"Must-reads" are like "must-wins," an annoying propensity for Sunday sports talk to overhype a contest to the point of guaranteeing disappointment. I'll hold the hyperbole but highly recommend Umair Haque, author of "Betterness: Economics for Humans" and "The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business" who blogs at Harvard Business Review. He's part of a new breed of business thinkers (similar to Simon Sinek) who have taken hold since 2008, preaching a message that we can—we must—do better.
"We hunger for inspiration, purpose, exhilaration—but mostly, we settle for lives of annihilating boredom, alternating with sheer panic," Haque writes. "Perhaps we get our fix of 'life' through the finely honed narratives of the hundreds of channels of reality TV and 'news' we're smilingly offered night after pixilated night."
Ouch.
I was reminded of Haque's stark (if overwrought) view of wants versus needs, capability versus effort and the "self-imposed perimeter of [people's] carefully constructed lives," when reflecting on this year's IA 25, our 10th annual list of the most influential individuals in the advisor business.
