The National Launch of The Oasis Within

Tonight is the official national launch of my new book and first novel, The Oasis Within. If you live near Wilmington, NC come to Barnes and Noble in the Mayfair Town Center at 6 for the celebration! I'll be donating a portion of each copy sold to The Teacher's Fund, a great local philanthropic outreach to area teachers in the elementary grades, to provide for supplies that are much needed. 

It's been nine years since I did a bookstore event, and I'm excited about tonight's opportunity. If you live anywhere other than Wilmington, NC, first of all, visit when you can. But second, you can join us virtually tonight by going to your favorite online bookseller and grabbing copies of The Oasis Within for friends and family. You can even write me about sending you signed bookplates for the books, for any order of 5 copies or more! 

If you live nearby, I hope to see you tonight. It will be a meaningful time for me. The writer's life can be a solitary endeavor. But bringing a book into the world can be an act of social outreach. This book is so chock full of ideas I can't wait to share! And early readers are sending me such gratifying emails! Let me share two or three here, and then I'll be quiet. The first is from an old friend, a company founder and president who just lost his adult son, suddenly, not long ago. The second is from a neighbor I met the first time on a plane to Charlotte the other day, an accomplished artist who lost her husband not long ago, and then her only son. We live in a world of great gifts and great losses, of gains and challenges, and possibilities for deep growth. Then I'll end with a man in town who did a nice Facebook post for the event tonight. Here are the sample reader reactions:

Hi, Tom! The Oasis Within is breathtaking. At times while reading I actually gasped at the beauty of the writing and the clarity of such profound and life changing ideas. Virtually every page of your book is now covered in highlights. I was particularly taken with your perspective on uncertainty. Like so many folks, I've often resisted uncertainty, or even feared it. I now have a new tool in the toolkit. 

I also loved your description of goals. In my career I have focused on goals and talked about goals and obsessed about goals. But I never really saw them as a new path of concentrated, consistent and committed action. How I use goals in my life will never be the same.

Your discussion of the fire of positive energy, and for me, the idea that tough times can become fuel is inspiring and so very useful right now.

I could go on and on, but I do want to thank you specifically for one other insight - the roles of nobility and humility. After 30 years and hundreds of AA meetings that revolve around humility, I still didn't have a good way to think about the dichotomy of those ideas in life. Now I do.

I was captured by Ali and Walid. And I was taken by surprise by the plot twist and revelation. I can't wait to see what happens. Tom, this is a remarkably important work, one that I'm certain will benefit thousands and thousands of people. Thanks for sharing and thanks for your friendship.

Jack H.

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Hi Tom: I’m home from Naples and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed THE OASIS WITHIN! I was hooked from the opening chapter……underlining, highlighting, making notes and ‘WOW”s in the columns………

Full of chills……one in particular…….When I got to the chapter entitled ‘WISDOM BUCKET’…..for some odd reason, I drew a heart around those words………I read those two pages…..turned the page and read the line…..”My wisdom bucket is in my heart”……..chills up and down my spine….. I was definitely meant to read this book………….so, AGAIN……THANK YOU. Hope to make it to the book signing……already have a list of friends who will receive them for Christmas!!! And definitely will share with my book club!

In the last 8 years, I’ve watched my husband succumb to cancer…….and then my only child succumb to ALS………. Since I’ve been searching……which I guess is pretty normal……trying to figure out what’s next for me and trying to be open to those answers, directions, signs, etc. This book arrived in my hands in a totally random way… (Thank you Universe). MY book is now full of “highlighting”, notes, “Wows”, answers……One I will read over and over and over….It’s THAT GOOD! And so now, I’m on this new ADVENTURE with Uncle Ali and Walid…….and can’t wait to continue the journey……. Thank you Tom Morris!

With gratitude, Anne. (Anne Cunningham, Metal Artist)

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From Facebook:

I’m compelled to stump for my Wilmington friend and philosopher, Tom Morris. If you haven't yet stumbled across his absolute gem of a book, "The Oasis Within", then please check it out. It is the most meaningful book I've read in years, possibly ever. Book signing this Friday evening at Mayfaire's Barnes & Noble.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1668042616770164/

Tom Hackler, Duke Energy

Friends! This is Tom Morris again. If you have a chance to read the new book soon, please write and let me know what you think!  TM

Welders and Philosophers

In the most recent Republican presidential primary debate, Senator Marco Rubio said:

“For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.” 

First of all, let me ignore the grammatical infelicity here and agree that the senator is absolutely right in his opinion that vocational education is not as appreciated as it should be in our time and place. One of the best books written on this topic is Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, by Matthew Crawford, who happens to be a philosopher with a prestigious PhD who makes his living by working with his hands as a motorcycle repairman, and thus demonstrates that the we should beware of false alternatives in our political rhetoric. Crawford argues eloquently for a recognition of the value and dignity of manual labor, with a special emphasis on its skilled varieties. Life doesn’t offer us a stark choice between doing or thinking, and neither should any good system of education. There are different ways by which we can enjoy a life of thoughtful work. Welding can certainly be one of them. So can toiling as a philosopher.

To the claim that welders make more money than philosophers, my first response would be that if it’s true, then, so what? Would it follow as the senator seems to suggest that we need more welders, thereby increasing our available supply and, against presumably equal demand, competitively force their wages down to the level of the sages? Stranger yet is the fact that behind these remarks we can see the exact value assumption that’s gotten us in trouble: The belief that higher wages mean a higher value to our society. That’s precisely the equation that’s led us down the road of valuing college prep vastly more than vocational education, and trying to train everyone for white collar careers, whether that’s the best thing for a particular young person, or for the rest of us, in the first place. A mediocre hedge fund manager may make a lot more money than a great school teacher, or a master welder, but you can’t convince me that this is a good measure of their relative value to society. So even if the welders of the world are out there lighting their cigars with hundred dollar bills and the average philosopher can’t pay the rent, I don’t think that implies anything about the relative value of welders and philosophers. 

