Escape From Excellence

In my late youth, when it seemed that I prefered reading heavy European books instead of frolicking outside in the sunshine, I once read where Soren Kierkegaard (big deal Danish philosopher) railed against the faults of what he called “the busy man of affairs,” by whom he meant movers and shakers in business and politics. He seemed to think they were all vacant and shallow phonies who stroked their own egos while achieving nothing of value (in his view, the Copenhagen of his day was one big fat bourgeois nightmare). Well, OK, that can be true sometimes, especially when mediocrity dresses up as excellence. But it never rang entirely true to me. Kierkegaard was a giant in many ways, but he wasn’t the most well-adjusted fellow, and even his fans often have to shake their heads sometimes at his emotional foibles (he died of exhaustion and a broken heart after he lost a battle, that he started, in which he attacked, well, basically everybody in town, in print).

Many years later, I learned that Hindu’s believe that all work is good, and necessary. Great news! Take that Kierkegaard! It turns out that burgermeisters and industrialists are people too. The problem is that while it may be all well and good to do the work of a merchant (business person), you have little chance in traditional Indian society to reinvent yourself or escape the mere excellence of your caste of birth. You have to be born a brahmin.

So I wondered (as I do): can there be a business brahmin? Can one be fully integrated and at their best, as a business leader? Short answer: Yes. But you have to escape from the mediocrity and excellence that Kierkegaard so despised, and make the transition to mastery. Then, as Joseph Campbell pointed out, there is nothing in this world more powerful and unstoppable than a fully realized brahmin. Then business isn’t busyness. It has become innovation, creativity, and vision made real for the substantive benefit of all involved. Leadership Mastery is like that.

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