Remembering Rama - Dr Frederick Lenz

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Milerapa's Corporation
by P.

"It is my experience that when pursuing new businesses with Rama, it is best not to quit your present job." Kannon, the fine female assistant of Rama's had warned. I quit my contracting gig anyway. I was going to make this venture work. I had all of the tools. A picture of Fiji on my wall and in my wallet. Sharing my lofty goals was my most excellent sales partner. We had been one of the first five teams to sell the software. And that was only with a partial effort. We were prepared to go full on.

All of our savings, every ounce of coin in our possession fueled the first major road trip, paying for brochures, leads, and Motel Fives. We could not afford the Sixes. Round trip road trip leaving from New York across Pennsylvania into Chicago, into Green Bay. No sales. A few "this is great, can you come back?"'s. The road went on and on. Through the arch of St Louis once and the twin golden arches of McDonalds several times, we travelled throughout Virginia, North Carolina, across many highways, and off of many exits. Still, no sales. We returned to Westchester deflated.

The sales motivational seminars and encouragement from Rama charged us up. We planned our follow-up trip. This time we would do a better job at prequalifying new leads and making sure the decision makers were in the room. We would be smarter, tighter, and have more appointments lined up. With some cash advances from credit cards and creative accounting, we were off again and rolling.

Along the trip, we were floating in a Fijian dream, picking out the cars we'd be driving and fantasizing about the travel and adventures we'd have after our second million. Our conversations were a short blend of what we would be doing with just a sprinkle of what we actually were. Calling here, calling there, believing in the omnipotent magic of intent. We went back to Chicago, back to St. Louis, and into Virginia driving through a miserable snowy night to avoid the cost of the Motel Fours.

When we were back in New York, the dream collapsed very quickly as our leads dried up and the software had proved harder to sell than our wishes were to buy. The party was over. Fed Ex wanted their money. The landlord did, too. We both had left lucrative jobs and could no longer live on noodles. We'd spoken to literally hundreds of prospects, enduring the worst of conditions, all the while dreaming of convertibles and island paradises, only to find ourselves penniless.

I emptied my wallet and bank account to happily pay tuition one last time. That night, I spoke directly with Rama. "Why can't I close the deal?" "Because your head is in the clouds. You need to be very grounded to succeed. You have been in a dream without any foundation."

Abruptly, I landed back on earth. Despite not seeing Rama again, my connection with him felt stronger. Being seperated from my spiritual group at that point, I rethought everything in my life. I had taken my high stakes gamble and lost. Without even a rent in New York, I needed something new. I did not want to return to consulting. It was the perfect time for me to leave the study and to leave New York.

To get grounded, I knew I would need to build something. Building a career in the traditional sense was what I had left behind. I did not want to return to it. My new heart desired travel and adventure along with the freedom to live anywhere. The Internet was just budding. I was strong in software development. A company worth its salt would require solid years of work. My dharmic task of grounding would be building Milerapa's corporation. My sales partner had been living in the same cloud. We started working together on assembling a viable company straight away. Many thousands of hours of hard work later, the business we constructed, from the ground up, pays the bills, allows for travel, and is the stable, Earth bound structure I needed.

Now, to be true, my life is a circle of learning. Forgetting about my life's task of staying grounded, I recently took another high stakes gamble and lost. I am scheduled to land back on Earth, perhaps becoming even more deeply grounded, any day now.