Are you living with all of your senses?

This post is also available as an audio cast here.

Last winter, before I left for the US of A., I attended an introductory course in Neuro-Linguistic Programming at the local Adult Education centre... an experience worth writing about. Because, every time that you are able to be part of a group that is composed by several different personalities, you know that you are in the right environment to challenge your beliefs… and if you open up your mind, you notice different things! I could go as far as saying that the only commonality between us was… our interest in NLP…

… and this is the true recipe for interesting conversations.

About halfway through week three, we began to explore the senses, how they help us experience the world and how much of the data we store as a memory. Let me turn that last sentence into a story.

In your mind, go inside and… bring up a happy memory with someone special and now notice how you are holding an image of this memory in your mind's eye.

Notice how there are sounds and voices and…

… as you turn your attention to the way you felt then and now, remember what the atmosphere smelled like… then…

… if you were eating or drinking, remember what it tasted like!

What you will find interesting is that there are many more sensors, buttons and controls in the control panel of your memories that are fun to play with.

… Here's what to do next:

First of all, focus on the image inside your mind and as you're looking at this picture now, notice that good feeling that you have… and as you are thinking about it now... notice the location... is it on your chest, your stomach, your legs, your arms, your head… where on your body is it… exactly? If you can feel it everywhere, just notice where it starts… and then where it goes...

Now that you know where it is - what is the feeling like? How would you describe it to me if I was there? Does it feel hot, warm, cold, tingling, flowing, static, dynamic… ?

By now you know that you can recall a picture of you being in that place and feeling in a particularly pleasant way. Correct? Now, check this out.

Now, notice how the image in your mind has a location and a size… in physical space. Usually, if you were REALLY having fun that time, it will be right in front of you and will be as big or bigger than life. If it's not, it's probably a little further away from you and smaller, like someone is holding a picture of this image. If that is the case, then use your wonderful mind to make the image grow bigger… just as large as the image you see through your eyes… and bring it right in front of you. If the image is not focused, make it focused.

If you are seeing this memory as a third person, then step into yourself and see through your eyes like you saw then. Check that good feeling - how much has it grown?

Now turn the image brighter and let it move like it is a movie and it's now playing in real-time.

Great!

I told you there's many controls now, didn't I? In fact, there is a volume knob in your mind that can control the volume of the sounds and voices from this memory so turn it up and up and up!

Feeling better? Fantastic!

So … if you actually took 2-3 minutes out and actually do this you now know how to manipulate your memories in your mind to get (or remove) the feelings …

As far as I could count here, we went through five senses… what you saw with your eyes, heard with your ears, felt with your body, tasted with your tongue and smelled with your nose. That's what most of us have been taught at school and… that's how many the senses are… right?

Wrong.

Whether you believe there is a sixth, intuitive sense or not, this is not where I am going with this. Where I am going is that how many senses you have depends on how you choose to pick them. For example, if you restricted yourself to senses that give you information about the external world, you would probably get five but if you also included the internal world, you could count a sixth one, as the sense that lets you know about how you're feeling… on the inside. If you didn't care about inside or outside… you could go back to a different set of five and so on and so forth… makes sense?

Well, part of this "how many senses are there" debate is time. Some people say that our ability to tell time is another sense.

Time is… probably the most ludicrous invention of human kind. There is no time. Think about it. Speaking to you as a child now, do you think that you remembered what you did a couple of minutes ago or planned what you're going to do next? All you cared about then, just as now, is right now. You were probably thinking "what do I want right now" and did that… doesn't everybody say that kids are spontaneous?

Lacking "time", you just looked around in awe of all these new and exciting things around you… people, toys, electronic devices, furniture… and you thought to yourself "hm… aahh... that looks interesting, I need to go check it out"… and you walked over to the little toy car or Barbie and were like "oh, look at that, it looks just like that one"… and you played and played… because you asked yourself "what do I want?"… the answer was usually "play" and went ahead and did it until you were so tired that the answer became "rest".

