Redefining Success: Why Connection Matters More Than Wealth

Hey, one more Thing before you go. What if success wasn't wealth but human connection?And what if the systems we live by, education, healthcare, justice, aren't broken but function exactly as we designed? In this week's episode of One more thing before you go, I sit down with Alex Kane.He's an entrepreneur, systems thinker and author of the philosophy A Critical Upgrade for Humanity. After years of optimizing business processes, Alex turned his lens towards society itself, asking the most human question, what's the point?His answer? A bold manifesto that challenges the status quo and invites us to radically rethink how we define success, value and impact.Drawing inspiration from donut Economics, Utopia for Realists and empowering spirit of the secret, Alex offers a blueprint for a more just connected and purpose driven world. This isn't just a conversation about what's broken, it's a reckoning, a remembering, a call to reclaim what's sacred. I'm your host, Michael Ernst.Welcome to one more thing before you go. My guest, Alex Kane is an Australian based entrepreneur, systems thinker and founder of the Philosophy.It's a social movement encouraging a new way of thinking about success, happiness and collective responsibility. Alex has spent years assisting businesses to run more efficiently through an analysis of their systems and processes.More recently he turned his attention to society itself, applying his expertise in system optimization to a deeper understanding facing humanity. Through the philosophy, Alex is inspiring business leaders, change makers and everyday people to find our way to the North Star.And I'm excited to talk about this. Welcome to the show, Alex.

Thanks Michael for having me.

What a journey that you've been on in life.

Yeah, well it's, you know, everyone has their own story.Mine, mine has been a journey of, I guess, self discovery through life experience like everyone else, you know, I began life doing lots of different jobs and I was a private investigator, I worked in a dating agency, I was a stand up comedian and you know, just trying to find my little pathway and I guess that led me to discover technology and the Internet and I set up Internet businesses and, and software businesses and, and I guess as I was finding a level of success, I started to question what success actually meant. You know, it felt a little bit hollow to me in some respects and, and hence the ideas of the philosophy was born from that.

Well, that's amazing and I can't wait to get into that.I think from what I've learned so far, I think it's an amazing opportunity for us as a human being, as a society and us as a culture to reflect upon what needs to be changed and what can be changed and how we have the possibility changing it. But I do like to start at the beginning. Where'd you grow up?

Well, I'm in and was born in Melbourne, Australia, and middle class. Nothing spectacular about my upbringing. Mother and father. Dad worked his whole life.Mum looked after the home and myself and my two sisters, you know, we grew up quite, quite average. Nothing special there. But I did see my father go to work every day and, you know, struggled to put food on the table and.And I guess that's in some way contributed to the philosophy. My idea of, you know, what's the point of life? Is it to work? Is it just to survive? Yeah, for me, that's where it all came from.And in fact, I dedicate the book to my father at the beginning. And it's his amazing view on the world and life that I take a lot of my. My perspective from.

Do you think that inspired you to write the philosophy? I mean, was there any other, like a personal experience that led you to this as well? Or, or.I mean, look, I grew up, as you can see, I'm a little older.Just like a lot of many, many of us, I grew up in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s, watching my father go to work every day, watching my mother go to work every day once my father was gone. And it was a grind, it was like, you know, it was tough watching that because they struggled constantly.They were always tired, always same old thing. Monday through Friday, Saturday, sleep in, Sunday, go to church, started again on Monday.

Yeah, and if you were lucky, that pattern continued all year, except maybe for a couple of weeks, you might get a little break and go somewhere and that was the payoff for the whole year's work. And again, to me, that just seems wrong. It just seems that we're stuck in that rut, that that's what's expected of us and that's what we need to do.And, you know, I. I talk about the phrase earn a living, you know, the fact that we have to earn our life. You know, we're brought into this world through no choice of our own.But now we're lumbered with the need to go to work, to get food and a roof over our head for the rest of our lives to be able to survive. So that earning of a life for me seems like it should just be a given. Everyone has the right to just survive now.From there you should be able to thrive and level up and do other things. But I believe it is a human right. Just to have that basic need met.

I think that goes back to your question. Is this all there is?Because if you look at life like from that perspective in which all of us, 90% of us grew up as it kind of is, is this all there is to life? There's got to be something more than this grind that you just mentioned.

