…wisdom of the ages…

Sharing some of my favorites from the works of Rumi and Khalil Gibran…

I am a soul who has had
A hundred thousand bodies.
But I can’t talk about it.
What can I do?
I am tongue-tied.
I have seen thousands
Of people who were all me.
But from them I haven’t found
Any like me.
- Rumi

All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.
- Khalil Gibran

Even when you tear its petals off one after another,
the rose keeps laughing and doesn’t bend in pain.
“Why should I be afflicted because of a thorn?
It is the thorn which taught me how to laugh.”
Whatever you lost through fate,
be certain that it saved you from pain.
- Rumi

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,
Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride? And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
- Khalil Gibran

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, ‘How much is that?’ Oh, I’m just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? “Nowhere.”
What did you have to eat? “Nothing much.”

Even if you don’t know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.
- Rumi

- The Ranting Dream

The Stock Market – ‘Monkey Business’ at its best…

(…adapted from a witty lesson originally shared by a friend – adapted content appears in square brackets, the rest of the content is copied verbatim from the original source…)

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy [the] monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.

The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about [the] monkey catching. The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy [the monkeys] on his behalf.

While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought [from you]. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys [at $ 35 each].

They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works [and how your beloved central banking/political goons fundamentally operate]…

[...needless to say, the man re-appeared after few years of rest and relaxation and started buying the monkeys again from the villagers, this time at $ 7.50 each - thanks to the ridiculously weak memory of the idiot villagers, the man has successfully bought and sold the same 'stock' of monkeys (no pun intended) from the same villagers since the early 1900s and has consistently made humongous profits each time - somehow, these villagers have yet to clue in on the scam...]

- The Ranting Dream

Know Yourself…

Tuning in and out of a monotonous lecture on Business Process Modeling, I heard the words ‘paradigm’, ‘gap analysis’, and ‘boxed thinking’ all recited within two minutes of each other…

…forget Business Process Modeling: let’s talk about paradigms, gap analyses, and boxed attitudes…

I am ‘here’ today. But I really ‘desire’ to be ‘there’ – and when I get ‘there’, I know I’ll want to be elsewhere…what a quagmire!

1. Between my ‘here’ and my ‘there’ there is a ‘gap’ that I need to ‘analyze’ and fully comprehend before I model my journey from ‘here’ to ‘there’…
2. Moving from ‘here’ to ‘there’ is the unpredictable journey to my ‘new paradigm’ – whatever that turns out to be…
3. My ‘here’ is good, stable, fun, safe, comfortable, and predictable – my cozy little ‘box’ — ‘there’, on the other hand, is the unknown, the unpredictable; there are too many variables…

Therefore, given the amount of hard work required in the ‘gap analysis’, the fear I have of adopting that unknown ‘new paradigm’, and the uncertainty and perceived discomfort in the world ‘outside my box’; I’ll just accept the status quo and not bother with this ‘here’, ‘there’, and ‘everywhere’ nonsense…

Fears, superstitions, biases, lack of confidence, laziness, lack of definite goals, lack of self awareness, and lack of self control – among many other regressive attributes (including culture, upbringing, organized religious practices and traditions etc.) – result in the kind of negative thinking illustrated above – ultimately leading to lack of true progress, achievement, and success (and even enlightenment!)…

I should know! – I struggled with this regressive existence for a long time – a little too long in 20/20 hindsight…

Ever think about Nike’s tagline: “Just Do It!”? – Think about it for a bit…

Confucius said: “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step”

Desire, in my humble opinion, is a complete waste of time and energy until it is articulated as a definite purpose or goal. Achievement of that goal or purpose, in keeping with Confucius’ wisdom, begins with that ‘first step’ – and that ‘first step’ in my humble opinion is the ‘understanding of self’…

“Know Yourself” – the wisdom of the ages is full of guidance and direction on the importance of introspection, self-knowledge, and self-realization as the foundation of one’s existence…

At the root of the ‘know yourself’ philosophy is the knowledge that creativity and genius exists within each one of us…

Yes! – whether you like it or not: you are a GENIUS – you may not be able to crunch numbers or write eloquently – but nature has ‘gifted’ you your share of GENIUS – it could be in the arts, in music, in sports, in visio-spatial and/or abstract qualities – whatever…the reason why you probably don’t have any connection with the GENIUS that you possess is because (and this is supported scientifically), we are ‘boxed’ by our institutions of learning into using less than 2% of our total intellectual capacity (…and this is a rant for another day) – and throughout life, an above-average individual will utilize less than 10% of her/his brain’s actual capacity…think about where the average folks are on this scale…

