intro in just a minute, but we're going to have a good talk, cliffhanging a little bit
and we'll go from there.
So building a better world.
What's that look like to you?
I'm just curious.
Oh, well, the most important topic relative to this question, and I'm a little biased
because I've been studying it for about 10 years, is our cities.
And the reason why I say that is because 60% of all humans now live in cities and that's
growing by about 3 million people per week moving into cities.
A week.
Yeah.
We're building the equivalent of New York City, Manhattan, every month somewhere in
the world.
And by the middle of the century, we'll get to about 70% of all humanity will live in
a city and then it'll just grow from there, probably up to 80% or so by the end of the
century.
So if we're going to impact the quality of life of people, and that's really my core
focus, we're going to have to do that work in our cities.
So for me, a better world is...
All right.
Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson Calame.
I'm your show host.
We will be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
What's up everybody?
Welcome into Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
I am really excited to talk to Dr. Jonathan Reichental about his vision for the future.
He's been studying this out well.
I also tend to play in the futurist world quite a bit.
I mean, welcome to entrepreneurship, but one of my best friends, Adam Tank, is one of the
world leaders on water and what's going on with water and how much we're losing with
that.
He made this post a long time ago on super cities and mega cities and how everybody is
moving in masses to cities and how that's going to affect our future.
And that's Dr. Reichental's specialty.
And we're going to be talking a lot about that.
I'm really excited about what he's going to share.
We'll be diving into that vision quite deeply.
Before we bring him on, we're going to dive into a few of the sponsors.
Again, these sponsors are people that we actually were.
One's one that we work with, one's one that I would have worked with if I was just getting
started today with my business.
So ColdClick helps us with our LinkedIn automation.
Art Hoffman runs the company.
He's become a good friend of mine and a strategic advisor for how to make sure that I'm playing
nice with the algorithms of LinkedIn as we get connected to new people.
But ultimately, we want to make sure that we're being connected to people who align
with what it is we do, but also in a position to work with us.
And so connecting with hundreds of people allows us to do just that, to make sure that
the right people are coming together at the right time.
We don't have to force anything.
On the other sponsorship, we've got Simply Fast websites.
Shane Michaels has become a friend of mine as well.
When I saw that he was offering websites at $179, I was like, whoa, that's huge.
Like if I could have started without paying thousands of dollars for my website or just
playing around with Wix and Squarespace and trying to figure it out myself, I would have
saved myself countless hours.
I would have saved myself a lot of time.
And he obviously can go above and beyond that, but it would have been such a great resource.
When I was first working with, I probably interviewed and worked with 10 different web
developers, web designers to learn through the muddy waters of how do I get this thing
going and how do I learn what I need to.
You guys have better information than me.
Thanks to YouTube, thanks to TikTok, thanks to YouTube Shorts and all sorts of materials
that are out there.
But it's not a bad idea to consider working with somebody who's got a price point where
he has it.
So I hope that's a resource to you if you're at that stage of just getting started.
Lastly, before we bring Jonathan on screen, we're going to talk about the water project.
The water project is my go-to cause that I love to bring up and also help.
The reason why is because I have access to this every day without a problem.
If I need a drink of water, I get access to it.
I can go right into my kitchen and get what I need to.
There's billions of people in the world that do not have access to such luxury.
And we have the opportunity to give back and help.
And even if that means giving a dollar or that means spreading the word to those who
can, you have an opportunity to select the community you want to give to.
You get to see the impact of what you do because they show you what that community's circumstance
is like beforehand.
They then show you afterwards the effect that you've had in that community and how it impacts
their lives.
And I can't think of something that is more noteworthy, more needed in the world than
this.
However, if you've got a cause, you want to see a support, don't hesitate to drop that
in the comments because we're always looking for other ways that we can help and bless
lives of those around us.
So, without further ado, Dr. Jonathan Reikental, I'm really happy to have you on the show and
we'll dive in your accolades a little bit.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
So to further quantify, and we're going to dive back into the cities and what's going
on with cities and why that's so important.
But if you were to quantify right now, who should be listening and why should they be
listening to you beyond the fact that you're a doctor, beyond the fact that you've worked
with cities and that you've done all this research, who's going to benefit the most
from this conversation?
Yeah, I mean, I guess if you're breathing, you're probably going to benefit.
True.
