(reposting from my LinkedIn pulse post. Lets see which one takes more traffic!?)
Despite some mixed reviews, I would recommend you to watch the new film Tomorrowland, but I would suggest you to have a think about the thoughts of this article and comment below to see if you agree with me.
For me, goal of this post is one of engagment: I would rather 100% of people that read this article would make time to read/internalise, and engage with the thoughts/challenges I am highlighlighting (like having a chat/coffee with me). Rather than this post becoming viral and no one cares, kind of a pay per click model, which most are bots and and no one really transacts? ;-)
My main comment, with the reach of Disney, mind-share/engagement of this film Tomorrowland and future releases: I would implore Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeffrey Chernov to do more, maybe director's cut of this film. Or create another new format/story that propose people with "Clear", "Actionable" challenges and "impactful goals" for all. Let me explain:
Other than Forrest Gump, "The Incredibles" has always been one of my most favourite film of all time. Love the feel good sentiments and acting of Tom Hanks in Gump (& great animations & storyline of The Incredibles), common to both are the simple messages, entertaining and for all ages!
I think Damon & Brad had their goals in the right place, as explained in their talk at Google (most might not have seen/aware of the key messages though, wonder if you noticed!? if you have seen the film?):
However, I would like to argue that ontop of great entertainment & having a good time (love that for sure!), more can be done in terms of "Call to Action" and how best to leverage media/entertainment power of Disney (& other studios) for good:
#FixTheWorld by [CEEMA] Challenge → Engagement → Entertaining → Memborable → "Actionable"
In 2015, almost all of the problems the world faced with are very intrinsically linked and interdependent, see the World Economic Forum's Global Risk 2015 report (pdf,interactive) highlights key concerns of major CEOs & business leaders worldwide.
(if I have time, I will blog more about a proposed universal equation of #HowToFixOurWorld #FixAnyProblems, would that be of interest to you? do tell me in the comments area below.)
We have so many great documentaries (1yr ago: YearsOfLivingDangerously Video to even in China this year: 柴静雾霾调查：穹顶之下 ), TED talks and films talking about climate change, carbon/water/land footprint, economy and political challenges of our world.
All of the programs mentioned serve to inform (but majority of people are not able to interpret the answers, let alone understand or identify with /or take action re best solution). I would like to submit that great films should not only be entertaining, emotive but also play a role in providing viable goals to help #FixingOurWorld(#ChangeTheWorld is so passé, as everyone can observed by scanning the news/researches that #ChangeTheWorld movement has failed, no!?!)
Therefore, I humbly submit that in order to start first steps of #FixingOurWorld, likes of Damon & Brad and other creatives can play major #WorldSaving role.
They can easily help by raising awareness of big issues of the world (from how to bring up children to how to stay healthy or lose weight to fixing Climate change), but it is important that they play a role in encouraging people to care enough (or be challengedor self-challenge) to make time to
- Engage (possibly via active learning/research) by entertainment (ART/media/literature)
- Learn & Internalise (key issues & possible solutions): insights need to be assimilated (memorable entertainment/ fact based documentary!?)
- Action: viable, and clear "call-to-action" (self-created after actions 1+2, or suggested by great films that people want to engage with)
[ I firmly believe people can become great but need to self-challenge, see my previousLinkedin post on why and how Jim Marshall, Darwin, Sir Winston Churchill, even Presidents like JFK & FDR became successful, by using the rule "Forti-SUM-Love". ]
E.g. We cannot get a better Motto/One-liner in a great uplifting Forrest Gump: "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are gonna get!" (guess we can interpret the motto as just be "focus", run and and work hard!?)
Idea and premise of Tomorrowland is brilliant, I would however like to see more CEEMA and get people to #AskTheRightQuestion and hope to choose to act and #DoTheRightThing.. but maybe it was an impossible task to achieve in two hours!?
Dreamers fails (without hardwork+grit)
Lets be realistic, if Brad, Damon & Jeffrey didn't work hard, we would not have had the pleasure of seeing The Incredibles, Lost and new StarTrek..
They have explained in the google talk above is to encourage people to dream and take control and go out to create.. not sure if the masses would get that message as clearly Frank was a genius (& sadly I am not!).
If I may, Dreamers that have no grit is like Tiger without teeth, useless and will starve to death (unless there is a good welfare state).
Indeed, we must stress that our world needs more dreamers that dare to dreamand work hard, but IMHO, we ideally should increase the dreamers' gene pool, challenge everyone to challenge themselves to be more meaningful and impactful.. (www.BeChampion.org ) thus we can have a bigger target audience for Athena 2.0 to pick to help #FixTheWorld? (those of you that have not seen the movie yet will understand once you have seen the movie).
If Brad, Damon & Jeffrey, you are reading this and interested, I have already devised a great story "The True Shangri-la vs Mind War" (could be adapted to The Incredibles Chapter 2) that should help this cause! we need to engage with behaviourial+ +economists+psychologists+scientists to devise best story line (based on solid researches) to aide the goal of #FixingTheWorld.
