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Life Lessons from Working within the Corporate Dream (Part 1)

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You know, many of us work for a living. As such, if you have a university degree, the chances are that you migrated to a corporate job in a corporate environment. You probably received a decent salary, a nice (if bland and sterile) working environment, and considered yourself well on the way towards corporate greatness in a solid career.

It’s a nice fantasy. It’s all a big lie.

Most Americans waste their lives working in this environment. They get up and go to work. They deal with traffic, an uncaring boss, and suffer through the various rules that HR implements. They endure mindless and mind-numbing meetings, answer a pile of round-and-round email trains, and fill out form after form.

That’s not a life worth living.

A life worth living is one with purpose, direction, participation and fulfillment. Within the now-popular “corporate model” we have the worst elements of 1920’s-style progressive social-engineering intermixed with 1980’s-austerity. It is a most horrible mixture. Couple that with modern surveillance technology, unified HR standards, and the sterile ideal, you have a nightmare on your hands.

Here are some thoughts on corporate life, particularly American corporate life, now that I moved on elsewhere. These thoughts are just general ramblings, and the reader should not get too offended by them. We are all different.

Those of you who own your own companies and who set them up can ignore this post. This is not written for you. This is written precisely for the people who have to work in the “corporate” environment. One that often springs up out of the model you created.

This is a Two-Part Post

This is the first of a two part post. To see the second part, please kindly go HERE.

Anyways, for starters…

The more hoops you jump through to get the job, the worse you will be treated.

To start, I would like to make this astute observation. The companies that treated me the worst during the interview process, also treated me terribly at work as an employee.

Now, I am not talking about the inconvenience of waiting an hour in the lobby, or having to park at the end of a very large parking lot. No. I am talking about a structured interview process that treats you as a commodity instead of a person.

Corporate board
The hiring process in a corporate environment is oven a laborious affair. The candidate must perform and go through many test, hoops and interviews.

These were the companies that gave me ten face-to-face interviews; a marathon interview day, made me take written exams, and required a peer assessment. They all uniformly treated me poorly when they employed me. Do you really need to interview with ten people to be assessed properly? I mean it. Interviewing by committee can be terribly limiting.

The more you need to do to get hired, the worse you will be treated when hired.

I well remember one interview. I arrived at eight in the morning. After HR gave me some documents to fill out and sign, I was whisked off to go through my rounds of interviews. I had fifteen minutes to interview a person, followed by another one, and then another one, and then another one. That day I had been interviewed by ten people before lunch.

Then, I was given a break where I could eat a sandwich and a coke that they gave me, followed by a continuation of another six interviews, a timed test, and a presentation that I had to make in front of some committee. Then, finally, I was scheduled to meet the person who I was supposed to work for, only to find that he was out, and I would have to come back at a later date.

You are often treated as your perceived value is worth.

You should never equate that relief in finally passing battery after battery of tests to be the same as an appreciation of your value. It isn’t. Instead it is an indicator that the company is far too bureaucratic and too lacking in common decently to treat anyone like a human. We are not machines, pets, or clothing articles at Target. We are unique.

Smaller companies, or even large ones, with a single interview made by the lone person who makes the hiring decision will be the one that will treat you decently.

[1] If you must work for a company, make sure that you report to only one person. Be wary of hiring by committee. Be wary of any company that needs to test, evaluate, or investigate you.

Value does not equate with money.

We are often under the impression that if a company pays us a decent chunk of money, that they value us. This is false. Your value comes from what you can do towards the team that you work with. It does not come from a HR policy or budget analysis made by accounting.

Once we learn to separate value from money our life becomes simpler.

dollar value
When we trade our time and skills for money, we place an “apparent” value on it. Our goal is to keep the value as high as possible over time.

I once had an employee who was stealing from the company. Over a two year period of time he stole a sizable chunk of money right from under our noses. He thought that stealing the money from the company made him richer. In the short term, perhaps it did…

But, do not look at it that way.

Instead of stealing money, he stole someone else’s value. His value did not increase by taking away the value of someone else. It only appeared to be the case.

Once we let him go, his value on the job market was severely handicapped. By trying to reduce the value of others, he ended up reducing his own value and worth.

For us to be happy, we need to separate out “money” and replace it with “value”. Is having a two hour commute with a $150,000/year salary as good as a five minute commute and a $75,000/year salary? Is being expected to be on call 24-7 as good as being able to take a half of day off to see your son play in the local game?

[2] Never, ever, make decisions only on money. The most valuable thing you possess is time. Do not squander it for pieces of paper. Do not confuse your value with a paycheck. They are not the same.

You are only valuable for what you can provide.

