Ideas to change the world.
Actions to preserve the environment.
When the swan swims throughout the pond water and comes ashore, it is not soiled by the water. It’s untainted, fresh, and goes about the day — peacefully and gracefully. You, too, can be like the unsoiled swan — never tainted by the water, no matter how murky it may seem at times throughout your life. Totally unaffected, in any serious way, by life’s ups and downs.
As a human being you will invariably run into what one would call “negative” forces, negative situations and experiences. Especially since we all have ideas to share. But ideas or not, negativity will be experienced. This is inescapable.
For now, we’ll take a look at this concept by using the theme of “sharing your ideas” for our context as many of you are entrepreneurial at spirit and speaking about ideas is commonplace. Let’s take, for instance, the occasional “I hate your idea!” statement that we’ve all endured or will endure at one point. What do you do when someone literally comes at you with “hate”? Do you respond with hate? Do you get angry and fire back with all your might, undoubtedly fueled by your ego? Most people do just that: futilely respond with hate. Why? Because they feel they feel that they have been soiled. They have become the swan who turns around and sees (the illusion) of a soiled behind.
When we’re faced with negativity we’d do well to remember that without negativity there can be do positivity, no good. Without good, there can be no negativity. They aren’t “opposites” as one may assume. They are “polar opposites.” Each connected and inter-depending on the other.
Think of “good” and “bad” as opposing buds on each end of a branch. Now, if you chop off the “bad” bud, the “good” bud will still blossom because you never really killed the “bad” bud. That was just an illusion. The bad end of the branch, in time, will regenerate a new bad bud which will blossom. The entire branch still goes on living. Just as one can chop off the negative pole of a magnet and the negative poles will still exist, albeit it will be a shorter pole. We can never — ever, ever — get rid of the negative force.
If we can understand and accept that this is all just a trick, an illusion… oh, how clear things would all of a sudden become. When someone “ruins” your day with an awful comment. When that big deal falls through and you lose the client. When you fall down and cut your knee. When society condemns you for being entrepreneurial instead of conforming to the ways of Corporate America. All of these things aren’t “bad,” just as they aren’t “good.”
The only time they become “bad” is when we allow them to soil us. To soil our spirits. But they can never soil us, because the water is always pure and clean. Hence, the illusory nature of our understanding of good and bad.
So with understanding, we do as the swan does and eventually go back in the water and get back to swimming; because that’s what we do. We continue on. When you are faced with difficulties, soil on your back, understand them for what they really are — mere illusions. And don’t let them hold you back and keep you ashore.
Know that the forces of “good and bad,” “up and down,” “in and out,” etc. are simply natural processes of life and that they need each other. Maintain your grace and peace. Get back swimming in the water of life. With this understanding, you can NEVER be soiled.
The “Real World.” Doesn’t that sound familiar? It has a nice ring to it, right? This ubiquitous phrase — or better yet, realm of existence — has come to define an entire culture; most notably, our culture: Generations X and Y.
The “Real Word” this and that. Most often, we hear college students referring to this “Real Word.” A world that we mysteriously enter upon graduating college. As if we were living in some Unreal World during our four years of college. And maybe they were. It all depends on the student’s way of looking at the world. But it still begs the question: Was the college world any less real than this world? If so, then was it a Fake World?
When you graduate and get a job and and enter the workforce, is that when you enter “Real World”? You see, in the “Real World” we have to get a “Real Job.” In the “Real World” you have to dress a certain “Real Way.” In the “Real World” you have grow up and become serious — to take everything seriously.
It’s time to become an adult once and for all and, of course, to stop having fun. To let go of the child within you. To stop embracing the joyous and spontaneous sparks of life. But why, I ponder, can’t we be children anymore? Why must be take everything seriously?
It’s now time to take the WORLD seriously. Take GOD seriously. Take your HEALTH seriously. And if you’re to have FUN, take that seriously as well. Take it all seriously.
But is this “Real World” really that real after all? Is it a world where we are simply pretending that everything is okay? Maybe it’s a Fake World. Maybe it’s a world with a grossly distorted reality. An uneasy reality. A reality that goes counter to our natural playful, happy, and relaxed selves.
Freud says that all dreams, in one way or another, are wish-fulfillments. Meaning: all our dreams revolve around things that we want, that we wish for. Maybe it’s for an event to take place. Or to meet that certain boy / girl. Or maybe to have a certain status in life or become a certain person.
