Too Early or Right on Time? Navigating Big Visions, Small Beginnings, and Self‑Doubt

At some point I decided to settle down and build a place where we could live, work and get together with like-minded people. I call it a campus.

It can host about twenty people comfortably for a seminar. When I walk around outside and look at the setup, I feel a quiet satisfaction:

“This could work. People could gather here. Real conversations could happen.”

And yet, almost no one knows it exists.

I haven’t announced seminars. I haven’t really invited people. In many ways, this campus is still my best kept secret.

This is not because there is no message. If anything, there is too much. Over years of work on worldview, consciousness, and adult development, the content has grown richer and deeper.

The question isn’t “Is there enough?”

The question is:

“Is it time?”
“Is it my role to push?”
“Or should I simply wait and trust?”

This tension between a big inner vision and a very small outer step is, I suspect, not unique to me.

When your vision is 10 billion people

There was a time when I tried to answer the question of impact like an engineer.

If the ultimate aim is to change how humanity understands reality, then the target audience is, more or less, 10 billion people.

You can laugh, but I took this seriously.

I applied Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations model:

• Innovators
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• Laggards

Rogers talks about a critical mass: the point at which an idea has enough momentum to spread by itself. Often estimated at around 16%.

So I did the maths:

• 16% of 10 billion is 1.6 billion.
• If we could reach 1.6 billion people deeply enough, the rest might follow “on their own”.

From there, I worked backwards:

• How many “multipliers” would we need?
• How many people would each have to reach?
• How many generations of teaching would that require?

It was a fully-fledged project plan for transforming the world.

And it had one problem:

It completely paralysed me.

Because in the same week I was playing with these numbers, my actual reality looked like this:

• A few coaching clients
• Some deep one-to-one conversations
• A campus that had never hosted a seminar

The gap between 1.6 billion and the current number of people I was actually talking to was so huge that instead of motivating me, it made everything feel impossible.

The danger of “far too early” ideas

A friend once offered me a useful distinction about ideas:

• Some ideas are right in time.

  • The world is ready.
  • Adoption is relatively smooth.

• Some ideas are too early.

  • The idea is sound, but society needs a few more years.

• Some ideas are far too early.

  • We’re talking decades ahead of time.

Looking back, many of the themes in my work have felt like “far too early” ideas:

• Worldview-Agility
• Non‑monogamy as a coherent extension of oneness
• New models of leadership grounded in consciousness rather than control

Again and again, I’ve found myself exploring territories where the societal norm has not yet caught up. The effect is usually the same:

• A sense of alienation, like being the only dancer among footballers
• A difficulty in finding peers who “get it”
• A constant question:

  “Am I wrong, or just early?”

This question doesn’t just apply to ideas. It applies to timing, to visibility, to action itself.

Working with the universe (and not knowing your job description)

I experience myself as working on a team with the universe.

On that team there are at least two players:

• Me – the “little” version, with my doubts, preferences and fears.
• The universe – a larger intelligence orchestrating timing, connections, and opportunities.

The tension is simple:

• Is it my job to push?

  • Market aggressively
  • Fill every seminar slot
  • Drive toward that imagined 1.6 billion?

• Or is it my job to prepare?

  • Deepen my own understanding
  • Do my inner work
  • Be ready for the moment the universe says: “Now”?

Until recently, I mostly waited for the universe to initiate. I listened for hints but rarely asked explicit questions.

It never occurred to me to pick up the metaphorical phone and say:

“Universe, what exactly do you want me to do here?”
“Is it time to act, or time to keep learning?”

When I finally did that, an intuitive answer came back quite clearly:

“You are not done yet with your own journey.”

When I asked, “What’s missing?” the response was even more specific:

“Transcend your fear of rejection, the fear of not being accepted as you are.”

In other words, the real question wasn’t:

• “Is the message ready?”

It was:

• “Is the messenger willing to be seen as they are?”

Self-acceptance and the shape of your message

At the same time as I’m wrestling with visibility, I’m wrestling with something very personal:

How do I want to live my relationships?

My inner truth, which has been present for years, is that non‑monogamy – some form of consensual, ethical polyamory – feels more aligned than classical monogamy.

That truth meets:

• Strong family conditioning:
  • “Monogamy is the only decent way.”
• Strong societal norms:
  • Non‑monogamy isn’t just unusual; it’s often viewed as wrong, immature, or unethical.

