Preface. I used to think that unsolicited advice was offered only by those who really had nothing to draw from. The givers were just self-centered creatures who did not know their limitations. They felt a compulsion to instruct others based on books, not on facts, or from experiences. Age has changed all that for me. I know my limitations, but as limited as they are, nobody has ever once told me that I am a lousy thinker or a poor writer. Besides, my time is running short. So if you find my thoughts hard to swallow, let me at least entertain you. Laughter is also good for the soul. With that said, here is what I have learned about one aspect of life in the trenches.

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Setting public and educational institutions aside, corporate life is a huge shark tank in which you must out-swim the sharks or be eaten alive. Therefore, when you dive into their waters on their terms, without preparation, you are a goner. Corporations make no allowances based on cunning, daring, smarts, or even brilliance. Employment-at-will is the operative term. In the great majority of states your employment can be terminated for any reason, or no reason at all. To survive, they say, you must be a “team player”; you cannot “rock the boat.” You will be required to look the other way when someone is cheated out of a raise or a promotion, or lied to, or fired unjustly. You will find that promotions are the result of obedience and servitude; they rarely follow excellence for achievements beyond the call of duty. Expect to be scorned and ridiculed for deviation from their norms. Your contributions will soon become the ill-gotten possession of someone high above you, You will find that a “team” player is really code for loyalty, and sucking up, and keeping your mouth shut about lies, cheating, and stealing. Original thinking is discouraged unless you agree to give up all rights and title to the company or to someone who had nothing to do with your efforts at all. Your political views will be tested to assure they follow those at the top. Expect to hear praise only for empty-headed ideologies at all times. Mavericks on any level are discouraged. Conformance is required and it is conditioned on the goals and the aspirations of the team’s captain. Individualism is frowned upon at every turn. Do not show that your talents are far above those around you. Dress down with cheap, poorly fitting clothing. It makes those above you look better. Do not speak in complete sentences, or give lengthy or articulate responses to anyone lest your thoughts and vocabulary make you sound too wise. You must always smile when your superiors smile, laugh when they tell bad jokes, and swoon when their children show they can walk and chew gum at the same time. Learn how to pretend that you are a racist, a bigot, and a homophobic; and that you are a ready and willing receptacle for lies and stupid thinking. And always put your leader on a throne, or at least a pedestal. Pretend to be his/her brainwashed lemming at all times, with your head bowed. Follow your leader to the gates of hell—and beyond. It is a soul-less existence, and one that does not permit innovation or individualism.

But...what if you want to be a decent, honorable person? What then can you do?

Acknowledge that life is a challenge, but not impossible. Employment in education or government at any level can also be ruthless, but it is much more difficult to be fired. Corporate life is different. Unless you were born into wealth, you must go it alone. You will need to scale back your personal needs and your expectations from others. So be it. Expect less—if you want to live the life you have imagined. Follow your own moral compass toward your own guiding star. Adopt a few virtues that define your soul. If you believe in kindness, caring, loving, understanding, tolerance, and forgiving—live them. Your savings will dwindle. Your friends will drift away. Unemployment will greet you often. There will be few travelers on this road less taken. But you will know the souls of your kindred spirits when you meet then. They are your team players. Along with sporadic pay, you will find more joy, more comfort, more understanding from them that you ever imagined. Remember: The richest person is not the one with the most, but the one who needs the least.

Study. Become the best informed person at what you do because you owe it first, to yourself, but also to all those around you. Just don’t be a show-off about it. Learn to sing, to dance, or how to play a musical instrument. Learn another language. They all put your soul on display. Learn how to smile. Nothing conquers half as well as a glowing face. If it takes self-employment with a push-cart to live the life you’ve imagined, push on.

Find a mentor from the past to fall back on. Socrates is one of mine. Galileo is another. Joan of Arc is a third, and Carl Sagan is my most recent. Shakespeare told us “to thine own self, be true ,” a courageous and brilliant bit of advice. Read Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If.” It is pure honesty rolled up into a bundle of stunning advice. Every line is a gem. Ask yourself when you ever read a concluding verse to any composition as meaningful and as powerful as this:

                    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
                    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
                    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
                    and—which is more—you will be a man, my son!

This poem, alone, is worth the Nobel Prize, which, by the way, he was awarded. He is my literary mentor from the past, so I will not enter into his domain. Claude DeBussy’s “Claire de Lune” is such a magical and soothing musical compositions that it must have come from Heaven. I will leave my readers to find others that inspire them.

Think of life as a very long treadmill, with an incline that gets a bit steeper and steeper to traverse as you age. It doesn’t. Your muscles just get weaker. But do not focus on whether you think you are making progress. That is not important. What is important is that you always continue onward, at your own the pace, and you do not take your eye off your guiding star. That is who you are. That is your destiny! And that is enough. A life well-lived is a retrospective better left to others to comment on.

A great summary of life was handed to us by William E. Henley in his poem, Invictus: “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the the captain of my soul.”