Well, I guess, you know, we see success modeled to us on TV and in the media and we aspire to accumulate wealth so that we can have that level of success. That's the gold stand standard we're trying to get to. Right. That's what we're told we need to achieve, to have a good life.But I guess what are we giving up to get that, to get there?What's the opportunity cost of the other things that we're forsaking in terms of time spent with family, our ability to follow our passions and joys, our ability to be more humane and you know, explore that part of ourselves? We, we really are forced to compete in the world just to survive.And you know, within a capitalist society, that's kind of the goal, is that you, he who dies with the most toys wins. Right. It's kind of modeled to us.And as I was climbing that ladder, you know, I, I was looking around me and feeling this isn't success if there are so many other people doing it so tough. I can't feel successful if I've just got to the top of my own little mountain, you know, and that's the COVID of my book.It's pretty much a Maslow's hierarchy, you know, that we're all in a rush to get to the top, to self actualize, but you know, without the social responsibility aspect of I don't think we're actually being successful.

I agree. And I think, did you come to that analysis? I mean, you've got a business optimization background within yourself.I mean you kind of, from what I can understand, you kind of took that skill set to analyze societal systems kind of in the same way and how we should be, should be kind of operating as a, as a human being, as a society.

Yeah, exactly. I mean my, my business was a software development business.I go into companies and look at their systems, processes, how they do things and see if there's room for efficiencies and optimization.And I guess when you, you think like that day in, day out, it's very hard to just see what's around us every day with our systems and processes in society and not question those. And so, you know, it led me to Just go, hang on a minute, does this even make sense anymore?Are these systems and processes serving us or are we now serving them? And are we just doing it? Because that's the way we've always done it.And so, you know, there's a chapter in the book called Question Everything because I think we've just got so used to accepting that certain things just are and that they're immovable. But you know, I talk about many man made constructs in the book. You know, money is a man made construct.A piece of paper or plastic holds no value intrinsically. But we, we assign a value to it all by consensus and agreement. But if we all woke up tomorrow and said money holds no value, what would happen?And you know, the same with country borders. They're man made, we created them, it divides us.But the life of someone living on one side of a border compared to on the other side of a border, only feet away from each other, can be completely different. And yet these man made constructs are seemingly permanent in our minds. And that's just how it is. And so we pivot everything else around them.You know, rather than looking at the humanity aspect, we just go, well no, that's the border, that's where it ends. And that's all you get. And I just think we've got to be a little bit more humane, I guess, in that respect.

Humane and compassionate and understanding. And they were all human beings.No matter what border you live on or other side of the border you live on, no matter what color, race, creed, religion, we're all still human beings and part of community. I mean, that's just the way that I look at it.I've seen, look as a cop, I've seen the worst in people and in conditions and I've seen the best people at their worst.And you know, it kind of changes the perspective on society as a whole when you start looking at that because you, you see the line, but you also see everything. There's so more similarities in there than they want to admit to. Even on like a, an upper class and a lower class and a poverty level.There's so many that still overlap.

Well, we're so much more the same than we are different. And unfortunately those differences are used to divide us rather than for us to celebrate those differences and uniqueness.You know, I, I often talk about having a look at some images of some embryos and you tell me which one is the, the Jew, the Muslim, the Christian, the left voter, right voter, we're all the same, you know, everything Else is just layers on top of that, and we shouldn't be using them to divide us, but we do. And, you know, is that a fear thing? Is it a tribal thing? You know, we can change that.

We have a. We have to make a choice. You challenge the idea that poverty and homelessness are inevitable.What's the one thing that you believe could solve these issues? I've seen a lot of homelessness. I've been homeless.My family, we've come home to a locked apartment because both my parents, I was very dysfunctional family when we grew up, came home to lock doors on our house. So I've seen that. I've experienced it. I've worked it as a cop. How do you think we as a society have the ability to change these issues?Because even in that respect, you still see a divide or a perception.When you see the homeless people on the street, you see somebody on the corner with a sign, you see somebody that's walking around in dirty clothes and doesn't have much food or asking for food. And I think that we as society need to recognize that and maybe help understand how to solve it.

