Interrupted Thought Process

“Am I stubborn?”
asked the founder.

“Your thought process
is constantly being
interrupted.”
I responded.

“What do you mean?”
he asked,
looking puzzled.

“For you
to change your mind,
you have to think things through,
right?”
I asked.

“Yes, of course.”
he answered.

“But if people around you
are only telling you
what they think,
your thought process
can constantly get
interrupted.”
I continued.

“Unless a space is created,
where you can think through things
without being interrupted
you will be unlikely
to change your mind.”
I remarked.

Seeing

When we realize empathy,
we come to see
what we previously
did not.

When we see
the unseen,
we come to know
what we previously
did not.

When we know
the unknown,
we come to comprehend
what we previously
did not.

When we comprehend
the incomprehensible,
we come to appreciate
what we previously
did not.

When we appreciate
the unappreciated,
we come to experience
life
in ways we previously
did not.

Want vs Like

What you want
may not be
what you want,
the moment others,
whose validation you crave,
don’t want it,
too.

To better understand
what you want,
it can be useful
to find what you like
that others,
whose validation you crave,
don’t want.

To be Human

The Chinese character
for a human being (人)
are two strokes
supporting
one another.

What if
it is difficult
to be human
without support?

What if
our blaming of others
for behaving less than human
only isolates them
further,
making it even harder
for them
to be human?

What if…?

Too Busy

What if
we’re too busy
helping

to realize
that we
need help?

What if
we’re too busy
wanting

to realize
that we already
have it?

What if
we’re too busy
persuading

to realize
that we need only
ask for it.

Greed 2

People often think
greed
is wanting more.

Greed
may also indicate
a lack of clarity
around what we really
want.

Because a lack of clarity
around what we really want
can often breed anxiety
around a perpetual sense
of not having enough.

After all,
how can we have enough
of what we don’t know
we want?

Withness

“When
did you start losing
trust
in the CTO?” I asked
the CEO.

“Our 3rd co-founder
was underperforming.
He came to us one day
to explain
that his underperformance
was due
to his father’s
illness.”
he answered.

“After he left,
the CTO told me in private
that he believed
that
was just an excuse.”
he continued.

“Sure,
it may have been
an excuse.
But the 3 of us
had been friends
for 10 years
before founding
the company.
I could easily see
how the CTO
would judge me the same way
if I were in a pinch.

I no longer felt
she was with me.”
he concluded.