Okay, Davos Man/Woman Is So Over - Can The Milken Man/Woman Fill That Space?

 Davos Man had once been the symbol of professional success, influence, power, and a commitment to making the future better for the rest of us little people. That was then.

IRRELEVANT, AT BEST

More recently, Davos Man as well as Davos Woman has degenerated into, at best, an irrelevant brand. More likely, everyone in the Davos loop represents part of the problems members of the World Economic Forum put on a show every January pretending to solve. 

Last January, the usual timing for the supposed movers and shakers to journey to Switzerland, journalist Peter S. Goodman published what has been a bestseller: "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World." Readers give it almost a 5 (out of 5) rating. There are 183 comments. And it ranks high on Amazon - 18,880. Goodman can't say enough bad about that tribe. What he vilifies most is their pretension to be passionate about solving the world's problems while actually being totally locked into augmenting their own wealth.

NOW, MILKEN MAN AND WOMAN

The exposure of the Davos tribal members as seemingly self-interested hypocrites opens the door for another tribe to rise to power. A likely replacement could be those who have been attending the Milken Institute Global Conference. As Bloomberg reports, that's taking place right now (May 1 -4). Participation is global. The weather in California, unlike that for the Davos event, is pleasant. And no one could slap a "geriatric" label on it. Hey, these people are cool.

Yes, it does have a noble mission. The Milken Institute is a think tank which, it states, exists to:

" ... advance unconventional economic and policy solutions that support growth and enhance health by conducting research ..."

No, that doesn't come across as the grandiose posturings of the Davos tribe.

MILKEN AS REBORN

Most importantly, the leader of these Milken galas - Michael Milken - can't position and package himself the way those in the World Economic Forum tend to. Milken had been in prison. Actually, after he took a guilty plea for violating securities laws, he had been sentenced to 10 years. But he wound up only serving two. In 2020 hen had received a pardon from then US President Donald Trump. 

Instead of being The Extreme Success brand Milken is the Born-Again One. That's a kind of inspirational narrative we ordinary people can hang our hats on. Like Milken, maybe we too can turn our lives around. And keep doing better. 

THE PERIL OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

The peril with the new model for collective power and influence creating good is that it can become intoxicated with its wonderfulness. Slowly and then more quickly it could harden into a closed system. Those unconventional economic and policy decisions could become not only mighty traditional. They could be self-serving.

You can connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com

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