Walking With Legacy

Passage 13 - Tao Te Ching - Translated by Stephen Mitchell

In the competitiveness of the world around us,

we may find ourselves caught up in a game of shoots and ladders -

forever rising above others only to fall to where we were before and begin again. 

Even as you climb to the highest you’ve ever been,

the risk of taking a wrong step and tumbling down is always present.

When we chase success rather than mastering a process,

we may miss steps that need the most attention before taking action. 

If you are moving with less caution to simply get “ahead” (i.e. to avoid failure)

you’re likely to make business decisions that are not thoroughly planned out or have many holes.

Being competitive might give you a temporary advantage as you move more quickly,

but you’re also more likely to make a mistake and lose money or credibility.

This is why building anything, especially a business,

requires knowing all of the components and the order they are meant to be built in.

 In business, learning is the first step to take before planning and building takes place only after planning.

This order prioritizes commitment to the process (i.e. your journey)

instead of just trying to get somewhere fast.  

Maintaining this order will minimize mistakes and will even help you leverage failure

that will inevitably come as we build anything,

so any setback won’t go to waste or jeopardize the outcome;

it will actually strengthen it. 

As success is the inescapable twin of failure,

hope is fear’s twin. 

You exist beyond hope and fear,

failure and success;

neither of these have power over you.

Sometimes people attach a heavy weight behind hope, fear, failure or success

as if any of these can pick you up and carry you away.

But what if fear cannot control you and hope aren’t meant to guide you?

What if these exist outside of you?

If you claim to be paralyzed by fear or guided by hope,

could it be you are avoiding facing responsibility for your decisions or actions?

If you claim you have succeeded or that you have failed,

are you stunting the journey to avoid feeling?

Letting lofty ideas of hope, fear, success or failure lead you

without tactically learning and strategically moving can lead us away from being present

and leaves you further from reality.

The consequences of this can be not taking responsibility for your actions

and the effects they have on others or not being accountable to the time, money,

privilege and resources we have readily available to us at the moment. 

You are capable of navigating beyond hopes and fears, success and failure.

When you face external pressures when leading a business, remember,

you can mold the outcomes of hopes and fears through the actions you take.

By letting go of the idea of “self” as an identity to project and maintain

with achievement, status, wealth or success - 

you can be free of any fear and then you won’t need any hope

because you’ll be right where you are. (And that will be enough.)

Once this shift happens, you have become a part of the collective world

not needing anyone or anything  to validate your existence because you are alive.

And that can be purposeful enough for your existence.)

And once being alive is a journey as cherished as success,

you can be moved by presence within you to shift the world around you

with every intentional action going forward.