When I first went to graduate school at Yale to become a philosopher, I remember seeing a newspaper clipping on a philosophy department bulletin board. It featured a photograph of a construction worker sitting on the ground, eating out of his steel lunch box, his hard-hat by his side, and with a copy of Heidegger open in front of him. I said to myself, “That’s it. That’s the role of philosophy - to help everyone become more thoughtful about their lives.” I spent fifteen years as a professor of philosophy in a great university and my goal was never to turn my students into wage-earning academic philosophers, but instead to help them develop a more robust philosophical dimension of their experience and thought, whether they went on to become doctors, lawyers, insurance agents, or welders.

And in my most recent two decades as a public philosopher working with people across industries and professions, my goal is the same. We need more good philosophy and philosophers in our time, not less of it and fewer of them. But that’s because we need more philosophical practitioners in all walks of life, including politics.

Rodin got it right in his famous sculpture of The Thinker, which I first saw in person many years ago. It surprised me to notice how muscular an individual is depicted in the statue. He’s obviously a man of action as well as of thought. Rodin had expressed a deep insight. The good thinker should ideally be a proficient doer; and the active doer, a careful thinker. Only then will things have a chance to go well.

This is something all our candidates for high office should keep in mind. Doing without thinking is much more dangerous than thinking without doing. And no politician who ignores such philosophical insights can ever take on the fissures in our body politic and stand a chance of repairing our wholeness with good and lasting welds.

The Megaphone of Power

The famous South African film director jumped out of his chair and ran up to me, stopping only when his nose was six inches from mine. "I'm right here. I'm this close," he nearly whispered to me. And then he held up his right thumb and index finger four inches apart and said, "I'm this big and I live in the lens of that camera. You're talking to somebody this big. Do you understand?"

Yeah. I suddenly understood. I was making television commercials for Disney's Winnie the Pooh, and I had never acted before in front of film cameras. I was speaking to fill the enormous sound stage. I needed only to reach the microphone. Later, I saw a great video on acting done by Michael Caine where he talks about people making a transition from stage to film. Actors accustomed to projecting back to the cheap seats and gesturing on a big scale had to become accustomed to a medium where a raised eyebrow might be all that it took to convey a point.

In today's New York Times, I came across a very good article by Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School, entitled, "When You're In Charge, Your Whisper May Feel Like a Shout." The point of the article was that when you're in a position of power or authority over others, your words tend to get amplified far more than you may realize. A whisper can sound like a shout. You have to watch what you casually say, because there's a megaphone effect at work, and you're not on the end where you hear the extra volume.

I had been a Notre Dame professor speaking in the early years without a microphone to hundreds of students in big auditoriums. My wife always had to remind me at home that I didn't need to project. Oratory was not required in the kitchen. And it wasn't just me. Winston Churchill knew a man who could not make the transition from public speaking to private conversation, and once said of him, "He addresses me as if I were a multitude." We're not always aware of our tone, or volume, when talking to others. Adam Galinsky's essay reminds us that when we're in charge, our words are large. We need to be aware of that, and modulate appropriately.

In my favorite blog, Brain Pickings, I came across a remark this morning that was once made by Gloria Steinem that's both related to this point and wise. She said,

One of the simplest paths to deep change is for the less powerful to speak as much as they listen, and for the more powerful to listen as much as they speak.

When we listen to people more, we learn better what they need to hear and how they need to hear it. And when we encourage them to speak up, we can become less likely to use our own voices, as leaders, in ways that are loud and alarming.

I'm a pubic speaker. But I've learned over the years that to do it well, I have to be just as good at being a public listener. Then I know what to say, and how to say it. I hope the same for you.

Humility, Nobility, and Leadership

There was a great article in the New York Times the other day, with an eye-catching title:

“A Humble Pope, Challenging The World.”

The Times ran this teaser and explanatory line under the title:

“Francis, the first Latin American pope, has drawn from his life in Argentina to try to create a humbler papacy, albeit one with lofty ambition.”

It’s not often that we see humility and lofty ambition mentioned together. And that’s too bad, because they’re perfect partners. In fact, lofty ambition is closely connected with a fundamental quality that is, together with humility, crucial for great leadership. The best explanation I know of has come from the mouth of a character in my new book, The Oasis Within. He’s seventy years old. His name is Ali. And he’s just said something about humility and nobility to his thirteen-year-old nephew Walid, as they sit and talk under the stars in the vast desert of western Egypt. The year is 1934. The boy wants to understand what nobility and humility really are. Ali explains it all better than I can, so let me quote this short passage. Ali speaks.

“Nobility is a sense of your own greatness, and the true greatness of what you rightly value, along with the importance of what you’re doing in this world. Nobility comes from inside you. It arises in your soul. It’s an attitude and a sensibility that you bring to everything you do, every action, by caring about little things, knowing they’re actually big, and attempting big things, knowing that they’re never bigger than your calling, your quest, and the adventure for which you’re here.”

“That’s a good answer.”

“Thank you.”

“So: What about humility?” The boy was entranced by these ideas and suddenly found himself wanting to understand more.

“Humility is a sense of our smallness in the vast sweep of things, and a recognition of the greatness in other people, along with a realization that we need each other in order to accomplish our best dreams. Absolutely anyone and anything can teach us, as I’m teaching you on this marvelous night.”

“I see. This makes sense to me. But it’s also strange. I’m big and I’m small.”

“Yes. And so are we all. Each of us is of inestimable importance. None of us owns all the wisdom and virtue of the world. You need others. And they need you. Humility recognizes our wonderful limits. Nobility embraces what is also ours and is limitless.” This was a lot for Walid to take in all at once. But he could feel that these words resonated with truth.