Speaking of value…

If you cannot provide a value for your role, then you are useless to the company. Why pay a boy to mow your lawn if you don’t have one? Why buy that great deal on dog food when you don’t have a dog? If you cannot help the company, then there is no need for you to be employed.

In the “old days” employees without an active project would be put on “overhead” to keep them employed until a new contract came through. In those days, it was considered important to keep “knowledge” workers around for the next big project. Not so today. If the work is over, then you are out the door.

This big march to remove employees once their direct usefulness is over was led by Kodak back in the 1980’s. They got rid of most of their knowledge workers and started to rely on cycles of employees that they would hire and fire to meet the market swings…

…perhaps that is why many people today are unaware of how big that company used to be.

Broken Door
To better appreciate the corporate work environment, we need to scale it down to a manageable size. Imagine that you would hire someone to fix your broken front door. Would you keep him employed once he finishes repairing the door? No, of course not.

Think of a guy that you want to fix your broken front door. You look in the classified and you find a guy to do it. You tell him what needs to be done. You watch him fix the door and then you pay him and he leaves. There is no need for him to stick around. Your door is fixed. Nothing else needs to be repaired.

Corporate life is like that too.

The truth is that today, in many a corporate environment, you would be sacked faster than a soggy Doritos chip if you couldn’t contribute to the company bottom line.

Doritos
Nobody wants to eat a soggy Doritos chip. Though, I would if it was part of a taco salad. I would also eat them if they were in a nice bowl of chili. In fact, I think that I would eat them if I was drinking a frosty cold beer. Now that I think of it, I am not corporate, so of course I would eat Doritos chips. However, soggy Doritos would not go over well in the corporate environment.

You are only as valuable as long as you can produce something.  In fact, the rarer of what you provide is, the more valuable you are. This is certainly more applicable for many other fields in life, personal relations, friendships and yes, girls as well.

Your value is tied to what you can produce.

[3] Remember, that our value is what we can produce or the benefit that we can provide to others. Never forget that. If we cause more problems than the benefits we give, then our relationship(s) will end. This is true with both companies and with relationships.

Companies often operate above the law

Many do, but not all.

Do you think that Facebook is playing by the laws? Do you think that Exxon, Kerr-McGee, and Google are? What about the biggest company in your city? How is it that corporations always seem to get away with things?

Big Business.
American corporations have become enormous entities often dwarfing small nations. They can align themselves with other corporations and work together for their combined mutual profit. Often times this is done in deference to the “little guy”.

This is true. Here are three examples;

  1. Don’t follow the law. When I worked at (name deleted) in Boston, they paid me once a month. Yet the law stated otherwise. The law stated that they must pay bi-weekly. When I confronted the HR about this, they were not happy. They said that they would take it under consideration. They made the necessary arrangements and I was fired two weeks later. Naturally, I went to the State government in Boston to resolve the matter. They told me that I was correct, and the company did wrong by firing me. Yet no action was taken either way.
  2. NDA’s are used to keep let-go employees complaisant. One of the things that White Collar professionals sign are NDA agreements. A NDA is a document that restricts the disclosure of confidential information. That is why it is called a Non-Disclosure Agreement. These agreements make it difficult to work at another company or find further work if the company decides to black list you. When it is time to be laid-off or let go, the company will use the NDA and tell you that if you sign it, and not contest their actions, that they will allow the State Government to give you unemployment benefits. This is a very common thing and every company from California to Massachusetts does this.
  3. Patent transfer is a joke. Under the law, if you work on a patent, you get title to the patent, even if you do so under the roof of a company. To get around this, the companies make you sign a “transfer of patent rights” form. The transfer is not complete unless they give you a one dollar amount to show that there was a monetary transfer that took place. Truth be told, I have yet to ever see any individual financial compensation at all from any of my patents.

via GIPHY

Now, the reader should not get confused. I am not particularly bad-mouthing any one company. However, we should all be made aware that organizations that have many employees, operate in the millions of dollars and who pay into the State Revenue banks, have capabilities that are larger than what any one of us has individually. We should be aware of this. We should accept this. As it is a fact of life.

[4] We all have a place on the food chain. It’s not fair. It operates within it’s own set of rules and laws, and is separate from us. We need perspective, and we need to keep that in mind.

Meetings typically are a waste of time

One truth is that meetings often are poorly planned and often poorly executed. Meetings between key players in a given project is very important and necessary. For business is based on people relationships and interactions. However, the weekly meetings, and odd-ball meetings that seem to include everyone are often a waste of time that adds to the inefficiency of a given organization.

Meetings should be kept at a minimum, and replaced with face-on-face individual communication.

