Believe in People

Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World

By: Charles Koch, Brian Hooks

Narrated by: Charles Koch, Steve Carlson

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by Steve Carlson and Charles Koch with contributions from Social Entrepreneurs working in collaboration with the Stand Together organization.

A surprising take on how you can help tackle the really big problems in society - from one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs.

People are looking for a better way. Towering barriers are holding millions of people back, and the institutions that should help everyone rise are not doing the job. Crumbling communities. One-size fits all education. Businesses that rig the economy. Public policy that stifles opportunity and emboldens the extremes. As a result, this country is quickly heading toward a two-tiered society.

Today’s challenges call for nothing short of a paradigm shift - away from a top-down approach that sees people as problems to be managed, toward bottom-up solutions that empower everyone to realize their potential and foster a more inclusive society.

Such a shift starts by asking: What would it mean to truly believe in people?

Businessman and philanthropist Charles Koch has devoted his life to answering that question. Learn what he’s discovered during his 60-year career to help you apply the principles of empowerment in your life, in your business, and in society.

By learning from the social movements and applying the principles that have enabled social progress throughout history, Koch has achieved more than he dreamed possible - building one of the world’s most successful companies and founding Stand Together, one of America’s most innovative philanthropic communities. Stand Together CEO Brian Hooks and Koch show how the only way to solve the really big problems - from poverty and addiction to harmful business practices and destructive public policy - is for each and every one of us to find and take action in our unique role as part of the solution.

Full of compelling examples of what works - including several first-person accounts from individuals whose lives have been transformed - Koch and Hooks’ refreshing approach promotes partnership instead of partisanship and speaks to people from different perspectives and all walks of life. They show that no injustice is too tough to overcome if you share a deep belief in people, are willing to unite with anyone to do right, and work to empower others from the bottom up.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

"If you don't believe in people, what do you believe in? This is a provocative book for the moment. Highly recommended." (Ryan Holiday, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Obstacle Is the Way and The Daily Stoic)

©2020 Charles G. Koch and Brian Hooks (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

I really do believe in people!

The examples from this book highlight opportunities for people to work together across cultural, political, and other divides to solve the big challenges we face. It’s a great listen. Very inspiring.

First audiobook I finished in 3 days

As a social entrepreneur, this gave me new confidence to continue chasing my North Star as all of my learnings are identical to this book. Sometimes, as a social entrepreneur, it’s lonely and you feel naive about the world being a better place. Reading this book empowered me to keep fighting.

very inspiring and informative

if you put it on 2.20 speed he sounds like an old Ben Shapiro lol shout out to the CVA!

The right ideas, badly needed in our current time

Lots of stories and examples and encouragement to work together, see the good in people and draw it out, empower rather than control, bottom up versus top down, believe in people. Much needed principles considering our current political environment. Sure you can find fault with past Koch political alignments (he himself mentions regrets) and current fossil fuel investments, but we need to allow for people to change, and even if he seems imperfect or sometime hypocritical that does not diminish the value of what he is saying, with passion and heart. Good principles to live by.

Good overall book.

Speaks from the heart but also from experience. Was nice to get his view on not the news view.

A surprisingly inspirational book

I’m glad I gave this book a chance, as I had a bad impression of the Koch family. But was surprised to learn I agreed with most of his ideas. He discusses some regret with how things played out politically.

For Doers Tired of Spinning Their Wheels

This is an inspiring how-to book for doers. It’s for social entrepreneurs—the author’s term for change makers out there trying to find new ways to improve the world—written by one of the most effective and least understood philanthropists of our times.

And it’s also an interesting listen. Many of the social entrepreneurs featured in the book share first-person vignettes, read by them. Their fascinating stories—such as an early gay-rights activist, a former gang leader, a community organizer in recovery—bring a lot of heart and emotion to the book.

Many of us are deeply concerned about the state of affairs in America today: division, a rigged economy, politics that seems broken and a general sense that things are going in the wrong direction. Many turn to traditional camps in search for an answer—partisan politics, or strains of nationalism and socialism—only to be plagued by a nagging sense that these views aren’t delivering the change they’ve long promised.

This book offers not only practical guidance for how you can make things better, but presents a refreshingly new paradigm for action. Koch and Hooks offer a compelling case for why empowering others, instead of attempting to control them, offers a better way to tackle the biggest issues of our times.

When we believe in others, we enable them to contribute more. But to believe in others, we must also believe in ourselves. I love how this book shows the symbiotic nature of how using our gifts towards having an impact on the causes we most care about, we not only help OTHERS but WE can find fulfillment along the way, too.

Strongly recommend for anyone out there trying to help others, searching for better and better ways to magnify your impact, and searching for more meaning in these dark times.

Great read!!! An abundance of wisdom!!!

Mr. Koch has a great deal of wisdom to share with us. He is indeed a humble person.

Ever wonder what a true America hero looks like?

Read this book and find out! Only read if you believe it is one’s duty to leave the world a better place.
Thank you, Charles for this inspirational read!

Sage Wisdom!

If an 85 year old man that is worth 62 billion dollars with a degree from MIT and other institutions of higher learning shares his thoughts I thought it might be a great book. It was better than I could have imagined it. This is a priceless work. Thank you Mr. Koch.