Ever go to bed at night and have an amazing dream of doing something that you’ve always wanted to do in life? Maybe it was to become an astronaut and go to the moon. Maybe it was to become a musician and tour the world. Or maybe to write poetry and novels. These dreams were so lucid that as you awoke you truly thought that you were that musician, astronaut, or that writer.
Then, as quickly as these wishes were fulfilled, they melted away and vanished into thin air. You were back in the “Real World” as Joe Smoe. You were back in that “Real World” that society demanded that you be a part of, even at the expense of your dreams, aspirations, and outright enjoying life.
So what do you do? Do you say “screw it!” and proclaim that “I’m going to do whatever I want to do in My World?”
Well, first we need to consider the possibility that the world you were born out of is, in fact, “A Real World.” And that through arduously trying to live up to the expectations of society, you got lost in a world that suddenly didn’t seem so real after all. And you come to the alarming conclusion that you’ve been living in a “Fake World” where you aren’t happy. Where you are constantly struggling to remain a part of — climbing that social ladder. Aggressively ingratiating yourself in the eyes of that all mighty society.
You’re now looking at everything under the lens of a dream because, in your mind, everything that you REALLY want in this world is unattainable in the the “Real World.”
No wonder why you go to bed at night and wake up in a world with all your dreams fulfilled — a world where you are living your desires. Wouldn’t it be nice to stay in this Dream World? Most of us are living in a delusional world of thinking that we must be unhappy in order to maintain our standings in this “Real World.”
Because — oh no! — if we were really doing the things that we really wanted to be doing… we’d be looked at like children…ambition-less….as lunatics! So, let’s get this right: In the “Real World” we can’t do “REAL” things that “REALLY” make us happy. Ha, to go back to the college student who loathes at the notion of entering the “Real World.” Well, I’d loathe such a world as well. And, actually, knowing what the “Real World” is really comprised of, partying all day and having a blast at college seems like much more fun to me. But, in reality, we don’t stay in college forever and we must continue on in life.
We say “Grow Up.” “Stop acting like a child.” “When are you going to be an adult?” Maybe growing up isn’t all that we make it out to be. Maybe, just maybe, holding onto your curious, playful, and carefree child-disposition is really a good thing. Maybe this so called “Real World” makes us rigid and stiff. Maybe we’re stuck in a world where we have absolutely lost control over our own lives. So brilliantly stuck that we don’t even know that we’re stuck and, seemingly, we think that we’re in control .
But the “Real” control and power has been forfeited by you a long…long… time ago when your world split in two: the “Real World” and “The World.” This splitting resulted in a radical power shift: on one end, society, taking the lion’s share and on the other side, you, usurped from the throne of your life… becoming a mere bystander.
Society hijacked your position behind the steering wheel of life and shoved you over to the passenger’s seat to go along for the ride down “Real World Way.” And on this road you drove through endless lectures of people telling you how to look, behave, and present yourself to the world. You drove through a college that was picked out by your parents 10 years before you were born, when you were just a naughty glimmer in your father’s eyes. You drove through jobs and positions that your professors and elders meticulously placed you in, like ornaments on Christmas trees. You drove down Fashion Lane that told you what to wear to make you “cool” and what was in vogue or not. You drove down Hollywood Ave that taught you that you had to have millions in order to fit in and be accepted. You drove through libraries where “Authority Figures” shoved books down your throat and taught you that your curiosity and desire to come up with your own ideas/answers weren’t needed. And you stopped off at the church where you learned of a man who was almighty — the Master and Commander — who watches your every move and can condemn you to eternal damnation if you don’t adhere to his doctrine.
You see “Real World Way” is a road that most people don’t even know that they are on, simply because they were never in the driver’s seat. Their entire lives they just coasted in cruise control and let society (i.e., bosses, peers, friends, parents, professors, and the media) do all the driving. And “Real World Way” is a one-way street. However, those who realized — who woke up after being awaken from all the speed bumps in the road — that they were going in the wrong direction decided to take drastic measures to turn around. And on “Real World Way” there is only one way to get off. And it’s dangerous. Those who dared to get off had to take back control, kick Society out of the driver’s seat (throw him on the street) and pull a complete 180 degree turn in the opposite direction, against traffic!! Will you be so bold? Will you dare to take control back and go down Your Way?
Probably the most misused word in business is leadership. I hear that word thrown around so much, you’d think our world was chock full of great leaders. Obviously that’s not the case (Jim Collins, in Good to Great, discovered only 11, out of 1400+ companies studied, qualified as great. Less than 1%.)
