I have decided to join a conspiracy and I am writing to ask some of you to join me. This is also a brief explanation of the work our small, new company is doing. We felt the explanation was important because of how many spaces we are involved in.
Market Niche? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Market Niche!
Hans Hageman & Associates has jumped into a few areas. We have a few websites, one podcast, and at least one more on the way. These are vehicles to examine seemingly disparate areas of life – health & fitness, dating & relationships, leadership, diversity, and small business development. We are responding to our observations, life experiences, and dozens of conversations with people engaged in moving through a new world. We are also discovering that there are natural connections amongst all these areas. We also happen to believe that we can do well by doing some good in all of these areas.
The Bystander Effect
It’s sometimes really tempting to be a bystander. Isn’t that the easiest way to avoid all the pain out there? Other people/the government/people with more means are the ones who can/should handle things. But then reality leaps at you. For me, it was listening to two friends around my age detail all their serious health problems. It was finding out that students at the high school I had founded had received the news (after being told a different story for months) that their school was being closed and that those who were not graduating were going to be thrown back into the shark tank. It was seeing the movie, “Race To Nowhere” and having my knowledge confirmed of the deadly pressure faced by upper middle class high school students. This pressure is combined with the lessons for success that these children learn – rote memorization, cheating, and a weakening of family ties in favor of test performance and ticket punching extra-curricular activities. It was reading about the lies being told to law students so that their law schools can continue the habits of greed shared by the parasites of the financial industry (http://nyti.ms/fVe2Z4).
What Next?
What can anyone do? I don’t know but what Bernadette, Yaromil, Francis and I have decided to do is to find ways to help others alleviate and prevent their suffering. In doing so, we hope to alleviate and prevent our own. We live in a world where “pain is mandatory” but our struggle is to prove that suffering can be made optional. My team and I have redefined our own definitions of “ambition.”. We intend to remain on guard against the hubris that has the “experts” believe that they have “figured it out.” We do not suffer from what Wallace Stevens called “a blessed rage for order.” Life is messy and disordered and there a few scaleable solutions. We know that we will have more success helping people achieve balance than moral perfection
We bring who we are to our personal and work relationships. We can try to create alternate personas (as so many are forced to do) but things leak through – either our enlightened sides or our shadow selves. It is important to be able to look into that pool of water and shout with pride and pleasure at the reflection, “This really is me!”
Our merry band works with people who need to examine the structure that has been created for their lives. I believe that we each have a true Self and that conditioning has prevented us from living as that true Self. Intelligence, accomplishment, material possessions all provide camouflage as we seek to escape what we should be living.
Join The Conspiracy
Oh, and that conspiracy…
I will continue to join with others who are not only part of the Long Defeat but who are also part of the conspiracy to uncover the perfection that exists in each of us as a gift from God.
So come visit us here on http://HansHageman.com or at http://yaromil.foursquare.com, http://BoomerRonin.com, or http://BrownstoneFitness.com
