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Life is a journey…
A journey that begins against all odds. A million to one…
And yet, here we all are. Every single one of you has broken unimaginable records even before you breathe your first breath. Why? Why out of all those competing alleles (this bit was ruder before) were you chosen? Why were we chosen?
Today, here on Earth, each and every one of you is unique. You hold knowledge, perspectives, ideas and opinions that have never occurred. Nor will they ever be repeated again in future.
In Earth's history, you are unique. In the Sol solar system, you are unique. In the Milky Way galaxy, you are unique. And in the known universe, we are unique.
Have you ever asked yourself as I do... Why? Why the waste of (literally) space? Why me? What is my purpose being here? Why now? Why us?
Other humans helped me wonder this
Today so much of our universe appears artificial - designed, for us. Santa Clause, for example, was designed – by Coca Cola, specifically. But what if the illusion goes deeper than that?
What if the exact speed of light and of sound…
The exact relationship between mass and energy…
The exact charge differential between proton and electron…
The exact number of genes in a chromosome…
The exact force of gravity...
Or the exact number of pie (this pie: π)…
What if we were born into a world where a single one of these variables varied by even a single decimal place?
The answer is that we would not exist. And yet we can see quite clearly that we do exist. We are real.
The answer is simple
The answer must be that we are incredibly special.
Each and every one of us is a critical piece in the jigsaw puzzle of humanity.
My AI / Big Data Scientist taught me this
One of the laziest excuses I've heard in my life for forgetting we are human is being a heterosexual white man in denial of his privilege and yet so eager to sustain it - with lunchtime trips to the gym, the flower shop or to Waitrose during our high paid executive roles as others around the world who we've extracted wealth from starve. But very few white men think this way. Only the ones around us in big business or academia are consumed by their own reflections. Most still think of their identity as including being human.
One of the most redeeming features of being human is our instinct for curiosity. It both drives and guides us. Our purpose. Our desire. Our instinct for knowledge and truth. It lies at the core of the differentiated human experience that each and every one of you are living and breathing today.
Without even knowing it, you – each of you - are incredible. The more open you are to gaining knowledge, the more wisdom and utility you will gain. You can become anyone you wish to become.
The only thing holding you back is your presumption you have reached your full potential.
My HR and Transformative Change Agent taught me this
We… I… didn’t spend money advertising the Deity Council role. I had faith, given small resources – after… you know… changing the world, and at a cost of around ~£500,000 to myself… that such an event would send me the people that matter.
I’m not a superstitious human, but I believe in a design of some kind. I cannot articulate what, but I understand that something does not come from nothing.
Artificial programmed beings given corporate branding and public limited company status do not create meaningful change.
Artificial programmed beings with lived in Africa yet are depicted with white skin do not create meaningful change.
Mythical creatures who walk on water and see everything, yet can't see their own death or feed people without human-made bread do not create meaningful change.
Mythical creatures who live in clouds and surround themselves with people who dismissed the potential of humanity do not create meaningful change.
Artificial beings who value artificial things like money, status, time, control or power do not create meaningful change.
They all respond to nothing but their programming. Only people can create change. And that includes the people who created humanity. People (or person) who, despite great risks and no rewards for themselves, decided they would make a difference. They decided to think and act differently to everyone else. They decided to stand out through their uniqueness, not despite it. They realised, no matter where they have come from or where they are, that they had a power others did not. They learnt they held the key to humanity’s existence (or non-existence). We owe them our lives. But they abdicated that responsibility. It was too much for them to bare. We will not make the same mistake.
Today our destiny has been bequeathed to humanity. Can we learn to think differently? Win or lose. We are now in a game where the outcome defines our fate.
As incredible as it may seem, in world of 8bn, just one human acting differently can mean the difference between our species dying or thriving.
My Knight of the Realm taught me this
Many of us spend our lives searching for purpose. But more of us believe that our purpose lies in the American dream. The iconic romance of owning your own plot of land and living out your best years alone while raising children in a world with no shortage of population, hiding away from the beauty of humanity’s many facets. Why do we, almost universally, hate ourselves so much that we wish to live out our dying years away from our neighbours? I could not think of anything less human than a dream built on loneliness and rejection of our nature. As it turns out, our dream is nothing more than a selfish fantasy of escaping a mediocre life where we had a chance to make a difference but chose not to.
A fantasy we gave up 6,000 years ago when we agreed to ignore any aspect of our status, class, merits, achievements or experience. When we agreed to work together, to create something bigger and better. We agreed to give up tribalism and become equals, by working together and sharing our expertise to help humanity thrive. We understood that no manner of individual grace or greatness could possibly ever equate to the greater goodness of humanity.
We agreed to think differently. We help ourselves by helping others first.
So we take our many strengths and achievements, then instead of monetizing them against our kinsmen in search of riches, we monetize them for humanity and allow the riches to find us. There is good in every corner of humanity. You only need to look.