The old man continued. “Humility means being open to learn from everyone and everything that crosses our path. The camel can teach us. The storm can teach us. The viper can teach us. Our mistakes can teach us. The stars can, too. If you’re humbly open to learning and growing, then you can become everything you’re meant to be, in the fullness of your inner nobility. In addition, a proper humility allows you to serve others eagerly and well, and there is nothing nobler than that.”

“So, nobility and humility go together.”

“They’re meant to walk arm-in-arm. But, unfortunately, each of these qualities often wanders along without its intended mate. When they work together, there’s magic, and there’s tremendous power for good. Combined, they lead to extraordinary things.”

This was important for the boy to grasp well. The old man thought for a moment, and then continued. “The greatest kings and leaders on earth are both noble and humble. One who is noble and not humble is presumptuous and arrogant. One who is humble and not noble is hesitant and lost, and never in possession of his full power. To be the great regent you’re here to become, you must embrace both these qualities, my friend. Nobility and humility together form the path of true greatness.”

This is important for us all to remember as a new presidential political season gets underway. It’s not just the Pope who benefits from blending these two great qualities. Any leader should embody them, and keep them in proper balance.

There's a lot more on this topic and related issues in the new book. If you have a chance to read it soon, I hope that it speaks to you, and that you will enjoy it deeply. Please let me know what you think. It always helps me as a philosopher to hear the perspectives of other thoughtful people.

For more, go to www.TheOasisWithin.com.

Amazon and The Warrior Virtues

Do you need a work environment that pushes you relentlessly to be tougher and better at what you do? Is it good to have harsh feedback and to be pressured during all your waking hours? Will that make you dig deep and excel? Is it legitimate to treat a business as involving something even remotely like Navy Seal Training?

There's been a lot written recently about the retail giant Amazon and its company culture. A New York Times article unleashed the firestorm of controversy when it portrayed Amazon as a modern Darwinian jungle where there is survival only of the toughest and most ruthless. Some former employees have subsequently written their own accounts of how difficult and demanding an environment it can be, while others have taken issue with the portrayal in the Times and agree with Jeff Bezos that the brutal description there is nothing like the real environment of the company. I don't want to wade into the controversy over this one organization or its values, but simply to comment on the main issue I see the controversy as raising.

Aristotle, along with the tradition following his lead, long ago identified a set of virtues, or strengths for human life - characteristics that empower us in any challenging situation - that we benefit from embodying as we live and work with other people. Those virtues include the following, with the now old fashioned labels, and my gloss on what they mean:

Courage - A commitment to do what's right, in the face of risk

Temperance - Moderation and proper self-restraint

Liberality - A freedom in giving to others what can help them

Magnificence - A capacity for acting on a big, or grand, scale

Pride - A true sense of honor and worthiness

Good Temper - An inner calm displayed outwardly

Friendliness - The demeanor of treating others sociably

Truthfulness - A strong disposition toward honesty

Wittiness - The ability to see and express humor appropriately

Justice - A basic commitment to treating others well.

It's quite a list. And it has some initially surprising components, considering that the virtues add up to what Aristotle saw as good character. In my books If Aristotle Ran General Motors, and If Harry Potter Ran General Electric, I suggest that these are universally great qualities to have, in business and in life.

But prior to Aristotle, the ancient Greeks, joining people from most other early cultures, had their focus on another set of virtues, or strengths, what we can insightfully call "The Warrior Virtues" - qualities that empower us in times of physical warfare. Here's a representative list, that starts with the same quality to be found at the top of Aristotle's list:

Courage

Physical Power: Force, Stamina, Endurance

Mental Acuity: Perceptiveness, Clarity

The Ability to Adapt and Create

A Disdain for Mediocrity

An Intolerance for Weakness

Craftiness

The Ability to Deceive Convincingly

Fierceness: An Intensity just short of Brutality

A Willingness to Kill

We might also call these The Homeric Virtues, as in the west, we first encounter them, typically, in Homer's ancient poetry. It's well known, and has often been noted, that American business leaders throughout most of modern corporate history have very often had athletic backgrounds or military experience. Given the widely recognized fact that most sport in some way re-enacts warfare, it's then safe to say that most business leaders have had experience with, and a tendency to embrace at least most of the Homeric Virtues, the warrior virtues. And some very tough corporate environments are a lot like the military in times of war. The demands are high, excuses are not allowed, and everyone is expected to be utterly dedicated to the mission. In some circumstances, companies have risen and succeeded by emphasizing at least most of the warrior virtues. And at least some people in those companies can appear to flourish as individuals in such an environment. But I think we have good reason to question or reject the application of at least a couple of those virtues outside contexts of real physical battle. I hope you instantly join me in that rejection. In fact, I've argued in several of my books that the subset of warrior virtues that do apply in business endeavors need to be guided and constrained by the more Aristotelian virtues, as well as by such transcendentals as Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity - what I call The Four Foundations of Greatness.

The problem often seen in companies that exalt the warrior virtues in isolation from an Aristotelian framework and The Four Foundations is that the warrior mentality quickly and easily becomes a cloak for something very different than a quest for excellence. And, in fact, you begin to see what I like to call counterfeit warrior virtues:

Arrogance

Callousness

Vengefulness

Cruelty

Sadism

Rapacity

A Touch of Evil

And this is clearly not a recipe for a great company culture, to put it mildly. But this is exactly what you often get when people proudly focus on the warrior virtues as centrally ingredient in their enterprises. The warrior mindset outside any real battle field easily becomes a cloak for vices to pass as virtues, and the whole environment quickly turns poisonous.

