Читать книгу The New Builders - Seth Levine - Страница 28

Historically, Americans see themselves as champions of the underdog. There has been a special place in American history for those individuals who, through sheer determination and grit, forged ideas that changed industries and ultimately laid the foundation for new parts of the American economy. We've honored the Main Street entrepreneurs who spent their energy in the interests of building healthy communities, and in so doing, helped keep our economy dynamic. But in recent years, we've seemingly lost that part of our story. We've forgotten to value it. Even worse, we often seem to be actively devaluing it in favor of big business.

A few years before Steve Murray, whose story starts this chapter, died, he helped put on a fashion show at a local nursing home. The elderly ladies put on glamorous floor‐length gowns, all silk and taffeta, with peplums and the long silhouettes of the World War II era. A woman named Vanda waltzed down the aisle of folding chairs in a fawn‐colored number with sequined shoulders that looked like it ought to be brushing the floor of a New York City nightclub to Tommy Dorsey music. And there, in the back of the room, was Steve, leaning on a clothing rack. He'd lent the dresses to the ladies, and from the smile on his face, it was clear that he was loving every minute of it. He really did have a rare eye for beauty – a gift he lent to his community.

After the story about Steve Murray's role in Lancaster's revitalization was published, the economic development director for the state of Pennsylvania wrote his boss, then Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella. “Maybe we've been doing economic development all wrong,” he said.²²

But strangely, Steve is being written out of the Lancaster narrative in other places. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a story about Lancaster's revitalization that celebrated the role of big business people – the very Hourglass Foundation Murray had battled – as the changemakers.

“They realized that the only way they could replace Armstrong (World Industries) and reenergize the downtown was not with another dominant company, but by throwing partisan politics out the window and forming a complex adaptive coalition in which business leaders, educators, philanthropists, social innovators, and the local government would work together to unleash entrepreneurship and forge whatever compromises were necessary to fix the city,” Friedman wrote.²³

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead acknowledged our propensity to believe that big institutions create change and the reality that they don't when she said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has.”²⁴

In truth, Lancaster's transformation needed both Murray's cussedness and the support and deep pockets of the powers‐that‐be. But it's the role of the influential changemaker that's getting lost in today's telling of the story. Not all entrepreneurs are in the mold of Steve Murray or Fred Sachs. Many simply want to run their businesses and create a good life for themselves and their families.

But we can't lose sight of the importance of these key New Builders who take it upon themselves to lift their entire communities. One of the most important things we uncovered in researching and talking with New Builders around the country is the power of an individual visionary in a supportive community. It's easy to ignore individual small businesses because, by their nature, they are small. But together, they comprise a powerful group.

Perhaps this is what is most surprising to learn: just how impactful New Builders are in their communities. In a world where business success is too often defined by size and profit margins, these New Builders are pushing back and redefining – perhaps realigning – the metrics we use to judge success.