#importanceof

I learned from a local paper of his background that he grew up on a farm where he worked hard with his family to tend to everyday. He then went on to became a pastor where he catored to his heart's interest in leading others to spiritual fulfillment. Now he was a successful CEO of a nonprofit that represented the interest of all the tech companies in Silicon Valley in public policy issues that would greatly benefit Silicon Valley neighborhood communities. (The nonprofit was founded during the Silicon Valley era of manufacturing companies by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard.)

Over the last couple decades, however, the tech companies have shifted in culture…the manufacturing industry has practically gone extinct and was replaced with more and more software and social internet companies like Youtube, FB, Google that have younger CEO's and founders employing many young adults straight out of college.

Even the physical look of a Silicon Valley Tech company has completely changed. Corporate buildings are now colorful, cubicles have practically become non-existent, suits and tie requirements seems to have become a requirement of the past. 

Meanwhile, in contrast, our office started feeling a bit more anachronistic… frozen in time and unwilling to bend to the interests of the new generation of young colleagues (we had an 80% turnover rate amongst new-hires).

My former CEO indoubtedly had a great intentions to help the world be a better place, but his growing impatience and challenges in interacting with the changing new world around him while the changes in the tech industry seemed to more and more frequently catch him off guard.

I saw this frustration manifest itself into his mood swings of anger, noticeable decline of faith in his team, and the whole "what's wrong with the world, the new generation just makes no sense anymore" attitude that might as well have been a plague.  

In thinking about his story, it made me think about how we as humans are so open and eager during our youth to gain understanding of the world around us. Like, what makes it tick? How do we get the best out of it? What values and actions should we take that would make us and the community around us benefit as much as possible from this support system? 

Once we've nailed down these tactics that we've experimented and worked with, it progresses us to our hearts fulfillment and we get excited that we've "figure it out!'. We relax and continue moving forward in autopilot, feeling secure with these tried and true ways of what worked for us …and then all of a sudden…it just stops.

Well…actually worse, it doesn't just stop working for us…rather, it slowly becomes incompatible with the structure of our changing environments. As a result, we start becoming more and more disheartened, pessimistic, "disillusioned", (which we are told is a common way of thinking as we make our way through the decades.)

The growing frustration of my successful ceo in meeting of the needs of the Tech industry in Silicon Valley was not that of having incompetent staff…but rather, he couldn't seem to fathom the idea that he would have to accept changing values, adapt to a new 'norm', a new equation for success in a new society. His ways have worked for so long! If it's not working now, CLEARLY somebody is not following the golden rules that have been set! What's wrong with the people and the clients around him? He had began a habit of always looking to others to place blame on. 

And here is where I see the flaw in this thought pattern because I see this in so many people as well.

Western society is founded on the value of security. We've built up structures in our world to maintain order and sense of our surroundings so we can easily identify needed changes and further develop things that maintain our sense of security. This is great and necessary to help promote advancement and evolve in an efficient manner…but what happens when we begin to rely on this a little too much. When we believe that security is end-all, be all...or even worse, we become extremely anxious or worried when we don't have it?

The problem with this is that, anyone who pays attention to Earth, nature, evolution of human thought, PEOPLE in general, knows that there is nothing about this world that we live in that is 'secure'.

Everything about this world that we live in is forever and constantly changing, things die and are born in sporadic timings, disaster strikes, systems collapse, miracles happen, cultures and societal norms shift and it NEVER STOPS. 

  Order, control, structure, linearity, organization, is NOT reality. In fact, it is the very opposite. These ideas are merely imposed construct to give us a false sense of security so we can sleep peacefully at night. 

These ideas work like tv shows, movies, sports. They were made by humans to make us feel a certain way by giving us intriguing stories made to seem as real as possible and subconsciously shape our values and perceptions of our real world. However great they made us feel, at the end of the day, they are all still just entertainment. 

This human imposed construct of order is just a short term, easy fix solution of relief-- if you submerge into this 'world' too deeply, you've only protected yourself in this delusional cocoon of false security and now the muscles of your ability to handle the inevitable curveballs of life are weak.

So weak in fact, that when slapped in the face of a curveball, they immediately assume the state of denial. Like walking around with heels you fell in love with on display that were perfect once upon a time but now are becoming uncomfortable and chafing your skin. You want to wear the shoes bc they look amazingly cool and everyone around them worships it, and you won't want to lose that. You begin to blame the pavements for sucking, more places should have more seats, or even worse--start to blame your own feet for not easily adapting to these heels. 

To embrace uncertainty, is to embrace reality, and its to embrace life in such a way that WHEN you get knocked down, you will be rolling with the punches and already be bouncing back up in a different direction. 

You are NOT afraid of the truth and so when you see it, you know how to absolve the problem and move forward in absolute PEACE and confidence you won't have to deal with it again because you know what to avoid and/or how to nip it in the bud.  "These heels are cute, but I'm too uncomfortable in them, so I will just have to find another pair that won't give me the same problem. 

Or another example, emphasized best in one of the greatest movies of philosophical wisdom known to man (in my humble opinion) "Dark Knight", Alfred tells Bruce Wayne like a million times "Why do we fall? So we can learn to get back up."

It took me a while to comprehend because I was understanding it from my personal delusion of "life has order and if we follow the instructions carefully, you'll be great and never have nothing to fear." The---just buy insurance." paradigm.

So my natural reaction of thought would always be "Why do we have to fall in the first place?"

Everything about this earth has been brought in by accident. Humans, animals, earth itself if you like the Big Bang Theory. Or perhaps designed by your deity of choice, which in the same case, that deity really isn't sharing their blueprint with anyone just yet outside of "just trust me, homies. I got this".  The point is, is that we are going to fall. If its not us, its someone around us, its the things we own, things and people we love--there' unless you are the luckiest person ever, you will face the inevitable unforeseen setback. Jesus Christ, the most holiest of all men, couldn't avoid the tragicness of what was to come his way! 

You won't waste time getting mad about 'why did this happen to me!' and the "i can't believe this is happening' or the "but what does it all mean" nonsense…bc guess what. SHIT HAPPENS and if you have the a wise attitude about it, it may even propel you to better places you never thought.

This is the reality of the world we live in…no amount of positive thinking will make you invincible to the whims of reality. If you can be in the right place at the right time, you can be at the wrong place at the wrong time because LITERALLY anything and everything is possible and what hasn't happened yet, is just buying its time. 

The sooner that we can accept this as individuals, and a society, the less we can all spend in therapy, long-term depression, or disillusioned in our false sense of security. And the more we can spend on bouncing back up, figuring out a new strategy for goals--or new goals period and be warriors (vs victims) in our lives. 

There will never be identified factors that will forever grant us into knowing the ways of success in this constantly changing world. The best part of being uncertain is that you are experiencing a clean slate of possibilities. You can TAKE ACTION, even if its very small, to put yourself in a position that will give you the best chances of what you want. 

It doesn't matter how much you knew then, but only that you kept paying attention to what is new now to strengthen what you aim for in the future.

Will my CEO ever wake up in his seemingly growing discontent of life around him and decide to embrace it so that he continue making the most of the rest of his successful life in happiness? Or will he just retire happily in defeat.