There's a good chance that you live in a city if you're watching this podcast, although
we still have about 40% of the world living in a rural area, but that's changing quickly.
I was sort of fell into this business, if you like, almost by accident because I didn't
realize the importance of cities in our lives.
And as I've sort of worked in this space and researched it and been teaching, I realized
this is at the core of what it means to be human and to live in the 21st century.
And it will increasingly be that as more people move into cities.
So I think when people listen to our conversation today, they will understand, first of all,
the role of urbanization as a core sort of leverage for how we live out our lives, you
know, playing, working, living, and that we have problems that we have to solve and those
problems have to be solved in cities like the climate emergency.
But hopefully we'll cover some other things, the role of data perhaps and the role of some
of the emerging tech.
So I think those are the reasons why this is an important topic and my role as a business
owner, you know, doing work related to cities, a professor and an author on this topic.
Hopefully I bring some insights and experience that are valuable to people.
I know you will.
That's not only obvious from your bio, but just the genuine nature with which you came
into the show as we got to meet beforehand.
I learned a lot about people in a five minute conversation.
So your talk on cities and what people need to be preparing for, you talked about millions
of people moving into cities every week.
And that's certainly that's going to be a disruptive experience for everybody who already
lives in the city, as well as those who are accommodating and trying to find a home.
Things that are everyday challenges that we're all used to, but maybe there's some more things
beyond that that we need to consider and look at.
So I'd like to ask you, what's your vision for those that you serve?
And I'll ask that in two different ways because your vision is so broad, right?
One you serve everybody with what you're doing.
I get that.
But what about those you serve more directly, those you work with on a daily basis?
Yeah.
Well, let me kind of talk about the big picture for a second.
Still in some of the gaps there.
Thank you.
60% of the world is urban.
This is a phenomena that's only recent.
About 2008, we moved from being a majority rural to majority urban planet.
And since then, about 3 million people have been moving into cities every single week.
We're building the equivalent of New York City somewhere in the world every single month.
By the way, we'll do that for the next 40 years.
About 3% of the landmass of the world is our cities are built on.
So 3%.
And we're also going to double that to about 6% of the world over the next few decades.
By the time we get to the end of this century, 80% or more of all humans will be born into
a city and will live out their lives in a city.
This is a pretty recent phenomena.
If you look back through the industrial revolutions and even further back, we largely sort of
were rural people living on farms or individual contributors.
This idea that we kind of live together in very compact, highly complex environments
is a new deal.
So you're waking up every day.
You're in some city in the world.
You're hoping to have, as you mentioned even in your intro, access to water.
This is very important.
A resource that is limited and we have to treat it well.
You hopefully have access to electricity.
Although there's still quite a number of people in the world, hundreds of millions of people
who don't have access to electricity.
You want to have access to the internet.
That's another thing which we take for granted, you and I and many others.
But we're about 5 billion connected people in a world of 8 billion.
So we have 3 billion people today who did not check email or get to use the internet.
Sometimes I'm envious of them.
In reality, I recognize the significant limitation that that is because the internet really has
got to be close to a human right at this point.
Then you want to get into transportation.
You want to go somewhere.
Do you have access to public transport, your own transport?
What is the quality of the infrastructure?
What can you get from A to B?
Other economic opportunities.
I just wanted to paint the bigger picture of how essential, how core this is to what
it means to be human.
Cities and humans, we've now intersected.
We are one.
It is the most important experience of being alive for 60% and increasingly more people
in the years ahead.
So you asked me who I serve.
I love that question.
My whole thing when I wake up every day is how can I be valuable?
How can I actually add value?
How can I be useful?
A few years ago, I sort of walked away from corporate America and decided to create a
lifestyle business.
So I would do the things that I thought I would get enjoyment from and find meaningful,
but also serve customers and organizations that were also doing important, meaningful
work in the world.
So that's a real luxury that I have to be able to choose my customers.
But I work with a lot of different types of people.
One of my big customers, if you like, in terms of serving are cities.
And that means mayors and city managers.
And a lot of it is outside the US.
So I do serve folks here in the US, but I have a global footprint.
And that includes things like just advising on strategy, educating.
I do a lot of education.
It also means implementation.
I'm helping to build a community in Estonia in the Baltic States right now, but doing
some interesting work also here in the US and in Singapore as well.
The other community that I serve is our students, our people who are in a place of education.
So I work at several universities and the University of San Francisco is my main university.
