This is the Author’s Interpretation of the Ideas & Philosophy  Behind

“The Man”

Chapter 2

Revised 15th July 3:30pm

The Man – A Philosophical Story About the Search for The Meaning of Life

We live in a world that is overcrowded and yet most of the time we live alone. I don’t mean that we live on our own I mean we feel we are on our own. This is what troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. It has been called the human condition.

Have you ever felt real desperation? Some people feel desperate because their life is boring but to the person who has nothing, no job, no money, no home, no safety net and sometimes, little mouths to feed as well (or any combination of these); a boring life would be regarded as something to aspire to.

So far we have met at least three people in this philosophical story who are desperate, I would hazard a guess that the girl in the supermarket, the car salesman and the bush copper all struggle with their own fears as well, we are just not aware of them.

The Bogeyman in the Cupboard

In your life probably everyone you know has a pit of fear somewhere deep down that they don’t let you see. That is why they feel they are alone. They deal with it alone, just like you do.

That works in our day to day lives because it would be hard to function on a daily basis if you were so plugged in to every one that you felt and worse, experienced their deepest fears. Some people are that sensitive and they usually end up going crazy.

Secondly, it is important that we learn how to cope with our own demons. When you were a child in bed trying to sleep and you thought there was a bogey man in the cupboard, it was okay to get up and tell your mum or dad and get them to go and have a look; that is how you learn they love you. If they love you, you must be worth loving and so we learn to love ourselves.

The Aboriginal girl is loved by her mum. Her love for her daughter motivated her to set out to do the impossible, to get her daughters drugs with no money in her pocket, only a determination to succeed. When she did, she felt no need to be grateful to anyone else for her success because she knew she was responsible for making it happen.

Success or Failure – Either is Acceptable

How many times have you felt the same in your business? You don’t know how you will do it but you are determined to succeed. And somehow you do. How much harder it is when you don’t know how and you don’t believe you will succeed. I would say it is impossible. That is how the Man feels.

The message here is, when you have done everything you can do to bring about success you owe nothing to any one and if you fail there is no disgrace in that either. Doing nothing is not an option to the person who really wants to succeed.

Nietzsche had a strong view about this as Ruth Abbey, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, pointed out in a recent radio interview:

“Great people, according to Nietzsche, don’t seek power over other people, they might achieve power over people, but that’s never their goal. Their goal is always something outside. They’re not interested in insulating or putting other people down, they’re always aspiring for some form of greatness – cultural, political, artistic, literary, whatever. They’re not driven by the desire to be judged by the standards of others, and this is one of the things that distinguishes masters from slaves. So the ubermensch (Superman) is not motivated by control over other people, he might achieve that, but that would never be his primary motivation.”

She goes on to say:

“But it’s also important to acknowledge here that great people can fail, according to Nietzsche, without that

Friedrich Nietzsche - it is important to acknowledge that great people can fail

making them any less great. So their greatness shouldn’t be measured by objective standards, or external achievements or deeds. And there are many very poignant passages where Nietzsche talks about the fragility of the great human being, particularly in the modern world where all the forces of conformity, uniformity and mediocrity, are striving against the realisation of true individualism.”

Nietzsche is very worried about the fate of great individuals, he knows they are just as likely to fail as they are to succeed, so we can’t necessarily measure their greatness by their deeds or by their achievements, it’s more a psychological disposition to doing the things that are necessary for success.

So what can we learn from this? A lot, I hope

How to Get Close to Someone You love

First, if you want to get close to someone, you have to be able to walk a mile in their shoes, which means you have to be able to experience what they are experiencing, to genuinely share their happiness, their disappointments, their wins and the demons that scare them to death. We each have the power to lift the veil of loneliness from the ones we love. We can exorcise the bogey man from the cupboard by letting them know that as long as we are there they will never walk alone.

When you can do that; you too will never walk alone because you will always have a loved one by your side.

This is what Anna, the little Aboriginal girl teaches the Man, he learns that he can get close to her and more importantly, he learns that only by genuinely sharing himself with her is he able to get close enough to give her the courage she needs to go to sleep. That is a RELATIONSHIP, the kind we all want but are not always prepared to invest enough of “ourselves” in to get.

If I never wrote another word, I have already told you all there is know. But if it is so easy why aren’t we all happy?

