have been born by the laws of
my late father max should never survive
the Holocaust the only member of his
family to do so and it wasn’t by
happenchance it wasn’t some singular
accident it was miracle after miracle he
his brother and their parents my
grandparents were on the train to
Treblinka a death camp where they all
were murdered including my grandparents
but my father and his brother jumped off
that train but in order to increase the
probability of survival because there
were Nazi sharpshooters on top of the
Train they had to jump at night under
my uncle didn’t make it my father did
but then he was captured taken by the
Gestapo to a camp and by some miracle
survived most of the war in that camp
but then in the end the Nazis wanted to
murder all the remaining Jews that were
alive get rid of all the witnesses so he
escaped again miraculously and with the
help of the Chet Acosta family wonderful
Polish Catholics who saved my Jewish
father they put him in a pit a living
grave with just a hole for air and once
a week they would bring a bottle of
water and some potatoes it’s what they
had it was the end of the war December
1944 and he remained there until the
middle of January 1945 can you imagine
those weeks in a grave why
I think you’d understand that for me
it’s not a satisfying explanation to say
well he survived all that so that his
kids could get the latest smartphones
have great holidays it just doesn’t
satisfy as an answer does it and it
always goes on in my mind why did he
survive why am I here for what purpose
am i alive 52 years I’ve been having
this thought sorry I had to say that
tomorrow’s my birthday that’s the last
time I’ll say 52 and I have a little
present for all of you you’ve seen these
little note pads that were on your chair
and there’s a hash tag I’ll tell you
about that later so I’m an entrepreneur
what do I do I create businesses one of
them I have here’s a gemstone business
and no that’s not my next holiday that’s
Myanmar I’m going there on Sunday
because we have a project there and the
project is to help the most economically
disadvantaged people generally it’s
women and we do it by combining Muslims
and Buddhists working together you all
have heard about the terrible things
going on there with our hunger in the
north of the country so just as the
Catholic Church uh coughs keys saved my
Jewish father I use that business not
just the money to train them but
teaching them a skill so these women are
learning gemstone cutting because when
the gemstone business and it’s a little
bit like teaching them out of fish and
then giving them a market to sell their
fish because I connect them to
international markets so they can make
some decent money with what they’re
doing but I haven’t always got it right
in fact quite the opposite I started a
business in 2000 called airfare was
doing airline catering here in Heathrow
and one day
a man comes to my office asking for
charity for support from the company for
a marathon that he’s doing for charity
fantastic great cause I’d say of course
no problem but why is he coming to me it
was fairly trivial I always gave 10% of
the company to charity and this was a
charitable foundation it was plenty of
money there why was he coming to me put
some trim amount and I was a bit bemused
and I asked and he said well I did go
when I asked the supervisor and he said
I don’t think the company does anything
with charity and he sent me to the human
resources department and they looked at
each other perm use I didn’t know they
went then to finance department everyone
was bewildered I don’t think there’s
anything finally I came to see you he
says and I thought oh my god I’ve really
screwed up this is terrible I’m an
entrepreneur I should know that
team-building stuff is the lifeblood of
successful businesses if you want to
have a business that really motors you
need to get everybody working together a
common vision we all know that today
more than ever
we’re not 88% these are staggering
statistics 88% of Millennials want to
work for companies whose ethos reflects
their own and those people are three
times more productive fantastic and I’m
an entrepreneur I should know this
perhaps I didn’t deserve an Obie from
the Queen for entrepreneurship because
this was such a basic stuff that I knew
tell and share with my employees this
thing is this some misguided notion or
perhaps you know don’t make a big fuss
about it it’s charities for yourself it
doesn’t have to be about ego don’t need
to make a big song and dance about it
but what I missed was an amazing
opportunity for my staff people working
with me to have that incredible energy
and enthusiasm that comes when you know
you’re doing something not just the work
that you’re doing you know of course you
have to earn a living we understand that
and yes share
all those owners expect to return but if
you go to the office and you know that
10% is in my case of your time who’s
doing good stuff things that you cared
about that fun run we were supporting
the charity anyway
what an amazing empowering thing would
have been for the staff
I miss that opportunity I forgot about
this I forgot about sharing that purpose
with everyone and what did I do about it
well I see not very much for a long time
but a few years ago I started to feel a
lot of unease about what was going on
this crisis of capitalism look at this
trust levels plummeting this is
charities which is certainly better than
business but look at the downward graph
business Oh government where’s
government oh yeah they’re like here and