Then, one time, your parents sat you down and told you all about this clock thing that ticks every so often and when 60 ticks have been, then a minute has gone past. You probably didn't understand what a minute was but I am on your side. There is no such thing as a minute. It's just a label we made up.

Now, before you begin to get relaxed about this, let me tell you that I think time is a marvellous invention… without the concept of time, we wouldn't be able to plan ahead of time and tackle those complex tasks that we tackle as intelligent human beings. So far so good.

But let's face it. There is no such thing as time. All the time you have is right now. Right now as in the moment that just passed as you read the last sentence. Yes, I really mean now. That is all you have. Seriously, think about it. Whether you think of the good or not so good things of the past or dream about the good or not so good things that may or may not happen to you in the future, the truth is that all you have is right now. All you can change is right now. All you can be is right now.

Most of us don't live to experience the now sometimes. I know I have. Have you ever been with someone who you consider to be precious and yet you were so enveloped in your life that for split seconds or longer were living inside your head listing the things that you have to do later or whether this thing that you are worried about is going to happen or not. Meanwhile… missing the love, care, and attention that the other person is giving you. Let me say that again. Love, care and attention. Are those really things that you want to be missing over something that you can do nothing about?

Let me give you an example. I used to be in a relationship with this lovely girl, a while ago. We met through a good friend and as soon as we did, it was almost like a switch turned inside my head and I could hear "click". You know what that means, right? I fell head over heels for her and so did she. I swear I could write a romantic novel about it. It was one of the most passionate and important relationships in my life… while it lasted… and you know, when we were together, this weird thing called "time"… stopped! It was almost as if it never existed. I instantly forgot about my worries, couldn't think of anything else other than the conversation we were having and all it mattered was the space between us… that invisible bubble that wrapped around us and kept us in a mental cocoon and create intensely pleasant feelings.

Then… the sun came up in the morning and we separated ways to catch some sleep before… the next time.

When I got back home, I went inside my mind and went through the memories of that same night and I could feel good about it once again. I really couldn't understand this but parts of the night were missing from my memory. Almost like someone paused the CCTV in my mind and there was only a blur… though I still felt great. Has that ever happened to you?

That night, I slept like a baby. I was so relaxed and mindless that I woke up on exactly the same place that I laid my body on. I hadn't moved an inch and it wasn't because I was tired.

The next day, I looked at the calendar… it was late July. Come September 15th, I was leaving home to go back to university… about 10,000 miles away. Once the thought of her met with this fact in my mind, I was horrified. Here I was, I had found someone that finally I could click with, after months of bachelorhood, and I was about to leave the country. I'm not sure if it was minutes or seconds later but that doubting voice in my mind began making uncomfortable suggestions: "I'm not going to see her for a long time"… "when am I going to find someone like her again"… "why me"… "this is awful"… "why"…

Needless to say that after this process had repeated itself for hours, it just wasn't the same next time I was with her. I couldn't stop my mind from drifting away and thinking all those scenarios that could or could not happen. What was going to happen… how were we going to make it? Were
we going to make it at all?

I must have been really strong because I remember torturing myself like that for at least a week and a half before I told her that this wasn't going to work given the circumstances… that I didn't want to hurt her and so on… I remember that she had several arguments that she presented to let us be together but funnily enough I remember none of them. In fact, I don't think I even took them in the first time.

Even though I know that I only know it because of this, I still wish I knew then what I know now.

Sure enough, I let her go and she left without another word - she was a proud girl with a lot of self-respect. I spent the rest of my time home being miserable, wondering what could have happened between us… and…

… the truth is that I will never know. Maybe the switch would have turned back and did that "click" again and we wouldn't like each other any more. Maybe we would still be together until I left and then separate. Maybe we would have continued to be together. I don't know... Then it hit me.

Maybe is not good enough.

