How Business Can Change the World, One Life at a Time

Imagine, being in your 20s, fresh out of washing dishes at a local restaurant, borrowing just enough money to open a tiny, local deli with a friend who shared your passion for food, community, and business? Now, imagine that, decades later, that single decision would profoundly change the lives of not just thousands of regular customers, but millions of people, around the world? What my guest today, Ari Weinzwieg, didn’t realize, when starting Zingerman’s Deli with a $20,000 loan from the bank, and a degree in Russian History from the University of Michigan, was that he was seeding a revolution. Actually, in hindsight, maybe he did. Now 17 companies later and sitting as the CEO and co-founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, Ari sees commerce as an engine of impact, expression and service that changes people’s lives. Ari and his ideas have set off a global ripple of compassion, dignity, imagination, and aliveness in the world of business, inviting people to reimagine a profoundly different, radically expansive and inclusive way of defining success. Named by Inc Magazine as one of “The World’s 10 Top CEOs,” he’s forging a new way in business that rejects the norm and is grounded in purposeful vision, passion, and anarchy theory. He’s written extensively about the values and beliefs that have kept the now iconic Zingerman’s Delicatessen, his first business venture, afloat and successful for over 40 years in weekly newsletters and the numerous books he’s authored, such as A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs and A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Managing Ourselves. You can find Ari at: Website | InstagramHOSTED BY: Jonathan FieldsJonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissionsMore on Sparketypes at: Discover Your Sparketype | The Book | The WebsiteFind a Certified Sparketype Advisor: CSA DirectoryPlease note this episode originally aired in December 2022 which will be relevant to some references about world news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We’re all in a moment. And, we’re asking the big questions. Especially about work. Should I join The Great Resignation? Should I stay and just keep on, keeping on. Or, reimagine, reinvent, maybe even start my own thing? Can I really expect more than just a paycheck and stability from work? How do I navigate the overwhelm, burnout, and work-life-bleed that’s turned work-from-home into never-stop-working? What about purpose, joy, excitement, time to breathe, and live? What about that nagging tension between money and meaning, the desire to feel secure and the quest to do something that makes you come alive - that sparks you?These are the questions we’ll be diving into on the SPARKED podcast. Every week, we invite a listener to share what’s going on in their work & life, then pose a specific question. Then, our host, award-winning author, advisor, and founder, Jonathan Fields, and a rotating lineup of wise mentors from the SPARKED Braintrust will share insights, ideas, strategies, resources and tips to help us all better align what we do with who we are, so we can find and do more of what makes us come alive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.