Because you can live a whole lifetime without ever experiencing this vision of love for each other and if you can’t see it or feel it, you can’t share it with one who loves you. And if you can’t share it then the relationship is not as complete as it could be.

The greatest gift a parent can give a child is to let them share and participate in the vision which the parent’s have for the family. As they become a participating member of the family they feel respected and valued and truly experience the love the parents have for them and they learn how to return it and then how to give it. All else is secondary and believe me, I know.

Secondly, we can lose sight of the vision and when there is no vision the spirit will perish. The Man has lost his vision and with it his belief in himself. The Chemist still has his and it helps him live a fruitful life that gives him little pleasure other than that which he creates by giving to others.

That is one aspect.

How to Apply this Philosophy to Business

This philosophy also has great application to our business life as well. I’m running out of space in my self imposed limit but let me point you in the direction I believe leads to success.

Most of my readers have their own web site or blog and some have asked how to get more readers, more comments or how to be successful which I presume means how to make money.

I look at every web site that we link to in the comments as you know, and often I see web sites that try to deliver good quality information but more often I see a web site or blog that is designed as a platform to serve up Google Adwords. There are Ads at the top and in the middle and at the bottom and in the end it is hard to find the content for the ads.

If a reader is served that kind of page what is their immediate reaction? I believe they think, this web site is primarily designed to make money for the web master not to solve my problem.

When I was new in sales there was a guy who was a master salesman, he made huge sales and spoke at all the conferences and I was in awe of him (when I didn’t hate him to pieces out of jealousy). One day on my way to a client, I got in a lift and who did I find there, the master salesman.

He pressed level 5 and when the door closed (I wanted to be sure there was no escape) I said, very fast “Hello my name is Ric Vatner and we only have 30 seconds, I want to know what is the secret to success?”

He was startled but I indicated time was running out and I needed an answer. This is what he told me;

The Secret to Success – Really!

“When you go into a sale there are two problems to solve, One, you need to make the sale to make money. Two, the client has a problem that they want solved. If you concentrate on solving your problem the client will see you are not genuine about solving their problem and they won’t buy from you. If they don’t buy from you, you both still have a problem. And next time bring some toilet paper, you scared the shit out of me”

And that was the last time I ever met him.

I have found over the years that he was spot on and it works in all areas of our life, business and personal . For example, if you are in a relationship, put the other persons feelings before your own, if you both do that you will love each other for ever. It even applies to  writing an article or blog post, write it from the reader’s perspective. What do they need to know to make an informed decision? Do this and your readership will multiply even if you know nothing about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

I know the SEO experts will disagree but I think the moment you look at a blog post that has been fully optimized to maximize CPC and CPA you know whose problem the writer is concentrating on and you are less likely to click through.

Recently I read an article on one of the web sites we link to in the comments forum and I noticed that throughout the latest article there are random links placed in the middle of sentences saying things like “buy steroids”. The article was not about steroids but there were at least 10 links in it to a web site that sells steroids.

Okay, imagine one in a thousand people click the link, do the maths, how many people have you irritated along the way. Will they ever come back? And I can tell you that the other posts on the blog were not like that and are all quite good. I saw this as a sign of desperation, a sign of trying to solve the wrong problem.

What they should have done is write an article that answers the reader’s questions and doubts and then offered a link.

However, and I hope you won’t think I am sermonizing here, I think it is important to believe in your product and if it can do harm or it is demeaning to some people maybe you should look for another product to sell, one that you can be proud to write about. I think you will find that a lot easier to do and ultimately you will be more successful.

I know, I can talk the hind legs off a donkey, that’s why I set a limit for each post and lucky for you, I have reached it.

Don’t forget to come back for Chapter 3 and then vote for whether we continue the story or not.

And to finish off  I hope you don’t mind if I take this opportunity to play one of my all time favourite songs. Please join me in singing as loud as you can (If I can’t hear you it is not loud enough ):

To Be Continued …………

The Chapters So Far:

The Man Chapter 1

The Man Chapter 2

The Man Chapter 3

Read an Analysis of Each Chapter – The Philosophy and Ideas behind the Story

Analysis of The Man Chapter 1

Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

A Readers Analysis of The Man Chapter 2

Pre Analysis Background Information for The Man Chapter 3