Hegemony to Great power to you

As per Wikipedia, Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon (leader state) rules sub-ordinate states by implied means of power rather than direct military force.  In Ancient Greece (8^th c. BC – AD 6^th c.), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of a city-state over other city-states.  In the 19^th century, hegemony denoted the predominance of one country upon others; from which derives hegemonism, the Great Power politics meant to establish hegemony.

And what is Great power?  Still as per Wikipedia a Great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale.  Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of their own.

Now imagine that every individual is a state that has the ability to rule oneself, take one own decision and auto-determine oneself.  I know its hard to do but try for a moment.

Now the individual is in one’s cubicle minding one’s own business.  And here comes the Great power: the boss.  Now why is the boss the Great power?  Because as per wiki’s definition of a Great power, it has military powers (the boss can make you escorted out of the premises); it has economic power (the boss has a definite impact or one’s salary, pay increase/decrease, bonus, or termination of one’s mean of income); it has diplomatic power (the boss can ask the individual in his office and diplomatically ask one to change one’s behaviour or else); and it has cultural powers (the boss can make understand that it is in one’s best interest to wear a tie because that’s the way it goes here.  He doesn’t really know why it is so but it is so and one must comply with the culture).

So the boss has hegemonistic powers over his employees.  Because he “influence” the employees’ behaviour, conduct and productivity.  And the employees (the small powers) will consider the opinion of the great power (aka the boss) before taking action.

Living in such world is not a problem.  But not knowing that you are living in such a world or worst, denying its existence makes you a slave.  Because you will always behave according to the whim of the current Great  power (aka the current boss).  When you are aware of the game that is played you have two choices.  Either you play the game to acquire power.  To that I will refer you to Nietzsche’s Will to power.  Or you can immune your self-state from the Great powers.  On this later one, I shall expose it in a up coming post.   

Don't shoot the messenger - Link of the week

This week only one link.  But a great one.

This is a blog I am following for some times now.  She is a very witty woman with strong opinions and I like her point of view.

I recommend it to anyone.

In her post called "Don`t shoot the messenger"  she goes about talking about people that get mad at people that tells them what is.

Yes you`ve heard it.  There are people out there that asks question and kinda want to ear a specific answer.  Or wants to get a specific outcome.  And if they don`t, they get mad at the mesenger.

Never get yourself into that mind backouts.  How?  This is not an easy task. You have to be in constant vigilence with yourself.  I always say that if someone asks a question or act in a particular way, that persone has to live with the consenquences.

Which I`ve found that most people don`t.  So they blame anyone else but themselves.

Don`t do that.  Always ask yourself first "Where did I go wrong?" Then and only then, if you get that it was not your fault at any level, work to correct the outside probelm.  But not before.

The Albanie strategy

If you ever come to work for a sick corporation, you might have to revert to the Albania strategy.

- What?  Alba what?

Yes!  Albania.  Do you know that, in Europe there is a tinny country called Albania?  You didn't?  You never heard of it?  You know of nothing that is coming out of it?  That is exactly what the Albania strategy is about.

In some organization, there is people that are placed into management position that they shouldn't hold.  They are micro managers, demanding, nothing is never good.  They say that they praise good ideas and welcomes it.  But when an employee does, he is always turned down.  The managers scrutinize the employee's work.  At the slightest shadow of a mistake the manager is on the employee's back.  Consequently the employee gets nervous and increases his/her mistakes.  Which turns into a self fulfilling prophecy. Then the atmosphere gets heavier.  People are on their guards against anyone.  People that were team players before turns solo.  Some practice information retention.

Does this description rings a bell?

If it does then one way to go under the radar is to practice the Albania strategy.  Albania used to be a very closed communist country.  Not much was heard from it.  Not much was said, done, or came out of it.

So in a hostile workplace environment, practice exactly that.  Be closed.  Don't propose anything.  Don't offer your services.  Work on your side to either get out of that department or out of the company all together.  But in the mean time don't contribute to anything.  You do this for two reasons.  First its for your career survival.  Second that manager does not deserves you nor your ideas or energy.  Lets that person corporately die without doing anything to prevent it.

A little harsh?  Well some people deserves it.  Those of you who have lived in that kind of work environment knows what I'm talking about.

Seeking one's Ideal Me

As per psychologist Carl Rogers, people evaluate all experiences in reference to oneself.  People want to conduct themselves in accordance to the image they have of themselves.  But for Rogers there are two concepts of self.  There is the real-self.  And there is the Ideal-self.

We all have an image of the person we would want to be.  This notion is close to the Ideal-self.  And who you're actually are, is the Real-self.

The more the Ideal-self is close to the Real-self, the more the person experiences fulfilment, joy and happiness.  And as the opposite the more you feel that your Real-self is away from the Ideal-self, the more unhappy.

There are two deviations that can occur.  One between your Real-self and the evaluation you make of it.  For example a person is successful and respected by his/her peers but still feel a failure for some reason.  The second deviation comes from the difference between the Real-Self and the Ideal-self.

One must learn in being careful to correctly assess reality adding nor subtracting any positive of negative side of one's reality.  Fair assessment is the road to good mental health.

But what fascinates me in Rogers theory is this idea of an Ideal-Self and Real-Self.  And the discrepancy between the two.

Strategically speaking.  Sit down with a pen and a piece of paper.  And write do who is it you want to be.  The way you want to think; the kind of decisions you want to make; the kind of philosophy you want to live through.  Once this is done, look at your life right now.

Is your real-Self close to your Ideal-self?  

If not, by about how far?

What would it take to get you closer?  Write it down.

THEN DO IT!

