Meaningfulness and appreciation as the driving force behind our behaviour | Götz Werner | TEDxMannheim

As CEO and founder of the drugstore chain "dm", Götz Werner is trying to find an alternative way for his company. Despite the high competitive pressure on the markets, his goal is clear: He wants to create an economic environment where his customers and employees are seen and respected as human beings. As a Goethe enthusiast, Dr. Werner took the quote from Faust "Hier bin ich Mensch" ("Here I am Man") as a slogan, but also as a guideline for his company. For him, this means accepting people as individuals and ensuring that the necessary conditions are met to make humanity possible. Accordingly, he is also an advocate of the unconditional basic income.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

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Lisa Ruhfus: Good evening.

Please feel free to take a seat there,
I am going to sit here,

then it's all set up well for the cameras.

Götz Werner, you completed
our question as follows:

"What if your income was taken care of?
What would you do then?"

I'd like to revert
that question back to you:

What would you have done back then,

if unconditional basic income
was already a thing?

Would there even be "dm" today?

Götz Werner: Probably yes,

but the chance it wouldn't have happened
would have been much smaller.

LR: What's that like?

Could you imagine living on
1,000 euros a month?

GW: Well, 1,000 euros, that's so to speak

the initiative igniter,
then the real action starts.

But you would have a start.

Every person would have a start,

from which they could freely search
for what is waiting for them.

There is something for everyone.

LR: Who would then work the jobs

that used to be low-paid or trivial?

GW: Well, they are always getting done
by the people who are needed.

LR: What if they aren't paid for it?

GW: Sorry?

LR: Because UBI does not exist?

If that no longer existed,
who would do these jobs?

The easy jobs.

GW: Well, if you live and you have needs,

and you do appreciate the people

who help you to meet those needs;

if you do appreciate them,
you will always find people to help you.

LR: You have experienced
an exciting story yourself.

You told me that you came
to one of your branches, in the evening,

and met an employee there.

GW: Oh, yes, that story, yes.

LR: And that was an experience
you described me as unforgettable.

Please tell it again.

GW: As a human being,
you go to the university of life,

and you're constantly being taught.

I arrive at the Pirmasens branch
just before half past six.

Back then, the shops closed
at half past six.

And I said, "I'm just on my way
back to Karlsruhe,

and I wanted to stop here.

What is your job with us?"

She says, "I'm marginally employed."

I must tell you,
I think, there are few days

when I've learned as much
as I did that day.

So I said, "How come that this young lady,

who is now alone in the store,

thinks she's marginally employed?

When everything depends on her?"

LR: Did that change
something in your mind?

GW: Yes, I suddenly realized

that there is no hierarchy
in collaboration.

There's always --

you work together.

You work together for others.

And everyone is equally important.

People can't be divided
in important and redundant,

everyone is necessary.

LR: From your point of view,

why hasn't UBI long been in place already?

GW: We're not yet able to imagine it.

Because we think
we're being paid for our work.

But if you don't live, you can't work.

But if you want to live,
you need a basic income.

If you want to live in this world,

you must have access to services
and goods from other people,

and other people must be paid for them.

It is as simple as that.

So the imposition

that each and every one of us
has to make on ourselves,

is that you rethink it and say,

"I'm not paid with this income,

it's what makes it possible to work".

That's the same with you.

If you had no income,

you couldn't even afford
to interview me here.

LR: That's right.

GW: That makes sense.
It makes sense for you, too.

Really think about it.

LR: We come back

to your career and your life's work,

you have written a book with the title

"I never expected this".

Did you ever think

that you would be able
to build a company this big?

GW: No.

You never expected to interview me either.

LR: That's true. (Laughter)

(Applause)

GW: Probably. It's always like that.

Life is full of surprises,

and things never turn out
the way you expect them to.

That's why all of us,

here in this auditorium
and all over Mannheim,

we all have a very special
incomparable biography,

but we can all take the same title:

I never expected this.

LR: What is more decisive for success?

Is it really talent, or is it luck,
from your point of view?

GW: I would say

that for success it is crucial

that you see things
that others do not see.

And because you see things
that others don't see,

you do things where others say,

"That's crazy. It'll never work."

That's what they said to me at the time.

And when it did work, they said,

"I knew it would."

Well, it's true.

That's how Mannheimers feel as well.

Because I'm from Heidelberg.

(Laughter)

LR: Was there ever a moment
when you wanted to quit?

Where you said,
"No, not like that anymore."

