Seeing

 On a Saturday afternoon on Canton Road, Hong Kong, it’s not uncommon to see queues of luxury brand enthusiast outside of the store all day long in order to get exposure to the latest designs. There have been instances of shoppers asking for “one of everything”, in a Louis Vuitton store, such is their wealth. One Saturday, I was on my way back from training with a huge rucksack, scruffy trousers, and a wool hat; I went into a high end boutique hotel wanting to use the gents, as you sometimes do! “Excuse me Sir, what would you like?” Clearly not interested in actually helping me find an item, but rather question what am doing in the hotel. “Just want to use the toilet if that’s ok?” “They are for customers only, sorry.” Another evening, on returning from a client meeting, with a suit and tie, with a pair of brown shoes, freshly shaven, I walk into the same hotel lobby before getting home. “Welcome Sir.” “Can I use the gents please?” “Certainly, right over there Sir.”

 

We were at an evening seminar on technology and regulation, and how the authorities and entrepreneurs in the two fields are working together to move forward. At the end, people crowded around the speakers to talk to them. Most people were in suits and ties, with another large portion in business casual, and one slightly elderly man in a yoga style t-shirt, with an Om on it, wire-like hair. I watched as people were looking at him and dismissing him as not worthy of talking to, he was on his own for a good while, before introducing himself to me proactively. Later, when talking to a person who knew him, he said he was one of the first to be highly successful in the start up scene decades ago and was just here giving advice to people. Once a few people got to know this, he gathered quite an audience.

 

The attendant at the boutique hotel, scanning people who enter, was just working there doing his job, and based on information he has through his and others’ past experience, trust patterns, stereo types, etc; they decide how to act with individuals and groups. This is very much understandable, and it is what we sometimes call “human nature” when people have their roles and needs. In a similar way at the seminar, people want to talk to people who would be of “value” to them, worth their time, and therefore people differentiate between ranks, net worth, success, and find the people that suit their needs. This is again “natural” given the environment and macro-drivers.

Taking time out often gives a different perspective of “value.” What is success? What drives my judgements of what will contribute to my success? What contributes to my behaviour? When a child sees a mother, or a dear one, it is often driven by love. Of course, it may be driven by needs such as wanting something, but often times it is driven by love. Whether the mother is rich, or poor, the child will love the mother naturally. It will happen in the war torn areas of the Middle-East, and in the wealth filled areas of the “upper classes” of the most developed cities. When we are constantly bombarded with definitions of success by the macro-structures, and give ourselves little time to get away; our judgements will use more so-called intelligence, and less heart. The more we get time to contemplate, see different perspectives and people, the more we will lean towards seeing with the heart. Intelligence will be used to understand the macro-structures, interact with them appropriately, but ultimately use heart to govern our interactions. This doesn’t equate to being soft and fluffy with everyone; it means to respect the multitude of qualities in others, the ultimate oneness of us at a deeper level, and be real human beings.

 The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater.

Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita

 

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

Albert Einstein

Perspectives: No Right or Wrong?

Everybody has their own perspective. People express themselves through what they wear. They post their opinions and feelings on Facebook and Twitter, etc. They debate views in conversations with each other. The newspapers even have sections called ‘Opinion’. So much of life is about interactions based on opinions and perspectives. How often do people really get their head around how to deal with opinions and perspectives especially as the social networking age really sets in? We’ve all heard that listening is important, but ultimately we need to decide, and act, not just debate opinions. This is the fundamental basis of political systems also. In the workplace, this plays an interesting role, and it can empower us if we are aware of the role of opinions, and perspectives of different people.

 

As I opened my eyes from a dozy, half-baked sleep as the plane took off, I found the air hostess had given a packet of peanuts and a drink, which happened to be a bottle of water if you weren’t awake to choose what you preferred. With my eyes barely opening, I took the packet of peanuts, and with the little energy I had in that dozy state, went to tear it open. It was a little stubborn and wouldn’t tear easily. So I look at the packet closer, saw the dotted line, and the small tear that had been made by the manufacturers, and with ease I tore it open. I had tried from various positions, from the other side to tear, to grab both sides and open from the middle, but with little effect. I recalled as a child opening boxes which had been bound with a kind of plastic tape that was industrial and extremely hard wearing. This tape is taken around the box, and then glued to create the link/seal. I would sometimes spend long trying to open it, and the meshed tape would simply not be torn. Once discovering the method, which was to find the part it was glued, and pull it apart in opposite directions so as to separate from the main bond, it was really very simple. In either case, so many experiments, speculation on what might work what won’t work, were ultimately useless until a proper method, of which there may be more than one i.e. using scissors or finding the correct opening. Often in Asia I’ve found myself lost in a range of circumstances from not being able to find a building to not knowing how to get a piece of thought leadership put into the right marketing format at work, to finding out how to use the scanner. Not surprisingly, the most effective method was to ask someone who had done it before.

 At all levels, such identification of the proper and effective method, works. It is not that every perspective is valid. The modern day concept that there’s no right or wrong answer, is wrong.  Tearing the industrial tape with your bare hands by brute force, is simply ineffective because it is designed to bare many kilos of force without ripping, and therefore there is a proper method for breaking it. Therefore it’s important to be able to identify what is effective and what isn’t. Listening to perspectives and opinions from all spheres, is however  important on many levels; one builds an understanding of peoples thought processes, their experiences, and their lives, one may be able to learn something from them whatever it may be, it could be something indirect, and listening also conveys a sense of respect and appreciation for others. But we should know that there is a hierarchy of how effective particular perspectives and opinions are; this is called judgement and we use it in all our decisions including which queue to go for in the supermarket; some things are known, some things are unknown, but we endeavour to make an effective choice or judgment call.  The less unknowns there are, the better. If you want to be successful in a business where you’re working for someone, you stand far more chance if you inquire, find out the strategy, and build on it, or help work towards it. If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to inquire and understand the demand first hand, not through speculation, but through objective observance and inquiry of habits, trends, tendencies, etc. When one is simple minded, then they can humbly and openly ask how something works, with a clean slate and really absorb what’s being taught. If the mind is clouded with many competing demands, then we may hear what has been said, but we may not have listened, or absorbed it. In conclusion, the miracles really start to happen when we sincerely try to find the right way of doing something, with an open approach that is respectful to others, and at the same time willing to go out of our way to go down the right route. This attitude will naturally give us more confidence in what we do, and the reason for that is that we are all wired up with consciences, and whether we know it or not, those consciences thrive on doing the right things rather than the wrong things.