Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action

Chapter 6

Unselfishness

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

—Oscar Wilde

 

Almost exactly two weeks after Steve Jobs passed away in October of 2011, Apple held an invitation-only event to celebrate his life. One of the most powerful moments of the event was the heartfelt remarks of Jony Ive, Apple’s chief designer and long-time collaborator with Jobs. In his eulogy speech at Jobs memorial service, he shared what he felt made Jobs so different:

I think he better than anyone understood that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful, they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished.

It was a powerful reminder of the fragility of great ideas. It would also have been a fitting eulogy for another business legend named Robyn Putter who had passed away just a year earlier. Born in 1950, Putter had risen through the ranks of the marketing world in his native South Africa after joining global agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1976.

Eventually taking the reins at Ogilvy South Africa as CEO, he built his regional office into a global powerhouse that managed to become the first African agency ever to win the coveted International Agency of the Year award from Advertising Age magazine in 1995. When he tragically lost his battle with cancer in March ...