Imran Jaferey, a friend and CEO of Vandstom, sent me John Tonner’s (Executive Director of the American Membrane Technology Association) message from April 8, 2026, titled “Unreasonable People.” John started his message with the quote from George Bernard Shaw.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
I use this quote, along with this more recent one from John Elkington, when I discuss wicked water problems and who solves them.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World (2008) is a book by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan.
I believe the actions of unreasonable people to challenge the status quo and develop innovative technologies, partnerships (“catalytic communities”), and financing and funding are essential in solving wicked water problems. The status quo is ripe for creative destruction, as conceived by Joseph Schumpeter and applied to sustainability strategies as presented in “Global Sustainability and the Creative Destruction of Industries” by Hart and Millstein.
I encourage us all to embrace the power of unreasonable people, coupled with a strategy of optimism.
Let me know what you think.
Onward.
Will, I love this conclusion: “embrace the power of unreasonable people, coupled with a strategy of optimism.”
That feels exactly right for wicked water problems. The unreasonable innovator refuses to accept that today’s constraints define tomorrow’s possibilities. A strategy of optimism then gives that unreasonable energy direction: face the facts, ask better questions, gather the right partners, test new models, learn quickly, and keep building toward a better outcome.
In the year ahead, I hope to work with more of those unreasonable optimists: people who see the value of fostering optimism and bring others into building an ever bigger movement of infectious optimistic leaders.
Onward indeed.