I'm also at Menlo College and Pepperdine University.
And so I feel that's a great place to spend my time.
First of all, because I love it.
I'm an educator.
I love to teach.
These are the folks who are going to do the hard work of the future when I'm retiring
and in decades to come when I'm no longer here, we're no longer here, we've got to
hand the baton to the next generation to do the good work.
So I feel like if I'm serving and inspiring all sorts of people, but particularly students,
that's like making an investment in the future.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, well said.
Well said for sure.
So I noticed that you are an educator.
You've got classes on LinkedIn learning as well.
I saw that and that you worked with the city of Palo Alto in California.
In addition to working outside, it's fascinating to me to think about.
I don't know a lot of people in my life who consider city managers, like what they do
on a day-to-day basis or what it's like to start a city from scratch or consider how
do we establish local laws, local taxes, where the roads are going to go, what types of businesses
we want to attract and bring in.
Those are foreign concepts to a lot of people out there.
So it's really fun to dive into this with you because it's like real world Legos or
real world Sim City.
I got a question for you about your personal life though.
So what is your personal vision for you?
What do you see for yourself?
I'm curious.
Are you thinking of yourself living rural or urban over the next 5, 10, 20, 30?
However long you want to say, I'll let you define where your vision goes because it's
probably pretty far out there.
Well, look, first of all, I think life is remarkably fragile.
So who knows what tomorrow will bring or next week?
If you have friends who said you passed away or family members who were taken, you know
what that feels like.
So I don't take any day for granted.
I have a motto that every day matters.
And this day is going to be special and tomorrow is going to be special too.
And you know what that means?
That doesn't mean that's not a selfish idea that I want to make it special for me.
I actually want to make sure that those that I meet and the people I interact with every
single day have a memorable moment and feel better having spent time with me.
So my core vision actually, it can be said very simply.
I believe that kindness is the most important human quality.
You know what?
Kindness doesn't cost anything.
Just to be kind is something you can choose.
And for some reason, so many of us don't choose that.
Be kind to others.
You don't know what they're going through.
And be kind to yourself.
Be kind.
Give yourself time.
You respect yourself.
That's so huge.
And the second part, which is more aligned, I guess, with sort of that footprint, me trying
to impact the world, is I say be bold.
Be bold.
And I mean bold as in don't hold back.
Bring forward your ideas.
Share your ideas.
Do that thing that's on that list.
The one thing I don't like to hear is when people say they're going to do it one day.
You know, that one day may never happen.
For me, it's all about I'm going to do it now.
People always ask me, you seem to do an awful lot.
You're like very involved and stuff.
I do that because I don't know how much time I have.
I don't know what's left.
Urgency.
I say for every one of us, if you're listening to this, watching this video or listening
to this podcast right now, I want to tell you right now, the biggest mistake you can
make is thinking you have more time than you have.
And I stole that, by the way.
That's not mine.
It's a good thing to steal.
Knowledge is good to steal.
I think that's Buddha, by the way.
I think it's Buddha said, you know, the biggest mistake is thinking you have more time.
But create urgency in your life.
Create urgency, you know, in what matters.
So my vision is, yeah, I'm going to be a city guy.
You know, I love to visit the countryside.
I love visiting.
That's the key thing, right?
I like going to the beach.
I love going to I love to travel.
But I'm my to live cities.
That's where my life is.
And I can my story on this is real simple.
I was living in Florida, actually, in Tampa Bay.
Great city.
Okay.
And I had an opportunity to move to California.
This is now about 14, 15 years ago.
And the place I worked was in a rural area.
And that meant that I would have to live north of San Francisco in what I would consider
to be quite rural.
And I didn't didn't take to it.
I had to go back to the city.
I had to go back into an urban center.
So it's very important to me.
It's also important.
I live near an airport.
Yeah, I got to be close because I travel so much.
People ask me to to go to all sorts of places in the world all the time.
So I need to be able to get to an airport pretty, pretty quickly.
If I kind of sort of take the spirit of your question, though, even further, look, I think
I think there's I have a vision for a kinder, more peaceful, more gentler world where humans
are nice to each other.
It's such a fragile and rough world.
We could do a heck of a lot more to be good to each other.
Yeah, you're you're right about that.
Communication is not easy, even even within your own language, let alone cross cultures,
cross languages, et cetera.
It certainly makes it hard.
