Tag Archives: writing

Amor Fati

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Blink:

Recently I experienced a surreal happenstance which reminded me of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s exploration of the concept of “Amor Fati’ – a Latin phrase for “love of fate.” When I examine fate, I realized it has been an essential part of my personal journey.

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Nietzsche’s philosophy re: fate was about the big picture (a.k.a.“life”). It has been a chain of events (my personal “Amor Fati” narrative) which has me living in Cannes and placed me in position to experience the surreal happenstance. Happenstance is a chance situation, especially a coincidence producing a positive result. I am a very restless/active person. Based on my history, happenstances occur frequently when I go out into the world, thus is a smaller sub-component of the big picture “Amor Fati.”

A great story!! I live in a neighborhood east of Centre Ville Cannes. Several times a week I travel across the city to a great coffee brunch restaurant Café Crème located in the Canopy Hilton for my flat whites. I have my own favorite barista who occasionally charges me. Last week I walked in the front door, a guy stood up and greeted me “Jim Matorin!” I absolutely had no clue who he was. Then he identified himself. He was a former friend, business associate at the Quaker Oats Company. We had not seen or kept in touch with each for thirty years, thus my senior moment not recognizing him. He and his wife were passing through Cannes staying at the hotel to go to some local museums for the day, as they were driving from Italy to Barcelona on holiday. As a marketing geek, all I could think about was what were the probabilies of this happenstance? I thought I was just heading out for my regular cups of flat whites. We ended up having a memorable dinner/evening, caught up and planned to pick up where we left off thirty years ago.

Epilogue:

  1. One topic we explored at dinner was how some people have come into our life for a reason – “Amor Fati.”
  2. My friend is Mac Brand. Click on his LI profile to learn what he has accomplished the last thirty years which includes getting two books published: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mac-brand-8ab6599/

Black Mamba

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Blink:

Back on this day January 26th, 2020, Black Mamba better known as Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, died in a helicopter crash. He created his alter ego nickname to share his personal philosophy the “Mamba Mentality.”

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What is the “Mamba Mentality” philosophy? An attitude to work at getting better every day at what you are doing, to become the best version of yourself. It is a constant quest since we all have dreams which sometimes can be scary. Especially if you put your heart and soul into them. What if you fail? According to Black Mamba, failure is not an option. Become fearless, put yourself out there.

To rise to the challenge and be his best, Kobe turned his obsession into a ritual. He would get up every morning, go to the gym to work out at 4 AM while his teammates slept, which included watching hours of video of his opponents to improve his game. By the time his teammates showed up to the gym (late morning), he had already put in a full day’s work.

The more I study Black Mamba footage, I realized he had a competitive edge (a.k.a. killer’s instinct) matched by only a handful of sports icons I have watched in my lifetime. I believe in elements of the Mamba Mentality – especially the mindset to become the best version of yourself. Definitely a part of Kobe’s legacy.

Needless to say Kobe was intense. At 35, despite all his conditioning he suffered a serious injury (ruptured Achilles tendon). He was confronted with the possibility of calling it quits and hanging up his sneakers. Not Kobe, that night on social media he posted:

“If you see me in a fight with a bear, Pray for the bear.”

Opinions welcomed!