Читать книгу: «Time & Money»

TIME & MONEY HOW TO SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

1st Edition, Spicewood Publishing, New York, 2002

2nd Edition 2014

© Sokrates Verlag München GmbH, Germany, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the authors.

Graphic Design: Wolfgang Rollmann, München

ISBN 978-3-9812912-1-6

www.sokrates-verlag.de www.sokrates-verlag.com

INTRODUCTION

TRUE HAPPINESS IS HAVING ONE’S PASSION AS A PROFESSION

We all have to work for a living. How we spend our time earning money largely determines the quality of our lives. For those who earn a living doing the things they love, life is an exciting adventure. This book will help you make career choices you won’t regret when you reflect on your life.

The meaning of life is less important than the zest for living. Vitality and aliveness are career related. No vacation is as invigorating as the right vocation. If you organize your career around what lights you up, you will enjoy your entire life more.

While most people toil away at their obligations, a fortunate few achieve freedom by transforming their passion into a career. If they can do it, so can you. Time & Money will introduce you to the philosophy of entrepreneurship, which is an attitude of personal responsibility combined with a penchant for innovation. The entrepreneur operates a business or runs a department of a corporation as a profit center. He or she guarantees results that build the business and add to the bottom line.

Entrepreneurship is by no means exclusive to small business. We wrote this book for free agents, people who live by their own choices, whether they work alone, collaborate with other free agents, or perform a leadership role in a large corporation. Every big company is a conglomerate of units that function as small businesses. We all need to be effective and to make work meaningful.

Entrepreneurship means living one’s dream. It means achieving goals that are in tune with the heart. It’s not easy to follow your bliss when other people expect you to conform to familiar systems. In a society that glorifies compromise and mediocrity, entrepreneurship is a hard road. But there is no easy road. You can fight for what truly matters or you can fight off the boredom that comes from living without passion.

Parents and teachers charted the course for most people. We developed various roles that enabled us to fit into society and to earn a living, but something is still missing. We were not created to spend our lives constricted in a cubicle or performing repetitive tasks, and our bodies know it. Most people wear expressions of hopelessness and defeat.

It can be different. You can create a life that organizes around your self-expression. Time & Money will show you the stages of a rewarding career. It will give you the big picture of how a business grows. Starting with small projects, you’ll learn to transform your favorite activities into your own business or into a new branch for an established company. By transforming the things you most enjoy into products and services that benefit others, you can learn to achieve real financial freedom and the peace of mind that goes with it. The missing piece for most people is the design.

You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint: the craftsmen wouldn’t know how to coordinate their work, space wouldn’t flow properly from one room to another, and every time you changed your mind, the costs would skyrocket. Yet people routinely fall into a career or lifestyle without the benefit of a suitable design. Unless you become the architect for your life, it will be over before you achieve your dreams. Here is the design manual you need to get started.

Business is a game that operates according to specific rules. Those who break the rules are doomed to failure. You must know which rules are universal and which ones change as a business matures. Knowing when to shift gears is essential to winning. Time & Money isn’t a “how-to” book. There are plenty of manuals and guidebooks, and some of them are quite useful. We have avoided the oversimplification and narrow focus that makes business books easy to read and hard to apply. Here you will learn some of what works and what doesn’t work in the process of designing and building your career as a free agent.

Time & Money demonstrates a flexible business model for people who want to live life on their own terms. It doesn’t tell you what to think. Rather it shows you how to think in alternative ways that get results under real-world conditions. You will learn to apply curiosity to discover the craft that best suits your nature and to build an organization to bring that craft to market. True success is complex and difficult. Time & Money is for intelligent, motivated individuals who see their careers as a lifelong learning game.

We have conducted over thirty thousand coaching interviews since 1980 to explore what makes people truly happy. This book is a map based on the actual experiences of our clients. The lessons we learned as career coaches enabled us to write Time & Money, which we hope will save you valuable time by helping you design a career and lifestyle that really fits your nature.

In larger terms, entrepreneurs benefit society by creating jobs. Entrepreneurial companies, large and small, have created millions of jobs for associates, free agents, vendors, employees, and temps. While corporate jobs have declined in recent decades, entrepreneurs have forged an entirely new economy by providing sevices that make life better. By finding your niche, you discover the pleasure of providing for others.

