In this age of Bubbles & Bursts only Economic Entrepreneurship stabilizes your wealth growth, and your ability to weather the inevitable economic turbulence that is weaved throughout History.
So here is a primer on how to be a “Survivor.”
And that is why it is of vital & major importance to begin, & launch your projects and form your entrepreneurial adventure, early in the New Year of the Lord, 2025.
Methinks that it is the most critical issue to follow through, because otherwise, if you are stuck in the waiting game, you will turn to the crying game sooner than you can write this quotable notion:
“Paralysis by Analysis.”
On this subject, Goethe says:
“Start your enterprise, whatever it is, and the UNIVERSE will conspire to assist you in succeeding, in totality, and in whatever you wish. Miracles will follow, and your Success will be dramatic.”
Or something like that…
Because individuals who succeed in turning their dreams into reality, seem to possess an extra human dimension, and they display a distinctive madness, that vibrates to the rhythm of a melody that only their mind perceives. Their approach is focused on the essential, cultivating frequent joy, largely because they are absorbed by their aspirations, which brings them close to the entrepreneurial spirit…
These people, among all the Entrepreneurs that I have met during my entrepreneurial journey, in this life of Great Projects, are the ones who set themselves apart from social conventions, and have achieved freedom of mind, judgment, and situation. Indeed, this trait defines them: they are never bored, feeling in harmony both alone, and in a group, because their dreams are always with them.
And because successful entrepreneurs are no longer guided solely by their beliefs, but act according to their values, and social references, it’s essential to adopt their model, as they manage to transcend these elements, convinced that their dreams just await on the other side of the curtain, and this nowadays is one of the most important attitudes to adopt, and that is why I am eager to transmit this Message from my Soul.
As some of you may be aware, a Taiwanese poet/writer (Chiung Yao) has recently taken her own life. There seems to be a lot of conversation surrounding this incident, and I have been asked for my opinion on it many times.
Yet I have to admit that my understanding is based purely on hearsay, because I haven’t read anything about it on my own but because I am considered a China expert, people consult me frequently as if I really am one, although I still believe and openly claim, that for me China is a riddle, a riddle stuffed inside a secret box, and hidden in the forbidden palace, deep within a capped well, underneath the throne…
Now, which throne is a the real question, because there are no more thrones in the forbidden palace of Beijing, and certainly nowhere else in the forbidden city.
Understood ?
Yet for the Chinese poet who took her own life — I was told that one of the reasons behind her decision to suicide, was that she did not wish to burden her family.
Other reasons include wanting to have control over her own death and wanting to avoid the pain of aging and sickness and the misery of going through brutal medical treatment.
Now, I will have to speak about this from a Buddhist point of view as she was a devout Buddhist, so me speaking from the two main aspects, one being the action of taking one’s own life, and the other being the motivation behind such self destructive behavior.
Motivation is tremendously complex and subjective. This is why, in Buddhism, wisdom is the most important. One could have so-called good motivation but without wisdom, which may eventually put oneself and others in harm’s way even further. If you ask any parents why they scold their kids, they would say that they do it out of good motivation.
Chinese Dragon Mothers and younger dragon ladies, all have an explanation for their behaviours. And it’s the same rationale of “good motivation” behind other Mothers’ such different behaviours, as spoiling children, and excessive spending, in child-rearing, to the extent of exhausting one’s family resources, or even multigenerational inheritance. Ironically, such parents would often find out much later that their children would never turn out the way they expected them to be.
Behind every instance of so-called motivation there is always selfishness. Selfishness is very clever—it always manages to convince you that you have good motivation. If you ask the US government why they bombed Laos, creating such grave consequence of making Laos the most bombed country in the world, they would say that they did it out of the good motivation to save mankind from the hands of the communists. On the other hand, if you ask Mr Marx why he wrote the book Das Kapital, which created such havoc and evil, and it harms folks even today — he would say that he did it out of the good motivation to save mankind from the evils of Capitalism, from the terribly unsatisfied and always thieving oligarchs and from plutocracy.
Yet the Chinese poet lady, had her main motivation of not wanting to burden other people, and that is a very wholesome motivation, albeit misguided in my humble opinion. Because, there remains the question of whether one’s action would in actuality achieve this goal. For example, if one of my friends or family, takes his or her own life, with the reason of not wanting to burden me — I think it would end up achieving the opposite goal. Because, I would actually feel far more burdened for the rest of my life, since such romantic notions can cause a serious guilt trip, and I might even go to such an extreme, as to think that I might even be, the very root cause of his or her death, if I am the designated “survivor” who would have to take care of her remains.
Because although it might seemingly demonstrate the wholesome quality of humility, to think that we ourselves as human beings fail to contribute to the society; or worse, that our activities lead to negative impact on the society or the earth, or that we human beings are a burden to the earth, not only are we not contributing to the sustainability of the earth, we are actively ruining it. Sometimes, this shows that the reality is exactly the opposite of what the most sensitive amongst us do.
Since from this perspective, it could perhaps be said that a single bee’s life is more significant to the earth than a whole country’s population of Human Beings — in reality, if there were no human beings, there would probably not be any bees too.
