Some Corporate Cultures

The culture of the corporation is a tough nut to crack. And, after I figured out that it stank most of the times, I chose to jet off to another venue where I knew I could deal with people that I could trust; people who would treat me well and fairly and not act like paranoid fanatics always watching their backs. They make you feel uncomfortable because they are insecure and they perceive everything and everyone as a threat. An environment such as this will surely degenerate in time and take all the foolish idiots who remain down with it.

If we are in a threatening environment, how can we produce anything of real value? We should ask ourselves if our boss is our real friend and teacher and our colleagues are our protectors. If the answer is a resounding “yes,” then we are in the right place for our spiritual and career development. If not, I suggest we slap our resume on the billions of pages of the Internet. Do not worry that our company may find out and we will be financially insecure for the moment. As Gerry Spence says, “when you are on the precipice of insecurity that is when you are really most secure.”

Remember: If we love our work, the money will always come. If we do not love our work, we should always be on the lookout for a better place and, when we find it, JET. Alternatively, we should talk to our best friends and find out what we can both do together. When there is trust, then only then can we create something of true, long-lasting value.

On the Internet

The Internet is a tool for instituting the death of the concept of intellectual property – knowledge can never be possessed and should be given away freely. The artist and the inventor need protection from those who can not create anymore, who lost their innocence and vulnerability on the path to self-protection in a hostile environment. The artist and the inventor can protect themselves by seeking out one another. We can protect each other very efficiently if we share our end-fruits with on another and post writing and art on the Internet freely. Then, no one can take credit for someone else’s hard work because there is clean evidence that the real artist is the authentic producer.

I don’t ascribe to astrology and numerology because I believe a person can continually change course with that one thought that triggers determination. However, it is rather strange that the greatest communication medium – the Internet – was created by DARPA (Defense Agency) for secure, military communications. Now, the whole world is getting on the Internet bandwagon, which can travel at the speed of light via fiber optics. It is also rather ironic that we are now moving out of the Age of Pisces, the era of dissension and warfare, into the Age of Aquarius, the age of communication. I hope that we come to understand that open communication is our real international security.

Some Lessons : )

1. E=mc2 ≈ Energy = (Science)(Art)2 ≈ Empathy is the highest form of Intelligence. – Sir John Rutledge

2. It is better to love, than to be loved. - Sir Lawrence O’Sullivan

3. The best bull’s eye for humorous target practice is oneself. – HippoParamus

4. Good money does grow on trees; it grows on everything that is watered with earnest intention, the salt of the earth, and a Van Gogh-inspired starlit night sky. – HippoParamus

5. If you want to be happy for a day buy a bottle of wine; if you want to be happy for three days, get married; and, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, build a garden. – Chinese proverb presented to me by Sir Richard Minister

6. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that [good women and] good men do nothing. – Edmund Burke

7. We are building a garden of friends at the University of Uno’s. Please come through our portico into our foregrounds and backyards blanketed with marigolds and irises. – HippoParamus

8. Energy = Empathy

On the Run-of-the-mill CEOs

The arm of justice is the arm of economic might for the time being. If that is the case, then the employees, who have built a company, should not rely on the largesse of self-interested spokesman/CEOs – whose bad decisions tend to amount to lay offs and self-preservation rather then self-recusing. Make no mistake, the greed of the charmer is unlimited in contrast to the hard work of many a life worker.

Rather, the CEO, with millions at stake, is their own spokesman or woman, in the tradition of the democratic tradition of Athens under the tutelage of Plato, the sweet idealist and elitist, or the tutelage of their mothers’ mantra – “take care of our own.” In my estimation, the human necessity of “take care of your own and your self” is the solution.

In the stead of being promised a pension or 401K matching for that matter, employees should have a major stake in a company’s decision elitism in the best interest of producing the best product. Or, rather, instead of paying a semi-tithe to unions or a half-ass assumption of company debt for the sake of the Fat Cat CEO or executive, who absconds on the pronouncement of a “golden parachute,” the person or persons who have built the company should be entitled to something extra while they seek all the accoutrements of modernity – that is – health care, child care, wages, a healthy afterlife in retirement after toiling for the benefit of the company’s customer - contractual obligation for the company based on merit.

So, how can we seek a rectifiable solution – the many always have more power than the smooth-talking charmer – that is - union dues must be used to buy company stock. This solution concurrently solves many problems. While the many, who work in concert for the company’s benefit, can vote as a discerning block for themselves and the company’s profit, simultaneously, they can live with the benefit of the promise: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.