I'll never forget how my world changed the day my psychology teacher stood before the class and explained that every single event we experience is recorded in the mind and can be retrieved - even from the subconscious mind - under the right set of stimuli.
Holy human hard drive, Batman! Additionally, there was one science lesson that stuck with me, and with similar impact as the psychology teacher's comment.
It has burrowed itself into my consciousness and remained there, almost nagging at me, from the day I first heard it until now: "Matter is neither created nor destroyed; it is merely transformed.
" This was absolutely fascinating and earth-shattering news to me! Thatmeans that everything that is here now - on the planet and in the universe - has always been here in one form or another.
And everything that will ever come into existence already exists somewhere in some form.
It means that there is no beginning and no end to anything, really; that this business we call life is just one gigantic, ongoing process of transformation.
My brain began to ache just thinking about this one scientific statement! I never loved my science classes, butafter that day I did pay more attention when the man at the front of the room talked about things related to my 'sentence of fascination' - such how everything, when viewed under a microscope, is made up of exactly the same stuff: protons, electrons and neutrons (and even smaller things we've since discovered, like quarks).
My simple science thinking translated that fact to mean that everything is made up of the same stuff put together in different combinations.
Everything that exists originates from the exact same basic ingredients arranged in a million unique recipes! More fascinating stuff.
These are the only two significant bits of information that I can claim to have taken away from my many years of science education.
Maybe they were all I really needed, because they have become the launching pad for what is most important in my life.
"What the heck does any of this have to do with running my business?" you ask.
A lot, I hope.
And if it hasn't up to now, maybe it will begin to.
Here's my point.
Either everything matters or nothing does.
Either every single thing you do in every moment of your life is of monumental, cosmically interconnected import because you are a one-of-a-kind arrangement of protons, electrons and neutrons created for a unique purpose or Newton was full of it and the bumper sticker is right: "Life sucks and then you die.
" I happen to believe it is the former, and that means that I can no longer be content to simply 'make money'.
That's what I did before the fog lifted and I lived as though nothing mattered except making sure my needs were met - which, by the way, I usually had confused with my wants.
The truth is that my needs are very few and easily met.
So, I created my company because I can no longer do less than what I feel called and compelled to do with the days of my life.
Don't confuse me with any saints.
I have plenty of moments of panic about the mortgage.
But, in spite of that, I have made a conscious decision to live and work authentically, and I do it in collaboration with others who are making the same choice for themselves.
I am of the belief that many, if not most, people are longing for the opportunity to work this way.
In fact, I'm banking on it.
As more like-minded business owners cross paths, affirming that it is possible to generate profit from passion in non-Enron style, we will be actively turning the tide that defines success from greed to abundance - one proton, neutron and electron at a time.