A Manifesto for Existence

Why Exist?

I’ve read so many self-help books this year - so many dealing with goal setting and achievement - that they've all started to blur together. As one of my goals this year was to read 50 books (I’m 20 short, so I’m trying to catch up), I decided to read a few more this week, before I start setting goals for 2022. I picked up one book I had handy that was recommended to me on TikTok, and was thoroughly disgusted by what it suggested about how humans should act. I’m so disgusted I even have it on my bookshelf, I won’t even share the title with you.

But this philosophical disaster of a book got me thinking: what do I believe? What am I here for? Lying in bed sick this week with COVID, and after a number of familial existential crises (from death to near-death car accidents), it has given me the time to search my soul and consider deeply… why do I exist?

I currently do not subscribe to anyone else’s interpretation of the Universal Prescription For Existence. So I decided to pen my own. (*And no, I don’t want to be a cult leader. Go make your own philosophy up or buy into someone else's. I’m just fumbling through existence like everyone else and wanted to share some of my man-cold-death-bed insights.)

What I Believe

I believe I want people who love me to show up at my funeral (be it this week or in a hundred years), and say that I lived my life with the following;

1) Love

"And, in the end, the Love you take, is equal to the Love you make”. - The Beatles

I want to genuinely help others achieve their dreams, their goals. I want to love and be loved, with every form of love and with every cell in my body. If I do nothing in this life, I hope I leave the world with more love than were I to not have existed. I want to love with abandon, with surrender. Give my all to others, and ask they do the same to me. I want to be the change that I want to see in the world for the better.

I texted someone I love this week: We are all taught as children that Energy is neither created nor destroyed. So we assume it’s the same for anything else. Take from this bank account, deposit in another. Love, though, is not limited by this simplicity. It is freely created, shared, lost, destroyed, multiplied. It has no limitations.

I have loved. I do love. I can’t wait to give and receive more. I am ready and willing for more.

This year, in business, and in life, I truly hope I am able to be the love in everything I do, and lead others to do the same.

2) Joy, Laughter

“It ain't about how fast I get there, it ain't about what's waiting on the other side.?It's the climb.”?- Hannah Montana

Life is hard. Fraught with injustice, peril, pain. It is, truly... nasty, brutish and short. I have seen my share of the bad things, despite being the luckiest man alive. But I also believe that creation deserves to be enjoyed to its fullest. Were I the Creator of All Things, and/or fabricated in the Creator's image, I would want people to deeply appreciate my creation. For what artist wants to sing, dance, act, paint, and not have their efforts meaningfully and genuinely appreciated? Why would the Creator not want the same?

So why not embrace the climb? Why not intentionally climb mountains, just to see the view? Why not drink deeply from the cup of life, and try everything possible? Eat new foods, travel to see new things, search for new truths, meet and get to know new people? Why not laugh out loud with abandon in every possible circumstance? Is this not existence at its finest?

My childhood dog (in war-torn Angola) was named “Sanju”, which meant “Joy” in Umbundu. Despite a reasonably miserable existence, it was always, somehow, happy. Who are we to not find joy in the simplest beauties of creation? Who are we to not seek joy in everything we do? And scour the world for glorious experiences?

Enjoy the world. Surrender yourself to the glory of creation. Have adventures. Wag your tail. Embrace the climb.

At those moments where I have failed beyond comprehension, I am reminded of the beauty of creation and that my mere existence may simply be to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the simplest things. A flower. A bug. A poorly timed joke. A smile. In everything, there can be joy.

3) Growth, Learning

"It’s amazing how little you can accomplish in one year, and how much you can accomplish in three.” - Bruce Harbinson

Many years ago, I decided that a day was wasted if I didn’t learn something new. If I wasn’t slightly better every day, why bother continuing? Yet, it’s so easy to get better in this day and age, in minutes a day. Free books. Free education. Free information. There was not a better time in history to self-improve. So how are not all people philosopher-lockpick-scuba-diving-dancing-rocket-scientists by now? Small, compounding choices, that’s how.

Read a book. Learn a new skill. Talk to a wise person. Watch some educational TV. Work out. Throw yourself into a new hobby or passion, with everything you have. Quit something you aren’t getting better at, and come back to it later. You choose whether to fill your life and brain with fluff. With mental pablum. Or make a slightly different choice, and watch a minute of skill-building. Watch a TED talk every day. Sing for no reason. All trademark issues aside: just do it.

One tiny choice: choose strategic learning over passive entertainment, for a few minutes a day, or one night a week. And watch yourself grow exponentially.

4) Beauty, Creativity

You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have.”? - Maya Angelou

During the Renaissance, after a long period of inhumanity due to religious intolerance, the world rediscovered the importance of art, music, dance and more. Pursuit of beauty through creativity became a valued reason to exist - a concept which pulled the world out of a period unaffectionately called “The Dark Ages”. If you are lucky enough to have walked through The Louvre, you will know how seriously people took creativity and applied it as a balm for the previous years of cruelty and hardship.

Beauty comes in many forms, and is, by its very nature, qualitative - making it exquisitely human. Beauty is culturally and historically biased - it is only in the eyes of the beholder. But pursuing this oblique spiritual intersection is a valid reason to exist - something which is natural to us all, but only typically championed by artists. But if we do things without the inspiration of humanity at their core, we don’t improve humanity, we only worsen it.?