When I share this with a potential partner and they reject it, I have a tendency to conclude:

“If they reject my model, they reject me.
Therefore, I must be wrong.”

Intellectually, I know there’s another possible logic:

“If my model doesn’t fit for them, they are simply not the right partner.”

Emotionally, that’s harder to hold.

The result is a familiar pattern:

• I feel a genuine inner orientation.
• The outer world doesn’t match it yet.
• I interpret the mismatch as personal wrongness rather than contextual misalignment.

This is not just about relationships. It’s about leadership.

Because if I don’t fully accept myself as I am, including the unconventional parts, it becomes almost impossible to stand in front of twenty people and say:

“Here is what I really think.”
“Here is what I am really exploring.”

The fear of being seen as “inappropriate” or “too early” keeps the message in the shadows.

Love as dissolution of boundaries

One way I understand what is happening internally is through my own definition of love:

Love is the dissolution of boundaries.

As we move from a red worldview (separateness, dualism) to a green worldview (oneness, monism), a few things happen:

• Internal and external borders soften.
• We feel more connected to others.
• The sense of “us and them” weakens.

From that perspective, it’s almost logical that:

• Attraction increases, not just to one person, but to many.
• The idea of loving only one person exclusively for life starts to feel less aligned.
• Polyamory becomes not a failure of loyalty, but an attempt to live out a larger capacity to love.

That doesn’t make it easy. Society is not there yet. But internally, it is coherent.

And again, that raises the same timing question:

“Am I wrong, or simply early?”

Waiting for graduation without knowing the ceremony

There is another metaphor that captures the dilemma:

Graduation.

As an engineer, graduation was clear:

• Study.
• Pass exams.
• Receive certificate and hat.
• Become an engineer.

In this current journey, there is no ceremony. No obvious moment when someone says:

“Congratulations. You are now ready.
You may speak.”

So a part of me waits for a graduation that I:

• May not recognise if it comes
• May have already experienced without realising
• May be inventing as an excuse to avoid risk

When I look honestly, it might already be true that:

• I have enough to share.
• I will never be fully finished.
• Waiting for a feeling of perfection is just another form of self‑protection.

Which leads to a different question:

What if the only true “graduation” is the moment you’re willing to show up as you are, not as you think you should be?

Leading with vulnerability instead of completion

A close friend posed a simple challenge:

“What would it be like if you showed your vulnerability to twenty people at a time?”

In other words:

• Stop waiting to arrive at 100%.
• Stop waiting until all inner conflicts are resolved.
• Instead:
  • Share where you actually are.
  • Share the questions, not just the answers.
  • Host the conversation rather than delivering the doctrine.

This shifts the role from:

• Expert with a finished curriculum
• To fellow traveller and host of a shared inquiry

Imagine a seminar that starts not with:

“Here is the model. Let me explain it to you.”

But with:

“Here is the map I have so far.
Here is where I’m still lost.
Here is what I’m afraid of.
Where are you?”

For many leaders, this is a radical shift:

• From certainty to honest transparency
• From managing image to showing work‑in‑progress
• From transmitting answers to holding space for collective sense‑making

From 1.6 billion to twenty

If we bring all of this back to the campus and to your role, a simpler strategy emerges.

Instead of:

• Trying to architect a path to 1.6 billion people
• Or saying nothing and keeping the campus empty

You can:

1. Float the idea.

   • Let people know you’re considering seminars.
   • Share the topics you’re exploring.
   • Ask: “If I hosted something like this, would you be interested?”

2. Offer, don’t impose.

   • No fixed dates, no pressure, no launch hype.
   • Just an honest offer:

     “Here’s what I’m thinking of doing.
     If this resonates, let me know.”

3. Start with whoever comes.

   • If it’s five people, it’s five.
   • If it’s twenty, it’s twenty.
   • The number is less important than the honesty of what you bring.

4. Lead from where you actually are.

   • Not as the finished product, but as someone on the path.
   • With clear boundaries:
     • “This is what I know.”
     • “This is what I’m still figuring out.”

In that model, the question stops being:

“How do I reach 1.6 billion people?”

and becomes:

“Am I willing to be seen by twenty, as I am, right now?”

If the answer to that question moves from “no” toward “yes”, the rest has a way of taking care of itself.

And perhaps that is what “right on time” really means.

(This article was inspired by a Conscious Conversation with a dear friend & professional colleague on 6th August 2024.)