Yeah, look, there are a number of issues in society today that in my mind stem from a single cause.Now, there's complexity around all of these, but I do believe all of these come from a lack of respect that we have between each other and to the planet.Now, you know, here, where I live in Melbourne, we have an issue with youth gangs running around with machetes and breaking into houses and just ransacking businesses and that sort of thing.So you look at how does a baby that's effectively a blank slate go from that to at the age of 12 years old running around in a gang with machete terrorizing people? Something is wrong there. Now, we often talk about, well, you know, maybe they didn't get a good upbringing.There were values taught to them by their parents. And look, the. The reality is we don't know what gets taught in the home. Right. Every parent has their background, their way of educating their kids.There's no real consistency in how that happens. So something's going wrong between birth and that. And for me, it's a lack of respect. Now, how do we change that?For me, the solution is a completely overhauled education system.And we can get into the specifics of that, but that is effectively changing the education system from just being, you know, schools from being institutions for learning subject matter into actually becoming incubators for nurturing great human beings. And I think once we do that, rather than trying to treat homelessness or poverty or domestic violence.You actually knock out a whole lot of those at their actual core before they even happen.Because it's very difficult to see someone that's been brought up through their whole school life learning about respect, empathy and gratitude actually coming out at the end of that and committing crimes. It doesn't necessarily eradicate it. And you've obviously got, you know, psychopaths and people who that's not going to apply to.But basically, if we can shift the way people think at the outset, we no longer need to treat the symptoms anymore. We nip it in the budget by solving it at the cause of those issues.And to get back to your original question about homelessness, for me, homelessness is not a housing issue. It's a people issue. And by people, I mean us, the decision makers. Where is the will to solve this?Because in a compassionate world where humanity respects each other, you wouldn't allow this to happen to people. Now, there's some people who. That's their chosen way of living. Fine.But for most, I think we allow it to happen because we put our priorities elsewhere. And that to me is because we just don't respect each other enough to care.

I agree with that.And, and seeing that firsthand, I think that, that these, we as a society need to take a more proactive approach in regard to being humane and compassionate with where the circumstances that put people in those spots. Because it isn't always a choice when that happens. So I agree with that. If I can touch back on.It was interesting when you brought up the education portion of it. I know that we, you know, as a parent, I'm a parent, I've got two daughters and I mean, they're adults now.But we took a very proactive approach with our kids when in growing up and trying to, I believe in intergenerational trauma, I think we bring forward from generations of what our ancestors have put forth on their kids. And it compounds up to a particular point where we have to say to ourselves, I'm not going to do that.I'm stopping that here and now and in how I raise my kids. But I think that the education system in itself maybe needs to be rehabbed. How do you see education?Do you see it as a missed opportunity to level up humanity completely, maybe change the curriculum?

Well, yeah. I mean, the education system, as I say, is traditionally it's, it's a throwback from the industrial revolution. Right.What we're doing is mass producing our workforce to increase gdp. Right. That's what it is, it's an economic mandate and we haven't changed it since then.Where, you know, we don't really nurture or look at the individual as much as we should. And we're certainly not teaching the values at school.We, you know, we hope that they might infer some of the values from text that they read or, you know, they might go on an excursion to a, a museum or a cultural location.But we're, we're doing that almost as a, by the way, kind of learning where I'm saying it should actually be part of a co curriculum alongside traditional subject matter. And I think we just haven't given it that importance. Now. It's a big, it's a big thing to change, you know, the curriculum.And I'm, I'm saying we need to do this globally.There's no point changing it, you know, in one part of the world and, and not everywhere, because, you know, we are a, an international, small, smaller, shrinking globe. We're all interconnected.So I, I see the opportunity here for humanity to level up is to actually create a curriculum that exists alongside the traditional subject matter, but is at its core teaching values of respect, empathy, gratitude, life skills, a whole lot of things that aren't really taught now in a direct way. And they should be taught in an age and culturally sensitive, appropriate way from preschool right through schooling.And they just keep learning and advancing more as they go through.And by the time they come through at the end, we would hope that they would be very different people than the kids today who are learning math, science, geography. And that's, you know, mostly. And I'm not saying that's a very big generalization I'm making, right.And there are lots of schools that do other things. They learn mindfulness, and there are lots of other things. But I'm saying it's not consistent.It's not, it's not what we would call part of the formal learning. So there's no way to know who's getting it, who's not getting it. And I see that if we can do that, it's not an overnight fix by any means.It is a multi generational approach. But we need to start, we need to start now.And it just means that if the kids today started in that curriculum, you know, at the age of three or whatever, in 15 years time, they come out maybe another five, ten years after that, they become the parents of the next generation who are going through school life. All of a sudden you've got a greater population who are now exposed to that way of thinking.And we would see society transform over the next 50 years just through that.

