“Desire is possibility seeking expression” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is perhaps one of the most apt definitions of desire I have come across in my personal development journey. I stumbled on this quote in the book, Science of Getting Rich, and it’s a quote and a theme that has appeared quite frequently after that in my journey. Desire is possibility seeking expression or function seeking performance. This means that the desire that you have, is an indication of possibilities. You do not have the desire, if the thing that is desired is impossible. It might have been impossible to the world before you came, but once the desire is birthed in you, it triggers a vision or is triggered by one, and it only takes commitment and time.
Just recently I listened to an audio where the speaker was narrating the story of Bill Gates from an interesting mind lens. According to him, Bill Gates had a vision while he was in Harvard. He had a vision that one day, computers will be a household phenomena and that there will be operating systems running on them. Whether this was a vision he saw in the day or night is not clear, but there was something that he saw, heard or felt that came to him that made him believe such a future unseen possibility. Recollect, that the world vision ahead of that time, sponsored by the leader in the computer industry was captured in the quote below.
“I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.”-(Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948)
Bill Gates caught a glimpse of a possibility seeking expression, and that thought propelled him and his partner Paul Allen to drop out of arguably the worlds most prestigious university and to ultimately found Microsoft. I have read Bill Gates biography a number of times, I’m a fan of his in quite some regards. The concept of Bill Gates having insights into an unseen, and organizing his life to allow the unseen to have expression ala walking in faith got me to read some excerpts of his biography again. I decided to be Berean, and search out his story to see a trace of what guided him into being the richest man in the world for 15yrs+
Reading the story of Bill Gates again got me seriously amused. I read through a few of his online biographies, and read some of his speeches. I make bold to assert, that Bill Gates truly had a sensing of something that was meant to be, and plugged himself in the pathway of it. Now this is not about Bill Gates, this is about you, and about the desires that God has placed in your heart. The desires that you are currently not manifesting because society feels highly about your personal “Harvard”. Possibilities are seeking manifestation on the earth, there are functions that long to be performed, but some of those designed with the skills and temperaments to make them come to live are caged in glamorous institutional prisons. Many are shackled by the failures of the past, and are incapable of entering the future with accuracy. Just so that you don’t think I am building castles out of the bricks of my imagination, let’s together read some excerpts from the life of Bill Gates.
1. He sold the Invisible (His speech in Harvard)
2. The ventured into the unknown with faith (www.youngenterpreneur.com)
As teenagers, Gates and Allen decided that the possibility of every household and business to have a computer was both a realistic and a desirable goal, which they could work to achieve. “Microsoft was a dream Paul Allen and I had about what software could become – the idea that you could buy PCs from many different hardware companies and yet they would all run the same software,” says Gates.
Despite the vast implications of their vision – that the entire IT industry would have to be restructured – Gates and Allen did not seemingly know just how much of an impact they were going to have. “Not that we had any clear view that it would ever be a large business, but I had to pay these friends that I had hired,” recalls Gates. But, they fearlessly approached their vision, entering into the unknown.
Guided by a belief that the personal computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers.
3. It wasn’t about the popularity of the Vision – Nobody needs to agree. (Time Magazine)
Pretty soon Gates and Allen twigged that there was a bigger game going on, even bigger than Harvard. “We’d agreed the microprocessor was going to change the world,” Gates remembers. “It was weird that people didn’t see that.” A Popular Mechanics cover story about an early personal computer called the Altair was what doomed Gates’ career at Harvard. “The thing that Paul and I had been talking about happening was happening,” he says, “and we’re sitting there going, Oh, no, it’s happening without us!” Gates had realized that there was a future in writing and selling software for personal computers. It was one of the great technology and business insights of the century.
He spent a few minutes talking about the biggest change he sees coming to the world of computers. In a familiar pitch, Gates said he envisions software that can interact with us on more human levels by recognizing our voices, our faces and hand gestures. Equipped with cheap digital cameras, computers will someday have sight. You’ll someday be able to put a digital camera on your coffee table and have pictures automatically displayed. “Right now we use the keyboard and mouse,” he said. “We’ll finally be able to compliment that with a natural user interface.”
He sees interactive tablet PCs replacing textbooks and notebooks in schools. Students will call up everything they need on their tablet PCs and write everything directly on the screen to be stored there. His daughter’s school, he said, is already using this technology. But, for most schools, the cost of the new computers will not come down enough to be a reasonable alternative to traditional textbooks for another two to four years, he predicted.
Once we are clear on the fundamentals, now back to you? What desire is strong in your heart and seeking manifestation? Where is your Harvard that provides you with the brand that keeps you bound? What is your Traf-o-Data (the company that Bill Gates and Paul Allen first owned) that is giving you the leverage of experience (good or bad) to step into your dreams?
Possibilities are seeking expression through you, but guess what, just like it almost happened to Bill Gates, it can happen without you. Are you aligned? Are you tuned? Are you going for it, or allowing it to jump and pass?