GW: You always have that, actually.

You're always on the edge,
so to speak, where you say,

"Is this going to continue?"

You're going, so to speak --

You live sentimentally,
consciously before the --

like when you're surfing.

Someone said before, "Always on the edge".

LR: Do you surf?

GW: Excuse me?

LR: Are you a surfer?

GW: No, but I can well imagine.

There you always have the --

you always have to face
the danger of, how shall I put it,

the danger of failure --

like with the clowns.

The clown is interesting

because that's the art of failure.

As an entrepreneur
you are also kind of a clown,

because you always do something
that the others don't expect.

LR + GW: Things never turn out
the way you expect them to.

LR: Is that your motto in life?
Can you put it that way?

Or do you have another one?

GW: Yes, my real motto in life,
if I may reveal it to you,

and I can only recommend it to you
to make it your own, is:

Whoever wants to, finds ways

and whoever doesn't, finds reasons.

I can only tell you that whenever you have
to deal with other people,

proceed along to this motto.

You will save an incredible
amount of time.

Just ask first: Does this person
really want to,

or does this person just come here
to make statements?

LR: What's the best advice you ever got?

GW: Well, the best advice,

I' II have to explain a little bit:

I was born in 1944 -- so when
I was 17, 18 years old,

1961, 62, I had a coach in Konstanz.

At that time Brigitte Bardot was in.

Can you imagine that?

As a 17-year-old,
we rowers as 17-year-olds

and then Brigitte Bardot
in Konstanz, in the cinema.

"And God created Woman,"
was the name of the film.

I remember, like it was today.

The coach always said,

"BB doesn't stand for Brigitte Bardot,

but for persevering (beharrlich) in effort

and modest (bescheiden)
in expectation of success."

Then we laughed, of course.

There were 50 of us,

but I must say that the older I got,

the more I have, and I'm 74 now,

the more I've experienced,
that's exactly the point.

Most things go wrong.

You can search everything
you have seen or heard before,

that one is impatient in effort

and demanding in
the expectation of success.

LR: Yes, that's a good motto.

We'll move on to another motto,
the theme of your life's work.

The drugstore chain "dm"
adorns itself with the motto:

"Here I am Man", quoted from Faust.

What gave you the idea?

GW: The advertising agency
came up with the idea.

(Laughter)

LR: But you signed it.

(Applause)

GW: But the advertising agency
knew, of course,

that I was a fan of Goethe
and a fan of Faust as well.

By the way, I can recommend
everyone to become one.

It really makes a difference.

Then the problem was
back then, because we --

so if you want to find out
about something,

then ask: What's the motto?

We had a motto:
"Big brands, small prices."

Then we somehow realized that back then,

that was in the late '80s,
that's not enough.

It's not enough:
"Big brands, small prices".

And then the dealers,

they have the unpleasant quality,

the chief strategists, they always
only see the purchasing power.

Then I say,

"The customer who comes to us
is a human being, he's not a customer."

So, we have to focus on that

because people come to us to shop,

because they have problems,

and they suspect that we can solve
their needs better than they can.

I guarantee you.

If you need diapers,
it's best to buy them from us,

it's too difficult to do it yourself.

Then this slogan came up.

At that time,

the slogan had completely changed
the whole attitude in the company,

and the company was already
quite large at that time,

because now, the decisive factor
is no longer the customer's wallet,

but the person itself.

You can often see

that the seller is often
only interested in the wallet.

Buy a car

or you can often see it in fashion stores.

We have to focus on people.

LR: Yes.

Let's talk Götz Werner the human being.

"Here I am Man",

full of work and success,

when such a company grows
and everything runs smoothly,

have you ever felt,

you were neglecting yourself
as a human being?

GW: Actually, yes.

There is definitely the danger
of overshooting the mark

or of becoming too fixated on a target.

I would always say, "Take it easy."

Don't be afraid and get
too focused on something.

I recommend it to everyone.

Always keep a safe distance
from your own targets.

Don't tense up.

The biggest problem you can see
is that many people --

and that's why I'm also
in favor of the basic income --

do many things that, if they look at it
closely, they don't really want to do.

If you want to have a burnout,
if that is your interest,

then I can only say to you,

"Do consistently things
that you do not want to do.

just because someone else said so."

That's a huge problem.

LR: What do you do to relax,
when things get tough?

GW: Well, sit down
and wait for the pain to ease.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

LR: Do you go on holiday, for example?

GW: Excuse me?

LR: Are you going on holiday?

