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Although it was unpleasant at the time, getting fired from a big job at Polo Ralph Lauren put me on a path toward a much more meaningful life. More on that later.
A little background. During the past week, while reading this 2009 biography of Dr. James Lovelock, I was reminded of how rare it is for any scientist, or anyone for that matter, to have the opportunity to gain a reasonably accurate "big picture" understanding of how our biosphere keeps us alive.
Since no traditional combination of education and work experience would've supplied Lovelock with that "big-picture" understanding of our place in the universe that he sought throughout his career -- he depended on his boredom factor, coupled with a bit of luck -- to keep him moving in the right direction.
He cherished above all else his independence and would always take his next career step whenever he got bored.
The luck factor in my career. While reading about how luck played such a large role in putting Lovelock at the right place at the right time in his career -- I was reminded of how it also played a similar role in mine.
My first bit of luck was choosing to study industrial engineering in college. Also, I had the rare opportunity to begin my professional working career while in school -- when Auburn University assigned me to my first, 3-month stint in an engineering environment in the summer of 1964.
As it turned out, while in college for five calendar years, I was able to spend 22 months of that era working as a co-op student engineer for the Southern Railway System in Washington, DC and Atlanta -- gaining valuable, real-world, management and problem-solving experience while funding 100% of my own college expenses.
Fast-forward to 1994. After, a reasonably successful 30-year business career, I was fired, at the age of 49, by the Ralph Lauren Corporation.
Although I was the first Senior Vice President ever at Polo and one of just three Executive VPs at the time of my dismissal, I am now glad it happened -- although it wasn't the happiest moment of my life at the time.
What led to my dismissal? Just months before, I remember flying first class (Polo execs always flew in first) from North Carolina to New York one summer afternoon. While sitting alone, I took the time to do a little soul-searching about my career and my life in general -- neither of which were in the best of shape at the time.
My biggest problem was that I was simply not happy in my role as EVP of one of most famous fashion companies in the world. The underlying issue was that I did not enjoy working in that industry.
With Industrial Engineering and MBA degrees -- coupled with ten years of process-improvement consulting, it was clear to me that the fashion business was largely focused on planned obsolescence -- and not the kind of industry where I wanted to spend the major portion of my working life.
Although I had some good successes at Polo in terms of improving processes and contributing to the bottom line -- I knew that in the "bigger picture" of life on Earth, I was not contributing much value to the greater good.
So, as I sat alone in my first-class seat on that Eastern flight, I decided to take a few notes relative to how I was feeling. By the time we landed at EWR, I had drafted a list of six things that I believe any executive would need to be happy -- while working for someone else -- regardless of how much money that executive might be earning.
Here's that list of six things: Needed, Wanted, Trusted, Respected, Empowered and Appreciated.
At that particular moment, I felt none of those things. Oh sure, there were lots of good times during my first four years with Polo -- when I was feeling great about all six of them. But, with each passing year, those times became less frequent.
Looking back to 1994. Now, twenty-seven years later, I realize that being fired from a job that I couldn't afford to quit -- was a very good thing.
After leaving Polo, I held a few other fashion industry executive positions (Nautica and Danskin) for the next five years -- finally concluding that I would never be happy as long as I was working for someone else.
Similar to Lovelock's career, I found myself getting bored just trying to help fashion companies make more money. I wanted more. To put it another way, I wanted to make a difference.
I didn't know exactly how I would accomplish that goal, but, like Lovelock, it was my dissatisfaction with various roles in business jobs that made me want to escape the trap of always working for other people.
But with kids in college and bills to pay, I had to quickly figure out how to keep making a living. So, I leveraged my one-year experience with the Swiss-based executive search firm, Egon Zehnder from the late 80's and, in June of 1999, I launched my own executive search firm in the Ansley Park section of Atlanta.
One year later, after establishing a presence in New York, Dallas and Chicago, I was finally having fun at work again. But something was missing.
Although I greatly enjoyed the freedom of working for myself, I wasn't feeling the joy of accomplishing something truly important. Then, just thirteen months after starting my new firm, the 9-11 trajedy sent the business world into a perilous era and, in so doing, severely down-sized the executive search profession. Although it hit our small firm pretty hard, it also led to an opportunity.
That opportunity was born out of our collective efforts to leverage our "corporate headhunting" skills by reinventing our business. As such, we decided to create a one-day seminar for out-of-work or under-employed executives -- with a mission of helping them increase their odds of enjoying a rewarding career. The name of that seminar was:
First Get a Life! Then Get a Job.
Our Seven Secrets.
The premise was that the seminar attendees would first take an inventory of what they wanted out of life -- before just accepting the next job offer that came along. Each member of our Ansley team began researching one or two of those seven secrets -- and the first secret I chose was: "Take charge of your health."
I began by researching the "optimal diet for humans," and what I learned about that topic in just six months -- changed my life forever. It still amazes me that those powerful truths about our food choices STILL have not been recognized by over 90% of the scientists, business executives and political leaders in the world.
Looking back, preparing for those one-day seminars that never happened -- opened the door for me to become acutely aware of the most important topic in the history of humanity -- the crucial importance of Homo sapiens learning how to live in harmony with nature.
Now, back to James Lovelock. Although I have been studying his work for the past few years, I had never realized just how important it was for him to be able to choose what he wished to study and the independence that such choices required.
