The Assumption of Good Will

The founders of the first software company I worked for were geniuses. They had a good technology, strong corporate partners, and excellent visionary skills; the standard kit for executives starting-up new companies. They also had a guiding principal which has proven to be one of the most powerful practices ever to enter a board room. This principal they called 'The Assumption of good will.'
Over my 20+ year career in software, working at 4 different start-ups, and given the opportunity to watch how many of our customers and colleagues treated each other, I grew to appreciate how lucky I had been in my career life. I went from a super-political, gossipy Fortune 100 company to the world of really smart people, all of whom were too intelligent and humble to ever feel the need to brag, over-exert any control that they might perceive they had over anyone else. All of us were secure in our knowledge set, willing to share it whenever asked by anyone, and unbelieving that anyone as brilliant as our co-workers could possibly be puzzled by what we did. Real, honest-to-goodness trust and respect were the norm, and anyone not on board with the prevailing corporate culture stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb, and tended to move on fairly quickly.

The genius of those first two founders was not only the practice, standards generated, and rewards-a-plenty from their good-will policy. They took it a step further in making it a requirement for employment at their company. So, they gave those not accustomed to their corporate culture a chance to learn how to adapt and fit in. I came from such a different environment as prior to my foray into the Corporate World, I worked, albeit briefly, on Wall Street for a Venture Capital firm run by 2 extremely wealthy, strong-willed twins whose dad had previously had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and basically put them in business. I discovered that wealth was not the end-all and be-all of my world as the personalities associated with that environment were some of the meanest, greediest, most dishonest people I have ever met. Something always had a subtext, money was power, period. It drove me to drugs and inches away from taking my own life. I have always been one to experience things to learn about them as I was and am still a firm believer that experience is the greatest teacher. It's a shame they don't give out doctorate degrees for experiencing the actualities of what they teach or fail to teach in graduate schools. 

Now, I have tried to extend this practice in all of my life with disappointing results. Getting sober - really sober was the first and essential 'STEP'(oh I just hate that word 'step' sometimes) to cleaning up my own behavior. I admit, it has been very difficult to ween out things like sarcasm and judgment from my personal practice, although tolerance of those things in myself gets shorter by the day. Dishonesty, one of my most frequent lapses has surprisingly become quite easy for me as I have discovered the true freedom it offers me. I take myself out of occasions where lying is an option, and because I really don't feel like I have anything to hide anymore, I tell the truth. I have learned - again the hard way - that truthfulness is not the road to popularity. It's simply not worth it to me to 'get anything' if I have to lie about it. I have also learned that telling some people the truth - to their face - and thinking that they understand that I have no reason to lie to them is frequently a big mistake as many people that I encounter as an advocate for the rights of HIV Positive People, Seniors, and the Disabled are constantly in information control status. Just laying one's cards on the table is threatening to many more people than I ever imagined.

It is a self made hell one creates when everyone is suspect of 'something'.

The reason I have gone into this topic is my disappointment and frustration with people who marginalize and discount disabled people, especially older disabled people. I have lived in a wide variety of housing types including home ownership, market rate rental apartments, apartments supposedly specially appointed for seniors and disabled folks, and various room mate situations which I don't really count as my own housing. It is remarkable to me just how much malfeasance finds it's way into the affordable housing process especially when it is targeted for disabled folks. I just don't get it.

So, if you ever find yourself in charge of any group of people, big or small, and you think that an environment where everyone realizing that they are all in the same situation - working toward a common goal - would benefit by everyone being on each others team, so to speak, and truly wanting the best for each and every other person in the endeavor, then try it. Mandate 'The assumption of good will'. And mandate it in a way that allows for anyone who simply can't work that way to move on with no hard feelings and a good referral.

When this actually works, it blows you away. There is always the risk that all of your colleagues will turn against you and your new age, lovey-dovey pinko commie ideas, and you will be the one that needs to leave. I'm just sayin......

Day 2 as promised - uggh.

well About that Demerol thing - I am a cocaine addict - in recovery - haven't used in over 12 years - and, Yes my life completely changed for the better once I stopped using. I have been to so many treatment centers and been inundated with all sorts of recovery information, so much, in fact, that if you totalled the number of hours I spent in classroom like groups over the years, I have amassed PhD level expertise in addiction, brain chemistry, neurophysiology, disease and recovery.
At first, I didn't even know why such a big deal was being made of the whole thing - I just went to these places like 'The Meadows', Betty Ford, Brentwood AA and Beverly Hills AA and sundry other in patient places where - plus or minus 20%, they all had the same message. I didn't get sober until I stopped going to anything - including AA, because it didn't make sense to me to waste everyone's time and effort - especially mine - as long as I was still secretly fantasizing about using.
When I finally - and I mean finally was ready, it just happened. I remember in my 5th year, I was at home and looked at the clock and it said 5:30 - that was the time every day that the craving would start and I would start scheming about the when, where, and how I was going to start the routine involved in getting loaded. So, at 5:30, that day, I wasn't even thinking about it. It blew me away. I just felt normal and did normal things - wow! What a relief.

