The Problem Is The Path: A Reflection on 10 Years - An Invitation to the Impossible
We made it to 10 years!
90% of new organizations, businesses, or startups die in the first 5 years. We made it double that by working hard together and overcoming tens of thousands of challenges. And we know we still have a long way to go.
7 Cups is a bit of a paradox. We have high hopes while at the same time being in the nitty-gritty of daily problem solving. We keep our eyes on the north star, but also roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty each and every day. We hold this tension, this juxtaposition, between what is now and what could be in the future.
How do we make progress? We make progress through problem solving. We don’t have a grand strategy; rather, we believe the problem is the path and we solve the next biggest problem in front of us. When we get that one done, we move onto the next and so on. And that is how we’ve collectively built 7 Cups. This concept can be tough to get your mind around. This is a good book that can help.
How do we continue to problem solve to make gains? We are hopeful, work hard, persevere, and collaborate. But there is another variable too and one that we don’t have good language to capture.
We can point to it with words like good fortune, luck, blessing, chance, fate, grace, kismet and godsend.
7 Cups is by far the hardest thing that I’ve ever tried to do in my life. I’ve pushed myself past the breaking point several times. I don’t recommend this. I was just trying with all that I could and felt it was the only option. And you know what? I kept coming up short. But, then, something else would happen—something that I have no control over—something that has zero to do with my efforts or capabilities. And once again we’d catch a lucky break and be back on track.
Carl Jung would define these happy accidents as synchronicities, “events that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection.” Some people call these miracles. For me, they often feel like stumbling upon a secret passageway or finding a hidden key. Like our backs are against the wall and then the eagles swoop in and rescue us like in this scene in the Hobbit.
Early on I was very aware of the enormous challenges we faced and it admittedly was overwhelming. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to solve them. Then, with hard work (and a lot of luck) we’d figure it out and move onto the next challenge. Over time, and overcoming obstacles, I have developed more faith in us and more faith that these seeming coincidences will break our way.
Most very fortunate people have caught lightning in a bottle 1x in life. Somehow, our community has managed to catch it 3x. We will likely need to catch it 3 more times to make this work. A betting man wouldn’t bet on us. He’d look at us and say, “Well, yes, they have been remarkably fortunate, but their luck will run out at some point.”
I am taking the other side of that bet. I am betting - we are betting - that our luck or good fortune will not run out, but may even increase. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but I can tell you that is the trend I’ve been observing. Each year we have more and more good fortune and I think this will continue to compound.
Am I overly optimistic? Probably. Will we make 1000s of more mistakes? Yes you can count on it. Will there be more near death experiences? I hope not!
What we are doing is a unique experiment. We are betting that we can all work together to create a community that helps people get better in real ways. That IS what we are up to. And as much as I admire and deeply respect our collective work and community, this is a daunting feat and I know that we will need a lot of help to get there.
Will we make it to the summit?
I see no reason why we will not. Afterall, we’ve made it this far, and we are more than halfway up the mountain. I’d like to think we are past the most challenging parts of the journey!
Thank you for your hope, your hard work, your collaboration, and your trust. I will continue to do my best and give it all I’ve got to get us there. What we’re doing is virtually unheard of. We’re creating the map as we venture further on, and we are going to need some help far beyond anything that I can cook up.
7 Cups was and is an invitation to the impossible. Let’s continue to pour into each other and our community and see where the path leads. I’m looking forward to taking in that summit view with all of you.
In closing, Lisa said the following about being aware of good fortune, things breaking your way, or synchronicity, “It represents the flow of life happening all around us and if we pay attention to those moments, we can find valuable insight. Becoming more mindful is one way of becoming more attuned to synchronicities.” A reflection question: Have you experienced or been surprised by good fortune or luck in your life in unexpected ways? If yes, any insights you can share with us so we can better understand?
With deep respect, gratitude, and love,
Glen
Thank you for making a post. It is great to see you so involved in the birthday celebrations. I am particularly a fan of this value. I acknowledge the reality that this is one of the toughest things to come to terms with, no one wants problems but there is no way around them but through tackling them.
I think it is a good reminder to be optimistic, we have to tackle problems anyways, might as well do it hoping for a good outcome. Having hope at times is half the battle!
For those who find it challenging to face this reality of life, I recommend reading the book Glen recommended 'Obstacle is the way' by Ryan Holiday. You may also find stoic books to offer some interesting perspectives on the same. Overall, I can not recommend books enough for their ability to help change our perspective but the key is to pick the right one!