Boring Meeting
It’s a typical scene and well known in corporate environments. Businessman speaking before inattentive colleagues at meeting.

In short, learn this. Meetings are a waste of time. Always. Nothing good has ever come out of them, really. Most people aren’t listening, and the ones talking are far away from reality.

[5] Get into the habit of talking to people one on one. Stop having meetings. Talk to people personally, face to face. When you do, give them every attention. Business relationships are based on people. They are not based on spreadsheets and reports.

via GIPHY

Everyone everywhere basically wants the same thing

While we all come from different backgrounds and different interests, we are human with basic human needs. We want to be productive. We want to perform a good day’s labor. We want to be appreciated fro our contribution. We want to provide for our families. We want to have some down time to play.

The problem comes in when we go corporate. There, we fit into a role. We become a cog in a machine with other cogs. We all become the same color, the same size, and the same image. When we go corporate, we start to separate our work-life from our personal-life.

That is a great danger.

life-work
A nice PPT slide from IBM that captures the significance of this statement. By now, everyone pretty much realizes the importance of a life-work balance. The big problem is that is is difficult to integrate into a traditional corporate business environment.

For a truly happy man is one who can merge his industrious pursuits with that of his interests and family. We become whole. Work and labor is what we do. No one questions it. We work, and then we provide for our family. It is the traditional, time honored, family model that has held up for at least 10,000 years.

When we separate work and labor from family and happiness, we dilute what we can give.  We give eight hours to the company. We give four hours to ourselves in prep for the company. The balance is split up between family and survival needs. This model is different from the traditional model.

We can’t give 100% of what we have. We end up in this grey area, this grey zone of not good enough.

The key to success in the corporate world is to be who you are totally. Do this whether you are in a corporate work environment, or if you are running your own company. Do not fall into the trap of segmenting yourself into various roles. In doing so , you dilute who you are.

[6] Do not dilute yourself. When we start separating ourselves into small specialized pieces, we dilute the whole. Don’t do that. Be true to who we are. Give and devote ourselves 100% of who we are.

Deferring your happiness to the future is a terrible idea

I have seen this time and again. In fact, even I have done this myself. I would accept a job “for now” to achieve some monetary gain or advantage, so that later I could… do something else.

Group meeting.
When there is an important announcement at your company, does it look something a little like this? Well, if it does, then like it or not, you are in a corporate bubble. If you are not careful, you will have difficulty leaving it. Be careful.

Indeed, this is a terrible truth. Too many people assume that when they have that one thing they can work towards for years then “everything will be alright”. Indeed, there will come a time when you will take up a job just for the money and nothing else.

This is delusional. It is nonsense. It is bullshit.

I think this comes from our educational system. You go to Elementary School to strive to go to High School. You go through High School to go to College or University. You go through University to “Get a Good Job”.

There isn’t an alternative.

After some 14 to 16 years or more of this mind-set it becomes ingrained within your very being. By the time you hit your early productive years, you are firmly fixated in a goal-oriented life. This runs in direct opposition to an integrated life.

Unless you have no money, and no savings and you need money RIGHT THEN and NOW, don’t do it. We are not one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Our life is colorful and dynamic with many, many aspects to it. We cannot take a part of it and set it aside while we nurture other aspects of  our life. We just cannot.

When you finally get it, they’ll be something else missing in your life.

We need to think of ourselves as a unified whole. We need to think of balance and happiness. Instead of pulling a piece here and then working on it, and then pulling out a piece there and then working on it.

Really, that is crazy. I fundamentally believe that long-term pure happiness comes being content with what we have, live in the now, all while enjoying the progress and changes we are making.

Motivational saying on life.
There is more to life that going to the “next step”. You weren’t born to just pay bills and die. You are a purpose. You are a role. You were granted with who you are. Do not let and allow others to bleach it out from you. Be who you have been meant to be.

Instead of working for a decade to eventually get a vacation in Florida, how about packing up and moving there? Instead of saving and saving for a nice Lamborghini, how about getting a job in a Lamborghini store as a salesperson? Instead of wanting to go out and date that buxom blonde in the office, how about going up and asking her out for coffee?

[7] We need to change the mindset ingrained in us by the educational system. We all need to stop deferring our happiness.

You need game 

If you really want to make it in the business world, whether it is a corporate environment, or your own “shoe-string” business, you will need “game”. You will need to “up your game”. You will need to push and strive to be better than your peers or anyone else.

Success does not favor the average or the bland, and mundane. Success favors the unique and exceptional.

Barry White
Consider Barry White. Many people today haven’t heard of this man. Yet he was a true man, full of confidence, and “game”. Perhaps we all need to tear a page out of the Berry White playbook and emulate him.

