What You Can’t See Might Matter Most

A note to young leaders.

There’s more to life than meets the eye – quite literally.

The human eye can detect only a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum – specifically, the narrow band we call “visible light”, which ranges from about 400 to 700 nanometers in wavelength.

Yet the full spectrum stretches far beyond that: from subatomic gamma rays with wavelengths of less than 0.01 nanometers to radio waves that span over 10 meters. That’s a range of more than 10^14 nanometers.

Put simply: we perceive just 3 parts in 100,000 of the spectrum. Rounded to the nearest two decimal places, that’s 0.00%. Nothing!

We are peering through a keyhole into a colosseum.

The vast currents of light and energy that surround us remain unseen and unfelt — and yet they are utterly real.

So don’t be too quick to dismiss what you cannot see or touch.

The immaterial is not immaterial.