Personally, the funniest use of the word leadership is when politicians use it to describe their work. Uh, less than half the people in this country even vote – who’s following you, Mr. Congressman??? 
John C. Maxwell said it perfectly – “If you call yourself a leader but no one’s following, you’re just out taking a walk.” (paraphrase from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.)
I laugh almost as much when managers call themselves leaders. Oh really, you’re a leader? What if your people didn’t need their paycheck to survive, would they still come to work for you? Probably not. Managers don’t exert any influence, other than fear. Those followers are following money, not you.
You see, Authentic Leadership, while extremely simple, has been widely unknown to most of us, for most of our lives. The Apostle Paul said in this world there are many teachers, but not many fathers. (Lots of people like to give directives, but who gives of themselves?)
So let me briefly outline what Authentic Leadership is and what it’s not:
I think you get the picture. Hopefully.
There’s a world of difference between a title on a door and the place you have in peoples’ hearts. A few other great quotes on Authentic Leadership (all EPM paraphrased):
“What enables a great leader to fulfill his vision is not his position, but his passion.”
John C. Maxwell
“Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you’re not.”
Margaret Thatcher
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
John Quincy Adams
/////// read Eric’s recent essay: “My Take on the Bible, Part 1” ////////
What’s the mission? What’s your end-goal? When will you see success in what you do? What’s your plan for the future of so and so? These are the typical questions that we ask each other in order to find out the “end” of whatever it is that we are doing in our lives. Our projects, passions, ideas, what have you.
But why does there have to be an end? And end result for everything. Why can’t it just “be”? Why can’t there be success at every level?
People often ask me: “What’s your plan for Mind Petals? What’s the future of Mind Petals? Where are you going with Mind Petals? When will you find success in what you do?”
But these questions have no real answers, you see. At least no adequate answers. There is no past of Mind Petals just as there is no future of Mind Petals. Mind Petals is now. Here. This very moment. There are no levels (this isn’t a video game) of success and end-goals.
You reading my very words right now is the answer in its entirety. Your mind swirling around and neurons firing right now is the answer. As your mind currently evolves or devolves right now is the answer.
We’re so gung-ho about placing an end on everything. And this is ever-strengthening due to the ubiquitous business mentality that we guard and protect. The “pay-me-for-my-passion” mentality. The business plans. The projections. The timelines. The “X” that we have to meet in order to achieve success.
They’re all illusions. Ghosts. Clouds obscuring reality. Think about it: everyone is always telling you to follow your passions in life. “Get out there and follow your passions no matter what! Just do it! Now!”
And why? Why are we supposed to follow our passions? Simple. Because our passions are supposed to be the things that bring us the most joy in life. The things that we’re super-enthusiastic about. Right?
Oh, no, but that’s not enough. We want MORE. Give me. Give me. Give me. Mere happiness from our passions isn’t enough. So what do we do? We put “ends” on our passions.
Take, for instance, the young girl who has a passion to write. Writing brings her endless joy. She writes simply for the love of writing. It’s her heart. Her world. Her everything. And as this girl grew up she learned that joy was no longer enough. Her mom said: “Dear, happiness and joy aren’t going to pay the bills. So wake-up!”
Society taught this girl that she had to strive for more than happiness in life. And such an ideology forced her to reevaluate her passions — what made her happy. Forced to adjust her passions to suit a society that demanded more. And that adjustment came in the form of an “end.” An end-goal.
So the young girl who was once as happy as could be just to write simply for the joy of it, has become the woman who needs to sell 10,000 books in order to be happy. Who needs to become a best selling author in order to be happy. She’s totally numb to the experience of enjoying something without any ends to it. That “end” is now her cocaine. Her fix. Her “give it to me.” Her passion has now become and ends to a means of finding happiness again. You see, the model of happiness totally inverted.
Her passion is now a job. Constantly at work trying to produce happiness. And where is she when all this is going on? She is now the slave to her passion. Instead of her passion being something that naturally produces joy in her life, it has become sort of a train that’s dragging her around and around. And it’s now her job to pump it up with fuel so it can keep on trying to reach that end.
That mansion! That million bucks! That fancy car! Chooo!!!! Chooo!!!! That image of perfection! The glory! The Success! Choo!!!! Choooo!!!! Chooo!!!! The top of the charts! The front page of the paper! The fame! Chhoooo!!!! ChoooO!!!!
Forget joy and happiness, because with all these things who needs it, right? The party is never over, right?
Do you see the illusion? You see the gap between the time when she was “naturally” happy to the time when happiness had to be attained? She thought that she was walking on water. On top of the world! But wait… something just wasn’t right. Something was missing? All the glory wasn’t sustaining her.