I would implore all creatives worldwide from singers songwriters, to authors and Captain of the industries (CXOs) and even politicians and True Philanthropists to challenge themselves to be better & more Impactful, but in a coordinated fashion, as per discussion by the 3 Buffetts (even billionaires who signed the giving pledge need to communicate & coordinate their efforts much more.) [Excerpt embedded below, but I recommend the full video here. ]
In our world where a lot of charities that has more cash/endowment than governments, why do most still fixate on raising more money and not focus on truly fixing the issues/problems and thus make themselves redundant?
Context & Scale is therefore also key question to ask, as William Shawcross, present chair of UK's Charity commission mentioned that in one of his speech people donate twice to animal causes than to help the homeless. Can we blame people if they did not know what question to ask? Paramount then that we all should learn to #AskTheRightQuestion, entertainment industry should be able to help!
WE have too many initiatives now (from new forms of capitalism to charitable foundations). Tech market analogy: worst thing our society need is thousands of startups that focus on creating for good valuations and exits, as best tools and initiatives could be used wrongly /to achieve wrong goals..
I have seen many community leaders and business leaders spent time (& resources) in supporting charity in exotic locations but neglecting to help those in need close by (who might have to resort to crime for food/shelter in the future?). It is common sense that people to first want to care, engage, search for, get to know and contribute via great initiatives like the Giving what we can initiative which aid finding the most efficient way to find the best charity to offer their assistance for the most impact.
Only then can we start looking at bigger question & world issues like Inequalities, & devise possible solutions. As mentioned by the WEF report above, world problems are not insulated any longer. For example, when the western world focused on "Fixing Iraq" by removing Saddam, they would not have know Camp Bucca could incubate the present ISIS. Some might argue that given western society did not promote core family values or society cohesion (President Lee of Singapore was right to have 1/3 racial rules!), the youth of the fringe are much more likely to sought out the 'ideal' society, and are easily enticed by messages of ISIS?
Surely with mind-share power of likes of Disney+other creatives, it is about time to energise youths and adults alike to find good + challenge/nurture themselves, the creation & promotion of a 'Goodhad Movement' might be the right thing to do in 2015 to secure a safe and sustainable future for future generations? (not Arabic speaker myself but what might be the positive word of "reverse of Jihad"?)
Given all the great minds of our world (all disciplines), we should mobilise them and challenge each other to find Solutions ToLast as Prof Jeffrey Sachs explain, the solution might come from Social (not the Arab Spring type though as they have succeed by wrong KPI I was told).
Real issues and problems of our world is in fact money and capital market (ontop of political & policies), as all the billions/trillions which are systemically linked. It must be fixed. I shall expand more in the coming post.
(A couple of great lectures included below as bonus for those of you that cared & want to make time to understand more.. I would like to argue that our world need truly cross disciplines viable solutions yesterday!).
If we can
- truly rely on governments (who can think, act and implement long term policies),
- ensure corporations cannot use trade deals (to be signed TTIP & TPP & ISDS) to bypass national laws and/or
- find viable solutions to fix "Transfer Pricing",
then probably the proposed 15 points solutions by Prof Tony Atkinson (embedded below) would work (I am probably wrong as I have not yet read his new book yet.):
Timing
"It has taken less than eight months for humanity to use up nature’s entire budget for the year and go into ecological overshoot, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North America, Europe and Asia." see rest of PR.
We don't have a lot time, as in 3months (August) we would used up more than our world's resources (overshoot). WE need solution yesterday, only dreaming is not good enough anymore, the world need the right Coordinated Actions in 2015!
Final Question: Mr & Ms Creatives, you dare to have a CEEMA Year!? I Dare you!
My first LinkedIn post on why and how Jim Marshall, Darwin, Sir Winston Churchill, even Presidents like JFK & FDR became successful, and you can also! by using the rule "Forti-SUM-Love"
see my previous blog post on #AskTheRightQuestion & direct challenge to PayPal Mafia on fixing Capital market worldwide.
or #DoingtheRightThing in Philanthropy (how to decide what are the right things to do?)
© 2015 Gareth Wong, All Rights Reserved.
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Gareth Wong is Founder of GamBond®, arguably the only firm worldwide that aims to fix the financial market for good by creating a long term focused financial ecosystem (an alternative for mid-market+ firms to be rated, audited & listed). Ultimately GamBond® is creating nearly "risk-free" alternative & sustainable financial instruments, could be better than even government issued Treasury bonds. Our financial instruments are comparatively insulated by market volatility and true systemic market risks. When successful, GamBond® will break the "Capitalists' Dilemma" status quo, as perfectly described by Prof Clayton Christensen.We do need more supporters, particularly from those think long & know full well how dangerous and pandemic the systemic risks truly are within the financial market (e.g. true systemic risk cannot be mitigated once aggregated asset under management goes beyond US$100bn, we aim to play a small role in fixing this). Therefore, major pension funds, family foundations that would like to protect their billions and help create a better financial long-term future, to opinion-former (Professors to broadsheet editors) that understands, we would love to hear from you, do email us at PossLinkedInFriends4GamBond@wong.org.uk
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