My friend Conrad lives and works out in the Bay Area. He sometimes writes a guest post for me. My fingers are too cold to type much this week.
by Conrad Hake
It happened in college. The program that I was in required a senior essay to be submitted to a sponsoring professor on a mutually accepted topic. My undergrad experience was in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and by the end of it I really was searching for meaning! It was no glib cliché. That essay I poured my heart and soul into – because I had to. Why? Because I was creating a framework of meaning that I was going to move into, where I was going to live.
I fully read 75 books. Heady books, not froth. No intellectual source was off limits and you wouldn’t believe how eclectic my approach became. German philosophers, Native American shamans, physicists, the Encyclopedia Britannica. I couldn’t get enough! Then the writing started to flow, the passion poured out on what became about 40 pages of rigorous analysis. When it was finished, it was a work that stood on its own, a work that required no rewriting at all. It was the finest piece I may ever do. It transformed me.
My father has given me the gift of understanding what transpired there, because he has taught me throughout my life that a man always needs a Magnificent Obsession! It is available to everyone but always takes unique form. It is too personal to be otherwise. Ungrounded it is as dangerous as any ungrounded electric circuit! Unalloyed to your life being lived, it is devoid of meaning. When you find someone who has integrated it into his or her life, you may not be able to define the essence of what they radiate, but you will surely experience it. My friend since childhood, GL, has it. You can see it in his insights. Didn’t you feel it when he wrote about flight? How else could he come up with all the traits of successful entrepreneurs? It’s what gives power to his advice. I would go so far as to say that no successful entrepreneur lives without a Magnificent Obsession – actually, a series of Magnificent Obsessions! Yes, they are doing business, but their souls sing in the process!
So, I ask you: What is your Magnificent Obsession?
5 users commented in " A Kansan in Silicon Valley: The Magnificent Obsession "
I think I can honestly say that my family is mine. Many women fret because they did not have the education to have the career they had in mind……that is fine for them but I turned down the offered scholarships and job offers so that I could stay home and nurture my children. The Dad that you mentioned made it possible for me to stay at home or seek a career doing whatever I was able to talk someone into letting me try. My career days were interesting and educating but my good days were when I stayed at home and tended to my husband and children. Too many husbands and children are not tended now because it takes two salaries to make ends meet. Going without a few of the things you want is no sin but neglecting your family is…….living through the “great depresion” taught me that. I hope our government can get things straightened out so other women (or men) will be able to have Magnificent Obsessions too.
I know how proud you must be, Corky. I have a feeling they know it too. What a life! Must be great to be able to look back with no regrets…that is a definition of a life well led, it seems to me.
I think Conrad’s paper must have been something…although I am left wondering what it is about and how can I read it? His concept of Magnificent Obsession is spot on for almost anyone who wants to excel in any career. One needs the obsession to move ahead…otherwise it is too easy. Most of us spend our entire life hoping to find it…when all it may take, is deciding to get obsessive about even the small opportunities that present themselves along the way.
I think that was one of his papers I didn’t type, lol. By the time I typed his father through his Master’s Degree in Education and his aunt through her Bachelor’s Degree in Education, I felt pretty well educated and it didn’t cost me a dime. People these days don’t know how much effort it takes to pound out a paper (with all the margins, foot notes, etc., just so) on a manual typewriter……..maybe that is why I have fingers that are still strong enough to open most anything I decide to open. You are right on the regrets……I have very few and they weren’t my fault anyway, lol! It is good to communicate with the outside world……I am so glad Con sent me this computer.
I’m glad I sent that computer to you, too! Hey, in case the world hasn’t noticed yet, I’ve got a great Mom!
And, GL, the best thing about that paper may be the mystery. Just a hint, though, is that it dealt with the unnecessary (and limiting) marriage of science and classical logic. There are other “logics” that can yield broader understandings of the world. The challenge is making them rigorous and consistent. Physics and the foundations of the physical world not turning out the way it appears to the senses has paved the way.
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