Why Businesses Need to Prepare for the Gathering Storm

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_fzbubbeljo/XWiamJPLnDI/AAAAAAABHWg/YCfvsYYtkdI5rYVno50FYNUeABsjd0z4wCLcBGAs/s1600/Jacques%2BLouis%2BDavid%2B-%2BTennis%2BCourt%2BOath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1400" height="420" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_fzbubbeljo/XWiamJPLnDI/AAAAAAABHWg/YCfvsYYtkdI5rYVno50FYNUeABsjd0z4wCLcBGAs/s640/Jacques%2BLouis%2BDavid%2B-%2BTennis%2BCourt%2BOath.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Tennis Court Oath</i> by Jacques-Louis David, 1793 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tennis_Court_Oath_(David)#/media/File:Serment_du_Jeu_de_Paume_-_Jacques-Louis_David.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, public domain)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <b><i><span style="font-size: large;">“It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than to apply them.”</span></i></b> </div> <div style="text-align: right;"> ― Winston Churchill, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2L5hKZz" target="_blank">The Gathering Storm</a></i></div> <br /> <br /> There's a backlash coming.<br /> <br /> We've all seen talk about the tech backlash, with firms like <a href="https://amzn.to/2UiFjkB" target="_blank">Amazon, Google, and Facebook</a> in the cross-hairs of pundits and government officials. That's centered around their consolidated power and use of data. And it's a topic that deserves consideration.<br /> <br /> The backlash I'm predicting is a different one. It's rooted less in operations and more in culture.<br /> <br /> The origins of this backlash are many, and I'll outline some of them below.<br /> <br /> Before I do, let's pause to consider the image above, <i>The Tennis Court Oath</i>, Jacques-Louis David's painting brought to life a foundational event of the French Revolution. In it, we see the gathering of the middle class, who had sworn an oath for national unity over individual freedoms. It took courage to stand up to authority in those times, but ethics and integrity demanded it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> <b>This Time, It's Personal</b></h2> The era of social and digital media was supposed to draw us all together. We were tired of being treated like just another number or a cog in the system—we were told w'd be able to talk directly with brands and get our voices heard!<br /> <br /> What's happened in the interim is that brands have continued down a well-worn path and have simply rolled out all of the old advertising styles on new platforms. What are we left with? Feeds that are choked with ads.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, misinformation is growing and we don't know where to turn. We use the buffer of a screen between us and other netizens to unleash caustic and vitriolic attacks. We experience many emotions online, but anger seems to be the one that gets the most traction.<br /> <br /> Then, perhaps we pause and look out the window, wistfully and <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/01/the-kinds-of-interactions-that-grow.html" target="_blank">hazily recalling the days</a> when the bank vice president knew your parents' first names and would greet them at the local branch. When a firm handshake and eye contact could tell someone a great deal about your character. And when your word was your bond.<br /> <br /> But we're far removed from that world now. And we'd do anything to reclaim it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> <b>Trust Buster</b></h2> Trust (or lack of it) is a significant issue with many people, all around the world. There's a wide difference in the level of trust that the general public and the informed public have in business, NGOs, government, and the media, according to the <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer" target="_blank">2019 Edelman Trust Barometer</a>.<br /> <br /> There are fears related to job loss (both general anxiety over the economy as well as over automation and A.I.), people don't believe the system is working for them, and they see opportunities for certain classes of people that aren't available to them.<br /> <br /> Mike Isaac's <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2LkConh" target="_blank">Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber</a></i> makes it clear that venture capitalists are playing a very different investing game than the rest of us. All of the early investors are seeing massive returns, even though Uber isn't profitable. Anyone who invested in the I.P.O. on the first day of trading won't see the same kind of return, however.<br /> <br /> So V.C.s have a very different goal than other investors: they hope to successfully bring a company to market. There's less concern with ensuring a company is profitable than there is about the process of taking a company public. Their fiduciary duty is focused on their shareholders (those who invest in their funds) rather than on the future shareholders of the public company's stock.