Читать книгу The Power of Being - Андреас Грубер - Страница 6

We take many things for granted, we may think it is our birthright to live our lives as we do. However, it doesn't take too much traveling to see that we don't all live under the same conditions on this planet. Sometimes we don't have to go further than a few blocks down the street. And yet, whatever we have, is mostly based on what others before us achieved.

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

Warren Buffett

What people did before us, does not always have a good outcome for us. Metaphorically speaking, we may sit in the burning sun because somebody before us took down the trees to make more profit. In ancient historical descriptions, the Germans were described as wild tribes living in dense woodlands. Most parts of the country still have a lot of forests because people before us started thinking about the long term effects. The term sustainability is said to be born out of German forestry in the late 17th century. Back then, they decided that one new tree has to be planted for every tree that is taken down.

( In 1713, the Saxon mining Chief Hans Carl von Carlowitz published his book Sylvicultura Oeconomica. It’s considered to be one of the first treatises on sustainable forest management in Germany and a starting point for the development of a forestry based on scientific principles. Source: http://www.forstwirtschaft-in-deutschland.de/en/300-yrs/300-yrs-of-sustainability-campaign/ )

Similarly, it was decided in the 18th century, to protect certain lakes, rivers, and water resources. The city of Munich is fed by water from a river, because somebody 150 years ago thought, that if we don't protect the river, there will be no potable water for our grandchildren. Due to this wisdom and farsightedness, this water is safe to drink today.

If the holiness of a river, is not reason enough to keep it clean, then our children have to be that reason.

When traveling throughout the world, I have not only seen dirty lakes and rivers but even holy rivers and lakes that are so dirty, that you wouldn't even want to dip your toes in them. Obviously, the fact that something is holy does not necessarily make us care more about it. Not only industries, hungry for profit, pump their waste into lakes and rivers, we all do. Either we think it doesn't matter, or we think that the river will magically take care of it. As with pollution, many of us have the notion that it doesn't make a difference if I litter or not. Everybody else does it, so it seems meaningless to change my behavior. In this area rules and regulations have to be used to effectuate change. But this is also where we need role models and wise leaders. These should, and do include our politicians.

It sometimes seems pathetic to talk about the necessity of having leaders who can look beyond themselves. While I was writing this book, I talked to some friends about leadership. A young lady who recently got promoted and is managing the finance department of a huge hospital, said to me: "Our director offered me to do a rather exclusive training in leadership. The topics are fascinating. I realize it would be good for my career too, but I can't see what's in it for the hospital so I will decline." Her mother said, "But if it's good for you, isn't that good enough?" I added, "I think both are good and justified views, but if you mean what you are saying, that you don't see what's in it for the hospital, implies that you are looking beyond yourself. You are willing to sacrifice something, for the benefit of the bigger picture. I believe that is true leadership. You should not be surprised if you get offered much greater positions in the future. These are the kind of leaders we need!"

Young people belonging to Generation Y have long been believed, not to be interested in taking responsibility, until studies showed that they do, but they have their conditions. I believe that sustainability is written in their hearts, the wish and necessity to make it work, for them and many generations to come.

(Generation Y (also known as the Millennial Generation) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. We usually refer to birth years ranging from the early 1980s to around 2000. In his book, Fast Future , author David Burstein describes Millennials' approach to social change as "pragmatic idealism," a deep desire to make the world a better place. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials )

This young lady, born 1988, is one of them. What I met, was a very earthbound, no-nonsense, and intelligent young person, which seems to be ready to take on responsibility. There was no trace of esoteric, religious or philosophical approach in her statements. Just applied common sense or practical wisdom. The leaders of the future are waiting around the corner. There is no doubt in my mind that there are more than one of that kind, namely to be able and willing to look beyond themselves for the benefit of the bigger picture.

Belonging to an earlier generation, the baby boomers, I have to realize that this is the generation of my kids. Would I help them to preserve their habitat? Yes, I would, and I will. Either we do it for us, for our children or the sake of it. I believe, that to do it for our children is the most credible, because if we are not even willing to honor something that is holy to us, as in the case of the polluted holy rivers, we are not likely to do it for the sake of it either.

"Let him that would move the world, first move himself."

Socrates

Leaders and politicians can be like father figures. When I was young I was always looking for such a person, a guide in life, a mentor. In the autobiographic movie “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” (2013) there is a scene that comes to my mind. President F.W. de Klerk realized that the riots could not be stopped unless he released Nelson Mandela from prison and announced elections. The people elected Mandela, but the riots still did not stop. Black killed white, and the other way around. There was chaos in the country. Mandela spontaneously went to give a speech on television. As his speech was broadcasted, the fighting stopped.

People don't like to be told what to do, but when we hear the truth from somebody who is truly credible, someone we trust, a person with high integrity we do listen. Mandela had all that, trust, credibility and integrity. With his words, he ended the unrest, which the police and military had not been able to stop with force, for years. A person without these qualities can’t achieve that miracle.