We know this. We know that we need to fight to get a job at a company when there are a thousand applicants that we must fight against. We know that we need to be the best. However, what usually happens is that we stop once we have achieved our goal.

Yeah. That’s what happens. Usually, we just stop when we reach our goal. This is because a goal-oriented mindset is one with objectives.

Don’t let that be you.

We must keep on striving to be the best at whatever we do. We need to be the best and stay at it, even when our goals have been obtained. Instead of a goal, we should strive continuously. If we achieve various achievements, good for us. But, that won’t stop us. Instead we will keep on going on.

By having and maintaining “game” we will obtain confidence in the process. Confidence is a powerful tool that can open many doors. Unsurprisingly, people in positions of power often have a great deal of confidence; this means that they can easily recognize when confidence is genuine and when it is posed.

This same advice applies to girls; you are far better off being genuinely confident, thus projecting a natural vibe of superiority that no faking can attain.

[8] Do your best. Smile. Be confident. Be you, and be the best YOU that you can achieve.

Efficiency is a lie

The more efficient you are at your work, the more you will be burdened with it. You work hard, your supervisor will give you more to do. When someone sees you taking a break, they will give you more work to fill in the “gap” in workload.

To many people, a lack of busy-work is a sign of inefficiency. To them, the cure for inefficiency is more work, more responsibilities, and more tasks.

Additionally, there will be others that will try their best to convince you that you are not doing your best, that you are not giving your best to the company, and that you could do better. Is it really the truth, or is it something that they say to get you to alter and change your behavior?

Water test in Japan
Dr. Masaru conducted a very famous test on the power of thought. He placed written words on jars of water. He then placed them all together in an isolated room. The only difference from any of the jars is the words written on the jars. He then, after a period of time, tested the water , froze it, and took photographs of the results. The jars with the negative and hurtful words created the worst shaped crystals, while those with the nicest words had the best shaped crystals. The only difference between the crystals are the thoughts associated with the words on the jars. Since humans are mostly composed of water, what do you think a critical work environment would do to the human body? What about the words “You are not good enough”?

Forget what others say. Remember that they are not with you 24-7, nor do they know your past and your day to day interactions. No one knows your life better than you do.

So, let’s break this down. Only one to two situations come into play;

  1. They are right, and you are not giving your best.
  2. They are wrong, and you are doing your best.

Depending on the situation, the following is what will happen in a corporate environment.

If you are not giving your best, you risk losing your job. Therefore, you need to up your game and improve. What this means is that you must improve, AND also look like you are improving. That is where corporate politics come into play. It can get uncomfortable.
If you are doing your best, then the perception is out of alignment with reality. You could risk losing your job. Even if you exceed your current known abilities, then you will still need to fight the political battles that will rage around you. In any event things will get uncomfortable.

Thus, this is a catch-22 and a no-win situation. Being in these situations are the bane of the corporate environment.

[9] When the world around you complains, forge on anyways. Listen to what others say under advisement. Remember that your “best” will change from day to day. No one aside from yourself will know what your peak efficiency is. So forge on…

Nobody Cares

I hate to break this to you, the reader. But you know what? Nobody cares about your individual progress in the corporate world. All that matters is what you contribute to the company.

Most of the smiles you get are fake. Most of the platitudes are empty ones.

via GIPHY

We must realize that unless you are close to a person… close enough to get shit-faced drunk with them… when your guards are down… and there both of you have to trust each other…

Otherwise, it’s all a lie.

Which is why in China, business meetings are conducted in such a way that “face” is maintained and large quantities of heavy alcohol is consumed in enormous quantities. Business, real productive business, is conducted when the interpersonal barriers are down and weak. My father once told me a saying that his grandfather taught him’ “Never trust a teetotaler.”.

via GIPHY

Shared strife… shared experiences… shared understandings… can break down walls and build long lasting friendships. When we try to go corporate, and when we try to be good, we lose the importance of rough-house bonding.

If you don’t have shared experiences, the chances are that you don’t have anything.

[10] We can only trust those whom we have shared events and deeply bonded with. Other than that, it’s all just a facade, a “white wash”, and nonsense.

Be practical.

People seem to have a strange concept of how luck works. I think maybe this is due to the local lottery and the news media announcing yet another multi-million dollar winner. We watch television shows where people are living in mansions, and driving around in expensive cars. Do you remember the television show “Miami Vice”? How can two cops get to drive around in all those expensive cars, live in all those mansions, and meet all those hot chicks?

