Everything I do, and everything I do professionally -- my life -- has been shaped by seven years of work as a young man in Africa. From 1971 to 1977 -- I look young, but I'm not — (Laughter) -- I worked in Zambia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Somalia, in projects of technical cooperation with African countries.
Vsega, kar delam, in vse, kar delam poklicno – v svojem življenju – sem se naučil v mladosti, v sedmih letih dela v Afriki. Med letoma 1971 in 1977 – izgledam mlad, pa nisem – sem delal v Zambiji, Keniji, na Slonokoščeni obali, v Alžiriji, Somaliji na projektih strokovnega sodelovanja z afriškimi državami.
I worked for an Italian NGO, and every single project that we set up in Africa failed. And I was distraught. I thought, age 21, that we Italians were good people and we were doing good work in Africa. Instead, everything we touched we killed.
Delal sem za neko italijansko nevladno organizacijo in vsak projekt, ki smo se ga v Afriki lotili, je propadel. In bil sem zbegan. Pri enaindvajsetih sem bil prepričan, da smo Italijani dobri in da v Afriki delamo dobro. Pa nismo; vse, česar smo se dotaknili, smo uničili.
Our first project, the one that has inspired my first book, "Ripples from the Zambezi," was a project where we Italians decided to teach Zambian people how to grow food. So we arrived there with Italian seeds in southern Zambia in this absolutely magnificent valley going down to the Zambezi River, and we taught the local people how to grow Italian tomatoes and zucchini and ... And of course the local people had absolutely no interest in doing that, so we paid them to come and work, and sometimes they would show up. (Laughter) And we were amazed that the local people, in such a fertile valley, would not have any agriculture. But instead of asking them how come they were not growing anything, we simply said, "Thank God we're here." (Laughter) "Just in the nick of time to save the Zambian people from starvation."
S prvim projektom, ki je bil tudi navdih za mojo prvo knjigo, Sapice iz Zambezija, smo se Italijani odločili, da bomo Zambijce naučili, kako pridelovati hrano. In tako smo šli s svojimi italijanskimi semeni v južno Zambijo, v to prečudovito dolino vzdolž reke Zambezi in učili lokalno prebivalstvo, kako se pridelajo italijanski paradižniki, pa bučke ... Seveda lokalnih prebivalcev to ni prav nič zanimalo, zato smo jim plačali, da so prišli in delali in včasih so celo zares prišli. Zdelo se nam je nepojmljivo, da se ljudje tukaj, sredi tako rodovitne doline, ne ukvarjajo s kmetijstvom. A namesto, da bi jih vprašali, kako to, da ničesar ne gojijo, smo si preprosto rekli: »Hvala bogu, da smo prišli. Ravno prav, da Zambijce rešimo pred stradanjem.«
And of course, everything in Africa grew beautifully. We had these magnificent tomatoes. In Italy, a tomato would grow to this size. In Zambia, to this size. And we could not believe, and we were telling the Zambians, "Look how easy agriculture is." When the tomatoes were nice and ripe and red, overnight, some 200 hippos came out from the river and they ate everything. (Laughter)
In kakopak je v Afriki vse čudovito uspevalo. Zrasli so nam prekrasni paradižniki. V Italiji paradižnik zraste do tolikšne velikosti. V Zambiji pa je tolikšen. Nismo mogli verjeti in Zambijcem smo govorili: »Poglejte, kako je kmetovanje enostavno.« Ko pa so paradižniki postali lepo zreli in rdeči, je ponoči iz reke prišlo 200 povodnih konjev, ki so ves pridelek pojedli.
And we said to the Zambians, "My God, the hippos!"
»O bog, nilski konji!« smo rekli Zambijcem,
And the Zambians said, "Yes, that's why we have no agriculture here." (Laughter)
oni pa so odvrnili: »Tako je, zaradi njih tukaj ni kmetijstva.«
"Why didn't you tell us?""You never asked."