A true leader has an intuitive understanding that life isn't about himself; it's about the collective, the bigger picture. This is the ultimate criteria for being human, but also for being a leader. There is nobody who would expect you to be like Nelson Mandela, and yet we all have that potential.

"The superior man always thinks of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort."

Confucius

The opposite of serving others would be to serve only yourself. Altruism vs. Self-centeredness. I find this to be a rather misunderstood topic, especially when it comes to the ego. Therefore, the ego will be elucidated separately.

The ego is not only about being self-centered, but it is also very much about willpower and how we make proper use of it. As a leader, you need a lot of willpower at times and less on other occasions. Your ego has the power to look after yourself. Virtually nobody, living an ordinary life in society, can survive for very long, without some ego. So-called spiritual people often hit hard at ego, but mostly I find, it serves nobody to generalize. Looking at the other side of the spectrum, we come to altruism.

"Altruism is when we act to promote someone else's welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves. Studies have found thatpeople’s first impulse is to cooperate rather than compete;that toddlers spontaneously help people in need out ofa genuine concern for their welfare. Darwin's claim (that altruism, is an essential part of thesocial instincts), is supported by recent neuroscience studies,which have shown that when people behave altruistically,their brains are active in regions that signal pleasureand reward, similar to when they eat chocolate.

This does not mean that humans are more altruisticthan selfish; instead, evidence suggests we have deeplyingrained tendencies to act in either direction.Our challenge lies in finding ways to evoke thebetter angels of our nature." ( http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/altruism/definition )

What would Mandela or Gandhi have been like, if they wouldn't have understood their impact? They may never have achieved their goal without that awareness, because they would have behaved differently. A Gandhi without the awareness of his own impact, would probably not have used every moment so consequently. He may have gone round in circles a little bit more as the rest of us do. He might have been an excellent man, but a man without a compass.

To understand our impactwe must look at the bigger picture.

What do you see, when observing people who don't see the bigger picture of a task or project? You are likely to experience people who need constant guidance, people who cannot see their own or other’s contribution. They are likely to use their skills on the wrong occasion, or even in the wrong way. Seeing the bigger picture is critical to be able to give your contributions with the right timing and quality. Otherwise, we are wandering aimlessly. That is probably not what you wish for yourself.

If it's true that being aware of our impact has such far reaching effects, why don't we apply it then? There may be multiple reasons for that, one of them being that employees may become too good, and start thinking for themselves. Sometimes they’ll even excel you and leave for new challenges. In single cases, it may cause you a slight problem, but overall there will be mostly benefits for you and the company. Some may fear it's like opening Pandora's Box, which according to mythology unleashed trouble, and mostly that's because they never actually tried it.

But at this stage, it's not about everybody else. Looking realistically at the situation, you need to start with yourself. And the question may not be, if you have a bigger picture or not, because I'm sure you have. The question may be, how big a picture you can take in and still see yourself as a part of it? That is probably the main criteria, because if you can't see yourself in a global or a national perspective, you may need to find your frame of action and keep on questioning that.

We are giants in terms of doing, but dwarfs when it comes to being.

When it comes to seeing our impact, we tend to think about our actions, and rarely do we consider our being. There is a lot of action on the sun for example. The sun produces heat and light. We thank her for that. That's what makes life possible on earth. But it mostly takes astronomy or theoretical physics to appreciate that the mere being of the sun has an enormous impact on the entire solar system. Its physical mass, keeps entire planets in their proper places. That is a significant impact, but it doesn’t come through doing.

The sun's gravitational force keeps entire planets in place while our power is close to zero because we tend to be hollow.

We all have a strong tendency to be what we are not, to build a better but partly fake personality. We become hollow and empty; our mass diminishes, and therefore, our "gravitational" force goes down. What is your impact beyond doing? If we want to find out, we have to be masters of being, namely to be ourselves in a conscious way, including the inherent qualities we have. Once we are on that track and connected to the bigger picture, we become like Gandhi or Mandela - every move we make will be in the right direction. We stop running in circles.

Think about a person in your life, who moved you deeply and positively, in a way that may even have changed the course of your life. Who was that person? Did he or she have to do something special to touch you? Chances are that merely being there, was enough. It didn't matter what they did. I certainly wouldn't mind being like that. What about you?

Since the word potential refers to unused or latent capability, I dare say that our potential of being is larger than our potential of doing. Ultimately it's like the left brain vs. the right brain. Which one is better? Neither! Which would you prefer to live without? You need both, right? But you probably know that most of us use one side far too much? Since we tend to look at the situation with a polarity view, we think of either this or that. The integrated view is to see both and use both. Besides, we tend to extremes in almost everything we do. We are faced with the very same situation if we look at doing vs. being.

This book is about promoting the power of being. To make being something to strive for, and ultimately reach a state where doing and being is in balance.