Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World
About this audiobook
Is the American Dream Over?
Millions of people are asking this question as our country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Many people are arguing the only way to solve our country’s problems is to turn away from the principles in the Declaration—yet Charles Koch and Brian Hooks make the compelling case that more fully applying those principles is essential to uniting our country and creating a future where everyone can lead a life of meaning. Koch, the chairman and co-CEO of Koch, Inc., and founder of Stand Together—one of the country’s most dynamic philanthropic communities—and Hooks, chairman and CEO of Stand Together, offer a transformative and proven road map for solving America’s toughest challenges—from our divisive politics to generational poverty to a broken education system. They show readers how to move beyond managing problems from the top-down and instead unlock human potential through bottom-up solutions.
With a new preface reflecting on how these ideas are even more relevant today than when the book was first released, a new foreword by Martin Luther King III, and with deeply personal stories and compelling examples of real-life impact, Koch and Hooks sketch a path forward for America and all who call it home: Work with anyone to do right, empower others from the bottom-up, and create a society where everyone can rise.
No matter your background or beliefs, Believe in People inspires you to rally around the principles of empowerment in the Declaration of Independence—and make our country’s next 250 years even better than the last.
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About the author
Brian Hooks is chairman and CEO of Stand Together, a philanthropic community that works with more than 700 business leaders and philanthropists to empower people to realize their unique potential and help every person rise. He is also president of the Charles Koch Foundation and previously served as executive director and COO of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, Christine, and their daughter.
Charles Koch, Chairman and Co-CEO—By the time Charles graduated from high school, he had attended eight schools. Despite earning three engineering degrees from MIT, he claims he is “a lousy engineer” but excels at making mistakes—“lots and lots of them.” By learning from those mistakes and implementing a principle-based framework, the company he leads has grown 9,000-fold since 1960. Utterly rejecting retirement, even at the age of ninety, Charles continues to push for a principle-based approach to life, business and society.
Michael Beck is an American actor and audiobook narrator. He is best known for his role in the 1979 film The Warriors. He has narrated numerous novels by John Grisham, as well as Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz and My Life by Bill Clinton. He lives in California.
