November 3, 2022 by Brian Weiner No CommentsChanging The World One Thought At A Time., Lessons From The Mountain

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

Can you state with certainty that you know whom you will evolve into? Or for that matter, what? Presumably, none of us can. Think way back to your earliest age response to what you said you were going to be, “when you grow up.”

I was (for sure) going to be an astronaut. I still haven’t lost my desire to go into outer space, and I still very much hope that I will travel there in short order, but it is most certainly not my career path.

The astounding metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly cannot be forecast without hindsight knowledge. Surely the caterpillar is (most likely) unaware that its future is so disparate from its past.

Such are we, as we progress in time. We have our moments that feel as defining as any one moment might appear. In those moments, we may feel as if our destiny has been attained. Perhaps if those moments are far too numerous and frequent, then the perspective of where else you may still be headed could potentially cloud in favor of where you believe you already are.

Perhaps, then, the proper perspective might be that we are better served always wondering if there is a butterfly in our future. Never putting life off, anticipating that a butterfly’s journey must be in the cards, living each moment to our fullest. And, perhaps that mindset is the value system that not only generates such an outcome but is also the fuel to attract so many other possibilities to oneself as to generate the transformative events that give cause to a metamorphosis of this magnitude.

Of interest to me, then, was whether or not the butterfly has resonance of being a caterpillar? Does that information disappear during the evolution of the being? Or does it improve as it transcends?

I think the important message in the allegory is that none of us know what type of butterfly awaits us in our future. However if we are aware that there is such a possibility, we are that much more likely to have an evolution that will transform us into something even more majestic.

Happy Thursday!

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Written by Brian Weiner

When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!