<br /> <br /> With this kind of arrangement, it's easy to see why the average person would feel that the system not working for them.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> <b>Business Roundtable Turns the Tables</b></h2> Last week, Business Roundtable, a business association made up of CEOs, dropped a bombshell on the industry with a change in their Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.<br /> <br /> For decades—really, since 1970, when Milton Friedman penned a commentary in <i>The New York Times Magazine</i> that <a href="http://umich.edu/~thecore/doc/Friedman.pdf" target="_blank">the social responsibility of a business is to increase profits</a>—businesses have placed their focus on the benefit to shareholders.<br /> <br /> It should be no surprise to anyone who follows the path of CMOs, who now have the shortest tenure and are constantly under scrutiny for short-term growth. Nor anyone who follows the market following the reporting of quarterly numbers. Wall Street hammers companies that don't perform well quarter to quarter. When in reality, <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/01/if-youre-committed-to-transformation.html" target="_blank">companies need time to absorb the massive changes</a> that customers are demanding, thanks to the expectation of cheap and fast services and goods that non-competitors like Uber and Amazon have created.<br /> <br /> Now Business Roundtable says that businesses need to reexamine their priorities. Their new <b><a href="https://opportunity.businessroundtable.org/ourcommitment/" target="_blank">Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation</a></b> says that shareholders are now part of a collective that also includes employees, suppliers, and customers.<br /> <br /> It would seem to be common sense: if you treat your employees, suppliers, and customers well, it's good for business and the bottom line.<br /> <br /> This assumption was already embedded within Friedman's work; it's just that greed and the prioritization of short-term growth overtook things, and in interviews, he focused on the profitability.<br /> <br /> Friedman wrote that the responsibility of a corporate executive<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible <b>while conforming to their basic rules of the society</b>, both those embodied in law and those embodied in <b>ethical custom</b>." [Emphasis mine.]</blockquote> <br /> We've seen bursts of this in the last two decades, with corporate social responsibility efforts, and with recent forays of brands taking social stands on societal and political issues. And <a href="https://bcorporation.net/" target="_blank">B Corporations</a> have proved that businesses can do well while doing good.<br /> <br /> However, some of these efforts have felt too transactional—riding a wave of popularity rather than being embedded in a company's culture. Perhaps it's time to hire someone to help <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/08/conscience-for-hire.html" target="_blank">examine the corporate conscience</a>.<br /> <br /> It's something that as a former Classics major and someone who has devoted time to studying history, literature, and philosophy, I have come to embrace in my consulting work. It has given me the ability to understand the consistency of human nature and the cyclical nature of society and culture.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> <b>Regulate This</b></h2> Regulations exist for a reason. They're meant to allow the government to put in place restrictions that curb what would otherwise be immoral, illegal or unethical behavior by companies.<br /> <br /> Why can't we trust companies to do the right thing on their own, you might ask? Simply put, because human nature, which is prone to the temptations of greed and expediency, takes hold. The larger a company gets, the easier it is for individuals to think they might flaunt customary behavior and get away with things.<br /> <br /> Case in point: between 1947 and 1977, General Electric polluted the Hudson River by discharging PCBs into it and devastating the environment. In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act and GE has since cleaned up the river. GE's argument was that the practice was perfectly legal at the time. But ask the average person if littering was acceptable, and they might have a different answer. Because it was a large entity, there was less moral responsibility.<br /> <br /> Today, as the government is rolling back regulations to make business practices easier—from allowing more methane emissions by energy companies to lowering fuel emissions standards for vehicles—we're seeing companies taking a stand and adhering to the cleaner level of previous regulations rather than accepting the newer, lower standards.<br /> <br /> Imagine that! Large organizations, whom many might otherwise look at cynically, are respecting the environment, not because they have to, but because it's the right thing to do.<br /> <br /> But there have been certain activities that companies have taken in the last few decades that were legal and unregulated, yet were done in such a way that they might be opaque at best or deceptive at worst.