I don't know about you, but it seems to me business was conducted differently when I started my first business – around 35 years ago.

There was a different level of trust commonly found in society, where your word was once good enough, and so was the other person's.

It seems to me that we've become a society of individuals not working for the betterment of all. We have become so focused on "rights", "doing it my way", and "looking after Number One", that some of us have lost sight of 'duties' and 'responsibilities'.  So what's the answer?...

Our schools are no longer teaching our children to think that way, and many leaders in politics and business constantly demonstrate today's thinking and attitudes.

Has this helped our sense of purpose and direction? Has it helped our sense of unity? Has it helped the way we do business? Has it really helped any of us at all?

I dare to suggest that it has not.

While we certainly need enterprising individuals to make things happen, we also need good team work. We actually need each other to achieve anything.

Perhaps building better relationships and letting other people know they are important to us makes sense. Perhaps the 'other person's' welfare is as important as our own.

Perhaps 'duties' and 'responsibilities' are as critical as 'rights'. And perhaps our children need to see adults trying to show they care rather than just paying lip service to it.

And this can only happen with individuals or individual enterprises consciously shifting attitudes.

And, perhaps, with a lot of hard work and some decent government policies, we might also start to make some headway through the economic mess we are all in.