Had it not been for those kinds of choices throughout his storied career, he would have never been able write "big picture" books about the future of humanity like this one: Novacene that was published in 2019, just before he turned 100 years old. He turns 102 on July 26.
With a growing family in the early days of his career, it was a financial juggling act as he skillfully went about balancing his personal life with career obsessions to delve into the most important issues in the history of the world.
Had he chosen to simply "follow the money" and the security that comes with a full-time position in a single organization, he would have never been in a position to put forth the Gaia Theory that Earth is a self-regulating "system."
In a nutshell, his biography really opened my eyes when it comes to how difficult, and rare, it is for someone to manage the process of becoming a true "big picture" scientist as it relates to understanding our relationship with the Earth's natural biosphere that sustains us.
Luckily for all of us, James Lovelock beat those odds.
Our money-focused, interconnected global system of education, science, government and industry make it near impossible for anyone to become an independently-thinking, "big picture" scientist like Lovelock has done. As such, he has been able to significantly influence the world's collective understanding of how we humans fit into the universe.
As for his Gaia Theory, I just found (on eBay for 4 bucks) this old copy of his first book on that topic, published in 1979, GAIA, A New Look at Life on Earth. It arrives next week.
Another observation. When you read books by famous individuals like Lovelock, it's very difficult to understand the back story.
By that, I mean that you don't really get a feel for how their careers evolved in such a manner that enabled them to become an expert and a visionary when it comes to seeing the entire "big picture" of our world and our own place within it. The biography I am now reading brings it all to life.
On a topic with which I can relate, Lovelock has always liked to pursue important topics and cherished the freedom to do so. We both like to work on "big picture" issues and have little patience in working for someone else, on less-important issues, for our entire careers.
Like the great independent scientist, I have found joy in pursuing the most important topic in the history of humanity -- our future as a species. It has not been a financial success for me, but it has enabled me to feel like I am making a difference -- for my family and for a small portion of a larger global audience.
The Bottom Line. Were it not for my getting fired from Polo in 1994, the joy in my work that I am feeling now --would likely have never happened.
To be sure, I don't always feel joy about some of my findings, but I do feel joy in knowing that I am helping others grasp a "bigger picture" relative to how our collective actions as individuals can affect the future of our species.
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In closing today, I want to share two "big picture" videos. The first is a 2009 talk show interview in Canada where Dr. Lovelock candidly talks about the prospects for us Homo sapiens in the future.
Ten Minutes with Dr. James Lovelock. The good news is that he doesn't believe we will go extinct anytime soon, but the bad news is that we're in for a very rough ride before the end of this century.
Miraculously, he delivers his candid feelings on these sobering issues with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. I think he was only 89 or 90 at the time.
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Doomsday Pending? James Lovelock on The Hour
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As James Lovelock has stated on many occasions, as a scientist, you can rarely be certain about anything. However, in the above video, he seems to be fairly certain about the fact that climate change is not reversible. Those among us who survive its worst effects, will simply have to learn to live with it.
Dr. Guy McPherson gets the final word. That's because I regard him as quite possibly the most informed scientist in the world when it comes to the topic of climate change. He has very likely studied, and reported on, the world's peer-reviewed journal literature on that topic -- more than anyone ever has.
His conclusions that climate change is not reversible, and will only get worse, corroborates what James Lovelock said on the video above twelve years ago.
Just this past week, he posted his latest "science update" in response to this 6-23-21 news from The Guardian that the IPCC has stepped up their warning on climate tipping points in a leaked draft report.
This is one of the most relevant and most timely videos that he has ever posted and I encourage you take the time to digest what he is saying.
23 Minutes with Dr. Guy McPherson. Click on the image below to begin this video that was posted on June 30. As Guy continues to say, he is just the messenger -- one who is gravely concerned about our future as a species.
What can you do? You can to help spark the global "conversation" about our need to urgently transform our way of living into one that would have a much better chance of keeping us alive indefinitely. The billions of innocent children of the world deserve no less.
I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested OUTCRY, that there might there at least be a more robust conversation taking place, a conversation about our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world -- and what it will take to get us focused on maximizing our chances for survival.
To be sure, we must do a lot more than change what we eat -- and OUTCRY helps explain the "why" and the "how" of that proposition.
To our knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.
PS: Free Zoom Conferences. In the interest of jump-starting the urgently-needed global "conversation" about the dilemma we are in, I am now offering to conduct private Zoom conferences free of charge to groups of almost any size. I look forward to ZOOM-ing with you and your group sometime soon.
In preparation for those Zoom visits, I have developed a one-hour format consisting of an opening statement followed by a 20-minute slide show and then ending with a discussion and Q&A with the attendees. The sessions you organize will be far more interesting and productive if attendees have read OUTCRY in advance.
Our book, for a host of environmental reasons, is only available as an e-book on Amazon. As such, it contains hyperlinks to hundreds of references and videos, is less expensive, does not kill any trees and does not have to be manufactured and delivered.
Here are a few of them where you can see how my vision has evolved since that first "creative idea" on 9-21-18:
As always, I am just trying to help spark the all-important "conversation" about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, faster, better and bolder.
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What else can you do to help? Two things:
1. Live as greenly as possible while doing all that you can to raise the awareness of "big picture" solutions that are crucially necessary for saving our civilization.
2. Share this BSB and my "Mama Ain't Happy" BSB with prominent journalists, thought leaders and/or elected officials whom you respect. They need to learn a lot more about the many reasons why Mama ain't happy.
Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
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