Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Being Always In Action:

A Possibility

Vaca Mountains, Napa Valley, California, USA

August 29, 2013



This essay, Being Always In Action: A Possibility, is the companion piece to Creating Inexorably Like A Possibility.

It is also the fourteenth in the complete group of Experiences Of A Friend (click here for the open group Experiences Of A Friend II):
  1. Stepping Back
  2. At Home As Self
  3. Empty Windows
  4. Futile Like A Freedom
  5. Shut Up And Do What You're Doing
  6. Werner As Intention
  7. Who He Is For Himself
  8. Source Quote
  9. Puzzle Solved, Mind Unraveled
  10. Eye To Eye
  11. Mystical Connection II
  12. Relentless
  13. Being Around Werner
  14. Being Always In Action: A Possibility
  15. Shaken Up And Teary
  16. On Being Sad
  17. The Complete Presentation
  18. Force Of Nature
  19. Everyone's In Love With Everyone
  20. I'm Old School
  21. Werner At The Speed Of Choice
  22. I Get Who You Are From What They Do
  23. The Significance - Not What Happened
  24. You Know I Love You - And I Know You Love Me
  25. Speaking To People's Relationship With Werner
  26. A Master At Being (And Having People Be)
  27. Werner As Source
  28. A Man Who's All There
  29. My Heart And You
  30. Mind Control
  31. Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again
  32. Unwavering
  33. The Leadership Course III: Pillar Of The Community
  34. American Genius
  35. Legacy II
so far, in that order.

It is also the sixth in an open group on Possibility: I am indebted to Mark Spirtos who inspired this conversation, and to Joseph "Joe" Kempin who contributed material.




In the olden halcyon  days, enrollment was sharing a personal experience of him. You only have to consider the millions of people worldwide who enrolled that way to know it worked pretty well. Today sharing a personal experience of him rarely features in the modern enrollment scenario. Today enrollment is sharing a possibility which touches, moves, and inspires people. And you only have to consider the millions more people worldwide who enroll this way to know it also works pretty well.

But (and this is my underlying question): aren't the two really the same?

If you have the privilege, if you have the sheer good fortune  to know him today, to be in communication with him today, to be around him today, to work with him today, when you first experience the way he's always in action, it's an eye-opener. It's decidedly unusual - at first.

Now, if someone is unusual, they can be that way simply by being more  of something than the rest of us usually be. Or they can be that way just by doing better  at something than the rest of us usually do. Or they can be that way by having something different  than the rest of us usually have. None of that is the way in which he's unusual. His unusual isn't a more, better, different  unusual. His unusual is an authentic  unusual. It's more than a bit disconcerting to observe for the first time. When you observe it for the first time, it's so authentic that it's ... well ... usual. And because his unusual is usual, it makes your own erstwhile usual, unusual. Like I said, observing it for the first time is more than a bit disconcerting.

Being always in action is a new possibility  for people - literally. For the most part, we have no idea  (and we rarely consider the possibility that) we can be always in action. I mean, "everyone knows"  it's simply not possible to be always in action. We all know it can't be done. We all know we can't be that way. We all know "it can't be done" and "we can't be that way" is just the way it is for us human beings.

Well ... that's not true, actually. Those are just some of the unexamined, entrenched, congested  thoughts we have when considering being always in action, and why, for the most part, we don't have being always in action as a possibility for human being, and why his being always in action effortlessly, joyously, exuberantly  is a breakthrough in being for human being, which brings it forth as a new possibility for all people. When one person starts being always in action effortlessly, joyously, exuberantly, it creates the possibility of everyone  being always in action effortlessly, joyously exuberantly. That fish, walking up on land for the first time, brings with it elephants and eagles like a possibility.

I've generated my fair share of enrollment conversations. I've enrolled thousands of people. When I first shared his way of being always in action (which is one of the many effective, pertinent ways of sharing his way of being which, in turn, is one of the many effective, pertinent ways of sharing possibility itself), it was occasionally met with skepticism. When people are skeptical about what I'm saying, their skepticism is simply evidence there's no possibility  for them in what I'm saying.

There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with skepticism or with being skeptical. There's nothing personal  about it, and I don't take it personally. If you don't hear possibility in what's being said, then for you there's no possibility  in what's being said, and you're skeptical. Sharing he's always in action is occasionally met with skepticism simply because for some people (people who included myself ... initially)  there's no possibility of being always in action. None. And especially if we're not now engaged and / or are not now enrolled in inquiring into the possibility of being always in action, we can't hear it newly either.

For skeptics there's no possibility of being always in action. But being skeptical doesn't make it so. It's not true there's no possibility of being always in action. His being always in action is 1,000% proof positive evidence  of the possibility of this for human beings. It's more than that actually. It's his being always in action is 1,000% proof positive evidence of the very possibility of possibility itself. The exception proves the rule.

Listen: "being always in action" may not look like what you think it looks like. It doesn't look frantic. It doesn't look frenzied. It doesn't look like being speedy or like being revved up. It actually looks quite relaxed and calm albeit powerful. It shows up as deliberate and intentional. Being always in action doesn't look like and neither does it require a lot of doing. You should give up any and all images you may have of what being always in action looks like - like lurching from one activity to another, like being constantly at the effect of  and dealing with one thing and another ... in other words, like a lot of sound and fury  and spinning wheels. In fact what it is, what being always in action looks like is being ongoingly, relentlessly creative  24 / 7 / 365.

This "being always in action" as "being ongoingly relentlessly creative 24 / 7 / 365" is a subtle, profound thing. There's being creative like molding something with clay. Then there's being creative like bringing forth something out of nothing. There's being creative like writing a song. Then there's being creative like inventing a new possibility. There's being creative like planting and maintaining a garden. Then there's being creative as a linguistic act  (in other words, there's being creative simply by speaking something new). Mostly there's the being creative by which we really  only mean "changing something" ie "moving the existing pieces around". That's the most often touted and the most commonly misconstrued being creative: being creative as moving the existing pieces around. It's really just the same old same old:  nothing truly new ever comes from it. And true creation is the bringing forth of something truly new, the bringing forth of something out of nothing, the bringing forth of something which didn't exist before.

Then, in a class of its own, there's being creative like making a difference  ...

His "being always in action" as "being ongoingly relentlessly creative 24 / 7 / 365" is being creative by bringing forth something out of nothing. It's being creative by inventing new possibilities where before there were none. It's being creative as a purely linguistic act ie by sourcing a conversation  which generates transformation and possibility and enrollment rather than merely describing, complaining about, reporting on, criticizing, commenting on, or gossiping about the status quo. It's being creative in a way which makes a far-reaching difference by breaking new ground in what's possible for being for human being.

You could say that's its humanitarian  aspect. Its practical  aspect if you will (and the line between "humanitarian" and "practical" in this case is blurred at best) is breaking new ground in what's possible for business and for academia - and notice this particular way of his being creative is second only to his being creative which makes a difference with what's possible for being for human being ie with what's possble for the girl next door and the boy next door - actually for millions of girls next door and boys next door on six continents worldwide.

His being always in action is not merely as American as apple pie  although to be sure it's that also. For its reach, for what it's proven capable of, for its impact, that would be way too constrained, way too confining. So rather than stopping at "(it's) as American as apple pie" I'll add "... and as human as being".

As American as apple pie and as human as being: ongoing, relentless, 24 / 7 / 365.

This is the possibility of being always in action.



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