Printer Friendly Excerpt

One captain of industry once went on the record to describe me as "frenetic and self-righteous". The 'self-righteous' label might have said more about him than about me, but there's a touch of truth in the 'frenetic' - because I am a firm believer that entrepreneurs have a nomadic soul. It helps them understand the changing environment - for modern life as well as business - and it confronts them with the truth, as it has confronted me. Some journeys are more about business, but some are just for the truth, in countries we generally regard as rich as well as those we regard as poor. Journeys, for me, have always provided insight.

Not long ago I spent two weeks crossing the great American divide, travelling through the so-called 'Black Belt' of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia for my first look at extreme poverty in the USA, the richest country of all. I found a guide in Jacob Holdt, a Danish 'vagabond' photographer, who has spent the last 30 years roaming America, photographing rural black communities. It was my first encounter with real poverty in any western country. To be poor is hard, but to be poor in America, in a land of such wealth, can be intolerable. I saw communities that had been excluded from society for generations. They were sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and hopelessness, under the weight of institutionalised racism. The longer I travelled with Jacob, the more I started to believe that there was no more hope for these people. The whole journey reminded me of an installation by Jenny Holzer, the artist, which read: "Go where people sleep and see if they're safe." I had never met Jacob before the trip. I was scheduled to give a talk in New Orleans and he was making the journey to meet the people he had spent time with over the past 30 years. Together we visited shacks and prison communities in the forgotten underbelly of America.

When we first met, the first thing I wanted to do was hand him a bottle of our Brazil Nut Hair Conditioner - his hair was as rough as straw and he had a long plaited beard which he rolled up when he went into cities. I quickly learned Jacob's personality was determinately passive. If ever he was in adversarial situations, he would gently talk his way out of things. Once, when every inch of our truck was filled with wayfarers, itinerants and hitchhikers who would normally strike fear in any of us - Jacob never passed anyone on the highway - I studied how softly he spoke and how intently he listened. In our society, gentleness is often viewed as ridiculous or insincere: Jacob showed me that nothing is as powerful as gentleness or as persuasive as treating a person with respect and kindness. This is how he has survived the hazards of the life he has spent gathering the stories of the marginalised and powerless.

What I saw whilst travelling with Jacob astounded me. The hope for change, and the optimism that I felt during the 1960s when our generati...

Show full text: 22,761 characters