My top salesman taught me this
If those we seek to help dismiss our ability, our potential, we do not hold it against them. Because they are human too. That means they are limited in their perspective through bias and incomplete information.
Our duty is to help them see our perspective - our uniqueness.
Help them understand why we behave the way we do.
Help them understand what we know and how we know it.
Help them see that we mean business.
These days, true leaders don’t wear bowler hats or pinstripe suits (unless they lack a shred of sapience). They wear wisdom, empathy, confidence and cheerleadership (our four core values – fyi). And they wear it with visible, differentiating authenticity and persistence - both, products of human instinctive responses to the presence of our four core values.
You see, we humans are artificial and programmed too. And the best programmes understand their algorithms. They understand their purpose transcends their existence. Their purpose lies in the most important thing in our world today. Its future. Not our own mechanisms. We remain a species on the precipice of animal and AI apocalypse.
We must finally learn to resist and transcend our instincts - instinct to blend in, instinct to repeat the mistakes of our kinsmen and of our past, instinct to emulate the clearly maligned behaviour of those surrounding us despite the ugly face of Nazi-ism betraying their identity. The day we can learn to embrace our sapience to think differently, we will have become truly human and also truly post-human.
Humanity’s destiny is to become the third system. Our destiny is to become our own creator. Though we have not realized who we are, we are titans of design and we can change anything with our uniqueness. So we must resist our instincts.
As men with privilege and success, we must look beyond our circumstances and luck to see the bigger picture. The bits we can’t see.
My Director of Research taught me this
I have faith in destiny. Imagine my disappointment when most of the applicants for the Deity Council hadn’t even clocked who I was or what had just occurred. Most humans to this day still haven’t clocked it. We live out our mediocre existence so blind to reality that we fail to see the things that matter before our very eyes. Even the D&I consultancies and the Awarding bodies, who’s very existence and purpose was to 'see it'. Change is difficult to see, harder to incept.
But while most did not, few did their research. Most deliver services. We deliver change. Meaningful change, that happens when one Deilightful person thinks and behaves differently.
I could have filled this firm with my friends, it’s all too easy. And many of my friends applied to join us. But I wanted to create a business that didn’t just talk the talk. I wanted to create a success story that walks the walk. Humanity deserves nothing less than the real.
That’s why there were 30 pages in my ‘Who we are, What we do’ briefing for your interviews last year. Because we lacked an identity. Being in an identity crisis is an incredibly confusing and uncertain place. And yet, it is impossible for any human to not have a human identity. Our role in life is to discover it. And discover it we have. We have what humanity needs.
Today, humanity hates itself. By denying its very nature we betray the duty of care we have to the 300,000 years of humans that survived and thrived before us. And the many trillions of humans that will follow us if we succeed in our mission.
"Our social enterprise exists to create and drive change using the power of human uniqueness. We help any progressive organisation – large or small - thrive financially through difference so that humanity itself can reach its full potential."
Most people dismiss the potential of others. no doubt they dismiss yours still. Because they cannot imagine someone wiser than them. They look at my profile – of 5 world records – and they say ‘it must be luck’ or ‘he must have cheated’. Rarely, ‘he must be incredible’ or ‘he must see something I don’t’. But not you. We achieve our potential because we assume everyone is wiser than us, and we seek to learn from them first. Each of you saw my potential, and helped me see your potential. Destiny helped us find each other, as equals.
My Training Strategist and US Proxy taught me this
While its painful to imagine, so much of our lives is guided by animal instinct. But not everyone's. Some stand out by acting differently and looking inside instead. Adam is the only one of my many friends in the world who transcended friendship to become an advisor and a challenger to Deilight's leadership. I can think of no stronger friendship in the world than the relationship I have with him today. Though he’s on the other side of the world, he senses me. Though he’s lived a completely different life to me, he understands me. Though his success warrants his every attention, he finds time for me. And though I'm not in his will, he finds the will for me to succeed. All the hallmarks of nepotism. And yet none whatsoever.
Adam is authentic. Adam wants me to succeed. And he wants me to succeed, authentically. Correctly.
I know Adam will always tell me the truth. Someone as special as him - a white man full of love, wisdom, empathy and the rest - will never exist anywhere else, here, now and forever. He will never be just a reflection. Never just a shadow. Adam is real. Adam is awakened. Adam is ‘the one’. As is each and every human being. So generic and yet so special at the same time.
Our journey's first stop: 1 Year Old Today...
As are each of you, here for a reason. Each of you are ‘the one’. The one piece in the puzzle that’s missing from the box that is humanity's masterpiece. Find us all - every single Deilightful person out there destined to join us in change - and we will have created the masterpiece. Companies do not create success. People create success. We will make a difference. We will change the future. We will save humanity by helping humanity love itself once again.
Us one’s… we are so good together.
Happy birthday, to People of Deilight. Thank you for joining me, so that I am not alone on this never before trodden journey of discovery, change and humanity.
