Who they are
Lao Tzu is traditionally regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching, a book of short poems containing nuggets of golden ancient wisdom.
What they do
Continue to influence modern thinking and philosophy towards life.
What turning point was for me after knowing them
Strengthened my belief in an abundant universe (”the ten thousand things”). Helped me adapt a leadership style appropriate for working in China. Some excellent advice such as ‘govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish’ and (I paraphrase) a great leader is the one whose people say they did all the great deeds of that time. This advice helped me shape my facilitative approach to leadership which has helped me grow my business across China.
Why grateful
The lessons of the past are still relevant today. Even a quick read of the Tao Te Ching brings out some lovely wisdom. For example:
The greatest man is like water, water helps all other things to grow and doesn’t compete with them. The ocean becomes the ocean because it can accept any river running to it since its always at downstream (W: meaning it always keeps a low profile, which matches Chinese culture: be humble).
Water is the most flexible things in the planet, but it can overcome the hardest thing, so that’s why something which looks very weak could be very strong. (W: this is a common theme in Chinese thinking. Don’t underestimate something which appears weak or vulnerable).
Water doesn’t have a shape, that’s why it can overcome seamless barriers. Bruce Lee said: water doesn’t have any shape, but when it goes into the cup, it becomes the shape of the cup, when it goes into a bottle, it becomes the shape of bottle. (W: be flexible, adapt to your environment).
I have the David Hinton translation found here. Thanks also for Bill Wang for providing the inspiration and text for this article.