Nevertheless, we can make our lives worthy simply by acknowledging that we are not a burden to the earth, and this acknowledgement may prompt beneficial actions. After all, we human beings are supposedly more powerful than bees, because we know how to tell stories and, we assume, bees don’t. We can create narratives like the current belief that the longevity of the bees is important, whereas bees are not capable of communicating to other bees such narrative as “human beings are the supreme species in this earth”. This is the reason why, even though bees, numbering in the trillions — could extinguish human beings within 24 hours, this is not happening.
It would be good if we can train ourselves to tell stories, and indeed, tell a different kind of story.
Some people say that they take their own lives because they want to be in control. Who doesn’t? But we are not good at controlling our lives, and we never apply the right solution to gaining such control. Some of you may think that life is just like a toaster, a pan, or even an espresso machine. If it gets too old and broken, one might as well discard it, in the garbage heap. But for Buddhists, life is a much more complex brain-mind-body continuum, than a simple machine.
There is something called mind, and this mind is like a sponge, because it absorbs and contains all kinds of inclinations and habitual patterns.
Therefore, the taking of one’s own life, if it were to be sanctioned by the High Lamas as a defense, or as a tool for righteous living, or as an element of protest as some Buddhist monks do, it could become a habitual social mental pattern.
However this is unlikely, because the self-immolation, is like scratching one’s skin rash — it can be satisfying, but if you keep scratching, your skin will get used to being infected and it may instead of healing, become much more infected and permanently damaged, scarred and scabbed.
In my own hometown Seattle, in the Washington state, of America — taking your own life is enshrined in Law, as a Euthanasia provision for terribly ill people, but increasingly the law has been corrupted by bureaucrats, relatives, doctors, nurses, hospice workers, and civil servants, that increasingly allow the very many depressed people to suicide.
That is uncalled for because it truly violates the Sanctity of Life and the Gift of Grace in being in this world.
Yet people still do it.
What a loss…
A huge loss any which way you cut it, because people are super sensitive these days. As I recall, a few years ago in Bhutan, a boy asked his sister for little change, to go to the theater in order to watch the latest film. When the sister wouldn’t give him the change, the boy, who was only in his early teens, hanged himself. There are so many stories of young, happy, bright, lively, lovely, joyful, and jolly people, taking their own lives, that the litany of woes is endless.
Of course, there must be far too many reasons for them to do that; yet often times we are unable to comprehend their decision, failing to discern any apparent or plausible motive. For Buddhists, the behavior of taking one’s own life is driven by tendencies or habitual patterns developed in one’s many past lives, which, on a larger timescale, go far beyond any traumatic or gratifying experiences in one’s childhood in this very life. One’s past life experiences — happy or painful — play a very powerful role in one’s current life choices.
Besides these habitual patterns, many of these young people may think that life is like a video game, which you can always recalibrate or restart. But it would not be the same once the current life is ended; and if it turns out to be the same, there would be no point at all in ending the current life. Today, a lot of young people may be smart, well informed academically, and intellectually mature, but on an emotional level, they are absolutely immature, unable to cope with adversity, and completely lacking any kind of resilience. A variety of reasons may be responsible for the lack of emotional maturity of the younger generation, yet one of the contributing factors being their caring, loving and ambitious parents, who work hard and are eager to make their offsprings better than the rest. Everybody wants to be a winner and they also want both themselves and their children to win all the time. Our education system, from the nursery all the way to high school, college prep, and university, seems to promise a stable, secure and successful future, but we all know that things never happen as planned, as assumed or as expected.
Another reason for the Chinese poet to take her own life, was that she was not wishing to go through the pains of aging and sickness, and the brutal agony of medical treatment. Of course, we all have different priorities as individuals and as different beings, stemming from different origins, religion, community, geography, and DNA origin.
For some, it is very important to avoid aging, pain and agony, and I have sympathy with such attitude, yet for me, even one hour of living on this earth, experiencing its manifold people, in all their glory, both good & bad, the children, their Mothers, the Verdant valleys, the snowy peaks, the blooming flowers, the contiguous forests that constitute the green skin of this beautiful earthly home we all share, the Goldilocks climate, the vistas, and the agricultural landscapes, the stormy days, the silken skies, the cloud horizons, the strong sun, the blue sea, the healing light, the dark starlit sky of the night, the moon and its moods, the wind whistling through the trees, the birdsong, the animals, and the falling water’s melody — is all quite worthwhile to stick around for…
Especially for a romantic follower of the Buddha, even one hour of the cognitive ability to understand Buddha’s dharma, to read the Sutras once again, to philosophize with the greatest teachings, and to experience the Diamond of the Lotus, and our unique oneself ontology, without being reminded by anyone else — is truly worthwhile.
Like warriors in the battlefield, businessmen on the path of growth, or meditating monks in the cave — when we know our goals, it is worthwhile to endure the pain of life.