That something was her baby. Her passion when it was pure. When it was a seed effortlessly growing towards the sun before she was forced to pump it with steroids and fertilizer to make it grow as fast as possible — to push and push it towards that end. That success point.
But you see, she missed the point altogether. Because the success was the very seed itself. Success never had to be attained. It just was. Just being. Just growing on its own with ease. No striving. No forcing. No setting endless goals. Just right there in front of her. Being.
That is to say, your passion needs no end. No plans. No projections. No explanations. (save those silly things for your job). Your passion just “is.” Because if it isn’t, then its working. And you’re working for it.
The follow-up of the “Never Settle on ‘The Authority’” (part 1) talk, going into certain individuals in history who simply weren’t happy settling for the answers they were receiving — they just weren’t having it. So they went out to answer their own questions.
Never settle for something to be true, right, and correct simply because an “Authority” figure has deemed it so. Always venture within and ask yourself as well. You know more than you think.
Making money is easy. Seriously, I’m convinced that anyone that really, really focuses on making money, will, in time, make a lot of money. No doubt. If you want to become extremely rich and you wake-up every morning trying to become just that, and you give it all you got, in time you will be! You’ll make it happen. I don’t think that this is hard and from my experiences, when I focus on purely making money, guess what, I just make money.
Now, doing something that you are absolutely passionate about, without necessarily trying to make a buck, is what people have decidedly made a hard thing, a hard concept.
I have come to the realization that I really don’t like doing anything for the sole reason of making money. In fact, this idea now disgusts me very much. It’s not a good feeling. It’s an uneasy feeling that I try to avoid at all costs.
I like to do things for the simple reason that they make me happy and are enjoyable. Sacrificing that joy to make a buck isn’t something that I enjoy at all. However, that isn’t to say that we can’t make plenty of money through our passions.
Yes, in theory you totally understand me — “Follow your passion and in time it’ll make money.” We’re very familiar with this. But does this apply in practicable terms — real life. “Dave, talk to us about real life!!”
Okay, let’s talk real life. Yes, I do think that this works in real life. And I’ll tell you why it always works. Because of “service.” That is to say “service to others.”
If you are in the business of servicing yourself, and yourself only — this will never work. If you’re in the business of servicing your bank account, then, please, continue to do that — just don’t try to use your passions to serve yourself only — because that will never work.
Okay, back to the point. If you, through your passions, truly help and serve people. And you have a genuine desire to help them — not just pretend. And you think of money as a secondary condition. Then, believe me, you’ll always be alright. You won’t lose. You can’t.
When you are truly passionate about something and that passion is fused with a desire to help people, then you’re working on fertile soil that will produce endless fruits of gratitude, positivity, and peace. And you’ll soon see, that people whom have been influenced, touched, and helped from your efforts, will want to contribute back to you. This is called reciprocity.
This is the transactional nature of the universe. When you transfer your passions and services to others — expecting nothing in return — something will be transfered back to you. And you’ll always be taken care of.
If you’re a writer, speaker, business owner, whatever… Then be that person. Do those things because they make you happy. Do those things to help other people. Do them because they add vale to the world. And when people wish to express their gratitude, accept it.
A smile. A dollar. A word of advice. A hug. A sweater. However they show their appreciation for you sharing your passion with them — accept it and continue on. Continue on because what you’re doing is what you’re passionate about and that’s that. Nothing else. Nothing more.
This is the essence of “Right Livelihood.” Coming to the crossroads of living your passion and serving people. Creating such a balanced situation that everyone prospers. If we all lived in this spirit and thought more about serving others than ourselves, we’d be much happier. There would be less stress and more joy in this world — no doubt about that.
There are various relationships that define how your projects, companies, creative pursuits can grow and influence others. Among them, Monarchical, Concentric, and Organic relationships are three fundamental relationships that most of us would fall under and categorize our creative pursuits as. No one relationship is better than the other and in many ways, they are all connected and interwoven. I hope this discussion will help bring light to the particular relationship that you are working with and maybe, by understanding it more, you can make adjustments if needed… or, simply, come to terms with how your projects are affecting the lives of those around you. Maybe you’re affecting them in a negative way. Maybe in a positive way. It’ll be up to you to find out. Maybe in a way that you have yet to understand. Let’s discuss them, shall we.