»Zakaj nam tega niste povedali?« – »Nikoli niste vprašali.«
I thought it was only us Italians blundering around Africa, but then I saw what the Americans were doing, what the English were doing, what the French were doing, and after seeing what they were doing, I became quite proud of our project in Zambia. Because, you see, at least we fed the hippos.
Mislil sem, da po Afriki blodimo samo Italijani, nakar sem videl, kaj so počeli Američani, kaj so počeli Angleži in kaj Francozi in ko sem vse to videl, sem bil na naš zambijski projekt prav ponosen. Mi smo vsaj nahranili nilske konje.
You should see the rubbish — (Applause) -- You should see the rubbish that we have bestowed on unsuspecting African people. You want to read the book, read "Dead Aid," by Dambisa Moyo, Zambian woman economist. The book was published in 2009. We Western donor countries have given the African continent two trillion American dollars in the last 50 years. I'm not going to tell you the damage that that money has done. Just go and read her book. Read it from an African woman, the damage that we have done.
Morali bi videti, res bi morali videti, kakšne bedarije smo namenili nič hudega slutečim Afričanom. Preberite si knjigo z naslovom »Jalova pomoč« avtorice Dambise Moyo, ekonomistke iz Zambije. Knjiga je izšla leta 2009. Zahodne države donatorice smo v zadnjih 50 letih afriški celini nakazale dva tisoč bilijard ameriških dolarjev. Ne bom vam govoril o škodi, ki jo je ta denar povzročil. Raje si preberite njeno knjigo. Naj vam afriška ženska pove o škodi, ki smo jo povzročili.
We Western people are imperialist, colonialist missionaries, and there are only two ways we deal with people: We either patronize them, or we are paternalistic. The two words come from the Latin root "pater," which means "father." But they mean two different things. Paternalistic, I treat anybody from a different culture as if they were my children. "I love you so much." Patronizing, I treat everybody from another culture as if they were my servants. That's why the white people in Africa are called "bwana," boss.
Zahodnjaki smo imperialistični, kolonialistični misijonarji, ki znamo z ljudmi ravnati samo na dva načina: smo pokroviteljski ali pa očetovski. Obe besedi izvirata iz latinskega korena »pater«, kar pomeni »oče.« Njuna pomena pa sta kljub temu različna. Če sem očetovski, z ljudmi iz drugačne kulture ravnam kot s svojimi otroki: »Tako zelo vas imam rad.« Če sem pokroviteljski, pa z vsakomer iz drugačne kulture ravnam kot s svojim služabnikom. Zato belce v Afriki imenujejo »bwana«, šef.
I was given a slap in the face reading a book, "Small is Beautiful," written by Schumacher, who said, above all in economic development, if people do not wish to be helped, leave them alone. This should be the first principle of aid. The first principle of aid is respect. This morning, the gentleman who opened this conference lay a stick on the floor, and said, "Can we -- can you imagine a city that is not neocolonial?"
Klofuto v obraz sem dobil tudi ob branju Schumaherjeve knjige "Majhno je lepo," ki trdi, da predvsem za gospodarski razvoj velja, da je ljudi, ki nočejo pomoči, treba pustiti pri miru. To bi moralo biti prvo načelo pomoči. Prvo načelo pomoči je spoštovanje. Danes zjutraj je gospod, ki je otvoril to konferenco, na tla položil palico in nas, vas vprašal: "Si sploh lahko predstavljamo, predstavljate mesto, ki ga ne zaznamuje neokolonializem?«
I decided when I was 27 years old to only respond to people, and I invented a system called Enterprise Facilitation, where you never initiate anything, you never motivate anybody, but you become a servant of the local passion, the servant of local people who have a dream to become a better person. So what you do -- you shut up. You never arrive in a community with any ideas, and you sit with the local people. We don't work from offices. We meet at the cafe. We meet at the pub. We have zero infrastructure. And what we do, we become friends, and we find out what that person wants to do.