I called a couple of friends that put up with my craziness during my using and when the first one answered the phone,  I yelled 'Its fuckin 5:30 - can you believe it???' He replied 'well congratulations, you can tell time - when did that happen....what a revelation.' I then explained what I was talking about, and being a good AA Zealot, he said - ' I haven't seen you at a meeting in a while.' And so it goes. My reason for this digression is that I knew that IV Demerol was so wrong for me that I can't express how unfortunate it was that there were no other options, and that I had to get it every day for 5 months. It led to an awful and thankfully my last relapse. Now, I intellectually should forget what I am about to say, but I am not yet ready to do that - In AA and therapy groups, people will say at times 'well, nobody held you down while they injected that stuff in your veins - it was your choice.' I think you probably know where I am going with this - it was an unfortunate situation that thankfully God determined I could recover from. This was the beginning of my committed belief in God having a purpose for me and that I had work to do.

What does all of this have to do with long term survival?

It is an example of why getting sober has been essential, along with God's grace, to my continued survival. I was not a God person most of my life, in fact, I still hesitate a nanosecond before saying the word. I was raised in the empirical world of scientific proof. I had to have so many examples where if something hadn't been in my corner, I wouldn't be here. Now I think it is just part of me.

I came from a family of helpers. I was the kid in the neighborhood who, instead of getting candy on Halloween, I carried that orange cardboard coin bank and when people answered their door, I would say 'trick or treat for UNICEF'. During the last 14 years, I enjoyed the hospitality of Cedars Sinai Medical Center for over 70 of my 82 operations. I am using the word enjoyed quite loosely. For most of that time - as many of the operations involved my spine, I was legally disabled and living on SSDI.
My issues, except for a couple of comas, were physical, not mental. As I got farther and farther away from my last hit of cocaine, my mind got clearer and clearer - and as I have a pretty fertile mind, If I hadn't had volunteering, the HIV Commission, Disability Board, etc - I would not have survived. Helping others - which had the pleasant side effect of taking my self centered mind off of me for a change, is how I have found and still find purpose in life.  There is more - much much more. - tomorrow.

How I have survived (I think) for so long - part 1

Its been a while since my last entry - I have made a pledge to myself to be a daily messenger from here on in, or at least until blogs have been superseded by some 'newer better' thing, as happens often in this world. 

I want to start talking about what I think has kept me alive this long. Some of these factors are of a spiritual/internal nature - others quite the opposite - although everything ties together.

For me, when I had to stop my career work, I was at the pinnacle of my career in A.I. involved software start-ups, and had started my dream job 3 months before I was forced onto paid medical leave because as the COO (a former wall street attorney who was so miscast in his role)put it - 'Jim we like you here - you have a job here - you will always have a job here, but you are scaring the other employees and I am putting you on 3 months paid leave - now go home.' I felt like I had just faced the firing squad. I did not trust this person and I felt like I was abandoning my dream. I had a lot of inside work that still needed doing.
To tell the rest of this story has taken a chapter in my never-ending memoir draft. What I can say is that I should have just let the job be and taken care of myself. Instead, I tried to manage the world around me (that never works) and I almost killed myself. I had faced little illnesses in the past - but this time I faced a fungal sinus infection (Aspergillis) that was 1mm away from breaking through to my brain. I survived 5 months of daily 4 hr Amphoteracin infusions - in the old days when you saw a bag or bottle of Ampho - which is a thick electric yellow fungicide that barely kills the fungus before the host - above someone's hospital bed, chances were that the next time you would see that person would be at their memorial.
Why/How did I survive? 
First - I never felt that sick - it just felt like a persistent cold - but not like death was even in the realm of possibilities. I literally told myself  - out loud - in private - every morning, that I simply wasn't dying. As much as I could, I led my life as if I didn't have a PICC line in at all times nor had to drag a pump around to hydrate me between doses - I went to restaurants, the gym - had to leave the pump at home for that, shopping, and driving. Admittedly, since the protocol requires 50-150mg a day of IV Demerol as pre and post medication, a couple of times I should not have been behind the wheel. The good news is that I made it through. Also, not giving a hoot about and judgement I received or trying to look good allowed me to be ill and heal. I learned a lot about myself then.
So, I guess if there is a lesson here, of course take what works for you, for me it goes like this. 
Act as if illness is just one of those challenges that are part and parcel of long term survival. Names tend to scare me at first blush, but trusting my feelings was my big lesson. Adhering to prescribed medical protocols is crucial.

I am going to stop here. I do want to say that I had plenty of examples of friends who would catastrophise everything and look to blame someone. Those people, most of whom are no longer with us, seemed very unhappy and looked sickly. I don't judge them - we do what we can with challenges that are as all encompassing as AIDS can be. I just tried something different and it worked and works for me.

More blowing out of my windbag tomorrow!