Man's Search for Meaning

Austrian neurologist Victor Frankl stresses that we are not at the mercy of our environment or events, because we dictate how we allow them to shape us. In Man's Search for Meaning (1946), he explains that humans have two psychological strengths that allow us to bear painful and possibly devastating situations and to move forward; these are the capacity for decision, and freedom of attitude. 

A colleague joined me for the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge this May. He worked for Deutsche Bank in 2001; he was on a business trip in São Paulo when the South Tower collapsed on top of the entire trading floor. I told him that I was not existent on 9/11.

 "So were some of my coworkers that day. And that is why I am grateful to be speaking with you here, now." 

Another executive, Mike Brady, shared in a remembrance session that he had sprinted from Merrill Lynch in financial district to midtown after the North Tower was struck. He had talked about his reconstruction efforts of the stock exchange in the aftermath of the disaster. He is the current chief operating officer at Wells Fargo.

Both are good examples of expansive capacity for decision and exercisers of the freedom of attitude. 

Unpredictability is the only predictable constant. Variability and randomness are not injected parameters, they are the only deterministic parameters. 

Life is a percentage. Life is a probability. What meaning could one search for in life? 

New York is an exemplary Brownian motion city, it is highly stochastic. I've met so many random people. As I interact with more people, I can generalize personality types gradually. The non-productive ones are easily distinguishable.

The four nonproductive personality types by psychologist Erich Fromm are: receptive types, exploitative types, hoarding types, and marketing types. The receptive-type person lives passively in the status quo, accepting the lot handed to them. Fromm compares this type to the peasants and migrant workers of history. The exploitative type oriented person thrives on taking from others; they take what they need instead of earning or creating. However, they show extreme self-confidence and strong initiative. Hoarder-type people seek friends in high places and rank even loved ones in terms of their value, seeing them as something owned. Power-hungry and ungenerous, at best they are pragmatic and economical. Historically, these are the middle classes, or bourgeoisie, that rise in great numbers during economic depressions. The marketing oriented type are people who are obsessed with image and with how to successfully advertise and sell themselves. Every choice is evaluated in terms of reflected status, from the clothes, cars, and vacation they buy to marriage into the "right" family. At worst, they are opportunistic, tactless, and shallow; at best, they are highly motivated, purposeful, and energetic. This type is most representative of modern society, in its ever-growing acquisitiveness and self-consciousness. 

It is generally advisable to steer clear of becoming these four personalities and those who embody these four personalities.

And on the flipside, there are the honorable personality traits. Growing up, I remember Chinese cartoons that emphasized the importance of bravery. Bravery is proceeding without certainty, to decide with prudence, to not be subject to unfairness treatment. Bravery is needing only one person in this world to believe in you— and even after that person leaves. 

Advancement is learning by making mistakes. If you apply a palliative solution, then you will undoubtedly falter and fall. You will keep falling until you embody the solution— then you will never see the problem as a problem ever again. 

A recent advancement I made was a cognitive leap. I adored how incorrigibly disillusioned the public sentiment is toward modern financial monoliths. Not only is the system highly volatile, the house also always wins. One's trust in the institution will make one weak: be aware of how and who you distribute your trust to.

Furthermore on awareness—to increase self-awareness, we give instructions to notice and change the use of the word "I" within speech. Fromm says that to take responsibility for our reality, we must recognize how we use language to give the illusion that we have no control when this is not the case. We should change "I can't do that" to "I won't do that", and change "I should leave now" to "I want to leave now". The greater public is not trained to become aware, so it is ever so important to avoid groupthink. 

Or we can dwell in the comfort until it boils us alive.