I agree with that. I think that it would create, it kind of would be an inner shift within ourselves and society in general.You know, when I went to high school, we had, we had home economics, but it was a, it was a, an option to take.It wasn't a mandatory thing to take to understand how a kitchen works and how to cook and how to cook for yourself or how to clean and this kind of thing, just like wood shop was, auto mechanics was. And when you realize, you get out into the world. You know, I made sure that our daughters, they knew how to cook.They know how to sew their own stuff if they needed to. They know how to change the oil in the car, they know how to change a tire.

And where have they learned that?

They learned it from me and my wife, you know, which.

But not every family's going to have that opportunity.

Every family has that opportunity. Exactly. So, yes, I agree with you.I think that there does need to be a change and I think an inner shift within us all and within society itself to allow us to kind of redefine ourselves and what we want to see our children grow up into and contribute to society in that kind of a way. You talk about redefining success. You know, how do you personally define that? If I can ask that question?I mean, we mentioned earlier as we were introing, and here I just made a quick note, is that when I grew up and when you grew up, you watched your father go to work, supposed to have a picket fence, you know, a dog and a cat, two and a half kids, you know, Monday through Friday, 8:00am to work, noon lunch, one o', clock, you're done, get off at five, get up, do the same thing. But how do, maybe. How do you redefine success?

I think the way I see success. Yeah. Is less about, you know, earning money and more about contribution and meaning and purpose.My idea of success for everyone is that we're doing something that's meaningful and gives us purpose and, you know, hopefully joy out of it too, so that no one is forced to. To go to work and do something just to earn money to survive. I mean, that's for me.To spend your whole life doing that, just to be able to eke out a living. Seems completely that we've missed the point. I understand. That is the reality for so many people today that, you know, you don't have a choice.And often it means taking on several jobs just to Keep a roof over your head. But I'm questioning that and saying, why do we allow a system to enable that to be the normal thing to do?You know, my opening line in the book is, what's the point? What's the point of life as we know it?Because if we expect that people are going to spend their life doing that and, you know, it keeps them on the treadmill, keeps them out of mischief, they're busy, but it. This, there may not be any meaning in that.And so, you know, again, like we said to, to work, just to be able to provide and then maybe get a holiday for a week at the end of the year, it just seems wrong. Now there are plenty of people who are doing just okay and plenty of people are doing very nicely, thank you.For them, their reality is very different. But I'm saying that for everyone else, there needs to be a minimum level of quality of life that everyone has access to.You know, in the book I talk about a universal basic income as one of those ways to solve it, that everyone just receives a basic income every month to be able to cover basic needs. Roof over your head and food.Now, if you want to write music or poetry or paint all day and that's what gives you joy, then maybe you, that's what you do. And you, you live off the basic income.But do that for others who want to maybe improve their life circumstances, then they can choose to go into business or do other things. And it may mean instead of working five, six days a week, you can just work part time then.So it's giving everyone that opportunity to find meaning for themselves. That's what success looks like to me.

I agree with that.I think, you know, that it's a cliche that some of us are saying, you know, we work, we spend 25 or 30 years at a business or a company or a government agency or whatever the case may be. And then when we reach that pinnacle, we get to retire.Then we get a retirement, Social Security retirement or a retirement from the company or the business or the government. And it allows us to kind of reflect. It would be nice if we could flip that. You're kind of saying, flip that.Give it to me now so that we can enjoy life. Because I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the way we're doing it now kind of contributes to the depression and the anxiety and the.All the mental health challenges that we're experiencing. A good portion of them. I think that. Do you think that contributes to those, by the way, we're doing society at the moment, by the way.We're put into this almost like an assembly line. You go, absolutely. You go to school, you learn this, you get out, you could do a job and then you go out, you go to work and you do it for 25 years.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it, for many, it just seems hopeless. There's no way out of that cycle, you know. And even when you retire, what does retirement look like?And these days we're living longer, you know, how can you. I mean, you have what, a 401k? Is that it there?

