killing our albatrosses.

My “glass ceilings” as a white woman have NEARLY butted up against the only /most important ceiling for “Outliers”; it is the one that most matters in creating a world of our choosing: our beliefs are the ONLY things that ever hold us back.

So the deeper point is why lament society’s limitations when I/we so effectively bitch-slap ourselves? I/we waste our own energies by self criticism and comparing ourselves negatively to society’s ideals (Those people in the glossies - the winners, the beauties, the successful e.g. white, male, ivy leagued (with a Verison—like army of powerful alumni backing them up. Ok now you know more than you should about MY particular demons…)

But it is not a just a female issue. We humans shoot ourselves in the foot all the time by believing we can’t – when we actually can. Our own beliefs are culled from what society believes. When we, as “Outliers’ succeed, Society learns that it is possible. Then we learn from society that this new thing is possible.

It is where the spiritual rubber meets the entrepreneurial road; it is a spiraling energy stream, an economic engine and social progress.

African-American men got the vote 55 years before women and Obama will be President in a few days. He is there because he did not believe what society told him. He focused on the voices of his mother and grandmother to give him a powerful base of faith in himself. He also then grew by listening to his own heart.

He believed in himself and that belief infected us, the society.

Of course, he did the relatively easy stuff: worked hard and long, focused on the goal, showed up, was clever and strategic, kind and tactical…etc

And he chose well; he chose fertile ground that had the possibility of success. He was able to fit his gifts to a pursuit that allowed him to grow those considerable innate talents and dream bigger. This opportunity for a better fit – the matching of his nurtured talents with real opportunity- is the financial and spiritual opportunity of our age.

When he broke his glass ceiling, he gave us all an example of how we can shatter our own albatrosses. This is the real power base of an ‘Outlier’. They shift us all to a different playing field and mind set. We all see differently. The world changes for everyone.

This brings us back to my irritating uncle. Why did I choose to create where I did? Because I simply loved the work and was looking for a fertile place to do it.

see related series of posts:

1. Intro: why i am an entrepreneur?
a. How does society husband innovation
b. you just read it (killing our albatrosses)