“As global citizens, it is important that we all decide how we can help build a better future for everyone who inhabits this planet. A planet we must come to realize we all share. In the WEconomy, Holly, Marc and Craig share not only entertaining and insightful stories, but top tips on how, both personally and professionally, we can work together to achieve just that.”

—Scooter Braun, entrepreneur and founder of SB Projects

“As people continue to look for meaningful ways they can uniquely contribute personally and professionally to this world, WEconomy illustrates ways we can all do good and do well.”

—Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, NFL champions

“Through fun, inspiring, and revealing stories the authors not only bring the WEconomy to life, but bring the reader along for the ride. As the most connected generation in history, never before has there been such an incredible opportunity to make the ‘WE’ a powerful movement for positive change.”

—Ed Sheeran, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter

It was my first day on the ground in India. The year was 1992 and I had graduated from college a few months before. I was working as a research assistant at the World Bank and this was my first chance to leave the air-conditioned Washington, D.C., headquarters and see what development work actually was like in the field.

I remember the heat hitting me as my colleague Dr. Salim Habayeb and I walked out of the airport. We headed toward our cab and before we made it to the door, a small boy came up to us, grabbed my leg, lifted up his shirt to show the burn marks covering his chest, and then held out his hand to beg for money. After freezing for a minute in shock, I started to reach for my purse. Salim, who had worked in public health for many years, kindly put his hand over mine and said a firm “no.” He explained that someone had likely burned this boy to enable him to beg more effectively, and if I gave him money, they would do it again. We got into the cab and drove away, tears pouring down my face.

Over the next few weeks as Salim and our colleague Maria Donoso Clark and I traveled throughout India working on a program to treat leprosy, I had many such learning moments. I met patients who had been cast out of their homes and families due to their disease. I saw acts of despair, acts of kindness, and acts of greatness—all in an environment that nothing in my childhood in Miami could have prepared me for. Most importantly, I saw how dedicated people could make a real difference. During the days, I worked harder than I ever had in my life trying to do my small part to help. At night, I cried myself to sleep.

In the decades since my first trip to India, a lot has improved, even though the gap between rich and poor has increased dramatically and deep poverty remains. India's economy has developed. Leprosy has gone from afflicting more than 3 million people to fewer than 100,000. Each time I visit I am amazed at the vibrancy of the Indian people and economy and the improvements to health they have achieved.

I was last in India three years ago. I was there not as a 22-year-old in her first job but on an official visit as the chief operating officer of Facebook. More importantly, I was visiting as a mother—on this trip, Craig Kielburger and my nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter were with me. I want my children to grow up understanding what I did not learn until I was 22—that the luck of birth determines so much of our lives and that those of us with opportunity also have responsibility. And I want my children to see how even when problems might seem overwhelmingly large, individuals can make a difference.

Our time with Craig in Rajasthan showed all of this so clearly. We visited a one-room village school and helped build a wall for a new school that will provide multiple classrooms so more children will have the opportunity to learn. We helped families who had relied on polluted water sources carry clean water from their new community well to their homes. We attended a Lean In Circle meeting with women who are participating in a financial literacy program that has helped them save money and send their daughters to school for the first time. All of this is happening because WE Charity, a program started by Craig when he was just 12 years old, is working in these communities—and making a huge difference.

This book is about how we can all work to improve the lives of others. The problems in the world can seem overwhelming—5.6 million children under the age of five die each year of preventable or curable diseases,¹ more than 700 million people still lack access to clean water,² and 46 million people live in slavery.³ But even a single person can make a huge difference, as each of the authors of this book shows us every day. There are no simple solutions, but there are solutions that can be created and deployed. Companies, nonprofits, governments, and hybrid social enterprises each have their own role to play—and the authors of this book have been leaders in all these realms. As Holly Branson, Marc Kielburger, and Craig Kielburger share their stories and insights in these pages, the interwoven nature of the “WEconomy” is brought to light for all of us. As you start out on your own journey, ask yourself: What kind of world do you want to live in? Dream big—dream of a world that is just and fair, where all have equal opportunity to live healthy, happy, and productive lives. How much will you do to create that better world? Whatever your path may be—in business, in government, in a nonprofit—how will you contribute to the lives of others? What legacy will you leave for your children and for all children?