Yeah, yeah, 401k. And then Social Security. If, if, when you reach 65.Well, now that they're upping it, so they're changing the time that you can retire now, it used to be 65 to 67. Now they're trying to up it to 70. But, but yeah, you get, you get one or the other or sometimes both.

Yeah, and we've got the similar thing here. And you know, you, you, you put aside money every, every month and hope that that's going to be enough to last you when you stop working.And often it's not. You know, I mean, what quality of life can you live, you know, from, from the pension or, you know, that sort of thing.So, you know, it's really about. I mean, I like, I like your way of framing it that, you know, maybe we should bring it forward rather than getting it all at the end.The way I see it is that, and there's a whole big discussion around a universal basic income. You know, what does it look like, who's going to pay for it, how much does it people get for it and does it lead to nobody working?So who's going to provide services? There's a lot of great questions and there are answers to those questions.But imagine that everyone had the dignity of just having their basic needs met.And if you chose to follow creative pursuits, you could, if you wanted to volunteer and still know that you could have your basic needs met, but you could do good for others without expecting it to necessarily be a commercial decision. You could. So it's opening up those other options for people to find meaning. And that's what I get back to.If you can find meaning for you, then go do that. That's what life should be. You know, it shouldn't be that some get to, you know, live in extreme wealth and others are barely surviving.There's something wrong with that model. But we allow it to propagate. We are enabling that to be the system you know, he who dies with the most toys wins. That's, that's life.And it's, there's something wrong with that.

Well, and that brings me to. We were talking earlier about justice and what justice looks like in this world. I spent my career in the justice system.My wife is currently in the justice system working. And what we're seeing in today's day and age, especially here in America, is a miscarriage of justice in so many ways.We as human beings, it's hard to live in alignment with respect and empathy and gratitude when we start kind of observing or experiencing the miscarriage of justice, how it's played out, how it's delved out in how they're doing things.What kind of advice do you think help us understand what can we do to still live in alignment with respect, empathy and gratitude in spite of some of those injustices?

I don't believe we actually have a justice system. I believe we have a legal system. I don't think we have a justice system.You know, and the whole point of re educating society is to get people who get to those points of power in 20, 30 years to actually have that compassionate, empathetic view. So there is that gap between now and then and how do we deal with that?For me, in the scheme of things, that's a very small bit of time in the overall scheme of things to address. I talk in the book about four relationships, right, that underpin the philosophy.There's our relationship to the universe, you know, the amazing awe and wonder that each of us are a miracle just to even be here. That you know, that the planet even exists in the way it does, that our human bodies exist. So that's the first thing.If we have awe and wonder and respect for nature, then that's the start, right? When you do that, it's very hard to go and you know, king hit someone when you think of them as an individual living miracle.The second relationship is our relationship with ourselves. So understanding our triggers, our filters, our patterns, the way that we see the world and how it impacts on our actions.And that the idea that reality is not an objective reality, it's only our reality. And so it's being more self aware of that. When you learn that, you start to see things differently as well.You can catch yourself in the middle of an autopilot thought. The third relationship is that of inner circle.And that's what I mean by that, is our relationship with our friends, family and people that we deal with in the community regularly. You know, do we treat them how they deserve to be treated, or do we treat them based on our filters or even just how we feel on the day?And then finally, the relationship with community.Now that may be someone at the end of your street, or it could be someone on the other side of the world, someone who you may never have met, but you're still connected to them through that invisible thread called humanity. And it's those four relationships. When you start to learn those, you start to have a very different view of the world.So in answer to your question, it's very hard to solve injustice today, but when you have these kids coming through in, you know, decades to come, hopefully they start to see the world in a different light and the relationship between all of us together. So that's how I see the longer term view. In the short term, it's a hard one.I don't know how we solve it right now because you've got, you know, lots of narcissists, sociopaths, people in positions of power who are making decisions often for their own ego, often for their own agendas. And it's hard to change that because a lot of the world still just lets that exist.And I'm saying with a vacuum there, it's very hard to challenge it. And that's why we need to reprogram society to think differently.

I agree with you. I know that in some of the notes that I have prior to starting this. How do you think the Secret plays into this? I mean, we've heard about the Secret.I've had conversations about the Secret with regard to the universe and us being able to manifest what we want or what we need and how to achieve those kind of goals?Do you think that that's, that's a methodology that we can guide those philosophies that you just talked about for, for ourselves in regard to living and changing and helping others change around us?

