Our Desire Ensnares Us

Extreme passion is our master and we are it's willing slave no matter how painful

S Phelps 2016

The Cycle of Greed (rise and fall)

Greed.  Greed can be the builder and the destroyer.  Think of someone with a good idea,  works hard,  is resourceful, takes time to develop the product and idea,  finely tunes and ultimately becomes a success...  This success gives them  more money and options which is then used to build up more and then to build on top of that...  They becomes more successful than was ever planned...  Where is the peak? At some point,  they realise maybe you could make more by cutting costs,  speeding up processes,  floating the company,  bringing in outsiders to diversify and reach wider audiences... Now there's not just expectations but targets that an accountant,  a lawyer and a stock broker start to enforce,  you have a bad week...  Oh no,  profits are down,  cut something from the budget,  investigate what happened,  create safety nets but can't spend any more money...  Cut costs,  move funding from the original projects and departments to stop legal proceedings,  satisfy the spread sheets,  cut more staff,  get fewer to do more,  simple maths right? Bad reviews,  people are complaining,  customers are leaving,  loyalty is down,  skepticism is up...  Share prices fall...  Panic...  Cut more costs to keep profits up,  product suffers, quality people no longer want to work there or be associated with your brand...  Hopes of less skilled cheaper workers with expensive consultants/managements become the plan...  It turns from practice to pure theory and numbers on a page,  why is the company still failing. There are only so many excuses investors will accept,  they leave in droves,  debts are piling up,  sell and sack and ship to keep a float... It sinks with nothing left but the thoughts that inspired,  maintained and destroyed it.

Know where to start,  know where to stop. 

Creativity Slavery

Why do we want to control creativity?  Are we scared. I think because people don't know how or where they get their thoughts,  they fear that one day they'll lose it...  That's a real fear, Sting from the band The Police, has the fear of a blank note pad...  That fear of one day you just 'loose it'. It's interesting that kids don't have this fear...  Well not instinctively...  Its beautiful to just create and not worry about the end result,  just do it for the enjoyment of.

I think...  I think...  The worst thing you can do is have something spacific in mind and chase that...  Because you could be chasing your whole life,  chase the feeling instead!