I owed it to myself and I owed it to her to be in the now - out of respect. To be there for the moment and for her. To respond to her with my whole being, now. To be one hundred percent present and react to every little thing that happens… to be there and experience… her beauty… her sweet voice… her gentle touch… her seducing perfume… the taste of her lips… to experience her and allow her to experience me. To commit to our time together, and be present in this cocoon where anything is possible for us… to live extraordinary moments that are exciting … wonderful… to truly be in each other's presence and realize that anything is possible.

Let me tell you. This is what I'm going to do when I meet a girl as special and unique as her again. I know exactly where that is going to take me. Actually… I have no idea where it's going to take me but I know exactly how it's going to happen. With feelings of excitement… passion… love… with feelings that are going to create some of the most fulfilling memories of my life. Memories that I will look back to in the future knowing that it was worth it, no matter what. Tales more important than those of achievement, that I will tell my children, as a specimen of how to be a person. Not a good, or better person. But a person. Because only a real person can transcend into the company of someone else for their time together.

So … when the mysterious workings of the universe bring another opportunity like this in front of me, I will just ... STOP…

… take a deep breath...

… and ask "what do I want?"…

… when the answer comes up… it's just a matter of doing it, so do it.

Alice in wonderland

It's Sunday, about 1700 hours and we have just arrived at our residence in Palo Alto, CA. The sun is shining and my skin feels hot under the heavy coat I've been wearing since I left Kansas City. The bright landscape is chirpy but my mind is being consumed by less than positive thoughts for a few hours now; I'm finding it difficult to understand and adapt to the things that had been happening around me the last few days. The group dynamics had changed as we had been with one another for just over five weeks now and everyone's true colors were shining through and through. We've been pushing ourselves to 100% and over and as mental and physical exhaustion increases, tolerance decreases… You know how sometimes you get a first impression feeling about person that can't quite rationalize? Well, this was the time when everything became clear and exactly when I realized that in trying to be part of the group, I had neglected myself, in terms of my own aims, goals and passions. I felt it was time to spend some time by myself, in solitude, to reset my system into balance. That same night we visited the social district of Palo Alto. In a bar called Nola's, a fine replica of New Orleans, all those thoughts were re-affirmed. The town was not very busy as the next day was a bank holiday… rumor had it that everyone was skiing and would return the next day. There was only about half of us there but it was clear that we had different and perhaps conflicting ideas about social interactions and having fun. Of course, none of this was a conscious or mischievous act; it was just a manifestation of our very different characters. As our taxi drove us back to the hotel, I entered a vicious circle of thought about all that had been happening and I was trying to identify with my own actions. It suddenly was lucid to me that none of those events or changes in my environment had a direct effect on my internal world. Instead, I had directed my focus to the external world and that threw me off balance.

 
 

A thought that had consistently passed through my mind was that it would be useful for us to go through some sort of realistic entrepreneurial exercise with limited resources and specific targets and goals. Because no matter how much learning we assimilate in a classroom, it is experience that will ultimately shape our future experiences and ultimately, our success. The more experiences we have of taking something we created from beginning to end, the more likely we are to enforce this pattern in our businesses.

 
 

Monday

 
 

The next day I woke up I woke up to a new idea. I had a whole week to myself to… do anything I wanted! All our visits would finish around five or six every evening and I could use the rest of the night for a purpose. I've always been fascinated by people and I've been working on my social skills for a while now. Social networking in every form and context has been one of my main focuses in the last few months and here I was, in a new city, knowing no one and wanting to know… everyone! What a perfect opportunity to test and develop my people skills! So I said no to a trip to San Francisco and I got out of bed in the early afternoon all energetic to lead a week of adventure for myself.

