Statistics

Of all the people who think of a good business idea, only one percent of them will turn that into words.

Only a tenth of a tenth will be brave enough to speak out their inner creativity. Only a rare one will risk it.

Of the one percent who are inspired and mad enough to speak, only one percent will take further action to bring their ideas about. And then only one percent of those will keep going.

It is extremely occasional that someone invests totally in his or her own truth, trusts the intuition that it will work, defies logic, survives recurring personal doubt (and debt), persists through communal indifference, puts his or her self-based art into business form, promotes it publically, grows spiritually, emerges cleansed from hardship, gives and teaches willingly, thrives, and keeps opening more and more.

Only one percent of people enter the doorway of the one percent within themselves. One percent of those will take the journey.

I’m not quoting statistics, I’m saying, “Go!”

Angst

Why the angst?

This question has answers but, more important, it is rhetorical. The answers may bring understanding, which will leave us with what the rhetorical question is saying.

The angst is the result of resisting the flow of life. It comes from fighting with the whole, with the way things are. It creates a sense separation and feeds off it.

It is a form of madness. We are responsible for our own sanity and the angst can teach us this. When we have had enough of living with it, or when we see that our life is rushing past, we can let go of the angst.

We can surrender to oneness, be accepting of life as it is, and the anguish will disappear.

The angst is also a function of society. It keeps people unnerved, uprooted, living in fear.

It severs us from ourselves and makes us easier to manage. Much easier. We do insanely stupid and childish things to avoid who we are and do what we are told.

We believe all sorts of nonsense and build walls around ourselves that become our source of torment.

It is as an individual that you wake up and become aware. The collective follows. The solution to the angst is inner calm through awakened consciousness, brought to bear on outer encounters.

The angst is for the lack of a better knowing of who we are. When we know, there is no cause for anxiety of any kind.

The angst is all an extension of the single basic fear of death. Death is more life than life is! It is inevitable, happening every moment, happening right now. It makes being alive possible.

Die while you are still alive and you are free.

Find the fear and surrender it. Accept life as it is. The angst subsides. There is no need for it. It is a fiction. Die to the moment and create with love.

Why the angst?

Depth

To write well, you need depth. Unless you reach into yourself and bring it to the page, there will be little to speak to the reader.

Rambling on from head to head is dry, you must connect heart to heart for colour, flavour and emotion.

To thrive in business, you need depth. You can find out what people want and keep devising profitable ways of giving it to them, focusing on price, but for long term brand integrity, personal satisfaction and sustainability, you need to bring yourself to what you do.

Your business must breathe the meaning of life for you and your community.

To market yourself well, you need depth. Publicity and promotion are simply authentic connection done with industry insight. You are not marketing, you are being yourself for a living.

Something singular needs to come through and reach out to people. This is your soul singing, your brand differentiating, your relationships building.

Depth is our true nature. There is more mystery within us than in the outer universe. The answers are found on the voyage into our inner depths.

Artists and mystics, and business people with wisdom, have determined the course of human history and understanding.

The path of depth is not easy. The growth is not an accumulation of knowledge but a transformation of self. It is not an incremental acquisition but a quantum transmutation.

Being yourself for a living is a metamorphosis.

You shed the old and rise from its ashes. The journey is an ongoing rebirth. Spirited substance arises not from the known but the beyond.

To live well, you need depth.

Live deeply.