Time and Place

Just as you made a conscious decision to read The Art of Office War, there is an ‘affirmative pro-active exuberance’ in you to get serious. So let’s get one thing straight: Illusions of grandeur will not do. There are many men who would rather have lived as Napoleon; there are many women who think they are Cleopatra. People reach a deluded point sometime in their lives, and decide it is time to do something proactive. They want to get ahead, move up, and understand what goes on. These are admirable thoughts, and thoughts can become action. But the fact is, the majority of people can only move so far within their environment.

This is a sobering predicament, which might lead you into thinking that you are a slave to world history or a mere pawn in a corporate shuffle. Yet, because you are in it, no matter how miniscule you actually are, you are riding on the wave of time in one sea that may lead to another ocean. There is an optimistic future out there open to you, but it is in the future. You can’t read anything concrete about it; we can read history and transplant ourselves back to lavish or worse times, but the future is plain scary and that’s where you have to position yourself. Many people are stuck in the past, a few in the present, but the true masters of their own time see into the future. They can afford to be wrong most of the time, but sometimes they will get it right at the right time. And they will prosper.

The future influences the present just as much as the past

– Friedrich Nietzsche

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