Since I was a teen, my father told me that my purpose in life is to become a provider for my future family. I had to be able to support a family, earn a living. The concept of a job, a salary - earning a paycheck each month - filled me with dread. In my search for a solution to this life time challenge ahead of me, I began to view the global economy as a giant flow of money - a river of money. Everyone and every organization tapped into this river for power like a watermill. The water isn't consumed - but comes in, flows out. Its a constant flow. Yes, you can cache some it (pun intended) and save it for a rainy day - but money basically, for most people and businesses - flows in, flows out. Some people have a small little laddle to dip into this flow, others have built elaborate wheels with buckets or paddles to capture large amounts of this flow. My personal challenge then, was to build my own tool/device/mechanism for tapping into this river of money - river of life.
In my defense, I tried to explain that I don't need to purchase when I shop in order to enjoy it. I look at various products for ideas, to collect data about brands, products, features, trends. I always thought that as mundane as shopping is for most people, there is a way to take it to the level of an "art" - more than shopping wisely, but to consume at a higher level of awareness. Today, we see this manifesting as buying products based on intangible factors - organic foods, free-range, sustainably harvested, fair trade, etc. Products produced with certain practices gained this intangible added-value which may not in any other way add to the product's nutritional value, longevity, quality or measurable intrinsic character. So when I "shop" - I am really shopping for ideas and concepts. And ideas gleaned from this activity of shopping, fuels my own ability to ultimately tap into this river of money. Whenever I travel, I shop to understand the local economy and the local flavor of products, brands, features. The mundane goods that locals purchase tell a lot about their values, their lifestyle, their psyche. Even the way products are displayed and sold tell a lot - whether in expensive, glitzy boutiques or in makeshift stalls on street markets - there is so much to information to glean.
All these ideas, concepts, insights - have the potential to be incorporated in my own endeavors - at the very least, they influence my understanding of the river of life. And when these ideas and concepts are shared and passed onto others, they virtually take on the mechanism of an infection, a contagion. As better explained in Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - the "idea" can take on a life of its own when it "infects" enough people. I see this occur in consumer products all the time, despite patents, copyrights and trade secrets - ideas are constantly undergoing an evolutionary process - survival of the fittest. The great ideas survive, the bad ones die out. And as in nature, some ideas find niche habitats to thrive in and evolve independent of other regions. Ultimately, this is what culture is - a rich collection of ideas that have evolved locally.