 
 

I started at Rite Aid where I bought a pocket-size memo book and a small pen. I got some breakfast and headed back to my room to set goals and plan my strategy. First of all, I wanted to make this about me and not about the Kauffman scholarship or the rest of the people of the group so I decided to keep it separate: I wasn't going to use any of the existing resources available, only my very own self. Secondly, I figured that I was only going to be successful in a scenario like this if I was able to meet people on both a business and social contexts. These goals were the result: a) to meet an investor, b) to meet at least three people involved with technology, c) to be invited to a social event on Saturday night, d) to meet a tango teacher and e) to meet at least five people with common interests that keeping in touch with would be effortless. I gave myself seven days to execute this plan and I would assess my success and write about it one week later.

 
 

Before I left my room, I searched for people in the San Francisco area on Skype. I added everyone I could find as a contact and when available, I looked at the webpage. Out of the fifty-eight people I added, only two of them had meaningful websites. The first person, Luke, was a big software geek, much like me, that had worked for companies like Microsoft and HP. Bingo! The second person, Liz, owns a blog with restaurant reviews and free recipes and… her latest post was about happy hour at Home Restaurant in San Francisco. Being busy during lunch time, it was most probable for me to meet business people at happy hour. Thinking no more, I e-mailed both of them, announcing my arrival at the bay area and my excitement towards the American culture as well as the anticipation to experience it. I suggested we should meet and have a cultural exchange... of sorts! After carefully sculpting the two e-mails, I left my room for the reception was I was going to get a handful of intelligence about the area.

 
 

At the reception, the two ladies greeted me with a smile and gave me a map of Palo Alto. If I was going to make any trips, I had to first know where I was and where I wanted to go! Christine there marked for me the closest Peet's Coffee and Tea and Starbucks, Mountain View's main street and the Stanford shopping centre. The time was almost 15:00 so I set out to get a cup of coffee and do my homework. Peet's was near-empty so I went on to find Starbucks. A mile later, I saw the siren smile at me at the corner of what looked like a restaurant complex. I walked by the outside tables where there was a young-looking girl with "do not disturb" written all over her forehead and a 70-year old lady enjoying the sun. As I went in, I faced five or six tables, all occupied by one person who was either studying over a book or working with a laptop. Strange as it was to me, I could see how caffeine and study mixed well together. This was not going to be the easy ride I had imagined. I grabbed a donut and some mango juice and on my way to the sitting area I made a really quick evaluation of the characters present and the space arrangement. The only free table gave me easy access to three people… the guy working on his laptop at the corner and two girls sat by the window studying. I chose to sit nearest to the girl in the middle… she had a sweet face and a Latin American skin tone; two very good signs of friendliness. I sat down and started studying the Caltrain map, looking to find out where I was and where I could go. Palo Alto didn't seem to be on the map so I figured that my first conversation with a stranger was about to ignite. "Hi", I said before her face glowed with a bright smile. "Sorry to interrupt your study… do you have any idea where we are on this map?" I passed over the map to her and while she was struggling to pinpoint the location, I noticed with the side of my right eye that the other girl sat next to us was glimpsing over her book and to us. Barbara, who turned out to be Brazilian, must have seen this too and she passed the problem on to Naomi, who had grown up in Iowa and moved to Palo Alto when she married her half-Spanish husband. She seemed to know more about the area and I expressed my plans to meet as many people as I can. I explained where I had come from and why and asked where people congregate… she marked another few restaurants and places to be, including University Avenue by Stanford University. Even though the conversation had shifted towards Naomi, it was only a matter of time before Barbara joined in. When I mentioned that I like to dance Argentinean Tango, her face lit up once more and she told me about a Brazilian party that they hold once a month and how much fun they have dancing Samba. Now it was a three-way conversation. Stories of positive experiences involving food and dance were flowing like drink at a Global Scholars outing! Before I left for my next destination, we all exchanged details and Barbara invited us to her husband's birthday celebration on Friday and Naomi spoke of a friend of hers who was an entrepreneur and who she would put into touch with! It was very unclear how, at this pace, I would achieve the goals I had set. It felt like this was going to be a "brute force" job… a series of activities with no apparent connection to the end goal. Well, mystery always makes things more fascinating I thought to myself… plus I was enjoying interacting with strangers and doing my part in connecting them. Even if I wasn't going to see them again, I knew that Barbara and Naomi would see each other again.

