When the End Becomes a Beginning

Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash

There is something very powerful and inspiring in the adage that every ending is a new beginning. Whether the concept is applied to a story, a company, a political movement, or a person’s life, it serves to reframe a situation that may otherwise be sad, somber or overwhelming, instead providing inspiration, perseverance and hope. Sometimes we need to experience an ending in order to summon the vision of a better future and the courage to realize it.

I’ve had two recent experiences of this phenomenon in my personal life this year. I recently started working with a talented editor on the latest revision of my book, Bit Flip. Upon reading the manuscript, the very first change he suggested was to move the final chapter of the story to the beginning. In that simple cut-and-paste move, the novel instantly became more interesting. The previous climax became the opening hook. It changed the subsequent narrative to something I hope readers will find more engaging and compelling.

On the professional front, I have been working on a new startup this year. When we started, we really only had a directional notion of what we wanted to do. Since then, we’ve articulated a much bolder vision, maybe even an audacious one, of what we want to be when we grow up. We started with why. That’s the critical context that transforms laying bricks into building a cathedral. Although we still face the near-term challenges every startup must overcome of how to navigate that journey, being able to envision that future state, that ultimate ending, has been a powerful motivator for our team and enabled us to attract world-class talent.

Finally, on the political front, I am starting to feel hope again as we struggle through this indisputably disastrous presidency. Many articles have analyzed this time as the end of American leadership, maybe even the end of our democracy. I’ve written in this blog myself about the apparent unraveling of our society — it can certainly feel like an ending. But with the opening of the Democratic National Convention this week, I started thinking of the new beginning that may be possible. Even though the speeches in a largely virtual convention were often scripted and over-rehearsed, they painted a picture of a better future. They demonstrated a unity of purpose and a courage of conviction that was, frankly, not there prior to Trump. Positions and policies that were political suicide five years ago, now seem like sensible, mainstream proposals that are long overdue.

So as we continue to endure the ever-more bizarre daily proclamations of an unhinged and isolated president, we can only hope that we are indeed approaching an ending. Not just the end of an administration, but many other endings as well. The end of systemic racism, discrimination and intolerance. The end of political disenfranchisement and voter suppression. The end of rampant income inequality and impoverishment. The end of xenophobia and tribalism. The end of inaccessible education, healthcare and housing. The end of disinformation, media manipulation and personal vilification. The end of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. So many endings that will only be realized with new leadership, new hope, new optimism — in short, a new beginning.