You’re the boss! In this relationship between your project and those who are within the scope of your project or are a part of your circle of influence, you reign supreme. This is a one way line of communication. What you say goes. You have final say, word, decision, everything. You don’t want respect, you “demand” it because your authority depends on it. You love your Ego. It’s your everything. You don’t need feedback, because you’ve already made up your mind and it’s set. No flexibility. No elasticity. If you’re not in charge, calling all the shots, then nothing would be worth it for you. You are GOD, in the Christian sense of the word. Meaning, all shall bow down to you and honor you. This is your mindset and your nature. You’ve skillfully crafted your creative outlet in such a way that all your members, constituents, users, what have you, have come to depend on you and only you. This was the design from the beginning.
You and your members all share the same center. There is no authority figure reigning supreme. Everyone is connected at the base and each person revolves around that base. No levels. No hierarchy. This is a collective whole with direct feedback between each member. Though every member is working independently in their own creative respects, a omnipresent ideal is shared and relied upon at the center of everything. The only thing that is in control, is the concept at the core — never any individual. Growth expands from the outside of the center, but the center is never lost. And though one person may have been responsible for creating that center, that person has no greater influence than anyone else. The ideal, the philosophy, the center energy is now dictating the direction of the creative process. Everyone is GOD in this relationship.
Everyone and everything is growing together, from the inside out. Whatever action any person takes has absolutely no difference than that of any other person, because the end result is always the same — growth. This relationship is self-sustaining and needs no dictation or direction. What needs to be done is already known, intuitively, within each contributor. No communication is expressed nor needed, because everything is in perfect harmony. Everything is already implicit within each contributor. It’s like looking at your mom, and based upon her face, you already know what she has to say to you…no words are ever needed.
Think about these various relationships and see if your project, organization, company, or whatever creative outlet that you have, falls into alignment with any of these structures, these particular ways of communicating and relating to those who are a part of your creative processes. Simply being aware of what relationship you are working with, in and of itself, can unlock an immense understanding of your power, your influence, and the energy / nature of your creativity.
Mind Petals Organization is proud to announce that our first International Chapter recently began in Pakistan, SZABIST University, Mind Petals SZABIST Chapter.
This release is scheduled to be played on the SZABIST Radio Station in the upcoming month. play now [full view]
Ali Shah Assani, Chapter President, and Zuhaib Memon, Chapter Historian, answer a few questions about the new chapter and the creative culture of Pakistan:
AA: Ali Shah Assani. I am attending SZABIST Karachi, pursuing my Bachelors in Computer Sciences (BS) with major in Software Engineering.
ZM: My name is Zuhaib Memon and I study in SZABIST, doing my Bachelors in Science, majoring in Computer Sciences (BSCS) from there.
AA: 22 years-old.
ZM: I am 21 years old.
AA: Students inform other students about their creative endeavors, but most of them are just obvious. One of the best ways of expressing creativity at the university are term projects. This gives a playground to students to work in the domain of a course or in their own student bodies and unleash their creative potentials. We have witnessed different events taking place at the university employing innovation and harvesting the wild seeds of creativity. From product/business launches, to outdoor field research, film making and dramatics, concerts, arts, Cyber Game tournaments, from final year CS projects to organizing workshops and events. Students at the university fit right onto our motto “we just don’t work hard — we work smart!”
ZM: Well, at the moment they all just tell friends their achievements and friends spread their achievements to other friends.
AA: I am passionate about computers, trance/techno music, robotics, my guitar, Internet, business plans. Something I am most passionate about is the way I think; I am unemployable!
ZM: Violin, Computer, Robotics, the Web, and clean, safe, pollution-free environment.
AA: I wanted to start a Young Entrepreneurs society at my university and I was surfing over the Internet to find other related networks, so I could study their content and how they go about sharing their resources. I came across a few networks and Mind Petals was one of them. I really liked the content organization and requested for assistance and guidance. This is was when David and I exchanged emails for the first time.
ZM: I came to know about Mind Petals through the website, and lot of hype at my university about Young Entrepreneurs. So I searched Google and found Mind Petals.
AA: I was new to the word “entrepreneurship,” till the mid-2006 when I was studying the Management Principles course at my university. The word quickly grabbed my attention; I felt like this is what I am and wanted to become. We had an end of course project where students were to, really or fictitiously, launch a product/service or organize an event. Zuhaib Memon (Chapter Historian), three other team mates and I launched a website in December 2006.
Reviewing our work and potential, our instructor suggested working out a club/society at the university so that Young Entrepreneurs can come under one roof to discuss their ventures share information and resources and collaborate with each other. Zuhaib and I were busy with the website for the next 6 months when it abruptly came to a halt.
