On my flight to Toronto, a line of Don Tapscott’s keeps repeating in my mind: ‘success breeds complacency’. It’s not alone – it interweaves with the image of Keanu Reeves dying on Saint Andrew’s cross shape in the final scene of Matrix Revolutions (and prompts a conversation on the differences in the hero iconography in the West and China).
Yes I know, the human mind is amazing in its constant multi-colour mess. But all the threads lead to the same end in this case. Only in a fall you can find drive and strength to surge back. Cut yourself and you will see how you start looking for a better use of your knife.
It sounds pretty Catholic but it works. Antiquity had the Phoenix as a symbol. Christianity had the cross. Today it’s called entrepreneurship. The message is the same. Satisfaction and comfort kill reason for change, while needs and desires make human beings thrive, to quote Plato. Many perish along the way but humanity succeeds eventually.
You don’t need even a plan, but drive. Cristoforo Colombo got all the business plan wrong but his determination changed the course of humanity, although Native Americans would have rather avoided the experience.
Why have I reached this place in my intellectual exploration? In the last year I experienced several personal and professional blows. It started last year with the failure of my family experiment and the end of my longest and closest friendship. Then I was repeatedly under attack in my job. The cause was always the same: my critical thinking, open debate, indifference to hierarchy, allergy to status quo and instinct for radical innovation. Euclid Network – my organisation – failed with its main funding applications while mediocre competitors were rewarded for buying into the mainstream line.
How do I feel? Perhaps it’s Darren or the new drugs I have to take for my chronic disease, but I’m energised and willing to fight as I have never been. The general crisis in Europe helps. The consolidated recipes and guys at the top lack leadership and solutions.
It’s a good time for people like me who languish in peace but flourish at war. This is a war waged between the twilight of the last century and dawn of the new one. Riding across it is exciting if you don’t fear your personal demise.
