Wealth, Power, and Ownership: A few observations

Wen I was a child, I used to daydream about being rich and powerful, but my ideas of wealth and power had many shortcomings. I thought that the key to wealth, power, and ownership was money. That idea was incomplete. Money is a part of wealth, can yield power, and can facilitate ownership.  Nonetheless, you can have a lot of money and still be functionally poor.

It seems to me now that the essence of wealth is the ability to make one's own decisions. The essence of power is the ability to make other people's decisions. The essence of ownership is the ability to do what you want with what you own.

Thus, if someone has lots of money but is unable to make their own decisions, they cannot be said to be very wealthy. Another person with less money, but with the ability to make their own decisions, would be functionally wealthier. From this I conclude that the discipline of wise decision-making is more important than money. In this way, a wise person is wealthier than a rich person.

Similarly, if power is the ability to make other people's decisions, then I conclude that the discernment and perception that give rise to wise advice are more important then the ability to coerce people. When people seek your advice, it is as if they willingly become your subjects, and your power is more secure than that of someone who rules by coercion. In this way, a wise person is more powerful than a dictator.

Finally, if ownership is the ability to do what one wants with what one has, then there is a physical limit to what one can functionally own. Our capacity for functional ownership is limited by our capacity to act. Thus, I conclude that it is better to limit your possessions to what you need to own in order to do what you ought to do. Any more than this, and the time wasted maintaining your excess possessions would detract from the time you would have spent carrying out meaningful actions with your essential possessions. Ironically, owning too much reduces the account that you can functionally own.  Extra possessions own their possessor. Thus, rather than scheming how to get more possessions, you should think first of your goals, and then select only the possessions you need in order to accomplish those goals. In this way, a wise person with only a few possessions functionally owns more than a packrat with many possessions.

The person who walks in wisdom enjoys the essence of wealth, power, and ownership, even though he might be financially destitute and politically oppressed. His wealth, power, and ownership aren't tied to his transient circumstances, but instead consist of stewardship of whatever those circumstances might be.

Autonomy and Accountability: Two sides of the same coin

 In the workplace, many desire autonomy: the ability to determine the way in which one goes about one's work.  At the same time, many complain about being held accountable to meet defined metrics, as though they were being micromanaged or disrespected.

Autonomy in the workforce is never absolute: it is always bounded.  Autonomy means that you can determine how best to go about meeting your metrics. Even self-employed freelancers are not absolutely autonomous; they are bounded by the expectations of their customers, and if they don't meet those expectations, they don't get paid. 

Successfully autonomous people accomplish what they are accountable for.  Their accountability doesn't detract from their autonomy; it demonstrates that they can successfully handle autonomy. 

By the same token, authentic accountability implies autonomy; if you are accountable to accomplish something, that implies that you have leeway to determine how best to accomplish it.  If you are held accountable, that's a sign of respect; you were deemed capable of accomplishing it.

So, at least in the workplace, autonomy and accountability are two sides of the same coin; each implies the existence of the other, and cannot be enjoyed without the other.