Our Human Capital ‒ Human Capital Optimized
- Brainz Magazine
- Jan 17, 2023
- 3 min read
Written by: John Scott, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Our human capital is all we really have. So, what are we going to do with it?
A friend asked me about the meaning of human capital. Here's an example.
When I was 15, I spent that summer in India coaching swimming at St. Joseph's School North Point in Darjeeling, India, at the invitation of my mother's cousin Bill, a Jesuit Priest who taught there. The school's motto is Sursum Corda, "Lift Up Your Hearts."
Bill made an appointment for me to meet Tensing Norgay at his office at the Darjeeling Mountaineering Institute. I entered his office, he sat at his desk, and I took the chair facing him.
Quiet confidence and understated nature.
We spoke for a while, but I remember his quiet confidence and understated nature more than what he said. He was a short man but had a powerful presence like it would be easy to believe he had climbed Mount Everest.
Subsequently, I met Edmund Hillary on two occasions in Toronto. Norgay and Hillary would never speak of which of them first reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29th, 1953. Hillary wrote some great books, a few I have; one is called "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win."
Two men fully optimized their skill, intuition, and physical and mental strength to do something no person had done before: bringing "it" all up the mountain and using all they had to stand on the summit together.
Growth is natural and expansive.
We each have collective resources: qualities, characteristics, strengths, perspectives, experiences, and aspirations. While it's good to know of our resources, it's best to use them or express them at the highest possible level. Like the ordinary meaning of capital, money, it's good to have it, but being held under a pillow doesn't do much good; fully utilizing it for growth is expansive.
And like leveraging money for higher gains, we can leverage our resources through cooperation and collaboration for more good.
Human capital is our collective resources and expressing them at the highest possible level and the ongoing introspection and learning that allows us to expand and optimize them for the good of all.
But sometimes, there is resistance or self-imposed thought barriers to realizing our full personal power. We owe it to our future selves to explore anything keeping us from higher levels on our mountain.
Lean into the wind, navigate skilfully around danger or crevasses and push on.
Roger Banister once said, "I knew I had sub-four minutes in me somewhere." We all know the voice, the calling, to be more of our best selves.
To be clear, it's a relative game. I'm not suggesting we have to climb a real mountain or run faster than anyone. Instead, we can optimize what we bring to the journey, then more learning, insight, and expansion: from wherever we are to better is best.
Like Jake doing backflips down the aisle in the Blues Brothers, fully embracing the "mission from God." We should accept that mission.
I love this quote from Mary Oliver, an American Poet that fits here, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life." Mary Oliver - Short Beautiful Poems
May your unique human capital be fully expressed at the highest possible level.
John Scott, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
John worked in sales and leadership in the financial industry for 30 years. For part of that time, he experienced a great deal of stress and didn't know the way back. As a result, John's health and well-being suffered. Becoming burnt out was the stimulus to wake up with a determination to do his life differently.
John began a private journey to understand and overcome the negative stress he was experiencing. He found a formula for sustainable performance he now shares to help people move through common challenges to experience more great and less grind.
John has completed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR, U. of Massachusetts), Foundations of Applied Mindfulness Meditation (U. of Toronto), and the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP, Flourishing Center, NY).
John's adventures include:
Climbing Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro.
Two dog sledding trips to the Canadian Arctic.
Two record-breaking swim crossings Lake Ontario (51km)
The first to swim from Christian Island to Collingwood, in Georgian Bay (32km).
John brings his experience in life, learning, and adventure to help people do life and work well through writing, speaking, and coaching.
