I sent this to the Outspoken Media team today and figured it was worth publishing as well. I’d like to start blogging more, but in creative forms when time and voice permits.
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Good morning!
It’s the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend. I hope you’re feeling a calm mind and body. Whether it’s from a food coma, the zen we get from family time (or a clean house), a reminder of why we fell in love with our partner, or the peace of mind that comes from just taking a moment to be. I know that my body found it’s circadian rhythm and I had a cathartic moment atop Bakers Summit after a painful, sweaty climb. It was worth it, the view looking down on Saranac Lake was beautiful and it felt like we could see Albany the sky was so clear. It was just what I needed to reflect on a lot of external pressure I’ve been feeling lately and to reconnect with who I am.
On the trip I brought two books with me. One was all business, which I happily ignored. The other was the biography of Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, which happens to be mixed with business. It’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time, but it’s been sitting on my bed for months. I made it through the first chapter. It isn’t very large, but reading books like these present so many moments of clarity and vision that it’s difficult for me to get through a paragraph much less a chapter. I wanted to share one part with you today.
“When we arrived in Burbank, we stayed with another French Canadian family and I was put in a public school. I was the smallest kid in the class, I couldn’t speak English, and I constantly had to defend myself because I had a “girl’s” name. So I did what any future entrepreneur probably would have done: I ran away.”
This struck me. As an entrepreneur, am I running away? Have I run away?
I have an eerily similar story of running away from school. As a child I ran through the town square of La Madalena, Italy to the nearby Navy base to find my stepdad, “the tall guy with the white sailor hat named Jeff.” I was running from the torture I knew I would face inside the private school if I walked through those doors. As soon as I was dropped at the gate, I waited and then I bolted. I could face getting kicked and picked on when my three other English cohorts were with me, but two were on vacation and one was sick. I was alone and up against impossible odds. So I ran.
I chose to take a terrifying walk for a 6-year-old through a busy, foreign town square and onto a Navy base where, because I was so small, I walked under the gate undetected. Eventually someone stopped me and they helped locate the sailor named Jeff.
I remember getting scolded for leaving school and for doing something so terrifying that my mother probably suffered a minor heart attack. Then they asked why and I told them. I told them about the abuse I suffered and I showed them the bruises. The next day my mother marched me into school and stripped me in front of the nun screaming something in broken Italian that changed the rest of my time there. I still got mean looks, but all of the English kids were watched more carefully and the abuse stopped. We’d changed the system and all it took was running away one beautiful afternoon.
Am I an entrepreneur because I run away?
I choose not to think of it as running away. I was running after something. A better day. A place of protection.
I disagree with Yvon in saying that entrepreneurs run away. Maybe it’s a case of the glass half full vs empty, but I see entrepreneurs and those who support the early stages of a company, as running towards something. We believe in something so strongly that we won’t settle for anything less. We believe in the vision, the services, our clients, each other and the lifestyle. We believe in not compromising our values for a paycheck, but instead build something to reflect those values. We believe in running towards a better day even when it feels terrifying, but we do it because it feels like there is no alternative even when we don’t know where this path will take us.
Thank you for running with me.
A collection of some of my favorite quotes from the Tao Te Ching:
“In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.”
“Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.”
“See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.”
“If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.”
“Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.”
“Because he doesn’t display himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn’t know who he is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goal in mind,
everything he does succeeds.
He who defines himself
can’t know who he really is.”
“Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people results.”
“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
“There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.
Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.”
“She [the Master] trusts people who are trustworthy.
She also trusts people who aren’t trustworthy.
This is true trust.”
“He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day’s work.”
“Try to make people happy,
you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral,
and you lay the groundwork for vice.
Thus the Master is content
to serve as an example
and not to impose her will.”
“Governing a large country
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.”
“Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.”
“A great nation is life a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he himself casts.”
“The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn’t cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.”
“If you want to govern the people,
you must place yourself below them.
If you wan to lead the people,
you must learn how to follow them.”
“The best athlete
wants his opponent at his best.
The best general
enters the mind of his enemy.
The best businessman
serves the communal good.
The best leader
follows the will of the people.
All of them embody the virtue of non-competition.
Not that they don’t love to compete,
but they do it in the spirit of play.”
“Act for people’s benefit.
Trust them; leave them alone.”
“Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame”
Green Mountain National Forest, June 2009. Took this on our hike.