José was a Mexican boy who worked the cropped with his family along what they call “the California Circuit”, the route the many Mexican families would follow to grow the crops within the Golden State. He hadn’t learned English until he was twelve years old, but he’d shown interest for science and engineering.
As a high school senior, he found himself working at the crops near Stockton, CA. One day, as he was watering a row of sugar beets, he heard on his transistor radio the news that would impact him for the rest of his life: Franklin Chang Díaz, had been selected for the NASA Astronaut Corps, thus becoming the first Latino in the United States to achieve that (Note: the first Latin and African Latin American to go to space was Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez in 1980).
The young campesino ("farmworker") raised his sights to a whole new perspective, even to new horizons. His sights expanded beyond the conditions that surrounded him. José describes this enlightening occasion in simple terms: “[At] that moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’”
That event carried Jose Moreno Hernandez to pursue a career in Engineering and eventually become part of the crew of NASA’s STS - 128 Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
What could possibly cause a teenage Mexican crop worker to see himself in space, overcome all the obstacles in his life, and eventually become an astronaut?
One particular concept comes to mind: Vision.
VISION, WHAT IS IT?
From a leadership perspective, one could define vision as: The conception of scenarios not present at the moment.
Is it the same as 'Perception'?
In the leadership context Perception differs from Vision. Perception is seeing things as they currently are or seem to be. It implies having an accurate insight into what is already happening in one’s context. Perception is giving an eye to reality and developing an idea of the current processes occurring. By force, Perception deals in the present.
Vision is not about what is happening, but about what can happen. It’s about imagining scenarios and destinations. It deals in the future.
Can Perception Generate Vision?
Most certainly.
The way we perceive things can affect how we envision them in the future.
Hopefully, our perception is a deep, wholesome, and accurate one. The better we understand what's around us, the clearer our vision can become. Similarly, I'd like to make the point that if we're trying to understand the present better (Perception), in order to have a better glimpse of the future (Vision), we should also look at our past and see how we got to wherever it is that our company, team, family or selves arrived here (History).
Pitfalls of Perception
When we're going through a rough patch in our lives, it's quite easy to hyperbolize the adverse factors around us and assume that they'll produce only failure in our enterprises. Thus, our vision can be blanketed with negative outcomes. The vision of what's to come can become unavoidably bleak (and even false, if I may be so bold in saying).
Going to the other extreme, when our brains are riding on pure dopamine, we might be feeling like 'there's no way that anything can go wrong today!'. We might become blind and unprepared for whatever challenges might arise down the road. What should be a healthy dose of optimism then becomes sloppiness and even recklessness. This, of course, isn't going to conduce to obtaining an accurate, realistic, or even healthy vision.
These two extremes can remind us that despite our good and sincere intentions, perception can still be flawed at its least, and erroneous at its worst.
If you don't believe me, check out this figure by mathematician Kokichi Sugihara:
The idea, then, is to perceive accurately, so we can have a clearer vision of what to expect. To be honest, Mi Gente, as I write this, I think it's rather pretentious of me to tackle an issue like pursuing accurate perception. After all, perceiving accurately is perceiving what is true, in other words, distinguishing truth from error. And this in itself is what many philosophers, scientists, religious figures and others have pursued for centuries. I'll try my best here.
Discernment
Interestingly, while doing research for this article I Googled the term "Vision". To my amazement, the top hit was this concept:
“HALLUCINATION: Seeing something that doesn’t exist.”
Vision is something different. It is something that we know is not there yet but is possible in the future. It’s not deluding ourselves about the existence of an object. It is perceiving what can be accomplished and obtained. Not isolating us from what's real. It's looking in the realm of possibilities. The quest then is discerning what's true from what is not.
The pursuit of truth represents a challenge for us mortals, given our finite knowledge, our limited ability to perceive and our propensity to misinterpret what is shown before us. Furthermore, when we don't keep our moral compass in check, we might be persuaded to follow rather perverse tendencies. Men with an evil nature (and powerful charisma) can distort our beliefs and convince us that moral vices like hating other human beings is not only acceptable, but worthy of pursuit.
Their vision, though convincing, is a corrupting one, and one can fall victim to it. I think the clearest evidence of this that we could have seen in our recent history, is an explicit and evil vision in writing by the name of Mein Kampf.
Let us be vigilant of a vision that dehumanizes others. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that it's ok to do that because they are, act, feel, or believe something we don't.
Compassion is the way
Gratefully, the ideals of respect, brotherly love, and kindness were taught to me by my family and culture. And I ultimately believe that any vision that distances us from such ideals is simply not worth pursuing and even avoidable. May our hearts dissuade us from the misleading and very loud voices of hatred that are alive and kicking today.
To continue in the honest streak, I strongly rely on a higher power to help me with perceiving things accurately and truthfully (but I don't perceive anyone as inferior if they don't). Others have found a clear vision and purpose this way. Allow me to illustrate. This example is faith-based, but even if you're not a believer (and it's ok if you're not), please take it at least as the story of someone whose human spirit allowed him to adopt a powerful vision that led to success.
A Visionary in Denmark
It was 1934 and in a small town in Denmark called Billund, a master carpenter called Ole had just lost his wife to illness and struggled to feed his four boys. Ole was a skillful and diligent toymaker, and at the time was making mostly wooden yo-yo's that frankly were not paying the bills. His creditors had sent lawyers after him, and his family and friends approached him for ‘not doing anything useful’.
Ole, however was a devout Christian and persisted in prayer for guidance and support. He describes his ordeal in beautiful language:
“I was sitting there one night brooding on all the setbacks I’d been through... What should I do? It felt as though help was so far away that it could never reach me in time.
And then something wonderful happened, something I will never forget. As I thought in a vision, I saw a large factory where busy people were bustling in and out, where raw materials were brought in and finished goods dispatched.
The image was so clear that I never again doubted I would one day reach my goal: it was a factory that today is a reality. I’m certain that it’s God who gives us visions like that… The God that I learned to believe as a child.”
I really loved the wording that Ole used here. By the way, his full name was Ole Kirk Christiansen, and the factory he was referring to in his vision, is the company we know today as the LEGO Group.
Personal Diligence
Now, I did say that I strongly rely on a higher power to help me with perceiving things accurately and truthfully. But please, notice that in my wording I used the word "strongly", not "exclusively".
By this I mean that along with obtaining knowledge by faith, we, humans, have the capacity (and frankly, the responsibility) to strive for what is truth by using logic, engaging in research, obtaining clues, seeing different ideas and approaches to a problem, challenging assumptions, testing hypothesis, experimenting, coming up with sound conclusions. If this is sounding like science and study, I'm glad, because it's exactly what I'm referring to, Mi Gente.
This is unavoidably going to increase the chance of obtaining an accurate perception. Our vision will be clearer once we do our due diligence and strive for knowledge.
