Nobel Legacy

I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.

— George Bernard Shaw


To Be Is To Do . . . Be Do Be Do

To be is to do — Socrates
To do is to be — Jean Paul Sartre
Do be do be do — Frank Sinatra

I posted this quote for the sole reason that it always makes me smile. But as I looked at the list of names, and their sequence, I realized that, in a simplistic way, these simple words also reflect our evolution of philosophy and thought. Socrates lived more than 2,400 years ago and his influence on thought is legendary. Jean Paul Sartre was a prominent French philosopher at the peak of the twentieth century. Frank Sinatra was born only ten years after Sartre but has come to embody a later generation.

In one of my marathon runs of post-graduate education I took a several courses in ancient, medieval, and modern Western Philosophy. Socrates and Plato were the superstars of the ancient period while St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas formed the cornerstones of Medieval Philosophy. Then came Immanuel Kant, and John Locke, and David Hume and a flood of other amazing thinkers who ushered in the period of Modern Philosophy. As I studied these philosophers and their periods in history I was struck by their role as the official thinkers for society. It was as if the masses had entrusted the responsibility of defining “what we think” to a small cadre of professional thinkers. They wrote prodigiously and defined their era with their ideas.

The printing press, the vast expansion of formal education, and now the Internet, have democratized thinking — and this is undoubtedly a good thing. We no longer look to the philosophers to decide what we think on any particular topic. We take pride in our ability to think for ourselves.

And yet, where has it gotten us? While we seem no less hungry for intellectual certainty, we seldom ponder the deeper questions of life or wonder what it means to just “be.” Instead we consider American Idol “entertainment” and Fox News “fair and balanced.” We align ourselves Democrat or Republican, Pentecostal or Baptist, left or right, as proxies for our own belief systems, relegating the details to the party platform or the church doctrine. In this way, we have not much evolved from our brethren of ancient and medieval times who looked to the intellectual giants of their day for the definition of current thought.

And yet, the world has become too complex and too broad to be captured by a few thinkers, such as Augustine or John Locke. In this way, Frank has, indeed, captured the prevailing thought.
Q: Where has the evolution of thought taken us?
A: Do be do be do . . .

Thanks Frank!

 

 

 

 


Drowning Your Sorrows

People who drink to drown their sorrows should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.

— Ann Landers.


Tell Stories

I was trying to explain how the drug war doesn’t work. I would write these very careful, very well researched pieces and they would go into the ether and be gone. . . It was such an uphill struggle to tell this story with facts. When you tell a story with characters, people jump out of their seats.

— David Simon, creator, producer, and primary writer for The Wire.

If you have any interest in the drug war, the plight of our inner cities, or the power of finding your voice, set aside forty-five minutes this week and watch both parts of this Bill Moyer’s interview with David Simon. Great stuff.

Simon is insightful and inspiring on so many levels. He has a keen understanding of what is happening to our inner cities and, more broadly, to the “unneeded” classes of our society. His observations are poignant and delivered with restrained passion.

There are many ideas that jumped out from Simon’s interview but one that should not be missed is Simon’s discovery that telling stories was a much more powerful way to communicate than journalistic articles based on facts. As I continue to develop as a public speaker I find myself on a similar journey of discovery.

I started my career as a teacher, teaching math and physics to high school students. I honed my ability to communicate complex ideas in a logical and progressive way that could be easily absorbed. Like Simon, I prepared judiciously and thoroughly to present facts to my students.

My message today goes far beyond the trigonometry and calculus of my early days of teaching. The lecturer is giving way to the leader and the speaker. As I seek to inspire people to take ownership of their careers and engage head-on with their lives I, too, am discovering that stories and metaphor are a much more powerful medium for moving people to action. I don’t expect to follow David Simon’s footsteps all the way to the writer’s room for a television show but I will continue to follow his inspiration in looking for ways to share powerful stories.

Write on David!


Compulsive Quest for Certainty

The compulsive quest for certainty is not the expression of genuine faith but is rooted in the need to conquer the unbearable doubt.

— Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom


Consulting is a Relationship Business

Consulting is a relationship business. A special product may make you competitive. Differentiated services may make you distinct. But only carefully crafted relationships will create a breakthrough firm.

— Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Consulting

In preparation to launch Rizers — my new company — I am reading Alan Weiss’ classic tome, Million Dollar Consulting. In the chapter on Breaking Paradigms he talks about the difference between average consultants, better-than-average consultants, and million dollar consultants. Average consultants sell products, such as workshops and training seminars. Better-than-average consultants differentiate their services to convey some kind of distinction. But million dollar consultants build relationships that are deeply valuable to the client and mutually beneficial to both client and consultant in the long run.

As I continue to share “The Networking Mindset” with workshops and friends, I am amazed at how much of life’s success comes down to purposefully building meaningful relationships. Stay tuned . . .


Writing: Create a Context

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

— Edwin Schlossberg


Certainty / Doubt

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

— Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)


Teaching / Learning

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron.

— Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)


Rainy Sunday Afternoons

Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

— Susan Ertz, Anger in the Sky

I have to admit that I am puzzled by people who claim to be easily bored. I can’t recall ever being bored. Granted, I am an introvert, which may explain why I have not lived an over-active life. I have always had a long queue of interests that manage to keep my mind occupied. When I was young I grew up in the country. The vast countryside was my backyard and my siblings and I always had something to do. As I grew older I discovered books and the world of ideas. Again, no shortage of things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I have always tried to live the Emerson quote, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” This is especially true of rainy Sunday afternoons. Strangely, I have also never longed for immortality either. Right here, right now is pretty good.


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