Did Steve Have a Good Day?

Do you take stock at the end of each day and decide whether you had a good day? Would you like to have a day similar to the one Steve had in the account below?

Steve was tired, pleasantly tired. It had been a splendid day. One of the best days he could remember in years.

Steve was CEO of Smartech, a company he founded that helped businesses use AI in their own operations. The blush was off AI in general, but his company had a unique approach and a great story, and investors were in love with it. A major VC had just signed a deal to invest $300 million in Smartech at a valuation that made it a unicorn several times over. Further, the CEO of the VC firm told reporters that he had never seen a company with more potential or a more brilliant strategic player than Steve.

Steve’s co-founder, he had one though he barely acknowledged her and led journalists and investors to believe that Smartech was all his doing, was getting on his nerves and questioning some of his decisions. Steve worked with the new investor to oust her. She did not know it yet, but she would get her walking papers tomorrow. She would keep her equity, but she was out and her three cronies would soon follow. A non-compete and non-disparagement agreement would keep them powerless.

A large financial services firm wanted to provide Smartech’s tools to each of it’s 15,000 brokers. A consulting firm intended to recommend the same product to its clients in the telecom sector under its own brand name. Those two deals would make Smartech a billion dollar in revenues company within three years.

The private investigator he had hired called him excitedly. He had photographic evidence that Steve’s wife was carrying on an extramarital affair and had been doing so for the better part of a year. She was in a sensitive political position and her career would derail if the information became public. Steve was confident that he could use the PI’s finding to push through a divorce and reclaim much of the Smartech equity he had given her. That would make him a paper billionaire right away.

He had his annual checkup and his doctor confirmed he was in top physical shape. His weight was down. He was no longer pre-diabetic and his H1Ac had decreased to 5.8. He planned to run a marathon this year and the trainer he had hired was confident he could do so in under three hours.

Life was good.

Did Steve have a great day? He certainly thought so.

What do you think?

There are two problems with Steve’s exultation about his ‘good day.’

First, it reinforces him in the notion that he is a particular body-mind-intellect complex called Steve and that what is important is what this Steve experiences. He is quite some distance from Kipling’s injunction to meet Triumph and Disaster and “treat those two imposters the same.” His accomplishments, that he is so thrilled about, will seem meaningless at a different stage of his life. And the ‘downs’, alas, will match or exceed his current ‘highs.’

Second, he is becoming rooted in the idea that his success needs him to best someone else, be it his co-founder and her cronies or his estranged wife. His ‘victories’ are reinforcing his ego and, as sure as eggs are eggs and God made apples, he will be despondent some day when he recognizes that they will not give him what he truly seeks – happiness that is unalloyed, not dependent of anything or anyone, and everlasting.

Can such happiness exist?

Yes, but it cannot be pursued or captured. You already have it. You just have to release it.

How, exactly, you do this will be the subject of many future blogs.

Peace!