<br /> <br /> Example: as margins got squeezed in the CPG industry in the 'Nineties and early 'Aughts, they were forced to find profits in crafty ways. So rather than raise the price of orange juice, they slyly changed the half gallon container (64 ounces) to 59 ounces.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kK33YcF8ZIE/XWiXofUnQWI/AAAAAAABHWM/5hfBA4GivX82rHNsrlHQVqsL0GC6QFCPQCLcBGAs/s1600/1904-Standard-Oil-octopus-cartoon-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kK33YcF8ZIE/XWiXofUnQWI/AAAAAAABHWM/5hfBA4GivX82rHNsrlHQVqsL0GC6QFCPQCLcBGAs/s640/1904-Standard-Oil-octopus-cartoon-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standard Oil octopus (political cartoon, <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Standard_oil_octopus_loc_color.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <h2> <b>Playing Clean-Up</b></h2> In some ways, this phenomenon is nothing new. What we're witnessing from the last 50 years, with a shareholder-first (or -only) mentality, is simply the natural evolution of business practices, given the conditions they existed in.<br /> <br /> In <i><b>Physics</b></i>, Book IV, Chapter 8, Aristotle wrote of <i><b>horror vacui</b></i>, or as we commonly know it, "Nature abhors a vacuum." And that's exactly how business behaved: it filled a vacuum.<br /> <br /> We've seen this happen before. When Ida Tarbell wrote her nineteen-part series <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2NGxy6K" target="_blank">The History of the Standard Oil Company</a></i> for McClure's Magazine, which was published in book form in 1904, she was exposing the activities of John D. Rockefeller's convoluted empire. Rockefeller was one of the smartest industrialists of his time, and he managed to do everything within the bounds of the law at the time.<br /> <br /> But exposing Standard Oil's business practices made it clear that antitrust laws needed to be passed and that the company needed to be broken up.<br /> <br /> Similarly, Upton Sinclair's <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2NIXIpt" target="_blank">The Jungle</a></i> exposed the operations of the meatpacking industry, to the horror of Americans. The unsanitary and unsafe conditions, health violations, and other poor working conditions he described gave rise to public concern and the eventual reforms, such as the Meat Inspection Act.<br /> <br /> It seems like it would have been common sense to operate the above businesses in an ethical manner, but absent the proper laws and thanks to public backlash, changes were made under Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.<br /> <br /> Roosevelt was particularly concerned with the greed of sheer profit-chasing, and white-washing by philanthropy.<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses ... Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country." – "True American Ideals," <i>Forum</i>, 1895</blockquote> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DUujJIVNF5A/XWiZ8nw6_WI/AAAAAAABHWY/Dx6T2EEVyjEshKQeApgFwvbG2E8cdWi1QCLcBGAs/s1600/John%2BSinger%2BSargent%2B-%2BTheodore%2BRoosevelt%2B1903%2Bcropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1405" height="434" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DUujJIVNF5A/XWiZ8nw6_WI/AAAAAAABHWY/Dx6T2EEVyjEshKQeApgFwvbG2E8cdWi1QCLcBGAs/s640/John%2BSinger%2BSargent%2B-%2BTheodore%2BRoosevelt%2B1903%2Bcropped.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Theodore Roosevelt</i> by John Singer Sargent, 1903 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#/media/File:Theodore_Roosevelt_by_John_Singer_Sargent,_1903.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> While Teddy Roosevelt is remembered for his trust-busting, he was also fair-minded in his approach and he appreciated capitalism. But he wasn't a pushover. In his <a href="http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net/texts/19021202.html" target="_blank">State of the Union Address</a> in 1902, he issued a warning that is one not unlike Business Roundtable's statement last week:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism. ... We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth."</blockquote> <br /> And therein lies the core of what I believe the public is clamoring for: drawing a line against misconduct.<br /> <br /> We want ethical companies.<br /> <br /> We want leaders with a moral compass.<br /> <br /> We want to feel like we're on a level playing field.<br /> <br /> We want to be able to trust again.<br /> <br /> The new direction from Business Roundtable is nod toward the past. We'd like to think that businesses will do their part in this effort in the future.<br /> <br /> But it's going to take time.<br /> <br /> And trust.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i>If you liked this, I'd love to share more with you:</i></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" width="480"></iframe></div> <br /> <br /> <i><br /> </i> <i>Links may include Amazon Affiliate links.</i><br /> <br />

