God speaks to you in weird ways. Tonight, it was through a game of Settlers of Catan with my RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) folks.
Settlers is like a cross between Monopoly and Starcraft/Warcraft in that it’s a race to see who can garner the most capital in the shortest amount of time, thus making it a very capitalistic game (duh, Vy).
One of the things about capitalism that’s always made me really sad is that people work to gain more at the expense of others. You’re either trying to run down the competition or cutting corners by having your goods manufactured in sweat shops. I don’t know how many times I’ve read about potential copyright infringement suits between companies (Apple, Palm, etc.) on sites like Gizmodo or Engadget.
In a capitalistic society, most everyone’s looking out for “number one.” But when you’re in the mindset where you’re always wanting to take in more than you give, how much is enough?
I recently purchased a documentary called Planet B-boy. It follows b-boy (that is, breakdancing) crews from around the world as they talk about how breakdancing has impacted their lives and what it would mean to them to win Battle of the Year, the biggest international breakdancing competition in the world.
During one segment, a member of the American team talked about how they needed to bring the b-boy glory back to the States, the birth place of breakdancing. “The other countries took it and ran with it, but we need to bring it back home.” They placed sixth in the competition. FAIL.
In all seriousness, though, I often get a bit too territorial with my intellectual property. I might have a good idea, but I’m not always the best person to execute it. Sometimes, you gotta let someone else run off with your brain child because you know they can do it better.
Below is a video of the Japanese team, Ichegeki, whose show wiped the floor with the American team’s.
I’m a part of the first generation of Americans in my family. My dad always tries to emphasize to me to importance of staying in touch with my Vietnamese heritage.
Which is cool.
I guess.
I mean, having something that makes you distinctly different from most other people is something worth holding on to, I suppose.
But at what point do you go from just “keeping in touch with your roots” to “being mired in the past”?
I’m trying to make a point of carousing more news sites like The Charlotte Observer and BusinessWeek. Of course, I skip all the boring stuff about the housing market and finance and read articles like the one that was published about Jon & Kate.
“I have a lot of anger,” she summed up, “because this is not where we were supposed to be, this is not what I envisioned for us.”
Funny how things don’t always turn out the way we want them to, even if we have the best of intentions.
Here’s my problem with books on leadership or “how to run a successful business venture”: They outline methods that have already been done. They worked, but they’ve been done.
What’s already “tried and true” isn’t good enough anymore.
Break the mold. Do something radically different.
It might just be crazy enough to work.
Just don’t go and publish a book about it afterwards.