When people say "Business is War" or even just that "Business is Sport," the danger is that they can easily break loose from the civic virtues of Aristotle, and stray into the realm of warfare virtues where counterfeits easily tempt people in any leadership or management position to create a thoroughly corrosive and corrupt enterprise that will eventually collapse of its own weight.

Again, I don't write this to point a finger at any particular company, but only to warn of something vitally dangerous that is often seen in corporate contexts where it can do only great harm. The war we do need to fight is to bring the Aristotelian virtues front and center, supported by The Four Foundations. Then greatness can be both attained, and sustained.

Corporate Values That Work

The New York Times has recently stirred the pot on issues of corporate culture and working conditions in America. Some philosophical issues are being talked about anew that I think are crucial for any business. 

In 1997, my book If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business was published. It was all about what it takes to create a great company culture - whether it's a big company like GM or a small mom and pop business or anything in between. I came to realize that the principles and values that make for great workplaces apply just as well to any friendship or marriage. We're people wherever we are. And we have certain deep needs that will govern what we're able to accomplish in any situation. What then does it take for people to feel great together and do great things in their interactions, in their relationships? Aristotle and the other practical philosophers had some amazing insight for this.

When that book of mine was first out and I was flying coast-to-coast to be on radio and television shows promoting it, the one person interviewing me who had read it the most carefully and thoughtfully was Matt Lauer, on the NBC Today Show. We had nearly nine minutes of conversation about it on the show, which is forever in morning TV time. He told me that, in his opinion, the book captured everything he believed about ethics, and he even asked if it was Ok if he quoted from the book in some talks he was going to be giving about ethics in journalism. But he also challenged me that day by asking me whether American corporations were really ready to become great places to work, focusing attention on such things as Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity - the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values that my book was built around. There was even a chapter on "Business and the Meaning of Life." Matt wondered whether any big company could really pay attention to such an issue. Is there time? Is it business-efficient to care about such things? Would a necessary concern on the bottom line allow it? 

My answer was simple: Yes. People can't do their best over the long run unless they feel their best about what they're doing. Aristotle understood the deep role that our unconscious quest for happiness, or wellbeing, plays in any of our lives. And he knew that this is the most deeply motivating factor for anything we do. When we aren't happy in our work, when it doesn't contribute to our sense of deep fulfillment in our lives, we can't attain and sustain the highest, most creative excellence. Ultimately, meaning and mastery go together.

In a big front page essay called "Rethinking Work" in the New York Times Sunday Review this week, psychologist Barry Schwartz argues that companies had better pay attention to such issues. And Schwartz has evidently touched a nerve, because 24 hours later, it's the most emailed article in this week's paper. I commend it to your attention. And if it resonates with you, take a look at If Aristotle Ran General Motors and tell me what you think. In light of the recent controversies surrounding Amazon and corporate culture in America these days, I think we need to return to some of these issues. I'll likely write more about them this week.

Meanwhile, may you experience Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity in what you do and where you do it. Aristotle would want it that way.

Can You Be The Hero?

What does it take to be a hero? On a train, in a crowd, or in the quiet of your office? If you're ever in a situation of great peril or stress, can you step up and be the hero?

Lots of popular books and films are about apparently ordinary people who are thrust into situations of danger and step up to act courageously. Think of Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Tris Prior in Divergent, or the Bruce Willis character in all those old Die Hard movies, An ordinary person is pushed into an extraordinary situation and steps up. 

I've just published a book called The Oasis Within, which is the prologue volume to a new series of novels where one of the main themes is how we can be prepared for greatness. One philosopher who has read that first book has written me that it's the first portrayal of a hero that really digs down deep into how a grounding in the right wisdom can equip any of us for more heroic action. 

There's an interesting article about this in the New York Times. Professor David Rand with his colleague Ziv Epstein studied 51 winners of the Carnegie Medal for Heroism and came to a conclusion that surprised them. The overwhelming majority of heroes who act to save another person or to otherwise do what needs to be done in a tense and pressure filled situation, do not deliberate or think it through carefully before doing anything, but instead act instinctively, intuitively, and fast.

There's an old saying. "He who hesitates is lost." That seems to apply to many situations of great value and risk. We often think of ethics and morality as all about rational decision making, as if the moral agent must first weigh all the values involved in a situation and then choose which to prioritize and pursue. Wrong. The late Iris Murdoch, philosopher and novelist, wrote a fascinating little book called The Sovereignty of Good. In it, she says that, typically, at the moment of moral decision making, the precise moment we choose this or that, the decision has already long been made by what we've been doing, valuing, thinking about, feeling, and paying attention to, in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years preceding that moment. Most big decisions, and especially those involving some measure of courage or boldness, aren't deliberated at all, but simply arise out of who we are, or what we've become prior to the point of action. We do this or that because we are already committed to this or that, or because we already are this or that. 

Our actions show who we are. They arise from within, and in a way that can be quick and intuitive.

The Americans on that high speed French train recently didn't hold a short seminar on the costs and benefits of all the possibilities and alternative potential responses available when they noticed the guy with the gun. They saw it and somebody said "Let's go." They took action. That's normally the trajectory of heroism. It sees a need and acts to meet the need. So, when you find yourself deliberating extensively over some choice, weighing the pros and cons, chances are that you're not getting ready to be a hero. The hero simply sees and does. The lesson for us is then simple. We need to be preparing ourselves carefully to do the right thing instantly when such a situation arises.

Are you paying attention to the right things, day-to-day? Are you valuing the truly best things? Are your feelings guided by real wisdom? Do you have enlightened commitments, or is the culture getting under your skin a little bit, to encourage selfish superficiality, personal aloofness, or short term ease? We become what we habitually do, in the life of the mind, the emotions, and in our actions. Today, you can begin to create the moral hero within who will act fast and instinctively tomorrow. Or you can deepen and reinforce the good tendencies you already have. It's up to you.