Hollywood is the great lie.

via GIPHY

People seem to think that somehow that their luck will come because “they deserve it”. They want to believe that one day things will eventually fall into place for them. In other words, you are “due” to win the lottery or you will get swept away by prince charming any day now. “You deserve it” (as if others don’t).

This is terrible misunderstanding of how the world actually works.

Do not wait around for luck to materialize. You must put things in place for things to happen. You MUST put things in PLACE for your dreams to manifest.

Don't misunderstand, there are cycles in this world that we live in and a reality that has aspects of auspiciousness, and unfavorable climates. Never the less, nothing is going to manifest unless we plan and do things about it.

Do you want the pretty girls to smile back when you open the door for them? Lose ten pounds, and practice making the happiest and biggest smile that you can think of. Dress well. Have a nice hair style. Be clean…

…opportunities will manifest.

Do you want to get a raise at work? Then play the political game, work harder than everyone else, and be friends with your boss. Start taking credit where credit is do, and come in earliest and leave late. Play the game…

…opportunities will manifest.

sandwich and palm trees.
Instead of spending time dreaming a a fine sandwich and beer, maybe we should get up off the chair and go make it happen. It’s not that hard to do. However our level of comfort is what often prevents us from doing things.

Do you want to have a turkey sandwich and a ice cold beer while watching the sun set over an ocean, then you need to set yourself up so that materializes. We have the ability to physically manifest change in our life. Go to a store, buy the ingredients. Get some beer and put it in the freezer. Then make it all up and go out to the beach. Don’t put it off… Oh, and by the way, ask that pretty girl that you have been thinking of to join you. I’d bet she’d love it.

[11] Be the master of  your life. Do not rely on fate to control your life.

There is no such thing as “Destiny”

In the corporate world, you are expected to accept things as they are presented to you, while in your private world you act within the terms that you have grown accustomed to. Both are lies.

We exist within this reality with the POWER to change it. Never forget that basic fact.

While it is nice to change and cycle through the MWI using external technology, it really isn't all that necessary on a personal level. We have the inherent ability to do so naturally.

We live within a preset and pre-programmed reality. We do not like to believe in fate, and destiny and other “superstitions”. Yet there is some truth to our existence. There is some purpose. There is a reason why YOU are reading this.

As such, we need to accept the fact that while things appear to be fated, pre-ordained, or just destined. That is not the case. We have the ability to make changes to our reality.

Desk work
Is the life that you live within your company the life that you really thought that you would get after university? Is this the ideal? Do you live for the paychecks, or are the paychecks something that supports your lifestyle. If there is any discomfort in your life, then you do need to change it.

In short, the life you live is like a highway. You are placed in the middle of it, and cars come and go. You can obey the signs and follow the highway. That is the easy way to live your life. However, it is not destined.

I suggest that you do not ride the life that is laid before you. You can change it.

You can drive fast or slow. You can change lanes. You can ride on the curb. You can stop, and even go into reverse, if you wanted to. Heck, you can even go off road, for the “bumpy” experience.

via GIPHY

So there is no such thing as destiny. There are only your thoughts and your desires. I suggest that you start following them…

The first step in changing things is to change our thoughts. The second step is to change our actions. The third step is to change our habits.

By making these changes we can change our life.

Your limitations are not set by who you know, where you were born, what genes you have, how much money you have, how old you are right now, what you did before or other things that you can claim are your stamp of failure for life. If you are determined enough, there can be opportunities in life that are totally achievable with minimal cash, regardless of who you are.

[12] We can control our reality to obtain advantage in our life.

Caretaker cottage.
Groundskeeper cottage. I found this wonderful image on tumblr. Image that you would work on a huge estate, and you would be provided with this cute little, tight home to live in. How cozy. So I wonder, what’s stopping you? Why not live in a house, or a place, at a job, with a family that you determine? Why do we always seem stuck with the life that those around us decide for us? Why is it? It doesn’t have to be that way.

Desk Jobs will kill your creativity

I’ll bet that you, the reader, were all full of ideas, spunk and optimism when you graduated from university. Weren’t you? Well, what happened? Where are they now? What killed them off?

Office working environment
Here is a still from the genius movie “Joe vs the volcano” starring Tom Hanks. It accurately portrayed the plight of many an office worker who toils in a terrible office work environment, and drinking coffee that is best described as “lumpy”. Not to mention those energy-saving piss-poor lights that serve to illuminate most of our productive hours.

Was it your friends? Your family? The grocer down the street? Your barber? Or, better yet, was it your workplace, and your boss? Has your boss or any of your supervisors ever given you any hope and cheering on for your dreams? Have they? For if they have, then you are a rare and lucky person, indeed.