 
 

I left Starbucks and started walking towards Castro St. at Mountain View, about two miles away, where all the restaurants and bars were located. After what seemed a very long walk I made a left turn and saw a wealth of art shops, cafeterias, bars and restaurants. I walked up and down both sides of this long street carefully looking for the places I should be placing myself later in the week. I found a couple of interesting bars and restaurants but nothing that seemed too business-like. I guessed most business people congregate at San Francisco. One particular bar, the Buddha Lounge, caught my attention so I made a mental note to visit it and made my way back to the hotel. I quickly grabbed some dinner and rushed to my room to get the address of the local tango group as I remembered there was a class on Monday nights. The time was 19:00 and the class was starting at 19:30 so I phoned to reception to get me a taxi, quickly changed clothing and got there just on time. Most of the people there were Russian and I was warmly welcomed. I attended the beginners and intermediate classes and then spent two hours dancing for fun and practice! The teaching style was very different to the classes I had previously taken so even though it was basic material, I was pleasantly challenged. At the end, I spent some time talking to the two teachers who were interested in knowing about the difference in dancing and teaching style at my part of the world…. As interesting conversation never runs out, we exchanged details and promised to keep in touch. Teresa, the Polish lady who was helping teach the class was also going to help me with transport for a milonga (a social tango dance) on Saturday night at San Francisco. Sounds good! Igor, the other teacher gave me a ride back to the hotel and I rushed to my bed knowing I had to get up early the next day.

 
 

Tuesday

 
 

As I got up in the morning, I realized that staying up late was not a very wise thing to do… we had a full day ahead and I wasn't feeling one hundred percent. When the day finished I still felt tired but I was eager to go on. I took a taxi to Mountain View and looked for the kebab shop I had seen the night before. I conversed with the Turkish owner while enjoying my delicious chicken kebab and quickly moved onto the Buddha Lounge. To my surprise, there was hardly anyone there! What I did not know was that Mardi Gras celebrations were going on in San Francisco and San Jose and so most people would be there. I had a couple of drinks and got some recommendations for San Francisco from the bar maid and left. It was hard to sustain a high level of energy for a full 16 hours and be fresh the next day… I had to respect my priorities and focus on the day activities.

 
 

Wednesday

 
 

During our morning bus ride, I realized that I had to revaluate my strategy if I was going to achieve any of my goals. Obviously the visit to the Buddha Lounge was a miss and I was struggling to focus from lack of sleep during the day. There was an important lesson there to be learned: it is important to focus on your mission and goals when you wake up in the morning and what it is that you want to achieve during the day… re-examine the strategies and techniques you've been using so far to get there… if they don't seem to get you closer to your goal then it means you need to change them. Profound, isn't it? I call it the breakfast of champions. Unoriginal, I know.

 
 

So, with this new insight, I decided to stay in at night and catch up on sleep. I had to at least perform during the day! Later the same evening I received an e-mail from Liz. I had e-mailed her a couple of days ago introducing myself and in my attempt to be hip, suggesting a meeting with her and her "crew"… And as life is full of surprises, her e-mail included an invitation to an MBA networking event that was going to take place in Palo Alto on Thursday… Everything was not lost; I had found my short journey's magic helper!