Now, normally, the next question that I ask people is what's your worst business experience
ever?
And in this case, I'll expand that to what's your what's your worst leadership experience
ever?
And I find it gives a lot of hope to those who are following along the way to realize
they're not alone in the struggles they pass through.
So which which do you want to take on?
I'll do the leadership one.
You know, the thing about this question is there's so many examples.
It's kind of an expert.
Yeah, I'm an expert of this.
No, but everyone is.
I'm serious.
Yeah.
I love that you said people shouldn't feel alone because the reality is doesn't matter
if you're the you know, the entry level associate or the CEO.
Mistakes are quite common, no matter who you are.
Some people might hide them better than others.
Or you know, people might regret doing certain things and never admit it.
You know, I'm not sure if I'm going to come up with just a fabulous example.
I also want to respect, you know, companies and people in giving my answer.
I'll just here's here's something I think a bigger picture way for me to answer this
question.
I've spent a lot of my life in in an innovation role.
In fact, at one point in my career for several years, I was I had the title innovation director.
So I it was actually not only my my title, but also the work I had to do.
And it was related to technology with a big consulting firm.
And even since then, I you know, it really is a good fit for me.
I do like trying to identify new value, particularly where that value is positive and help organizations
grow or make processes more efficient.
And so even from that, going into the city, working as a city leader, and then moving
on with my own business, innovation remains really core to who I am.
And I get to talk about that a lot and share insights and stories with with many.
And the reaction often I know this for a long time is, you know, they might say, well, you
know, you lived and you live in Silicon Valley, so it must be easier.
And you have people who kind of believe in innovation.
And and and so the advice you're giving might not apply if we don't live in the place that
you live in.
But what I wanted to share and I always share with people is whenever I am proposing innovative
ideas as a leader, I can tell you that the first answer I almost always get is no.
And so that might surprise people that as a leader, the expectation that people would
agree with you or immediately go along with you is not there.
But the differentiation is that some people when they get no, will say, oh, OK, thank
you.
And they walk away.
No is the first answer.
But you have to come back and you maybe have to reframe what you're asking about.
And maybe there's a no, but maybe it's like, no, but tell us more.
Can you look at this?
And then by the third time I'm coming back and moving into more of a little bit of a
softer yes.
And eventually we're we're actually making a difference in the world.
People don't like change a lot in organizations.
They always say people want the outcome, but they don't want the journey to get to the
outcome.
You know, it's like, right.
And because it can be so painful, it's like we just want to get the good results.
But to get the good results, you've got to put in the time and and you've got to make
you got to take some risks and you've got to make some investment.
And that can be there can be some scary nights before you get to that good place.
So I think, you know, my worst experience as a leader is that you've got to be able
to confront and deal with a lot of people who will say no as the sort of like the first
pushback on any any kind of change that you want to achieve.
But I've changed that worst experience into a learning.
And now I know what to do, what to do next.
Right.
So, OK, you know, I know is the default answer.
Let's go.
Let's figure out how we can get to.
Yes, let's figure out what we need to do to get to a good place.
Not maybe the expected answer you had, but that's maybe a mix of my lifetime experience
plus also some advice that I can give.
I think there's a lot of leadership on display in the way you answered that.
I think a lot of leaders can learn from your your nature, you it's very clear that your
nurture for one, I can see that.
And two, you're respectful of the past relationships that you had, no matter what, you know, anybody
who's been in business long enough, you know, or knows what a doctor's life is like to
dedication to being your best and many different facets knows that you've had your difficulties.
But you've chosen not to make that the priority or the lens of perspective with which you
see your situation.
So I think it's a beautiful answer.
Thank you.
That moving into what you were talking about with the except accepting the reality that
knows are going to come.
It reminds me of what you said about being bold as well.
Right.
We have to choose either grow a thicker, thicker skin or learn to be, you know, a more malleable,
maybe dodge some bullets along the way is part of the process.
And it's you know, when you're when you're incubating ideas, think about this, too.
If you're if you're that person who's got good ideas, and you just feel like you never
have good ideas, everybody else tells you your ideas aren't very good.
You might be in a very smart society, too.
That might be part of the challenge is, you know, if you're if you're with a bunch of
people who are generate ideas for a living, then sometimes they get kind of sick of listening
to new ideas or really, I don't want to hear another idea.
But the ideas are dime a dozen.
