My oldest daughter Meika had traveled from New York to Washington DC. My youngest daughter Chiara was marching in Ithaca, NY where she was at school. My wife Sheila had organized a car pool with several friends to make the one-hour drive from Burlington to Montpelier, VT where several thousand people were expected. My son was skiing in Lake Tahoe.

A mile or so before we arrived at the Montpelier highway exit cars were backed up. When we finally got off the highway there were cars littered everywhere. This was going to be something bigger than I had imagined, not a small group of Vermont hippies trudging around a muddy schoolyard.

The post-Trump election, depression, disbelief seems to have to have found a common outlet for expression. It felt like the entire state of Vermont had shown up and I was thrilled to be there. Not since the Vietnam war, have I felt such a profound feeling of the need to come together to support a common cause. A cause that at first appeared not to be my cause.

I almost didn’t go to the Women’s March, but for some reason I couldn’t quite identify, I felt I needed to show up. I had failed to show up for dozens of marches over the last two decades. It was always unclear to what purpose and effect marches have and why one would want to give up a whole day to participate. Why was this different?

It wasn’t clear what we hoped to accomplish. What was clear was that we needed to shown up to let the new administration know that shit wasn’t going to go down easy. While the narrative was focused on protecting women’s rights, the experience was about protecting human rights. The new administration needs to know that we will resist. Resist at every turn. Every attempt to accelerate inequity and injustice, destruction to our environment, limits to freedom, and all forms of discrimination.

Sometimes we just need to show up even if we’re not sure why. Now more than ever. This won’t be the last time. The next four years will unleash days that will leave us shaking our heads in disbelief. We will mourn the loss of decades of progress and read headlines that bring tears to our eyes. We will resist, hold our ground, and ban together because women’s rights are human rights.

Let’s start with avoiding taxes. A recent Oxfam report analyzing the financial maneuvers of 50 of the biggest US companies, including Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, Chevron, Walmart, IBM, and Procter & Gamble uncovered that these companies have stashed more than a trillion dollars offshore and used more than 1,600 subsidiaries in tax havens to avoid billions of dollars in tax each year. Oxfam outlines how corporate tax dodging costs the US an estimated $100 billion each year, a gap that the average American taxpayer would have to shell out an extra $760 a year to cover.

The report also revealed that these same companies are huge beneficiaries of US taxpayer funded support, “receiving a staggering $11 trillion in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailout assistance from 2008-2014 even as they avoided hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes over the same period of time. Oxfam calculated that during this period, these 50 companies collectively received approximately $27 in loan support for every $1 they paid in federal taxes.”

To add insult to injury, among the 500 corporations in the S.&P. 500-stock index 27 were both profitable in 2015, and paid no net income tax globally according to an analysis by USA Today.

Nicholas Kristof wrote in an APRIL 14, 2016 editorial that over all the share of corporate taxation in federal revenue has declined since 1952 from 32 percent to 11 percent. In that same period the portion coming from payroll taxes, which hit the working poor, has climbed.

Let’s look at undue influence over public policy. The Oxfam report says that for each $1 the biggest companies spent on lobbying they received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts. This totals up to huge sums of money. From 1998 to 2016, The Center for Responsive Politics calculated that the biggest spenders spent hundreds of millions of dollars, not the sort of pocket change that the average Joe can afford to spend to get his voice heard in Washington.

Outrage at being dealt a deck of cards in a crooked game of poker has fuelled support for both Trump and Sanders. Political analysts, including Chris Hedges, are warning that this outrageously unfair game that creates greater levels of economic inequity than we’ve seen in over 40 years is pushing America to a breaking point where widespread social unrest is just around the corner.

Shame on these companies, their management and Boards of Directors.

The Oxfam report analyzed the tax practices of the 50 largest public companies in the US according to the Forbes 2000 list: Alphabet (Google), American Express, American International Group (AIG), Amgen, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, Capital One Financial, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, ConocoPhillips, CVS Health, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Honeywell International, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Merck, MetLife, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Phillips 66, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Qualcomm, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., United Technologies, UnitedHealth Group, US Bancorp, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores, Walt Disney, and Wells Fargo.

Shel is quite an interesting guy. Last time I googled for him, I got more than 100,000 hits. I’ve always thought of him as visionary–he talked about marketing through both content expertise and partnering with both competitors and complementary businesses all the way back in 1985, and he wrote about business ethics as a success path in a book published in 2003. He’s also the only one I know who organized a movement that actually saved a mountain. He’s even been inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame.

Plus, he writes clearly written books and articles that are not only informative and inspiring, but fun to read.

What he’s doing now will knock your socks off: leveraging the power of profit to tackle problems like hunger, poverty, war, and climate change. Here’s his note:

Two years ago, I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up: the person who proves that the business world can end hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change.

Not through guilt or shame–through enlightened self-interest: profit. Developing a core business identity based in social transformation, and creating/marketing products and services that address these issues directly.