It was then that we decided to take a break from our failure and launch a society.
ZM: I want the Young Entrepreneurs at my college to collaborate with other Young Entrepreneurs all around the world. And those who want to become entrepreneurs can be guided from others. Also since I myself am an entrepreneur, I would like to help others and be helped at one point or another, so I can be guided in proper direction.
AA: GIGANTIC!
ZM: Tremendously huge.
AA: For me Mind Petals is a place where I can find people belonging to my breed. The people who highly react to jobs and for ones where getting a job is not an option. With such an unemployed mindset we were totally bored with attending guest lectures and workshops on finding the right job , passing the job interview or even writing your first resume. We wanted the paradigm to change where we could share information on finding the right employee, writing your first business proposal, and passing the first million milestone.
We love innovation! Of course, anyone who opens yet another corner cafe is an entrepreneur, but not much of an innovator. We embrace entrepreneurs with new ideas and innovate, these are the people who carry out the “creative destruction”.
Mind Petals today in Pakistan is taking its first steps towards collaboration between all Young Entrepreneurs. It is a place for any one who believes that one man can move the world. We believe that there are people around in the world who have brilliant ideas but lack knowledge to convert them into successful businesses. We would like to take up the responsibility to educate and work with Young Entrepreneurs from the refinement to the launch and continual growth of their businesses.
ZM: Its a root, from where the petals become the idea and grow up to make you what you want to be. Its like a tree, the seed you sow, the fruits you shall reap.
AA: Our vision is to establish Mind Petals amongst one of Pakistan’s highly reputed young leadership, entrepreneurial networks. Though we’ve just started, our team is working along to promote MP amongst corporations and other student bodies. We are currently in our induction phase where we are introducing MP to students at our campuses to tell them about the opportunities and benefits of becoming a MindPetaler. Our team is crafting the concept for a weekly show at the university’s radio to interview young established entrepreneurs — after all, content is king!
ZM: Its a bit early to say anything at the moment. But if we try to work in the right direction, we can have many people working together and sharing ideas.
Chasing.Chasing.Chasing.
Technology. Ipod. Blackberry.
Chasing.Chasing.Chasing.
Being.Being.Being.
Grass. Butterfly. Water.
Being.Being.Being.
Chasing.Chasing.Chasing.
“Hey look at me.” “Praise!” Ego.
Chasing.Chasing.Chasing.
Being.Being.Being.
“I love you.” A tear. Calm.
Being.Being.Being.
Chasing it.
Taking it.
Living it.
Creativity is often spoken of as if it were some kind of supernatural force—something as mysterious as fate or karma or public opinion. Here, creativity blesses a bitter, alcoholic painter. There, it’s a lazy, aristocratic mathematician with bad breath. Over there, it’s a hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone banker who writes poetry in her spare time. It seems that you can never know when or for whom that obscure realm beyond the everyday, the realm of genius, will be opened.
But, consider this: around 1770, a Prussian academic named Immanuel Kant set to work on a disturbing problem that had arisen in the field of philosophy. Kant was a strange man who lived a life so rigorously self-controlled that there are actual accounts of his neighbors literally setting their clocks by his regular walks through town. Up to that point, his career had been remarkable only for its failure to produce anything even remotely remarkable.
What set this odd, mediocre little man to work was an old problem cast in a new and troubling light by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. In 1739, Hume wrote a little-read but influential work that argued—convincingly—that knowledge of the world is impossible, and that what we often think we know is, at best, nothing more than a guess based on past experiences.
The majority of philosophers, like the majority of the rest of us, don’t like to think that people don’t actually know things: It makes them nervous. And Kant was no different, so he set out to disprove Hume’s paradox.
But when he started thinking about the problem of knowledge, he could find no way into it. There was no path through the dense thicket of logic it presented. Other philosophers had tried and failed what Kant was attempting.
But Hume couldn’t just be right, Kant thought. If he was, then science became a delusion; philosophy became impossible; even morality and religion, in Kant’s mind, were meaningless. The difficulty of the task was great, but Kant was determined to unlock the door to genius.
The process was long, laborious. Kant struggled, doubted himself, and then struggled on. After having published 23 texts in the previous 20 years, this prolific writer’s output simply stopped. For eleven years—a period that became known as his “silent decade”—Kant didn’t publish a single new philosophical work.
