Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Because ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters.’ Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour. This week I bring to your attention another excerpt which we have titled – Future – Crisis – Friendship from the book titled ‘Uncharted’ – How to Map the Future Together by Margaret Heffernan. In her bold and invigorating book, Margaret Heffernan explores the individuals, organizations and mindsets that aren’t daunted by uncertainty but seize the challenge of making the future for them-selves and explores answers to these questions, how can we think about the future? What do we need to do – and who do we need to be?  Future – Crisis – Friendship Suddenly the future is here. We experiment, explore and aim high, but life can prove more inventive than we are and, in an instant, we are shocked into a crisis: of identity or endurance or survival. However much we are prepared to make the future, it sometimes arrives too soon, too fast and threatens to make or break us. Knowing you are in a crisis is essential to surviving one. Routine responses – layoffs, cost-cutting, exhortations to work harder – breed cynicism, division and contempt. To define a future no one can see yet requires radical imagination. When time is tight and money is running out, a company can’t afford binary choices; it needs lots of options. But, under pressure, thinking often becomes even more constrained and hackneyed, rigid with fear. Friendship is a topic rarely talked about in the upper echelons of business, but it should be. Nobody survives these crises alone. Survivors have friends: people not necessarily in the business but who know what it’s like, what it means, people who have only each other’s best interests at heart. These relationships aren’t transactional, they’re not networking. Some leaders refer to their friends as their ‘north star’, others as the bridge between intellect and character. What gets people through crises and into the future is each other. Excerpt from ‘Uncharted’ by Margaret Heffernan I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link: http://www.mheffernan.com/book-uncharted.php        Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s. Namaste! a class="a2a_button_email" href="https://www.addtoany.