There is nothing so absolutely mind-numbing than working in a sterile neutral-color cubicle under fluorescent artificial lighting that will sap the life and drain the energy out from you.

Poor lighting
Any company that will not install natural lighting in a place that you will work for eight hours a day, just to save a few pennies, is not a company that cares about your well being. Humans are creatures that need, yes need, a healthy environment to work. It amazes me that they will ban smoking and install various dress codes, but they will refuse to install natural lighting for the employees.

Unless you are thriving in this now-standard working environment, you will need to seriously reconsider the career choices that you have made. Or, at least, reconsider your work place environment.

[13] Take seriously the environment that surrounds you. Know that it will affect your thoughts and actions. This influence is dangerous as it can influence your life for better or for worse.

Motivational saying.
Never change your originality for the sake of others. This is because no one can play your role better than you. So be yourself and be your best.

Avoid “Echo Chambers”

An “echo chamber” is a place, a group of friends, a work environment, a series of websites, a news media that all says the same thing. By staying within that “echo chamber” you get the FALSE impression that everyone around you thinks like you do.

That is false.

Even within an “echo chamber”, your mind will think and operate quite differently from those around you.

We all know examples of “Echo Chambers”.

  • The main-stream American press.
  • College universities.
  • HR polices in a corporate environment.
  • An NFL football team.
  • The BLM membership.
  • The Liberal Narrative
  • The Conservative Narrative
As much as I tend to believe strongly in traditional conservative values, I find that if you completely close your mind to only those outlets you get a distorted view of reality. I'm not bad-mouthing conservative values and principles. However, we need to understand that many times what we want to hear is repackaged to us as an echo chamber.

This hasn't been so obvious as when I moved to China.

I was expecting enormous crowds. Well, I saw that. I was expecting a kind of dingy world. Well, indeed there are some pretty ugly areas. I was expecting ancient and ruinous infrastructure, millions of blue clad workers riding bicycles, a police and military force everywhere, and hordes of poverty ridden poor from the countryside clamoring to be led into the mega-cities. NOT FUCKING TRUE.

It's not even remotely true.

I was expecting a scene from a "Save the Children" commercial, and instead what I experienced was a futuristic Tokyo. 

Trust me. You need to get out of whatever echo chamber you are in now, and look around you. It's a new world, with new rules. Not just in the corporate world, but in life as well. Realize it. learn from it. Get out of the echo chamber. Go out and see for yourself.

You will discover that many of the people are just repeating what they have read and heard from others. Others who have been repeating what they, in turn, have read and heard. From others who are repeating what they have read and heard.

Modern China…

Modern China…

We have to be careful… always. Today in our digital age, it is so easy to be led into a “echo chamber”. Those on university campuses today have a terribly distorted view of what America is like. heck, many of them cannot even name one Right listed in the Bill of Rights. They think that everyone outside of their city is a racist bigot. What amazing ignorance.

Do not fall into the “echo chamber” trap.

What happens is that when you meet someone with a very different belief system to yours, it’s better to get along than to try to “convert” them. This is as true for how the world works as it is for anything else. We tend to want to be part of the herd. We do not want to stand out, or be ostracized. We want to belong.

Echo chamber
The social media in America is one huge “echo chamber” that is dominated with progressive liberal socialists. They have made it so that anything other than what they want to hear is withheld. They offer all kinds of excuses, usually the same tired old lame excuses… hate, deplorable, racist, bigot…etc. Yet, the fact is that this is exactly against what America stood and stands for… the freedom to say your peace. Don’t live in the echo chamber.

When someone is sure about something and has believed it for many many years, then you cannot convince them with a few cleverly picked words.  We tend to call this person a “close minded” person. But, yet is it really that way? Maybe it’s us that is the close minded one. Indeed, maybe it’s important to acknowledge that maybe we are actually the wrong one in this case.

The world is much more fun with people of varying interests and beliefs.

Spending time exclusively with people who agree with you on everything would never challenge you or allow you to learn so much more. We need challenge. We need exposure to different things. We need to be with others who are different, who are colorful, who have ability, and who are themselves.

The problem with the corporate environment is that conformity is policed. When you reach the boundaries of conformity and step outside them, you will be considered to be undesirable, and termination is only a short and brief paycheck away.

I once had a friend who lived in North Carolina. He told me that the key to happiness is to be unique on your own terms, but hide it from everyone else. You must conform, and not make waves, but in the privacy of your house and your life, you can live the life on your terms.

Now that I am older, I can see some benefit in his advice. Yet, I do not wholly convinced to agree with him. I say, instead, that a real man is himself no matter what and pretends for no one.