You know, that's kind of the culture.
So you know, everybody out there as a visionary, just know that while you do, I think you want
to be careful with who you share your ideas with.
I think it's also wise to start preparing.
How do I be more bold?
You know, and stick to my guns when I've got great solutions that our world won't benefit
from you burying.
So let's dive into the best side.
Now, let's here we go with this.
So what would you say your best experience in business or in leadership has been or what's
been one of those city outcomes that you're just excited about that the world should be
aware of?
Feel free to go any direction you want with that.
I just have a few ideas where I'm like, man, I really want to hear these stories, but I
know we only have 45 minutes.
Well, I wanted to add to I'll answer your question, but I did want to also add to what
you just said, which I really love that, you know, this whole idea of there's there's lots
of ideas, you know.
And there's a bit there's an extra bit to that, which is look, we can have great conversations
about ideas and we should.
I mean, that's what makes being human human.
And it's lovely to explore the possibilities.
But ideas remain ideas, just thoughts if you don't act on them.
And there's a real difference between the person who comes forward and says, I have
this idea to change the world or to build a business or to do something important in
my community and does nothing versus the person who says, I want to reduce poverty in my community.
I have an idea.
And then tomorrow they go out and they do it.
Yeah, that's a there's a chasm there.
So yeah.
So again, be bold, do it, do it.
You know, I posted the other day, just very simply, what are you waiting for?
And this is something now I believe in.
What are you waiting for?
Like, really?
And for everybody, the question and people came up with some funny answers and some people
came up with some serious answers.
And for every answer, I just said, do it, do it.
You know, so now what's my best leadership experience or best experience at the city?
Yeah, yeah.
So I have one.
I have one.
I have a lot.
I mean, I've I've I've I've over 30 years in business.
So there's probably a few I could pick from.
But I'll go to the city.
And one of the things about working in a government position is and by the way, it's a great profession.
It's a great place to work.
It gets a lot.
People say a lot about things about it.
But you'll meet the smartest people.
You meet the most passionate people who work in government a lot of the time.
So it's a great it's a great world.
And if you're in a city which is very connected to the people, you know, a state isn't the
federal government is not very the gap is very large between the individual and the
agency.
But the city sometimes, you know, your mayor, you know, your council members, you know,
you know.
And so you're very close to the people that you're serving.
And basically, I work for the city of Palo Alto, small community, but with a big footprint.
And we knew like people knew me very well.
And I knew a lot of people in the community.
So this sounds so basic, but it's such a kind of representation of the kind of impact you
can have.
It's going back a few years now.
You know, there was we were we were talking about whether we should be deploying Wi Fi.
And you know, Wi Fi is not popular in the U.S. people outside the U.S. more popular
because we have, you know, the fixed rates here and you know, it's not it's not a consumption
based Wi Fi.
So it hasn't been as race as big as it has been elsewhere.
But we said there was there was this park that was close to city hall.
And we said, let's try let's put some really high, very high speed, you know, Wi Fi Internet
in that park.
Yeah.
And and just make it free.
Make, you know, have people enjoy it.
And I said, I'm happy to do that.
But it needs to be very, very good experience.
None of this sort of logging in or trying to find a password or you should be able to
connect very fast.
And it should be really good quality.
I hate when I go to a place like airports in the world and you connect to their free
Wi Fi and it's like not so great.
Anyway, we did the work and I would pass this park every day on my on my way home.
And what I discovered was, you know, I'd be driving past this little park and for four
years I would pass it and there'd be a couple of people in there.
But then I started to see on some evenings I would see many, many more people like groups
of teams working together because they had excellent Wi Fi in the park.
And I said, we made a little tweak and change the dynamic in that area.
In that block, people were coming out of the buildings and actually socializing and connecting
with each other in completely new ways.
And it was this idea that, you know, you see the results of the work you do as opposed
to being in the back office.
And you never see any of the results.
You don't see the way that you can change people's lives.
Now, I know this is sort of that it's kind of a first world problem kind of thing I'm
describing, but I wanted to share it more from the perspective of a characteristic of
the kinds of things you can do in a government context where you see real impact to people
very quickly.
I love that.
I also appreciate that you highlighted it.
It feels like a first world problem, but I think you know as well as I do that it's not.
You know, education is the core of civilization in many ways.
And on a productive society, the book What Went Wrong, I felt was a fantastic book on
the subject of the transfer of powers between the superpowers of the past to the superpowers
of today.
