“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2
Shakespeare’s Challenge to Fate
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves” is a popular rendering of one of Shakespeare’s most enduring ideas. In Julius Caesar, Cassius tells Brutus, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves,” shortly after declaring that people can be “masters of their fates.” (Folger Shakespeare Library)
More than four centuries later, the lesson remains remarkably modern. Our circumstances influence us, sometimes profoundly, but they do not necessarily determine what we do next. Destiny is less like a railway track with a predetermined destination and more like sailing a boat. We cannot command the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
The Illusion of Effortless Success
We frequently look at successful people and see the destination without seeing the journey. The entrepreneur with the thriving company appears fortunate. The executive receiving an award appears naturally gifted. The accomplished professional appears to have followed a smooth upward trajectory.
Usually, we are looking at the final photograph, not the contact sheet filled with rejected images.
Canadian business statistics illustrate how difficult entrepreneurship actually is. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada reports that after ten years, only 51.4 percent of goods-producing businesses and 46.4 percent of service businesses remain active. (ISED Canada) Statistics Canada similarly found that among employer businesses born in 2021, 68 percent were still operating two years later. (Statistics Canada)
Failure, therefore, is hardly an exception to entrepreneurship. It is part of the landscape.
Failure Is Information
The important distinction is between experiencing failure and accepting failure as destiny.
BDC research identifies grit and relationship skills as important entrepreneurial characteristics across stages of business growth. (BDC.ca) That matters because resilience is not simply stubbornness. Good entrepreneurs change direction when the evidence tells them to.
Consider Canadian technology company Shopify. It began with Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake attempting to build an online snowboard store. When the eCommerce tools they needed proved inadequate, they built their own. The original business problem became the foundation for an entirely different enterprise. (Shopify)
That is what taking control of destiny often looks like. Not predicting the future, but responding intelligently when the future refuses to follow the plan.
Owning the Steering Wheel
The same principle applies to our personal lives. We cannot choose every illness, economic downturn, rejection, accident, family circumstance or opportunity that enters our lives. Personal responsibility should never be confused with pretending that everyone begins from the same starting line.
But there remains an important question: What part of this situation can I control?
We control whether we prepare. We control whether we learn. We control whether yesterday’s disappointment becomes tomorrow’s excuse. We control whether we make the telephone call, submit the proposal, acquire another skill, apologize, change direction or try again.
Luck matters. Timing matters. Circumstances matter. But surrendering the steering wheel guarantees that circumstances will do the driving.
Perhaps that is Shakespeare’s enduring challenge. Are the stars truly preventing us from becoming something more, or have we simply found comfort in blaming the stars?
And when we look at our own lives, professionally or personally, what opportunity have we postponed because we are waiting for destiny to act first?
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.