[Springboard] So. we are started

[M. George Walters]

The Call and the Response


I am overwhelmed with the extensiveness of the task before us. The little
corner of that task I engage in from day to day is but a small part of all
of that which must be done. The forms that are needed for all that must be
done mystify me and I cannot fathom how they might come to be. Old forms,
while informative and filled with rich clues to what is called for, must be
transformed. New forms, appropriate to the age and the places where we
engage.

At the same time I am heartened by all that goes on around me. In a trade
show recently I was impressed with the many solutions various inventors,
entrepreneurs, founders of little companies, had brought to the market place
to address the major challenges of security, environment, technology, etc.
Their almost evangelistic zeal for what they were doing is exciting and I
realize there is no lack of creativity, imagination, and energy involved in
this task. But then I at the same time I am aware of how fragmented and
disconnected all this creativity is and how economic competition is making
their ideas and products compete with each other and cloud the vision of the
greater need and good in the maritime world.

I am trained to see this and respond to it. So I found a change in my sales
pitch for my own product suddenly bubbling out of my mouth. I started
talking with them about collaboration and how we might integrate various
products together to create a yet greater and more powerful result. I even
took two competitors to talk with each other about the different strengths
of each of their products and how I could offer them a third alternative to
put their products together. I don't know if anything will come of it
because of the bitter economic rivalry in the marketplace they have, but for
a moment they were both shaking their heads "Yes".

Who am I in this world where I work from day to day that in the midst of
this real world of social disparity, economic inequity, political turmoil
and planetary ecological crisis?

I am in fact a nobody, at the bottom of the economic market share which
everyone uses to measure success. And yet, "wonder of wonders" as JAS says,
In the last 90 days with no sales, I have been asked to convene a group of
industry leaders, to present at two speaking engagements, to be on a team
for a year long best practices studies in my industry (and actually get paid
to do it).

What I have decided to be, whether or not money follows, is an honest voice
for what must be done. Yesterday a salesman who is helping me market my
product called me and started trying to sell my product to me - "It is not a
matter of whether what you say needs to be done, George, but when. It must
be done!" At that point I realized the battle was won, not in the fact that
it was complete, but that a virtual stranger had recognized and was now
evangelizing his awareness of his own awakenment". 

So now I am about awakenment all over again, something I thought I was
through with; And I am about formation of relationships, something that I
thought I was through with; And permeating an industry with a new view of
their reality - even though I am the least of them; And that is what they
are expecting of me, and they are in turn are emulating as they respond to
me.

But this is not my full life. I have discovered and allied myself with
others who have discovered this too. They too are doing and discovering the
same things in their industries, organizations and work. And we will spend
much time together enabling each other to formulate strategic ways to align
forces, engage forces, empower forces, and journey forces to replace us on
the long march, not doing the content of what we have done but act in the
spirit of that we have done, ever mindful of the change in the global and
universal landscape as the centuries evolve.

M. George Walters
President
Harbour Mastery Inc.
www.Harbourmastery.com
M.George.Walters at verizon.net

-----Original Message-----
From: springboard-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:springboard-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Sarah Miller
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 23:44
To: springboard at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Springboard] So. we are started

What is calling you forth?
The imperative to participate in tikkun olam; to contribute my life to
building a more fair, humane, and peaceful society; to live a useful life,
that translates the gifts I am given into things of practical and actual
use; to live as authentically as I can out of my principles and learning; to
respond to actual needs identified by people in need, and eschew the impulse
to invent needs out of my own desire to be needed.

Who else do you work with?
My colleagues at ICAI and other organizations, my partner, my parents, my
sister, my brother, my friends

What are they expecting of you?
Commitment, aptitude, patience, humility, excellence

The Form
I am interested in helping to ensure that the institutions that have emerged
from the OE legacy are dynamic and successful, so that the ICA approach can
have ever wider and deeper impact in a world that needs comprehensive human
development as urgently as ever.


Sarah Miller
Director of Development and Communications
The Institute of Cultural Affairs International
555 Rene-Levesque Boulevard West
Suite 500
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2Z 1B1
Tel 514.875.7111
Fax 514.287.9687
 
Looking for gift ideas? Give a Working Gift at www.ica-international.org!

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