GW: Of course, I also take a holiday,
but that's just a habit.

But just take a look at yourself,

I've been rowing in professional sports

and when you really do
professional sports,

you realize that it's all
about breathing in.

LR: Rowing is all about breathing in?

GW: Yes.
LR: OK.

GW: The pull-through
it's like breathing in.

LR: OK.

GW: The rhythm.
In the rhythm there is power.

That's what the coach said
back then, by the way,

"There is power in rhythm." And --

LR: And this breathing exercise --

GW: You then consciously forget
to exhale, so to speak.

When you exhale unconsciously,
you get stitches or a cramp.

The recovery process itself is the way

I am able to exhale consciously.

You can start to try this right now,

not only to breathe in consciously,
but also to breathe out consciously.

That you always pay attention to
the rhythm in all your work,

in the cooperation, in every relationship.

LR: To breathing.

GW: The breathing rhythm
is the obvious one.

When rowing you just have the pull-through
and then roll forward again.

That's how you learn it.

LR: Now I have a few quick
questions about you.

When you go on holiday,
where do you like to go?

GW: Because I'm on the road a lot,
branch business, there the whole thing --

always build that up,
visiting branches, stores,

until the ones here in the North-West --

went through all of them
in the Neckarstadt

and then finally knew
that none is an option.

(Laughter)

LR: Have you been to the "dm"
here in Mannheim today?

GW: Yes, sure.

Now I've lost my thread.

LR: Let's get back to the vacation
when you're not working.

GW: Yes, holidays.

GW: Holidays are a habit.

There's something fuzzy about it.

Ask yourself, "Why am I on holiday?"

It's the gesture of exhaling.

Where you have to allow yourself
times to consciously exhale

and I'm a holiday grump
because I travel so much.

I used to drive
90-120,000 kilometers a year,

so I'm not a holiday person.

In winter I used to go skiing
in the Bernese Oberland

and in summer I went to Lake Constance,
where I also rowed myself.

LR: You have seven children,

which is really rare in this day and age.

What did you learn from your children?

GW: From the kids?

So what you can learn from children,
that's already in the Bible.

You don't have to believe me,

but it's in the Bible:

If you don't become like
the little children,

you won't reach the kingdom of heaven.

So, I take the children to my benefit,

this openness, this eagerness to learn,

this curiosity, this openness.

The more we mean to become adults,

the more we think it depends on
the answers to the questions

instead of the questions.

LR: Are they following in
your footsteps too, your children?

GW: One, because I always said,

"You don't have to follow in my footsteps,

do what you want."

You don't get kids doing

what their parents do.

A lot of people think that,
but it's a misconception.

(Laughter)
(Applause)

LR: What do your kids do?

What do they do for a living?

Your children,
what do they do for a living?

Very different things then?

GW: The eldest is an artist.

At the moment she is taking care
of cruise ship guests.

They can do meditation and music
with her and her husband.

My son, he is in the management at "dm".

Then there' s

one, two ...

(Laughter)

Bettina.

I always get the names mixed up.

(Laughter)

Bettina is like you, midwife,

no, in your age, she is a midwife

and then we have one

who is a mother, with a two-year-old.

Then we have one who's studying medicine.

It's incredible what they have
to learn, it's hard to bear.

Then I have a 24-year-old who is
constantly travelling around the world,

very interesting --

LR: So very colorful. Everybody does
very different things.

GW: Right now, she's in Hawaii doing --

but she's also done some work
with Kurds in Iraq and stuff, so very --

LR: I don't want to interrupt you,
but we need to speed up a bit,

because I see the whole clock
is already running.

GW: Speed? They don't do speed.

(Laughter)

LR: I would like to ask you
one last question

about entrepreneurship.

What do you think
are the biggest differences

between entrepreneurs today
and in the past?

GW: That it depends
much more on the individual.

In the past, people used to walk more

in the hereditary stream
of their ancestors

and today, as it is also written
in the Bible by the way,

children fall completely out of character.

They do something completely different
and look for their own way.

I think you also have to be careful

not to put pressure on the children,

and that's just it, they go their own way.

I can only tell you how you can best
realize this for yourself,

because it always amazes me

how few people realize

that as parents
you don't get the children,

but that the children get the parents.

If you rethink it like that,
then I promise you

it was worthwhile coming here today.

The children are looking for the parents.

LR: Thank you very much. Nice closing.

Professor Werner. Thank you.

GW: Thank you.

(Applause)