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

Inventors Of The Future

Silverado Country Club, Napa Valley, California, USA

January 17, 2010


I am indebted to John Poppy who inspired this conversation.


If you ask the guests in Werner's programs, if you ask the participants in Werner's programs, if you ask the graduates of Werner's programs who inspires them, if you ask them who they acknowledge for getting it  ie the Big "IT" and for making it known and available to them, they may say it's their friends who introduced them to Werner's work by sharing it with them. If you ask their friends who inspires them, they may say it's the people who assist. If you ask the people who assist who inspires them, they may say it's the program leaders. If you ask the program leaders who inspires them, they may say it's the executives. If you ask the executives who inspires them, they may say it's the other executives, or they may say it's Werner, or they may say it's both.

Photograph courtesy erhardseminarstraining.com - 2008
Werner and Gonneke
If you ask Werner who or what inspires him, he may say it's observing the nature of the Self, he may say it's observing the nature of presence of Self, he may say it's observing the nature of who he really is, he may say it's observing the nature of who we really are as human beings which inspires him. In other words, if you ask Werner who or what inspires him, he may say it's observing, he may say it's inquiring into, he may say it's inventing the possibility of being  for human beings which inspires him.

But isn't it the availability of the possibility of being for human beings which makes presence of Self possible? Isn't it the availability of presence of Self which makes Werner possible? Isn't it the availability of Werner which makes the executives possible? Isn't it the availability of the executives which makes the program leaders possible? Isn't it the availability of the program leaders which makes the people who assist possible? Isn't it the availability of the people who assist which makes the graduates possible? which makes the participants possible? which makes their guests possible? Isn't it all of the above?

Isn't all of it the possibility of being for human beings? Isn't all of it the possibility of presence of Self? Isn't all of it the possibility of Werner? Isn't all of it the possibility of the executives? Isn't all of it the possibility of the program leaders? Isn't all of it the possibility of the people who assist? Isn't all of it the possibility of the graduates, of the participants, of our guests ... and of all of us and of all our friends and of all our families and of all our communities and of all our societies and of all our countries in which we live and interact on a daily basis? Isn't all of it all of the above? Well ... isn't it?

It's all of us. It's each  of us. We're all the inventors of the future. We're each the inventors of the future. My assertion is more than that, actually. I assert we're each the inventors of the future whether we realize it or not. Attempting to change the outcome of the probable almost certain future  without realizing we're the inventors of the future, is an uphill battle with unpredictable results - mostly, with not good results (at best, with ineffective  results). Inventing anything certainly goes better if we realize we're its inventors at the same time  as we're inventing it.

So it is with inventing the future. We're inventing the future anyway, whether we realize it or not. It goes a lot better, it goes a lot more effectively if we open ourselves to the possibility we're inventing the future, if we realize we're inventing the future, if we take responsibility for inventing the future at the same time  as we're inventing it.

Transformation creates the space like a possibility  for me to take responsibility for my life, and also to take responsibility for Life itself. Taking responsibility for Life itself, as self-aggrandizing as it may sound, is neither a burden nor an expectation, and it's not something I must  do either. Rather, it's a choice (or, better, it's an opportunity)  to play the game at a somewhat expanded level. Taking responsibility for my life and for Life itself calls me to invent both my  future as possibility as well as (should I choose to play at this level) the  future as possibility.

This is the game worth playing. It's more than that, actually: arguably, this is the only  game worth playing. In fact, arguably, this is the only game in town. This is what's available taking responsibility for inventing the future. And inventing the future is what we're all doing anyway, all the time - whether we realize it or not.


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