How to be humble and still a competitor. From preaching to war.

This writer was just lucky enough to be picked to be the advocate of a homeless shelter in San Diego CA. It was called City of Angels and in fact was associated with shelters up there. Despite the name it was not really evangelical in any way. It rented out floor space and had cots and cleaning facilities and some food/feeding ability. It was reasonably safe and clean. It was run on donations and ---- I will get to the and later.

This was one of the coldest wettest winters here on record and it was during a minor recession in the late 1980's. And yes in one of the best climate cities in the USA we had folks dying of exposure in our streets and canyons.

My advocacy work had to do with things like city zoning and fire regulations and feeding and housing regulations. Going all the way to waivers and such by the City Counsel. And when I could I advocated for clients in getting benefits and opportunities and health care. I still feel the work we did was good and helped thousands.

But back to the "and". And government and large charity dollars. It was here where the competition was fierce. And I mean fierce. The City of Angels had to close their doors. Because another big homeless shelter out lobbied, cajoled and coerced the city of San Diego to do all they could to shut down the shelter with regulatory bullshit.

The reason they did this was because they then would have exclusives to that governmental aid and charitable institutionalized giving for the region. And yes that competitor was run by the Catholics.

I'll bet you thought all those shelters worked with each other.

Do you just assume that pro football players are all competitive against each other? Well you would be wrong. Most human interaction on a football team is basically pretty humbling. We of course mean that here in the sense of putting other people's interests above your own. Next time you have a chance turn down the volume and figure out how to make slow motion work on your television. Block out the rest of the game and look at the 6 down lineman on the offensive side (could be 5 or 7). Now just concentrate on their feet for a few downs. Their ability to slant, cut, swing, drop, lead, follow and pull is amazing because they do it all together and are inches from others doing it with one man's foot going where another man's foot was just half a second before. And they are doing it while others are really trying hard to stop them.

That kind of ballet teamwork can only be done by each man putting the team and teamwork above and ahead of himself. That my friends is humility.

We as good folk put our trust to some degree in both of these institutions to do what is best for us within a proper framework. Why is it that we are finding more and more these days that that is exactly the opposite of what they do.

"Public Servant" and "Shepard of the Flock" both are normally now a days a crock. They both spend more of their time competing against others who would take their position of power than they do serving those who need.

(We ask that anyone write here in the comments if you have spent more than an hour in the last two weeks with either a pastor or a politician one on one -- we know it happens but we know it is an exception -- so let us know)

So those charged with serving are charged up about winning!

If you try to copyright you are saying that your work is worthy of being protected because it has great value because you created it. Good for you. Patents are akin as are trademarks. But when we break that down we see the total lack of humility.

Hey do not look at me -- I am guilty as charged and that is a white flag I am holding up. Although to be fair my work is so "Eric Specific" that taking it would be fool hearty. And if I do have any great ideas I would not know it so what good is it to me. And also to be fair some people "publish" their work for a living. Mostly mine is kept confidential with non-disclosure and non-competition clauses along with non-circumvention stuff. Our euphemism is MDA's (Mutual Disclosure Agreements) and the author is never to be known. And breaking them usually ends up with jail time for improper trading rather than lawsuits.

So in these cases I say, toss out your humility and feel good and prideful of your good work. Provide for yourself and others and let it be known that these great things you do are yours, unless someone pays you for them.

I really like it when someone says after doing a really good job of it: "all the glory be to God". I think that is super cool::: Now stand up and take the accolades like a man and be all humanly worshiped because you deserve it. Really you creative types really do deserve any recognition that you get.

And here is why I say this for those of you that think I preach ego. I am not an artist with words yet but I am trying to be. I pour my soul into a piece of work and then I prance around with more self doubt and pain of insecurity than a good man should face. And I often suffer real tears and real remorse and sadness when writing. This is how it must be for me.

So I think it is the same for you performers of the arts of subjective appreciation. You must suffer such stuff too and yet your work is worthy of accolades. So I say jump up and down and say thank you and I am great!

I do not have humility down yet. And I say that for one simple reason. Sometimes I use the gifts I have been so freely given in order to be right. Do not get me wrong and to some this will be self righteous and all wrong to say. I am very bright and extremely well educated in areas that make self research very productive and I am passionate. Believe me with four well educated adult children a wife and an ex-wife constantly questioning my position I can tell you for sure that I am usually right. And that does not even include CEO,CFO, COO and Lawyers as clients. I am usually right. I do not get paid or my advice followed if I am usually wrong. I am a consultant and my advice is what I get paid for.

So in that sense I do not have humility for there is something I am very good at and so humility is or would be generally false.

You are the same in your area of advanced work, if you chose to be.

But we can still be humble as people. That is the beauty of humility. Someone I call God put some thorns in my side. And He will not remove them, not even for a moment. I have foibles and defects. And I truly pray my God not to remove them. I recognize that my ego could run amok. I know that if I really try to live perfectly and get close that wonderful ego of mine will proclaim some victory and establish me as the greatest. So I give thanks for my imperfections. And I share them with others to be used against me at a later time as conditions require or not. Someone who cuts me down to size is a friend. Critics and naysayers are my clubhouse buddies. Because I need it to stay humble.

All of my best friends can cut me to the quick. That is a good thing and sometimes I just call up my eldest son and he just abuses my ego and always always always does it in love. Go find that friend.