Chapter 4 Finding Your Place in the World

Even if we are fortunate enough to have close family and friends, the reality is that we come into this life alone,

 

we fight our battles alone, we endure consequences alone, and we die alone. Yet, in order to survive, we must

 

find where we fit in this World and how to persuade it to work in our favor whenever possible. The World is

 

made up of everything around us—both animate beings, such as people, animals, and plants, and inanimate ob

 

jects, such as our homes, cars, and other material possessions. The World runs on cultural, political, and eco

 

nomic forces, which result from our interaction with each other and our environment. As we embark on our

 

lifelong journey, it is important to understand the World as it exists according to Nature. As you assessed your

 

self in chapter 3, now take a good, long look at the World in which we live. Where might you best fit in? How

 

might you serve others while also advancing your own cause? No one can answer these questions but you.

 

We live in an age of marketing, and in this arena you must know your product—yourself. You must also

 

be able to appraise the marketplace before you release your product into it. This World is not a playground as

 

many would have us believe. Instead, it is a battleground in which the rules of engagement are constantly chang

 

ing. It might comfort us to remember, however, that one factor has remained constant throughout the ages: hu

 

man nature. The dynamic between an ever-changing cultural context and unchanged human behavior is one of

 

the most striking features of our relationship with the World. In the past, human beings killed or hurt each other

 

for trivial reasons, using sticks, stones, and knives. We continue to do so today, the only difference being that

 

we use more accurate, sophisticated, and lethal weapons. To be successful in such a World, we must be alert,

 

agile, affable, and assertive. These attributes lead to success even in the most fiercely competitive environment.

 

Even in the twenty-first century, humans continue to be as selfish, jealous, ambitious, belligerent, preju

 

diced, and short-sighted as ever. Even as we resist internal change, we have actively and enthusiastically affect

 

ed change in the World. The climate has changed. Old species have disappeared. We have changed our

 

lifestyles dramatically through the expansion of science and technology—fast, fancy cars, space shuttles, com

 

puters, cell phones, and fast food. Life in this century moves more quickly and offers more conveniences com

 

pared to previous centuries. Yet the basic struggle for survival has remained an uphill battle. We have not

 

solved world hunger or civil unrest. Our peace of mind has been battered most recently by worldwide economic

 

downturn and a visible upsurge of unrest and violence. Two famous corporate slogans should come to mind when we consider our place in the World—Shape
up or ship out and Move up or move out. Irrespective of the number of years you have loyally served an organi

 

zation, if you don’t anticipate the changes around you and make necessary adjustments in your skills, tempera

 

ment, and disposition, you will be out of the game in no time. In the medical field, the introduction of fiber

 

optics, miniature cameras, powerful microscopes, and laser technology, to name a few, have changed the dy

 

namics of diagnosing and treating many illnesses. Whereas a surgeon in the past treated gastrointestinal ail

 

ments such as perforated gastric ulcers or colon cancers through major surgery, the advent of endoscopies and

 

powerful cancer drugs has eliminated the need for surgical intervention in many such cases. Certainly, this is

 

good news for the patient, but the surgeon must be retrained in more current, less-invasive procedures using the

 

latest technology, such as bariatric surgery, if he or she intends to survive.

 

In a rapidly changing environment, what you learn today may be obsolete tomorrow. However, we need

 

not fret over this aspect of our struggle, because it is an unavoidable reality of life. Instead we can be vigilant to

 

the changes occurring in the World around us and proactive in keeping up with those changes. As dictated by

 

Nature, the World will never bend over backwards to accommodate our needs, and to expect it to do so is to be

 

utterly disappointed. We must prepare ourselves for a tough fight in order to succeed. To paraphrase Pulitzer

 

Prize–winning journalist George Will, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it’s the size of the fight

 

in the dog.

 

We can create strong, comfortable, binding relationships with this World by responding to life’s chal

 

lenges with patience, tolerance, perseverance, and realistic expectations. We must never expect the World to

 

concern itself with our goals, our agendas, or our missions. If the World cooperates with us, it will be on its

 

terms rather than on your own. The sooner we accept this reality, the easier it will be to work toward our goals.