Ko sem bil star 27 let, sem se odločil, da bom ljudem samo odgovarjal, zato sem razvil sistem, imenovan Pospeševanje podjetništva, pri katerem ničesar ne poskušaš sprožiti, nikogar ne motiviraš, ampak postaneš služabnik lokalnih strasti, služabnik lokalnih prebivalcev s sanjami, da bi postali boljši ljudje. In kar storiš, je, da utihneš. V skupnost nikoli ne prideš s kakršnimi koli idejami, ampak z domačini sedeš za isto mizo. Ne delamo v pisarnah. Srečujemo se v kavarnah. Srečujemo se v pubih. Nimamo nikakršne infrastrukture. In kaj se zgodi? Z ljudmi postanemo prijatelji in tako izvemo, kaj nekdo želi početi.
The most important thing is passion. You can give somebody an idea. If that person doesn't want to do it, what are you going to do? The passion that the person has for her own growth is the most important thing. The passion that that man has for his own personal growth is the most important thing. And then we help them to go and find the knowledge, because nobody in the world can succeed alone. The person with the idea may not have the knowledge, but the knowledge is available.
Najpomembnejša je strast. Idejo že lahko nekomu podariš. In če je ta oseba noče uresničiti, kaj boš potem? Strast, s katero ljudje hranimo lasten razvoj, je najpomembnejša. Strast, ki jo vložimo v osebni razvoj, je najpomembnejša. Ljudem pomagamo, da si poiščejo znanje, saj nihče ne uspe sam. Človek z idejo je morda brez potrebnega znanja, a to znanje je na voljo.
So years and years ago, I had this idea: Why don't we, for once, instead of arriving in the community to tell people what to do, why don't, for once, listen to them? But not in community meetings.
Zato sem pred mnogimi leti dobil tole idejo: zakaj ne bi namesto tega, da pridemo v neko skupnost in ljudem govorimo, kaj naj delajo in česa ne, ljudi raje poslušali? Ampak ne na srečanjih skupnosti.
Let me tell you a secret. There is a problem with community meetings. Entrepreneurs never come, and they never tell you, in a public meeting, what they want to do with their own money, what opportunity they have identified. So planning has this blind spot. The smartest people in your community you don't even know, because they don't come to your public meetings.
Naj vam zaupam skrivnost. Srečanja skupnosti imajo eno težavo. Podjetniki tja ne hodijo in nikoli vam ne bodo javno povedali, kaj bodo storili s svojim denarjem in katere priložnosti so zaznali. Načrtovanje ima torej svojo slepo pego. Najpametnejših ljudi v vaši skupnosti sploh ne poznate, ker ne hodijo na javna srečanja.
What we do, we work one-on-one, and to work one-on-one, you have to create a social infrastructure that doesn't exist. You have to create a new profession. The profession is the family doctor of enterprise, the family doctor of business, who sits with you in your house, at your kitchen table, at the cafe, and helps you find the resources to transform your passion into a way to make a living.
Naše delo poteka 1:1 in da bi to lahko izvajali, je potrebno ustvariti socialni sistem, ki še ne obstaja. Izmisliti si moramo nov poklic. Ta poklic se imenuje družinski zdravnik za podjetništvo, družinski zdravnik za podjetje, ki sedi z vami v vašem domu, v vaši kuhinji, v kavarni in vam pomaga najti način, kako vašo strast preoblikovati v nekaj, s čimer se lahko preživljate.
