Knowledge Fulcrum

R. Buckminster Fuller was perhaps one of the greatest people of the 20th century.  He’s best known for being a visionary, designer, architect, author and inventor.Fuller died in 1983 at the age of 87.  On his gravestone is inscribed “Call me Trimtab”.

Bucky frequently used the phrase as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In a 1972 article Bucky said, “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.”

Bucky’s life long accomplishments speak for themselves – he wrote over 20 books, held 28 US Patents, and began a movement that is alive and well today.  When ever I start to feel like stuck and I’m not making a difference, I remind myself of this phrase and the man who changed the world.

In Ithaca We Trust.  If this is not a clear message of how confident we are, I don’t know what is.   Ithaca Hours is a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community self-reliance in ways to support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations in and around Ithaca, New York.

Ithaca Hours helps to keep money local, thus building the Ithaca economy. It also builds community pride and connections. Over 900 participants publicly accept Ithaca HOURS for goods and services. Additionally, some local employers and employees have agreed to pay or receive partial wages in Ithaca Hours, further continuing their goal of keeping money local.

I met another person who many of you may know — Simon Sinek — who also has his own currency.  Simon issues Tokens of Inspiration to people who inspire him or others. I keep my token in my pocket to remind me that there are better ways to measure success than how much money we have in our wallets.  What keeps crossing my mind is that fact that, now more than ever, get the opportunity to build a society the way we want…all it takes is creativity combined with thought.  I imagine that we will see a lot more people exchanging new types of currency in the future.

I recently read an interesting article about the effect that feeling helpless has on our emotional state and sense of control.

“Even the most laid back among us crave a sense of control, and when we feel helpless we scour our surroundings for anything that will restore predictability.  New research shows that when we lack control we don’t simply wait for order to return: we impose it, if only in our own minds, by imagining patterns and trends where none exist.

In six experiments, psychologist Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University manipulated subjects’ sense of control. Results showed that not having control caused participants to mistakenly see an image in a field of static, to smell conspiracy in other people’s benign behavior, to embrace superstitious  beliefs and to perceive nonexistent stock-market trends.  Such illusory perceptions evaporated when participants were first denied control but then given an opportunity to write about their most deeply held values, an activity that bolsters psychological security and quells feelings of helplessness.”

So I now ask myself: is it therapeutic to write as much as I do, and about what I do?  It might be considered therapeutic.  But I also know that I have something to say.  I know that I have experiences to bring to the table in this current economy. As I write, and when I write, I find myself taking stock of my experiences in my 20 year career.  I ask myself — how can I wield those experiences and invest them, infuse them into this blog so that readers, and as a collective, we can all change the course, and apply what we know.  There’s a galaxy of collective wisdom among us.  The best and brightest in our Nation’s Capitol are at work on the issues of our day.

I’m not sure that my craving for control is real because after all, what is “real” anyway?  I do believe that it’s our nature to express our thoughts and beliefs and in the process we constantly shape and re-shape our own sense of reality and control — the sense of ourselves to ourselves.

Last Thursday was an indulgent day for me.  I spent it with my friend, Simon Sinek and a group of fellow entrepreneurs (EO).  For those of you who’ve had the chance to see Simon speak, you’ll understand what I’m about to share.  For those of you who haven’t – well, you owe it to yourself to find a chance to see him.   Simon’s sole mission is to inspire others into action.  If I were to draw a picture of this it would look like this:

Inspiration is something that’s difficult to describe, yet we all know what it feels like.  This is because inspiration comes from the part of the mind that words have a difficult time describing.  A good analogy is this: how would you describe the color red to someone who’s been blind their entire life?  

What’s so special to me about inspiration is the effect it has on people and their actions.  It’s inspiration that drives people to imagine unthinkable ideas, and it’s inspiration that keeps them moving toward their vision.  It’s the same feeling that drove Thomas Edison to endure thousands of failures before he found the one filament that worked for his incandescent light bulb.

I belive it’s this same source of human energy that motivates entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.  It’s the same source of energy that motivates employees and customers to follow a leader – even through the face of adversity.  Last Thursday, I was able to look around the room as Simon spoke.  I saw something very special.  There were over 100 people – most of them highly charged, busy entrepreneurs, and each of them were on the edge of their seat for two hours.  It takes something very special to do that.  It takes someone who lives a purposeful life and is not satisfied until he has inspired every human being on the planet.  I wonder how much energy Simon created last Thursday?  It would be interesting to know.  I know he inspired me – thank you, Simon. Thank you very much.