Well, yeah, manifestation is a very powerful force. And you know, I've been often asked, is what you're talking about just utopia? Is it unrealistic?And I say this, you've got to put a destination in your GPS to even get close to getting there, right? So I'm saying that in our GPS for society, we don't want to put a mediocre goal and aim to get to that.I'm saying we set up these big, hairy, audacious goals that we want to overhaul society. We want equality, we want justice, we want a better life for everyone. Not just for some, but for everyone.That's the, that's the destination in our gps. Now we've got somewhere to head. So we start driving. We'll. We'll find obstacles. We'll have to get rerouted. You know, things will happen.And even if we don't get all the way there, well, maybe we can drive as close as we can and walk the rest of the way.I'm suggesting that that manifestation is critical for us to actually think, firstly, and that's why I called it the philosophy, because you can't change anything until you first have the thoughts about wanting to change it. Manifestation isn't going to happen just from thinking about it. We need to go further. But that is the first step.

And I can admire that and appreciate that, because I think we all in life have a choice, and sometimes we don't understand the choice unless we have the tools to be able to understand that choice.And I think the book, the philosophy and the organization helps us to have the tools available for us to understand how we can begin living with purpose, collectively and responsibly, as a society, as a human being and as society.

I actually have a chapter in the book called the Magic Glasses, and it talks about. Have you ever tried augmented reality glasses, Michael?

I do. Well, I mean, I've got an Oculus Meta Quest. Oculus?

Yeah.

Would that be the same thing? I'm guessing, yeah.

Yeah. So I guess the difference is that's virtual reality.Augmented reality is where you can see things, but you can still see in the space that you're in as well.

Oh, I can do that on my. I can do that on this. I'm pointing to it like you can see me. Like you can see it. It's laying right over there.

Gila stood. They're fantastic. But what I talk about there is, for anyone else who's not wearing the glasses, they don't see what you're seeing. Right.They only see what the reality is to them. But when you start to learn the tools of the philosophy, all of a sudden you see things that weren't there.And in fact, I talk about, you know, the movie Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow.It's one where if you go this way or you go that way, and the only way with these choices becoming apparent is to have the awareness that you even have the tools available to you. So, you know, when you do that, all of a sudden options start to appear that weren't there before.And, you know, to your point, when you learn the tools and you learn that awareness, that self awareness and the awareness of nature, the universe, and everything Else all of a sudden things look different. And it's very powerful, very powerful. But for a lot of people, it's like I'm so busy with my life, I don't have time for this mumbo jumbo.I'm just, you know, got to get my living and I've got to do this. And I'm just busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And they stay on the treadmill, you.

Know, I agree with that.You know, it's interesting because I've always said, and I've said it before in this program, you know, Covid is a double edged sword because here the state shut down and my wife got to work from home for two years, basically recovering from that. And what that did was give us a different perspective on our day.Because before we were getting up at 3 in the morning, 3:30 in the morning, she was getting ready for work. She's spending an hour, hour and 15 minutes in horrific traffic.And me watching the news while she's on the way to work and hearing about all these accidents and everything. Tense, you know, makes you tense.And then spending eight hours, eight and a half hours at a cubicle and then spending an hour, hour and 15 minutes on the way home, shoving down dinner, falling asleep on the couch, and then getting up, going to bed and do it all over again. It gave us a pause and it allowed us to kind of. We got up at a decent time. There was a commute to the back patio. We did what you mentioned earlier.We went out, we had a cup of tea, we watched the sunrise, we watched the birds and the bees, you know, go around our plants and the hummingbirds and we watched the sun come up on our face. And it was more of an appreciation and we got to relax. It's a 30 second commute to the computer. And then we stop and had lunch together.We had done that for ages. And then she 32nd back to work. When she was done, we went back out on the patio and it was great.I think what we learned from that and what we were able to take away from that is society put on us. This is what you do. You go to work, you spend an hour and 15 minutes in traffic on the way. You do a job all day long in a little tiny cubicle.You're locked in, can't look out the window, can't do this, can't do that, we'll let you out for lunch, but you got to come back. And then you spend an hour and 15 minutes in crappy traffic all the way home.You come home In a bad mood, you eat dinner, you watch an hour's worth of tv, you go to bed. That's what you're supposed to do. We realized that there's more to life than that and we got to enjoy life a little bit and get a work life balance.And so now she works a hybrid schedule. And it's amazing the difference. And it goes back to the manifestation that you were talking about just to validate what you're saying.We wanted this to stick. Well, it stuck to a point because she's on a hybrid situation, which gives us Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, it's that normal.And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Resistance, right? A lot of resistance.Oh, yeah, there's a lot of resistance about, you know, working from home and continuing that because there is so much pressure to get back to the old way of how it was. And that's the pressure of what we're used to, because that's the way we've always done it.So, you know, but we experience what it was like to have that pause to realign what's really important in life. And yet the forces said, no, go back to how you were.You know, it's the same here in the, in the cbd, like where I'm from, in Melbourne, in Victoria, the state of Victoria, we were the most locked down city in the whole world. We were locked down for the most number of days out of anyone. And it was just a crazy time. And yet when it all came to an end, there was a rush.Everyone come back and work in the towers in the city again, get back in. Why? Because we've got to support the cafes and the businesses in the city.And for me, that was a missed opportunity again for us to rethink what is the purpose of our cbd. What could we do with it? How could we do things differently?But no, it was like, no, let's get back as quickly as possible to the old ways of doing things.

