If We Don’t Deal with Our Stuff, It Comes Out One Way or Another
Through honestly looking at ourselves and having a spiritual practice we will grow continuously, and our selfless acts will compound and produce a sizable dividend for all who come after us.
This morning (August 23, 2022) I published It’s Not Only About Purpose, But How Deep It Goes. Three paragraphs of that post focused on Dan Price, the CEO famous for taking a $1 million pay cut to raise the base salary of his employees to $70,000. Ever since his fame has grown, and so has his business.
Note: We have since removed those paragraphs so the message of deepening purpose can stand on its own without the confusion of any reference to Price and the allegations against him. And to give context to this post, we have pasted the three paragraphs here,
“Dan Price and his company Gravity Payments is a great example. He’s the one who famously cut his pay from $1 million to $70k, while upping the pay for all employees to $70k. He makes the same as everyone in the company. And while there are those who have vociferously criticized him, he sites myriad benefits and improvements, like incredibly low turnover, high employee engagement, and numerous positive changes his employees have been able to make in their lives, not to mention triple the revenue. And their mission?
“The only way to do business is to serve others, do more for them, and charge less. We shape everything we do by this motto.”
“Dan is so loved by his employees they actually pooled their money and bought him his dream car, a new Tesla. Like when do employees buy a car for their CEO?
“. . . Dan Price for example, has also been a constant target, as he’s a threat to the prevailing economic model of profit first. He’s been widely criticized, and many predictions were made that his company would fail. But instead, it thrived. More recently he’s been accused of sexual assault, which is curious to me.”
While I had heard about one allegation of sexual assault against him, the charges were partially dropped and I remained undecided about how I felt about it, believing the important story is the radically new paradigm he’s set with the sizable employee pay raises and the seemingly egalitarian way he managed his company. But then this morning, the very morning my post went out, I saw a Medium article by Sean Kernan that Dan Price just resigned as CEO of Gravity Payments due to multiple allegations of sexual assault.
I felt as disappointed in Price as I did by Will Smith’s deplorably behavior at the Academy Awards. Two men I liked and respected who showed another side of their personalities — a very dark side.
It’s true that we all have a shadow, a side of ourselves that remains to be healed. We are all fallible and capable to falling, which is why living a spiritual life, a life with a healing practice, is so vital to being the very best versions of ourselves. If we live with a practice of continual engagement in such things as honestly looking at ourselves, therapy, meditation, ceremony, engaging with a spiritual community — and engage in these practices with a clear intention of healing and growth — then we have a chance at living a truly beautiful life.
An elder I once knew who led a spiritual community used to say that the most important thing we can do with our lives it to not add to the confusion in the world. Or to say it another way, to continually strive to do no harm.
A story Maria has shared many times is some years ago when she heard a Catholic Nun give a talk about living a spiritual life. A question was asked of her related to all the allegations of sexual assault by Catholic priests. Her response was, “It doesn’t matter who we are — our title, our stature — if we don’t deal with our stuff, it eventually comes out one way or another.”
So true, indeed.
And so, in relation to the topic of my post It’s Not Only About Purpose, But How Deep It Goes, does Price’s actions invalidate the point I was making about companies building their brand on a deeper purpose? The answer is not so clear.
It certainly invalidates Dan Price as a thought leader, as it seems even his $1 million pay cut was not so selfless as it seemed, as he was being sued by his brother (a sizable shareholder) to lower his salary as it was adversely affecting profitability. And the car his employees bought for him? Well, that was Dan Price’s idea. And his egalitarian work culture? Turns out he was not all that after all.
What is notable, I think, is how celebrated he became. Aside from the lie he lived, millions of people loved him and what he represented: the notion that caring for employees is more important that amassing wealth. That idea is vital and palpably important. What is tragically unfortunate is the dark side of the messenger.
What is standing out in my mind is a conversation I had with a friend just two days before publishing the piece mentioned above. I was sharing with this friend and his wife the story of Dan Price. In the context of the conversation, he shared a story of his own, that some years back he was recruited to run a school and was offered a fairly high salary to join the organization. In the negotiation phase they asked him how he felt about the salary. In response he asked what the prior director had received. They gave him a sum significantly lower than what they were offering him. He said he would take the same salary as the prior director.
This friend is someone I know, not a celebrity experienced through social media. And I can say he is a man of respect and dignity, not someone seeking fame and admiration. He wouldn’t have even shared the story with me if I had not talked about Dan Price.
The point is, there are those among us — many in fact — who do selfless things for the right reasons all the time and don’t make a big deal about it. David Hawkins wrote in his seminal book, Power Versus Force about “Surviving Success.” He very clearly illustrated how success most often corrupts us through the building of an egoic persona. And considering that so much of our culture celebrates success to the point that a great many of us are constantly chasing the image of success that has been engrained in us since an early age, that the very structure of our culture leads to countless Dan Prices while never knowing the names of the unsung heroes such as my friend mentioned above.
But the heroes are among us. You may be one of them. Or you are on your way to becoming one. Maybe you don’t even realize how you have done the unthinkable selfless act because you didn’t think much of it at the time.
Many millions of people would not have celebrated Dan Price to such an extent if they didn’t recognize something extraordinary (if at least symbolically) in his very public (seemingly) selfless act. They would not have recognized the extraordinary nature of it if the knowing was not already in them — if they didn’t already get that leveling the wages in a successful organization is liberating and inspiring.
So, the real heroes are those who celebrated him, all the millions of them. Because the ground swell of people resigning in the Great Resignation, the ones leaving even good paying jobs to start purpose-driven businesses, the ones sizing down their lives to live more simply, consuming less and living more closely to nature — those are the heroes of this story. My friend who took over the leadership of a large school and asked for a lower salary in an industry where teachers are rarely paid according to their true worth, he’s a hero. And most likely so are you if you’re reading this post.
The key is that we remain ever vigilant and willing to deal with our stuff, because it truly will come out one way or another if we pretend it doesn’t exist. Through a spiritual practice, through the living of a spiritual life, through honestly looking at ourselves — our words, thoughts, and actions — we will grow continuously and our selfless acts will compound and produce a sizable dividend for all who come after us.
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