How did Fleming accidentally invent Penicillin, how did the Kellogg’s brother accidentally invent corn flakes? How did Isaac Newton discover the concept of gravity; apples have always fallen?
How did the name of my firm Hexavia come about? How did the famous Carnegie daringly get the first steel bridge right which eventually crossed the Mississippi River that paved the way for today’s bridge construction model.
How do the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos seem to break new grounds around private space tourism, or with linking our brains to the computer with virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence and other seemingly mission impossible ideas? Some religions call it discernment. The secular system calls it intuition. Everyone thinks. But when the few deep minds do, you realize why the world doesn’t have so many of them.
I have read about and hung around too many successful people, and I see a trend worth sharing. Real highflyers, inventors, disruptors and successful entrepreneurs can look aggressive and noisy, but they have a secret chamber, and in it, a voice comes, cutting in at times without their permission, it sometimes says, “go”, or “stop”, or “peace be still”. Externally, it manifests as what we call gut feelings. It’s eureka mindset. It’s that point when logic is defied.
Possibilities are just drawn to them. It’s from the same place that faith is drawn from too. They just obey. Sometimes we are just at the right place just at the right time. Like copied mathematics assignment, you can’t explain. But we are right. We know we are. We don’t know how we know, but we just know. You can call it grace, but it’s a part of how great people got there.
Beyond business knowledge, most people are not deep enough. They don’t even know themselves and how the universe works deep enough to exploit it. In all that we do and know, there is a level of depth that makes success easy to achieve, and only a few get there or stay there.
Be mindful, it’s from the mind that ideas come from. Ideas are never fully formed. It’s their nature. They are just dropped into our mind. That’s why it’s important to be in sync with it.
Today’s world is noisy; non-stop talking and too unfocused thinking. For an entrepreneur an idle mind isn’t always a devil’s workshop; a foolish and unguided one is. To become deep enough to invoke from our spirit great ideas, we must all learn to stay still at intervals. Meditation is the most popular method of achieving this. I believe everyone should master how to voyage through it. The secret formula is stillness and meditation. Meditation is the art of staying still.
Let me try to break it down. Your mind houses a series of infinite thoughts all over the place, each like a drunken monkey. Imagine keeping all of them still. The goal is to eventually focus on one thing. Restlessness has its pro and cons but more cons in thinking. Don’t be a busy bee. The phrase “be still” is perhaps one of the most powerful instructions in the Bible. The greatest insights and ideas come when you’re doing nothing. Most people forget this.
Sometimes all it takes is to take a deep breath, just relax and attempt dwelling fully and only in the present. Eckhart Tolle, Buddhist and writer, in his meditative book of spiritual enlightenment calls it The Power of Now. Today’s world comes with so many challenges, its worse when you run a business or manage systems. Our unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worries — all forms of fear — are caused by too much emphasis on the future and not enough presence in the present.
And on the other hand, guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough present. It doesn’t matter what happens in the past or what will happen in the future, what should matter to you is that you can change a lot of things now. This is the power of now.
Most times as businessmen, we mumble up our circle of concern with our circle of influence. In the book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey gives a good illustration of this in terms of the circle of concern and circle of influence. What we tend to worry about but have “no real control” over belongs to our circle of concern. Worry overwhelms us when we channel our time and energy.
In the words of Joyce Meyer, when your body and spirit is resting, your emotions are okay, your mind is okay, and your will is at peace and in sync with all three triads of your manifestation. The mind works better while we are at rest. Be still. Enjoy the lonely boulevards of your mind at times.
Just mind the present, dwell in it, enjoy it, it’s a gift and that’s why it is called “present”. The way to master it is by starting each day with it. You can start by allocating 20 minutes daily to meditating. Meditation creates depth, by letting the outer noise off without drowning that inner voice.
I’d love to suggest a book, it’s a New York Times bestseller titled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. The book reveals a lifestyle secret shared by most public figures and even extroverts. After all the openness and interactions with the limelight, we always find a cave to recharge our expended energy. Now that’s an altar.
Research has shown that there’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas. It’s really from retrospect and solitude that the best ones emerge. To every successful witty, high-octane public speaker you see, there is practice where he draws back alone and recharges in solitude after his talks. To every record-breaking salesman, come a point of reflection where he quietly taps into the power of questions and feedback he got. Don’t be fooled. As far as everyone has a sprit, mind and body, they must be nourished.
Everyone must an altar where they find solitude, great ideas and creative energy. Solitude creates creativity, a powerful tool for entrepreneurs. The world is full of noise, which is the cause of conflicts and battles. However, some of the greatest battles will be fought and won in the chambers of your soul, mind and heart. Keep them in sync.
EIZU UWAOMA
