January 1, 2022

Partners & Agents, welcome to a New Year, welcome to 2022!

Let us welcome all the new joys and blessings, and yes, all the new challenges, that lie ahead. Our destiny is written, let us go out boldly to fulfill it. We will grow this year. Growth comes through change; and at times, through effort and struggle. So let our mindset be strong and ready for whatever comes.

Some of you have been with us a long time, others are new. Thank you to those who got us this far, and welcome to the newcomers.

This will be our seventh year as a company, and our Sovereign Will, with Heaven's blessing, is that this will be our second year of profitability. Let it be so.

This isn't an ordinary company. We aspire to greatness in all things. For this company to become great, each of us must become great individually. In The Great Learning, Confucius put it this way: “To put The World in order, put The Nation in order; to put The Nation in order, put The Family in order; to put The Family in order, cultivate yourself.” So I challenge myself, and I challenge you, and my challenge to the whole company this year is this: become great, cultivate yourself, challenge yourself. Find a way. For if you do this, in every area of your life, then the success of the company is assured.

I want all of us to be physically fit and healthy. Why? Because a physically fit and healthy company will outperform unfit and unhealthy competitors. It doesn't matter that our service is a digital service; ultimately that service is delivered by people, and people perform best when they are fit and healthy. But is this within my control? No, nor should it be, ever! It's in your control, and belongs wholly to you, forever. Only you can decide to exercise, or not. Only you can decide to eat well, or not. Only you can decide to sleep sufficiently, or not. You are free individuals, and this is your life - you are here of your own free will. But these are examples of the thousand little choices that you make every day, that only you can make, that will make you capable of your best work. So... Read. Write. Make art. Go on adventures. Have experiences. Be a great friend and family member. Build new relationships. Ask questions. Seek love. Live your life fully. Do all of these things, and do them well. Because if you do these things to the best of your ability, you will also work to the best of your ability. The way you do anything spreads into the way you do everything. Your sphere of power, influence and responsibility is vast - far bigger than you realize! So thank you in advance, for making these thousands of private, personal decisions well. They are a great gift not only to yourself, but to your family and friends, and to your team, that you work with every day, and also to the whole company, and to me personally. So thank you, thank you, thank you...

In The Art Of War - 孙子兵法,  Sun Tzu said "[That Sovereign] will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks." For us, my translation is this: "That company will win that has the most Dragon Energy." Let us become that company.

“Dragon Energy” is a concept that comes from the ancient Chinese Book Of Changes, the The I Ching - Yìjīng, 易经. In the book, there are 64 sacred symbols that combine in 4092 mysterious ways to represent all of the situations you might encounter in life. For example, there is a symbol to represent Difficult Beginnings (3. ䷂ Chun > Difficulty At The Beginning), and one to represent Youthful Folly (4. ䷃ Mêng > Youthful Folly); one for periods of Waiting (5. ䷄ Hsü > Waiting, Nourishment), and The Lake (58. ䷹ Tui > The Joyous, Lake) for periods of joy and peace... There are many symbols like these, and studying them and their meanings teaches you to become more aware of the situation you are in right now, and more adept at navigating it.

In other words, the I Ching teaches situational wisdom. In some situations, it is best to attack; in other situations, to retreat; in other situations, to do nothing; in other situations, to hide; in other situations, to advance cautiously... How do you know what situation you are in? Without this guidance, we all know how easy it is to misread our situation, to say and do the wrong thing, to take the wrong approach, and watch our actions backfire - even when the same actions might have worked beautifully in a different situation.

After one year of practicing, I can assure you that it works - it is a masterful teacher. If you're curious and would like to study on your own, here is a starter kit and the book & e-text of the classic English translation.

So... What is "Dragon Energy"? The first and most powerful symbol in the I Ching is "Ch'ien," which means “THE CREATIVE” or “HEAVEN.” All six lines of 1. ䷀ Ch'ien > The Creative are unbroken, which makes it pure YANG, pure strength. It represents Dragon Energy.

Within each of us there is an inner flame and a whisper; a secret purpose, a true identity. It is the divine spark within you, a source of incredible power and energy - of lightning, wind and fire - which we can use to create or destroy. This is Dragon Energy.

You have dragon energy. A limitless source is within you. Every person who becomes great learns to tap into that source, and channel it. When you see a great artist paint, or a great dancer dance, or a great fighter fight, they are tapping into it. As I am writing now, I am tapping into it. Where else do the words come from? When you have an inspired idea, you are tapping into it. When you are far from your purpose, you feel drained of it. When you meet a kindred spirit; when you do your best work - you feel a surge of it.

Discover the dragon energy within you. Learn how to use it. Learn how it ebbs and flows. Draw upon it more and more every day. Overcome challenges with it. Express yourself with it. Transcend ordinary limits with it. Become great, cultivate yourself, challenge yourself.

The better you get at tapping into dragon energy, the more powerful you become. But power is always cautionary. Whereas the Western dragon is a symbol of darkness and greed, the Eastern dragon is a symbol of light and life. But both the Western and the Eastern dragons have something to teach us about ourselves. The Western dragons - Fafnir, the Midgard Serpent, Smaug - teach us what evil we are capable of if we lose control of our dragon energy. They are all immensely powerful, but their power has corrupted them, and they do great harm to others. In contrast, the Eastern dragons are happy, compassionate, divine beings who dance with the lightning in the springtime, raining down upon the earth their life-giving creative energy, dispensing higher wisdom, awesome power, and effortless victory to the noble, the valiant and the deserving... They teach us what good we can do when we learn not just to cultivate, but to harness and channel, our dragon energy.

Dragon energy is dangerous. This is not a game. I wouldn't be teaching you about it if I didn't trust you. But it is better to be awake than to be asleep. And I want you, I want us all, to be awake.

Remember, once you wake it up, the dragon inside you will always be looking to come out. It wants to roar, to explode... That can be destructive. Appropriate, constructive moments like that are rare - sometimes only once in a lifetime do we get to fully reveal our dragon energy. Most of the time we have to wait, to bide our time, to whisper. In times like that, we have to remind ourselves why we are here, to push ourselves to be patient, and to keep taking the next step. Sometimes all we have is the inner flame, the whisper, to keep us going. Only we can feel it, hear it. It is the name and fire of our secret purpose, our true identity. The shape of all that we desire and hold dear. In times like those, remember... The loudness of the dragon's roar comes from the quietness of this whisper.

I believe in this company. Not because of our cash, our technology, our business model, or even our strategy... but because of the spirit of our people. We have spirit. The spirit it takes to inspire, collaborate, build and win. The spirit it takes to make something beautiful and good. The greatness of the human spirit that overcomes all obstacles. We have that. Even though before today we might not have realized it, or wouldn't have called it by this name... we have Dragon Energy. And that is why I believe in us, and in you. Because I see that spirit in you.

Have you ever asked yourself... What is a "Company," really? I believe in this company because it is a Company, that is, it is a Person made up of Persons; a band of brothers and sisters, a group dedicated to achieving a mission, an aligned colossus, or what the I Ching would call Collective Force. That is... We are a Dragon made of dragons. And we gave this Dragon a name... We call it Invisible.