Who the hell do you think you are?
And what makes you think you have anything worthwhile to say?
Who the hell do I think I am?
I’m a life unravelling. Alongside 6 billion others.
I don’t know exactly what I am, but I know I’m a complex thing.
I’m conscious. I’m aware.
I can be transported by the flickering shower spray caught in the beam of sun coming through my bathroom window.
I’m having this experience. I’m creating this experience.
I’m infinitely unimportant. But I can decide.
I’m one leaf fluttering and flipping its way to the ground. Delighting in the flight.
I’m the boss of me.
I think. I write.
Sometimes I think I’m a person whose thoughts and words and actions are of no use to anyone. But then, I remember they’ve already been of use to some.
I’m telling you a little of what it’s like to be me. And you might tell me a little of what it’s like to be you. No moment can be wasted in this way.
I can be only who I am.
I’m a vulnerable explorer. Who are you?
Posted Sep 2011 | Want more? Get free Letters for the Reckless
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Go, in the name of imagination, of wonder and curiosity, of the spirit of inquiry, of critical engagement, of the ethic of the producer and of enterprise, and see what you can make of them.
~ Donald Horne, Graduation Ceremony Address at University of Sydney, 2005
Donald Horne was an Australian journalist, social critic, academic and author. I read this quote in his book Dying: A Memoir, which includes his ‘journal of a terminal illness’—written in the last year of his life with pulmonary fibrosis. He died in September 2005, aged 83.
Horne approached life as a constant exploration. He talked of:
…a producer’s ethic—another enlightening phrase, as distinguishing between a creative, productive life, both cooperative and self-reliant, and a consumer’s ethic, now one of the definers of our ‘consumer society’.
He believed a producer’s ethic must be part of a life worth living.
The above blessing, given to the graduating class, gave me a sense of lightness and freedom and possibility.
What does it give you?
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If traditional values are about survival and a desire for security, consistency and comfort…
If modern values are about belonging and a desire for achievement, growth and prosperity…
If postmodern values are about self-actualisation and a desire for authenticity, sustainability and wellness…
Where do your values lie? What about the values of the people you want to serve?
Does your business feed your desires? Does it feed their desires?
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A kind of serenity is one of the rewards that come from having learned to just stand and stare—at even, say, a plastic bag lodged in a tree. You don’t have to discover God or Nature. What you are doing is looking at things for their own sake. A crumpled piece of plastic in a tree can also contain thoughts that lie too deep for words.
~ David Horne
Donald Horne was an Australian journalist, social critic, academic and author. I read this quote in his book Dying: A Memoir, which I also wrote about here.
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I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.
~ Maya Angelou, Letter to my Daughter
What do you carry under your skin?
What phantoms of the past dance on the periphery and keep you spinning, looking for something that’s no longer there? What old, old stories, burrowed right into your bones, escape in whispers while you sleep?
The hidden ‘shadows, dreams, fears and dragons’ are here, tugging at our hand as we write (or paint or sculpt), and gripping our throat as we speak:
Pull back. Tone down. Be careful.
They are influencing how you talk with yourself, the people you love and the people you yearn to reach through your business:art.
Find them out. Know them. Cradle them, because they are the hurt parts of you. Quiet them, then:
Go forth. Rise up. Be bold!
Posted Aug 2011 | Want more? Get free Letters for the Reckless
In a world with so many options, why do people come to you?
Because you give great solutions. Your service or product is just what they are looking for.
That’s a good start, but there are plenty of other businesses giving similar, if not the same, solutions. Why you?
Because you give a great experience. The process is effortless, even enjoyable.
This takes effort and imagination which certainly narrows the field. Still, there are an increasing number of businesses offering great solutions and great experience. Why you?
Because you give intimacy and connection, with you.
No-one can replicate this – there is no-one else exactly like you.
Your only guaranteed differentiator is you.
There is a group of people who need exactly what you have…
Who want to get it in exactly the way you deliver it…
And who want to do that with someone exactly like you.
They want to know you, trust you, have a relationship with you.
They want intimacy.
Intimacy = exposure, vulnerability, leaps of faith.
Too risky? Too hard? Then you’ll be one amongst a crowd.
This is the economy of intimacy.
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