Let’s make that concrete:

• Example 1: inexpensive but profitable solar-powered LED lanterns eliminate kerosene’s toxic fumes and deadly fires…fund the purchase out of a household’s existing kerosene budget…provide better light, enabling the kids to get better grades and the parents to take on a cottage industry–ladders out of poverty (at least three companies are making these)

• Example 2: holistic design: without furnace or AC, you can save 80% energy/carbon. nature knows how to build a curved anthill that withstands both India’s intense monsoon flooding and the inhospitable dry climate the rest of the year.

• Example 3: self-feeding loops grow mushrooms on the spent grain from a brewery, feed the mushroom waste to a tilapia (fish) crop, and uses the fish nutrients to grow gourmet salad greens. This cycle creates new jobs, improves the community’s quality of life *and* food self-sufficiency, and restores polluted water–all at once.

Pretty cool, huh? I’ve spent the past two years looking at how systemic thinking can eliminate scarcity, balance the planet, and promote peace.

My 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World comes out in April, with 22 endorsements including Jack Canfield and Seth Godin, and four essays from Cynthia Kersey (author of Unstoppable/Unstoppable Women), Frances Moore Lappé (Diet for a Small Planet), Yanik Silver (Evolved Enterprise), and Ken McArthur (The Impact Factor). It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Brilliant, eh? And Shel tells me we already know how to do most of this. Shel’s never been one to shy away from a challenge. He even did a TEDx talk called “‘Impossible’ is a Dare.”

I know you’ll be thrilled to read this book–even without the cool bonuses Shel has put together (including some consulting time with Shel).

Visit http://transformpreneur.com/featured-book-guerrilla-marketing-to-heal-the-world/ to learn more about Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World and to order from your favorite bookseller (or get an autographed copy from Shel himself). It could even set your business on a new path, creating profitable offerings that make a real difference.

We live with an illusion so powerful that we endlessly mistake it for reality. Merriam-Webster defines “free market” as “an economic market or system in which prices are based on competition among private businesses and not controlled by a government.”

Consumers always wondered why Seventh Generation, the company I co-founded in 1988, sold its bath tissue—made from 100 percent recycled fiber—at a higher price than traditional, nonrecycled brands. Was it because we were small and lacked the leverage to ensure the lowest costs? Was our supply chain inefficient? Was it because we paid our staff higher wages?

The answer had everything to do with the supposed free market, specifically US government subsidies to the virgin fiber industry. A 1999 report calculated that Congress—by assigning capital gains status to timber sales, which allowed forest service sales of timber at below its cost of operation, and free or below-cost road construction—gave the virgin fiber industry $4 billion in government subsidies over a five-year period.

What did that do? It made every roll of Seventh Generation bath tissue more expensive than our competitors’, which used virgin fiber and reaped those benefits. That’s when I knew the game was fixed, and we weren’t operating in a free market.

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The tide has turned. Being values-driven and environmentally friendly is no longer a costly add-on to a standard business strategy. Embedding purpose into your company culture has become essential for businesses of any size seeking success in the 21^st Century.

To learn more about this conscious business revolution, you’ve got to check out an invaluable FREE online event. It’s called “The Conscious Business Blueprint: Learn the secrets of what highly profitable 21^st-Century companies have already figured out”

You can register here: http://theconsciousbusinessblueprint.com/JeffreyHollender

A global 2014 Nielsen Survey found that more than 50% of people prefer to work for a socially responsible company, say they are willing to spend more for a product or service that supports a cause, and check product packaging to ensure sustainable impact.

How is your company scoring in these areas?

Conscious companies all have something in common:

• A strong sense of purpose and contribution to society (they love giving money to causes)
• A team that is drama-free, in synch and highly productive
• An infectious pride in and commitment to the work they do and the impact they create
• Highly engaged, loyal and share-happy customers

I have dedicated my life to this work and I can assure you that this is not a fad. Organizations driven by values and purpose are becoming the norm. They are also becoming the most profitable and trusted companies.

This FREE interview series was crafted by a dear colleague, Kirsten Liegmann. It features the best thinkers, strategists and leaders in the fields of business, leadership, sustainability and consciousness. They will provide you with invaluable tips, trends and practical tools to help you make this strategic and essential pivot in your business.

I am honored to be part of this panel of seasoned experts. It’s FREE and it’s timely, so please join me: http://theconsciousbusinessblueprint.com/JeffreyHollender

Don’t miss this opportunity! Be a pioneer in this movement! Leave a legacy by building and leading a highly profitable, fun, purposeful, meaningful and sustainable organization.

P.S.: History remembers significant, pivotal moments and those who had the wisdom to recognize them and the foresight to position themselves accordingly. This is one of those moments. Seize it and make some history.

For the first time in American history, single women outnumber married women. Women aren’t getting married not because they want to prove a point, but because it’s finally sort of ok for a woman to believe that marriage does not equal complete and total success. Marriage is no longer an end goal. Rather, the idea that a woman without a man can be a professional, sexual, and responsible individual is pretty widely accepted these days. As simple an idea as it may be, it’s sadly the first time in US history that women are so trusted and respected.