Friendly Encouragement

How often are we tempted to pressure people to get better at what they're doing? How much do we actually do it? Maybe we push. Or we pull. We criticize and lay down the law. We demand. Some of us may even threaten. Well, not me. And, likely, not you. But it's too common, isn't it?

We want to get better, ourselves. We want to grow. And we want our kids, and our colleagues, and our employees, to get better, as well. But can we push and pull and force it?

Consider a garden. The plants aren't growing fast enough for you. You're wanting more. What are you going to do, grab them and pull? That's obviously not going to work. And it won't with people, either.

People grow best with friendly encouragement and guidance.

Yeah, I know. There are some people who don't respond to friendly encouragement or guidance. So why do you have anything to do with them? Move on. Or move them on.

Friendly encouragement is one of the best things we can give good people.

So: Encourage someone today. Help them fly higher.

Our Philosophy of Language Matters!

I posted a version of this blog during the campaigns of 2016. But I think it's important to revisit it now that we're hearing from supporters of our new administration, and members of it, about "alternative facts" and truth being just something "in the eye of the beholder." We need to understand the two different views of language in order to see what the new administration is trying to do.

In the upcoming days of the new administration, we're apparently going to hear a lot of people distorting the truth, and actually lying to us. Of course, that's no revelation. It's already been happening. And it's unfortunate. But we come across this a lot in business, as well, and in any other area of life where something of value is at stake. And there's an important reason that distortion and lying is so widespread at present. It may surprise you.

There are two very different philosophies of language out in the world. Which one we operate by matters. The noble view, on my analysis, holds that the overall two-fold purpose of language is to connect and cultivate. It connects us first with reality, and with each other, and even within ourselves, in a variety of ways. And it cultivates us, or develops us as human beings, in just as many ways. This view of language is focused on linking our words to truth, beauty, goodness, and unity—the four transcendental values of ancient philosophy. We can call it The Spiritual View of Language. At its best, language connects and cultivates the spirit.

Going back in human history and prehistory, language has always had many uses - for example: to warn, call, express, exclaim, inquire, infer, inform, and create. It's also had a deviant use, interestingly dependent on these more straightforward uses. It can be employed to deceive. But that's a secondary and parasitic use. If language had not already first been used to inform, warn, and express, for example, it could never have been used to deceive. The reason is simple. In deceiving, you're pretending to inform or express, or warn, and so on, but your use of language departs from the expected connection with truth that those uses ordinarily presuppose and convey. At the same time, you're depending on your listener to simply assume that you are sincerely informing or warning, and so on. But to the contrary, you say what you know to be false. You warn when you know there's no real danger. You express an anger or an empathy that you don't actually feel. The primary uses of language had to be established and accepted in order for any twisting of them into deception to work.

If you hold the Spiritual View of Language, you're going to see deception as something forgivable or appropriate only at the extremes of human behavior—in competitive games or sports, and in life or death situations. In games or sports, when we're outside the normal spheres of life, and we're playing, however hard, it's ok to bluff, or fake. We don't morally judge the quarterback who fakes a run but passes instead. But secretly deflated footballs are something else. There are rules within which the deceptions can take place.  In basketball, a great fake under the basket shows not corruption but skill. Certain such forms of deception are fine. And in situations of life or death, it's normally thought to be strongly preferable to use deception if that's the only way to avoid an act of killing or being killed, or maiming or being maimed.

In game situations, we've suspended "normal life"—whereas, in life or death situations, we've arrived at an extreme, on the other end, beyond normal life, where an intensity of conflict or likelihood of severe bodily damage has gotten so bad that a lie or a deception can be not only excused, but actually demanded in order to prevent something much worse and potentially irreversible. Lying in politics or business doesn't normally qualify—to put it mildly.

But there's another philosophy of language altogether and it's the one that now tends to dominate highly partisan or extremist politics, and even some business circles. It's a view that the primary purpose of language is to gain, exercise, and hold power—power over people, situations, and things.

On this Machiavellian view, language isn't tied to truth, beauty, goodness, or unity. It's not a spiritual vehicle for connecting and cultivating ourselves. It's a cruder tool. It's about manipulating. It's all about getting others to do your bidding. On this view, language is about crafting perceptions, and evoking those beliefs and feelings in others that will open doors for you and feed into your own purposes. It's a clearly ignoble view of language. And it's as parasitic as deception is in any of its forms. If most people didn't hold, at least implicitly, what I'm calling the Spiritual View of Language, no one could hold this Manipulative View of Language and make it work. The manipulators pretend to be doing the things that the rest of us expect them to be doing—truly informing, accurately warning, honestly expressing, and so on. But they're often only pretending to do such things, at least much of the time. They'll actually seek to show a concern for truth, beauty, goodness, and unity now and then, when they believe it's their interest to do so, but only to fortify their basic strategy of manipulation. They want power. And they talk to get it and use it and keep it.

We all need to persuade other people, and help position others to see the value of our projects and propositions. But we can do that by connecting and cultivating, rather than by manipulating. And that's the only path of honor. It's also the only one that's sustainable, long term. Those of us who hold the Spiritual View of Language can use our words in all sorts of creative ways, to inspire, enthrall, or entertain. But if we ever catch ourselves manipulating another adult human being, we need to do a philosophical self-check. Is our context that of a game or sport? Is it truly like war? When too many people start to think of politics or business as primarily a game, or a sport, or as the equivalent of war, there comes to be a subtle and secret shift in how they think of language. As a result, we all suffer.

Who knew? Our philosophy of language matters!

