You are not a piece of technology. You are a human. And you are meant to grow at your own pace. Not at the rate at which your tools change. There are countless articles out there that talks about how social media has killed our attention span. How instant applications, deliveries, and tools have made us expect more from the world.

It is easy to get trapped by stories we tell ourselves. When we're 18 (or even younger), many of us tell ourselves a story of what we will become when we "grow up". We choose then to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, and whatever else. Or maybe it's the story of becoming an actor, musician, or writer. The first group often spends up till their late 20s or early 30s to feel like they have 'arrived'.

In my work as a solopreneur, and in working with other solopreneurs, I find that the most difficult part of our work is not the work itself. The most difficult part of our work is being in the right state of mind. The right energy state. In a job, you are forced into a state. The workplace meetings, the expectations of someone in power, and team members keep us in check.

It's a universal law that the more I help someone else, the more I end up helping myself. Thus the phrase, "In the joy of others, lies your own." I was fairly stuck on a business challenge for the last few weeks. I was spending countless hours reading up on ways to deal with it. I had even experimented with ways to get past it.

Only tech companies and drug dealers call their customers as users.* If that's the case, then what story are we become addicted to when we show up here? Modern work is performative in nature. We talk about authenticity while being inauthentic. Business "leaders" talk about culture while creating toxic fumes at work with everyone who works with them. And on here?

I once worked with an attorney at a big law firm who was an amazing, fascinating person. We kept pushing him to share his insights and ideas on here. And he kept resisting, pushing away. Even in the safety of a group that was cheering him on. We keep waiting for someone to give us permission to create. We are living in an age of transformation.

There are lots of phony corporate games played at work. Perhaps the worst of them is the game of "competition". It happens in law firms, sales jobs, and almost everywhere else. For some reason, we have all been led into thinking that beating someone else motivates people more than... doing well. Or doing work we're proud of. No matter how harmful and stupid, executive "leaders" seem to get away with terrible work cultures all in service of "competition".

If you grew up gaming, you know all about skill trees. But what makes for the trunk and roots in your work and business? In gaming, you start at the lowest branch of the skill tree and level up with experience. You unlock more abilities as you climb the tree. Skill trees exist in our work as well. There is an endless universe of courses and certifications to help you "level up".

Running faster on the treadmill of "more" still keeps you stuck just in one place. The place of "not enough". When "leaders" talk about their visions, they talk about "more". More products. More services. More shareholder value. When people talk about vision, they also talk about more. More skills certifications, more work, more overtime, more income. Implicit in this understanding is that if we just do "more", we will be okay.

A friend was asked to attend a work call at 9.30 PM on a Friday while on vacation with just a day's notice. My friend politely declined and reminded the CEO he was on vacation. The CEO kept this in the back of his mind. A few months later, the CEO expressed his frustration at my friend for failing to show up during that call.

I've heard that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Yet, culture doesn't get the reverence it deserves. Except in one place. It's called "satsang". Satsang means the coming together of true people. In satsang, you share stories and ideas. You share plainly the hard work of growth. You feel your insecurities. You feel your failures and struggles. It's a time to aspire for the highest of ideals.

Recently, I met a bunch of grads out of high school going into college. This was an Indian-American group of teens, so high expectations come part and parcel with this group. I should know. Almost two decades ago, I was part of this group. I saw almost every one being exceptional in exactly the same way. I saw the honor roll society accolades.

Klarna fired 700 employees last year because the CEO thought "AI" would replace all their work. A year later, they wanted to hire those people again. Turns out AI is not so intelligent. Recently, James Watt asked the question: "What's left for humans when AI does everything better?" He makes the case that, "the barista, the accountant, the professor, the CEO, the creative director - we're all in the same boat now.

Researchers have consistently shown that a group of people meditating for peace can drop violent crime rates across the city. If people meditating for peace can cut down violent crime rates, what does this mean for your work? In these meditation studies, people form a "field effect" that emerges from their consciousness. It turns out that if you get people sitting around with their eyes closed focused on peace, you end actually creating some peace.

The leaders of my childhood were different. Gandhi. Mandela. Lincoln. Terry Fox. And many others. They typically did something brave. They showed up and did the hard work of battling their own selves to choose a higher path. It was not easy. It was difficult. They challenged society, governments, and other apathetic people to sit up and take notice. They earned the title of leaders.