At Facebook, we have posters on the walls that inspire us, such as Fortune Favors the Bold or Done Is Better Than Perfect. I have two favorites: Nothing at Facebook Is Someone Else's Problem and What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid? What would you do if you believed that all of the problems out there could be solved and that it was your responsibility to solve them? What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Please ask yourself those questions and decide what you'd do. And then go do it.

 

Part One: Introduction
Welcome to the Weconomy

By Craig Kielburger, Holly Branson, and Marc Kielburger

In the WEconomy, you can make money and change the world — you can make money by changing the world. It's that simple.

The WEconomy is an emerging economic system driven by purpose and profit. It reflects the interconnected nature of our economy, environment, and social welfare so that business works in the interest of the greater good.

We live in turbulent times. As antiglobalization forces have so visibly impacted the world, so many are understandably afraid that humanity is moving backwards when it comes to helping the planet's most impoverished and disadvantaged. Problems that should unite us, like climate change and a growing wealth gap, are abandoned to partisan politics. World leaders promise to build walls, exit political unions, and retreat from economic alliances, withdrawing inward. So many of us are divided along racial, religious, and political lines that the rise of the individual and a “me first” mentality seems inevitable. It's enough to make even the most optimistic idealists furrow their brows.

But progress happens in fits and starts; this too shall pass. We're firm believers that the “building walls” sentiment is a blip fostered by fear and misunderstanding, and that humankind is generally on a march toward a more open, interconnected world. Our global village is smaller than at any other time in human history. Individuals are connected and empowered by more knowledge, more information, and more tools, and can more easily mobilize around a cause. Across the globe, millions of individual volunteers and people in business, government, and nonprofits are committed to making the world a better place.

“I truly believe that if every company in the world adopted this philosophy, all of the world's problems could be solved.”

—Richard Branson

So, despite what may seem like doomsday headlines, it's not the end of the world as we know it. Why? Because many of us are focused on moving the world forward, on fostering progress, not just by engaging politically or reaching out to our neighbors, but also by turning business into a force for good. It's now possible to build companies and social enterprises that tackle the planet's most dire problems. Workers can now bring their personal values to the office, giving back on company time.

Most people are driven in varying degrees by the need to do good, balanced against the need to be financially successful. We came together to write this book because we all learned, despite our different paths, that choosing profit or purpose at the expense of the other is a false dichotomy. You can do both. You should do both.

When purpose and profit unite—and we will show you that they do—the economy, the individual, and the community thrive.

Changing the world shouldn't be a task saved for extreme altruists working without pay. The best and brightest from all economic and social sectors can survive and thrive while tackling our planet's biggest challenges.

As three thirty-somethings on the cusp of this new movement, we are in a unique position, each bringing a different voice from the big three players in the WEconomy: business (Holly Branson), charity (Craig Kielburger), and social enterprise (Marc Kielburger). Over the past couple of years, we've pored over countless business books, but never found one that brought together voices from all three sectors. We each have our own experiences to draw from (you will hear a lot about Virgin, WE Charity, and ME to WE). We write about what we know—drawing from our mistakes and learnings. We'll, of course, introduce ourselves properly, but first, we would like to introduce you to our mentors—those who helped us recognize the power of purpose and profit combined.

Oprah Winfrey

Some Things You Might Not Know

The Oprah Winfrey Show was the highestrated television talk show in U.S. history. It drew in 48 million viewers per week.1	O, The Oprah Magazine, has the highest women's magazine circulation in North America with 2.4 million copies sold per year.2
Oprah invested $40 million to create the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The school in South Africa for disadvantaged girls was lauded by Nelson Mandela.	Oprah's Book Club leads to 55 million books sold after promotion on the show.
Fortune magazine named her the world's most charitable celebrity.

