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Michael L. Mead
President of Stillness Technologies
and Poster Boy for the
Technology of Stillness®
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In June 2002, I was CEO and the largest shareholder in a financial services company in Denver. As I arrived in the office early one morning after a long trip, the Board of Directors met me without warning to attend a special meeting. They demanded that I resign. I was shocked!
I had arrived at this place in life after years in the investment banking business, which I entered just after law school. I funded dozens of emerging businesses and also founded several businesses of my own. In addition, other entrepreneurs began seeking my counsel on specific issues they faced with their businesses, and I formalized my counseling into a business, coaching many business owners and entrepreneurs over the years.
With all my business successes -- and failures -- my soul constantly searched for something more meaningful. I was a millionaire at 32 and a multi-millionaire at 34. Yet something was missing. I had education, family and status - all the ingredients to happiness and fulfillment -- or so I had been taught. Yet all my success did not create happiness, only a yearning to answer the question, "Is this all there is?" To answer that question, I spent fifteen years actively searching through different disciplines, belief systems and religions. Disappointed, I abandoned my search for five years.
A few months before my dismissal from the financial services company, I had breakfast with Robert and Cynthia. I had known them for ten years, but had not seen them for two years. They told me they were creating a new course and invited me to attend. There was something different about Robert. I could not put my finger on it, but I was intrigued. I was tired of my self-imposed despair for the last five years; so, I agreed to do the course.
The course, which we now call Experience Stillness, moved me profoundly. The possibility of a fulfilled life stirred! For the next few months I flew back and forth from Denver to attend each course, wherever it was offered. Robert and Cynthia asked me to be their business coach; to help them create a business around this training and emerging technology.
Here are pictures taken during my first course, about one year later, and a current picture.
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2002 My first course
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2003
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2004
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Shortly after I was fired from the Denver company, I called Cynthia and Robert to let them know. Cynthia's question to me was, "Mike, do you pray?" I admitted that I had seldom sought higher counsel in my life in general, much less in my business life. She said that the quieter she had become from the work she and Robert had created, the more guidance she received directly, just by asking for it. Based on her coaching, I turned off the phones, cut off all external influences and went into a state of reflection, meditation and prayer.
All my life, the picture of myself as a successful businessman had driven me. Every action, every step was taken to fulfill that picture. After ten days of deep reflection, a "knowing" came into me. It was not a voice, a bolt of lighting or anything extraordinary. It was a simple, deeply relaxing awareness.
What I knew in the very marrow of my bones was that I am a spiritual teacher -- and student. My life transformed with that awareness. I called Cynthia and Robert and declared, "I am at your service." I now serve as the president of Stillness Technologies. All matters of business design and organizational development to deliver the Technology of Stillness™ to the world is my responsibility, and my privilege.
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