Meetings With Remarkable Men

I saw a strange French movie in 1979 that made a big impact on me. It was called Meetings with Remarkable Men and told the story of G.Gurdjieff, a philosopher who traveled through Central Asia in order to discover spirituality through dance, music, near-encounters with death and by meeting remarkable people along the way.

Over the last 24 hours I have had 2 encounters with remarkable men. Both related to my last blog entry regarding how to handle a crisis. I learned something new.

The first encounter occurred yesterday with a friend who is fighting to recover from a life-threatening accident that left his body and brain damaged and has forced him to have to re-evaluate his entire life. His courage and his determination inspire me and remind me to stay focused on what is most important here in life. His re-evaluation of his career has also reminded me of how important these types of questions really are. When we are forced, due to a crisis, to re-examine things at a fundamental level, then we sometimes get a chance to start over and re-create our lives and our businesses as we would ideally have them rather than after a pattern that merely came about over many years. Crisis is a valuable opportunity and an important process if you want to grow your business or accelerate your own personal development.

The second encounter was in a meeting with a business associate. We met over coffee this morning and discussed plans to collaborate on some workshops and marketing projects. Two things were remarkable. First, his energy level was contagious to the point that I left our meeting charged with a sense of urgency and a new determination to attack the problems that this crisis has presented. Second, as we were parting he said “Thank you for being you”. I realized that in light of the current crisis, my true self - my true colors are being freed and are shining through. Adversity brings out the best in us if only we let go and don’t fight it.

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this blog to receive frequent updates and to join in the work. Learn more at www.ricksalmon.com