Ego, ambition, and alignment

There’s a trope, “every ambitious young man wants to be president.“

I think when I was a teenage and into young adulthood I had the equivalent of this sort of delusion. There’s something admirable in “saving the world“ so to speak and to have the ability to “fix“ the worlds problems. It’s pervasive in technology and Silicon Valley to the point where it’s become a meme.

The main problem with this way of thinking is that the delusion is that it’s “up to us“ to somehow fix things. It is seeded on a belief that we are the one’s in control, that there is no God or higher power in the universe, and in the limit *yourself* must be the one to fix the problems in the world. That’s ego in a nutshell, something trying to convince you that you’re the center of the universe. Many ambitious young men believe that they will be the ones to be at the center of it all just like me.

Of all the ways for ego to manifest, I think that this ambition is both one of the most well intentioned but also the most dangerous. I’ve seen it lead people down a path where they see themselves be the fixer long enough that eventually they become the problem.

Two years ago I started to form a belief in something higher, and with this my self-centered model of the world changed dramatically. It’s my responsibility to play a part, but I will never be the orchestrator. These are God’s projects, and at his direction, my hands get to work on them. God will make it work with or without me and I can rest easy on that, but while I am being given the grace to work on these endeavors I will happily take it because it gives me meaning. I’ll take his suggestions as best I can and keep building. It’s what I was built to do.

I call this mind shift alignment. The ability to look at thing things in my life, good and bad, and act in service to something higher even if I don’t quite understand that today. My intuition, experience, and even odd coincidences can help guide me there, and the result is better than anything I could have done on my own. It’s my part to play. There are other projects that aren’t companies too - relationships, family, friends where every single day I’m given this crazy blessing to have the opportunity to show up and do what’s right. I wouldn’t give anything for that and pray I never forget it what a gift that can be.