Making Something Happen

The best people most often have a simple common tendency. They dwell not on how hard a task is, but on how to make it happen. In the New York Times Sunday Business section, the current CEO and President of Montblanc North America, Mike Giannattasio, talks about his office and his work life. At one point he says:

When I suggest that employees do something, they'll sometimes say, "It's not that easy." I gave everyone in the office a Staples Easy Button, and I tell them "You are able because you think you are able," which I've paraphrased from Virgil. People need a good understanding of what they can do.

I once heard that the New York Times was doing an article on bringing philosophy to a broader public audience. I had just published Philosophy for Dummies in the famous Dummies series of books, to help jump start their foray into the Humanities with the Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Thomas Hoving, who wrote for them the estimable Art for Dummies. I called the publicist for the series and told him what I'd heard about the Times piece being done, and that I'd love to be interviewed for the article. He said, in a trembling voice, "Well, I don't know. The New York Times is a REALLY big place." I sighed, and thanked him, and found the writer doing the article myself, and ended up being the lead person interviewed.

One of the smallest bestselling books ever written was on this precise problem. It's called, enigmatically, A Message to Garcia, and is by Elbert Hubbard. The President of the United States needed to get a message to a rebel leader named Garcia somewhere in Cuba. He was told that there was one man who could do the job, no matter what it took. The President summoned him and gave him the message. The messenger didn't ask where Garcia was, or explain how hard it might be to find him. He didn't make excuses, dwell on obstacles, or "manage expectations." He got going, took a boat, went into the jungle for three weeks, and accomplished his mission. Hubbard suggests that we almost never come across a person who is ready, willing, and able to do such a thing. Those who are able to take a message to Garcia will be the ones who make a big impact on the world.

If we're in a managerial or leadership position, how often do we ask someone to do something interesting and hear them say, "Well that's harder than you might think." And how often do we already know both exactly how hard it is and that the person we've asked can certainly do it if they actually try? And of course, most of us have also been on the other side of the request. I was once asked to do a talk about Steve Jobs. I could have said, "Well, I really don't know anything about Steve Jobs, and it would be really hard to put together a talk that was both original and helpful on him." But instead, I said, "Sure. Let me look into it. I'll come up with something great." And it was hard. And I made it happen. I've given that talk several times and even have the draft of a book based on it.

I've often said that if I was asked what the most important quality is that successful people share in common, I'd probably identify an overall action orientation - the proclivity toward making it happen, whatever the relevant "it" is, in context. They don't ignore obstacles. But they don't dwell on them either. The success mindset is one of making things happen.

And, no, that's not me at the top of this blog post. I still have hair. But not all great thinkers do. That's Seth Godin. Take his advice and mine. Go make something happen. Now.

Action, Opportunity, and Impact

We all know that personal action is required to take advantage of opportunities in life. Otherwise, they lie inert for us and then dissipate. But there's also a deeper perspective available. In Adam Bryant's New York Times column "Corner Office," Lori Senecal, Global CEO of ad agency C. P. &B. and CEO of the MDC Partner Network said something interesting this week while reflecting back on her own graduation from college and going for her first job. She got an offer and decided to take it without even realizing what all it involved. She comments:

That was a time when I embraced one of the philosophies that I go back to a lot today, which is that action creates opportunity. I didn’t know what the nature of the job would be, but I knew that if I took action, other possibilities would appear, and they did. Ever since then, I’ve often thought about action creating opportunity.

Bryant later asked her what advice she would give to new college graduates, and she said:

I talk to them about action creating opportunity. So dive in, and great things will come of it. The other thing I like to focus on is the importance of impact. You have to learn to prioritize the impact opportunities rather than just being busy. There’s an infinite amount of things that you can do, but focus on the things that will catapult the company and your career forward.

Action and opportunity - action and impact: Two vital connections. Taking action in reasonable ways, in ways that are right for us, creates opportunities, and then among those that arise, we should choose to act further on the ones that will have the greatest likely impact for good on the world, our businesses, and our own careers. Well directed action is the key, at both levels.

This is the philosophy I call activism. It's up to us to take action. Do things that matter, both by creating new possibilities, and by having impact. This is nice advice to keep in mind, not just for recent graduates, but for all of us along life's way.

The Four Foundations of Greatness

Years ago, I did a book called If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business. It could have been called "Happiness, Fulfillment, and Greatness." It's all about the most deeply human factor in our work and lives - what brings people together, makes for superior teams, real loyalty, and great results? My claim in the book is that from the moment we wake up in the morning, to the instant we fall asleep at night, we experience the world along four dimensions and need four things to satisfy us:

1. The Intellectual Dimension, that aims at Truth

2. The Aesthetic Dimension, that aims at Beauty

3. The Moral Dimension, that aims at Goodness

4. The Spiritual Dimension, that aims at Unity.

For great relationships, great teams, unshakable associate loyalty and real customer love, we need to live and work in accordance with these four things - Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity. We need to respect everyone's need for these things, and nurture them as much as we can. Whenever we depart from one of these things, these great ideals that the Greeks knew as transcendentals (transcending and applying to everything in life), we suffer diminishment. When we cultivate them, we can experience extraordinary levels of success.

And each of them needs to be respected and lived in connection with the other three. That's where the real power is to be found.

I got to speak on this topic in Orlando this week, and it was so much fun! For more details on the ideas, go check out the book!

Diane von Furstenberg on Clarity

For 25 years, I've spoken on what the great philosophers realized about attaining success in anything we do. Long ago, I isolated seven universal conditions for success. The first two are:

1. A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined,

2. A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain the goal.

In this week's Sunday Business Section of the New York Times, Adam Bryant did his great "Corner Office" interview with fashion legend Diane von Furstenberg. I've referred to it earlier this week. Let me share one more question and answer here:

Q: How do you get the best work out of creative teams on your staff?