Coming back to the GENIUS – to understand and connect with the genius within, we need to be aware of the three basic qualities of genius:

QUALITY 1: Open-Mindedness

- While ‘open-mindedness’ is a commonly used word in modern language – it is surprisingly not as commonly understood correctly…
- Beside the conscious effort of thinking with an ‘open mind’ without bias, fear, superstition etc.; open-mindedness also refers to an attitude of understanding that even within a ‘black and white’ solution, there is an element of ‘gray’ and within that ‘gray’ lies a new opportunity…and there will always be ‘gray’ – the moment we convince ourselves that the absolute resolution to a challenge or opportunity has been accomplished; our mind is ‘closed’…
- Creation and creativity function beyond the limitations of rules and regulations – the rigid, opinionated, mechanical from within our kind are the ones whose minds are completely closed…every GENIUS that I am aware of has always broken, bended, ignored, or challenged the ‘rules’ or the ‘norms’…
- Open-minded people do not fall into ‘thinking traps’ – they consider multiple solutions instead of jumping to conclusions, tackle problems in manageable chunks instead of trying to fix everything at once, and do not try to be ‘heroes’ – they know when to ask for help and when to delegate…

QUALITY 2: Concentration and Commitment

- The most valuable quality of the GENIUS is her/his ability and willingness to FOCUS and CONCENTRATE on what she/he is working on…
- Persistence, perseverance, and all the qualities commonly attributed to success – are almost always born from the basic qualities of focus, concentration, and commitment towards a clearly defined goal…

QUALITY 3: Clarity of Purpose and Intent

- Clarity will eliminate doubt and fear – and not only will negativity and pessimism be chased away; the GENIUS mind will be able to identify with the ‘end’ at the very ‘beginning’…and regardless of the actual end-result; “beginning with the end in mind”, as Stephen Covey put it, is the first step towards effectiveness – and ultimately, towards greatness…

Wisdom of the ages…

“…But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.” – Jesus Christ

“For him who knows his own mind and sees intuitively his own nature, he is a Hero, a Teacher of gods and men, a Buddha.” – Hui Neng (638 AD – 713 AD)

“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside!” – Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1210 AD – 1273 AD)

“…Sleeping and working, standing and sitting, profoundly ask yourself, ‘What is my own Mind,” with an intense yearning to resolve this question. This searching of one’s own Mind leads ultimately to enlightenment.” – Bassui Zenji (1327 AD – 1387 AD)

- The Ranting Dream

…living in the age of incompetence…

“I am, as I’ve said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.” – Billy Joel

There’s a frog (see my earlier rant on ‘Frogs‘) that I know who thrives on destroying the team-spirit and goodwill amongst peers everywhere he goes. His ‘office-bully‘ reputation has his employees so scared that they dare not speak their mind – and in most situations, tell him what he wants to hear (even if it is far from the truth) just to avoid having a confrontation with him. He’s constantly itching for the limelight – he wants to be the ‘star‘ at any cost – and claims to have the ‘answer to everything‘ (quoted verbatim). He is better known within professional circles for his lack of tact and finesse and for possessing the most horrible communication skills than for his contribution (if any) and accomplishments (if any) – and from my personal observation and experience working with (sigh!) him, I’m shocked at how he’s managed to stay afloat for so many years despite the severe (and very evident) lack of professionalism and competence…I wonder sometimes if his ‘bosses‘ are equally (if not more) incompetent – or if there’s some kind of ‘dirt‘ on them that he’s privvy to that forces them to shut their eyes and plug their ears when it comes to his (unacceptable) trespasses and utter stupidity…I wonder…

“Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.” – Dr. Laurence J. Peter

Coincidentally, I stumbled upon this very well articulated article written in 2003 by Carole Nicolaides - and it’s amazing how much her take on ‘incompetence’ (as it applies to ‘leadership’) is in sync with the reality of my experience with this frog…

Quoting the original article by Carole Nicolaides (and some valuable advice from her on dealing with incompetence):

“…As a mid-level employee, you’ve been working for the ACME Company, a manufacturing firm, for the past two years. Your job performance has been solid, and on occasion, even praiseworthy. However due to the current economic conditions – poor profit earnings, massive layoffs and company restructuring, you now find yourself working for a new boss. Ordinarily reporting to a new leader would not pose a real problem but this time it feels different — management practices have changed. The team environment has been transformed from one of true collaboration, honest dialogue and a commitment to problem solving to one where backstabbing, finger pointing and plain fear are the norms. Congratulations – you are now under the control of an “incompetent” leader!

