. It’s about building revolutionary companies, countries, and economies: those that are hardwired to do meaningful stuff that matters the most, and begin making up for the industrial age business-as-usual’s glaring shortcomings; those that can fuel a more authentic prosperity instead.

If the first bullet point on the agenda of 21st century capitalism is discovering a higher purpose for the economy, the second might be said to be building high-impact organizations — those that can change the world radically for the better. Because when you think about it, that’s what’s really scarce.