Our first podcast… Welcome to our first podcast!
Steve Burrows CBE“That Sustainability Thing: Learning from the past…” is the rebroadcast of an episode of “Dreamers, Winners—And Making A Difference…”—an online radio show I hosted between November 2014 and February 2015.
My guest on this episode was Steve Burrows CBE, a world-renowned civil and structural engineer with a passion for sustainability…
Why sustainability? But what does sustainability have to do with bringing our ideas to life?
A whole lot… Why? Because we can learn from sustainability as we try to bring life to our ideas…
Sustainability is about accomplishing something lasting. It is about creating something that also respects and protects the environment and the world around us. It is about not leaving destruction in its wake…
Sustainability is about looking forward…
It is also about looking back…
It is about learning the lessons of the past both with respect to our successes and failures—and those of others…
It is about how we look at the world…
It is about how the world sees us…
So, in bringing our ideas to life, issues of sustainability and the lessons it can teach us can really help us…
Because I’ve always believed that we should view the world through the lens of our ideas, imagination and dreams, I invited Steve to talk about his dreams, sustainability and about the lessons we might learn from the past.
In particular, I asked him to talk about the lessons we might learn from the ancient engineers who built the Pyramids—that wonderful example of sustainability…
The powerful force of imagination and dreams… The Pyramids were clearly the result of the Pharaohs’ imagination and dreams…
This resonated with me as I began to see that all ideas are the children of imagination and dreams…
And, as I wondered about imagination and dreams, I became intrigued at Walt Disney’s introduction of laughter to the mix…
Whether or not laughter played a role in the creation of the Pyramids is anyone’s guess, but, throughout my life, I’ve seen the role that laughter can play in creating a culture and environment that can help us bring life to our ideas and to bring our dreams to life.
This is why we’ve made a modest attempt to introduce an element of humor into parts of our program… Unfortunately, I’m not at all sure how a combination of South African, English and Kansas senses of humor will really work. I do suspect, though, that, if it doesn’t, some of you won’t lose an opportunity to tell us!
Seriously, though, over the years, I’ve never had a doubt that the combination of laughter, imagination and dreams can become an almost irresistible force—one that will undoubtedly help bring our ideas to life…
Finally, who can seriously disagree with another Walt Disney’s observation that, if we can dream it, we can do it?
Two fundamental questions we must ask In trying to breath life into our ideas and dreams, it seems to me that the first question we should ask is whether we view our ideas and dreams as short-term band-aid projects—or whether we see them as projects that we want to last a little longer?
A second question to ask is if we see ourselves as visionaries determined to leave a legacy for our children?
And this, of course, brings me back to a final thought subject of sustainability…
A final thought about sustainability… In bringing our ideas to life, we should consciously strive to make responsible sustainable choices.
This should never be an after-thought….
Instead, it should always be an imperative. Why? Because we owe it to our children and their children—and their children too…
Nothing could be more important…
The post “That Sustainability Thing” – Learning From The Past, From Pyramids And Nature… (Podcast) appeared first on TheGiftTree.org.
Comentarios