Why Businesses Need to Prepare for the Gathering Storm

The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David, 1793 ( Wikipedia , public domain) “It is always more easy to discover and proclaim gene...

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Conscience for Hire

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMZl-HmiNss/W43i9JTYjuI/AAAAAAAA_xE/tlbUl2hvJqwaw7l3_AIZCebqZz_cT6g9QCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/School%2Bof%2BAthens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="993" data-original-width="1280" height="496" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMZl-HmiNss/W43i9JTYjuI/AAAAAAAA_xE/tlbUl2hvJqwaw7l3_AIZCebqZz_cT6g9QCPcBGAYYCw/s640/School%2Bof%2BAthens.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>Image credit: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens#/media/File:%22The_School_of_Athens%22_by_Raffaello_Sanzio_da_Urbino.jpg" target="_blank">School of Athens</a> by Raphael, 1510. Fresco, Vatican City (Wikimedia Commons)</i></span></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Who's the corporate conscience of a company? <br /> <br /> That question sounds a little off, doesn't it? A company is supposed to be a thing, not a person. But U.S. Supreme Court rulings on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood">corporate personhood</a> date back to 1886, and subsequently, companies have been able to enjoy some of the rights granted to individuals. <br /> <br /> If we consider companies human-like, then it also stands to reason that they have a conscience. Or at least you'd hope they would. <br /> <br /> This is from where corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs sprang. And these have typically reflected the good that companies do—hopefully with activities that are congruent with their overall culture—to give back to society. <br /> <br /> But are philanthropic or sustainability initiatives enough? There's always the danger of being called out for greenwashing or doing things that are inconsistent with daily business practices. Especially with a public that is <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer" target="_blank">more cynical and distrustful of businesses than ever</a>.<br /> <div> <br /></div> <div> Everywhere you look these days, there are examples of leaders in business and government who have conflicts of interest or are in violation of ethics rules.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <b><i><span style="font-size: large;">People are hungry for businesses that act ethically and for leaders who show integrity.</span></i></b></div> <br /> <br /> When the function for CSR resides within communications, human resources, or even marketing, it's in danger of becoming something more transactional—a box to check, a program to run. <br /> <br /> Not that it doesn't belong there, but with so many bigger issues pressing businesses these days such as artificial intelligence, remote working, climate change, online discourse on social platforms and more, these are elements that deserve deeper thinking. <br /> <br /> Enter the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypercy/2018/03/09/why-your-board-needs-a-chief-philosophy-officer/#1b3db8942e3d" target="_blank">in-house philosopher</a> or chief philosophy officer (CPO). <br /> <br /> Yes, I know what you're thinking: "We're already fifteen letters deep in an alphabet soup of C-suite executives!" <br /> <br /> Stick with me. <br /> <br /> <br /> <div> What the CPO could offer, according to some descriptions, is an additional viewpoint that takes into account <b>human behavior</b> (not too dissimilar from the chief communications officer acting as a strategic counselor to the CEO) and the broader impacts of business decisions to employees and society. <br /> <br /> Traditional executives have a set of known and operational responsibilities for which they're responsible. Marketing, sales, customer retention, press and analyst relations, and so on. And in business schools, ethics is typically taught as a standalone course rather than integrated into each discipline.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> <br /> Much like social media, the idea of a corporate conscience goes beyond any single existing role or department.<br /> <br /> The CEO needs an advisor who can bring together functions of a <b>consultant</b>, <b>strategist</b>, and <b>coach </b>to help company executives to think more clearly with the perspective of an outsider. <br /> <br /> <br /> This is along the lines of the engagements I've had in the past few years with clients that go beyond communications and marketing. The best relationships have been <b>advisory </b>in nature and help them to think beyond the business and embrace <b>behavioral trends</b>. <br /> <br /> It's also why you see less social and digital content here and more articles about <b>Timeless Wisdom</b>: the intersection of history, literature, philosophy, and business.</div> <div>   <br /> <br /> If anything, over the last few millennia human nature has shown itself to be constant. The world around us is in constant flux—from how we work to how get around to how we communicate—and yet we're still driven and comforted by the same things as our ancestors. <br /> <br /> Philosophy is widely viewed as academic and theoretical; the white togas of the Greek Lyceum gave way to the suede arm patches on tweed jackets on college campuses. But the impracticality is more pronounced when philosophy is practiced in a vacuum—that is, when it's not tethered to anything useful. <br /> <br /> And this is why CSR programs that are managed outside of the realm of the business and in-house philosophers who are left to their own devices are less effective. Integrating these processes is essential for a business, particularly as <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/248009/millennials-good-business.aspx" target="_blank">Millennials look to work for and buy from businesses with a purpose</a>. Businesses with a conscience. <br /> <br /> <br /> What is a conscience, but the marriage of the heart and the mind? <br /> <br /> <br /> An advisor and coach—a chief philosophy officer, if you must—should help executives think outside of their department, beyond the business, past the bottom line. Toward deeper and more meaningful impacts on the lives of those their company touches. <br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UnsRxQJ4vNY/W2KJTAQR6lI/AAAAAAAA-qk/UVNpPWsDQpMQUdQfFrTWyrkGAGdHMaNcwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Pythagorus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="1600" height="394" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UnsRxQJ4vNY/W2KJTAQR6lI/AAAAAAAA-qk/UVNpPWsDQpMQUdQfFrTWyrkGAGdHMaNcwCPcBGAYYCw/s640/Pythagorus.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Image credit: <a href="http://www.belygorod.ru/img2/1000_rushud/Used5/0bronnikov_gimnpifagoreizev.jpg" target="_blank">Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise</a> By Fyodor Bronnikov, (1827—1902), <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2591309" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></i></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /></div> </div>

