ambient

From the February 2008 edition of Natural History magazine, the magazine of the San Diego Natural History Museum (one of our favorite local memberships), p. 37, in a piece dictated by Clyde River, Nunavut resident Iikoo Angutikjuak on his views about climate change and its effects on his local environment:

I know that before our time the world was very warm, even around here. When the glaciers started to recede people found woolly mammoth tusks, so we know things were different long ago. Many years from now, it might be like those old days. Inuit used to say that one day the Arctic would melt, that things would reverse and there would be snow down south, but none up here. We see weird weather in many places on the television these days, and it is warmer here, so maybe that’s what is happening.

If the changes continue, I will learn to live with them. The seals and other animals that depend on the sea ice will move to the shores; the animals will adapt. I’ve heard that because they depend on sea ice, polar bears will go extinct, but I don’t believe it. They are very adaptable. As the sea ice changes, polar bears might get skinnier and some might die, but I don’t think they will go extinct.

The only way to react to the changes we are seeing is to be positive. The people and animals will adapt. At the same time, it is very important to get the information out there about what is changing, so others can understand what is happening.

The pace and the impact of climate change that we witness today is indeed alarming. And the changes are going to intensify and politics and greed will play an even bigger role in the far North. Anyone who is paying attention can predict an Arctic War sometime in the next 30-50 years, if not sooner. On an even larger scale, this nation is rapidly losing its status as the sole superpower as others compete for similar titles and our government throws good money after bad in failed policies.

All these sorts of things used to really get me down and they are something to worry about. The last year, however, has taught me to take a more positive and proactive approach to living in a new kind of brave new world.

Some of the most positive people I know are entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs that I know don’t start their businesses for the sole purpose of making money. They do it because they have to. They can’t imagine living another way. It was about this time last year where I reached that point myself and began to make plans to venture out on my own. Why assume the risk of bankruptcy and failure when cushier, more secure jobs are readily available if money is not the prime motivator?

For me, it’s about existence itself. I reached the point where staying in a job provided by a company built by somebody else meant that I was faking it. My sustenance and provision was not really real.

Today a good friend of mine asked me if the reason I started my company was because I like the uncertainty. I had to stop for a second before I answered. In a way, it might be true. But it’s really because working for somebody else, ultimately is far more uncertain than building a business. Yes, the short term risk is much greater. But the long term risks seem far worse when you depend on somebody else for your sustenance. At least they do to me. I know that everyone is different.

When you start a company, every single minute you think about survival. Perhaps at some far off point in the future, someone will purchase your equity and you can cash out. But you can’t think about that too long if you’re building something from scratch. And if you take money to start with, you’re just working at another job, for a new manager. That’s no fun. So you bootstrap. Bootstrapping a company into existence from literally nothing is exhilarating. And it’s an art because the minute you stop working on it, the dust settles and there is simply nothing there.

My company is far less important than what’s happening to the environment and polar bears and the oil under the Arctic Ocean. But the lessons that Iikoo Angutikjuak learned from the polar bears are the lessons that I am learning from this new venture. You have to respond positively to everything you see. You have to create a decision loop robust enough to adapt to any change, without getting caught off guard.

Why do we adapt? Why do we put ourselves in positions where we have to adapt to survive? Because by adapting, we exist. We are closest to the feedback that teaches us how to exist. We’re keeping it real.

So, for me, it’s building something new that forces me to adapt. For you, it may be something completely different. It doesn’t matter what it is, just that you find it and do it.