Phillip Mackenzie - Photographer

As I was laying on a bench on an absolutely beautiful summer afternoon today, reading Octavio Paz, I looked up and saw this:

Perhaps it’s just that Paz put me in an surrealist and existential mood, but I found myself pointing my iPhone’s little camera up at the sky, and wondering as I’ve often wondered: beyond that lamp on the sidewalk is infinity. You can see it more clearly if you come back to the same place at night and see only stars. It’s an incredibly awesome feeling to know that the lamp only feet above you is the last earthly object between you and the universe. Infinity.

Is that infinity? Or is infinity seeing something that your eyes cannot; something beyond what you know is there? Some people seem to be able to see infinity, or it might be easier to call it the “future”…just think of the geniuses behind the iPod or Google, or countless other innovations. There was one day when a google was nothing more than a numerical value. Now I doubt it anyone knows it has any other meaning. Apple didn’t invent the idea of portable music, or even the mp3 player. But they turned it into something that everyone desires. What an incredible marketing job they did. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki noted that there are always opportunities to grasp that no one else notices. Maybe the people we think can see beyond the present aren’t seeing into the future, they’re just seeing deeper into the present. That’s something we all can do, it just takes practice.

And if you haven’t read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I highly recommend it. Seth Godin also wrote an urgent post with some wonderful financial advice last week. His blog should absolutely be required daily reading for everyone, since we’re all constantly marketing regardless of whether we realize it or not.