Bernstein, host of the program Founders’ Forum, led a conversation about positivity, success and the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility.
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Satell Institute member Marc J. Bernstein has worn many hats in his career. A lawyer by training, Bernstein worked for many years in the entertainment industry before moving into financial planning (he’s founding partner of wealth management firm March). In addition, Bernstein is the author of the Amazon bestseller The Fiscal Therapy Solution, as well as a champion of entrepreneurs: he runs a well-regarded business forum and hosts a radio show and podcast called Founders’ Forum (which airs on Philadelphia’s WWDB-AM).
Recently, Bernstein interviewed Satell Institute founder Ed Satell and SI executive vice-president Regina Black Lennox on his program. The trio talked about a variety of topics, including the power of positivity (a skill Regina says she honed in her years as a school teacher); Ed’s career as an entrepreneur and business leader; life lessons about success; the founding of the Satell Institute; and the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility.
You can listen to part one of the conversation here, or check it out on You Tube. (And stayed tuned for part two in the weeks ahead.)
Entrepreneurs, Energy and CSR
Bernstein’s relationship with Ed Satell goes back many years. The pair met in the 1970s when Bernstein sold cookware for Ed’s highly successful company, American Future Systems.
Thanks to his years of experience, Bernstein has come to understand important things about entrepreneurs. One is their constant forward-motion energy. “They’re never going to stop,” Bernstein says. “Ed Satell is a great example of that. He’s always looking forward, and I’m built the same way. I just want to keep talking to people about their futures. A lot of the things I do are about helping people unblock what’s in the way of getting where they want to get to.”
Bernstein has also come to appreciate the way entrepreneurs and business owners understand the value — for the community and their own companies — of philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility. “Most of the entrepreneurs I meet want to do something meaningful in the world,” he says.
In recent years, Bernstein and Ed Satell have reconnected thanks to CSR, including their mutual support of the American Technion Society and Bernstein’s membership in the Satell Institute.
“I’m attracted to people who want to have meaning in life beyond money and beyond business,” Bernstein says. “In fact, some of the guests on my radio show have been founders of nonprofits. I had Howard Nathan on the show, who’s the CEO of Gift of Life, the organ donor transplant program. He really took it from a one-person office to a big organization. But people in the for-profit world can have the same passion. They’re looking for something beyond money. And that usually has to do with meaning, and that always has to do with giving back, I think.”
Giving back — and the way it’s become an important success strategy at many businesses — is at the heart of the Satell Institute’s mission. As Ed Satell told Marc Bernstein, “I’m in the age of giving back, and I love the age of giving back.”