An “incompetent” leader by definition is someone whose action destroys camaraderie, instill gossip, encourage dishonesty, and prevent people from speaking freely. “Incompetent” leaders tend to use their own weapons to get noticed and promoted. They usually lack vision, interpersonal communication skills and confidence to resolve conflict.

You might think the term “incompetent” leaders should only be reserved for those in the company’s upper echelon such as the Chief Executive Officer of Chief Financial Offer.

After all, aren’t they the ones entrusted with setting the direction for the entire organization? While this may be true to a certain extent – CEOs do serve as the “compass” for the company, but many CEOs are not directly involved in the daily operations of their organizations. Those responsibilities fall on the shoulders of senior and middle managers. And, it is the “collective leadership” of those managers — their style of execution, their effective ability to communicate, manage and motivate their teams that keep companies on course. If a leader lacks the competency to manage his or her team, then team morale diminishes, productivity and performance drops, and companies ultimately fail. What’s worst is the fact that today we live in a heavy Information Economy where bad news about a company spreads instantly thereby allowing competitors to profit from your company’s incompetent leadership.

In the quest to attain “better and cheaper staff,” one would think that organizations had all the advantages needed to rid their companies of every single under-performing employee – managers included. However, nothing could be farthest from the truth. Unfortunately in many cases, it is the good, high-performing, mid-level employees who first are shown the door, while ineffective managers – the ones who really need to take a hike – remain.

For whatever reason these foul apples may have been left behind; the fact that they are present causes a lot of problems either through their actions or sometimes through their inactions. The truth is that “incompetent leaders” have always existed and will continue to exist despite the best efforts from HR and other performance improvement initiatives to detect and remove them before bringing irreparable harm to an organization.

So what can you do to protect yourself and survive working for an “incompetent” leader? Here are some quick tips:

1. Do not make it a personal matter. This is a hard one, simply because working for an incompetent boss is such a personal matter. Remember, that most of these leaders do not have a problem directly with you, but they too are frustrated and are shouting loud their own insecurities — most likely mirroring to you things that they should be doing.

2. Observe Your Boss. It might sound funny, but notice what is going on around your boss. In case you’ve known or worked with your boss before and you observe a sudden change, then your next step should be to take action right away. The problem could be as simple as someone asking him something way out of his league, or someone talking to him about you and your team. Whatever the reason might be you need to act and confront your boss as soon as possible. If you do this at the beginning, you might be able to stop a snowball effect — not only for you but also for the entire team. Confrontation does not come easy for most people, yet if you seek a constructive conversation, have an open mind, avoid turning it into a personal attack, you might be able to ease tensions with your boss and also improve his position.

3. Accumulate Facts. Nothing is irrelevant if you work in an unhealthy environment. You need to make sure that you accumulate all the things that matter for your career — the good as well as the bad stuff. Good things that you’ve done, bad things that have happened to you, and things that you could have done better. The key here is to have nothing against you, nothing that will give people permission to talk about you and question your character.

4. Know Your Value. You might feel beaten down, overworked, under appreciated and doubtless about your true value. Grow up! Things happen and your value does not diminish simply because one cannot see your true value. If you are a professional, do a good job, and the people that work with you will see a direct contribution to the team’s success. Then be sure that you have created your own evangelists – people who will tell others about your true value.

5. Expand Your Network. Now, more than ever, you need to think that working for a large company is not very different than working on your own. You need to learn to promote yourself. People need to know who you are, within your company and outside your company. Successful business owners never stop networking. There are so many things you can learn simply by networking. The key here is to find 2 or 3 networking initiatives that you feel comfortable doing and commit to them.

6. Seek For Comfort Outside Your Office. Many people often make this mistake. They work for an incompetent boss and they start complaining about her or him to a “good friend” who also works for the company. For whatever reason this might happen because you are seeking comfort or love. Sometimes you simply need a sounding board in order to release the pinned-up stress. Do it outside the office and avoid discussing your problems with others with whom you work.