I started this as a tryout in Esperance, in Western Australia. I was a doing a Ph.D. at the time, trying to go away from this patronizing bullshit that we arrive and tell you what to do. And so what I did in Esperance that first year was to just walk the streets, and in three days I had my first client, and I helped this first guy who was smoking fish from a garage, was a Maori guy, and I helped him to sell to the restaurant in Perth, to get organized, and then the fishermen came to me to say, "You the guy who helped Maori? Can you help us?" And I helped these five fishermen to work together and get this beautiful tuna not to the cannery in Albany for 60 cents a kilo, but we found a way to take the fish for sushi to Japan for 15 dollars a kilo, and the farmers came to talk to me, said, "Hey, you helped them. Can you help us?" In a year, I had 27 projects going on, and the government came to see me to say, "How can you do that? How can you do — ?" And I said, "I do something very, very, very difficult. I shut up, and listen to them." (Laughter)
S tem sem poskusno začel v mestu Esperance v Zahodni Avstraliji. Takrat sem pisal doktorat in iskal načine, da zaobidem to pokroviteljsko sranje, ko mi pridemo k vam in vam govorimo, kaj morate storiti. Tako sem tisto prvo leto v Esperanceu samo hodil po ulicah in v treh dneh dobil svojo prvo stranko. Pomagal sem človeku, ki je v garaži prekajal ribe. Bil je Maor in pomagal sem mu, da je ribe začel prodajati restavraciji v Perthu, da se je postavil, skratka. Nakar so do mene pristopili še drugi ribiči: »Si ti tisti, ki je pomagal Maoru? Lahko pomagaš nam?« In tako sem pomagal tem petim ribičem, da so delali skupaj in da so svoje čudovite tune namesto v tovarno konzerv v Albanyu in namesto za 60 centov na kilogram uspeli prodati za 15 dolarjev v suši restavracijo na Japonsko. Prišli so kmetje in mi rekli: »Hej, ti si pomagal ribičem. Lahko pomagaš še nam?« V enem letu sem prišel do 27 tekočih projektov, ko je do mene pristopila vlada: »Kako ti to uspeva?« Odvrnil sem: »Naredim nekaj zelo, zelo težkega. Utihnem in jim prisluhnem.«
So — (Applause) — So the government says, "Do it again." (Laughter) We've done it in 300 communities around the world. We have helped to start 40,000 businesses. There is a new generation of entrepreneurs who are dying of solitude.
In tako mi reče vlada: »Stori to še enkrat.« Uspelo nam je v 300 skupnostih po svetu. Pomagali smo zagnati 40.000 podjetij. Nova generacija podjetnikov zdaj umira od osamljenosti.
Peter Drucker, one of the greatest management consultants in history, died age 96, a few years ago. Peter Drucker was a professor of philosophy before becoming involved in business, and this is what Peter Drucker says: "Planning is actually incompatible with an entrepreneurial society and economy." Planning is the kiss of death of entrepreneurship.
Peter Drucker, eden najboljših managerskih svetovalcev vseh časov, je umrl nekaj let nazaj, v starosti 96 let. Peter Drucker je bil profesor filozofije, preden je stopil v poslovni svet. In Peter Drucker je dejal: »Načrtovanje je nezdružljivo s podjetniško družbo in ekonomijo.« Načrtovanje v podjetništvu predstavlja poljub smrti.
So now you're rebuilding Christchurch without knowing what the smartest people in Christchurch want to do with their own money and their own energy. You have to learn how to get these people to come and talk to you. You have to offer them confidentiality, privacy, you have to be fantastic at helping them, and then they will come, and they will come in droves. In a community of 10,000 people, we get 200 clients. Can you imagine a community of 400,000 people, the intelligence and the passion? Which presentation have you applauded the most this morning? Local, passionate people. That's who you have applauded.
Zdaj torej prenavljate novozelandski Christchurch, ne da bi vedeli, kam želijo najpametnejši ljudje v Christchurchu vlagati svoj denar in energijo. Nauučiti se morate te ljudi prepričati, da pridejo k vam na pogovor. Ponuditi jim morate zaupnost, zasebnost, biti jim morate v nenadkriljivo pomoč in takrat bodo prišli, prišli bodo trumoma. V skupnosti 10.000 ljudi mi pridobimo 200 strank. Si predstavljate, koliko je v skupnosti 400.000 ljudi inteligence in strasti? Kateri predstavitvi ste to jutro najbolj ploskali? Lokalnim, strastnim ljudem. Njim ste ploskali.
