Effort is like Schrodinger's cat

In the predawn hush, when the world is still cloaked in “what if” and possibility, a solitary figure hunches over a loom. Fingers, gnarled by years of labour, deftly weave threads of countless hues. Each strand is a life, each knot a choice, each pattern an intricate effort of fate and free will.

This is the weaver inside us, architect of our reality, custodian of our effort. We are all, in our own ways, apprentices to this ageless artisan.

Consider the hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace. From within its leafy corridors, one sees only green walls and dead ends, but ascend to the palace's highest tower, and suddenly the maze's true nature unfolds: it is a symmetrical marvel. Our efforts are like this - labyrinthine and frustrating up close, but with a grand design visible only from a vantage point.

In quantum physics, particles exhibit a peculiar duality - both wave and particle. Their identity hinges on how we observe them. Effort shares this quantum uncertainty. It exists in a superposition of potential outcomes, collapsing into a definite result only when we pause to measure its impact.

The student burning the midnight oil, the entrepreneur weathering another setback, the artist facing a blank canvas - all exist in this liminal space of possibility. Like Schrödinger's cat, their efforts are simultaneously fruitful and futile until the moment of reckoning. The outcome remains unknown until it unfolds.

Th things is, our society overlooks the inherent value of striving and crafts one hero to eulogise. Picture a master glassblower, cheeks puffed, arms straining, as he coaxes molten silica into a dazzling chandelier. The finished piece may be breathtaking, but is it not equally wondrous to witness his act of creation? The interplay of breath and fire, the transformation of formless matter into art?

The Japanese use 'wabi-sabi' to finds beauty in imperfection. To celebrate the cracks and crevices, the wear and tear that come with age and use. We need a similar philosophy for effort - one that honours the sweat, toil and the sheer grind. While capitalism argues that effort doesn't pay for the bills, it's the very foundation of value creation that capitalism benefits from, yet often fails to adequately reward. This "winner-takes-all" mentality, while generating wealth, has also led to extreme income inequality. Dig deeper, and this systemic unfairness helps explain the growing appeal of far-right ideologies in our fractured world. By undervaluing the spectrum of human effort, we inadvertently sow seeds of division and resentment, driving some towards radical alternatives that promise the recognition and reward they feel they've been denied.

Imagine if we could reward effort as clearly as we reward results. Would we not marvel and celebrate every thread of persistence that went on to make an achievement possible? Would we not stand in awe of the invisible architecture of ambition that underpins every human endeavour?

It’s in the sinews of every worker who ever lifted a stone to build the Guggenheim. It's in every Mona Lisa that doesn't hang in the Louvre. It's in every shipwreck at the bottom of the sea, sunken in the quest for new lands. The marathon runner who came in second. The trembling hands of the surgeon at hour 14 of a delicate procedure. We must celebrate the effort as much as we celebrate the win. It's a fail-proof way for society to cultivate more winners.

Consider your work. Behind every great product launch, every seamless performance, every "overnight success," every moment of effortless grace, lies an unseen universe of toil and tenacity led by an army of employee IDs. Imagine if we could incentivise the effort of a win across its entire value chain, across all employee IDs. Picture the degree of ownership and spirit of innovation this could foster.

We need far better ways to appreciate the weavers within us, for it is not the product that defines us, but the sum total of our striving - one choice, one action, one moment at a time. Because when we reach the end of the line and look back on the maze of our existence, we should be able to see the interconnected web of our effort that formed the fabric of our reality