People want to be Oprah because she fosters her passions while giving back—and she gets paid to do so. The Oprah Winfrey Show was devoted to health and fitness, relationships, and literacy because Oprah commiserates with our family issues and wants to be part of our book club. Like us, Oprah is on the treadmill the first month of the year, fighting the five pounds of chocolate she ate over the holidays. She is a self-made business magnate whose brand is, when you break it down, devoted to living one's best life. She wants to help people be better—mentally, emotionally, physically—by sharing her personal struggles. Not only did Oprah make money and do good, she made money by doing good. Then, through donations and her own foundations, Oprah funded other causes. She has built schools, helped abandoned or abused children, worked to combat HIV/AIDS and climate change, committing almost $1 billion to philanthropic causes in her lifetime. Now worth an estimated $3 billion,³ Oprah is regularly named one of the world's most powerful women, sharing the list with the likes of Melinda Gates and former First Lady Michelle Obama.⁴

Oprah feeds that craving in all of us that tells us we can make a difference in the world and make a living. It doesn't have to be Oprah-scale wages either—most of us simply want enough to support our families and occasionally take a vacation. Most of us also want a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning, a way to make a contribution. But we also need the sense of security that comes with a steady paycheck. Oprah built a corporate empire on this fusion of purpose and profit that the whole working world is after. And we're not just saying all of this because she is one of our greatest mentors.

When Marc and Craig met Oprah for the first time, they were teenagers at the helm of a brand new charity they'd launched with . . . well, a bunch of other teenagers. The organization had a naïve mission to help kids get an education by building schools, but had no formal game plan. The novelty of kids helping kids earned Craig a spot on the show, which parlayed into a partnership. Oprah would go on to build over 50 schools and dozens more projects with them, lending her business acumen and guidance. Craig and Marc would sit on her famous couch four more times.

Oprah helped mentor the brothers to transform the fledgling charity into a sustainable development organization, now with over $50 million in annual donations.

WE has come a long way since then, but there are still barriers to girls education. Meet Faith, and see her incredible drive to attend school. Click for video

Richard Branson

Some Under-the-radar Initiatives

In the 1980s he donated ₤5 million to establish Mates condoms as a competitor to Durex during the AIDS epidemic. All profits went to charity. Because of that, the BBC ran Mates ads for free and helped educate millions of people about the importance of using condoms.

In 1985 Richard took a gamble on a 23-year-old Jane Tewson by agreeing to cover the full overhead of a new charity: the now famous Comic Relief/Red Nose Day. Because of Richard's backing, 100 percent of money raised could be directed to good causes. By 2015 Comic Relief had raised over ₤1 billion for charity and has helped over 50 million people in the UK and overseas.

In the same way that Richard is a serial entrepreneur in business, he is also a serial philanthropist. He has established dozens of not-for-profit organizations that seek to tackle a range of social and environmental issues: The Elders (independent global leaders working for peace and human rights) Ocean Unite and the Ocean Elders (ocean conservation) the B Team (to rally business leaders to change business for good) and the Carbon War Room (to combat climate change) the Help Advisory Centre (counseling for troubled youth, started when he was a student himself)

Richard anticipated viral marketing before the advent of social media. He dressed in drag, drove an army tank through New York's Times Square, and raced in hot air balloons to steal attention away from corporate goliaths. All to build a global brand without forking out for traditional advertising. His mantra was, and remains, “screw business as usual.” This also extends to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rather than tack on a CSR plan with no real resources or support, Virgin uses its core business for social good, in some cases starting companies purely to solve a social problem, and not worrying about the profit potential until much later on. Richard's brilliant feat of launching and growing companies, with purpose at their heart, is transforming business and changing the world.

“Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce, entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

—Bono, activist and lead singer for U2

Part of a company's core mission today should involve social purpose, and Richard knew this long before nearly everyone else. Richard's motivation for launching a business has always been driven by two questions: By shaking up this market, are we introducing competition that will benefit the customer? Will we bring customers a more rewarding and fair experience? He's been very successful—because building social impact into business isn't just the right thing to do, it's also profitable.

After Holly had embarked on a career in medicine, the realization of her childhood dream, her father suggested she take a year out to learn about business. It was Richard who helped Holly realize she might help more people in a boardroom than she could in a hospital room. Her dad taught her that business can be the biggest force for social change.