And to validate what you're talking about, when I was in Uruguay, it was 2007, 2009,
while I was there, they gave every kid a little green laptop.
And they also came out with Wi-Fi in the plazas for free.
And it was fast.
It was great Wi-Fi.
And it was life altering, you know, from an education standpoint for those children to
have access to those things.
And I came home thinking that, oh, they must have done this here too.
You know, and I said, nope.
What I say is you get your own Wi-Fi access.
And you know, iPhones came out and all its things, and we found ways to bridge the gap.
But as societies, it's not about competing either.
It's just about empowering people with access, empowering those we don't think about as well.
Maybe yeah, you have an iPhone, but not everybody who lives in America is taking full advantage
of or has the ability to privilege to use all of the first world components that we're
blessed with.
Thank you for sharing.
I do think it's very valuable and important.
If this was your last opportunity, Dr. Reikenthal, to help people, you know, and to really share
one powerful lesson, what would it be?
What would you share with us?
You could tell I haven't seen the questions before because I have to think about them.
I appreciate that.
I'm not opposed to the pondering of silence.
I think it's beautiful.
So the only way I can think about this is what have I done that has made a difference?
Not so much that the particular project, but what behavior really comes into play here.
And I think I've so far had a pretty decent career and made a difference in many, many
ways and people come to me and want advice on that a lot.
They want to know what I do that's different and how I'm able to achieve the volume of
things that I deliver, whether it's writing books or delivering video courses or helping
communities around the world.
So let me see if I can talk through this.
The first thing is a lot of what I just said, a lot of what I do is a choice.
And this is a bigger thought than most people realize.
You know, every day, all of us have a set of choices about everything, right?
What we do, where we go, who we're with, where we live.
You know, by the way, who we are with and where we live are the two dimensions that
have the biggest impact on outcomes in your life.
And so there's a little nugget right there.
So choose wisely who your partner is or who you spend your time with.
And then you can change your game by if you have the luxury of being able to move, you
can change the game hugely.
So these are choices, right?
And I think when I talk with friends and colleagues or family, I'm struck by how much they don't
realize that many of the things they're doing are not only that they want to do or not only
choices in the future, but where they are today are the result of the choices they've
made in the past.
The second thing is perseverance, perseverance.
Maybe this is the most distinguishing characteristic of my experience and leadership over years
is don't be put off by the first time someone says no again.
Or just simply, you know, if you're pushed back, if something happens, if there's something
that creates a limitation, figure out a new way or try again, right?
I always say to my students, you know, there's a point at which you have to stop.
You know, there's a lot of times when you can actually, you know, keep going, like just
keep persevering regardless of the factors, the things that you think are limiting.
The third one is going back to a bit of a trend here in our conversation is about being
bold.
We need people today and we have always needed them who are prepared to take bigger risks
and do the bolder things.
You know, that when I was in meetings with my teams or when a city manager asked me a
question or said we couldn't do something, my answer was, why can't we?
Or what do we need to do to make that happen?
What's the thing in our way?
Is it policy?
Is it skill sets?
Is it money?
You know, let's figure out that and figure out how can we move forward.
And I think the fourth one again, I know it's a bit repetitive, but it's worth repeating,
is I made a lot of change in the organizations I joined in a very short amount of time.
Sometimes it was overwhelming and certainly I got pushed back from certain people at certain
times.
But, you know, on balance, I created legacies and I made a difference.
I'm not saying this personally.
I'm saying I've been told this and people can see it.
And so it's very humbling for me to know that and I'm glad I was able to make a difference
because that's what I want to do every day.
But it's this idea of that to create some urgency, if you are somebody who's building
a startup or you have a role where you want to see change or you're a city leader, whatever
it is that you're involved in in life, and it could be as a parent or even as a child,
can you pick up the pace a little bit?
Can you create a bit of urgency to how you see the future and what you're trying to achieve
as an individual?
So I think those are kind of a summary of some big ideas there.
Just looking at the question again, lessons.
You asked me for a powerful lesson.
I gave four lessons.
You did.
You gave four.
And I love how they stacked.
It got my mind thinking as well in terms of stacking and choice is a massive one.
Again, it can be so underestimated.
We love to say, you know, well, I do and I don't.
No, you do.
You do have choice.
In fact, you have lots of choices.