But saying nothing should never be confused with having nothing to say. Kant had had a breakthrough, but it was crucial that he follow it through to its logical end. So, he gave up all other intellectual pursuits to focus exclusively on the task at hand, following a rigorous, self-imposed schedule of study, thought, and writing. When he broke his silence in 1781, he published The Critique of Pure Reason—his 800-page masterpiece—an intellectual achievement so original and revolutionary that it continues to have a profound influence on the way we understand the world even today.
In that work, Kant realized that the problem with Hume’s paradox was not with its logic. The argument itself was irrefutable. Instead, the problem was with its concepts. When philosophers talk about concepts, they aren’t just talking about words. Words, in a way, just point to something. Concepts, however, are like little bundles of meaning.
“Death” (for a somber example) is just a word signifying the end of a life. The concept of death, on the other hand, is a pretty complicated thing. If I’m an atheist physicist, my concept of death is very different from that of a deeply devout Presbyterian.
What Kant realized was that certain of Hume’s concepts—like “mind,” “world,” and “experience”—were inherently problematic. No matter how you looked at them, they always led to the same dead end for knowledge. Making such a claim was no small feat. Hume wasn’t just misusing normal concepts. He was using the same concepts in the very same ways as thinkers for hundreds of years before him; he was using the same concepts in the very same ways as normal people on the street. What was at issue was what we all mean when we say some of the most commonplace things about reality. This was a radical solution that required a complete revision of our normal understanding of how things work. Kant called this breakthrough his “Copernican Revolution.”
When the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus began to study the heavens, the accepted wisdom was that the earth was the center of the universe. But with this model, all kinds of inconsistencies in data arose. No matter how you crunched the numbers, things kept coming out wrong. So, Copernicus simply flipped the model, put the sun at the center, and noticed that things started to make sense. Suddenly, he could make highly reliable mathematical predictions of the movements of stars, planets, comets. Everything just started coming out right.
Kant’s move was of the same kind. He argued that knowledge is not something we passively receive from the world; instead, the mind, in a way, picks what it receives. Learning something about the world, then, implies learning something about the mind. The two become inseparable. Like Copernicus, Kant was saying that philosophers had simply been working with the wrong model.
They had understood these fundamental things—the mind, the world, experience, knowledge—in ways that simply had to be wrong. What was needed was a new model, a fundamental and radical shift in the way they thought. Once this was done, once the Copernican Revolution was proposed, suddenly things started to make sense. Knowledge, it seemed, was possible after all, but only if reality was thought of in this wholly new way.
It’s crucial to understand that Kant’s Copernican Revolution was certainly a work of genius. It was a true break with run-of-the-mill thinking, absolutely shattering the normalcy of the everyday. But it is just as crucial to recognize that there is nothing supernatural about Kant’s achievement. He wasn’t struck by lightning; no divine intervention occurred. In the end, three things made it possible:
He fully understood the problem at hand. Kant was deeply committed to his subject. Finding a solution to the problem of knowledge was something Kant felt himself compelled to accomplish. He felt it as a duty, as a necessity, and necessity, as they say, really is the mother of invention.
Kant was aware that to solve a problem one must first be a student of the problem. And being a student of a problem means understanding the range of solutions that have already been attempted as well as fully grasping why those attempts failed. By doing so, Kant was able to see that certain patterns dominated the thinking of his day (and had dominated thinking for hundreds of years). He realized that it wasn’t through any failure of reasoning or imagination that philosophers prior to him hadn’t succeeded in answering Hume’s challenge: They had failed because they were too deeply entrenched in these well-worn paths of thought.
And most importantly, Kant’s solution was made possible by what can best be described as a sort of attitude. He put himself in the mindset of accepting the simple possibility that everyone (Kant included) might be wrong about all kinds of things—that maybe we are all, all of us, wrong about everything. For this to happen, Kant had to be willing, fully and deeply willing, to find out that even his own most deeply held beliefs were mistaken.
There’s a lesson to be learned here for those of us looking for ways to break new ground in our endeavors. The Copernican Revolution is the ultimate example of innovation, of deeply disruptive thinking. But it was only possible because Kant had already overturned his own everyday thinking. What this means is that the act of sheer creativity that was his solution was not the source of disrupted thinking; it was the product of it.
Those of us who read Kant—like viewers of a truly great new painting or the first consumers of a cutting-edge product—experience this creative newness as a kind of break with our normal world and assume that it comes from a mind that isn’t like ours at all. But this is a mistake.
What the Copernican Revolution shows us is that we can all be innovators. Innovators are commonly described as people who believe nothing is impossible. This is literally true. For any creator to produce the experience of newness, he or she must have already adopted the kind of attitude that says, “All that I think I know may be utterly mistaken.” And anyone can do this.