THE THEATER OF BUSINESS

Business is people. The better you understand yourself and others, the happier and more successful you will become. We all play various roles in life—mother, father, son, daughter, friend, lover, boss, employee, leader, and countless more. These roles bring meaning to our lives. They connect us to other people. But often they don’t reflect who we are. Career satisfaction comes from knowing who you are and from choosing roles that fit your talent and temperament.

When you don’t know yourself, you can’t recognize your real talents. You work hard at a life you don’t enjoy just to make ends meet. Your real ability lies dormant. Time is fleeting and money is scarce. Scarcity makes your decisions. Life seems like a struggle. You know there is a better way, but pressing duties keep you from seeing it.

We have discovered a way to help people gain a larger perspective by restoring their ability to play. According to William Shakespeare, all the world is a stage. Business is a theater in which most people are cast in roles that don’t really fit. Everyone plays in the theater of business because everyone has to produce something of value in order to survive. It is refreshing to think of your career and your lifestyle as entertainment. First, it must enliven you. Then it must delight your family and friends. Finally, a great career must amaze your associates and astound your opponents.

We have survived as a human community by evolving with complementary talents. Like ants that specialize within a colony, we each find the function that suits us best. Before you can earn a living successfully you must determine what role best suits your nature.

A successful business or project requires three basic functions that are performed by three very different types of people:

(1)Visionary—the artist who sees an innovation that can be turned into a business.

(2)Marketer—the believer who sees how to get that innovation to as many people as possible.

(3)Manager—the general who organizes the people and executes processes to get the innovation to market.

If you work for a big company, your job title probably dictates which of these roles you play. If you are upwardly mobile, the most important career adjustment you can make is to make certain that your duties fit your personality type. When your job taps your talent, you can excel.

As soon as you take on responsibility for a business or project, you will need to balance your team with people who are visionaries, marketers, and managers. Just as baseball players specialize in different positions according to their individual abilities, business people are most effective when you play them according to their strengths.

When first starting your own business or project, you may have to handle the responsibilities of all three roles alone. As your business grows, you will want to focus on what you do best and bring in specialists to fill the roles that complement your own talents. Your first challenge is, therefore, identifying the role you were meant to play.

Each of the three roles adds something to the way a business or project develops. Along the way you must become proficient in all three functions so you can work together with all the different specialists who will have an impact on your career. Each of the three represents an essential aspect of leadership. Together they are more than the sum of the parts. Synergy between these three roles creates the kind of chemistry that customers and employees can trust.

During the growth of a business or project your participation is essential. After some years the business will mature to the point where it operates with or without you. Finally you will transcend all the roles by filling them with people who are more effective than you. If you fulfill that scenario you will enjoy the freedom to work on your business rather than in your business. But that will only happen if you dedicate yourself to lifelong learning to master all the skills needed for success, and if you operate your business as a learning organization that develops leaders.

Fortunately, this kind of learning is fun. It is a practical process of discovering what works while getting to know yourself and your team better. Self-knowledge gives you the confidence and self-esteem to go forward. As your comprehension improves, you earn the right to associate with increasingly effective people and to participate in a greater variety of business cultures. Understanding people who think differently from you brings the kind of pleasure usually reserved for explorers and travelers. It brings a sense of adventure to your career.

Each of the three essential disciplines requires a different “language.” Visionaries speak in broad, general terms about what is possible. Marketers use words to create action. Managers converse to handle details and measure outcomes. Each function requires a different kind of focus. Your personality and body type probably make you more suited to one role than to the others. You’ll perform best when you select the role that you also find the most attractive.

VISIONARIES

Visionary leaders love the adventure of stepping into and navigating uncharted terrain. These people thrive on the chaos that goes hand-in-hand with start-ups. Every business starts with a vision. Behind the logo of every familiar company name is an inspired individual who made that vision a reality by treading boldly into unknown territory.

A visionary leader is also curious about what people want and how to get it for them. Business visionaries see patterns in the marketplace before other people do. Their minds are filled with theoretical constructs or mathematical formulas. Their ideas, however, are clear and workable. These folks live in the future.

There are plenty of starry eyed believers who fantasize about great achievements. Visionaries are different. They roll up their sleeves and make it happen. A seemingly mighty force of nature, they sweep others along with their personal force.

What is the force that drives visionary people? According to author Gary Hoover, “It all begins with curiosity.” Gary attributes the great businesses of the twentieth century to visionaries like Sam Walton, Herb Kelleher, and Michael Dell, whose curiosity opened doors that others didn’t even see. These visionary leaders marched to the beat of their own drummers, throwing off caution and advice from others who thought their visions were impossible.