Watch Holly and her dad getting acquainted at WE DAY UK: Click for video

Jeff Skoll:

The Canadian Entrepreneur with a Conscience

Skoll is one of only a few dozen people to donate $1 billion.	His foundation's initiatives include an investment firm dedicated to ethical money management, as well as TakePart. com, an offshoot of Participant Media that works to convert people's concerns about issues into individual and collective action.
His films don't just raise consciousness, they win awards and attract big audiences. An Inconvenient Truth, Spotlight, The Help, Syriana, Lincoln, and Deepwater Horizon are among the films he's produced. He's worked with top talent in Hollywood: Matt Damon, George Clooney, and Emma Stone, among other stars.	The Skoll Global Threats Fund looks for strategies to prevent or cope with disasters, including nuclear meltdowns, pandemics, water shortages, climate change, and conflict in the Middle East.

Jeff leveraged that public interest with action campaigns that complement the movie's themes, giving people a tangible way to respond to their feelings postviewing. To enhance Lincoln, a drama about the 16th U.S. president, the film was distributed to middle schools and high schools in the United States. The educational outreach package came with lesson plans to help teachers introduce students to this iconic figure in American history.

Not all of Participant's films make money, but Jeff finances his passion projects with smart (mostly eco-oriented) investments. He's since made money on everything from renewable energy to his personal favorite investment at the moment—flush-free urinals. Jeff also happens to be one of our greatest mentors (we hope you're picking up on the theme here).

When Marc decided to forgo a handsome salary and a corner office to increase the scale of a charity, he struggled with whether he could start a family on a nonprofit salary. He wondered how a charity could stay sustainable without all the trappings of a business. Jeff's advice?

Don't choose between purpose and profit; it's not an either-or proposition.

Jeff taught Marc that the future of social change lies with social enterprise.

Pioneers of Purpose and Profit

So what do a media mogul from Chicago, a British serial entrepreneur, and a Canadian sci-fi fan have in common? All hit on the combination of purpose and profit early on, achieved massive success, and continued to use the power and resources of corporate engines to create positive change. This combination of purpose and profit is the bedrock of the WEconomy, and it is achievable for everyone, regardless of your sector or the stage of your career. You don't have to be a business owner to reap benefits in the WEconomy.

We look to Oprah, Richard, and Jeff, not because they founded companies, but because they were part of the first cohort to get it right—to achieve both financial success and social impact on a massive scale. Ironically, we also know that each would quibble with being called pioneers of a trend they hadn't predicted. They just wanted to do good. We learned some of our greatest business lessons from these three innovators, which we'll talk about more when we introduce ourselves properly.

From the Recent Graduate to the CEO, Everyone Will Learn Something from This Book

	CEOs will learn how to embed purpose into the DNA of their business to inspire their employees and boost the bottom line.
	Marketers will learn how to connect more deeply with customers and engage previously untapped demographics.
	Entrepreneurs will use purpose as a launch pad to develop “the next big thing.”
	Team members will learn to write purpose into their job descriptions for a more meaningful career, a move that also benefits their employers.
	HR leaders will learn to inspire their teams, recruit new talent, and build loyalty.
	New starters will get a crash course on purpose that will help them climb the corporate ladder.

Before launching a career as a social entrepreneur, Marc served water in the Canadian House of Commons, worked with AIDS patients in Bangkok, and collected degrees from Harvard and Oxford. Now he counts himself among those who do good and still make a living. Before arriving at Virgin, Holly volunteered at an African orphanage, worked with various charities, completed medical and physiology degrees, and practiced medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Holly then joined the ranks of a company involved in everything from financial services to spaceships. Craig didn't do much before he launched a children's charity. Of course, he was 12 at the time. But since then, his two decades of work as a social activist have taken him everywhere from urban slums to Mother Teresa's home to the mountains at Davos to Oprah's famous couch. After all this, he discovered that his degree in peace and conflict studies could use a shot in the arm—sheer earnestness is not enough to change the world—and so he earned an MBA to bring more business rigor to the nonprofit world. Now a leader in the nonprofit sector, he dreams of starting his own social accelerator to help others scale.

80 percent of global consumers say business must play a role in addressing societal issues.

—Edelman Trust Barometer