Lessons from the Bubble Chart

My friend and former manager is always a jolly guy every time he does his business presentation about the multilevel marketing company he has been promoting for years. He has the talent to perk up the audience, through a strategy everyone in the business knows as "mind-setting," which he uses to help his prospective clients and patrons appreciate the business he offers. As a crucial part of his presentation, he would draw a small circle, then writes his name inside. From there, he would connect a number of circles radiating from the central circle. Each circle bears the letter K, to represent each as someone personally related or connected to him: kapamilya (loved ones), kamag-anak (relatives), katrabaho (colleagues), kaibigan (friends), kabarkada (buddies), kakilala (acquaintances), kapitbahay (neighbors), kasintahan (lovers), kaeskuwela (classmates), kumpare/kumare (male/female comrades), etc. He would also often quip about his story the first time he encountered these circles: he was then starving on his first day in the same business orientation, so looking at those circles made him think of mouthwatering hopia (bean-filled pastry) instead of prospects. When he began appreciating the business, he found that each circle looked more than having a hopia, but an opportunity to earn. My friend presents the same impression to his listeners. At the end of the presentation, those circles that filled the whiteboard give the audience a renewed business excitement that may bring them money and livelihood. The entire audience finds his explanation clear-cut and straightforward, and eventually agrees that the business is easy, since those K's are the first target in selling the company's quality products.

Every meeting, members of the marketing team would present their own diagrams of networking circles, known as the bubble chart. Having their own bubble charts, members can progressively track their personal connections, seeing possible business partners and clients who might purchase products anytime. Encircled names with interconnecting lines can clearly present those who are in the wait list, and can push one person to add more. It's like a social networking schematic on paper similar to Friendster and Facebook, only everything is drawn in circles. One can see degrees of connections, and can expand the application of leveraging, a business principle which distributes selling power to a network of people to increase revenues and overrides.

These circles are initial mind-setting motivations. When I got involved with this business, I found that each person I see is a "circle," a customer who might be interested in buying products. The idea was exciting because earning big money can be the only outcome of hundreds of "circles" buying and selling products under my network. On the other hand, I had seen chances of helping people, since products are inclined to promote health and well-being. So every time I cross the street or ride a jeepney or meet new people, what I had in mind were countless circles passing by.


Five years have passed after the circles of my bubble chart burst in thin air, the time when I stopped doing that business and treaded the call of my path. Again, I recalled the bubble chart just a couple of days ago. I just thought I have been seeing circles again, and along with that was the memory of my manager who taught me the bubble chart. This time, it was a little different. Each person I see now reminds me not of a customer who can buy a product or do a business, but beings having the tremendous power to Love. I see them, just like how I see those circles, as people more than my assumptions of the way they dress, what they can do or how much money they spend. Those "circles" allow me to shift my initial prejudice into intentional blessings. I begin to recognize their Divinity that is always within them as I exercise my quiet greetings of Namaste (Sanskrit: I respect the God within you). I just understand that wherever I go, I can always find people from all walks of life, human beings just like me. Crossing paths with them is not just a random, banal moment. Every K I encounter in my life is a moving reminder of mirroring this deep Love I have found in me.

Halfway on writing this, something has crossed my mind: the word Ensō, the Japanese word for "circle." Wikipedia defines it as a symbol of enlightenment, a common subject for Zen calligraphy. For Zen monks, drawing an ensō is not just demonstrating calligraphy skill, but also a spiritual exercise. Ensō now reminds me of the circles of the bubble chart. Beyond the interconnected circles that can be drawn on paper are those circles that symbolizes enlightenment, the pure state of Loving awareness waiting to be awaken in each being I meet.