I have noticed that participants in the first cohort of the beta test of our Systemic Entrepreneurship course have trouble with "voids".

Black Hole [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Black_hole_-Messier_87_crop_max_res.jpg/260px-Black_hole-_Messier_87_crop_max_res.jpg pull source]

I am not surprised. I too have had troubles with voids.

When I chose to leave IBM in 2005 I created a massive void. It was a void I had felt briefly as a junior consultant. When a project finished there would be a period "on the bench" between projects. Others relished the opportunity to do very little and still get paid. I did for maybe 2 days and then the void would start to get to me. For this reason I organized my projects to have several ongoing at various stages of completion so I avoided the void.

But avoiding voids doesn't make them go away!

Who am I when in the void? What do I say when people ask me what I do? It is a place without labels. It is a place of discomfort. It is a place of not quite fitting in.

monthly emails sent over 5 years

Since 2005 I have struggled with huge voids. The voids leave me low in energy and I become very introverted and introspective. I built a model of the system driving my voids and that helped me to understand it. I discovered a good KPI for my energy is the number of emails I send per month. See the graph here....

Going solo exposes us to more voids. Being an entrepreneur means being solo for a time. It means that there is only us to generate work and deliver it and it means there will be periods of boom and bust.

An impartial supportive guide/mentor is very helpful. The void can be a lonely place. It is an empty place. A place seemingly without purpose.

Butterfly. [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Fesoj_-Papilio_machaon%28by%29.jpg/220px-Fesoj_-Papilio_machaon%28by%29.jpg pull source]

I have come to see the void as a place of transformation. It is like the chrysalis. It is a dark and confining place and it can feel like it will last forever as time too appears to slow down in the void. But imagine the freedom of flight that comes with escaping as a lighter free-er butterfly.

One common void we all seem to go through is the mid life crisis. I think it is a coming to terms with death and that life is finite. What do I do with the limited time I have remaining? Some seek to mask symptoms with medications and dark pleasures...many of which create new problems. This is a looking outside for a solution. Introspection and a re-evaluation of who we are and what we stand for is a more positive outcome.

Facing the void means we develop resilience and have the potential to become who we truly could be. Avoiding it means we remain in fear. The only way to overcome the void is not to.

When we have clarity of purpose all the prognostications disappear. Decisions become easy. The chrysalis disintegrates and we are free to fly.

YOUTUBE 0DG5c8tqhNY Transformation

See [[Wholeness in Systems]]. Alexander's 13th property of whole systems is "The void".

See [[Begin from Nothing]]