Leapfrogging Consciousness
Context: For the last two weeks, I’ve been accompanying Dr Home, a wonderful mentor, friend and daddy figure, in his first trip back to Vietnam after 8 years. We have been meeting different people to learn about what is happening here, and I write this post to share some reflection.
Airplane take-off and leapfrog
During this trip, Dr Home asked everyone he met three questions.
The first two, “What do you love about your life and work in Vietnam?” and “What is most challenging and painful?” allowed us to learn about what is going on here as well as getting to know the person.
The third, “what questions are you sitting with in this current moment?”, could get into the heart of the leadership challenges that people face at both the personal and organizational level. Leadership here means not only as a position of power but as a capacity to influence the future.
The first response we heard was rather inspiring. How could we keep up with this rate of growth or even do better? How could we continue developing ourselves and the people around us? It’s such a good problem to have!
The need for continuous learning is never higher as the country becomes even more open to the greater world, which brings influences, standards and expectations. Organizationally, people are so hungry to learn that many companies struggle to keep up with.
Nationally, as a friend of us framed this story of modernization, Vietnam has been steadily gaining momentum in terms of growth for the last 10–15 years. In a sense, Vietnam has been ramping up like an airplane ready to take off. The question is whether such momentum is large enough to fly. Can we make the great leap forwards like the transformation that other Asian nations like Japan, Korea, China or Singapore have gone through?
What will it take to fly? Or perhaps can we “leapfrog”, to use the economic development terms? This indeed is a time of great potential as well as pressure, and the answer seems unclear.
Somehow we are not that worried though.
Even bigger houses will be built, even fancier food will be delivered to the door, even more shopping choices will be one-click available on e-commerce sites. That will certainly take a lot of work, but looking at the country’s growth trajectory and the globalizing trends, it will happen.
Just look at the vibrant, dynamic Ho Chi Minh City. Shopping malls and apartment buildings will not stop appearing. The young and eager people will not stop finding a way to learn the knowledge and skills they need. There is no doubt that if you want to see changes happening in a relatively short time, this is a place to be in.
A leapfrog is indeed needed. The question is what kind.
Interesting enough, an airplane take off is quite different from a leapfrog.
The airplane accelerates linearly from zero to a critical speed where it starts opening its wings that provide the uplifting force. Voila, a flying machine bird. On the other hand, the frog will slightly bend backwards to provide the coiling needed just before the leap. Voila, an organically leaping frog.
What’s the analogical equivalent of the frog bending backwards for us humans who want to leap forwards? The answer, surprisingly, is found in people who are now temporarily lost.
In times of uncertainty, one needs a vision.
This brings us to the second question that are on the mind of many people we met, particularly those who are going through a transitional phase: “What’s next?” It’s no longer a question of sustaining growth but a breakthrough one.
We hear it mostly from serial entrepreneurs to high-performing executives, often in their mid-30s or 40. It seems like the cliche mid-life crisis is happening sooner. Suddenly, more people seem to be re-evaluating who they are and what they really want.
What surprised me was that only some were burned out or disillusioned by the career paths they are in. Most feel rather positive. They have put a lot in their work, achieved a lot and even reached mastery of their respective fields. Now they are simply either tired or bored. Starting and selling another company doesn’t feel as exciting anymore, so is managing another large-scale project.
Not being sure of what’s next is not just a personal challenge but organizational and even national one. We heard several influential people mentioning the importance of having a clear vision. Some mentioned companies and corporations who are doing well because they have a big, clear and compelling vision of who they want to become in the national or even global stage. Meanwhile, some people said that the government is lacking in strategic vision for Vietnam’s role internationally.
In times of uncertainty, many people value a clear answer. It is the reason why leadership literature glorifies vision. A clear vision can bring people very far.
At first, when we look to another country, especially in a more developed one, we desire to be like them. For example, many people who have the privilege to live overseas come back to Vietnam and wonder “We can be like them too. Our people are talented, our resources abundant, we don’t see why we can’t!” These people set their vision on an inspirational external benchmark, and they put in the hard work to push the needle. Whether or not they succeed, the country moves forward. Vietnam can and is even becoming more efficient like Singapore or more industrially advanced like Japan or Korea.
Vietnam’s desire to be an equal is written in President Ho Chi Minh’s letter to students 70 years ago, one that I memorized as a primary school student.
“Whether Vietnam can reach the glorious stage and become a shoulder-to-shoulder equal to other great nations in all the five continents, that will depend on your study effort.”
“Dân tộc Việt Nam có bước tới đài vinh quang để sánh vai với các cường quốc năm châu được hay không, chính là nhờ một phần ở công học tập của các em”
However, while it’s useful to have role-model for inspiration and direction, it’s not to be confused with the end goal. The nature of the catch-up game of development is such that once we become like someone we aspired to be, they are already someone else. It’s an ever moving goal post.
