Don Brown did us all a favor back in the day when he wrote the book titled, Human Universals. Don and his dandy team of anthropologists traveled the world over to discover how much we humans are alike, in spite of our deep differences. My personal favorite among their documented discoveries was the fact that we humans are all afraid. Yup, it’s true. You and I are full of fear.
According to Don we share five big fears.
1. Fear of death. This might not be personal death as you may have made peace with your own. You still fear death of a loved one, death of an enterprise, death of community, or even death of a country. The fear of death runs deep.
2. Fear of the outsider. This comes from pre-historic wiring. Humans fear that the outsider is here to kill us, because sometimes they still are – Most times not. We tend to over forecast danger, don’t we? This explains why in a country as diverse as America we have more associations than any other. We all want to find at least a few “like me.”
3. Fear of the future. Leaders, please pay special attention. You can be wrong about the future and your team will forgive you. You cannot be unclear. And, this is why in America we pay our financial planners mucho dinero. We fear our financial future more than any other. Sadly a lot of planners (including my former saboteur) were clear even though, in hindsight, they clearly didn’t know what they were doing. Again, the beauty of ccd (clear, concise, direct), for better or worse…
4. Fear of chaos. This is why all tribes, when they initially come together, establish structure and order via rules and regulations. Even the loosest of cultures have constraints to keep us just this side of chaos.
5. Fear of coming and going and not leaving a mark. Humans fear not being missed. We are meaning makers and want our lives to matter, don’t we? We want to leave a legacy. This is why the ones with power leave their name behind on buildings, monuments, and the rest of us carve initials into trees or spray paint away…
At BTL we believe Don did some dandy work. However, we think these top five are in reverse order. Humans are wired, I believe, by a God who created according to His design. His design was for us all to live out a life filled with purpose and meaning. You see, we’re all wired differently, diversely, by divine decision. Our job is to figure it out and come together with those alike and those very much unlike anything we recognize. From a lone toward all ONE – one L (love) of a difference. One, distinct and deeply connected. Talk about a big dream, huh. Lit by this energy within our BTL core, we embrace living just side of chaos, create the future, embrace the outsider, and die singing our song, our OPUS. Distinct and deeply connected here we come. This is why becoming ONE is everyone’s aim whether within or with another – it runs deep.
And, this is why so many humans run away and choose distraction over distinction. Choose distinction. Choose deep connection with those alike and unlike. Choose to be one who brings us together, friend. Choose to be a Uniter in these states we call home. Unite us. You choose. Your choices have consequences. Good…
BUILT TO LEAD 