Recent Pope Francis words “the more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more responsible you are to act humbly” https://www.ted.com/talks/pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript?language=en#t-572940 reminded me about something I once heard from a big boss in a big international organisation. He stated loud and clear that his career goal was to get high and do as little as possible. He eventually got pretty high. I kind of wondered about it back then.

To me, higher you get, more you can do. Same is valid for corporations. I like to see performance. I love it more when performance is joined by purpose. Take Apple for example. In 2012,  Apple’s stock market value had neared $625 billion, making it the most valuable company ever. Its underwhelmed social purpose is still to match its extraordinary financial success.

Think of all resources one has access to. Let’s take the poorest European country: there were 17000 orphans in 2012. 17.000 was the number of police, intelligence and customs employees. Suppose each of these gets to act as a mentor to each of orphans? Given that these are military structures with people who obey orders, a big boss’s decision has a great chance of being complied with.

Or think about first ladies and opportunities they have to chanel the good and bring to light development issues and influence policy agendas or just meaningfully help on an individual basis. Same is valid, by the way, for husbands of first ladies :).

Or just ordinary people with out-of-ordinary kindness who would make a phone call to a lawyer-friend to ask for a pro-bono involvement, or would open their house door to a charity party to draw attention and collect stuff for needy.

When you get high what is important to me is to keep the connection with the self and your roots and cherish the place you came from. This will keep you away from „the higher you get the harder you fall”. No need to quote unhappy examples here.

“Enjoy your climbing and stay humble”, my reminder for today.