EMPOWER HOW TO CO-CREATE THE FUTURE DAVID PASSIAK Also by David Passiak Disruption Revolution: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the New Rules of Leadership Red Bull to Buddha: Innovation and the Search for Wisdom EMPOWER HOW TO CO-CREATE THE FUTURE DAVID PASSIAK Social Meditate Press Copyright © 2016 by David Passiak All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in a book review, presentation, or social media. Cover Design: Tom Lau Printed in the United States of America First Printing 2016 ISBN 978-0-9898233-2-6 Social Meditate Press 745 Telya Ridge Milford, MI 48381 www.SocialMeditate.com This book is dedicated to future generations May you aspire to do better than your ancestors, surpass the hopes and dreams captured in this book, and empower humanity to reach our true potential Contents Co-Creation by Donation .............................................................. ix Foreword ................................................................................... xi by Jeremiah Owyang – Founder, Crowd Companies Acknowledgments ...................................................................... xv How to Co-Create the Future ......................................................xvii Introduction by David Passiak PART I – COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP Giving and Originality ..............................................................3 Adam Grant – Wharton, Author Originals, Give and Take Peers Inc. ..............................................................................17 Robin Chase – Co-Founder, ZipCar, Author Peers Inc. #GiveFirst ..............................................................................31 Brad Feld – Co-Founder, Foundry Group and Techstars Communities and Movements .................................................43 Douglas Atkin – Global Head of Community, Airbnb PART II – THE POWER OF SHARING Sharing Communities .............................................................59 Neal Gorenflo – Co-Founder, Shareable Love is the Answer .................................................................71 Prince EA – YouTube Megastar and Inspirational Content Creator Collaborative Society .............................................................83 Antonin Léonard – Co-Founder, OuiShare viii EMPOWER: HOW TO CO-Create THE FUTURE It’s a Shareable Life ...............................................................95 Chelsea Rustrum – Author It’s a Shareable Life PART III – COMPANIES AND THE CROWD Smartcuts ............................................................................109 Shane Snow – Co-Founder, Contently, Author Smartcuts Purpose ..............................................................................123 Michael Bronner – Founder, Digitas, Upromise, UnReal Arenas not Markets ..............................................................137 Rita Gunther McGrath – Author The End of Competitive Advantage Better Brand Values .............................................................151 Alex Bogusky – Creative Director of the Decade 2000-2010 PART IV – THE ECONOMY OF THE FUTURE The Sharing Economy ...........................................................167 Arun Sundararajan – NYU Stern, Author Sharing Economy The Growth Trap ...................................................................183 Douglas Rushkoff – Author Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus The Future of Employment ....................................................197 Martin Ford – Author Rise of the Robots Connectography ...................................................................211 Parag Khanna – Global Strategist, Author Connectography Co-Creation By Donation My intention with Empower is to start a global conversation about how to co-create the future. The full version of the e-book is available by donation at CoCreateTheFuture.com Anyone can download it for free. I believe equal access to knowledge and ideas is more important than pursuing profits, and a $15–$25 retail price is too expensive for millions of entrepreneurs, students, and people in opportunity markets like Eastern Europe, Africa, India or Southeast Asia with average salaries of $200–$400/month. I am also a strong proponent of giving first, in the spirit of the col- laborative and sharing economy. As a practitioner of meditation for 20 years and former scholar of religion, I consider my work part of a longstanding tradition to give teachings without expectation. I greatly appreciate the generosity of all who can afford to give. Thanks for your support. I hope you enjoy the book! With Gratitude, David Passiak Foreword The emergence of new technologies is changing human behavior and causing rifts in society, business, and the economy. It is imper- ative that we pay attention to this rising movement and its ripple effects across the world, as it will impact each of our lives. What is this movement? The Collaborative Economy is borne out of new Internet technologies and enables people to get what they need from each other. You’ve heard of young tech startups like Uber, Airbnb, BlaBlaCar, Instacart, Lending Club, Blockchain, and Kickstarter, all of which enables peer-to-peer commerce. They are displacing inefficient institutions like taxis, hotels, railroads, banks, credit systems, and financiers. Since this is a global movement, each region of the world sports its own versions: India has Ola, China has Didi, and the Arabian nations have their own versions. The people are even creating their own goods by using 3D printers, maker spaces, and online tools that help them learn, transact, and support these goods in the Maker Movement. This movement shows no sign of slowing down, as our research has found that more than half of North Americans are partici- pating, and we’ve read reports of growth across all regions, even with these startups being less than a decade old. The funding for this market is unprecedented; investors have deployed more than $30 billion in these startups, fueling a market economy that is quickly flourishing. Of course, this hasn’t occurred without fric- tion; incumbents are pushing back, and city and federal regulators are struggling to stay abreast of the rapid changes. All of this is happening at a dizzying pace, and whether you work at a startup, company, nonprofit, or government agency, there are xii EMPOWER: HOW TO CO-Create THE FUTURE even more changes to come in the future. What the industry needs is a guide, and David Passiak provides just that. David Passiak encourages us in Empower to think about the future like we are building a movement. Big companies and startups collabo- rate with empowered people. There are shared values, common goals, and purpose. David presents a series of conversations about collabora- tion and sharing from a variety of perspectives within an inner circle. Who’s in this inner circle that’s now made available to you in this book? These perspectives on the Collaborative Economy range from its best-respected advocates, such as Robin Chase, Neal Gorenflo, Antonin Léonard, Arun Sundararajan, and Chelsea Rus- trum, to likeminded business leaders and bestselling authors, such as Adam Grant, Brad Feld, Alex Bogusky, Shane Snow, and Rita Gunther McGrath. David makes all of this insight easily accessible to a general audience and groups people together. I first met David Passiak three years ago when he interviewed me about the Collaborative Economy for his last book, Disruption Revolution. David gathered an impressive group of disruptive think- ers, including Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, Robert Scoble, Sarah Lacy, James Altucher, Erik Qualman, and Brian Solis. I liked that he took a wisdom-of-the-crowd approach to trends in innovation. At the time in 2013, I was preparing to launch Crowd Companies, an innovation council to help large companies participate in the Col- laborative Economy and Autonomous World. David and I were both seeing and articulating how these changes would impact the world. Three years later, the Collaborative Economy and the Autonomous World are top of mind for many entrepreneurs and business lead- ers. Crowd Companies has grown internationally to include mem- bers like BMW, Cisco, MasterCard, Pepsi, Visa, Nestle, and more. The pace of innovation will continue exponentially. The Collabo- rative Economy is positioned to become the world economy. David Foreword— xiii has once again gathered an impressive group of visionary leaders to help us understand what lies ahead. Empower: How to Co-Create the Future is a great starting point for entering the conversation. —Jeremiah Owyang Silicon Valley November 2016 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I am grateful to all of the participants in this book. Thanks for the precious gift of your time and for the honor to share our conversations with a wider audience. Thank you espe- cially to Jeremiah Owyang for writing the foreword and encourag- ing me to take on another monumental book-length project. Thanks also to my business partner and lifelong friend Marc Joseph, my literary agent and good friend Matthew Guma for his support and guidance, to Jessica Baker for her wonderful tran- scription work, and to Tom Lau for an incredibly awesome cover that captures the themes of collaboration and co-creation in a sim- ple and powerful way. I visited around 40 countries since my last book Disruption