Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
I talked last week about Veterans Day and how important those who serve in the military are to our community and our country. I’d like to expand on that concept of service.
I believe that service is the very bedrock of community – even civilization itself. Even in the time of hunter-gatherer groups, the hunters served the community as a whole by sharing meat; the gatherers shared what they had gleaned with the others.
Civilization Means Sharing
It’s fair to say that civilization began when humans first started cultivating crops. That required people to stay in one area, at least for a growing season. That also led to larger numbers of people living in the same space – it’s easier for smaller groups to survive as nomads.
That in turn led to more division of labor. There were farmers, tool makers, clothes makers, weapons makers, cooks, hunters and more. No doubt many people did multiple things, but as time went on there were more and more specialists.
Those people provided for the entire community, and in turn received what they needed. They provided services, and were served.
Getting Organized
Jump forward a few thousand years, and pretty much everyone was dependent on everyone else – a farmer needed someone to build the tractor he used, and someone else to take his crop to market. A cobbler needed the leather to repair shoes, and the equipment to make the repairs. A baker relied on someone else to mill the grain into flour and a different someone to provide the fuel to heat the oven.
You get the idea. As our civilization grew more complex, it quickly became impossible to understand what everyone was doing and how it all fit together. It fell to the government to make sure that things kept on working.
There were different kinds of government to do that – dictators, kings and queens, class systems. I personally prefer the one we have now, called a representative democracy. At every layer of organization, we choose the leaders who are supposed to know how to make it all work.
When it works as it should, we call them public servants.
Helping Each Other
One of the things I love most about America is that people help one another, often without being asked. That attitude has prompted the creation of the many nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate in one way or another.
Companies can make service a part of their makeup as well. I’m not talking only about the service you provide customers, but the service that makes a community a better place to live.
Last month, John Shen and Sunstone hosted a day-long symposium about various aspects of public-private partnerships to about 170 people. That was a service to the attendees – they left better informed about how programs worked and how they could participate. Talks by public servants including Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, UCI professors Larry Wilk and David Ochi, and Irvine’s Deputy Director in the City Manager’s office, Steve Torelli increased the impact of the day.
The next week, Sunstone hosted a tour of Irvine City Hall, where a group of 20 or so got an inside look at how our public servants went about their jobs. Talking to uniformed police officers about what it’s like to protect the public is an insight not everyone experiences.
Sunstone is proud to be able to serve by presenting these and other informative events. A well-informed community – whether that’s a business community or a city – is a community that works.
Stay Involved
As Sunstone approaches its 10th anniversary, we keep in mind our founder John Shen’s commitment to serve our many different communities. We want to actively seek out ways to make a difference, ways to be of service.
I hope that you are involved in your communities, or that reading this might inspire you to become involved. After all, that’s The Sunstone Way!
And remember, always be a Sunstone.
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone Management, Inc.
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©Sunstone Management, Inc. 2024