And I think that puts you go back to what you said earlier in this conversation in regard to, you know, society has a particular control over us as a human being. And they say, this is the way you're supposed to do it. We're not going to deviate from that. It works for us.And personally, I think it reflects back on the capitalism. You know, I'm not afraid to make money, I'm not afraid to work for one of God. But it goes back to capitalism.They control us to a point that is difficult for us to step outside of that arena.But I think, I think you have a blueprint in the philosophy for change and for change makers to kind of take an understanding and maybe create the kind of world that we hope to choose from and to go, to go forward. How can we. How can we implement that?How can we help our leaders, our community and those around us understand that there is a different perspective we need to take a look at?

Look, the first thing I would say is, you know, we live in the most connected time ever, and yet we are the most disconnected we've ever been. And, you know, we.We go to work, we come home, we drive into our garage, we lock the doors, we turn on our security cameras, close the blinds, and hey, now we're. We're safe. For me, we've lost that connection with those around us. You know, our.Our village that used to be the people we lived around and with has now migrated online and we've lost that connection. So a very simple thing people can do is just go and reconnect with your neighbors, connect with people you haven't met.And it might be challenging to a lot of people that, you know, I'm. They're not like me or I'm different or I'm scared. What if someone takes advantage of me or harms me or something?And it's that closed view that we have of others that creates the divisions. It's those divisions that we see perpetuated through society.So if we can just change that at the grassroots level, just talk to your neighbors, and if everyone did that, we could then see a ripple out. So that's a very simple thing that anyone can do today. You know, and in fact, there is a National Neighbor Day in the US there's one here as well.And in. As there are in most parts of the world where you take the opportunity to get to know your neighbors, there's lots of events that happen.And, you know, I encourage people to go and look that up in their area and see how they can participate. So that's the first thing. Another thing that people can do is come and read the philosophy, come and connect more.Because we have actually on the website, which I know you've got on the screen, the philosophy.net there is a community platform there for people to join and get involved in some of these discussions. At the end of the day, this isn't a book. This is a movement.And it means we want people to understand it, talk to other people about it, share it with other people, and start to get that movement going in their areas.Because if people start thinking locally in their neighborhoods, and in their local communities and with their local educators, then we can start to make things happen. You know, it's really about awareness.Can our politicians, can our decision makers, can our educators look into this and start to think a little bit differently? Because it's not. We're not trying to challenge, to disempower them. In fact, what we're trying to do is empower everyone to be successful.You know, because if, let's say, I've got all the wealth in the world and there are people around me doing it so tough, there's every chance someone might break into my home and cause harm to me because they're struggling to get by. But I'm in my little ivory tower thinking I'm fine. And yet it is selfishly good for us to make sure everyone else is doing well too.And that's what we need to understand. It's not. You're right. Capitalism does breed a competitive nature. Right. We all compete for a job, we compete for housing, we compete for everything.And that's a real shame. And we need, you know, I'm not against capitalism, but there are certainly some things that capitalism needs to answer for. Right.You know, the, the toll it takes on, on people, on customers, staff, you know, to run a business in a capitalist society. The definition of success currently is growth.

