Optimism is one of our values here at Impact Engine. In order to do what we do, supporting early-stage companies and funds who are demonstrating that financial and social returns can grow hand-in-hand, we have to believe that a better world is possible.
But it’s not always easy. Optimism must be cultivated and protected. There is evidence, such as this story about the negative bias of U.S. media coverage on COVID, that sometimes even “healthy skepticism can turn into reflexive cynicism.” Over the past few years, I’ve made a concerted effort to balance my news sources and other reading between the typical (usually negative) and the intentionally positive (e.g. The Good Newspaper and The Optimist at The Washington Post).
I wholeheartedly agree with Maria Popova, author of the blog Brain Pickings, when she says, “There is nothing more difficult yet more gratifying in our society than living with sincerity and acting from a place of largehearted, constructive, rational faith in the human spirit, continually bending toward growth and betterment. Today, especially, it is an act of courage and resistance.”
As some of you may know, we normally publish a holiday reading list around this time of year to remind ourselves and our readers of all the good news out there, despite the many challenges we face. This year, we decided to let you hear from the whole team at Impact Engine about what’s keeping us optimistic. Enjoy!
I am optimistic about my career in impact investing. 2021 has been a rollercoaster of a year. It had some great highs but it also had some equally steep lows . In all these ebbs and flows one of the things I’m most optimistic about is my work at Impact Engine. I'm a strong believer in the words of late Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”. Case and point I went from processing comments on footnotes in 120 page IPO pitch books to investing in Workit and helping disrupt traditional options for addiction treatment that are costly and inaccessible. In a time that so many others are leaving their careers behind (over 4M here in the US just in the month of July), I’m thankful for having nestled into this extended family filled with values of authenticity, excellence, humility, optimism, resourcefulness, camaraderie, inclusivity, and determination. As I see our role in the broader impact investing industry, I am optimistic about how far we can go. In 2011, JP Morgan and the Rockefeller Foundation, together with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), published a report claiming that impact investing would reach between $400 billion and $1 trillion in assets under management by 2020… the IFC just put that number above $2.1T. I welcome the challenge to use our investments to create a more sustainable and inclusive society.
I am optimistic that the enormous challenges of the pandemic may spur the changes needed to tackle the challenges of our time. Like Sophia, I am incredibly impressed by the speed of the COVID vaccine development and the potential therapies for cancer and other genetic diseases that may be treated through mRNA technology. We also learned that remote learning is very tough to pull off, but our portfolio company BookNook is showing that supplemental instruction with remote tutors can be both engaging for students and effective in accelerating improvements in literacy. A little further afield, I’m excited about the potential for grid scale power storage, either through improved batteries or hydro power storage to allow further use of wind and solar power as primary forms of power generation. There appears to be enough progress with fusion technology that we may have clean and unlimited electricity in less than a decade?
I am optimistic that we can tackle climate change. In one of my favorite podcasts, On Being, Krista Tippett recently interviewed atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe. As someone who sees every new climate change study that comes out, Katharine finds hope in science because “it’s very clear that our future is still in our hands. The ending has not been written.” Katharine’s insights about how our country’s divisiveness around climate change is about the fear of losing things we value (think people who love to drive trucks and are worried that their carbon emitting vehicle will be taken way) versus seeing the opportunity to gain something (think EV trucks and fewer trips to the gas station) made me feel optimistic about the potential for climate action to be a cause that unites our divided country. We’re already seeing examples of this: The State of Texas, which is the #1 carbon emitter in the U.S., leads the nation in wind generation. Fort Hood, the biggest army base by land area, is 43% powered by clean energy. Dallas Fort Worth Airport was the first large carbon neutral airport in North America. And the City of Houston, home to many large oil and gas companies, is on track to meet its Paris Agreement targets. As Katharine says, “Our choices make more of a difference today than they ever have. What a time to be alive!”
I am optimistic because so many talented people are purpose-driven.I recently came across an article on Thrive Global that really resonated with me. It drew the distinction between happiness, a fleeting emotion, and “aliveness,” the vitality that we feel when we engage fully with life and all that it offers. Purpose and creativity is what drives that feeling of aliveness, and it really captures the spirit of our team at Impact Engine and the entrepreneurs and fund managers that we back. I often suggest to people looking for career guidance that they pay attention to what type of work/teams/culture give them energy vs. depleting it, which offers clues to what their purpose-driven path might look like. For me, spending time every working day with entrepreneurs committed to building businesses creating economic opportunity, health equity and environmental sustainability has inspired me to work better and harder than ever, filling me with aliveness and optimism for the future!
I am optimistic about our ability to improve health equity. While 2021 has been fraught with concern related to the COVID pandemic, a silver lining is the innovation it has brought about, especially around COVID vaccine development. COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019. By December 2020, the Pfizer vaccine received emergency use authorization from the US FDA. Amazingly, the COVID vaccine was developed in less than twelve months. By October 2021, only ten months after that first emergency use authorization, 7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccinations had been delivered globally. These numbers are astounding. For a point of comparison, the average development timeline for new drugs developed since 2000 is about ten years, and vaccine development can often take up to fifteen years. Once vaccines are developed, they can take years to be rolled out globally. The COVID vaccine development and rollout has opened new possibilities within the healthcare space. It has required and shown our capacity to apply scientific rigor and global collaboration at epic proportions, and it demonstrates the truly remarkable potential for innovation within the healthcare industry at large. This fills me with optimism as I spend my days listening to entrepreneurs share their own visions for a more equitable health system, knowing how much we can accomplish together.
I am optimistic about building systems that make optimism possible. Admittedly, I am not a naturally optimistic person.I see worst case scenarios and potential risks to be mitigated around most corners. This is actually a useful perspective in my role building compliance, accounting, and other operating systems at Impact Engine. Much of my work happens behind the scenes, as I work to create a seamless infrastructure where all of the trains run on time so that our investment team can continue to meet and build partnerships with entrepreneurs who are not satisfied with today’s status quo and who think shifting the current model of capitalism to marry financial and social return is the way forward. Being a member of this team gives me hope that while I can’t mitigate every risk and change is often slower than I would like, we are playing an important role in building the “better capitalism” that makes me optimistic about the future..
I am optimistic about the next generation. What makes me most optimistic about the future is the increasingly important role that young people are playing. President Obama said in his speech at COP26 that “the most important energy in this movement is coming from young people. And the reason is simple. They have more at stake in this fight than anybody else“. This year, I became an adjunct professor at Loyola University where I teach an impact investing course. I’ve had a chance to see firsthand just how passionate and committed the students are, and their energy is infectious. As one young activist said, “the destruction of the planet is personal.” I wish we were all taking it so personally! They’re certainly not waiting around anymore for the older generation to set the example; instead, they have taken the initiative and have a clear bias towards action. The stories that President Obama shared of the young activists he has met resonated with me because I could see some of those qualities in my students as well, and it filled me with hope. I for one can’t wait to see what the future holds as the next generation rises to meet the challenge.
In addition to optimism, another of our core values at Impact Engine is determination. Our optimistic views on what the world can be will never come to fruition without the hard work and inevitable failures required to make it so. I find that this quote captures the balance that we all must seek:
““You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” ”
We live in a world full of challenges, yet I know they can be addressed by optimistic and determined teams of people. Here’s to another year at Impact Engine supporting those leading the way!