I have the book 'obstacle is the Way' and I have read it many times now and still when I find myself stressed over yet another problem, I pick it up and read either the highlighted lines or a few pages to help me develop a more optimistic perspective.
@Hope thank you for being our in-house Stoic expert and helping us find ways to better appreciate this way of understanding life! Not easy to get your mind around :). Great book recommendation!
@GlenM
I love this! ♡ Thank you so much Glen for posting a reflection on the 10 years of cups :3 It is great to read through this, and I love all the points you made <3 Thank you for all you do for 7cups, it is an amazing community full of awesome people and we appreciate you so much ♡ Massive congratulations, I am so so happy the cups community is still growing (:
Happy early birthday 7cups 💜🥳 10 yeaarrss!! Woohooo, just another 3 before you can become a member :p ♡ hehe
@TabbyCat97 FULL of awesome people is spot on! Thank you for being awesome :)
@GlenM Massive congratulations on reaching such a big milestone!!! Like you say, most new products never make it this far. Its a clear sign that this community and the platform has an important role to play in society. Excited to be on the journey with all of you. And can't wait to see whats around the next corner.
For me, the big surprise was finding 7 Cups in the first place. It goes against the grain of what we see in most other online communities (particularly social media). It shows that people want to help each other - and that we can do it - if technology is there to make it easier (rather than get in the way).
@Jon7Cups we are delighted to have you on this journey with us! Thank you for working closely with the community and helping us tighten up and streamline the product. The next few big features will be significant!
@GlenM Thank you Glen for the post. I completely agree with Lisa on being mindful to be more attuned.
I firmly believe that problem is the path to growth, finding ways, and exploring possibilities and new opportunities. Because it allows you to learn the unknown, re-learn the known, and realize that problem is never-ending. One after another, there will be challenges but it is our choice what we want to choose - to face it or quit it. Those who face it, find some new experiences and learning.
We are all on a learning curve, just different points and trajectories I guess.
@ASilentObserver well said Obs! I like looking at problems as ways to relearn things not yet fully learned. I think that is how it goes. Like a spiral staircase going up. You'll come across a similar problem again and again until it is solved.
@GlenM
To GlenM and all past and present community participants:
what you all have done over the past 10 years is truly amazing!!!
Thank you!
@7motivation thank you for being an amazing support and working right alongside us! Team effort!
@GlenM
Thank you for posting this Glen. I am enjoying the Cups 10 year content so far.
I have been on Cups since 2019 but wasn't very active within the community until about 6 months ago. Since then, I have been amazed at how hard working everyone is and how we all have one common goal - to allow this to be a safe environment for everyone.
With Cups being an emotional support platform, safety should definitely be a number on priority and I am thankful that we have a team dedicated to looking into problems and concerns on the site.
I am also thankful to be working alongside Evelyne and IA in the quality team. We are all putting our heads together to better the community as a whole.
Cups thrives because of team work. There is no one person that could do all of this, nor should they. It is a collaborative effort to work on tweaking things as we go along. I'm currently working through LDP and thankful to see that although leadership is about having knowledge and coming up with fresh new ideas, it doesn't just stop there. A good leader is one that allows others to come to them with feedback, both good and bad... To allow for change to happen, even if it's not what they had in mind. To be non bias and look at things with a fresh pair of eyes. To know when it's time to take a step back from the computer screen. I could go on and on
I say all of this to say that Cups has managed to plod through many problems over the years because of everyone's effort to working towards making this the safest place it can be for both Members and Listeners. There's not one person that did this. So I thank everyone who has helped Cups shine the last 10 years, no matter how "small" you think your role may be.
@beck1 great points! Every person has a role to play and is integral to making all of 7 Cups work. The small things are often the most powerful and often not seen or celebrated. I think we do a good job of highlighting these efforts with peer appreciation and other avenues, but there are still 1000s of things - kind gestures, empathic words, checking in on people - that make very big differences each day that we do not highlight. Our community is comprised of deep hearted people and each day we learn how to better work together to make more of an impact. The journey continues!
@GlenM I agree 😊 It doesn't take but a second to tell someone how much you appreciate them. Thats what I love about the community. We are all here with the same thing in common and thats giving support to the members! I appreciate the hard work that goes on behind the scenes that others are not aware of.
I'm thankful to be part of Cups and I look forward to making my way up into different leadership roles
@GlenM
It is so wonderful to see 7 Cups grow each year and the strength from one year to the next is seen in the 7 Cups Community!