It's just a matter of learning to think through what those choices are.
And like you said, the ability to persevere as well through the tough aspects.
When you can combine the power of choice with perseverance, you're talking about exponential
impact on a life.
I know this in terms of good and bad.
I'm twice divorced.
How I went through those divorces, I had choices for how that played out.
I'm a single father of four and I got three kids in one city, another child, another,
and I have constant choices for what type of job or career do I pursue?
Do I keep being an entrepreneur?
Do I not?
And it's empowering, as overwhelming as it can be, it's also empowering to be able to
say, you know what, this is still my choice for how I show up as a dad, whether I do the
dishes or not today.
When I get groceries for everybody or I don't, we have so many choices that we often take
for granted.
Can I add to that a little bit?
Yeah, please do.
First of all, thank you for sharing such a personal aspect there.
That's profoundly important and I know it's hard to do that sometimes.
So thank you for sharing with me and with all the people who would listen and watch.
We've not met before, so maybe others know that.
I did not know that.
No, it's okay.
There's a lot of people who don't.
So thank you for that.
I was going to say two parts.
One is there's not a lack of naivety on my part that there are some decisions or choices
you can't choose.
So I want to be real clear to those listening thinking, oh, it's very easy for a guy in
Silicon Valley who is doing well or whatever to say these things.
No, I travel to all parts of the world and I see people in very, very difficult situations
that they don't have a choice over.
So I want to be real clear that we're talking about the things where you do have control.
And I think the important takeaway is sure there are things you are just the way they
are.
That's what you've been handed.
But let's look at the things where you do have choices.
And that's where I want to put the focus.
And just wanted to be clear about that.
Thank you for that.
Yeah.
I mean, it's that Man's Search for Meaning, I think, is the book.
I haven't read it.
I just reference so often that I've pretty much read it through all the people who've
quoted it in different facets.
But certainly my choices are very different than somebody who lives in a concentration
camp in North Korea.
I have a plethora of different style choices and a certain cushion and comfort level that
those individuals don't have.
And I'm so amazed at the people who live through far more difficult circumstances than I have,
yet have been able to find a power within themselves to choose peace or even exercise
happiness and screen conditions that I would personally have a hard time not being miserable
in.
And so and you talked about cities.
I hope that maybe there's some young kid out there or somebody in their life that's like,
you know what?
I can make a difference in my city.
And here's this and wants to go that route because of what you've shared.
It reminded me, I did a consultation with the city of Converse.
I said, I live in San Antonio.
San Antonio, you probably know it well.
It's growing like crazy right now.
And it's off the charts, the amount of construction being done, et cetera.
So Converse was this little bit forgotten town that as I was going to meet with the
city manager about growth and marketing their campaigns for what their growth is going to
look like, well, it was like, oh my gosh, the plans for growth in this little suburb
were incredible.
And the commitment of the city manager house talking to you on that was amazing as well.
So I'm happy that you highlighted the fact that it doesn't matter what level of government,
but specifically you're talking about local governments, the commitment, the passion,
the plans, the execution that's taking place.
It's something to behold.
And it's also a very beautiful vision to be a part of if you have the opportunity to do
so.
So thank you for highlighting that.
I do want to spend a couple of minutes on humanfuture.io and what you're building with
that.
I don't know a lot about it.
I just know it obviously it's grand and it's presentation with the galaxy there.
But let's dive into that.
What is humanfuture?
What are you doing with it?
Why should we watch it?
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, that's a very timely question.
So I left the city my last full-time job as a salaried person about it's almost over
five years now.
By the way, I had a great time at the city, but working for yourself, building your own
business is just pure joy for me.
What it translates to is freedom.
I love the freedom.
That's the best outcome of all to make my own choices as we've spoken about.
So if you're on the fence about whether you should build your own business or work for
somebody else, it's not really any type of choice that I can tell.
If you've got the energy and the passion and the desire, just go for it.
So when I left, I was continuing to grow some of the relationships that I had formed over
the previous few years to deliver it to some academic organizations, to some other businesses.
In fact, I was able to convert work that I couldn't charge for as a city leader.
Only I could because I was no longer having to fulfill the requirements of working in
government.
So I could be free to choose customers and get paid.
But I needed a brand.
I wanted to over time build a brand that would represent my bigger aspiration for delivering
strategy and education to all types of organizations.
So this is where I spun up Human Future.
