Dignity – a key for success?
Pekka Himanen is a professor who is often asked to make strategies for Finnish government and other political institutions. I read his book A manuscript for flourishing (in Finnish Kukoistuksen käsikirja). In this book he illustrates success factors for the coming ten years and gives advice on better economy, education, leadership (also management) and working life.
His theory is based on creativity, confidence and culture. Examples come from Silicon valley today and ancient Athens. These examples have a lot in common: a culture and places to share ideas; a combination of companies, business and government activities; and education, science and arts. He describes how Silicon valley differs from other places by the people it appeals to, by the help university and other educational organizations play with companies for common targets and by all this is made to happen with risk funding individuals and companies. He makes a point also for culture: it's important that creative people are constantly teased by artists, musicians and researchers. The ancient Athens was rather a small town and a place where all happened but this was a very reason why everything happened there quickly and efficiently. People should be able to meet each others in a place were they can share new theories, ideas and business models with same kind of persons. Even in Silicon valley people meet each others face-to-face and without it nothing could happen so quickly.
What comes to education, we should rethink our ways of learning. Mr. Himanen says that the best teachers are those who support every pupil's motivation to learn more and develop his/her skills constantly. When I compere this to my studies, I agree with him. I can't remember those who didn't make me think more or work harder but I certainly remember my teachers who were happy what they did and saw how every single pupil developed his/her knowledge base. These persons had passion to teach and they way of doing was exceptional.
The book is also a manifest to wake up and see how earth is changing. In front of us there are new kind of diseases, global warming and economical issues. Same time we have more money to spent on food and health but we ruin it with bad habits, don't exercise enough and more likely we go home to eat in front of a telly, take a nice nappies on the sofa and don't pay attention to our families. The big risk for us in Europe is that our future will be black: Asians are running forward and we stay were we used to be, our population gets older and there isn't new comers, our companies don't compete with others in the world and basicly we will soon be only a huge hospital for old people. I don't understand why we are still thinking that our old habits and structures are from this world and time. I believe in people's bigger responsility of their life, we should make a lot more to be succesful and have better well-being by the help of ourselves rather than the state. We need to wake up.
Pekka Himanen shouts for politicians to make changes now. They should build a society which invests in future (education and learning), gives more freedom to companies (including a right to failure) and pays special attention to environment. His way of thinking relies on culture because without arts and soft values there isn't future. Mr. Himanen writes that investment in these factors is cheaper than investments in highly risky technologies or other material assets. It's a possibility if we take it.