The problem is the path is one of my favourite 7 Cups values because it is all about perspective and how we can use this to guide us. It teaches us that there will be moments that we find challenging in life but if we use these to help us move forward they can be very powerful.
@GlenM
Thank you for this brief post. I have always wondered how could someone be this brilliant, formulating a site so comprehensive and dedicated. Credits to you and the team for the ideation. This site has brought about since it's inception and will with firm affirmation in the future, an impactful transformation. Giving us a new perspective and meaning to what we tend to overlook in the midst of the hassle - mental well-being. From providing support, assistance, opportunities to maintaining the same pace of activities every single day, 7 Cups has grown, most gracefully. And look, we are about to turn 10 already. How far have we come! Time flies by. I am confident we have more in store to discover and implement as we move forward celebrating a decade of this flourishing success. Thank you for making it possible. Thank you never giving up. Thank you for being innovative. I have faith and I am positive that this platform will capture the essence in the mental health fraternity progressing it's reach sooner than anyone would have ever imagined.
Regards.
@trueconfidant123 thank you for those kind words and I hope you are right! I'd love for us to have this all figured out sooner rather than later. But, as they say, happiness is a way of travel and not the destination. Happy to be walking with you and others on this journey!
@GlenM
It was lovely to read the post. Thank you for making it!
Belated Happy Birthday 7 cups!! Congratulations you are entering 2 digits!!!!! Woohoooo 🥳 🎊 🎉
@tidyHickory3283 double digits!
@GlenM
yesssss!!!
@GlenM
Thank you for sharing such a personal account of your 7 Cups' Oddisey, telling openly about your vulnerabilities and how much you owe to good luck on top of your hard work, risk-taking, intelligence and vision.
Answering your question, I feel that most good things I had and still have in life are due to chance and good luck.
From existing (being born at all), the family and upbringing I had (my mother is pure goodness, was a school teacher and is a clinical psychologist, so very knowledgeable about children and people in general), to the schools I attended, the teachers and professors, the amazing friends and loving girlfriends who enriched my life...
All can be traced to random events in which I don't have any merit at all. Pure good luck.
The same with my job life. I worked hard ad tried my best, but was very lucky in many instances.
The one I recall as most significant was after a cataclysmic crisis in my country (a national pastime here), the place I was working collapsed, and I was left jobless. Hopeless. No chance of a new job in a devastated economy.
A few months later, a business organization was created by a group of big companies (like the Business Roundtable in the US) with the purpose to avert similar things happening in the future, and to promote the rebound of the country.
A new organization created out of thin air from the whim of a few big shots.
My boss at a previous job was a friend of one of the CEOs leading this initiative, was called as Director and called me, in turn, to work with him.
From being hopelessly jobless, I ended up in a well-paid, interesting, high-profile, challenging job. In a beautiful large corner office, on floor 23 overlooking the 50km wide Rio de la Plata.
From *** to paradise by pure chance.
I had also misfortunes. And I heard many tragic ones here in 1-1 chats, totally random, pure bad luck.
My take is that we are almost totally determined by chance, We tend to misinterpret things by creating a convincing story, with reasonable causes that lead to an event. Even victims of random tragic events tend to interpret them like they caused them in some way.
Some books I recommend on this subject are "A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls (emphasis on how random, and so unfair, is the distribution of wealth, health, education, opportunities, etc), "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb (we have a cognitive bias to explain results ex-post attributing them to causes like decisions, strategy, etc while chance was the main reason), and "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell (there are many often absurd external random factors that determine success, besides personal effort and merit). This last one is a light, fun read.
The ultimate ode to Serendipity:
O Fortuna (Carmina Burana, Carl Orff): https://youtu.be/EJC-_j3SnXk
@HealingTalk great life story! Thank you for sharing :)
I'm also a big Taleb fan. He can be tough to read, but such crystal clear insights if you persevere through. My favorite is Antifragile.
@GlenM
Thank you! A story of serendipity to the rescue...
Taleb is great! The "black swan" guy.
7 Cups is an archetype of "Antifragile" organization, thanks to its openness to thousands of diverse people joining all the time with their very varied thinking, constant trial and error of new things, the delegation of management from a core team to dozens of volunteer leaders with distinct personalities and background, and your willingness to constantly implement change to adapt, improve, and take advantage of new opportunities.
So much openness, diversity, delegation, exploration and change!
With these qualities, 7 Cups will continue to thrive as far as we can conceive, in this fast-growing, uncertain, always-changing, world.
Antifragile-way!
