At the Foot of the Lamppost It’s Dark

I know I’ve been on quite a kick when it comes to proverbs lately, but I consider them to be great teaching tools. These short, simple sayings can “say” so much with so few words. I find them remarkable, and today’s chosen one—a Japanese proverb—is no exception.

The proverb is Todai moto kurashi, which, when translated, means “At the foot of the lamppost it’s dark.” Basically, this means that although we can often see the things around us, sometimes we don’t see that which is closest to us. And when diving further into it, the fact is that it’s probably hardest to see ourselves (and what or who is closer than that?).

This challenge of our own often skewed perceptions reminds me that someties we don’t notice what is right in front of us, including our own bad habits most of all.

In a nutshell, it’s saying: Hey! Stop being so busy judging your neighbor that you don’t handle your own failings. Or more pointedly, manage your own sh*t before you even think about trying to call someone else out on theirs. That hits home, doesn’t it?

Think about it: Sometimes, just like the lamppost (although it’s a thing), who we are closest to can actually be our main “blind spot” (i.e., us).  It seems contradictory, but it really is true. It is so easy to look from the outside and judge someone or something, isn’t it? We’ve all fallen into this scenario at one time or another unless we remind ourselves that we never know the “whole story.” There is always a blind spot—in many cases, a lack of context or details on both sides of the story or the entire situation. And the hypocrisy comes in when we fail to see our own failings because we are so focused on others’ issues. This can be dangerous, as it sets us up to feel superior or “better than” our neighbors, family, colleagues, you name it.

I think about this compared to tunnel vision, which is classically defined as the tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited objective or view. In this case, our point of view and only what we know or can see (and it’s safe to say that is very limited). After all, we are all human. No super vision powers here. How about you? You neither? Didn’t think so. We have to get rid of the God complexes we have been carrying around for ages and start to see and realized our (non) omnipotence.

How else do we apply this? Without sounding too judgmental (which ironically is the point of this post—to avoid that very thing), we can see (pun intended) that the takeaway here is that we tend to get so wrapped up in what is going on in other people’s lives, rather than being concerned about what is right in front of us (i.e., us). 

The popular “Mind your own business” mantra comes correct, doesn’t it? And ironically, of all people, us entrepreneurs are the ones who have literally created successful careers centered around “minding” businesses. It’s just so much harder and murkier when that “business” is actually… us. Here’s to mastering this business of, well, minding ours.