Perfect People

by Dr. James W. Jackson
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

In Colombia, South America, 1997 was a year of lawlessness and murder. The drug cartels ran unchecked not only in the cities but in the rural mountain districts. No one was safe and the frightened victims from the countryside would try to escape the violence and guerrilla warfare by rushing to the cities to find food, protection and perhaps work. “Invasion Cities” were built overnight out of junk and trash on land where folks had no business to squat. Single mothers with a half dozen homeless kids would hunker down under cardboard or a piece of sheet metal to keep out of the rain or scorching sun. Once there, they would be slapped with the cruel reality that there was no food, no protection and no work. There were 32 such invasion cities in Monteria.

“Barrios” were a little different. The city would give the poor dwellers permission to build on the land or would sell the land outright to the people for a small price. The shelters in the barrios were constructed out of gathered stones or concrete blocks. But the characteristic level of abject poverty was the same ... no job ... no money ... no hope!

I went into several of the squalid huts. Because of the recent heavy rains, the floors of the invasion city units were soggy mud holes. The sewage ran down the center of the make shift roads or behind the huts. As little babies crawled along the floors and through the mud, I watched with amazement and wondered why far more of them did not die from lung congestion and parasites. My feeble coping skills acquired over the years totally failed me when a pair of haunting, hungry eyes locked in on mine with a panicked plea: “please help me ... I have no hope to get out of here!”

Then, like a burst of warm Colorado sunshine, I experienced a bit of the Divine. In front of me was a small, whitewashed building that was being used as a school. Alita was only 15 years old; she was the teacher. Over the years she had walked out of the barrio every day to attend a small Catholic school in the city. “I knew I wanted to do something for these children in the invasion cities and barrios,” she told me.

Alita had gone through the 10th grade but had given up her opportunity to enter the 11th grade in order to start teaching the children of her neighborhood how to read and write. She had never received any teacher training, but simply taught as she had been taught.

She could only teach the children a half day because she had 90 children as students  ... 45 in the morning and 45 in the afternoon. The week before she had another 15 children come, but she simply could not handle them and had to turn them away. “I was able to bring some bananas today to my school to feed some of my students who have been going hungry. I did not eat today, but that is just fine,” she told me. I looked around her little whitewashed "school" building with pictures and artwork fixed to the outside walls, and I stopped and thanked God for Alita. The work of the world does not wait to be done by the perfect or pretty people. God’s work is accomplished by people of great compassion who will pour out their own lives so that others are “better off!”

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com 

images: Drs. James W. and AnnaMarie Jackson

Apples and Seeds

by Dr. James W. Jackson
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

One of the greatest lessons I ever learned as a Cultural Economist I learned from the American legend, Johnny Appleseed. He helped me understand the economic principle of "leverage." Born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1774, as John Chapman, he was raised on a small farm and his favorite place in the whole world was his father's apple orchard.

 

When traveling settlers would pass by he would ask questions about the fertile lands of the frontiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Those curious conversations spawned the inspired dream of one day planting apple seeds throughout the new frontier. By 1792, when he was 18, he headed west.

Johnny Appleseed received all the apple seeds he desired free of charge from the cider mills. Contrary to the popular image of him spreading apple seeds randomly, everywhere he went he preformed, rather, as an intuitive entrepreneur. He extensively planted nurseries of apple tree seedlings, built fences around them to protect them from the animals, and partnered with a "local" to care for the investment. The partner would sell the trees and keep part of the proceeds for himself. Johnny would return every year to tend the nursery and collect his share. The partners were encouraged to sell the trees on easy credit and even be generous in accepting items of barter in exchange. Additionally, he directed the new tree owners to cider mills where they could sell their newly-grown produce for cash. He became a very popular and loved man.

It was from the power of story about Johnny Appleseed that I learned the concept that you can count the seeds in an apple, but you can never count the apples in a seed! The power of multiplication through leverage is astounding. And you can never really quantify the true potential for growth by simply measuring what you hold in your hand today. As you place those seeds in the rich, fertile ground of your new frontiers, the silent miracle of multiplication takes place. Soon you will have seeds from many, many apples growing in the autumn sunlight waiting for you to harvest the plentiful crop. Then, once more those multiplied numbers of seeds can again be replanted with the exciting expectation of an exponential harvest.