[14] Expose yourself to as many different things as possible. Go outside your “echo chamber”. Never take anything said by anyone at face value. Get multiple sources, and make sure they are isolated from each other. Beware of the corporate one-company is one-mind trap.

As an aside, it is well known that you do not want a person who has worked some twenty years in a singular role within a large company. They tend to be too inflexible and too rigid in their thinking process. I wonder why that is?

Living a good life is the best way possible to convince people

Have you ever spent time and time again, just arguing with people? They have their view, and you have yours. They don’t want to hear your view, for some reason. You do not want to hear theirs. You and they are both in a dead lock.

So what?

Enough with the words and enough with the arguing. Just live by example and soon you’ll have people on your side when they see your results. Over time they will come around. They will see your passion, and your earnest belief in who you are.

They will find that their assumptions about you, who you are, the life you live, and your values are not what they thought. They will come around. Don’t argue with them. Show them.

via GIPHY

There is no longer a need to convince them of anything. You just be who you are and show them. Eventually they will see that you weren’t so crazy after all.

Now, in the corporate world, there is only one answer. That is the answer that your boss tells you it is. Nothing else matters. Which is, when you think about it, terribly limiting. In China there is a saying…

There are many ways to get to Beijing.

Which of course, means that you can eventually make it to your objective. You need to select the way that is the best one. For some, the quickest and most expensive, might be the best method. For others, the cheap and slow might be best. So, whether you fly, walk, hitch-hike, take a train, or ride a donkey, eventually you will make it to Beijing.

The problem with the corporate culture is that all these various answers and solutions can be withheld from you. Unless you are in the vaulted decision-making process to make these decisions, you will start to rely on the decisions of others. And, that my friends, is a great trap. Be careful.

[15] You need to start living your life on your terms. As such, your success will speak for itself. There will not be any question that you were doing something right. Though others might chalk it up to luck or fate, they will invariably be wrong.

Nobody has the Answer

We have grown accustomed, through school, through society, through the news media, and through the legions of statists, that there is a “perfect” truth. That there is a perfect reality and singular solution. We mistakenly follow them through our 16 years of educational schooling. We are constantly searching for the ideal mate. We are constantly searching for the ideal job. We are constantly searching for the “secrets of the universe”.

It’s all a big lie.

There is no singular answer. No, let me be the first to crush this fantasy; the NWO, one global government is not going to be the solution to all the world’s ill’s. Nope. No way. No how. I know… just, listen I know. I mean I really, REALLY know.

Truth
There is no universal truth, at least nothing that we would recognize as such. There are, instead, relative truths that vary from observer to observer. This is quantum mechanics at it’s primeval level.

You have to get a grasp on the reality you live is yours and yours alone. It is not a shared reality. No matter how real that appears to you now.

Stop comparing yourself to others. They look richer. They seem happier. They appear to be smarter. They seem to have more fun. They seem to have all the luck. It’s all illusion. Almost everyone has problems and puts on a brave face in spite of it

Everyone is living their reality. They are living their life, and within that life are collapsed dreams, hardship, hurt, terror, worry, sadness and sacrifice. They all had it. Not only you. Never casually dismiss them as being more fortunate than you are. You do not know their story. So stop comparing yourself.

Which brings me around to the corporate environment. The business and corporate environment is one that that mandates appearance. Some companies permit you to put a picture or two on your desk. Some are even so bold as to allow you a potted plant and a different colored pen to use from time to time. Corporate workers are expected to be drones that work in a state of bland sameness.

Be careful.
We need to be careful of a set cultural, societal, or corporate environment. They expect followers to act as drones for the collective good. Often they will discard you when you are no longer useful, or even worse, they could demand that you do dangerous things for the good of the company. Be careful.

Over time, this attitude affects us. We start to believe it. We spend all day with our coworkers and believe that we are all the same. Then we go home and see the life as portrayed on the television, the internet and the movies. We yearn for that excitement and that closeness. But it’s a fiction. Everything outside of your personal experience is a fiction.

Nothing exists until you PERSONALLY experience it.

[16] There is no singular answer or solution. All there is is an “answer” for YOU and the reality that you live.

It is fine to say “I made a mistake”

We have grown up over the years to be ashamed of making mistakes. Our school would punish us for making mistakes. Our parents would punish us for making mistakes. Indeed, our spouses would punish us for making mistakes.

Hey! Here’s a news flash for you. You are an adult. You are not a child.

You are an adult. You are not a child.

Making mistakes is how we grow. You learn through mistakes. What do you think Hillary Clinton will do next time she wants to set up a hidden secretive computer server to suck up Top Secret emails to give to Pakistan? I’ll bet you that she would do things much differently. Next time, oh at the rate AG Sessions is going yeah there will be a next time, it will be more secretive, better guarded and better protected.

