In The Lord of the Rings (the book, not the film), there's a part in the hobbit's early journey through The Shire, one night, where they meet a troop of travelling elves.
Remember that the elves are the superior beings, the clever ones, the magical ones, the mysterious ones.
The Hobbits are just the jobbing lads wandering through the Shire, big hairy feet, very small farmers, really.
In the conversation with Sam (one of the hobbits), one of the elves suggests it's impossible to tell the hobbits apart. He says to Sam, "I'm sure to sheep, other sheep look different."
Lord of the Rings has many extraordinary quotes, metaphors and symbols, which is probably why so many people like it (it's certainly why I like it), but there is none any less powerful than this.
I am absolutely sure to sheep, other sheep look different, and I'm absolutely sure to sheep, lots of elves probably look the same, and so this demonstrates the issue around worldview.
I grew up in my formative years in the 1980s, really, so for you guys who did as well, you'll understand what I'm talking about, but for you guys who didn't and who were after that, it's probably hard to imagine.
I grew up in a world where my parents didn't have tonnes of money, where we would go out in the morning on the weekend and be out for hours and not come back, and then come back late, and they wouldn't know where we were, and they might be cross if we got home late. They couldn't trace us or track us, couldn't see where we were, didn't know what we were doing or who we were doing it with.
I grew up in a world where I didn't have a lot of money, so I had to work to earn money, and when I look back, I had many jobs, starting off working at my dad's garage for a few pence here or there, and then a paper run which lasted for years and got progressively more complex, and then in a cafe that sold ice cream and coffee, and then waiting tables and then doing breakfast in a hotel and ultimately working in Tesco for 4.5 years packing shelves and on the checkout.
It is an extraordinarily different world to the one which many people I know grew up in who are now in dentistry or in other parts of life and an extraordinarily different set of eyes to see an extraordinarily different set of circumstances which clearly infected and curated my worldview.
And so, as I now look at people who are in their twenties, who grew up after the millennium, I can't possibly understand the way they see the world because their formative years were just a minute ago when they had massive access phones and developing AI and social media and a completely different way of learning and a completely different world to live in. I should understand that at all times.
There was an astonishing article in The Telegraph this week where people were mourning the inability to coach the Gen Z's.
They had discussed things with Eric Ten Hag, the former manager of Manchester United, who expressed real concerns as to whether he might not be able to coach young footballers anymore because they just didn't understand what it was like to be told what to do (despite the wages). So clearly the world has changed, and world views have changed.
I was reminded, though, of an evening in our peer review last year when Chris Barrow came to speak to the group. One of the people was bemoaning the new worldview of the Gen Z's or the millennials or whatever the generations are called, I can't really get that right, and they said to him, "It's just not the same, they don't want to work hard, they're terrible, it's awful, it's all dim and grey".
Chris's response was extraordinary because he went through his children and the traumas and the troubles that they'd been through and listed what they were doing now. It was quite inspirational, and then he said to the delegate, "If I can find 5 in my five children, I'm sure you can find someone that can work in your practice".
It's not that people with your worldview aren't there; it's probably that you're just not looking hard enough to find them.
We're all weird, as Seth Godin said, and we all have tribes.
Go and find your tribe.
It might be sheep, but it might be elves.
It doesn't matter, they're there.
Blog Post Number - 4118
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