So what I'm saying is that entrepreneurship is where it's at. We are at the end of the first industrial revolution -- nonrenewable fossil fuels, manufacturing -- and all of a sudden, we have systems which are not sustainable. The internal combustion engine is not sustainable. Freon way of maintaining things is not sustainable. What we have to look at is at how we feed, cure, educate, transport, communicate for seven billion people in a sustainable way. The technologies do not exist to do that. Who is going to invent the technology for the green revolution? Universities? Forget about it! Government? Forget about it! It will be entrepreneurs, and they're doing it now.
Želim povedati, da je podjetništvo pač tam, kjer je. Zdaj smo pri koncu prve industrijske revolucije – neobnovljiva fosilna goriva, proizvodnja – kar naenkrat imamo tu sisteme, ki niso vzdržni. Motor na notranje izgorevanje ni trajnosten. Vzdrževanje s freonom ni trajnostno. Zagotoviti moramo hrano, izobraževanje, prometno infrastrukturo in komunikacije za sedem milijard ljudi in da bo vse to tudi trajnostno. Nimamo še tehnologij, ki bi to zmogle. Kdo bo izumil tehnologijo za zeleno revolucijo? Univerze? Pozabite! Vlada? Pozabite! To bodo podjetniki in oni to počenjajo že zdaj.
There's a lovely story that I read in a futurist magazine many, many years ago. There was a group of experts who were invited to discuss the future of the city of New York in 1860. And in 1860, this group of people came together, and they all speculated about what would happen to the city of New York in 100 years, and the conclusion was unanimous: The city of New York would not exist in 100 years. Why? Because they looked at the curve and said, if the population keeps growing at this rate, to move the population of New York around, they would have needed six million horses, and the manure created by six million horses would be impossible to deal with. They were already drowning in manure. (Laughter) So 1860, they are seeing this dirty technology that is going to choke the life out of New York.
Nekoč sem v neki futuristični reviji prebral prisrčno zgodbo. Neko skupino strokovnjakov so leta 1860 povabili na diskusijo o prihodnosti mesta New York. Tako so se leta 1860 ti ljudje zbrali in špekulirali, kaj se bo z New Yorkom zgodilo v 100 letih, sklep pa je bil soglasen: mesto New York čez 100 let ne bo več obstajalo. Zakaj? Zato, ker so gledali statistike in ugotavljali, da bo, vkolikor bo število prebivalstva še naprej tako raslo, newyorčane treba preseliti in da bi to lahko storili, bi potrebovali šest milijonov konj. Konjskega gnoja šestih milijonov konj ne bi mogli obvladati. Že tako so se utapljali v gnoju. Leta 1860 so se torej soočali z umazano tehnologijo, ki je pretila, da bo zadušila vse življenje v New Yorku.
So what happens? In 40 years' time, in the year 1900, in the United States of America, there were 1,001 car manufacturing companies -- 1,001. The idea of finding a different technology had absolutely taken over, and there were tiny, tiny little factories in backwaters. Dearborn, Michigan. Henry Ford.
In kaj se je zgodilo? V samo 40 letih, do leta 1900, je v Združenih državah Amerike obratovala 1001 tovarna avtomobilov. Tisoč in ena. Ideja, da je treba poiskati drugačno tehnologijo, je popolnoma prevladala in iz mrtvila so vzniknile majcene tovarne. Dearborn, Michigan. Henry Ford.
