The Joys of Suffering.
Sometimes I have this internal battle when I want to write about some topics. I wonder if they have not already been over-flogged. After going back and forth with myself, I decided to write it after all because I will be coming at it from my unique point of view, which might resonate with certain people differently
For example, in my church, the sermons across all the branches are the same. By the same I mean the same content( the slides are the same). Still, despite this, it’s been preached by different pastors with different points of view and experience so while the content is essentially identical the delivery style is unique to each pastor. The examples each pastor chooses to use are unique to them.
So this is the same for everything we want to do but we are scared that it’s saturated, (which it could indeed be) but bringing your uniqueness and focusing on what the people at the end of your products/ services need will stand you out.
I feel like what I just said alone could be enough for this post but I said that as a forerunner of what I intend to write about which is on grit, perseverance and the value of “suffering”
“What keeps a heart going is the constant, unending act of being pushed and the relentless, anticipated response of pushing back. Pressure is the life force” Excerpt From Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste.
That excerpt speaks to the fact that, one of the hardest working organs; the heart, in our bodies without which there is no life, functions because of pressure. It must push through “stress “to keep us alive.
Here is a transcript of a recent speech by the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang to Stanford students at their graduation;
“ I think one of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations and I mean that, most of the Stanford graduates have very high expectations and you deserve to have high because you came from a great school. You are very successful, you’re top of your class, obviously, you were able to pay for tuition and then you are graduating from one of the greatest institutions on the planet. You are surrounded by other kids that are just incredible. You naturally have very high expectations. People with high expectations have very low resistance and unfortunately, resilience matters in success.
I don’t know how to teach it to you but I hope suffering happens to you. And I was fortunate that I grew up with my parents providing conditions that got us to be successful but on the one hand, there were plenty of opportunities for setbacks and suffering. To this day I use pain and suffering inside our company with great glee and I mean it in a happy way because you want to train and refine the character of your company, you want greatness out of them and greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character and character is not formed out of smart people, character is formed out of people who suffered. And so if I can wish upon you, I don’t know how to do it but for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering”
That’s quite an odd thing to wish a person when taken literally or spiritually but if the CEO of the world’s third most valuable company says something, there might be something there.
That advice is such a sharp contrast to this part of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”
“I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of
And I wish you joy and happiness
But above all this, I wish you love”
I have decided to intentionally start “running after” hard things. Whether is working out even when my body is kicking and screaming, having those difficult conversations that my default mode is to sweep under the rug, getting out of my room, leaving my phone and creating time to just chat with the children.
By hard I mean things that require intentionality and will ultimately be for your good. It doesn’t have to be physically hard (even though if that's your thing, then by all means, just be safe) it could be mentally, and emotionally hard.
The idea is to actively seek things that stretch you. Things that are not always convenient but are important.
Keep going,
Ije