The Teleological View of the Benefit

I was a teenager when my father told me that anyone desiring to achieve great things in life should have a solid teleological view of the benefit. Teleology refers to the use of “purpose as an explanation of natural phenomena,” and teleological refers to “exhibiting or relating to design or purpose” (Merriam-Webster). I particularly like the definition of “teleological” from Oxford Languages as “relating to or involving the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.” However, my father introduced me to this term via its etymology. Teleology has its roots in Greek, where teleos means “complete,” its roots telos means “result,” and the suffix logy means “logic” and “reason.” Therefore the teleological view of the benefit is the “knowledge of the purpose” associated with the benefit being pursued.?

My father added a little flavor to this idea: for obvious reasons, the typical placement of a teleological view of the benefit is before achieving the benefit. Actually, much ahead of time. There he played with the term tele which comes from the Greek “far off” and “distant.” Therefore, the teleological view of the benefit proposed here is a knowledge of the purpose associated with a distant benefit.?

The example my father gave me is in the Bible. Even if you are not religious, you are probably familiar with the story of Jesus on the cross. The Bible offers details about the agonizing experience he went through to fulfill his mission. But why would anyone do such a thing? Hebrews 12:2 ESV says: “…looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” My father explained that “for the joy that was set before him” (the teleological view of the benefit), he could endure the cross, despising the shame and everything else involved with that experience.?

The teleological view of the benefit, even if implicitly, is present in the story of great entrepreneurs. Think of Elon Musk and SpaceX. “We started off with just a few people who really didn’t know how to make rockets,” and yet he founded SpaceX to “revolutionize space technology.” And yet, the first three launches failed despite the company’s best efforts. For me, it is impossible to think of Elon’s journey with SpaceX and not remember the iconic photo of him looking at rocket debris all over the place. No one knows precisely what was in his mind during that moment, but we all know that he didn’t stop there.?

After his first failure with Falcon 1, he issued a statement to his employees, including the following:

“The most important message I’d like to send right now is that SpaceX will not skip a beat in execution going forward. We have flight four of Falcon 1 almost ready for flight and flight five right behind that. I have also given the go ahead to begin fabrication of flight six. Falcon 9 development will also continue unabated, taking into account the lessons learned with Falcon 1. We have made great progress this past week with the successful nine engine firing.”

He concludes by saying: “For my part, I will never give up and I mean never.?Thanks for your hard work and now on to flight four.”

It is easy now that we know how Elon’s story went to downplay the nightmare that he went through before achieving success with SpaceX. However, think about the anxiety, the fear, the uncertainty, the shame, and everything in between he had to face to pursue his goals. To me, this is an excellent example of a teleological view of the benefit: despise all the struggles, his eyes were locked on the prize, he knew what his purpose was, and even though the benefit was still distant, we didn’t stop, pressed on, and he got there.

On different scales, anyone working diligently and passionately to achieve something worthwhile has embraced the teleological view of the benefit. This view fuels us to move forward when everything seems to be against us. It is not just about being motivated but much more like being on a mission that is greater than the circumstances.

At Algemetric, we decided to be audacious from the get-go. Although we could go on a completely different route, we decided to swim against the waterfall and don’t regret it. We have been researching and developing disruptive data-centric solutions for seven years, and nothing in this process has been easy. We spent so much time working on this vision that it has become second nature. On top of inheriting theoretical and technical challenges, we frequently have to deal with the skepticism of people utterly unfamiliar with most of our crazy ideas. I have been personally dealing with skepticism so much that I’ve learned a few things about it:

• It takes nothing to be skeptical. It is actually a very comfortable position to be in. One with zero knowledge, zero talent, and zero skills still qualifies for being skeptical. So I am no longer bothered by skepticism. Bring it on! On the contrary, I am always ultra-suspicious about the overall capacity of skeptical people.
• Skepticism is powerless against results. Therefore the teleological view of the benefit is an excellent antidote against skepticism and its effects.
• Skepticism towards great ideas is always followed by surprise. Once results are in, what I typically hear from initially skeptical people is: “How did you know that?”, “How did this happen?” and “What made you think of that in the first place?”

There is just no appeal for me to be skeptical. In contrast, it is much more rewarding to be dangerously curious, tirelessly diligent, resiliently committed, all-around professional, and serious about the mission, no matter how crazy, unorthodox, and impossible it might sound to most people. At Algemetric, we are on a mission to deliver never-seen-before data-centric solutions. Our way has numerous challenges, from theory to practice, mathematical models to software and DevOps engineering, and industry standards to regulations. Like many successful entrepreneurs in recent history, we learn by doing, and a solid teleological view of the benefit is indispensable in this journey.?

If you know what you want to do and are captivated by some strong purpose, you have everything to develop a robust view of the benefit, no matter how distant this benefit might be at the early stages of your journey. It will undoubtedly be difficult, but for the joy set before you, you should endure the calamity of the process and firmly advance toward fulfilling your vision.