The Topless Ladder or the Endless Web

The mature gentleman on NPR talks about seeing people as they claw their way to the top and if they're good people, he'll catch them on the way down. We always hear about the ladder of success.

CUT TO: EXT. A Cafe in Culver City

The owner of a lighting company and his wife sit across from me. He talks to me how we have it all wrong. Life is not a ladder but a web. Some people start at the center. Others are on the outskirts. But the web is level. We're just on different parts of it at different parts of our lives and we can actually move between the center and the outer edge. No one is more superior or higher up.

He explains that he doesn't consider himself more important than his employees. In fact, he's actually made less then some of his employees because he'd promised holiday bonuses and he wanted to hold to his word.

I listen rapt with the plethora of information I'm digesting along with the salad I'm eating.

He says he doesn't make to do lists or a list of goals that goes top down. He actually writes them sideways.

"Sideways?' I ask.

"Yes, because when you write them sideways it's like a timeline and that way it's not a matter of working your way up to completing the task or goal. It's just a matter of time. It will happen. Time has no choice but to move forward."

Aha! I like the way this man thinks.

There is not a limit to the amount of success or fortune that's available to us. If one person has success he or she does not make less of it available for the rest of us. There's plenty to go around.

At the end of the meal, I thank him profusely. The nuggets of wisdom he provided for the meal feed me long after the meal itself. I leave sated and satisfied.