Curiosity is the source of innovation, and innovation is the engine that powers entrepreneurship. Innovative visionaries get the ball rolling. They are the people who ask, “Why not?” They pioneer new things and new ways of doing things. They are not averse to risk. They have the toughest of the three functions because they challenge the status quo.

Inventors, futurists, designers, artists, and actors all fall into this category. Steve Jobs is the consummate visionary. His Apple Computer made computing power accessible to every man, woman, and child. Like Jobs, visionaries see what is possible—not what is impossible. They turn those possibilities into probabilities. Alone, they generally flounder. But with a marketer selling their ideas, they can touch many people with their creativity. And when a manager lends support to their dreams, their ideas take root.

A reporter who interviewed car-maker Henry Ford at the pinnacle of his success later commented that Ford seemed too idealistic to be believed. He had to keep reminding himself of Ford’s tangible accomplishments to keep from dismissing the man as unstable. Creative types often come across as unrealistic to people who consider themselves as having both feet planted firmly on the ground.

Most entrepreneurial businesses are started by visionaries and grown by marketers. Together, they can conquer the world. An upbeat duo, one dreams and the other believes those dreams into existence. Once the company achieves solid earnings, it can bring a manager on board.

Combining a visionary with a manager to start up a business is perilous. One is from Mars, and the other from Pluto. They are always interfering with each other’s function. Visionaries are important during every phase of a business to keep the company on course. But they are especially important in the early design stages. When managers create the vision for a business, they build tragically boring systems. In a fully functioning business team, the marketer is often the translator between the visionary and the manager.

Imagination and artistic flair provide the inspiration that gives birth to a business. Visionaries have those qualities by nature. On the other hand, when visionaries try to manage large projects, their inconsistency leads everyone astray. These folks can leap from one position to another effortlessly. They thrive on paradox, and seem to have a special ability to create order out of chaos. Life is art for these dreamers, and consistency seems to them like the product of mediocre minds.

Most visionaries are driven by the dream of a wonderful world. They want to make the current world better and they truly believe they can. Some people think they’re crazy. The newspapers of the steamboat’s day dubbed the invention Fulton’s Folly. The masses denounced the first sewing machines, calling them an abomination to God. It takes unusual courage to follow one’s vision in the face of this kind of resistance.

You can’t blame entrenched interests and huddled masses for fighting change. Vision is a kind of creative destruction. Visionaries create disruption; they displace familiar patterns to usher in new realities, and they seem genuinely befuddled when culture resists their ideas.

When a visionary entrepreneur is thwarted, he gets lost in his dreams. He sees other people as obstacles to obvious opportunities and he forces his ideas on them with bullying and begging. To keep the dream alive, he makes lavish promises.

Of the three types of people, visionaries are the most likely to end their careers with nothing. They fall in love with their own ideas and, like the legendary Narcissus, spend their lives enraptured with their own reflections. Visionaries can be so idealistic that they discourage marketers and managers from working with them. Their stubborn self-right-eousness causes them to cling to beautiful possibilities in lieu of accepting practical realities.

MARKETERS

Marketer types are recognizable by their gregarious natures and by the pleasure they take in inviting other people to participate in their interests and projects. These are friendly people who are outgoing and deeply interested in other people. Charming and witty, these folks love people, and it shows in their natural warmth and friendliness. They are magnetic. Marketers are born to network. When they believe in a product, they also have a knack for selling it.

Unfortunately, the image of salespeople that carried over from the last century is terrible. Hard selling came into fashion after World War II because managers were put in charge of marketers. By demanding “numbers” at all costs, managers pressured marketers into pressuring customers. Today, as business evolves into a more balanced game, marketers are earning equal authority. As they return to their true natures, they are bringing about a whole new kind of sales and marketing based on educating people.

Marketers are the doers. While visionaries dream about what attracts customers, marketers pick up the phone. While managers prepare for the problems of dealing with a lot of people, marketers bring those people in. These individuals act first and think later.

Marketers are more than salespeople. In addition to selling the company’s image to the customers, they also sell it to the team. Their inspiration keeps everyone inspired and working. Their firm belief in others creates the mighty engine that powers a business. The marketer transforms ideas into action.