If you want to create something truly new, you must learn to first embrace the possibility that everything—that is, everything—that you think, whether it’s about the world or about art or about music or your customers or business, is deeply and fundamentally wrong. This is scary; it’s true. Questioning your deepest convictions is a sign of great strength (despite what some politicians might suggest). But, if you are able to make this switch in attitude, great things can happen. As Kant’s Copernican Revolution shows, you become open to true innovation, true problem solving, even true self-knowledge. Only by opening your beliefs up to the most radical revision is deep creativity possible.
I’m really not sure if it is. Multitasking sounds great, doesn’t it? It’s a word that is widely used among entrepreneurs and across various industries. It refers to someone’s ability to do many activities at once. Such as: write an email, discuss a contract on the phone, eat your sandwich, and watch you favorite show all at once.
The terms can be found in almost any job application and job offering: “You must be able to multitask” and “I’m a great multitasker and can handle many projects at once.”
Here’s a question: Can you have two separate thoughts simultaneously? Can your mind give two — or more — distinct thoughts your full attention at once? Unless you’ve somehow reached a level of thinking — and extremely rare — level of mind control… I doubt that you can. I’d even say that most people in the world can not.
So, with that said, why are all trying to split our minds? I believe that our quality of work and the attention that we can devote to something, can be greatly improved if we focus on one thing at a time.
When you eat — eat. When you talk on the phone — talk on the phone. When you write a letter — write a letter. When you are having a discussion with someone — have a discussion with someone.
I guess this way of thinking — being 100% immersed in whatever we are doing — is too simple for us. Instead, for some reason, we want to complicate everything, myself included.
We want to split our minds by attempting to do a million things at one. This empowers us and make us feel good about what we “think” we are really accomplishing. However, this is really diluting our mental output and decreasing the quality of whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish, create, manifest, what have you.
Imagine that someone gave you the task of catching 3 rabbits that escaped their cages in the woods. Now, would it be more effective trying to locate and capture all three rabbits at once OR would it be more effective to focus all of your attention on catching each rabbit separately? It would be nearly impossible to catch them all at once, but very realistic to catch them one by one.
Concentrate your mind power, don’t dilute it. Focus on something and become one with that something and only that something — nothing else. It’s tempting to try to do a million things at one, I know, but power and energy will undoubtedly be lost.
“He’s so smart.” “She’s a genius.” “That was the most intelligent thing I have ever heard!” “You’re brilliant!”
Those are some terms used to describe certain people who are able to figure certain things out in life. We call them “smart” and “intellectuals.” We compare them to ourselves and think about how much we simply don’t know and how much they know.
But we have it all wrong. We are wrong to think in this comparative manner — separating “you” from “them.” This sort of illusory way of thinking has led to the immensely sharp feelings of inadequacy and “I’m less than you” sentiment.
Let me first say that being “smart” is not a gift nor is it a special talent that certain people are given at birth. It’s an actualization of the mind that one has attained through self-inquiry and the unlocking of the door to infinite potential and creativity.
We ALL have this ability to think on a “genius” level. “Genius.” Such a nice buzzword, isn’t it? This word utterly underscores the entire process of “comparative thinking” in an intellectual respect. The word has been used as a fence to separate what you are capable of from what some have already realized. That’s all.
There is no secret to genius. There is no magic. There just is. You already have all the ability in the world. All the ability to think on any level that your mind can possibly imagine. You do. You just have to realize that. Be that, by letting that be.
Stop comparing. Stop selling yourself short. Stop belittling your abilities. You’re only fighting yourself when you do that. You are going to war with yourself. General “Self” against General “Self.” And you reach a point of stagnation. Your mind no longer evolves at that juncture.
All those sparkly adjectives that you’re using to describe those people who you deem as smarter than you — redirect them to yourself, because you are no different than them. When you see genius, you are also seeing yourself, what you can also unlock.
Don’t try. Don’t fight for it. Don’t spend your life attempting to be smart and a genius. Because what you seek already is. Just look in the mirror and smile and accept who you are… and know that everything that you desire is right there in front of you, staring right back at you.
You’re great! You’re a genius! You have it all. Just realize it.
"Young and Hungry: The New Entrepreneur" will take you on a journey of two young entrepreneurs who share their thoughts, experiences, and lessoned learned while in the process to finding success. Everything from discussing entrepreneurship with your parents to building a business team -- it's covered in this book. Read now »