This one isn’t tech related, but it did resonate with me, and I wanted to share. I believe that one of the most important challenges put to us both as individuals, and as a business, is to discover our Authentic Self, and work out how to be true to that. Never heard of the Authentic Self? Google it. Everyone has their own definition, but that’s part of the puzzle. What’s your Authentic Self? Ask a therapist, a Taoist and a marketing manager, and you’ll get three very different, but very similar responses.

As one person commented on the original TED site that this video links to, this presents a poetic similarity to the Tao Te Ching…

To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.

Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.

 
To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.

Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching