Did you read ‘Ideal’ or ‘Idea’? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a nice guy, but I did write ‘Idea’. It’s a blessing, and a curse – so many ideas. I’m a dreamer, a creator, and a sharer of ideas. I love to think, to create, and to do things that have never been done before. Those crazy ideas that flash through my head daily, as I dash to find my whiteboard, my notepad, my laptop, or my iPhone to make sure they get written done before the breeze that brought them to me blows them out of my consciousness. I see the world as I would have it. I see the perfection in the creation, and the beauty that is the creative process that gives birth to a new tomorrow.
As I said though, it is also a curse. I’m 38, and I would need a hundred lifetimes to make all my dreams come true. It’s not just the time, the skills, or the opportunity, but it’s also the desire. Each great idea and invention that has ever appeared in our world may have dawned as a seed in the mind of an individual, but it is the amazing mosaic of our shared lives that makes these dreams comes true. From a helping hand or a sharp critique, to an inspiring place of work or a meal prepared with love and passion. There is nothing that isn’t part of the great whole that makes up creation. And I certainly don’t want to do everything – I’m not inspired to do so.
And that is the wall that I am trying to climb, the wall that stands like an impenetrable shield surrounding my own dreams. When I close my eyes and dream of the next tomorrow that I want to create, I see the wonderful people and smiling faces that fill the landscape of my thoughts, passions, and hopes. I see a sea of happy and content souls following their own dreams, in a river of creation that we share.
Take Cloud9 for instance, a company that I created that makes software for analyzing the performance of cloud services. Creating software is far more than gifted software engineers, user experience designers, sales and marketing professionals, or legal and financial experts, it is a group of people with the passion to help others follow their dreams while they follow their own. It’s not about the drive to be the best, the most famous, or the most powerful. It’s about pride in yourself and your work, and humility in seeing yourself in others – that without them you wouldn’t be able to make your dreams come true. It is a team, a network, a shared vision, and a passion for oneself and the choices you make each and every day.
So why do I face a seemingly impenetrable shield? My list of dreams and ideas grows but longer each and every day, and yet I am disconnected. I am disconnected from the people I have seen in my dreams. The people whose faces light up when we see each other, when we share our days and lives together, and we experience ourselves being the people we’ve seen in our own dreams. Instead I see businesses run with profit and growth as primary goals, investors looking for monetary return, partners looking at me and sizing me up to figure out how big the profit will be.
No concessions. That’s the one promise I made to myself when I started this journey. No more concessions. For every “yes” that I’ve given out over the last 3 years since I started Cloud9, I’ve given out 100 “no’s”. Sometimes I’ve lost hope, wondering if I would ever find the right people and companies to partner with to make my dreams come true. So many are mired in their own fears, doubts, and the daily grind of survival. I’m done surviving. I’m ready to live. Live as a part of the great and beautiful sea of humanity that I am an indivisible part of. I’m not just another entrepreneur, creator, techie, father, man, or middle-class statistic. I’m a stream of creation looking for the riverbeds, bends and forks, the tributaries, and on towards the raging river that bursts forth into estuaries, fjords, and the great sea that we are all a part of.
And it’s not just Cloud9, it’s all of the ideas that I’ve developed over the last 15 years that are looking for partners, and co-creators:
Unity Theory: A new scientific theory that unites the separated world that has been created by mechanistic science and academics over the last 1000 years. Our true reality is unity, and it’s time to not just talk about it but to show it, feel it, and share it.
A Brief History Of Us: A celebration of us – not the small and marginal examples of leaders, fighters, priests, or other figures that fill our history books, but the most of us that make up humanity. A new look on history that doesn’t promote a single idea, culture, race, or theme above another. A new sense of history that wakes us up to our own unique part of human history. A business with a story – stories that are meant to be shared.
Open Social Services: Democracy was once seen (in the ‘western’ world) as the finest hope for humankind. No more dictators, kings, high priests, or ruthless groups of individuals that controlled the lives of others. Unfortunately, the promise of democracy has but put a facade over the groups that still exert an unequal amount of control and influence over our lives. It is time for us to create the world we want to live in, a world where money, class, and influence no longer determine the quality of our lives. It is time for our lives to be carried by the infinite breadth of human love – a resource that can never be exhausted.
Emotional Revolution: How often do you feel trapped? Inside your own body, mind, and life? A massively ego-centric and logic-dominated society has created nations and communities of disconnected individuals. Individuals that can only derive their value, place, and purpose by the goods and services they produce. We are born into an invisible slavery that we, our parents, their parents, and so on have created backwards through history to a point that we can’t even find it in our history books. The next revolution in creating the life and world that we want to live in isn’t a violent political struggle or an external religious fervor, but rather the discovery of an old truth: We are the creators of our own reality, and truth flows from us.
These are all ideas, ‘businesses’ as some might call them, that are waiting for the right connection with others. I know, with all my heart, that there are others out there that share similar dreams. I’m not looking for the traditional idea of work where capital controls resources – employees included. I believe in a new world economy, an economy based on the realization of shared dreams, potential, and love. An economy where groups of individuals come together to co-create their dreams – whatever they may be, for as long as they choose. And when those dreams have come to their completion, those groups, the sea of humanity that we are all a part of, will once again move me and you with the current to our new destination.
Are you inspired? Do you feel a connection with me while reading this open letter? Then perhaps you’re hearing your own dreams calling to you and reminding you that you have a special and unique gift to share with yourself and the world. Are we meant to follow the same river together for a while? A day perhaps, a month, or even a lifetime? I don’t know, but I know one thing for sure: If we’re meant to be connected, you’ll reach back to me and complete the circuit.
I’m waiting.
Yours,
Andrew