“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. AI isn’t just coming for “low-skilled” jobs. It’s coming for the Nobel Prize winners, the Fortune 500 CEOs, the world’s best doctors.”
I really don’t think LLMs are going to pour my coffee at Starbucks anytime soon.
But the rest, sure. But not because AI is smarter in any way.
But because CEOs are on an endless road to promote growth at all costs. And they need employee loyalty and retention until of course employees become disposable by AI.
The one group exempt from this: CEOs. Maybe Klarna’s CEO could have asked AI if it should have fired 700 people. CEOs are never questioned about their poor decisions made so confidently that upends the lives of hundreds and thousands.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if AI is going to replace you or not. Most business “leaders” are looking to replace us no matter what (read more about this from my post a few days back).
The only option left: we start to create our own conscious path to success. Our own road that’s inspired by own skills, creativity, interest, and desire to contribute.
Video about that coming soon by the way.
Let me know what you think. And if this point is of interest to you, let me know. I’m putting together a private group discussion where we figure out what’s next for us.
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.
Something strange happened however as I got older. This especially took shape when I was in business school.
We started calling heads of businesses as “leaders”.
It seems to me that the only requisite however to become a “leader” in this category is the ability to acquire power. And make lots of money. Or have big budgets to spend a lot of money.
We emulate those whom we see as our leaders. Is it any wonder that so many of us feel like we are off kilter?
Old-fashioned ideals of character, morality, humility, empathy need not apply.
I think that’s why so many “leaders” across the corporate world score high on narcissism, psychopathy and sociopathy. The layoffs, displacement, micromanagement, workplace bullying, etc are all indicators that this is not an isolated thing.
I observed this first hand across many organizations.
Maybe it’s time we stop calling anyone with a title as “business leader” and find some other word instead.
I’m not sure what that word is, but maybe others do?
I think it’s high time we explore what a new story of business, success, and growth can look like. Let me know if this resonates.
I spent too much time bringing the wrong energy back home from work. And it affected the most important relationships in my life. Especially after I became a father.
There’s something broken at the core of our work culture that makes us this way.
In biology, if all the cells continue to die, it means the cell culture is contaminated and toxic. But in a work environment where 8/10 of us are overstressed, and 120,000 people die from this in the US alone…somehow this is okay?
We have to be our own leaders, because no one else is going to do this for us.
I am strongly started to believe we need to get out of the survival mode that modern work puts us in.
“What would self-actualization mean for me?” “What is my dharma here?”
It’s time to brewing our own culture…and leave toxic cultures behind.
That’s the only way to remake work.
This video shows what I noticed and how I started to take charge…by doing something counterintuitive.
I’m taking the leap into something I care deeply about.
My lifelong spiritual practice has been at the heart of everything I’ve done.
When I work with my clients, whether they be attorneys with their own practices, startup founders, or social entrepreneurs, our discussions often take on a philosophical or spiritual dimension.
Sharing this dimension has added immensely to our work.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the world needs this urgently.
Our world has become ruled by outdated ideas and conceptions. And I’m convinced that if we are to get past this phase, we need a new way to look at ourselves and the world. Before we divide and separate ourselves any further.
At the heart of this transition lies a concept that is barely understood or talked about. Consciousness.
Exploring consciousness (or the atman) has been at the heart of my spiritual practice all of my life.
I’ve kept this part of my life hidden from most people. Because it can feel woo-woo, esoteric.
This isn’t about meditation, self-care apps, corporate wellness programs, or mindfulness. This is about completely changing the way we see ourselves, each other, and the work we do.
Understanding this can remake businesses, governments, and the world. More than anything, it can remake me and you.
But I’d now like to invite you to join me on a long journey as I unravel how concepts of consciousness and dharma can help you and I be better leaders, create better organizations, and ultimately begin a new chapter for our world.
What ideas from the old world do we need to put to an end? What role does consciousness play in your work and life? Let me know!
For 20+ years, I have known that there is an energy that has been waiting to be unleashed.
Society tells us to say “no” to this. Maybe the same has happened to you.
After a lifetime of saying no, I am finally choosing to say yes to the creative urge within me.
I have bargained with it, negotiated with it, and have supressed it. I have tried to manipulate it and convince myself of alternatives.
But, as I near my 35th birthday and look at my baby daughter, I realize I need to have the courage to be the person I am.
They say I need to be practical. But the practical reality is that I will be a lot more successful doing what I love. Because I can give myself fully to my work.
I am scared to do it. But it is scarier still to hold myself back and look back at a life that is half-lived.
