Dr. Edmond Melhem – The Seeds of Creation Part I

Kazuo Inamori maintains that “creativity can arise only from the deep, difficult process of focusing our conscious and sub-conscious minds. It is not born from shallow, impulsive thinking, or from halfhearted thoughts.”[1] Sa´adeh’s creativity arose from witnessing his people’s suffering, his profound thinking and reflection on his deepest thoughts, feelings and intuitions, and his difficult quest to serve his people. By posing the substantive question “What was it that brought all this woe on my people?” the seed of creation was born in his mind. The question was a spark, the beginning of a purpose bigger than an ambition: a purpose that inspires and creates a strong sense of direction and obligation and represents a choice to pursue the ultimate destination” – “a call to action.”.[2] Such a choice is not made rationally or analytically but arises from a person’s emotional self-knowledge and experience. A successful purpose emanates, according to Mourkogiannis, from:

A deeply felt awareness of yourself, your circumstances, and your potential calling: what the world might be asking you to do. It draws equally upon your emotional self-knowledge and intellectual thought – it calls upon everything you are, everything you’ve experienced, everything you believe.[3]

The question “What was it that brought all this woe on my people?” was Sa´adeh’s first insight. This insight gave him clear direction and purpose to focus on what truly matters and to embark on the second phase of his creative work: Preparation.

It is pertinent to note that for a person to grow as a leader, he or she must have a thirst for personal growth, focus on gaining knowledge constantly and walk toward wisdom. Sa´adeh had a strong faith in knowledge and its benefits for society. “Society is knowledge and knowledge is power,”[4] he wrote. Awareness is the basis for good judgments and wise decisions. It opens people’s eyes to their capacities and potentialities and makes them aware of their unity, destiny and common interests. To answer his question, Sa´adeh adopted a strategy of exploration and thorough investigation to find new ideas and possibilities of the germinal idea. He developed a learning agenda and began to implement it. His agenda started with utilizing social sciences and philosophy and engaging in a scientific inquiry to learn about nationalism, communities, social rights and nation-formation.

_{[1] Kazuo Inamori. A Passion for Success: Practical, inspirational, and spiritual insight from Japan’s leading entrepreneur, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995, p. 131.}

_{[2] Nikos Mourkogiannis is a business leadership consultant. See his book Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 46.}

_{[3] Ibid., p. 6.}

_{[4] Sa’adeh recorded his slogan “society is knowledge and knowledge is power” in a guest registry book of a young man in Beirut on 16 June 1948.}