The Impermanence of all That Exists
Jan 13 2013
This weekend I went to the Blanton Museum of Art exhibit that showcased Tibetan monks building a sand mandala. After spending days and hours creating this mandala out of fine, colored sand, they “dismantle the mandala, sweeping up the colored sands to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists.”
I wonder if entrepreneurs who achieve the most success, not only in dollars but also impact on the world, truly understand that everything is impermanent which results in a shift in how they perceive risk. Steve Jobs could have floundered in his business in the early days, as most entrepreneurs do, instead of becoming a household name for founding Apple and Pixar. I’m sure he and his team threw away many designs or product ideas that they spent countless hours on, but they kept on painstakingly placing the grains of sand on each next iteration. If a few grains of sand shifted in some of the most popular designs he had envisioned in his head, we may never have known he existed. And now even he is gone but his company lives on…for now.
Author: Aruni | Filed under: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, FYI, Just For Fun, steve jobs, success | Tags: apple, blanton museum of art, pixar, sand mandala, steve jobs, tibetan monks | 2 Comments »
I like how you extend the metaphor to the corporate world of innovation and creativity. I guess one never knows all the destruction that went behind a work of art. It also reminded me of the movie 7 Days in Tibet where the marauding Chinese forces destroy a beautifully drawn mandala and massacre the monks in Tibet. The movie is an all time classic and I understood the depth of creatiivty in Brad Pitt. He, just like Steve jobs, can be the merciless butcher (see Inglorious Basterds) as well as the benign buddhist bikku.
Hi Nalini – Thanks for the great comment. I think we all have in ourselves to be creators and destroyers and sometimes we must destroy to being the creation process anew. But I think we can erase or change by being wise about the impact on others that will hopefully lead to a better creation the next time around!