Traister points out that as women have taken on and internalized this independence they (and their allies) demand alternatives to old-fashioned policies that have privileged married, working & wealthy white men above everyone else. It’s true: women also need a fair wage equal to male counterparts, family leave, and affordable health care, as well as accessible reproductive health care and universal pre-Kindergarten.

What’s interesting is that Traister seems to imply that this movement lead by young, single women is separate from the mainstream movement for equality in the name of feminism. Rather, it is a movement of women fighting for survival (which is actually an inherently feminist cause, by the way). Equal pay is important, but what is also important is creating options and opportunity for women specifically so they can be as successful as our society has allowed (white) men to be.

Unfortunately these options and opportunities are still lacking, but that means that young women (and their allies) are becoming more politically involved, and looking for liberal leaders that stand behind these causes. That’s why Traister claims young, single women are a force to be reckoned with in the coming election…big social change is around the corner.

Those aged 18-31 today are less employed, make less money, and are in much more debt than previous generations, and as a result are behaving differently. Young people are putting marriage off for longer than past generations (56% married and living in their own home in 1968 vs. only 23% in 2012), and are putting parenthood off longer as well (13% of women had children by the age of 25 in the 1970s vs. 8% in 2010s). An unstable economy and less reliable employment call for different priorities.

For example: young people are reluctant to buy cars & houses, and prefer to rent rather than own (60% of 25-30 year olds rent now vs. 52% in 2005). 30% of millennials surveyed did not consider owning a car to be important or a priority (only 15% considered owning a car to be extremely important).

Although millennials are reluctant to buy there still exists a demand for transportation and housing, which has resulted in the exponential growth of the shared economy; a sharing of access to goods and services. Some great examples of shared economy markets that have blown up in the past couple years, to meet the needs of generation Y especially, are Airbnb and Uber. With this kind of access fewer resources are used, which allows for a more sustainable way of life.

Another interesting finding from this data story is that millenials are turning to brands that can offer maximum convenience at the lowest cost. A majority of those surveyed tended to disagree with this statement: ‘when I shop, I always try to buy branded products,’ and agreed that quality matters less while (reasonable) price matters more. What if a company is dedicated to responsible practices? These findings imply that young people compromise sustainability for a good deal when it comes to material goods.

Providing low-cost birth control over the counter makes family planning much more accessible to Americans, which is one big step in the right direction for reproductive justice. However, not only does this strategy provide women with a safe and easy contraceptive option, it’s actually going to be pretty effective. Reproductive health researchers at The University of California, San Francisco estimate that, as a result of birth control being offered over the counter, 11-21% of low-income women will start using birth control, which will result in an estimated 7-25% decrease in unintended pregnancies.

The decrease in births will also effect a decrease in insurance & public health plan prices, since less pregnancy and birth care services will be needed. Less unplanned births also conserve other valuable resources from food and electricity to oil and waste.

Some medical professionals worry that providing contraceptives this freely will discourage women from seeking out preventative care like STI testing and cancer screening. What needs to be done to combat this potential backlash is to create more access and education; better access to condoms, better access to education on disease, and most importantly better access to medical services. Ideally, though, and with access to these educational & medical services, we should trust women to take care of themselves.

Hopefully by 2017 we will see most states following in the footsteps of CA and OR. Though I do wonder what the questionnaire will be like.

This brilliant movie tells a chilling tale of the complex world of finance in a way that’s both clearly understandable and sad, hysterically funny and deeply distressing – all at the same time. It’s a tale about everything that’s wrong with our economy and why income inequality is bad and getting worse.

The villains in the story don’t get punished and we the people get screwed.

The movie is based on Michael Lewis’s book. Lewis is also the author of Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and The Blind Side. 

• Extraordinary entrepreneurs take on huge, open-ended problems, never talk about revenue but are obsessed with mission. Revenue is the successful side effect of being obsessed with solving gigantic challenges (how to organize the worlds information.)

• Jack Dorsey – Square/Twitter – is extraordinary at getting to the essence of things, which is what’s required of great designers.

• The biggest business opportunities are in the industries that are the hardest to penetrate, the industries that have used their wealth and power to build the biggest walls around them, the greatest barriers to entry. These walls are often regulatory.

• How to evaluate a new business in 30 minutes? Focus on one thing: does the entrepreneur have unique insights that meaningfully change how you think about an industry, or the world?

• Cash is oxygen to start ups, there can never be enough.

• Success requires a “big” market where an entrepreneur has the space to make lots of mistakes and still achieve validation of their business idea.

•  Mobile first. Always. If you start out designing for a desktop you’re a dinosaur. 30 – 40% of all time spent on mobile devices is spent on Facebook.

Despite the huge reduction in value that Square received when they went public (a pre-IPO valuation of $4 billion knocked down to $2 billion) the sense in the meeting was that Uber, AirB&B, and Box along with all the other multi-billion Unicorns, are NOT overvalued when you analyze the size of the industries they participate in and compare it to their current sales and sales potential.

The unicorns will keep eating the dinasours.