STORIES

If I told you that reading could save your life, would you do it?

We’ve lost our way and much of it is because we don’t read. We all know that we are addicted to devices and we’ve seen how they dictate our lives. We mindlessly stare at our screens watching other people live their lives or scroll endlessly in the hopes of finding something new and stimulating. But, our minds are not stimulated at all.

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. I have no issue with someone who wants to try new things like dieting or traveling more. These are admirable initiatives, but you cannot change how happy you are without committing to tried and true values of the past. New experiences matter but the values of kindness, hard work and honesty go back to the dawn of time.

While many of us hide behind our digital devices, we also tend to hide behind the idea that we are powerful leaders. Usually this means maintaining authority by directing, controlling, keeping it together and always having the answers. This may seem to check all the boxes of a good leader but when we lead in uncertain times it can actually cause issues.

David Brooks, author and columnist, talks a great deal about a moral ecology in the world. Specifically, he believes that the conscious ideas and values are what shape us. Whether it be the rewards we seek or the peers we hang out with, much of who we are is based on the narrative of the environment rather than something deep within us.

I am a little concerned that we’ve lost ourselves. Or maybe it is better put that we have buried ourselves so that nobody sees who we truly are. What I am trying to say is that we tend to view success largely based on superficial stuff and on-the-surface measurements. Money and fame and any other detail that is the narrative of society at large seems to be our focus. As time passes, I can’t help but think that real success is more about the inner mind, our unconscious reality, our intuitions and our character.

The Pareto principle—or 80/20 rule—asserts that a small amount of input or effort leads to the majority of results. So, most companies understand that 80% of their profits or revenue are generated by 20% of their clients. It also holds that a smaller amount of employees carry the larger burden for progress. The moral to the story for any business, organization or team would be to nurture and mimic the few—The Twenty—that get it right and then try to share it with others and multiply the effect.