I was walking the other day through the aisle-ways of one of our eleven Project C.U.R.E. warehouses here in the U.S. The pallet loads of neatly wrapped and inventoried medical supplies and pieces of medical equipment were stacked on three levels of steel warehouse racking. There was no less than 25 million dollars worth of precious medical inventory in that 75,000 square foot warehouse ready to be loaded on ocean-going cargo containers to be shipped to the most needy and hurting people in the world. I started chuckling aloud to myself.

"I have a way," I said to myself, "to count and value the inventory of this warehouse today. But only God can calculate the leveraged and multiplied effect these donated medical goods will have on the economies of the poor, recipient countries. When the broken and diseased citizens become healthy contributors to their gross national production, economic miracles can take place. It takes healthy people to have healthy economies. These millions of dollars could turn into billions of dollars of value to those developing countries!"

Fifty years after Johnny Appleseed was dead and gone, apple trees and orchards graced the landscape of those frontier communities. No one has ever tried to calculate the economic and cultural impact of his efforts, because, "You can count the number of seeds in an apple ... but you can never count the number of apples in a seed."

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com 

images: Drs. James W. and AnnaMarie Jackson

The Plague of Entitlement

by Dr. James W. Jackson
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

“ENTITLEMENT” is defined as a feeling or belief that you deserve to be given certain privileges ... someone owes you something just because you are you. I am coming to believe that this “entitlement plague” is perhaps more to be feared throughout the world than malaria or dengue fever!

I have traveled in well over 150 countries and have viewed this pandemic everywhere. One day I was in the Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. I was negotiating the logistics for sending millions of dollars of donated medical goods into the country following the ravaging earthquake centered in Gyumri.

Rouben Khatchatryan was a leftover communist bureaucrat who had assumed the privileged position of gatekeeper in the new administration. Rouben was a large man with no way to stretch his brown wool suit coat around his gigantic stomach. When he laughed, the light bounced off his gold teeth and around the room like the sparkles from a disco ball. During my first meeting with Rouben, he boldly announced to me, “There is a law that says that the rich countries have to send money to the poor ones, so you must send money to me here at this address so I can optimize my region.” The only thing that was ever optimized was Rouben’s own wallet. Because of him the area didn’t stand a chance of solving its plight.

A short while later I was traveling in West Africa. It was a difficult drive from Lome, the capital of Togo, north to the city of Dapaong in the northwest corner, close to the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso. During dinner that night at the En Campment Hotel, our discussion at the table was  troubling.  It became quite apparent that our Togolese friends, on average, knew almost nothing about economics, business, governance or how the “real world” works.

One of the top leaders of Togo declared emphatically, “Well, Europe and USA just have to come here and give us more money until we have enough. Someone must simply take it away from them and give it to us because we need it.”  That sparked quite a lengthy discussion.

I received some great insights that night.

The whole attitude of “entitlement,” or “you owe me,” really has become a great enemy of progress and human dignity, not only in West Africa and Armenia, but all over the world, including our own culture in America. It is one thing to “graciously receive” ... it is quite another thing to “expect,” and worse yet, “demand.”  Personal self-esteem and feelings of worthiness have really suffered in pandemic proportions because of this contagious plague.

Once the collective human minds and spirits of a people embrace the notion that someone “owes them something” for one reason or another, it totally changes their character and their self-motivation and the perception of their own worth. It seems to neutralize the component of “personal responsibility.” They fall into the trap of seeing themselves as “victims” and from that perspective they are totally blinded to creative possibilities within their own grasp.

Once they have transferred responsibility and accountability to someone else, and that new source fails to produce the expected answer to all their needs, then they feel a legitimate “right to blame those who failed them,” and emphatically to devote all energies to being angry and vengeful. And where blaming starts, creative growth stops! Additionally, the plague totally eliminates any exercising of true compassion toward anyone else.

Ironically, today many developing countries are endeavoring to build their future economic systems on the idea of expecting or demanding that “the rest of the world needs to step up” and give them more.  And, at the same time, they are blinded to the great opportunities of independent and sustainable growth and development so near to them.  Blame and greed will trump the spirit of positive initiative. Malaria and dengue fever can kill your body ... “entitlement” can kill your soul!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson.

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com 

images: Drs. James W. and AnnaMarie Jackson