Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress

University of Pennsylvania professor, former president of the American Psychological Association, and founder of positive psychology Martin Seligman has created some of the most lasting foundations of modern psychology. His work on learned helplessness/optimism and human flourishing have been a guiding light for our own work of understanding entrepreneurial thinking and behavior beyond traditional business-oriented definitions.

Now his latest book helps us unpack how humans have flourished and floundered from a more holistic, history-of-the-species perspective. He asserts that agency, not geography, wealth, or luck, is the hidden variable behind every leap forward in human history, from Periclean Athens to this current age of AI.

Seligman breaks agency into three parts — efficacy, optimism, and imagination — and argues that when all three show up together, in a person or a whole civilization, progress follows. Arthur C. Brooks put it plainly in his comments on the forthcoming book: “one phenomena, agency, has propelled all human progress and flourishing.”

For followers of ELI’s work, you will see how agency sits at the center of entrepreneurial thinking and action. We believe that the self-directed pursuit to create value for others in any context is the manifestation of humans who have developed their own sense of agency. So now we must ask, how can we take that practice and make it transferable to anyone?