They say leave work at the door and focus instead on what actually matters – family, spirituality, yoga, etc. But what if work itself can be a spiritual practice? What if being creative means to show up with an energy to engage more fully in my relationships?
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life itself is creative energy. Creativity is my gift from God. To use this creativity is my gift back to God.
What does creativity mean? Does it mean to write? To paint? To make music?
I am choosing to think of creativity as a way of letting the higher power create through me. Some days, it will be in the form of a written word. Other day, it will be in the form of videos. Or products, services, talks and more.
To create is to give myself fully. To feel into things. To trust. To leap into the empty void. To lead with my heart and then engage the head to stick the landing.
This is a scarier way to live. I am sometimes jealous of my friends who are doctors, lawyers, actuaries, engineers, and more. The small shop owners.
But as the world economy evolves, I realize that to live a creative life is the only real game left. It is a game that never ends. You play it because the game itself is endlessly interesting.
While with other jobs, people play will play until they win the Monopoly game. Their homes are made.
Not so with the creative. My game is endless and I wish to play it forever.
My inspiration to play this game in my own way comes from a man who gave himself to the world. Pramukh Swami Maharaj. He taught to live and give abundantly. To hold nothing back. To love freely and openly. To always inspire. To always give.
Why would I not want to live like that?
If you have been waiting for a sign to live creatively, take this to be it. And join me for the journey!
A re-frame of the old adage that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”
If you have ever felt a lack of focus, purpose, and a sense of disconnection from life, the reason might be that your mind is just too cluttered. This is how we change it.
My experience at de-cluttering
For the first time in months, I slept without a phone next to me. And I woke up without a phone next to me.
In my bed, I visualized and felt my goals coming true. I arose from my bed calm and ready for the day. I got ready, did my morning meditation and prayers, had brunch with my wife. All this without a single screen to look at.
Remarkably, I felt an immediate change in the way I felt.
Let’s contrast with how things usually were for me.
I would go to sleep at night with a phone in my hand. I would use it to read books, so I would tell myself at least I was being productive late into the night. But of course the mind cannot be productive all the time. It just isn’t built for it.
Because of this habit, I would not be able to spend time with my wife as she drifted off to sleep herself. It was an incomplete way to end the day. Not having a phone between us allowed us to sync with each other as we fell asleep.
In the morning, I would also reach for my phone. I would again start the day with spiritual readings, but my mind is never ready for it. There is something about the device that makes me want to search for the next hit of information. I would soon find myself catching up with work emails, messages, and personal direct messages and start responding to them.
“They’re just for work or family” I would say. But at around this time, my mental peace is already disturbed. I’m in a state of chaos already, sucked into a tumultuous world.
This would happen even on weekends.
Not today however.
What Inspired Me
I have felt a lack of focus and a real sense of disconnection with myself as of late. The pace of things had been increasing but I felt I was staying in the same place.
I came at a crossroads where I realized that until I change something inside of me, I will be far away from my ideal life.
I believed my path to the ideal life was a macho push-through-everything way of looking at the world.
The picture of a hyper-connected, hyper-responsive executive, making a million decisions a day is firm in my mind’s eye. This is also extremely destructive.
What I want is calm. I want peace of mind. I want to engage with my work as an instrument of my life; something that I play with to create music because I enjoy it. Not be ruled by it.
The means of doing that is not through being more productive, more systems and processes. Not more left brain. But more heart. More soul. This is a difficult proposition at times since as of the writing of this post, I work in the legal industry where I’m often surrounded by hyper-logical and critical lawyers. But I also see a destructive lack of meaning, connection, and significance when I speak with many lawyers up close. I see broken marriages, addictions. I see brewing volcanoes of stress and burnout that is barely placated with another training on productivity, efficiency, surface-level mentions of self-care.
A hyper-active cluttered mind cannot find peace. There is no productivity hack that will reawaken your heart to work. You will be more productive at making yourself unhappy, drifting further and further away from peace of mind.
The Need for Space
I was inspired by this talk below:
It spoke about a different way of getting focus. But focus is just one benefit of removing the clutter.
The real benefit is getting greater peace of mind. More space.
When there is more space, the heart and your true self (the atman) can be heard.
This morning, I find myself more connected than ever before to myself.
I know weekdays will be difficult since I am going to work and I often have morning calls. I will have to find a way to maintain my peace of mind as I design the future.
This is just day 1. I will report back what I learn from this journey as I go through it over the coming weeks.
Consider removing the phone from your life for just this weekend. At least in between bed-time and the start of your workday. See what happens. If you’ve already done this, what has been your experience with decluttering your mind?