The Two Mountains.
In an excellent piece in The New York Times, David Brooks writes about people who approach life differently. He refers to this as the Second Mountain. The First Mountain is the path you take as a person to achieve success, a career, prosperity, recognition — the way up, to the top. “They did the things society encouraged us to do, like make a mark, become successful, buy a home, raise a family, pursue happiness.” It is the rat race up the insurmountable road that you think you have to take to survive on the monkey rock. The result is often burnout, loneliness, alienation, soullessness. The soulless many fall from that mountain. Into the valley. A failed marriage; a dead end career; illness — the bumps and bruises we incur in life.
In my many conversations, I sense whether people are still climbing the First Mountain, that hope for success that allows the ego to grow. I notice that shared words and stories can not be heard. My stories about the inner voice, the soul that throws the lifeline, the finding of the Self. There are too many anchors in the mountainside that are held in fear. The fear of falling. And rightly so, I think. Because falling out of the pattern is frightening. The fear of the other is paralyzing. Going into the desert to first complete what has held you up or has been taught for years is the most difficult path you can take as a person.
In an old interview Manfred Kets de Vries, who writes a lot about leadership and talked to countless international CEO’s, has already spoken about the nature of the First Mountain this way: ‘I have seen too many concentration camps in organizations. Thoreaux too spoke to this subject: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I look for organizations where people feel more like they live.’
There are many people in organizations clinging together on the First Mountain, holding each other anxiously for fear of being knocked off, and in the meantime lumbering and discoloring up there. What is their view? What is their desire? What is their ambition?
This loneliness that has an alienating effect in their own life, in each other’s lives, in the life of the organization, but also what these organizations cause.
In the article by David Brooks, prior to publishing his new book ‘The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life’, he writes that people who eventually leave the First Mountain often do not do so voluntarily. There is usually a compelling reason. A setback. A lack of a real life. Being touched by the despair of others. Diseases that cause the hunt to halt in your own career. It is the Great Failure that stares at us in that dark night. Some stay aimless and endless in that valley, writes David Brooks. Disappointed, desperately longing to be able to return to First Mountain. For others this is a chance to go up the Second Mountain. ‘Our individualistic culture inflames the ego and numbs the spirit. Failure teaches us who we are.’
Thundering from the First Mountain, the Mountain of illusion, so-called certainty, selfishness, indifference to others, greed, also gives us the chance to discover the mirror. To view ourselves with grace. Learn from mistakes. Admit the soul again.
‘In the wilderness the desire for esteem is stripped away and bigger desires are made visible: the desires of the heart (to live in loving connection with others) and the desires of the soul (the yearning to serve some transcendent ideal and to be sanctified by that service).’
David Brooks is also a famous American newspaper columinist and commentator found in the conservative corner of the political spectrum. Someone with an opinion and a permanent place on the First Mountain. In a short and striking television interview, Brooks found himself alone, after thundering for so many years from the First Mountain. No friends, lonely, no more strength to hold on to the old pattern. You can’t help but think of that phrase we all know so well, “the valley of death.” Can we survive there? Can we find the power to build another existence?
In his case, he found his way to the Second Mountain. Understanding that it is about more, about different, about others, about the story as people together. That means he learned to be of service. To discover the “Golden Rule”. By the way, it is no longer about happiness but about joy. Happiness is still about you and your own life. Joy is the life you have and want to share with others.
‘Joy involves the transcendence of self. When you’re on the second mountain, you realize we aim too low. We compete to get near a little sun lamp, but if we lived differently, we could feel the glow of real sunshine. On the second mountain you see that happiness is good, but joy is better.’
I myself have experienced that valley in a confrontational way. I fell from the First Mountain where I thought I could do it myself. Nobody needed there. King in my own empire. I was that captain on my own ship, powerful, strong. But that also meant loneliness and unwilling to ask the help-question. In my case, that stubbornness went very far. And so I thundered from my Mountain. I fell hard. And it seemed hopeless. But even in that dark valley of death I found my self. And I learned to stand up slowly. To understand that I am with others in my life. I can make a story with them. Or to build an organization where relationships with each other and the world are the main reasons for existence. I learned my answer for why are we here, for whom do we do it?
Two Mountains is not just a personal phenomenon. The Two Mountains is also a story for an organization. The first Mountain is working selfishly on one’s own corporate success without looking around. Quite a few organizations perish. Others wake up and realize there must be another way. The fear of the valley, the steps back, the uncertainty, however, makes them stick to a piece of rock on that mountain. Organizations living desparate lives. Only releasing the old will help.
In the valley there is an opportunity to learn, to find each other again in a sense of purpose, a concept, a “call to life”. Only then can the climb to the Second Mountain begin. To become the leaders of organizations that we can be. Want to be. Organizations of a New Economy.
‘These second-mountain people are leading us into a new culture. Culture change happens when a small group of people find a better way to live and the rest of us copy them.’
Ron van Es — mentor at School for Purpose Leadership