Modern marketing is the craft of discerning what people want and then helping them to obtain it. In an entrepreneurial organization, everyone sells. But marketing types bring special ability to the task. Their love of people gives them a natural affinity for service. When the marketing department is staffed by people who have a talent for service, it is a happy place, abuzz with excitement.

Sometimes visionaries and organizers get drafted into sales and marketing positions. They are taught the skill and may use it well, but they never glow with the task. They don’t light up at the sight of a telephone. Marketers, on the other hand, live and die by the phone. They are also the masters of e-mailing, faxing, sending post cards, and even an occasional letter in a bottle. They just want to reach out and sell someone. Connecting and connections are the center of their universe.

Marketers are born communicators. They have a gift for moving people. Marketers are upbeat. Their energy and positive attitude inspires others to enroll in their projects. They want to help people fulfill their desires, and they are willing to force the issue. Yet, the natural sensitivity of marketers lets them know intuitively when to pressure people and when to allow them some room. With their honest enthusiasm and belief in people, they easily resolve conflicts that put the rest of us in gridlock.

Marketers are people of action. They don’t get bogged down in the details that are best left to managers. Unlike visionaries, marketers don’t need to understand the underlying theory or implications of a product. It either works or it doesn’t. You want it or you don’t. Their direct approach is refreshing, and it gets things done.

Even the finest people have weakness, and marketers are no exception. These delightful, generous folks often see so many great things to sell that they fail to become loyal to one product or system. Many marketers reach the end of their career to discover that a great fortune has passed them by while they were hopping from one project to another. Despite this slight handicap, marketers are the most likely to have a successful career, and when they lead organizations, those companies usually achieve outstanding results.

MANAGERS

It takes a certain kind of personality to properly organize a project or put together a new business. Completing such a complex endeavor requires tedious attention to detail combined with an unusually high degree of courage. The managerial role demands a tough individual who thrives on enforcing the rules and procedures. Management means manipulation, and few people have the stomach for it.

Every business needs a champion, a fighter who does the dirty work. Managers are the kind of people who thrive on battles and their details. They are rare birds in the game of business, pragmatic organizers who see present events in light of the past. While the visionary needs control, the manager needs order, and where the marketer sees opportunities, the manager sees problems.

Bill Gates is the ultimate organizer. His genius stems from his willingness and ability to fight for his system. His courage and strategic brilliance enable him to face challenges from even the mightiest opponents.

The best managers know how to delegate and build teams to carry out their mandates. They are tough-minded people who thrive on bringing out the best in teams and individuals. Military generals are managers. They don’t decide to make war; they carry out the details. Colin Powell will do whatever he can to avoid battle, but once it becomes inevitable, he will lead with brilliance and courage. Generals don’t mind offending people, and they are able to make sacrifices that others could never face. Managers have that same quality of expediency. All true managers are realists who recognize and accept that a few may have to pay the price for the good of the many.

Logistics are the domain of managers. Every business is limited by its ability to create, store, transport and deliver goods and services. Managers are the people who tend to all of the systems that must cooperate to get the goods to the market.

Managers organize. Organization relates to the rules and procedures that define the game of business. In general, people with organizing personalities are drawn to careers as accountants, lawyers and supervisors, but they are also scattered throughout a wide variety of other rule-oriented careers. In an entrepreneurial business the manager builds the systems that enable the company to grow.

If a manager decides to start up a new business, he must assemble a team in advance that includes a visionary and a marketer. But few managers are so adventuresome. Most prefer to join an established organization. Franchises are tailor-made for managers. Here the meticulous organizer can buy into a system that doesn’t require, or even allow, variation from a fixed formula. The rules are clear. The systems are proven. A conscientious person only need stick with the manual and enforce the rules without exception.

Good management gives a business the kind of aggressive stance that enables it to survive in the marketplace. It pounces on details that would interfere with growth. Murphy’s Law prevails in business. Anything that can go wrong certainly will. Always make sure the manager checks out every detail before you let the marketers show a new product or service to your customers. Managers are there to clean up the messes made by the visionaries and marketers.

When managers fail, it is because they become too rigid and dogmatic. When rules matter more than people, workers rise up against leadership. When organizers engender resentment by putting procedures and profits above humanity, they invite a backlash from within their own system.