A: I think the most important thing is to believe in what you do. And identifying a goal, to have clarity, is very important. You cannot fake clarity. When you don’t have clarity, you don’t. And then all of a sudden, the fog lifts and you’re clear. It’s very important to constantly try to look for clarity, like pruning a tree or cleaning the plumbing.

DVF starts with condition #2 and quickly backs it up with condition #1.

I've found that a lot of CEOs take for granted that everyone around them is clear on their corporate goals, while fog is actually enveloping everyone on the ground. We can't just assume that our own clarity has been communicated well. And sometimes, we find that we ourselves aren't as clear as we need to be. We allow general vague slogans with feel good language to substitute for rigorous clear thought. And that's always a problem. We need to heed the fashion mogul's words. In any pursuit, Confidence and Clarity are needed. And they'll never go out of fashion.

For a video related to the interview with DVF, click here.

Find What Matters

Have you noticed that advertisements are becoming more philosophical? I've blogged the noble sentiments of a recent Cadillac ad. Now let me post the content of an ad for Spyder.com:

Find what matters and free yourself from the rest. That's invincibility.

Why invincibility? Because when you focus on what matters, you really can't be defeated. All failures either feed you or take you out of the game. You won't stay in it to lose. What matters most, of course, are the matters of creative love, or loving creativity, as I explored in the book If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business, a book that was published in 1997, but that reflects what only now many leaders in the corporate world are beginning to realize. 

Focus matters. A focus on the right things matters more. Freeing yourself from the rest is the most liberating act, and ongoing habit, that you can develop. And it's a key to your highest potential - the only route to the only invincibility there is.

Plutarch, Me, and You

The ancient philosopher Plutarch was once asked why he hung out with so many leaders and philosophized with them so much. He said, basically, "I could spend my time digging a single well to bring water to one home, or I could help build an aqueduct to bring it to many. When I work with leaders, I'm able, with them, to convey insight to a great many others."

I love being a philosopher. I love philosophizing with anyone. I can enjoy sitting for hours in deep conversation with one person. But there are times when, philosophizing with a group of leaders, I really understand Plutarch's perspective.

Last week, my wife and I were in London for a meeting with Hewlett Packard's Board of Advisors for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia - CIOs and CTOs from major HP customers. These were individuals who as chief information or chief technology officers steer some of the biggest companies in the world toward what will be our amazing technological future. And I get to hang out with them, listen to the sic-fi realities of what's coming in five or ten years, or more, and then talk with them about the wisdom of the past three thousand years, the insights that we need to use to help get us to that future in all the best ways. I learn so much. It's astonishingly fun. And I'm able to share that clear water of ancient wisdom with a room full of leaders whose own aqueducts can bring it to cities and countries of people around the globe. It's a treat, and a great honor.

Sometimes we have to work hard to dig one needed well, a well that will bring cold clear water into our own lives, or into our family's life. And at other times we should focus on an aqueduct that can bring water to many - at work, in church, throughout our neighborhoods or communities, and in many other ways. Each service is important. But when you can magnify the good, spreading it out to many, there is a special Plutarchian joy that's good to feel.

So when you have a chance: Spread wisdom. Spread joy.

Leaders: Cultivate Your People!

I had lunch with a younger friend today. He runs an office for a major insurance company. In his first year, out of 800 agents in the state, he went from being unranked to being 29th to 52nd to 7th and then all the way up to Number 3, at the top of the mountain. He was a hero. He was made to feel important, celebrated, and held up to others as an example. Then he felt a calling to write a book and speak to groups of people, to share the wisdom about life that he had been learning. So, while continuing to work hard at insurance, he also had to devote time to the writing and speaking. A great book resulted. And his speaking is taking off. Meanwhile, though, his statewide ranking fell to 84th.

The insurance executives over him in the corporate ranks made it clear that they were not pleased. "You're a top 20 guy, not a top 80 guy." He then continued to operate in the top ten percent, even when also busy writing and speaking. But that was now considered a failure - for him. He got chiding and angry phone calls, and unpleasant, pressure filled visits. He was pressed heavily to forget the writing and speaking, and just do his job and produce his numbers, back in the stratosphere of achievement where he was clearly able to function.

One day, an executive visited his office while he was out with a client, and sat at his desk. A coworker thought it was his manager and came into the room saying his name. The executive corrected him and said he was just visiting, but while in the room, thought he might write a book. And this was apparently said with great sarcasm.

This says a lot to me about monumentally stupid business practices. When you have a superbly talented person running an office, and he discovers a side of himself that he wants to develop, then a great leader should encourage that development, while counseling the individual on how he might integrate it into his ongoing business life. But too many corporate executives shoot for predictability rather than true greatness among their people. Great people do great business. Whole people who feel appreciated, respected, and nurtured can work with a loyalty and edge that no one else can duplicate.

My friend should have been encouraged and supported in what he was doing. He should have been applauded even if his new interest were music or sculpture, or long distance running. But it was writing and speaking on topics that can help other people to be great - including people in his own company. So it's not like this development is in any way irrelevant to his business and the corporation, nationally - in fact, quite the opposite. His bosses could have cultivated a talent that would be able to benefit them all in numerous ways, but chose to deal with him instead with harshness, pressure, criticism, and even sarcasm. Do they really think this is the best way to get him to take his work with them to the next level? I was astonished to hear about it. It was, to me, inconceivable to me that people in executive positions could be so dumb. My exceptional friend told me all this with a calm and accepting demeanor, but intimated that he couldn't see continuing on under such conditions, over the long term. Who could?

Too many leaders are really idiots about talent. They view everything with tunnel vision. They want, in my friend's words, "just racehorses who will continue to improve their times." Their vision for what they're doing is far too narrow, and their treatment of others is self defeating.

