Shifting Focus

You may not realise it, but you have a problem. I can solve that problem. There is no one else who can. Manufactured inadequacy. Projected confidence. Illusionary exclusivity. There is a reason why wealth is a team sport created in bubbles. If you genuinely care about the person, and your lives are connected, then creating a problem to extract wealth makes no sense. If you have a relationship with a person, it becomes impossible to hide that you are as confused and incompetent at most things as the rest of us. That you are just doing your best. If you care about someone, you stop looking for someone “better” to replace them, because the key is time spent. The person matters. Nepotism, Hereditary Privilege, Patronage, Clubs, and other forms of anti-Meritocracy are incentives. They shift the performance spotlight to a group bigger than ourselves. They make room for vulnerability. Family, children, friends, and community. They also have unintended consequences. I don’t know the answer, but the question is how to see real problems, be honest about our ignorance, and see the strengths in others that are not ours.

"American Progress" John Gast (1872)