Extraordinary entrepreneurship

A couple of years ago, I came across the book Extraordinary Knowing. It’s an incredible story. The author, Lisby, is a psychoanalyst, deeply rooted in science. Her daughter plays the harp, and one day her harp is stolen. The police comes up empty-handed. No trace. A friend suggests she tries a dowser. Lisby thinks it’s crazy but got nothing to lose.

She finds one, 2000 miles away, and talks to him on the phone. He says to send a map of her city to him (this is before Google Maps), and she does. A few days later, he calls back, and tells her exactly which house the harp is in.

That’s still not good enough for a search warrant, so instead she distributes flyers to the houses in a 2-block radius, prompting them to call her if they know anything. Sure enough, someone calls. He’s seen it at his neighbor’s house. They arrange to have the harp returned one night in the parking lot behind a supermarket after hours. The harp is returned to its rightful owner. And Lisby’s life is forever changed.

She dedicates the rest of her life to researching these phenomena and try to come up with a theory for how it’s possible. She gathers a group of other scientists and psychoanalysts in a large study group. One of the requirements for membership in the study group is that each member shares a story, in writing, of an experience of anomalous knowing in their own lives or from a client.

It turns out that these experiences are very very common, but nobody talks about them, because they’re afraid of being seen as crazy, of losing their jobs, or losing funding. There’s a strong self-censorship within the scientific community keeping these experiences hidden. Once there’s a safe outlet for this, the stories start pouring out, and Lisby starts to collect them all systematically.

As techies we tend to be quite rational and scientifically minded. It’s been my experience that we don’t really talk much about these other, more ethereal aspects of life and business. What’s the soul of this product? Of this business? What does my intuition tell me here? How can I align myself with the flow of Life? How am I creating this reality around me? How can I surrender to the Universe and be of highest service? How do I need to grow in this area to better serve? Is this position really a match for this person’s life purpose, or should we reallocate? Let’s all take a moment to close our eyes and tune into the essence of this project, then share what we each experienced.

I would love to create a safe place to have these kinds of conversations. A vocabulary for talking about it. I think there are many more of us who have beliefs that don’t fully match up with the three-dimensional simplistic view of the universe. And I’d love for that to be a completely legitimate view in boardroom meetings, funding negotiations, and any other important conversation in a business.

The spiritual world view is not something we just bring out on Sundays and in speeches, and then forget about when it comes to money. If it is to have any meaning at all, it must be at the center of everything we do as entrepreneurs and creators.

I think a lot of great entrepreneurs already do this naturally, without necessarily being able or willing to talk about it. But I want us to talk about it. I want us to learn what it is that we do, so that we can share, so we can teach, coach, and mentor others. And so that we can legitimize this way of operating in the world.

If you’re with me, put your name and email in the box on the right. I won’t spam you. In fact, I very very rarely write out. But I intend to write out more in the future, because I really want to see this conversation happen. Now!

And if you’re in New York, join me for a meetup. Looking forward to getting to know you.