Non-trivial Problem? Work Hard.
Recently, I had a 10.5-hour session with an entrepreneur. Throughout, my focus was solely on the client. But such intensity comes at a cost. The following day, I feel off, like I'm unwell. The natural question arises, "Is this really necessary?"
I remember a book by Mircea Eliade, the historian of religions and ethnographer. He observed that when a shaman finishes a shamanic ritual, he is completely exhausted. It's no easy task searching for a lost soul in the afterlife. I also recall the shamans undergoing ayahuasca ceremonies in the jungles of Peru. Every night, they toiled like peasants in harvest-time.
For me, it's easier because I offer help in the real world. At the intersection of business and personal matters, as one client put it. Still, the problems that founders come to me with are far from ordinary. There's no ready-made template that can help here. Instead, several methods should be used simultaneously. Thus it becomes possible to see the contours of the problem and then describe its essence.
As the philosopher Eugene Gendlin wrote, "In order to ask our questions of the concretely experienced trouble itself we must go to it. We must pause and let it come in more. We must sense it clearly. We must touch it, tap at it, and wait for it to open and answer our questions." Like solving a Buddhist koan, in the moment of enlightenment (satori), everything becomes crystal clear. But first, we must become one with the question, and that's a colossal work.
