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The CC - Old Men Ought to be Explorers
Old Men Ought to be ExplorersThroughout my career, I collected skills that helped me build businesses. Last week, watching The Odyssey, I realized I've had my career with risks and rewards, but now I’m wondering what to do. After Odysseus won the battle at Troy, he travelled through numerous memorable adventures before finally reaching home twenty years later. It wasn't the battles that caused me to think about the movie’s plot, it was the ending. After surviving war, monsters and losing his way, Odysseus doesn't retire into comfort. He sets out again; this time toward the unknown in the west. He’s now old and grey. Why doesn't he just settle at home in Ithaca’s harbour? Instead, he sets out on a new exploration toward the end of the world. That surprised me. We often imagine our later years as a reward for everything that came before; as a time to settle. Odysseus saw it differently. His greatest adventure wasn't behind him. It still lay ahead. Does success for me mean a comfortable retirement of travel and relaxation? I heard from friends, "I've had a good career of building a position, a reputation, and now with all that behind me, it’s time to rest.” The Odyssey is a story about exploring, about survival, and then about exploring again. So how should I head out once more? My new voyage isn't about launching another company. It's about exploring places of love I once hurried past. Being fully present with my wife after just celebrating forty-eight years together. Drinking deeply from the satisfying experience of being Dad, and Pappa to my children and grandchildren. Investing my learned wisdom into people. The return on investment is remarkable, seeing others become more than they believed they could be. I can’t “retire”. I can’t write nostalgically about what I've built. I have to keep exploring my passions and loves. But now it’s more sublime, not as measurable. It’s of a richer texture. It's about discovering a place I've never sailed before. For sure, there’s a longing to return to familiar shores. As Odysseus, I’ll take the risk of the mystery and the empty desolation of vast new waters. In my attempt to grasp this new exploration, I’ve been this fascinated and challenged by these last few stanzas by TS Eliot:
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter. Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For a further union, a deeper communion Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,.* The poem exhorts you and I: “Old men ought to be explorers.” Not only explorers of physical places, because “here or there does not matter.” What am I exploring? Primarily it’s love. Love has shown me that there’s something that transcends the dichotomies of past and present, of memory and experience. Love calls me beyond the boundaries of career and retirement. “Love is most nearly itself / When here and now cease to matter.” Retirement isn't meant to be my harbour of rest. Like Odysseus, I'm discovering there is still a western horizon to explore. “In my end is my beginning.” * *TS Eliott, “Four Quartets: East Coker.” I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn and Facebook See you next week, Grayson Did someone forward you this email? Get weekly reflections straight to your inbox by subscribing to The Compassionate Competitor. Want to share this issue via text, social media, or email? Just copy and paste this link: [ARCHIVE URL GOES HERE] |
Grayson Bain
Join us if you're yearning for business insights peppered with adventure, humanity, and a dash of humility. It’s more than success; it’s about significance.
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