HOW THEY FIT TOGETHER

Your business or project starts with you. When you can balance your inner visionary, marketer, and organizer, you can create, sustain, and complete the projects that will eventually grow into your career. Your competence in all three areas will attract specialists in each of the three disciplines. When you speak the language of other people, they tend to trust you more, and to accept your business competence.

As your business grows, you will want to find specialists who can perform each of the three essential functions separately without extinguishing the efforts of other players. When you have a visionary, marketer and manager working together, the necessary ingredients for a powerful money machine are there. But the machine will only work if all of the leaders understand their duties and how to coordinate overlapping responsibilities with the others.

To be successful, you must estimate your strengths and weaknesses in order to discern which role you play best. Be careful not to delude yourself. Examine your past performances. Ask your associates where you are most effective. Pay attention to which of your tasks leads most directly to an influx of cash in your business. Know your weaknesses so you can find the right people to fill in the gaps you leave.

Think of your business as a professional sport. Begin to notice the actions of your co-workers and what they do well. Make a profile of each person to help you remember what they do best. Assign players to the position they can perform best. Supercompetent people can do many things well, so be sure to assign responsibilities according to both the individual’s ability and their level of attraction to the task. When people love what they do, they don’t burn out.

Once you recognize the necessity of all three complementary functions in your business, you can construct each role to work harmoniously with the others. Each department must have its own authority, but they all must also cooperate to effectively achieve the company’s overall purpose.

Most projects and businesses start out as a one man show. To grow a company they must expand to include a team of leaders. Adding more people to the leadership equation increases its complexity. Interpersonal complications are the number one killer of dreams. Plenty of entrepreneurs return to a sole proprietorship because they didn’t want to deal with people problems. So, unless you learn to understand people and to organize them into healthy teams your dream will never materialize. The challenge is to build an organization that works for you—not one for which you work.

Balance is the essence of life for business leaders. A visionary who dominates will run the marketer and manager ragged with wild schemes that never come to fruition. A marketer in control will work everyone to death on projects that carry the business in the wrong direction. A manager who seizes control bogs the entire organization down in bureaucracy. Success comes to team players who know their function and give proper respect to the other roles in their business.

CHARTING YOUR OWN COURSE

Prosperity is an essential aspect of success. True wealth is more than financial freedom. It’s a sense of something deeper. Wealth is the fulfillment of your authentic desires. Happiness is a sense of calm well-being, a kind of fulfillment that comes from deep within your being. How you achieve that kind of fulfillment may be very different than you think.

Most of life is dedicated to pursuing more, better and different. But there is another aspect of living that is not so easily grasped. The thing we seek—the elusive obvious—comes from a rare balance of time and money that frees up our attention. When the need for money no longer determines how we spend our time, we can be spontaneous and free to do what we love.

We spend time, and we spend money. And eventually we spend our lives. What’s important is how much you enjoy the passing of time, and whether your efforts earn you a prosperous life and a secure future. Your career and lifestyle should provide prosperity at mid-career and wealth in later years. And it should bring you pleasure along the way.

Play is the magical ingredient in happiness. Playfulness lifts our spirits and keeps us young. Playful people automatically achieve all the benefits that accompany such serious disciplines as yoga, meditation, aerobics, etc. Fitness, ease, naturalness and breath release occur spontaneously through play, even without any conscious striving for those effects.

A father goes to the gym with his young son. While Dad pumps iron, junior runs around and plays with his friends. The father certainly achieves a benefit, but his task is one of many, and he builds up resistance along with his muscles. At the end of the day the boy has achieved a more integrated fitness simply through the release of tensions that goes with fun and laughter. Who do you suppose most looks forward to returning to the gym?

Tragically, modern culture has a strict taboo against play for responsible adults. We are allowed to play, so long as it has a useful purpose—which, of course, defeats the real essence of play. Sports are okay because they make us fit. Music is okay as long as it enhances our real goals. But play as an end in itself is considered a waste of time and a threat to more useful activities, such as those that make us tighten up our muscles and scrunch our brows. In this human race it seems we must strive always to arrive at the end of life with the most resources.

Figure 1 depicts the arrow of time that encompasses your life. The vertical line represents the financial value you produce. The horizontal line represents the quality of your life and how you enjoy the passing of time. Balancing value (measured by money) with quality (measured over time) establishes the most direct route to fulfilling your desires. Value and quality are like two stars that you navigate your craft between to keep it on target.

