Expanded Minds...

Riding in a small plane from Philadelphia to my home town of Washington DC the other day, I could not help but hear (it was one of those small regional jets) the stories of a returning marine coming home. A very self-assured man of no more than 20 years old relating his experiences to the row in front of me. It was indeed an interesting 45 minute flight.

You see, he was a crew member in a helicopter. Not sure if he was a machine gun gunner but suffice it to say that his days were packed with dynamism as he so eloquently related about his days running missions to and fro. An "adrenaline rush" and "Intense" and "exhilarating" were some of adjectives he used to describe his daily missions. He then moved on to talk about his home-town visits and how he could not understand how people could live such boring lives with very little to do. No wonder, I thought. His mind and experience-map had expanded to the point that going back to his old world was a very limiting option.

Of course being one to derive insights whenever and wherever I can, I thought of corollaries with what I do. Coming up with concepts and structures requires the need to live in a heightened state of awareness where one forces clashes of ideas and business models in order to derive new ones. It is quite and addiction in fact, and it actually can be overwhelming since the mind can play "what if" scenarios incessantly. It can also be frustrating when others do not see the vision and intuition that emerges from refining fore vision.

So what is the take away?

An expanded mind cannot be put back in its old state. It is simply not possible, in my view.
Society needs to evolve to accommodate the expanded mind of that marine and businesses need to evolve to manage the creative energy released by newly developed creative minds.

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