Times have changed and even though it might seem hard to work for someone that you know is not suitable for his or her position, remember things and people appear to us to teach something. The sad reality is most “incompetent” leaders do not get fired; they just move on and reinvent themselves in new companies. The chance that you will either work with the same leaders or someone like them again before your career ends is great. However if you manage to stay calm and think about the lessons you’ve learned and how to counteract incompetent behavior, you will have all the wisdom needed in order to become a better leader yourself in future jobs…”

…the sad reality is, indeed, that most ‘incompetent‘ folks do not get fired and are very, very good at remaining ‘sticky‘ wherever they go…and there is a very good chance that you are already working with (or worse, reporting to) one of them…everyday, I seek to learn from the frog I know – a lesson in who I will never be…that keeps me going – allowing me to survive in this age of incompetence…

“People are always talking about tradition, but they forget we have a tradition of a few hundred years of nonsense and stupidity, that there is a tradition of idiocy, incompetence and crudity” – Hugo Demartini

Stay Well! and good luck living in the age of incompetence…

- The Ranting Dream

…who cares? it’s just a statistic…

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”
(Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili Stalin [1878-1953] – better known in the west as Joseph Stalin)

WHY?:

1. Do we allow almost 30,000 children to die unnecessarily each day due to poverty…

“The continuation of this suffering and loss of life contravenes the natural human instinct to help in times of disaster. Imagine the horror of the world if a major earthquake were to occur and people stood by and watched without assisting the survivors! Yet every day, the equivalent of a major earthquake killing over 30,000 young children occurs to a disturbingly muted response. They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
(UNICEF, Progress of Nations – [Child deaths per day in 2000: 30,137.99; Child deaths per day in 2006: 26,575.34])

…who cares? ‘thirty thousand kids dying everyday’ is but a statistic…

2. Do we allow almost 20% of our world’s population (nearly a BILLION people) to remain illiterate (unable to read or write – or even sign their own names); despite the fact that less than 1% of what our governments spend on weapons each year is needed to make sure the every child on this planet is able to go to school…

“Nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and two thirds of them are women. And they will live, as now, in more desperate poverty and poorer health than those who can. They are the world’s functional illiterates—and their numbers are growing.”
(UNICEF, State of the World’s Children – 1999)

“…it would cost six billion dollars a year, on top of what is already spent, to put every child in school by the year 2000. That is an enormous sum. Yet it is less than one per cent of what the world spends every year on weapons…”
(State of the World Report – New Internationalist – 1997)

…who cares? a billion illiterates on this planet are but a statistic…

3. Do we allow almost half of the world’s children to suffer in poverty and isolation…

“Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion. Number of children living in developing countries: 1.9 billion. Number of children living in poverty: 1 billion”
(UNICEF, state of the World’s Children – 2005)

…who cares? a billion poor, desolate, unhappy, illiterate, unhealthy children of a lesser god are but a statistic…

4. Do we allow almost 40% of this world’s population (2.6 billion people) to live a life of poverty and misery by ensuring that they earn less than $ 2 (two dollars) per day…

(2007 Human Development Report [HDR], United Nations Development Program, November 27, 2007, p.25)

…who cares? 2.6 billion poor, isolated, underprivileged, mistreated, exploited human beings on this planet are but a statistic…

Who cares?

Why waste our precious time and bother with these mundane ’statistics’?

As long as my kids aren’t dying unnecessarily, and as long as we are able to read and write ourselves, and as long as I don’t have anything to do with these ‘miserable’ and ‘poor’ and ‘god-forsaken’ elements; everything else is but a statistic…

Let’s come back to ‘reality’ for a brief moment folks:

Statistics will, at some point, surely include you in their midst – don’t be fooled into thinking that if you didn’t make the count today, that you are safe and will never make the ’stats’…

This thing called ’statistics’ has a freaky, sneaky way of making sure it visits everyone’s home – and when it does make it to yours, your own personal ‘tragedy’ will become someone else’s statistic – beware!

“Statistics are people with the tears wiped from their eyes”
(attributed to Paul Brodeur, quoted from his book: Outrageous Misconduct – original author unknown)

“Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics towards which we can be indifferent”
(John F. Kennedy)

Wake up! Wake up and do something about it…you’ve not been dispatched to this planet to run a rat-race…step out of your comfy ‘box’ for a brief moment and reflect on the purpose of your existence…

- The Ranting Dream