Putting too much emphasis on money will enslave you to the almighty dollar. Too much focus on pleasure will leave you jaded and banish you to poverty. Both are side roads that may absorb you in the short run but prove disastrous over the long haul. A dynamic balance of time and money frees you up to play and to discover what you should do with the rest of your life.

THE FIRE OF DESIRE

When doing things you don’t really want to do, your efforts are lackluster. On the other hand, when you want to do something with all of your heart and soul, you are unstoppable.

Great athletes and performers don’t succeed on talent alone. They also possess a delightful desire that urges them toward wanting to reach their goals more than anything else. You too have that kind of desire in a specific arena, and your unique talent lies hidden within that deep desire.

Whomever and whatever you are, you do something supremely well. Each of us is a heroic figure, born with a particular purpose and designed to make a specific contribution to the world. The quality of our existence depends on whether or not we discover the activity that unleashes our talent. Every child is born with a gift. Each of us is a Picasso or Einstein, awaiting the recognition that awakens our innate genius.

Recognizing your gift begins the process of transforming that gift into an activity that enlivens you. That one particular activity will arouse great forces and treasures buried deep in our subconscious mind. Like Aladdin, you must find your way through the false treasures and find the lamp—the inner light— that awakens your genie (genius). You release this brilliant self by discovering the activities that light you up.

When doing the thing you are designed to do, you feel natural joy. Pleasure reinforces your efforts. You are more sensitive to your surroundings. The activity that piques your curiosity provides a clue to what you should be doing with your life. If you love Nature, for instance, you can learn how to earn a living protecting her. If you love people, you can create a lucrative career by serving them.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

There are two tests for determining how to spend your time and to earn money. First, does it light you up? And second, is it feasible? First let’s consider what lights you up.

Only your own vitality can guide you toward doing what is right for you. When people speak about their true passion, they display visible changes in their faces and bodies. They physically glow when they work within their calling.

Test the degree of your passion by asking an objective friend to listen as you describe your dream. As you become “warmer” or more excited, your eyes light up and your skin begins to glow. You feel more alive, more connected to your surroundings. When you grow “colder” or less enthusiastic, your expression falls and you disconnect from the people around you. An observant friend will notice the difference.

Already, you know some of the activities that turn you on and increase your vitality. Those activities are pieces of your life’s puzzle. Write each activity down on separate Post-it notes as they occur to you until you have collected a stack of notes representing the activities that form the mosaic of your ideal life.

Then lay the notes out and examine them. Sort them by similarities. In one corner you may place music or entertainment interests. In another corner you might begin with academic pursuits. Still another part of the puzzle might organize around sports or recreation. As you try to fit these activities together, you will begin to see that there are elements missing from your life. This awareness will put your biocomputer in a search mode, ferreting out connective activities that fill in the missing pieces.

Someone may light up on fishing and accounting. But how do these disparate activities fit together? Might there be connecting pieces that you have never before considered? Should you become a bookkeeper at a fishing lodge, or perhaps work for wealthy clients who go fishing with you?

As more pieces of your puzzle accumulate, the possibilities increase. The idea isn’t to get the “right answer.” Rather, you are learning to keep your options open and recognize the overall pattern in your needs. As you become comfortable with not knowing the answer, more intricate patterns will emerge. Look for the unexpected. After days or even weeks of contemplation, some event will occur in your life that makes sense in the larger pattern. Unexpected events will seem to answer the question that your mind couldn’t resolve. You will feel more alive and your view of your life will be larger.

Teachers and coaches tell us to focus on one thing, and most people interpret that to mean one piece of the puzzle. True focus creates a larger perspective by organizing all the activities that go into a great life. Your new perceptions approximate reality more closely because they don’t exclude essential parts of your nature.

When you were born your life was a puzzle. However, there was no picture on the box to help you assemble the pieces. Because we evolved from hunters and gatherers, we instinctively focus on the objects and movement. For eons our survival depended on noticing the movement of other bodies as distinct from the background. That familiar way of thinking limited our options. Traditional learning reinforces that fragmented thinking by interpreting every event we encounter as a potential threat.

Once mankind fulfilled some basic survival needs, a few people began to look at life from a larger perspective. They began to notice how events were connected. That kind of thinking is called systems thinking. When you let go of your fixation on objects and begin to notice how events are connected, you have more options to respond to those events. You can adapt better.