However, there is a secret to work with entrepreneurs. First, you have to offer them confidentiality. Otherwise they don't come and talk to you. Then you have to offer them absolute, dedicated, passionate service to them. And then you have to tell them the truth about entrepreneurship. The smallest company, the biggest company, has to be capable of doing three things beautifully: The product that you want to sell has to be fantastic, you have to have fantastic marketing, and you have to have tremendous financial management. Guess what? We have never met a single human being in the world who can make it, sell it and look after the money. It doesn't exist. This person has never been born. We've done the research, and we have looked at the 100 iconic companies of the world -- Carnegie, Westinghouse, Edison, Ford, all the new companies, Google, Yahoo. There's only one thing that all the successful companies in the world have in common, only one: None were started by one person. Now we teach entrepreneurship to 16-year-olds in Northumberland, and we start the class by giving them the first two pages of Richard Branson's autobiography, and the task of the 16-year-olds is to underline, in the first two pages of Richard Branson's autobiography how many times Richard uses the word "I" and how many times he uses the word "we." Never the word "I," and the word "we" 32 times. He wasn't alone when he started. Nobody started a company alone. No one. So we can create the community where we have facilitators who come from a small business background sitting in cafes, in bars, and your dedicated buddies who will do to you, what somebody did for this gentleman who talks about this epic, somebody who will say to you, "What do you need? What can you do? Can you make it? Okay, can you sell it? Can you look after the money?" "Oh, no, I cannot do this.""Would you like me to find you somebody?" We activate communities. We have groups of volunteers supporting the Enterprise Facilitator to help you to find resources and people and we have discovered that the miracle of the intelligence of local people is such that you can change the culture and the economy of this community just by capturing the passion, the energy and imagination of your own people.
Kakor koli, pri delu s podjetniki obstaja skrivnost. Kot prvo jim morate zagotoviti zaupnost, sicer se z vami ne bodo pogovarjali. Zagotoviti jim morate tudi storitve, ki jih boste opravljali absolutno, predano in strastno. Prav jim morate povedati resnico o podjetništvu. Vsa, od najmanjšega do največjega podjetja, morajo blesteti v treh stvareh: proizvod, ki ga želite prodati, mora biti fantastičen, zagotoviti morate fantastičen marketing in imeti morate neverjetno finančno poslovanje. Veste, kaj? Nikjer na svetu še nismo srečali človeka, ki bi bil obenem zmožen izdelovati, prodajati in skrbeti za denar. Takega ni. Ta oseba še ni bila rojena. Delali smo raziskave in preučevali 100 kultnih podjetij sveta – Carnegie, Westinghouse, Edison, Ford – tudi novejše družbe, kot sta Google in Yahoo. Ena stvar je, ki je vsem tem uspešnim podjetjem po svetu skupna, samo ena stvar. Nobenega izmed teh podjetij ni ustanovil en sam človek. Danes podjetništva učimo 16-letnike v Northumberlandu. Predavanje začnemo tako, da jim damo v branje prvi dve strani iz avtobiografije Richarda Bransona. Naloga 16-letnikov je podčrtati na teh dveh straneh avtobiografije Richarda Bransona, kolikokrat je avtor uporabil besedo »jaz« in kolikokrat »mi«. Besede »jaz« ni uporabil nikoli, »mi« pa 32-krat. Na začetku ni bil sam. Nihče podjetja ne ustanovi sam. Nihče. Ustvarimo lahko skupnost, v kateri bomo imeli pospeševalce z znanjem iz malih podjetij, ki bodo z vami kot predani prijatelji sedeli v kavarni, baru, ki bodo naredili za vas to, kar je nekoč nekdo storil za tega gospoda, ki vam zdaj tule razlaga svojo epopejo, nekdo bo pristopil k vam in vas nagovoril: »Kaj potrebuješ? Kaj znaš? Znaš to izdelati? OK, znaš to prodati? Znaš upravljati z denarjem?« »O ne, tega ne znam.« – »Želiš, da ti za to nekoga poiščem?« Mi aktiviramo skupnosti. Pri nas delajo skupine prostovoljcev, ki podpirajo pospeševanje podjetništva in vam pomagajo najti sredstva in ljudi. Spoznali smo, da je moč inteligence, ki jo lokalno prebivalstvo premore, tolikšna, da lahko spremenite navade in gospodarstvo te skupnosti le tako, da zajemate iz strasti, energije in domišljije svojega lastnega naroda.
Thank you. (Applause)
Hvala.