TERRA CITY - HUMAN WISDOM

7. HUMAN WISDOM

Ever since I started to think of writing this book one particular thought did not cease to preoccupy my mind: Here I am, talking about enhancing people’s attitude, organizing synergetic groups, creating and working in participative and profit sharing companies, not focusing on money when doing something worthwhile yet resting assured that abundance will still come… The question is: What am I ready to do in order to prove that all this is feasible? In time, this question connected in an interesting way with two aspects that I realized while trying to promote the Terra City project and then when I started to write this book.

First - The strongest feeling that I developed while trying to present the Terra City project to companies that I thought were potentially interested in developing it was frustration. And the second strongest feeling was sadness. Frustration came from discovering that no matter what idea or concrete project an individual might have, he stands almost no chance of finding a major partner capable, interested and ready to offer the necessary support to make his idea reality. This is because every corporation has a protective policy that prevents ideas from outside the firm to be taken into consideration. My sadness came from the realization that this situation is absolutely justifiable in current circumstances. Let’s say that an exceptional company would accept to consider your idea and asks you to disclose further details on the project. Try to imagine how many possible complications they would expose themselves to. First, they might be working on a similar project in house, with a lots of money already invested in it. In that case, everything would be in jeopardy, for once they reviewed your project, they would no longer have exclusivity on their own idea. Second, if they did not have an ongoing project similar to yours and if for a certain reason they decided not to pursue your proposal, from that moment on they would have considerably limited themselves in their new projects, since they could not come even close to any idea of your proposal without exposing themselves to potential law suits. In other words the company that was the most receptive to your approach would have to pay for their openness! Isn’t that sad, and hopeless? Imagine how many great ideas so many people around the globe might have at this very moment, and this state of facts is preventing them from getting any attention and support. On the other hand, try to think of how many open-minded business leaders feel the frustration of not being able to receive and consider any of these ideas. Now, try to extend this ironic situation to as many domains of human activity as you can imagine and you will once again be stunned by how much creativity, value and progress we are wasting. And why? Basically because of a general and “legitimate” lack of trust. Nobody trusts anybody. And, as we saw earlier, no one in particular can be blamed for that. So the question is: How can we possibly break this vicious circle and start to stimulate and support people’s creativity?

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These thoughts considered, the challenge came down to this: Can we create a pilot enterprise at a global scale, which would operate based on the very principles discussed in this book and would try to address the two aspects mentioned above? This is how the idea of Human Wisdom came to be. […]