John Abrams’ The Company We Keep is the story of a Natural Enterprise, with all of the qualities necessary to be a sustainable, responsible, joyful business (in stark contrast to most traditional corporations):
Abrams’ story is detailed and refreshingly candid — he admits to the bad decisions, false starts, missteps and the continuing work in progress that his enterprise is. This makes his insights utterly credible, and his story immensely educational. Most of the corporate profiles in business management books and MBA ‘case studies’ are whitewashed and self-serving. Abrams, by contrast, gives us the unvarnished truth — what really works, and what doesn’t. The book is divided into eight parts, each addressing one of the “building blocks” of Abrams’ South Mountain Company, a homebuilding enterprise on Martha’s Vineyard:
He explains, in a painstakingly careful and detailed narrative, how South Mountain learned of the importance of these building blocks, and applied them, ultimately with remarkable and delightful (and still evolving) success. He cites many of the same influences I have written about in my articles on Natural Enterprise: Charles Handy, Herman Daly, the Mondragon Co-op, Bill McKibbon, Patagonia, Seventh Generation, Bucky Fuller, Michael Shuman, WL Gore. He writes: If we are lucky in life, work becomes an expression of who we are and one of our most important anchors of meaning.
What most impresses me about him is his modesty and humility (reminiscent of the qualities of another great natural entrepreneur, Dave Smith), and how these qualities have guided him and his partners through the uncharted struggles of entrepreneurship. They made South Mountain intensively attuned to their customers and their community, attentive, observant, adaptive, never reckless or arrogant. He expresses this caution about generalizing his own success story to some larger truth magnificently: Is it a stretch to say that the more fully we are fulfilled in our work, the more fully we can love both our children and our community? And that the more fulfilled we are, the more we can help build a future that’s sane and just? If I overreach, it is only my enthusiasm for the possibility that is at fault. Here then is one small business on one small island. Its lessons emerge from its story, but it is only one of many stories of small-business experimentation that are unfolding today in the wealthiest nation the world has ever known…Perhaps, combined [with others’ stories] they might together alter, in some small way, the chemistry of our culture….[citing Lee Halprin] “All truth knows only a little of what it is…Certainly a lot of writing does not show that it knows the slightness of its knowledge“…I’ll be trying to remember the slightness of my own knowledge…and trying to separate what I think I know from what I’m certain I don’t.
Read this book, and discover the important message Abrams conveys when he says “At South Mountain, we are struggling to get the dog part right.” . . . . . I am delighted to report that Chelsea Green, who are the publishers of Abrams’ book, have contracted to publish my book about Natural Enterprise and ‘working naturally’. I am blown away that my book has been accepted by the publisher of the works of extraordinary writers like Derrick Jensen, George Lakoff, Hazel Henderson and John Abrams. I second Abrams when he writes, in his acknowledgements, “I’m grateful for Margo Baldwin’s confidence — she’s been with it all the way from the start, and I look forward to a long association with her and Chelsea Green”. I also thank my agent, John Willig, for his confidence and perseverance in helping me evolve this book into one worth publishing. The objective of my book will be to draw upon the stories of over a hundred companies that I have worked with or studied that are, or are becoming, Natural Enterprises, and relay their learnings, war stories, and their secrets of achieving success on their own terms. The book will offer a suggested roadmap for those looking to find or create what Dave Smith calls “meaningful work”, but I will endeavour to follow Abrams’ example and advice and provide the unvarnished truth about what works and what doesn’t, and what I’m not at all sure about, in acknowledgement of the “slightness of my own knowledge”. And I’ll try to get the dog part right. . . . . . I am also pleased to report that I have been asked, as a result of my recent article about the possibility of making Downsview Park a model community — car-free, sustainable, self-sufficient — to meet with the Downsview Lands Community Voice Association, the “watchdog” on the Park’sdevelopment. I hope to connect them with John Abrams, Cradle to Cradle architect Bill McDonough, and others who can help them, and all of us, imagine what a community (in the middle of the city) could be. Category: Creating Natural Enterprises
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Dave – may i be the first here to congratulate you on the success of finding the right publisher for the right book at the right time.Very best wishes,AndrewPS Please reserve me a signed copy ;-) cheque in the post!
Oh, DaveCongratulations, again and again and again. The more I learn about Chelsea Green the more impressed and inspired and grateful I am for them, and this new development… well, this is no exception. I’m so, so glad.
Awesome developments. Congrats on landing the book deal and that ear of the watchdog group. Sounds like a good company worth highlighting for a lot of reasons.
Dave-Thank you – ever so much – for your kind words and insights about my book. You give us far too much credit (all our employees are not owners, etc.) but you point out many commonalities that we and you seem to share. . . so it’s nice to cross paths. Congratulations on the book deal – I doubt you’ll ever regret it, and CGP needs more of us bizness types to round out the offerings.
Congratulations! On both counts. Looking forward to the book, and to more news about the People’s Free Republic of Downsview.
Ditto to all of the above. I can hardly wait to read the book.