06-24-2025
When Andreas Widmer, author of The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship, spoke with David Randich at the Daniels School's 2025 Cornerstone for Business Conference, Randich asked, “If somebody in the audience wanted to help alleviate poverty in the U.S. tomorrow, what should they start doing?”
Widmer answered out of his experience asking Pope John Paul II, with whom he discussed capitalism and moral good. The pope shifted the question to reframe the problem by asking, “What is poverty?” John Paul II would go to explain how the United Nations measures poverty, whatever it was during his papacy — something close to living on $1.25 a day.
“It strikes me that is begging the question,” the pope said. The amount $1.25 is actually a transfer value — captured value, producing nothing itself — but it’s a result of something else, he explained to Widmer.
“Wouldn't it be smarter instead to focus on the issue of creating money in the first place? We're saying this person is poor. They have no money, but we should actually go back and ask, ‘What is the actual cause of the lack of money?’” said the pope. Widmer learned from John Paul II that the current form of measuring the lack of money by some implied a redistribution of wealth.
But if you want to help alleviate poverty, the answer isn’t simply to redistribute an imagined amount of limited wealth or focus on how little someone has. The real question is: What is the root cause of having so little money?
The key insight Widmer shared is that prosperity is created when individuals have access to networks of productivity and exchange. People aren’t poor because they lack intelligence or ability — genius is spread evenly across humanity. They’re poor because they lack access to the networks that enable productivity, opportunity and exchange. Widmer observed these networks can be anything: a university, bank loans, a business, a smartphone or even the people you meet in your daily life.
To address the poverty of networks and make a difference, Widmer recommends we don’t wait for top-down, systemic solutions. Instead, he calls on us to look at our own networks — our workplace, investments, business contacts, and even social circles — and ask: How can I integrate someone who is financially or intellectually poor into these networks? From this, enact solutions. For example:
What people need is not a handout but opportunity — access to the same networks of productivity and exchange that we enjoy. When you integrate someone into your network, you’re not just giving charity; you’re creating the conditions for lasting prosperity.
Widmer’s business philosophy focuses on what he calls “other directedness,” and addressing poverty correlates to his central question for business creators: “How can I help you?” He says with the right networks and other-centered orientation, anyone can create value for others.
