Cyanide / by Alexander Lyadov

“There’s only one pill that works for everything all at once — potassium cyanide,” the doctor wisely pointed out at an appointment today. She and I were discussing the astonishing request of many people for a doctor to cure them instantly, despite their unwillingness to stop eating junk food, abusing alcohol, not exercising and smoking too much. They practically say, “Doctor, just give me one white pill,” so that, like in a computer game, they can be born again and dive back into their usual pleasures.

If something in our lives exists, it means we need it for something. And it doesn’t matter whether we like it or not. Function determines form, not the other way around. So of course we can try to heal, strengthen or give crutches to a limping body, soul or mind. But that pull inside, which destroys the harmony of movement, will not go away, and will increasingly undermine the whole mechanism. In this sense, it is impossible to keep a person from committing suicide, if that is what he has decided to do. All his creative energy and ingenuity he will direct to bypass your “barriers”, just to get to the other side of the river Styx.

The same phenomenon is observed in business. The annoyed founder describes a string of negative symptoms in his company. And then, like a bedridden king in a fairy tale, he expects some magician to bring him a cup of the water of life. Unfortunately, no “potion” will change the situation in his business. Until the founder finds the reason why he destroys with his left hand what he then tries to heal with his right. The bad news is that it requires starting the analysis with himself, which is difficult and unpleasant. The good news is that it doesn’t require millions of dollars of investment, sophisticated software, or replacing the team. All it takes is researching and understanding that inner pull that strives for the good of the founder, but actually does him evil.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander


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