What Happens When You Try and Change the World?

What Happens When You Try and Change the World?

Today's post about the complexity of creating a consultancy company with multi-disciplines has been put on ice. Because there is something far more important to talk about. And that's about changing the world (a subject which tends to rank fairly highly on the agenda, right after any new Apple product and whether the TV series 24 really did create the precedent for a black president).

Our evolution on this earth means that when we see things we don't agree with we have a choice - to live with it or to try and change it. My choice is to bring the feminine to the corporate workplace. To change old-school attitudes so that working is fun, green, flexible and community based. And when I speak those words, no one questions the goal. But old habits die hard. When the new ways encounter the old, something extraordinary happens. People get angry at change...even when they agree it's for the better.

The backlash and fury I have encountered from people who feel threatened because they themselves have never challenged the status quo and now feel undermined because 'my way' is not 'their way', surprised me initially. Until I realised that this has been the exact same pattern again and again. An excellent quote from Ghandi came to my attention the other day (of course I can't imagine that there is a single quote from Ghandi that isn't excellent, but this one hit the spot).

First they ignore you. then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then you win!

To be ignored, laughed at and fought is not my top three favorite things to do. And yet the higher purpose of trying to achieve a world which is more balanced for our sanity, healthier for our children and our families and works towards a state of liberation - is so wonderful that none of these things matter. And moreover, none of those things is personally directed at me or Investment Impact. It is the product of people's own insecurity, rigid belief system and ultimately their suffering generated from years of having to work within a system which was not friendly to their sanity, family or environment.

I find that my sense of self has nevertheless to be pretty strong when faced with some of the attitudes that I encounter. It's not that my ego is huge nor that I believe I am right where others are wrong. Simply that deep down...deep deep down my passion for what I do and what we are trying to accomplish resonates within me. And because I know that this is my path, no ignoring, or laughing or fighting can shake my self belief.

I started an online consultancy. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a blog.

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