The Sunday Morning Factor

Have you noticed how many unusual things happen on Sunday mornings? Do you feel that there is something special about that precise time of the week, where everything seems better, simpler, where your mind is more relaxed?
Probably a lot of people just spend it sleeping, after coming home at 7 from an all-night-long hardcore party. It does happen to me from time to time!

A couple of things made this morning - and it's not even over yet! - different:
1. I got a new mobile phone last week, and I now have unrestricted, unlimited access to internet and 20 TV channels , 24/7, from anywhere as long as my mobile catches a signal.
2. some day in september 2003, soon after joining the business school I graduated from, I stepped through a door labelled "Aiesec" because I thought there might be something of interest.

Now let's look at the consequences:
1. as Thomas Friedman, world-reknown columnist & economy journalist, explains in book, "The World is Flat" (or on Amazon.com), the current trend is for increased connection of individuals to the global society & economy, and one of the things that individual can now do is "in-forming". He means that "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people". One of the consequences he describes a bit further in hte book is that every person with access to a computer and internet can be his/her own news reporter, can create his own information, comparing sources, relating events between each other, balancing perspectives coming from different places and build up his own opinion on a topic with a lot more foundation than ever before.
So I got this new mobile with internet, and as I rode the train back from my parent's place to my current flat, I was surfing on facebook (yes, they do have a mobile site). and one of the news caught my attention, it was an update about Janne Asmala.
That brings us to point 2.
2. Janne is a Finnish chap I met in 200...5 (I think?), at an Aiesec conference. It's amazing how much change in life has derived from my stepping through that door back in 2003. So in 2005 he was a student in Finland, aiming for a master in Knowledge Management. Meeting him was a striking experience for me because we were just 20 years old and he had already read an amazing lot about philosophy, the power of the mind, and education system. Within Aiesec, pushed simply by his strong inner belief, he started a move to change the education systems globally. I'm not sure how that move is now, but back then it resulted in discussion groups at several conferences, involving dozens of students from just about any country, and I'm sure it was a life changing experience for them. Witnessing this phenomenon made me understand better how a single person, just following his own path and inner conviction, can bring change and involve people into something bigger than just themselves.

So, surfing on facebook, i went to read his latest post, which led me, following the links at random, to learn about the book "Presence". As one of the amazon.com reviewed it:
"The authors' central question is "How do we individually and collectively bring about useful change in circumstances where the past, and established ways of thinking, are not good guides to the future?" If, as the authors believe, globalization, the exponentially growing impact of humans on the environment, and the overwhelming power and influence of a small number of global corporations have produced a situation in which accepted ways of thinking and acting are no longer appropriate, what are the appropriate ways of thinking and acting and how do we learn them, get them accepted and promote their widespread adoption? Is this an issue only for those in 'positions of power', or can all of us make a difference?"

I found myself looking at an excellent phrasing for a question that I have been focusing on lately: the challenge of change in environments that are not receptive to it. I think this is also a question that a lot of people are asking themselves at the moment, what with general climate change, economical slow-down (I'm an "anti-crisis"!), etc.
However this sentences poses quite a number of problems. Starting with the definitions of the words used :"useful change", and "established ways of thinking", are very much subjective. The very idea of "useful change" is extremely controversial", as differet people will see it differently. Also, what can be considered an "established way of thinking"? the average habit of the majority of the population? A statistical opinion at a given point in time?
I do not have answers for this, but I definitely intend to look into this topic. It is one of the questions that emerged from the Kitchen Discussion. But that is another story... that I keep for next time.

I hope you all make good use of your Sunday mornings. It is a time for extraordinary events, that will link your peaceful resting morning to places far away in space and time. It works if you read a book too :)
Long live Sunday mornings!

Escapades - 2

playlist for writing this post:
The Strokes, their complete "First Impressions of Earth" album (2006). Start with the first song, "You only live once"...
as I was messing around at the same time, I had to use a bit of :
Shakira's "MTV Unplugged" (2000) towards the second part :)

Today's "Escapade" is not mine. I heard two life stories, and they both started exactly the same: a bright young graduate worked as a consultant/auditor for a global, world-renowned firm, in a glass-and-steel sky-rise in La Défense. Namely, the main Central business District in the area of Paris.
Then one day they felt like doing something else. Resigned from their jobs, from one day to the next (or almost). And started their own adventure.

1. The first one set out to create a firm selling natural, waterless car-cleaning solutions. He thought we should stop using so much water to wash car, and also he found that the existing products for washing cars without water were not so efficient.
Going back to his family home in the North of France, he started his own company. His family was soooo skeptical. SOooooooooooo skeptical! He knew nothing about the car-washing business, and had little idea about what organic components should be included.
He just carried on. After 3 years, most of his relatives are actually working in the company he founded. His mother, who was most worried about his future, is the most active and enthousiastic employees.
He offers professional washing services, his main customers are companies that manage fleets of vehicles (private industry, but also public institutions, or car rental companies). he washes a car in a couple of hours, with products using only natural ingredients and without any water addition.
Talk about a sustainable business!
It looks like he wants to focus on developing this business a bit more, but who know what he can come up with next?

2. Amaury Bironneau was also a successful, as we say, French young graduate. He had started a career in one of those big multinational firms offering lots of benefits, and interesting jobs, of course.

Still, one fine day, he got in touch with Patrice Franceschi, captain of the exploration sailship "La Boudeuse". The ship, bearing a french flag and stationned in Paris, on the river Seine, is usually at large somewhere halfway to the other side of the planet.
The boat brings its crew to meet and exchange with peoples and cultures.
So Amaury met the captain, something "clicked" and he knew that he was ready to embark on a year-trip to the other side of the world, only a few weeks later, with 20 or so people that he had never met before.
So many things happen on those kind of experiences, it is all about "expect the unexpected"... In 'developing' countries, things do not work as they are supposed to, and coastguards will ask for bribes, medicine wont be available, people wont speak your language...
Amaury was born in a "farmer" environment, his family coming from the ground, he had no pre-set mind to go sailing. He just went, because it felt like something right for him to do, and he couldnt picture himself making a career, putting his suit on & shaving every morning, going into an air-conditionned office.

The ability to make a risky decision, a committing life-choice, in order to get closer to one's true self and personal path. Now, that is what I call a leadership behavior.

I feel the same sometimes. We all want different things at different stages of our lives. At the moment, i dont want so much change that I'll go to Papua New Guinea. What happens when I do? How much time will I allow myself to prepare?
The future is gonna be such a great time! Incidentally, it is also the place where we are going to spend most of our remaining lifetime, so it better be great!!