Invisible Handcuffs

Brian Sroub

When I was a boy, I was told I would be rewarded for hard work, a good education, and the conscientious application of my skills. I think I did work hard, and I did try to apply my skills in pursuit of virtuous acts, but the reward all too often seemed to be a mugging and a swift kick in the ass. I was raised in an educated middle class home with aspirations to move up the ladder. I had opportunities to become a millionaire. The one time I did so came when I lost a political battle in a Silicon Valley company during a bull cycle in the stock market and was forced to exercise my options within 90 days.

In moments of contrition I ask, did I fritter away my teeny fortune, going back to the casino table one time too many? Was I trying for an even bigger fortune, or was that when my real contributions began? I consider my contributions.

• When I had chips, I put them down on meaningful technology improvements. In transportation we cross-fertilized Silicon Valley data architectures into transportation management systems and ERP applications. This is undeniably saving billions in resources, reducing demands on the world’s overtaxed roads, and connecting people more easily.
• We have e-commerce and the Internet, a more informed way to learn, acquire, and connect all over the world.
• LED lighting will eradicate unwanted darkness and reduce the need to burn fossil fuel.
• We have PDA cell phones.
• The world is now able to diagnose infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, and STDs less expensively and more reliably. This especially helps 80% of the population that lives in the developing world.
• In the developed world we have our own demons. Humans may have evolved from slime, lizards, and apes, but we still share many properties of those ancestors. We still hoard food in anticipation of famine. We become extraordinarily anxious when faced with perceived threats, bringing on self-made plagues of obesity, diabetes, anxiety, depression, and various kinds of neurotic coping behaviors and addictions. In my own small way, I helped build wellness tools to alleviate those afflictions.
• A proliferation of horticulture products make homes more breathable.
• Our pet population is better cared for than ever before. I love my dogs.

I claim some credit for my hand in each of those developments. Many will say that those innovations would have happened anyway, without me. Perhaps that is true, but historically some feasible and obvious developments did not happen for centuries after they were theoretically possible. For example, the technology for indoor plumbing had been around for thousands of years before it was broadly implemented in the nineteenth century. Indoor plumbing improved – and saved –millions of lives by providing better hygiene and creature comfort.

Innovation advances the human condition. The creative act itself is a communion with the higher power, which gives the innovator a brief glimpse of the face of god and our own collective higher potential.

Each creative act elevates the human race toward a loftier plane, even if some of those acts only serve to introduce better weapon systems. Violence and pain appear to be part of the deal.

The innovators push to find a better world, rather than trying to pamper themselves in the imperfect world.

We have with the crazy belief that each creative act brings us a little further along to a place where maybe – just maybe – everyday pain will be replaced by everyday happiness.

Lastly, I think of family. Jennifer and I have brought a few more good people in the world. Through thick and thin, we have loved each other, and we have released three children into this world to fight the good fight. Two are still healthy and making their own way in this world. One is helping from above.

At this point, I do not have a yacht or any private jets at my disposal. My body often aches, and my joints are sore. But I have so many memories, so many stories, so many things I am profoundly glad that I did and am still doing.

“You see, George, you’ve really had a wonderful life.”
— Clarence the angel, It’s a Wonderful Life