On The Road Less Traveled

The work of M Scott Peck put me on a trajectory that totally changed my life. At the time I first discovered his works in late 1997, I had just witnessed the collapse of a multinational company—of which I was the group corporate director—through a bewildering set of self-defeating decisions. That experience left me with a burning question to figure how normally smart people could disassemble in a crisis and allow a company—that we all spent countless hours with many trials and tribulations to build—to crash through infighting. (I only learned that the game was over from a short call from my Chairman on his way to the airport out of the country. In the blink of an eye, the penthouses, corporate offices, perks & expense accounts were a thing of the past.)

Of all Scott’s works the one that was most compelling to me was called “Community Building in Business”. He argued that since most of us are either in business or a part of one this was a segment of our life that needed more insights since that experience can profoundly impact the rest of our life. And I couldn’t agree more.

And so I poured into his work, corresponded with his team only to leave me unconvinced. And yet deep down I knew he was on to something. It took me years to work it out but my conclusion now is although his arguments were sound it could not be done if the business model was not structured to be inclusive. What is needed to complete his work was a business model that resembled his therapeutic clinic. A model where it’s safe to see and be seen. Where deep listening happens and real concerns addressed. But I did not know any business model like that.

However, I found his tools of “emptying” and “bracketing” invaluable in my journey of discovery. These two tools together with the concept of “paradox” put me on the path that this blog will attempt to chronicle. Emptying means casting aside our assumptions in the face of conundrums facing us. Bracketing is putting aside something which we do not have sufficient information or unable to understand yet at our current stage of consciousness. And Paradox enables us to see that questions may not be framed as either/or answers but both/and.

Eventually, as I struggled to empty and see the paradoxical positions in each situation, I arrived at a practice I call Meditation in the Eye of the Storm and a business model I call The Spiritual Realist in Business (which is still in evolution). And I now have a forum that I hope will eventually evolve into a business community that can find expression as Scott envisaged.

I encourage you to read his other many works if you want to know more but here I will focus on how we can use business by “joining the dots” to peer into “reality” by applying spiritual principles.

Caveat. For the purposes of the forum, I have bracketed “spirituality” by identifying it only from its fruits which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is because I feel dealing with the other 2 components (reality and business) are huge topics in itself. Also using those yardsticks I can see I still have a long way to go but nevertheless, those yardsticks keep me on course. They represent my True North.

Side note: This blog does not have a comments section. If you find any resonance with this particular journey I would like to invite you to join us on our forum, The Spiritual Realist in Business.

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