Because the challenges we face in today’s life — the loss of physical and mental abilities, the inability to achieve one’s life goals, and so on — are all, in my view, related to how we cultivate our goals and aims in our lives. A lot of people may aim to become Uber-wealthy, as a result of an education system, that was designed centuries ago, to foster such life goals — but none of them will receive satisfaction, regardless of the amount of wealth they achieve.
That is why this educational system is something that we need to change.
And we can change it, because changing educational curriculums, and people’s life goals as well as the aims of society’s constant illusion, is not difficult.
At least we know that it is not rocket science.
We should be aware that there can be, and there existed in history, a time when very different aims, goals and lifestyles, were “au currant” and were dutifully followed by the People as it is the case in today’s Bhutan, a small yet rather Happy community of people.
Also as a non-Chinese person, when I look at ancient Chinese paintings, there appears clear evidence, that many centuries ago, many Chinese had a life goal of going into the mountains and becoming hermits, or living in any of the many many thousands of villages in the countryside, what we call today the “Simple Life” — grazing livestock, meandering in their shepherding duties while gazing at the morning mist, the rolling clouds, the staggered trees and rocks, for hours, weeks, months and years on end, and occasionally painting the long scrolls, or even writing about this Experiences of the Simple Life.
Yet, over time, the Chinese have forgotten how to live, let alone how to teach and learn, or how to love that kind of life.
This lifestyle, is so far gone, that today, it may even be considered “lying flat” (Tang-Ping) and that is tantamount to being called a Lazy Duffus.
But is it really “Tang-Ping” ?
Is it the ignoble act of “lying flat on your back” ?
Is the “Simple Life” being a lazy ass?
Lying flat, versus being productive, is an utterly subjective matter. A world that is overwhelmingly nerve-racking, stressful and cut-throat, in which “the winner takes all” and everyone looks out for oneself, is the very philosophy that has created this anxious, nerve racking, psychotic society which is neither productive, nor satisfactory for human beings.
Our generation, or rather, my generation, is a byproduct of the previous generation’s vision. While many great things have sprung into being from that vision, the previous generation have not always been wise. They instilled in us, the ideas of scarcity, fear of famine, hunger, and death, and the need to seek well paying jobs, built careers and make sure that always your bills are more than your income because of constant spending, and as a consequence, we as the current generation now have to live within the neurosis, within the confines of such things, as striving to get best paying jobs, to buy more & more junk, and then to pay our bills on time, for the credit rating and the credit cards being always available for us to consume even more chochkies and related junk, and whatnot…
Methinks that the design of our world is such, that we can’t really, (to a certain extent), escape from it.
But even within the confines of such design, we could always create our own boundary. How many pairs of shoes do we really need? Should we save that money for a trip to Mount Kallash, during our next holiday? Where we could feel the majestic energy of the centuries-old rocks and soak up the vibe of a place where incredible Taoist masters thought of such astounding idea as Wu-wei–the action of non-action–something that is, not only at the time but even today, avant-garde. Perhaps the great Taoist wisdom of Wu-wei could be the answer to the looming AI revolution. A confident and relaxed citizen may be the most feared citizen by the enemy.
How we grow up and how we educate ourselves have an enormous impact on how we relate to the world.
Some native American children grow up relating to mountains such as Mt Tahloma (Rainier) as a child to its mother. Their sense of purpose in life and their way of relating to the world would be quite different from that of, say, children born in an Appalachian family, a Kentucky, or a Chinese miner family, who grow up perceiving mountains as mines, that can be exploited and destroyed. The latter would, when grown up, relate to the world with tension and a competitive state of mind.
Yet, when we speak about decisiveness, alignment, and success in entrepreneurship, in life, and in business — there’s no amount of value that you can offer to those who are not open to receive it.
Think about what happens in relationships: no matter how charismatic and attractive a person might be, if he or she is not emotionally available to the type of relationship that you are interested in creating they won’t be a good fit for that relationship.
Same in business, let’s say when you are hiring: no matter how smart, talented and skilled the candidate and how good the resume, if the person is not a resounding yes to the company’s vision as a business owner you are setting yourself up for future disappointment.
But do you always consider how is your employee fulfilled and well adjusted in order to always protect their life and not consider suicide ?
My invitation for you is to stay true and open to what is valuable and important to your people and to your family, before you consider yourself.
Be always able to arrive at a definite Yes, or a clear No, when you are choosing decisions that define you.
No hesitation, no second guessing yourself, just connect with your true Yes or No, because anything else is not a clean decision – and then follow through accordingly.
The more you practice being open to what is important to you, the more your choices will align with personal and professional opportunities that are in sync with what you are in the process of creating.
Yours,
Dr Churchill
PS:
Be clear and in support of Life.
Be crystal clear and in that way — you might save your Life, or that of another.
Maybe a close friend, a family person, or even a complete stranger, when they are at
their last rope and considering suicide.
After all, it is not even fashionable anymore to be the Melancholy gray person amongst
Gitanes smoking and absinthe drinking French existentialists…
Take it from me — suicide is not sexy anymore.
Mainly because nobody cares and those who care are all jaded to the point of cynicism.