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Human Action Ambition, Ability and Achievement Finding and Using the Passion Inside
© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.
These pages contain the complete text of Human Action, public speaking
trainer Elliot Essman's philosophy of human achievement.
Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
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We have a lot to learn from beer—even if we never drink any of it.As he brews, so shall he drink. Humans have brewed beer and beer-like beverages since the beginning of civilization. They've viewed brewing as an art, as a science, even as a religious activity. In addition to the definition of “brew” as a verb to describe making beverages and as a noun to describe those beverages, the word's figurative meaning shows something is about to happen: “A storm is brewing.” The word “brew” is related to the English words “bread,” “broth” and “breed.” Bread, like beer, is a complex biological project molded by humans. Broth is a rich nutritious soup. Breeding is, of course, an activity that requires both biological energy and human nurturance. Brewing is an excellent example of human integration in action. The brewer takes a mechanical, biological process and uses human ingenuity to direct its progress. Many types of yeasts exist in nature; the air is filled with them. If you filled a barrel with wet grain and put something sweet into it and left it alone, wild yeasts would eventually attack the grain, eat the sugar, and turn it into alcohol. It would smell awful and you'd throw it out. But put a skilled brewer into the equation and you get a more interesting product. The history of beer is a lot like the history of human innovation, so it's worth a look: Step One: Our ancestors discover the process of fermenting grains by leaving them out in the sun. Sometimes the stuff comes out and sometimes it doesn't. Arguments break out between those who say that we should accept whatever we get, and others who have innovative ideas. Step Two: The innovators slowly win out. They use a human integration approach that involves both static and kinetic thinking. When something works they codify it into a static rule, but they keep on innovating and experimenting to get better beer. They start to control the temperature of the brewing process, the duration. They produce their own special brewer’s yeasts and keep the brewing beer protected from damaging wild yeasts. Step Three: Huge companies take over brewing. Static techniques replace time-honored slow and artful processes. Uniformity becomes the watchword. Taste-alike beers are produced in huge quantities all over the world. Step Four: Innovators step in again, setting up micro-breweries and home brewing, reviving the art of beer brewing while keeping much that is good of the science. Step Five: The huge beer companies finally begin to pay attention to the innovators. They begin to imitate their brand names, and sometimes even begin to brew more distinctive beer. Beer, like the humans who brew it, is extremely complex. It should be a living, breathing thing, never pasteurized or filtered. It should be served fresh. Like beer, human beings also do not do so well when pasteurized, quantified, bottled or canned.
Brewing Yourself
In brewing as in life there
are immutable realities dictated by the physical world. Below or above a
certain narrow temperature range yeast dies. All the brewing art in the world
cannot change that fact.
In your own world you will
also find certain narrow choice ranges. Let's say you're starting a business in
a down economy. Can you succeed? Of course. But you'd better pay attention to
the realities of a difficult market just as the brewer watches the temperature.
In both cases, despite the limits of the mechanical environment, you can add
unlimited amounts of creativity and be unlimited in your result.
Or here's another, very
common example. You're talented, you're motivated, but you're trained in an
industry that no longer really exists. No amount of energy or skill can change
this reality, but you still see many talented people trying to play a dead
game. Instead of breaking through walls, they strengthen the walls and add an
extra coat of paint. By contrast, the creative self-brewer works around
limitations and seeks out areas where he or she can manufacture or discover
opportunity.
If you cannot express
yourself in your job, get another job. If your industry will not reward you,
move to another industry. If getting or having a job at all seems as bleak a prospect
as it seems to many talented people, start a business. If that business doesn't
make it, start another.
Most home brewers suffer a
failure or two before they get beer good enough to serve to their friends. They
often learn the hard way (by ending up with five gallons of glop). Eventually
they learn about controlling brewing temperature, excess sediment or outside
contaminants. Life is no different.
So let's brew up some beer
for ourselves. And at the same time, let's brew up ourselves. We will look at
eight critical points in the beer/self brewing process.
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Human Action Table of
Contents
Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Elliot Essman's Life In The USA
Elliot Essman's Food Writing
Susie Essman's Comedy and Sitcoms
linguix.com
smokefreekids.com
© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.
The URL of this page is
http://www.buildingyourself.com/action/beer1.htm