Conscience for Hire

Image credit: School of Athens by Raphael, 1510. Fresco, Vatican City (Wikimedia Commons) Who's the corporate conscience of a comp...

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The Angry Old Man and the Sea

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59uKh4uQozo/XYV3ZQyjemI/AAAAAAABH4I/IX08cChSfeEBRzDObtgJigYq6n2FP6mIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Ludolf_Bakhuizen_-_Ships_Running_Aground_in_a_Storm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1200" height="314" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-59uKh4uQozo/XYV3ZQyjemI/AAAAAAABH4I/IX08cChSfeEBRzDObtgJigYq6n2FP6mIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Ludolf_Bakhuizen_-_Ships_Running_Aground_in_a_Storm.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ludolf_Bakhuizen_-_Ships_Running_Aground_in_a_Storm_-_WGA01131.jpg" target="_blank">Ships Running Aground During a Storm</a> by Ludolf Bakhuizen, 1690s (Wikipedia, public domain)</i></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> I'm a <i>Seinfeld</i> junkie. Yes, it's a throwback to my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl3mRjydcPw" target="_blank">Bright College Days</a>, but it hit at just the right moment, and many of the phrases and scenes have stuck with me over the years.<br /> <br /> One in particular is when George pretends to be a marine biologist and tells his friends about his adventure with the whale. He sets the tone by describing the scene:<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"The sea was angry that day, my friends!"</span></i></b></div> <br /> (This is where those of you in the know finish the phrase with "Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli.")<br /> <br /> Anyway.<br /> <br /> Being on the shore recently and having time to watch the waves, it reminded me of the sheer power of the sea.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"The ocean is an object of no small terror. Indeed, terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently, the ruling principle of the sublime." </span></i></b></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> —Edmund Burke</div> <br /> <br /> If you've ever been out on the open sea, or perhaps even stepped off of a ledge as you waded your way from shore, there's a certain level of terror and respect that the ocean commands.<br /> <br /> And if you've watched waves continually pummel the cliffs or overpower lighthouses or ships, you understand the destructive power. We try to harness it, to bend it to our will; but the ocean will do what it wants to. Anyone caught in a riptide or adrift in a small dinghy can testify to that.<br /> <br /> And so it goes with anger and fear in our lives. Once that duo has taken hold, whether in a work or personal situation, it's difficult to draw back.<br /> <br /> Seeing so much <b>anger </b>and <b>hate </b>online—not only in the last 72 hours, but in the past few years—it's a cause for concern.<br /> <br /> Yes, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/f82d6b27caf64167852ace2dad6c0c63" target="_blank">8chan was taken offline</a>, but my instinct tells me it's temporary. Like water, the hate will find a way through. Which can be a bit depressing.<br /> <br /> Take heart: there are things you can effect. Things that are in your power. That's where you should spend your time and attention.<br /> <br /> <b><a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2018/11/leading-with-enthusiasm-not-fear.html" target="_blank">Lead with optimism and enthusiasm, not fear</a></b>.<br /> <br /> Find joy in everything you can.<br /> <br /> Lift up other people and surround yourself with uplifting people.<br /> <br /> While the sea of anger that swirls around you may not be in your control, your reaction to it can.<br /> <br /> Otherwise, you're stuck with that soup.<br /> <br /> <br />

The Angry Old Man and the Sea

Ships Running Aground During a Storm by Ludolf Bakhuizen, 1690s (Wikipedia, public domain) I'm a Seinfeld junkie. Yes, it's a...

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