Sad To See WeWork CEO Adam Neumann Step Aside
Why do some of our most talented people get tripped up like this right at the height of their career? And how can we prevent this happening?
It’s so upsetting to see the hundreds of articles about Israeli WeWork CEO and founder Adam Neumann “stepping aside”, as we call it nowadays. Why am I upset about it? Because all these demotions are preventable …
Here is an incredible entrepreneur who built an empire by taking the communal concepts of Israeli Kibbutz life to the world. He created these super-cool environments and communities, and really impacted the way so many people do business in a very significant way. Just at a time when the world of work is changing so much, people have where to go everyday, and be in great company.
The co-working industry that was founded on his vision is being applied to other areas (that are not just about work), and there are new co-working ventures popping up everywhere.
Clearly, this exceptional individual, (along with his wife Rebekah), has contributed a great deal to making our society better.
All human beings have an inherent desire to do good and leave their mark on the world. So why do some of our most talented people get tripped up like this right at the height of their career?
We Lack an Understanding of Human Nature
Unfortunately, it’s 2019, and we are still evolving in a very primitive way, without really understanding how the system we exist in works.
The following explanation can provide the basis for yet another WeWork platform: WeEvolve (sort of a WeGrow for adults).
We don’t really understand how human nature was designed, or for what purpose. Due to this lack of knowledge, we continue to see a gap between:
- Our incredible capabilities, and how sophisticated we are.
- All the way over at the other side of the spectrum >> how we get slipped up by the most human mistakes.
It’s crazy how we always see really powerful, successful and intelligent men, making these silly mistakes that leave a shadow over their name forever.
There are stages throughout history where certain behaviors are accepted (and even praised), and others where they are not. To leave your mark on the world, you need to remain on the good side of history.
These days I’m watching (and remembering) Mark Sanford’s epic fall from grace due to a love affair, in The Family on Netflix. And for what? Was it really worth breaking up a family, and ruining your chance to be the most powerful person in the world?
Let’s face it. We don’t really understand man’s nature or the world’s nature — and we surely don’t know how to use either of them correctly. If we did, we would know how to prevent falling into these sticky situations.
Fleeting and Eternal Human Desires
Our desires have evolved over time, and they are the basis for understanding everything in our world. At the beginning we had very basic desires for the necessary things in life, such as food, sex and shelter.
The next shift in human desires was when we started to want things like money, knowledge and power. All these things that only serve to stroke the human ego more, can be considered fleeting desires that don’t really fill us. No matter how much money and power you have — it will never be enough. You will always want more.
In the next stage that we are just beginning to get a taste of, our desires are evolving once again. This time we will be seeking higher types of fulfillment that you can’t really measure with the five senses we have.
This is why highly evolved people are talking about things like expanded consciousness, meaning, purpose and spirituality. Clearly, there is something above this life that can provide us with a more lasting sense of fulfillment. And it usually involves concern for the whole, rather than being at the beck and call of your own ego.
How Can We Prevent Making Mistakes?
Society as a whole needs to undergo an education about what it really means to be human, why we do the things we do, and how we can advance in a far more beneficial way together.
We need to fully understand the human ego, and how it was designed to trip us up in life. There is no insurance policy against this. No matter how rich or famous you are, the program is constantly working against us.
Eventually we figure out that it’s in our best interests, and that these incidents served a purpose. But if we were aware of how the system worked, and adjusted ourselves to suit it, there would not be a need for these wake-up calls.
You may be thinking that you can outsmart the program. But trust me, if you’re human — you can’t. It catches up with all of us.
We have everything we need in our world to thrive. Now all we need to learn is how to be better humans. We can learn to look out for each other, and help each other advance smoothly, without suffering.
In the meantime, the program will keep going, until it completes its mission. So we better start figuring out how it works.
