A full solar eclipse is undoubtedly one of the natural displays of a lifetime.
To earn my PhD in astrophysics, I helped build an x-ray observational satellite, still orbiting the Earth and gathering data about the cosmos. Science, for me, has always been rooted in four values:
- Beauty
- Curiosity
- Experiment and observation
- Honest reporting of results
This article will challenge you on acting on the beauty of nature, not just passively seeing it.
Actively doing versus passively watching
Inc.’s business and entrepreneurial community actively does things where mainstream society stops at awareness. That’s we why create leaders and new ventures while they apply for jobs from us.
I left science to start and lead companies because I wanted to affect the world, not just observe it. Now that you’ve observed the eclipse’s awesome beauty, I propose to our community actively protecting and increasing that beauty here on Earth.
Many non-scientists challenge scientists that our lab work and equations detract from the beauty of nature. Walt Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer leads the charge.
I experience the opposite–that learning more math and peering deeper into matter reveal more beauty. Answering one curiosity has always led to more questions and child-like wonder. They’ve augmented it. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman leads this retort:
My challenge to you
This beauty of nature is not just in flowers and eclipses. It’s everywhere–if you look for it.
Following the eclipse, can you find the same aesthetic pleasure in, say, the sun or just the blue sky after the moon has passed? In your next bite of an apple? In the plant on your windowsill?
Can you actively work to protect the beauty of nature less touched by us–with fewer plastic bottles, less car or jet exhaust, less mercury?
Some may say the environment is outside the purview of business. Acting on your values and leading others to seems to me the core of leadership. Our community doesn’t stop with mere awareness, but acts for measurable, meaningful results.
If you consider the environment irrelevant to business… well, you probably haven’t read this far. If you have, I challenge you toactively change your behavior–that is, to lead yourself–to protect and increase beauty like you saw in the eclipse.
I recommend watching, say, the Story of Stuff,
the True Cost
or videos like them, and see if you can increase the beauty of nature.
To be sure, some may say you can find that beauty in the poisonous exhaust of your car or plane as you commute home from seeing the eclipse. My goal isn’t to tell you what to value but to support you acting on your values, since I suspect we share common values of clean air and water as beautiful as a full solar eclipse.