"America's Heart is Good."

Last month, Roy Spence set out to walk from northern New Hampshire, through Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York to Pennsylvania. He threw away his Blackberry and took his first break he'd had since founding GSD&M Idea City, a pioneer in purpose-based branding. Spence enjoys a dazzling reputation as one of the smartest, most innovative marketing men in America, but he turned his back on executive perks, he said, because he needed this walk as fundamentally as a body needs salt. It became, for him, a matter of survival.

"I was in New York about six months ago, doing business, going back to the hotel, flipping through the news. And everything I saw on TV was bad. Every priest, athlete, entrepreneur, kid, parent. I realized we had a culture of celebrating badness. And I kept thinking: Everyone I know is pretty good. They try to do the right thing. I'm not buying this idea that everyone is bad."

"Then my daughter Courtney told me about an 87-year-old woman who had walked across America. And I thought: if she can do it, I can do it. And I felt I was missing the connective tissue -- of being connected to people and places instead of more and more technology. I wanted to get reconnected again."

Every mile or so, he promised himself he'd take a picture of something good. He would talk to people. And he'd pay attention.

"I started looking for good things. I forgot all the bad things and found the raindrop on the leaf. I looked at a house with a wooden bench where a grandparent sat with a grandchild. I started seeing what was good here."

By the middle of his journey, he got tired of carrying so much and started throwing things away. He reckoned he could do without everything -- except his camera. "Everything else was disposable. I'd even dump my phone but not my camera. Because capturing the moment so that others could share -- that was much more important than talking about it."

What Spence saw was a different face of America to the one he'd seen on TV. "The people I met -- and I met a lot -- believe deeply in the founding principles of our nation, in government of the people, by the people and for the people. I don't know if they were Republicans, Democrats or libertarians. But very few of them believed that we were living up to our purpose. They were disappointed that our nation has fallen into an artificial civil war that the people aren't in! The politicians and the leaders are -- but the people don't want to be in it. They still believe in the ideas that got us started."

While the news media considered New Hampshire only in the context of the primaries, what Spence saw was quite different. "I was surprised with the belief that our country is just stalled. Not going anywhere. Not solving problems but making them. But what I also saw is that the state of America is better than the state of our government. Our people are more competent than our leaders. People are solving problems on their own -- building their own companies and their own schools. They aren't waiting any more, they're just going out and doing it."

Everywhere he went, Spence met entrepreneurs who'd sunk their life savings, into new businesses that they'd always dreamed of. "I cannot tell you how many people I met who'd become entrepreneurs. One was a teacher who had reached the age of 65 and had always wanted to open a tea shop. And there it was: Tea and Tarts. And it was symbolic of this renaissance of entrepreneurship. And these people weren't building it for an empire, but for a life. And you could feel that."

America was built by entrepreneurs, by individuals who insisted that there had to be a better way, a better place, a better world. It's one reason it's so incredibly easy to do business in America and feels so much harder anywhere else. As we sit, mired in gloom and frustration because the market's lousy and the government's obtuse, it's easy to forget these things -- or to dismiss anyone who rejects them as out of touch. But Spence would argue that it is the cynics who are out of touch.

"I'm not a Pollyanna," he insists. "I walked into trailer homes and big homes and I've met these people. And sure, they've all got problems. But they all find some goodness that they can rally behind. If they have a terrible home, they concentrate on the view. They look for solutions, not complaints. I've seen the heart of America. And it is good."

Roy Spence, driven by instinct, discovered through walking a fundamental truth about leadership: there is more knowledge on the periphery than at the center. This can feel very counter-intuitive. It's very easy, sitting at the center of a large, successful organization, to feel supremely knowledgeable. But it's only when you have the courage - or the need - to leave that fortress that you find out what's really going on.

www.walkingwithroy.com

www.ideacity.com

www.gsdm.com

Comments

[Catfish]

I wish I could see what this country has done and still have the good feelings about it that Roy has. But if we're so good, why is everyone shopping while our government detains people with no representation, hides them away from prying eyes and then tortures them?

People who are good don't let this happen. People who are good don't allow the mentally ill to wander around homeless. people who are good don't stand for insurance companies killing cancer patient by spreadsheet.

I think we are mistaking "good" for "friendly". My mother can tell you from experience. Some of the fascists who incarcerated her in WWII were friendly. None of them were good.

Sometimes being good means standing up and shouting. Or even fighting.

I think Roy is a really really good person. And his heart is in the right place, that's for sure.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Good thing the rich are getting rid of this kind of nonsense by destroying the middle class. Soon America will be just as miserable as Burma, except for our most wealthy.

[itmaybetoolate]

This is a myth - amurica's "heart" is no more good or bad than most other democracies (I guess we are still technically a democracy). amurica's "good heart" supports racism, sexism, homophobia, torture, unjustified wars of aggression, poverty, children with no access to health care, class warfare, censorship, etc. The list goes on and on. And, where has amurica's good heart been hiding the last seven years?

[ljsfolly]

The heart is good and many wonderful people are in the world but there isn't news in the good. The ideas of people across time to focus on the good positive news has always failed as humans look for the inperfections not the beauty. That is part of why the whole be thankful movement came about as we focus on lack and the bad so much we forget the good and the positive wonderful things to be thankful in our lives. I think the other thing is society has pushed us all to focus less on the ones who need help and more on what we do or don't have but I do see a change happening. More are seeing what they have looked away from as more people are putting these things infront of us. Unfortunately we have had to have actors and big named people to put things so we can see them as the media otherwise would never have done anything to promote what we need to see. When you threw all the food away did you think about Darfur? When you changed the light bulb did you think about our resources? Thanks for the article and reminder.

[WARisEVIL]

America's heart might be good but sometimes they are generous to the point of being ridiculous and insulting.

I have traveled plenty in my lifetime all over the globe (aviation) and there are some places where its considered and insult to TIP a taxi driver. Very true.

[Merlin7]

This is silly sentimentalism. Reaching out to "good people" is meaningless. The problem is that our government often acts in ways that are foolish and even murderous, but there is little the American people can do about it. Our government is set up to be run by a small core of elitists, and it is. Our elections are largely ceremonial. If you don't believe it, watch how fast Kucinich and the other "outsiders" disappear next year. We will -- once again -- end up with a new president that has been hand-picked by this nation's most wealthy and powerful people. It really doesn't matter which one the voters choose; not much will change except a few details of domestic and foreign policy. And the membership of Congress also is becoming rigidly controlled by this same process.

We pride ourselves on being a democracy, but really we are an oligarchy that has token elections with pre-approved candidates. That oligarchy doesn't care much about the poor and disadvantaged, as is abundantly evident by our government's policies. And no amount of walking across America or praying to the Tooth Fairy will change that.

[peterg76]

Sorry, but the simple truth is that "America's Heart" supports torture and war crimes.

[dgscol]

While the Congressmen are walking, hopefully they can schmooze with Businessmen out there, and get some ideas.

[dgscol]

Congress has so much free time - they ought to hit the trail! It wouldn't require alot of money.