 
 

Thursday

 
 

I woke up excited to see what's going to come out of the networking event. I had no idea what kinds of people were going to be there or how many of them… I didn't even know what Liz looked like! All the information that was available to me was her name, the name of the bar and the time. After our day at Stanford finished, I hopped on the bus and went to that bar, arriving half an hour early. It was named "The Blue Chalk" and it was quite big, with retro decoration and friendly atmosphere… I asked the waitress if she knew who Liz was or where exactly the event was taking place. Neither she nor any of her co-workers had any idea. I walked around the place asking people if they are there for the networking event and after two or three blank looks, I saw a lady with a bunch of stickers and pens... bingo. I introduced myself and asked about the event… it was some kind of alumni event for MBA graduates that was organized every two months in an ad-hoc manner through a mailing list. I explained how I had come to get invited so we started talking about the Kauffman scholarship. The first people had started to come in by that time so I asked if she had any idea who Liz was… the answer was "no". Her name appeared on the list of attendants so I kept my eyes peeled for her name tag and started mingling.

 
 

Apart from the common MBA background there was not much else connecting this crowd. They had all gone to do different things. There were some people that worked in marketing, others in sales and some managerial people. Come to think of it, they was a common denominator… most of them were now working for large companies - entrepreneurial presence was week. I found it particularly amusing when I met a person from Intel and another from AMD in very close vicinity. Given the history of the two companies, I would have expected them to be involved in some kind of fighting performance. The reality was much less entertaining than the fantasy… Next I met an entrepreneur who was closing down his company to go and work for a large corporation. He said that it was too risky and was looking for safety. I resisted the urge to psychoanalyze him and find out whether his spirit had been broken or if it was never entrepreneurial in the first place and moved on. A few minutes after meeting a lady from Google, I met a young attorney from Wilson and Sinsoni - the company we had visited on Monday. Their way of doing business was very interesting. They are brokers more than they are attorneys… I told her about the program and our visit to her employer. It suddenly struck me that she was the person most likely to know a venture capitalist so I made sure to make a good impression and exchange details. But when it came to meeting a VC, I didn't stop there. I walked around the room and approached all the shrewd-looking characters and "suits" in the room. The furthest I got was CEO. I wasn't going to meet any venture capitalists that night.

 
 

After 3 hours of intense pitching and handshaking and as I felt I had made the most of the networking occasion and left. I was already 9 o'clock and I felt quite tired. It was time to get some food, a shower and some sleep.

 
 

Friday

 
 

The week was coming to an end and my opportunities to meet a VC were becoming limited. It was almost frustrating we were going to visit Burill & Co., one of the largest biotechnology venture capitalist firms. I was going to meet people in the VC industry but I couldn't include any introductions made there… my goal was to meet all those targets without the help of the programme. In the afternoon, we walked around San Francisco and later went to a great Italian restaurant with Wendy. It was also Ade's birthday so we made sure to embarrass him by singing "Happy Birthday" and "He's a jolly good fella" every half an hour.

 
 

Saturday

 
 

The week was coming to an end as was my little exercise. I had to choose very carefully how I'm going to spend my energy. During the afternoon, we were going to attend the launch of Entrepreneurship Week USA where the week was going to be introduced and my mentor, Carl Schramm was going to give a speech. When we arrived there only about a fifth of the room was full but in the next fifteen minutes it overfilled with students! Some of them actually had to seat on the steps as there were no more seats available! The presentations were all very interesting and packed with energy. I could tell that everyone was really excited to be there, to have been a part in organizing an event like this and to introduce students into a new world, the world of entrepreneurship!

 
 

What is however always more interesting than information is… peopled! After the launch, everyone was invited to dinner where we could all mingle and meet others with similar aspirations. It's always interesting to see how different people pick their conversation partners in a group like this. Vicinity is a popular strategy, but also a hit or miss. Someone told me to trust my intuition and go for the person who "feels right". I had nothing to lose, so I tried doing just that. Chance or not, it seemed to work. I start talking to an Iranian lady who turned out to be interested in the same things as I am, like leadership recipes, and trying very similar things that I have tried… like hypnosis. Not bad for a first time. In fact, I'm looking forward to trying it again. We had dinner and talked about our dreams and aspirations while thinking about forming a joint venture…

 
 

On the way out, I found Aaron speaking to a girl from Stanford who invited us to a dorm party that night… bingo!