 

Living successfully in the World requires that we cooperate with rather than antagonize it. If we are to expect

 

others to cooperate with us as we strive to reach our goals, we must first establish our own credibility in the

 

World and evaluate the credibility of those with whom we are working. Being credible means expressing beliefs,

 

goals, and intentions in a straightforward manner. While we can establish our own credibility by behaving when

 

ever possible in an honorable manner, we cannot, unfortunately, always trust others who insist that they are credible. We can never be sure of another individual’s true intentions, because we cannot read each other’s

 

minds. The information we receive from another person is only as credible as the source—most information

 

should be taken with a grain of salt. People will usually tell us what they think we want to hear rather than the

 

truth, which is what we need to hear. Some people are masters at concealing their intentions and feelings. Trust

 

is therefore a rare and precious commodity. If you can trust only one other individual without any reservations,

 

consider yourself lucky. You must rely on yourself to judge whom you can believe, whom to trust, and what to

 

realistically expect a person, based on his or her character and past behavior. When we expect the most from

 

ourselves and little from the World, and we will find that we are rarely disappointed, but often pleasantly sur

 

prised.

 

This World will cooperate with you in full force only if your task is beneficial to the World. If you have

 

a project and need the World’s help to complete it, take the time to prepare a comprehensive presentation to con

 

vince the powers that be that it is in their best interest to cooperate with you. Preparing such a presentation will

 

also help you to see clearly the strengths and weaknesses of your proposal. If your presentation is successful,

 

not only will the necessary participants cooperate with you, the World might deliver your success to you on

 

your terms. Your window of opportunity, however, will exist only for a limited time. If you intend to convince

 

the World that it needs you as much as you need it, consider that the human attention span is shorter than ever.

 

Expect to hold your audience’s attention for no longer than five minutes. Within that time frame, create a pre

 

sentation that is informative, interesting, and to the point.

 

On certain occasions, we need little or no help or cooperation from others to reach our goals. Such tasks

 

are strictly “internal affairs” and require a different kind of concentration in order to be successful. Any task we

 

undertake will fall into the domain of either internal or external affairs. For example, if you decide to open a

 

restaurant, irrespective of your talents, interests and desires, you need the cooperation of the world to make your

 

business a successful venture. If people enjoy the cuisine and ambiance, you will stay in business. Tasks requir

 

ing the World’s participation and cooperation are classified as external affairs. When opening a restaurant or

 

working on other external affairs, you have partial control. You can study the demographic of the area in which

 

your restaurant will be located. After opening, you can do your homework to learn the tastes and eating habits of your customers and make the appropriate adjustments to your menu. You can do your best and hope to suc

 

ceed in your endeavor. But you must also accept, without fear or despair, that many factors influencing your

 

business are out of your control.

 

Managing your internal affairs, on the other hand, is entirely up to you. Internal affairs include phobias,

 

addictions, insecurities, and other ways of thinking and feeling that hinder our progress in the World. In address

 

ing these issues, we must count mainly on our own convictions, commitment, and perseverance rather than on

 

the World. People who live in the public eye—politicians, businesspeople, actors, musicians, and

 

professionals—often appear to be handling their external affairs successfully but then fall victim to one or more

 

internal ailments, such as stress, insomnia, addiction, or mental illness. Ultimately, if an individual is unable to

 

keep his internal affairs in order, he will lose command of his external affairs as well.

 

Although there is only one participant involved in the process, managing internal affairs is far more diffi

 

cult than managing external affairs. While external affairs involve the visible, concrete World, internal affairs

 

involve our emotions and spirituality, intangible aspects of who we are. In this age of instant gratification, it is

 

tempting to focus on the tangible, momentary thrills—money, material goods, drugs—and lose sight of the

 

peace and harmony that are integral to our mental and emotional health. At every stage of life we must frequent

 

ly examine our priorities in relation to our internal and external affairs. We must align these internal and exter

 

nal aspects of our lives with the realities of the World and the laws of Nature. We must work to hide nothing

 

from ourselves. Finally, we must revel in the fact that opening ourselves to the truth of our place in this World

 

can be enormously invigorating and exciting.

 

[We must prepare ourselves for a tough fight in order to succeed]