Many leaders understand this irony and go a step further. From the beginning, they set out an even more ambitious vision: to be the best in the region or even the world. I’m excited that this is what many Vietnamese leaders are aiming for, and many talent are working hard to make this happen. Perhaps soon enough we will top the world for our cars, teas or rice, our natural habitats, our skilled workforce etc…
Vision and calling
Reflecting upon these conversations, I’m reminded of my often struggle to answer a question asked by many caring adults: “What vision do you have for your life in 5 or 10 years?”
There is something about the language of “become like someone” or “become the best” that rarely resonates with me. Only recently did I realize why through a quote a friend posted on FB.
“A vision is a big idea you have. A calling is a big idea that has you.” — Anonymous
I, as well as many bright young people like me who are often endearingly called “lost soul”, lean towards the calling orientation. We haven’t had a clear vision, because we are still seeking for the calling. That sense of purpose, of knowing what each of us is meant to do.
It comes from an intuitive knowing that we cannot win by force, for there are always people who are stronger, wealthier or smarter who can do it much better. As an example, capitalism and the relentless energy of money to create more of itself will not stop. I just know that right now I don’t want to play this game.
I only wish to enter a dance with life, to move through the world with responsiveness, attunement and joy. To dance that way, I must give up control over knowing what exactly what to do or even who to become. I must learn to relinquish Force — even if it has brought me tremendous success — and step into Power. This is the kind of leapfrog that Dr Home and I are both interested in. It’s not “What’s the next big thing?” but “What is the place inside — our consciousness — from which it is born?”
This map of consciousness by David Hawkins offers a different way to look at this challenge. Before asking “what should I do next?”, consider “from what place within am I acting?”.
While the temptation of any conceptual framework of development like this is that everyone wants to jump to the top and push everyone down, it’s worth pondering about. The work of self-understanding is an important work, one that will take us through many doubtful and dark moments.
Yet, we all know at some points in our lives when we were doing something out of deep appreciation and love. Maybe it’s the letter we write to a dear friend. Maybe it’s the art piece we spent time perfecting. Maybe it’s a volunteer project for some underprivileged community. They don’t even have to be something of that grandeur — just a few words, a smile, a cup of tea.
I want to share a few moments like that with Dr Home. Perhaps it can give you an experience of leapfrogging in consciousness can look like.
From the head to the heart
One dinner after a long day, as I went on and on with my analysis of what is happening in Vietnam (don’t get me going…), Dr Home suddenly interrupted.
“Hey, something off tangent, but I’ve been noticing something inside me that needs to be expressed.”
Silence. He looked at me like a disciple looking at Jesus, in awe and reverence.
“I love you so much.”
I have experienced Dr.Home’s off-tangentness before, but that moment still took me by surprise.
“You are so smart, kind and generous, you bring me around, introduce me to wonderful people and have so many insights about the place. I’m so grateful to have known you.”
These words went straight into my heart, bypassing my intellectual rambling. I teared up, tears of gladness, connection and deep appreciation. We sat there for a long moment, gazing into each other’s eyes.
No more analysis, no more this is good that is bad, no more thinking needed. Only presence, accompanied by the breath, this long, pleasuring, wondrous breath. It reminds me of a favorite Rumi’s poem
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
In that moment, I directly received Dr Home’s truest expertise and best gift: his deep appreciation for the world, spontaneously manifest in how he shows up. I’ve learned a lot from Dr Home during this trip in his knowledge and skill, but this remains as the most important one. The deepest learning comes from direct transmission.
Needless to say, I wanted to be like that.
Love as a full-time job
Speaking of doing work with love, I recall on the last day a meeting with Jean-Marc and Sabine, a lovely French-German couple in their late 60s. I first met Sabine at a small music show — her violin play is sheer joy — and soon got to know her more as a wonderful human being. Dr Home and I finally could visit them at their house for tea after rescheduling many times.
As Sabine was pouring tea, Jean-Marc asked Dr Home, “So, what do you do?”
I recalled Dr Home telling me before that whenever someone asked him this overused question at a party, he would respond with something more interesting and inviting of a genuine conversation.
He took a moment and answered with smiling emphasis, “I love”.
Jean-Marc responded, half surprised, half delighted: “I do too”.
Sabine, still pouring tea, chimed in: “It’s a full time job”.
Me? I was just so in love with the beauty of that moment. I maybe a good thinker, but I’m still an apprentice of love, soaking in all the good vibes. 😊
One understands love more in the presence of those who embody it. This is not the crazy passionate love that pop culture extols but a mature, joyous, life-giving love that radiates from those who have done the inner work, who have walked on the roses and transformed the thorns.
This moment also brings me to another poem that Dr Home shared at the beginning of his trip.
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. “— Rumi
No matter what we do, from talking and listening to organizing a party or a project, from playing music and making dinner to launching a new business or an Excel sheet, as we allow ourselves to yearn for beauty, we will be met by love.
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