 
 

Conclusions

 
 

I have to say that this wasn't nearly as glamorous as I had imagined it to be. You can tell by the difference in the enthusiasm levels between the first and consequent days. Nevertheless, it was a very useful learning experience and I did pretty well after all. Sure, I didn't meet an investor, but I got quite close to meeting one. I met a fair few people involved with all kinds of technology, two very interesting tango teachers and perhaps two or three people that I will stay in touch with. Not everything worked out the way I wanted to but I aimed high and nothing ever does work out exactly how we imagine it. Ok, maybe when I'm playing psychic with my niece, but that's different.

 
 

The true value of the experience was unconscious for the most part. I knew it would be valuable to me to start and finish something, even small and silly like this. And it was because I had the opportunity to observe myself all the way. I was able to see where my shortcomings are, where my dynamism subsided, where I overestimated my current abilities… It also helped me see that if you want something strongly enough and try for it, things will often fall into place, as if out of nowhere. In my case, it wasn't enough to want it; I had to sustain that motivation over a long period of time. It would have been very easy to quit on day two or three. As I often find inspiration from movies… Alfred when talking to young Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins he said "Why do we fall down Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up".

 
 

Psychologists decided to call an ancient Taoist meditation as the "observing ego", in Western lingo. A very useful pattern to introduce in ourselves. The ability to observe our actions, environment and internal state as a third person so that we can later make the adjustments necessary to reach our goals and the character we're striving to be. This is different to the voice inside our head which is often commenting on what's going on… the observing ego is just logging what's going on so you can consciously examine it later.

 
 

The profoundness in this experience?

 
 

People are fascinating. Knowing thyself is a prerequisite to knowing another.

 
 

 
 

.

All that is entrepreneur

As a kid my favorite thing had been to ask "why?" and when my parents would tell me how something is, before I even began to consider it, I would ask "Why? Convince me!"… and while the questions might have changed over time, I still remember to ask. In the last few weeks, I enjoyed being a cell of the Kauffman Foundation body, a living and breathing organism where the word "entrepreneur" is in the forefront of people's minds. My inquisitive mind has been constantly searching for clues in my daily experience to understand all that is the entrepreneur. What are the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur, the shaping qualities, the character… what is the entrepreneurial psyche? What are his or her success drivers? How does the entrepreneur find meaning in his or her actions? What is the path they see and feel themselves walk? What is their journey?

From childhood to old age and as we move through life we all have a sense of wonder about our lives and search to find our purpose. We look into the eyes of our parents, listen intently to our teachers, question religion and science and everything around us pursuing hints, pointers and signs… Yet, it seems to me that entrepreneurs, especially successful entrepreneurs have a certain, definite, unquestionable conviction for what they do. They live in a space where purpose is. They are and they do as they are directed. Joseph Campbell spent his life studying stories, fairy tales and myth. Just before he passed away, this 83-year old wise man said to follow your bliss. Campbell embarked on a journey of his own, to learn and experience myth and he realized that there is an underlying universal structure in myths of every tribe, every culture and every civilization - even those who were completely isolated. He named this genetic heritage for mankind, the "hero's journey". The hero receives a call to adventure and after some initial hesitation he crosses the threshold with the instigation of a guide. He or she sets out to answer the call and follow the adventure… to step through all the trials, face great dangers and fight great monsters with the assistance of magic helpers that he meets on the way! And there is always a gift, a treasure for those who are heroically courageous, those who live without compromise and take control of their own destiny. A gift that the hero returns home to share with others.