By pursuing beauty for beauty’s sake, we are driven to create. In this, we become part of all Creation, not just an audience member. We become one with the universe. We have another reason to exist.

In the simplest thing, one can pursue beauty. In the way you phrase an email, the way you present food, the way you dress in the morning. Pursuing it changes the way you act, makes other people want to pursue it as well. Appreciation of beauty is what it is to be human: creating it makes everything worthwhile.

I want to create beautiful things, every day of my life. If it's not beautiful, it’s not done.

5) Truth, Innovation

“Innovation is the unrelenting drive to break the status quo and develop anew where few have dared to go.“ - Steven Jeffes

Those of you who have seen me speak know that I am passionate about the following idea: that the world is a series of layers of broken social constructs that we usually conflate with truth. The way we view the world map, and its borders. The way electrical plugs work differently in different countries. The way we dress. How hotels, taxis, and shopping works. All social constructs, usually culturally and historically biased, and usually the source of our belief in being superior to others. Fundamentally, we do not yet have World Peace as everyone believes their social construct is better than everyone else’s - because they grew up thinking Their Way Was True.

I am not an anarchist. I do not suggest crossing a border without a passport or plugging a 110 hairdryer into a 220 plug. But I do believe that many of these constructs deserve to be challenged, and at the right time in history, innovation correctly applied destroys these constructs - in a healthy way - to allow the human race to improve. Electrical plugs (UBS), hotels (AirBnb), shopping (e-commerce) are all being rethought. We are in the Great Rethink.

In some cases, there have been charismatic people or groups who have convinced others that their teachings are Greater and Better (or in more classic cases, convinced someone of Their Interpretation of Truth), that their products are Greater and Better (not they have better SEO or Marketing), or political views that are Greater or Better (because There Can Only Be One Correct System). What you believe to be True is not likely True. Science is only “what we have the ability to observe to date which we consider fact”. Religion is “what some specific man interpreted and now tries to convince and apply to others as fact”. By declaring binary Truth, we limit God to the capacity of our own understanding and thus play God ourselves. Should not one spend one's existence searching for Truth, not convincing others you are Right? But I digress.

The search for Truth used to be the search for insight and revelation in?words. Now that we’ve fought about that for a few centuries, I’d like to propose an alternative: Innovation. Challenge everything. Don’t tear down: meaningfully renovate. Ideation, not revolution. Another reason to exist.

Accept there is no Truth, that everything deserves to be rethought as new information comes to light, new technologies come to bear. It’s not that you are wrong, or things are wrong, but rather, they could be rethought from the ground up to be better.

In this, I challenge everything and innovate fanatically. I drive to think ahead. Think deeper. Get there first.

6) Glory, Aspiration

"It may seem impossible to the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to you.” - Nims Purja

I believe, at my core, I have only one life. Perhaps I will lead multiple lives: but in not having the spiritual discipline to remember them, I am stuck with maximizing this one. In knowing this, I believe each day is sacred. A small gift, that many who have gone before me will not share. Many have paved the way for us to be here today, and to whom much has been given, much should be expected.

By this notion, I believe that we are all called to do as much as possible with the life energy we are given, in the frame and with the paint colours we have been given. We have a duty to ourselves to aspire - to set wild goals and then accept our failure to achieve them. To aspire, beyond our learned limitations. To do the remarkable. To take the hill.

We mostly live in a semi-somnambulistic state. Existing without living. Existing without trying. Clockroaching our days away. Who are you to not wake up tomorrow and do something spectacular with your life, with the story you have been given? “There is no such thing as an unwritten life, just a badly written one”. You are the sole author of your story. Are you the Hero?

For the record: in no way do I think aspiring to glory, when correctly understood, is a self-serving job. I am not talking about self-glory here. I am talking about being part of something bigger. To be aspirational is in no way a suggestion that you should quit your job and try to make a go of it with your hobby. That’s poppycock. You should aspire within your circumstances. Not climb the corporate ladder - but be remarkable in your position to the point where you replace yourself and grow. To help others, and by doing so, do something amazing yourself.

Wake up. Think bigger. Go hard. Don’t?just?exist. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Love. Laugh. Learn. Create. Innovate. Aspire.

Conclusion

I‘m cheating. I didn’t come up with this philosophy today. I’ve been thinking about it on and off for years. It is, in fact, consistent with the values of my company, which is a reflection of myself. I am fortunate enough to say I have surrounded myself with others with common values. People I love dearly and work with daily.

But as I went to set goals for myself for 2022, I realized - why not ask myself why I exist, and then set goals accordingly?

1. How and who will I make a point of loving this year? How will that change my business?
2. What joys do I most want out of the year, given my circumstances?
3. What do I want to learn this year? What do I want to learn before I die?
4. What do I want to create? How do I want to create? What do I want to leave behind?
5. How will I innovate, and think differently? What do I believe is broken about the world?
6. What do I want to accomplish this year? What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

If you’ve lasted this long, I appreciate the time you’ve given me. I’d love your suggestions and feedback.

?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??