Birthday Musings – Overwhelmed with Gratitude

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Sir Isaac Newton

I haven’t written much lately.  I’m not sick, dying, disenchanted with the world or anything else.

I’m busy participating in the creation of new worlds – new worlds for business colleagues, new worlds for investors, new worlds for people trying to escape the tyranny of abuse and violence and new worlds for my family.

It’s called living your priorities.

It’s also called answering the call that is your purpose.

I continue to watch the world with a cautious eye – my mind is overwhelmed with awe at the beauty, love and potential that exists in our world while simultaneously being overwhelmed with disappointment at the ignorance, greed and fear that is far too present also.

Light and darkness co-exist in a dance that invites each of us to choose which side we would like to participate in.

As a realistic optimist, I believe that a beautiful world becomes what we believe it is as long as we don’t forget that evil exists.

Some people call that pessimism – to acknowledge that evil exists at all.

I find that many people who accuse others of pessimism are often the most pessimistic people themselves (the same is true for many people who wave the racist flag). 

I also believe that the unlimited potential for love and beauty in the world only exists as long as we continue to fight for it.  To not fight for it is to open a door that allows us to be overrun by darkness.  To deny that evil exists is like looking at the flashing light on your dashboard and covering it up with tape so that its incessant warning doesn’t annoy you.

The same is true within the small circle that is our respective lives.

So I continue to fight for light and love.

The fight is not always broadcast in a blog and is not done for glory, awards or attention.

It's not always a gentle fight nor can I be the gentle giant all the time. Sometimes you have to get in someone's face to protect and promote what you believe is important in the world (upsetting those people can sometimes be a reward in itself).

But the fight is worth it.

And it’s necessary.

As birthday greetings flowed in today from around the world, this big macho guy, standing over 6’3” and 235 pounds, found himself overcome with the emotion of gratitude.

I posted this on Facebook today:

On this day every year when birthday greetings flow in, I am staggered and overwhelmed by the love and kindness that I receive.

People from every phase of my Life, from Kindergarten through school, through every part of my career, through my personal interests, my family.

Oh what a gift all of you are in my Life.

The great things I have accomplished in my Life are because of you.

The mistakes I have made are my own doing.

Thank you for the Blessing that is my Life.

They say that you are the company that you keep. If that is true, then I am amazing ... because of how amazing you are.

Thank you from my heart.

Our world becomes what we choose to create.

If we choose to allow it to just “be” or we wait for someone else to make the world a better place, it may not become what it could be or should be for us, our families, our friends and others who are important to us.

Would you find such a world acceptable?

I don’t.

I close every email with one of two closings, a shorter or longer one, the longer of which I will share here.

Create a great day, because merely having one is too passive an experience.

Many great people have helped me create a great Life, something I am eternally grateful for.

This in turn creates a responsibility in me to help create a great Life for others.

May you be so blessed.

And may you have the opportunity to be that blessing for others.

The world is waiting for you – your talents, your gifts, your strengths, your energy, your ideas and your love.

What are you waiting for?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Musings at 50–Confessions of a Self-Made Man

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. - Denis Waitley

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. - Melody Beattie

Today as birthday greetings for my 50th birthday come to me from around the world, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude to be blessed with the love and support of so many amazing people.

It also reminds me of something else.

I have experienced many things in my Life, including walking away from a serious illness, five airplane incidents (one depressurization, one near mid-air on final, two RPM governance failures on take off and one structural integrity compromise), a lightning bolt that hit a playground set 50 feet from where I was standing, 4 NYC muggings, a serious bicycle accident, a stabbing on a subway, a tornado that touched down a block from where I was walking and a list of other things that start to look ridiculous at some point (over 25 of them according to the Starbucks napkin I scribbled on).

Many people have said that either someone is looking out for me or I’m being saved for something.

Perhaps.

I have also been blessed repeatedly in business, often being given opportunities neither desired nor sought (nor which I thought I was qualified for) but which unfolded amazingly in my favor, including an IPO of a company that I cofounded in NYC in the late 1990’s.  Most people wouldn’t have seen this in my future when one looks at the house that I lived in in my early years:

A few times when I have made presentations, organizers said they were expecting someone much older, based on what they have learned about what I have accomplished and how it was unlikely that such a list could have been squeezed into the Life of a younger man.

But as I look at the greetings that now flow in, some of which are from people I have known for 45 of my 50 years, something is tremendously obvious to me.

For all of the things I have appeared to have performed, accomplished or survived, I am in fact responsible for none of it.

The credit for everything incredible I have experienced in my Life is entirely due to the many people I have been blessed to have known over the years.

It is from those people that I acquired the wisdom, knowledge, courage and strength to learn how to build a better Life.  When I didn’t always get it right, they were there – sometimes to lift me – sometimes to straighten me up.  And yes, some served as a warning on how not to live.

When I applied myself as I should have, things worked out well.  When I didn’t …. well …. I bear responsibility for the mistakes I have made along the journey.

And so when I hear people talk about being self-made or how their self-description has a lot of “I did this”, “I did that”, etc., I wonder how cognizant they are of the impact of other people on their lives.

There is no such thing as the self-made man.  Oh sure, we all may be intelligent, wise, talented, good-looking, wealthy, etc, but it requires others to help us see those gifts and to help us leverage those gifts to the best of our potential.

Because if it weren’t for all of those people, most of us wouldn’t accomplish much if anything at all.

So as the greetings continue to pour in from family and friends, I in turn thank everyone who has helped me, encouraged me, supported me, taught me, angered me and loved me.

The first 50 years have been possible only because of who you are and what you do and for that, I am eternally grateful.

And if I have accomplished anything at all, it is only to prove true the old adage attributed to Sir Isaac Newton:

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

YOU are the giants – thank you for a great first 50 years.  To name you all would take a LOT of space – you know who you are.  It is my privilege and honor to travel the journey with you, to learn from you and to collaborate with you towards making a better world. 

Now … have you thanked your giants today?

In service and servanthood,

Harry