Don’t try, just do (For founders, CEOs, and thought leaders navigating strategic decisions)

(This isn’t written for people trying to enter the market.

It’s written for those who are already established — and find that something no longer moves the way it used to.)

I was talking to someone, a very graceful and intelligent lady (she is a Spanish-American lady, under my mentorship), a CEO, running her own business. I have been training and mentoring her for a long time. She does  decision-making in business and executes them— that has been her characteristic in business. However, in this new AI-dominated world, she is thinking of newer strategies to re-enter the market with a new viewpoint. 

Intelligence is no longer the bottleneck. Acknowledging change is.

She still feels hesitant to deploy the strategies, as calculating the gains and risks are equal to her. That is not a problem. In my opinion, which aligns with many successful entrepreneurs worldwide, finding a solution to a problem is less of an issue than ignoring the problem itself. 

Let me simply decode it for you. It is just that you don't need to find the cause of the problem or solution; an intelligent person, parents, a wise person or a mentor can do that for you, but you have to acknowledge that there is a problem that needs attention. Do we do that? No, a big no. Our ego is always on energy going out mode and propels against the truth. We don't want to face the truth. It is uncomfortable, bitter, and it works for you, but you don't want it as no romantics are into a play.

Most people don’t avoid problems because they’re hard — they avoid them because they are uncomfortable.

Let me give you a quote from Bhagavad Gita, a very insightful one to me.

Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te”

Translation (literal):

To those who are constantly aligned and devoted,

I give Buddhi-Yoga —

by which they act rightly and progress.

Buddhi-Yoga is not thinking better. It is seeing without resistance.

She was hesitant, not because she was an unintelligent or incapable business lady, but her rapid thinking did not have a foundation till yet. She truly understands the change in market dynamics, but her previous success in the same market led her to apply the same logic, which has become stagnant. Clarity does not work with a stagnant mind. It only intensifies the negative/wrong sides of intellect; thus, we govern the old executive mental models in business. It won't work without friction anymore. The same goes for our personal lives as well. Just reflect, and you already know what I am saying here.

Clarity is not given to speed. It is given to alignment.

More simply, I can say that when you were 14 years old, you ate a lot of creamy candies. However, can you eat the same quantity of sugar-dwelling candies at the age 40? Yes, you can have but diabetes will act as friction in life. Here, the external market is an analogy to the internal market, which is life. 

Clarity doesn’t fix a stagnant mind — it exposes it.

This is the way:  

I always credit my humble success in material life to my two decades of spiritual sadhana. Let me give you a quote I like and the methodology.

Zen proverb (used in Rinzai lineages)

“Do not seek the fruit.

Attend to the season.”

No clarity means nothing ahead anymore. So even if you find yourself, or someone gives you, the clarity, you are still a lone ranger in the next phase to completion. It is the path of continuous execution where sessions wont give you results but you consciously move to the next session. 

Once you stop the utility of discernment, you withdraw internally and soon externally. The inner withdrawal then comes externally in the forms of stress, annoyance, irritation, anger, fear and the list goes pretty far. I am saying nothing new; I am just reflecting what happens in the world. 

I see that everywhere in my diagnostic conversations where CEO’s or high performing executives are so capable they don't need even business advice, but full clarity to do what at when and with how much intensity. It is rocket science in terms of technicality, but not the exact rocket science. Also, I never say it is easy to have clarity; it is even more difficult to hold on to it.

Growth without adaptation always demands payment later.

Most anxiety comes from demanding results from the wrong season.

I, myself, have been at your place, faced simple and complex issues of life. I have faced politics, cheating, unproductive phases, and even structural collapse. Moreover, you have no control over what situations may arise near you, nor did I have. However, I rebuilt, became financially well established, and went deep into the meaning of everything. That also confirms nothing, means nothing within the grand scheme of the universe, but you gotta live your life till your last day. So, you consciously move ahead in your life. 

Clarity doesn’t complete anything on its own. Most anxiety comes from demanding results from the wrong season.

Om Shanti

Deb Om Malya