Message in the Heavens

Executives and managers facing hard times should go outside on a clear night and take a really long look at the stars.

I’m serious. Since the dawn of human intelligence, people have been awed and humbled by the brilliance of the heavens. Astronomy is said to be the oldest science (although obstetrics has a fairly convincing argument, too). But as long as we’ve been staring at the stars, only recently have we begun to appreciate our place in the cosmos.

Since I was a kid, I’ve been awestruck by the fact that many of the stars in the sky have long-since exploded or been snuffed out. Entire worlds and perhaps alien races and civilizations rose and fell while the light we see from these stars was hurtling through space. After thousands or millions of years, we see only a twinkling remnant of their ancient splendor.

When you think about it, we are all made of very old stuff, concocted in the primordial pressure cookers of ancient stars and the Big Bang itself. The atoms in every human being previously endured eons of Earth’s cycles and only recently were stitched together into assemblages of meat and bones that walk upright and — lo and behold — think and communicate.

This essential fact is nothing short of a miracle, amazing enough to humble the greatest minds. Even more miraculous is the fact that day after day, we go through life without thinking about it.

I think it’s worth thinking about — not in an esoteric, spiritual sense that maybe helps us sleep at night or makes us hug our kids more often (although it might do those things, too), but in a concrete and practical sense that helps us weather the daily struggles of a competitive marketplace.

Taking the Long View and contemplating the Big Picture can help us put more mundane business struggles in their proper perspective. I’m not saying our professional activities aren’t meaningful; to the contrary, our place in the Big Picture is defined by what we do and what we accomplish.

My point is this: Every event in the universe is part of a cycle. Industries and stock prices rise, fall and rise again. Companies start up, live out their lives and come to an end. The people and assets involved with those companies continue in other forms, which themselves begin, exist for a while and eventually come to an end.

The end of a cycle is not a tragedy; it’s the logical result of a natural process. A new cycle cannot begin until the old one ends. In our desperation to keep an old cycle going, we sometimes miss the opportunities of a new one.

Spending a little time stargazing can reorient our per- spective, allowing us to see new possibilities emerging over the horizon. In any case, the worst that can happen is that we’ll get some fresh air.