Now if you realize that you are far enough it is not a reason to depress or something like that.  For the first time in your life you now have a map of where you are and where you want to be.  That is positive.

Some of the choices you will have to make might be painful.  That will be for you to decide.  For myself it came to realized that I was not married to the right person for me.  I on purpose decided to put the problem aside for some times because it was not the time for me to deal with it.  Until the day came in 2001, then I made my move.

Now I am not suggesting you should throw spouses, friends and family by the window.  Make a relevant assessment.  And try to correct, patch, and improve to get closer to your Ideal-Self.

This means you may have to work on some internal issues you have as well.  Everyone has his or her own journey.

But as you know, on the road of improvement and fulfilment, the journey is as important as the destination.  

Case Study: Dominic

In my whole philosophy of getting independent from the corporate world, I think that Dominic is someone that stands out.

Dominic works in my enterprise.  He works in the telecoms department.  He is the sole specialist of some switches lists of translations for calls to get through... or something like that.  I won't get into any details here but understand that he is a guru in his field of expertise that is in high demand in any large company.

So right there Dominic has been able to ensure his employability to the company.  He has the knowledge that no other has in the company.  So he is indispensable in his department.  He is not un-expendable.  Working for corporation we learn to know that no one is.  But at least he knows that if the company wants to get rid of him, it will have to train someone else for a few weeks before he barely get to speed (not even get to Dominic's level).

This brings a second advantage.  Since no one else can do Dominic's work and that his work is in high demand in the industry, Dominic has an edge in his wage negotiation.

But Dominic was not happy with only that.

In his spare time he decided to start a home business.  He decided to rent portable hot tubs for people who wants to throw parties in their backyard.  He was not able to start that over night.  In the beginning he had a hard time.  He had to deal with the providers, get a place to store the tubs.  At one point in peak periods, he had to hire an employee.  He learned the hard way: his costs went sky rocketing.  So he managed to downsize and finds ways to cut cost, fine tune his processes and do some of the work himself.

It took him two years of trials and errors to get to the current business model he is at now.  And his business is so fine tuned that he can devote to it only a few hours a week and rake in the money.

He told me that at this rate, if revenues continue to grow, he will repay his house loan in about four years!  Not bad at all.

So if I summarize, Dominic has been able in two years to:

1. Become a valuable asset for the company so he is hard to fire
2. Has developed and launched a business that generates a revenue (that he don't need since he has a job)
3. The over and above revenue generated by his business is used to repay his house loan (which means by having no debt he will be even less vulnerable to the corporate world)

Dominic is an example to follow on the road of total freedom.

Acta Non Verba

Philosophers and theologists devises the world in two orders : the actives and the contemplatives.

When I was younger, I was on the active side.  And this is the part of my life in which I remember most victories.  I was athletic, outgoing, extrovert, life was just there for me to take.

But at one point back then I stopped to reflect.  I thought about all those books that lies out there.  All those people who wrote all those brilliant books and shared brilliant ideas.  All things that, back then, I had no clue they existed.  And I wondered if I would live my life and pass by all those wonders.  All those things that I will never know.  Literature, philosophy, science, theology, strategy, economics, politics and everything else.  I had a thirst for knowledge.

So I set to start reading all those books.  Before that I never had time to.  Now, I took the time.  And I read, and read, and read.  At some point I got caught in a behaviour in which I would rather sit down and read than going out and doing things or meeting people.

To strike a balance is the key. Read and learn, but apply! Do, create, move, shake, build, improve.  Do something.  Do it for yourself and not for others or for a mere company that doesn’t give the slightest peace of crap about you.

Go out there and do your stuff.  Plan and make projects.  And make them happen.  Use your knowledge at best of your capacity.  Don’t hide behind a book.

Because we live in a material world.  Either you want it or not.  And in such world, actions rules!

Do you want to make money?

I don't know for you but I sure do.

And there is only one thing to do to make it.  Build value.

Just whatever you do.  Either you create a new product, refurbish an old one or you plainly want to keep your job.  Just build something that has value for the buyer.

Put yourself in the shoes of your eventual customer.  And then ask yourself "what's in there for me?" But not for you the seller.  Not for what YOU think they are getting out of it.  But rather what is it that they are really getting.

Create value.  It sounds so simple isn't it? But it’s not. It is just lately while I was observing a tramp in my neighborhood that it dawned on me.

See this tramp is there every morning.  He stands at the door in the subway.  When ever someone comes, he opens the door for them.  He has a can in his hand and hopes that people will drop a few pennies in the can for the service he provided.

Most people don’t.  In fact I can see in their eyes that they are a bit annoyed he actually tried to help.

Why is that?

See in his mind he thinks he’s performing a service to people that passes by.  But what he misses is that this service is of no value to people. It’s something that they can do themselves in no time.  There is no value in that. 

As a comparison.  I was in Boston a few years ago for business and after the meetings I decided to go for a walk and visit the city.  There is a historic cemetery there where famous people were buried like the original people from the Tea Party.  There is a lot of tourist in the cemetery wondering around the tombs.  At the entrance of the cemetery there is a tramp.  The guy gives to the passing by tourists a map of the cemetery and a short description of who is buried where and what did they do in history.

Now talk about value creation!  When people gets out of the cemetery they give the map back to the tramp… with a tip.  And I can assure you it is not only a penny.  I myself gave a 5$ bill because this is what I felt it was worth to me.  

So this guy understood one thing.  He understood that there is a lot of people not from the town wanting to know who were lying there and he managed to create maps and description for people to follow.

He did the process.  He put himself in his target market’s mind and asks what himself what they want.  Its either something that the customer cannot do, cannot create, or don’t have time to create or needs it for other purpose that will bring him even more value.