Sometimes with a business, it's about finding the right name before anything else and not
knowing exactly where you're going to take it.
But the two words, right?
First of all, human.
Even my book, my bestselling book on the future of cities, the very first line in the book
is this is a book about people.
And people are often amazed because they think of me as the computer science guy, the technologist.
But I am fundamentally driven by positive outcomes for human beings, for a better human
experience.
And then future is that's my sort of it's in my core.
For 30 years, I've been helping all sorts of people and organizations try to anticipate
change and in particular to evaluate and figure out what the impact will be of different technologies.
Back in 2008, I was already talking about the metaverse and 3D internet.
And of course, sometimes I'm too early.
But that was 15 years before, you know, Mark Zuckerberg brought it up.
And still it's a tough it's a tough sell for now.
But so I think we still continue to be ahead of that topic.
For example, voice recognition was another one that now has clearly been embedded in
so many aspects of our lives.
So what is this future?
So primarily today, I work with a number of partners.
We deliver traditional consulting services related to like how to make sense of AI or
create a strategy around AI.
You know, what big data, you know, things like blockchain and the metaverse and things
like even a bit further out quantum computing.
So we we take the big impact of game changing technologies and we help organizations build
strategies around that, whether it's kind of early preparation or actually activating
and doing stuff about it.
The second part is because this is core to who I am is education.
So I'm doing workshops and doing keynotes.
I just came I just finished a world tour, actually a world speaking tour, travel around
the world and over 25 times over the last few months.
It's crazy, but loved every minute of it.
So you know, I I evangelize, I evangelize a champion, a positive change in the world.
So you might find me on a stage in Guatemala or Estonia or Paris or, you know, or Auckland
and New Zealand at any point in time.
And the final point is investments.
We we it's not only just talking and advising, but we want to actually put our money where
our mouth is that we we do help social impact businesses.
We are interested in in helping get started.
Startups can that can that have the potential to make a positive difference in the world.
So that's where we're at right now.
Doing very well every year of the last five years.
Got better and better.
This will be our best year yet in terms of growth and reach.
And and but next year we're beginning to think about plans for an even bigger use of the
brand and going into different areas and all driven singularly driven by making the world
a better place tomorrow.
That's the only thing that I care about.
That's the only thing is if we're going to do if we're asked to do work or somebody suggests
we should do work that doesn't have making the world a better place somewhere at its
core, I'm not interested.
So that's what we're going to do with the with the business and 24 and beyond.
That's awesome.
Dr. I can tell.
Thank you so much for being on the show and for sharing this vision with us.
I really do.
I hope to have you back soon.
I would like to dive in now that we've got like our our foundation laid.
I'd love to be able to dive in deep into what you're doing in the world of AI, what you're
doing with these bigger companies, creating some exposure for some of those who understand
we've heard it Chad, you be the Chad, you be the Chad, you be like we keep hearing it
over and over.
But I finally started exploring it a couple of weeks ago, too, and just been it's just
been mind blowing what we've been able to use it for, even though we're just in the
fringes of what's going on.
So if we can rope you into coming back on stage with us over here, it would it would
be such an honor.
Where can where can people connect with you if they want to connect to the where's the
best place to do so?
Sure, sure.
So I'm happy to come back and talk about what's going on with AI.
It is it is hard to overstate it.
It is remarkable what we're doing right now and where we're headed.
So lovely.
Love to talk about that.
I'm very accessible, by the way, very people can find me very easily, very active on LinkedIn.
So that's an easy one.
I also use I'm going to call it Twitter because I don't want to change it.
Yeah, like Twitter and I'm going to you can find me on Twitter.com.
But I also have a personal website, Rikenthal.com.
It's my last name.
R E I C H E N T A L.com for the folks that aren't watching the video.
And a lot of my updates and free events and free content and videos are there as well
as some of the premium stuff.
But I have to say, I give away an awful lot more than I take.
So there's an awful lot for people there.
And I would welcome.
I'm happy to chat with all sorts of people with all sorts of ideas at any time.
So please do reach out.
I have an open door policy.
Love to see everyone.
Awesome.
Vision Pros.
We'll make sure that those links are in the show notes so that you can you can access Jonathan
whenever you need to.
Thank you for being so available for putting in the work you've done.
And Vision Pros, you guys have a phenomenal day.
We'll see you on the next show.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for.