My friend Ted Lucas has the interesting title of Partner & Equity Strategist at the San Francisco investment fund, Lattice Capital Management. Ted and I often share books and thoughts between us and I think a couple of his recent comments are relevent to the mental attitude we bring to the marketplace every day. Read and enjoy.

"There are a couple themes I have been thinking about recently that could be interesting concepts for a talk. One of the ideas is a response to the Globalization debate given the stirring of the pot by Friedman, Prestowiz and others. The proposed solutions to American’s supposed impending decline always seem to center around education, increased government funding of R&D, changing tax policy/incentives, some top-own dictate from the government to rally the people around (yeah right, Tommy…). These are certainly tools to consider, but I believe the issue is more fundamentally rooted in how United States culture and personal attitudes have become increasingly cynical, fear-based, self-centered, protective (inwardly focused on our own interests), etc. The long slide has taken us to a final destination where it is all about holding on to what we’ve got with white knuckles and luxuriating ourselves in the booty. Contrast this to the founding of the country, the settlement of the West, etc. Our nation’s origin was all about pure risk-taking, sacrifice, a frontier orientation and aggressive innovation/creativity working with natural and intellectual resources. Without going into detail now, I believe all of these orientations have direct linkages to faith/trust in something bigger than self and its natural by-products: optimism, a long-term view, personal sacrifice for the benefit of others, etc. History substantiates the centrality of Christian faith in the founding of our country and the character of the majority of the people. The “solution” to the challenge America confronts is likely more spiritually-based than one of better/different political policy. There are lots of interesting branches off this basic idea that would make for interesting dialogue."

Yes indeed:

• What proportion of your company’s resources are allocated on the basis of hope compared to the resources allocated on the basis of fear?
• What do you think about the difference in the investment of passive shareholders v. active stakeholders? Which of these wields greater influence on decision-making in your business?
• Ted Lucas writes: "Our nation’s origin was all about pure risk-taking, sacrifice, a frontier orientation and aggressive innovation/creativity working with natural and intellectual resources. Without going into detail now, I believe all of these orientations have direct linkages to faith/trust in something bigger than self and its natural by-products: optimism, a long-term view, personal sacrifice for the benefit of others, etc." If your leaders took that to heart, how would your business change in the next quarter? How about the next fiscal year?
• How do these questions affect your notion of thinking "christianly" about the way you do business?