So, please let me make an appeal to those who are in leadership positions. We want whole people, flourishing people to work with us, not just one-dimensional obsessives. Granted, a few one-dimentional obsessives can be quite productive. But you should never try to fill your organization full of them. 

Whole people can chart new territory, and do new things, and bring us a sort of greatness we never could have predicted, but only if we encourage and support them. If my friend had been encouraged and supported, I have no doubt that, after this initially demanding period of launching his new activities, he could have been back to his top spot in the state, or higher, and with a belief in the company that would have been contagious. He could have told their story with gusto, far and wide. They could have become a "Most Admired Place" to work. 

The executives in question lost a rare and precious opportunity to make something spectacular happen, for their mutual good.

Your Heart Knows

Whatever you feel in your heart to do, try it, regardless of the outcome. Life is mostly about process, not results. The results may or may not come. That's not up to you. The process is. Entirely. And how much in life is? Trying is entirely, 100%, up to us.

Today, I heard some guy being interviewed on NPR. I listened for 20 minutes and never found out who was being interviewed. But one point he made is worth repeating. He tried what he loved, and with no expectation of success. He poured himself into it. He said that no one in his family had ever caught a break. They were poor and caught in low end jobs. No one had ever succeeded, financially, or in most other ways. But he couldn't help trying to do what his heart told him to do. And he succeeded, wildly. We can rise above our backgrounds. We can. We often do. And our parents, and grand parents, and their ancestors would most likely applaud us, if we're doing it right. But, ultimately, it's all about heart. Do you feel it in your heart? Do you feel like you have to do it? Then do it, regardless.

One of my old childhood friends is a song writer. Some people say he's the best song writer in the history of country music. He moved to Nashville at about age 20. He wrote songs like "The Gambler" and "Forever and Ever, Amen." Years later, I asked him what the competition was like when he got to Nashville. He said that, at the time, he didn't know, but that now, he realizes that about 3,000 song writers live there at any given point. I asked him how many make a living doing it. He said, less than 200. I then asked whether he knew the odds against him when he moved there. He said, "No. But it didn't matter. I had to do what I was doing. It was in my heart. I had no backup plan."

One of the greatest gifts of life is to do what you have to do, whether you think you'll be successful or not. Living who you are - that's the key. Responding to what's in your heart. And that's the secret to a great life.

In the photo today you see my old friend Don Schlitz with Mary Chapin Carpenter, doing what's in their hearts.

Encouragement

We need to encourage each other more. Life is often hard. Our work can sometime seems like a long march up hill. We need support. We need a little cheerleading. A kind word. A moment of praise. A big smile. We need the spiritual fuel of encouragement. We all need to feel like people around us believe in us and are cheering us on. But most of all, we need to do that for others.

Are you an encourager? That's one of the noblest roles in life. By encouraging others along their proper paths, we contribute to the best in the world. In modern life, we easily become so fixated on our own challenges, opportunities, and successes. But a great part of my success in life can be my aid to others in helping them along to success. And the same is true for you.

Let's all work on the habit of encouragement. No doubt, the world needs critics. But it needs encouragers even more.

And if you've read all the way to this point, I'm encouraged.

A General Observation on Self Knowledge

I was talking to a United States Army general the other night, very late. Two stars. He was an impressive individual. And the fact that our conversation was taking place within the environment of a dream didn't detract in the least from its impact. I've met several generals in waking life, and they've always been interesting people. This gentleman was no different.

I remember vividly that he said to me, "I don't go in for a lot of self-examination. There's no time."

That gave me a chance to present my own view that in the opinion of most philosophers I know, or have studied, self examination is not some leisurely activity carried out over long stretches of time within the echo chamber of your mind, as you sit silently and ask yourself about yourself, analyzing the answers and probing deeper. It's mostly about awareness as you decide and act.

No one gets to know himself or herself well just by sitting alone in a room and pondering. That's not a snapshot that typically captures well who you are. It's life in the field that's the proper classroom for self examination and self knowledge. What mattered so much to Socrates is that we not let ourselves get by with prejudices, sloppy thinking, or vague assumptions as we dash through life. If you find yourself thinking you have no time to question yourself, then contemplate how much time you have to make big mistakes - sometimes huge ones - due to any unexamined tendencies, beliefs, or feelings that you might think you prefer not to know about.

You don't need to take a retreat from the fray in order to engage in the philosophical procedure of self examination. You just have to experience moments, or bursts, of self reflective awareness punctuating your active life. There's even a level of such awareness that can accompany most activities, at least much of the time. And such an alertness to our own conduct can yield great results. We can take note of our tendencies, remembering our strengths and weaknesses, as well as any limitation we discover that may or may not be a weakness. Self examination when done properly positions us to be better team members, and much better leaders.

A leader without self knowledge sits in command of a rudderless boat.

Everyone has the time for self examination and self knowledge. That's my general observation for the day. At ease.

Transformation

One of the most enduring themes in world literature is transformation. The great commonality among the otherwise very different religions across the globe is the possibility of transformation. And in business, there's nothing more important than the promise of this very thing.

Transformation is all about where we are now, where we ideally need to be, and how best to get from this present to that future.

In the world of work, transformation is about turning potentiality into actuality, a need into a business, raw materials into products, people into performers, potential customers into loyal fans and investments into profits.

In life, our weaknesses can be transformed into strengths, our limitations can be morphed into the outlines of our distinctive excellence, and our mistakes can be redeemed into new wisdom.

The nearly magical spark of all positive transformations is a vision that can turn regular men and women into heroes, despite all the challenges and setbacks they might face. The right vision creates the right energy in the right people to produce the right results.

The greatest wonder in our world is the ongoing possibility for transformation that it allows.

When we understand deeply where we are, envision clearly where we could be, and create boldly a path forward that will spark the best in those around us, as well as in our own hearts, we provide the leadership necessary for great transformations.