HIllary Clinton.
Lock her up by Ben Garrison at Grr Graphics. All credit to the artist. Hillary Clinton sure has managed to get away with a lot. This is a characteristic of a third world banana republic. It is not the characteristic of a functioning Republic.

A true and real person is not afraid to say that they made a mistake. You don’t even need to justify it. You don’t have to come up with reasons. All you need to say, is that you understand that you made a mistake and that you are putting systems in place to prevent that mistake from happening again.

If the other(s), whomever they are, do  not accept that, then they can FUCK themselves. Seriously,  in business or in your family, you must be a man. You set the standards that you live by. No one else does. Be a man, or be a child. There is no in between.

[17] Be honest with yourself, with those around you, and with your loved ones. You are no longer a child that has to lie and make up falsehoods to avoid confrontation.

via GIPHY

At some point you are going to need to work very hard.

I have got to say, after years and years of working hard, finally I was eventually able to secure some senior level positions. Now, let it be told, that although having an senior position is a fantastic way to earn a living, it is really hard work.

Don’t buy into that Hollywood lie. You don’t get into management by drinking coffee at the local restaurant. You cannot automatically drive a Lamborghini by being a police officer, and you won’t become a billionaire by writing some code. The route to success is often paved with hard work.

And… sacrifice.

And… pain with misery.

I do not mean to scare the Dejesus out of anyone, but I really do want to make a point. You need to plan, and devote your time to doing and performing useful labors. Often you will not see any results. Or maybe what you are doing won’t pay for your rent and you will need to do something that you don’t like.

That’s just the way life is. That is the story of your reality.

[18] If you want something, you will need to put in the time to get it. You will have to think about it. You will need to imagine it, and you will need to do real physical work to cause it to manifest.

More money will NEVER solve your problems

Somehow, in America, many people believe that only if they had more money all their problems would go away…

Nope. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, more problems will materialize. Not only that, but the problems will balloon to a level that you are unaccustomed to. The size of the money you have is exponentially proportional to the problems associated with it.

Now, I am not advocating poverty. However, I have to say that many of the things… the baubles and the latest iPhone, and that nice car are not germane to your happiness. Personally, I have done a lot of thinking, and my fondest memories, the ones that I treasure the most, occurred when I really didn’t have much in the way of money.

In fact, what I had at that period in my life was TIME and COMPANIONSHIP.

Time
Spend time, meaningful and precious time, with those you love. Make your time quality time. Buy an ice cream cone with your retired father. Take you mother out of a morning breakfast. Call up one of your friends and go to the beach or hike in a local park. Spend time together.

As long as you are not living in the street or going hungry, then you do not “need” more money. When you spend enough time with people who are actually living on next to nothing, but having a full life, then you will truly understand this. Everything that is wonderful about life doesn’t cost a penny, and the rest is way cheaper than you think it is.

[19] Think about the people that surround you. Think about spending time with them. Take your mind off the need to make money to purchase things. Concentrate on relationships and spending time with those you love. Remember, you can always make more money, but you can never make more time.

Respect is earned, not demanded.

Work is mostly a meritocracy.

Yes there are exceptions, and the higher up you get, the sillier and strange the effects manifest. However, in general, the more you work, the more skills you acquire. The more “war stories” you can elaborate on, and the more money that you can command.

Holding an executive position has levels of respect and even reverence that are intrinsic to it. I am often looked after and praised. But much like in the military you salute the rank and not the man. In the corporate world often time it is very much like this—people care about the position you hold instead of you.

Nothing is truer than in China. Where I am giving a “God Like” status as a vaulted Boss.

Never the less, one false move and you could lose all that respect in a heart-beat. Status and respect, especially in China, is tied to the concept of “Face”. It’s a difficult concept to grasp, but it is an important one.

Face is very visible in the Chinese business environment and plays an important role in inter- and intra-company communication, business negotiations, and the development and maintenance of relationships. 

In China, company hierarchy is much more important than in many Western countries. Not only are leaders  and managers placed on a higher pedestal, but the distinction between different levels of management is much clearer and more important. 

Many Chinese leaders and managers expect respect from their subordinates and in many cases expect to be obeyed without question, no matter the rationality or fairness behind a request.  

Not obeying “the will” of a Chinese leader or manager does not give them the perceived necessary prestige they (and others) feel is deserved. Indeed, survival in a Chinese company depends on knowing one’s place, and Face plays a very important role in facilitating that function.

-China Culture Corner

[20] You need to earn your place at the table. You cannot demand it.

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  1. Began writing and composition 7AUG18.
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