Yeah, right.

You have to grow. If you don't make more this year than you made last year, then you haven't grown. If you haven't grown, you'll get reprimanded by your shareholders.So, you know, at what cost, what cost is it taking from you to continually keep growing? Right.You know, that's what, how we're driven and businesses will do whatever it takes, whether it's increase your productivity, cut costs, get rid of staff, do this, do you know, make it harder. Because in the name of growth.

Unfortunately. I say unfortunately because in reality, I think that we. Again, even I have a business degree as well, so. A business management degree, actually.And, you know, in that in itself, I understand the concept of it, but I also understand when I was a cop, I had a team, a team of 13 guys, and we worked very cohesively together. We did it because we have mutual respect for each other. And, you know, we had one goal collectively that we were trying to reach or obtain.So even from a management position, in regard to that, you know, we have to think about our employees and who we're working for and who got us here and who's making the money for us. It's not just the person sitting behind the big desk, it's the people on the street doing. Doing the work.How can somebody get a hold of you and find on and find out more about the movement and find more about how to get the book and how they can get involved?

Yeah. So the website is the philosophy.net. you'll find information about the book there. There's links there to purchase it.It's available at Amazon and many other sites as well. It's available in paperback, Kindle and audiobook formats.And as I said, we also have an online platform there where people can join and get involved in those conversations.

And I'll make sure that's in the show notes so that everybody has an easy way just to click and find you. This time went by so fast, Alex.

Yeah, there's. There's so much to talk. I mean, I, you know, we could go on for hours. We could do season two, season three. Exactly. But effectively it is.There's so much here that needs to change in the world. That's really what it boils down to. And, you know, I tackle a lot of things in this book.You know, the first half is talking about the concept of the philosophy. The second half addresses different sectors, you know, politics, the economy, all those sorts of things.So there's a lot to get through and we know there's a lot wrong. I don't want to sound hopeless.I guess that's why I've created what I consider is a manifesto, a pathway or a blueprint, as you put it, to change things rather than just feel hopeless, that nothing is changeable. So if we all work together, anything is possible. Remember, there's no utopia without you.

I love.

It's just topia.

Exactly. It's just topia. Then you think about toes and then that goes south from there.

Yeah.

Well, look, I would love to have you back on and we could continue this conversation down the road. I think that we have a lot more to discuss, a lot more to say, and I wish this segment was a little bit longer.So I would love to have you back if we can do that. We can arrange that if you'd like.

Thanks, Michael. I would love to come back.

In the meantime, this is one more thing before you go.So if someone always asks for words of wisdom, if someone is listening right now and they're quietly dissatisfied or they want to change, or they want to know how to change, what's some words of wisdom or first question they should ask themselves?

Ask yourself the first question in the book. What's the point? What's the point of life for you. What does it mean for you? And you know, everyone's got to define it for themselves.What it means for some, it's, you know, having grandkids, you know, for some, it's being creative. What is it for you? And then find a way for that true north to not get diverted. Stick to that true north of who you are and what it means for you.

Brilliant words of wisdom. I think that we all should take that opportunity and grasp it to help us all move forward. Alex, thank you very much for being on the show.I really appreciate you. What you bring to the world. I think that you've reminded us that the systems we live in aren't just flawed, they're inherited.And if we have the courage to question them, we also have the power to change them. This philosophy isn't just a book. It's a mirror, a map, and a movement.It asks us to stop chasing what we're told to want and start building what we truly need as a community. Because sometimes the most radical shift begins with just one more thing before you go.

Thanks, Michael.

That's a wrap. I hope you found inspirational motivation, motivational and a few new perspectives to take with you.If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to like subscribe and follow us. It really helps us continue bringing you incredible stories and insights like the one today.And if you want to watch this episode, head over to YouTube, catch the full video version. We also love to hear from you.If you have any questions or show ideas or think you make a great guest or want to contribute to this episode, reach out. Let's connect. This show thrives because of an amazing community and I appreciate each and every one of you.So until next time, have a great day and even better week. And remember, keep growing. Keep thriving. One more thing before you go. Have a great day, have a great week and thank you for being here.Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing before you go.Check out our website@beforeyougopodcast.com you can find us as well as subscribe to the program and rate us on your favorite podcast listening platform.