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No One Is Coming
No one is coming.
A simple phrase, but one that is rich with meaning. Three of those meanings weighed on my mind this morning while I took my morning constitutional around Boston Common.
My friend Jen Iannolo has an entire manifesto built around the phrase, “No One Is Coming.” Jen’s use of the phrase is empowering — exhilarating, even. We do not wait for our future. We create our future. To realize that no one is coming to help you achieve your dreams is to kick you in the ass to go get what you want however you can with the resources available to you (and you always have more resources than you think.) In its use as an empowerment mantra, it doesn’t mean that you are alone in this world. But it does mean that the CEO, COO, and CMO of the entity that will engineer the future you want is you, because no one else is coming.
It’s also a very common phrase in movies and TV. Often, “no one is coming” means “the coast is clear!” Frequently, it portends a sense of false security. “C’mon, Frank — there’s no one out there. Let’s make our move!” is the last thing Frank hears before he becomes “Body #2” on Law & Order. This second connotation of “no one is coming” is very worrisome to me, because we are seeing it play out right now, with human lives, amongst elements of the US population who are chafing against social distancing and business shutdowns and what they see as a…