While looking for my own conviction and searching inside myself for my own version of the entrepreneur, a connection between hero and entrepreneur seemed inevitable. It is a confession to say that I have only met a handful of entrepreneurs and none of them was walking around in a lion skin holding a sword and cutting monsters in two yet they all had to use every weapon at their disposal to deal with different kinds of daemons: infidels, competitors, jealous people, legal systems, difficult investors, team or board members. Often, there was a guiding person or event that pushed them to commit in the start-up and those magic helpers who helped them bring their idea to fruition. When you think about it this way then it comes naturally that the entrepreneur is a kind of modern hero. The visit to the Roasterie last week was key; it put all the pieces together. Danny experienced his call to adventure during his time in Latin America. His love for coffee generated a desire to give people the very best that coffee could ever be. During sleep, he would dream of his business-to-be while one visit at the Boulevard Brewery was enough for him to cross the threshold and find the magic helpers who would assist him along the way. Eighteen to twenty-hour days and unpleasant bank statements were only some of the trials that he went through in the last decade. He has now returned from his journey and is running a successful business and sharing the gift he received at the end of the journey with others: the Roasterie is a fine example of a firm with social responsibility that gives a percentage of their margin to satisfy the needs of the local community where their coffee is produced. On some deep level of consciousness, I believe Danny understands how we are always part of something greater than ourselves. He has a sense that his business is part of the local community, part of Kansas City, part of the USA, part of the whole world and it's interesting to see what comes up when you think that you are always part of something great than self, isn't it?

If you have made it this far then it means that you can expand your consciousness long enough to consider another perspective and I will step one step more. How could it be that there is a unique and specific path and journey for each one of us? A path that will turn the universe to our favor, if we choose to pursue it? I spent several nights thinking about this. Does this mean we our bound to some kind of destiny? A man after my own heart believes in choice, not destiny. In the Matrix trilogy and during the beginning of his journey, Neo is in denial of his destiny and the concept itself. Having a set destiny would mean that we have no control of our lives, that there is someone else running the show behind the scenes and we can only obey. As Neo begins to understand himself, to believe in himself, to realize his potential to do extraordinary things, he surrenders into serving his life's purpose... he becomes the "One" and it is only then that he can be all that he can be! He realizes that we have no control of our lives anyway… that things around happen whether we choose it or not… that you can only be in control of yourself and prepare for success in your journey.

I had a dream the other night… I dreamt something I had seen in a BBC documentary… it was a group of beavers in a far away pine forest next to a river with clear water running through. I could hear the birds on the trees sing in harmony with the water's flow and it gave me a feeling of peace and tranquility. A feeling of balance and mindful existence. The lady beaver had just given birth to three little beavers with just as large tails and teeth. They were all swimming and splashing around in the water while learning from their parents... what else but how to be beavers! How to chew on trees until they fall down like toothpicks and how to carefully pick them close enough to the water so that they can exploit the flow and move them to where they need. How to slowly stack the trunks one over the other, strategically, to block the river water and artfully build a good dam. And whether they know it or not, it is this dam that will transform this environment, forever. The trapped water will form a big lake over that part of the forest that was dry and inhospitable for sprouts to grow into flowers and as the dam slowly weakens and the earth absorbs all the water, it is transformed into a new world of fertility, bright and colorful blossoms… it is transformed into life. The river will start flowing again as it did before, the beavers will move to another area and start over, the trees that were cut are now compost and they all have had the honor to take part in this transformation, in this creation, they were all part of something greater than themselves.

As these images, sounds and feelings were flowing through my body, I got the feeling that this is true of all animals: they live a purposeful life. They have some way of knowing what it is they need to be doing. They are somehow aware that they are always part of something greater than themselves… and however it is that they know, they live their lives in a way that makes earth the paradise it is. There is no question of whom, why or how. Could it be that underneath it all, if you take away your logic and mathematical precision for only a second, there is a genetic imprint that lets you know what it is you need to be doing? That there is a different way of being where anything is possible for you and there is universal synergy? Could it be that like those beavers, we have a duty, a survival mechanism, to use the river and the trees to build a dam to replenish and fertilize the dry areas of the earth we tread on and the one we make dreams with - our psyche?

What is your passion? If you can answer this, then you know.