Adversity Inc. Introduction Part II: The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Chances are, the first tools developed by those primitive societies were weapons as well, but perhaps the most powerful tool available was the language, great communication skills supported by checked facts were the ultimate resource.

Trust was essential, perhaps the quintessential condition for a solid leadership, so trust was tested constantly comparing the speech against the facts.

Many times they were tested, when the adversity showed up in many forms, sometimes as the perfect storm, but those occasions were fundamental to create strong social foundation blocks and shape great leaders.

Adversity brought new concepts, the notion of patience, discipline, perseverance, endurance, confidence, resilience, flexibility, humility, evaluation, self-evaluation, auto critic, debate, exploration of new ways, creativity, search, experimentation and problem/solving mindset.

So what is the opposite of adversity?

In the same way the opposite of love is not hate but death, the opposite of adversity is not prosperity but involution.

Sometime somehow, perhaps after mastering the creation and use of fire, they figured out that they already could afford to adapt to the external natural cycles to ensure the human kind survival and from that point the biggest potential danger for their survival were themselves.

From the evolutional point of view, being split out in different bands and tribes, represents a tremendous advantage for the entire genre for the long term survival business, since a healthy competition is a key component in the natural selection framework.

Living in small groups and teaming up together gives them the perception that there was not that thing call individual victory or individual failure, every single victory and every single failure was a collective affair a product of the entire team.

Certainly they rapidly learned how to building up a leader and how to burning down a leader as well, but they were very cautious when finding and building the correct leader at the correct time because a void in real leadership and the inaction were quite expensive at that time.

We don’t know when happened, but happened. Some groups were aware for the first time about the mental world and the interaction with the physical world. Being fully aware of the mental world, allowed them to start creating abstract concepts and therefore they created new symbols on their way.

In their new awareness, eventually they were able to make predictions about their future and even more they were able to create their own future.

To be continued…