not surprising I mean who believes that
government has the answers it’s complete
mess
maybe charity possibly look what’s
happening this is by the way not a typo
that is 60% other people in this country
don’t have trust in the system and it’s
not getting better
do you guys remember this Lehman
Brothers bankers they invested not their
money pension fund money our money in
subprime mortgages fancy derivative
products they don’t understand that any
more than we do lost that money so why
should we trust them oh wait maybe there
was an answer we did think for a while
tech companies right do no evil do we
believe that now they take our data they
sell it from enormous profits they don’t
robots artificial intelligence the
governor the Bank of England Mark Carney
said in a recent speech
15:1 five million people in this country
are going to lose their jobs that half
the workforce we don’t have a great
future to look forward to if we think
things are bad now they can and will get
worse unless we do something about it so
I have a suggestion to make an idea and
it’s not government and it’s not just
companies or US charities to who here
gives to charity it’s Camden I expected
a very generous audience not surprising
and who here gives to charity every hour
not many nor me because it’s not natural
but business does engage every hour of
every day so I had an idea
entrepreneurial giving I call it AG AG
because besides that it’s about examples
examples of people doing well by doing
good great entrepreneurs great
philanthropists great businesses
remember the productivity remember how
many Millennials want to work the best
of people on to work for companies with
purpose so we have a just of a simple
idea a pledge you click on the website
entrepreneur on giving and it’s free
takes you two minutes you’ve got all
your accounting advice legal advice HMRC
approval all done all you have to do is
click on and say I want to give X
percent to charity
whichever purpose that you want to embed
in your business but it’s not about
giving it’s actually more about
entrepreneurial success
but it’s about embedding that purpose
right at the very outset of your
entrepreneurial journey why well for
those of you that are parents can you
imagine if you had children you sit them
you know what I want you to do really
really well in school and everything
work hard don’t you think about anything
not about morality ethics just knows
down to the grindstone just make a
success of yourself and maybe when
you’re 18 or later I’m gonna sit around
with you and talk to you about you know
your role in the world and what you can
do that’s not gonna work so why do
people and businesses think you know
what we’re gonna do I’m gonna make tons
of money gonna be really ruthless gonna
do everything bad but at the end I’m
gonna give money so it’ll all be okay
there’s an opportunity without giving
money that every business has and the
things that they do recruitment gender
diversity ethnic mix supply chain not
buying products who companies that use
child labor or thinking about the
environment all these things these are
decisions that companies make each and
every day that affect all of us that
affect society and how does this affect
us how do we interact with that simple
were consumers we know by the way that
consumers pay more for products and
brands that have purpose so this is
actually about being successful business
by doing well by doing good
and it’s free and we have amazing
companies that are saying every company
I’ve asked I said would you host a small
group two three dozen people to come an
evening and and share together to create
a little community of like-minded
entrepreneurs and they all say yes some
of the biggest names companies that you
will all know and entrepreneurs and
educationalists and philanthropists all
them say yeah will come and give an hour
of our time to come and talk to these
people not just here but in cities
around the UK
indeed cities around the world so that
cafe that new cafe here in Camden
can connect with the cafe in Calgary in
Canada and with the cafe in Calcutta
it doesn’t matter they’re all startup
businesses they all want to make a
difference they want to talk and engage
and inspire one another with new ideas
how to be successful but also how to do
good while doing well so the idea that
we have a business translates now to
something that I’m going to ask all of
you if you would like to do a pledge and
why a pledge because writing it is
proven as data that shows you are 42
percent more likely to achieve your goal
just by committing it to paper so I ask
you what is your purpose what legacy do
you want to share maybe it’s
volunteering maybe it’s going through
revolving doors to avoid heat loss or
thinking about how we use plastics maybe
it’s reaching out to entrepreneurs who
you meet and say you know about this
community have you how do you embed
purpose and everyday and what you do
whatever it is that you want to do to
share it with us so I’ve put the hashtag
here for you to use if you want to share
it with me
I’d love to hear from you guys what
you’ve decided to do or share it with
your friends share it with your family
all of us together can make a difference
I shouldn’t be here but I am and I know
that at the end of the road I feel
passionately there must be a legacy
there must be something positive that I
I can’t do it alone
nobody can not government not charity
not business but all of us together can
so I ask together let us make a pledge
together let us change society together
let us be the example thank you [Applause]