A quick thought about our biggest challenge.

Since we started Empathia in 2014, the reactions people have — people who we don't do business with — when they ask what do we do, have mostly been positive with few detractors. I like that. It means that at least in the general perception, what we're doing is viewed as something good. By the way, if you need context of what I am talking about here, please read this post.

Nonetheless, the real perception although positive in the surface, is full of skepticism inside. I realized this not very long ago. People listened, they gave us a pat in the back and said it was awesome that we approached our work this way. In reality the conclusions were that we're idealists, at best.

A change in the tide.

Lately, I've been asked a lot about how we're progressing. These same people and a few more have been increasingly asking me about our plans, who we're working with, and even advice on how to approach certain problems with their own businesses or work places. This is something that caught my attention and has made me reflect on why people have changed their attitude towards what we're doing.

I still don't have the answer, but I know that part of it has been the consistency of how "what we say" manifests in "what we do". We speak about what we believe in and filter our actions through that belief so that the results of those actions, takes us closer and closer to our objectives. People see that, they see the results and then our credibility starts to build itself into them. Suddenly, we've passed from being naive, crazy idealists after an ambitious vision, into something that might actually pull this thing off.

My take on it is that I believe that fundamentally people are suckers for the collective good, for the truth, and for harmonious and fruitful relationships. It is just that as a species and throughout our existence, we've gradually lost our way. Making this a conscious thought provided me with a great revelation that, it may not be to you, but it has definitely been for me: our biggest challenge is to go against the flow.

The challenge.

In the long run, its a huge challenge to stay committed to a vision as ambitious as what we're trying to do. The world has lots of problems that are waiting to be fixed. Finding work is not the challenge, we know we will have work for a very long time. The real challenge is to keep ourselves motivated in a world where societies are becoming more and more individualized. Empathy is the thing we center our efforts around, so we have to think about everyone else, permanently. Which in a way, it goes against the tendency of the world.

Because of this, we founded our efforts on principles that when followed collectively, the chance to get to our vision is greatly increased. They represent who we want to be and help us to keep moving forwards against what we believe has to be different. And so they conform our decision making framework.

In the end, to us, its all about perspective. We are floating in a marble in the middle of nowhere. We are not that special. Lets get over it, and focus our lives to protect this marble and the life of everyone who lives in it. After all, it is our only home.

"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." — Carl Sagan

Thanks again for taking a few minutes to read into our thoughts.