If we ask someone to describe something that occurred in their company, they respond with a generalization. “Janis did a good job.” If we ask them to clarify, they make a more specific generalization. “Janis really gave her best effort.” These concepts can’t be verified, so arguments ensue. People work at cross purposes. Vitality decreases. Their lights go out as they struggle to prove they are right and others are wrong.

Systematic thinking focuses attention precisely on the event. “Janis removed the vase from the table.” That statement is an accurate description, which helps other people notice what they did in relation to Janis’s action. “She handed me the vase and I put it in the sink.” Suddenly people are speaking the language of events. Their conversations reflect actual reality rather than conceptual reality. Instead of trading opinions, their words begin to reflect actual occurrences. They have common ground, which enables them to coordinate their actions better. Vitality increases. They light up.

Group thinking is what happens when people share conceptual realities. Concepts can be perfectly true, but they can also be perfectly boring. People argue familiar points and disagree on how to proceed. Opinions proliferate. Projects bog down. Thoughts and feelings flare up in response to separate interpretations.

Systemic thinking is thinking together as a network. Instead of interpretations, people communicate with descriptions of events. The accuracy of their observations enables them to play off each other. As the pace picks up they begin to get results at a faster pace. Their language brings attention to outcomes that are self-evident. Their descriptions can quickly be verified and the team can see the next step. Aliveness increases as everyone is caught up in the pleasure of achievement. Individuality disappears as the connections between their activities become clearer. When change comes they can adapt to real events, while others continue to gaze at their mental models.

Systemic thinking doesn’t eliminate ordinary thinking. In fact, you must persist in generalizing and in fulfilling your ego desires until they combine and merge with your actions. Systems expand your options by giving you an additional way to look at things. By adding another way to relate to events, you enrich your interpretation. Eventually your ideas begin to integrate with actual events. Through trial and error you awaken your senses and harness the energy that comes from vivid perceptions.

Action brings the conceptual and actual worlds into alignment. Go for what you want. When you fulfill a false desire, you get past it. You begin to notice the vitality that happens through your connection to other people. When you communicate through action, you create a natural attraction for the things that truly matter in life. You move and speak with the confidence of someone who won’t be denied. Your projects are magnetic and other people feel included. Money and pleasure come easily because you exude a strong yet gentle approach to life. Depriving yourself of legitimate desires destroys your motivation and only leads to burn out.

Once you know what lights you up, you must consider the second question: are those activities feasible? Can you assemble all of the things you enjoy into a workable business design? Do they add up to a service or product that works in the real world and under actual market conditions?

There are some simple reality tests that will help you answer these questions. Has anyone ever succeeded in doing the thing that interests you? Do you have talent in this arena? Do the activities you enjoy work within the laws of nature? Do they lend themselves to use by others who would pay to participate in them? Could you do those things for many years without burning out? Do listeners light up when you describe the activities you want to do for a living?

Look beyond the glamorous pictures in your mind to grasp the reality of your dream before you pursue it. Someone who wants to own a horse ranch, for example, should first spend some time cleaning stables. Actually, owning a ranch is nothing like Bonanza. Real ranching is sustained drudgery; lugging heavy tools, and completing earthy jobs. If you don’t resonate to that work, a horse ranch would just steal away your attention from the things you really enjoy.

On the other hand, don’t feel limited by obstacles that exist only in your mind. To find your core activities you have to try a lot of different things. Work on a ranch. Play in a band. Fly a plane. Try out all of the different things that you’ve ever wondered about.

Even if you think you are too young, or too old, or too ordinary, take some chances. It’s never too early to begin. It’s never too late, either. Beware self-doubt. Don’t accept disappointing verdicts from well-meaning friends. Einstein was considered simpleminded by his schoolmaster, yet, he learned the fundamentals of science, and then carried the entire field into a new dimension. The schoolmaster, on the other hand, is remembered only as a nuisance.

Some famous pop singers can barely carry a tune. It’s their flair that propels them to the top of the charts. Recognizing your limitations can help you rise above them. Those very limitations are often only one aspect of your unique intelligence. Many active children, for instance, are diagnosed as hyperactive, but in reality they are just high energy people. The wildest colts make the best horses.

WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE?

So, what do you want? Contemplate the things that make you happy. After you run through your habitually recurrent list, consider the question again. What do you really want? What one word would you use to express the core of your desire? What makes life worthwhile for you?

We earn our living interviewing people and giving them feedback on the things that light them up. Surprisingly, no one ever brightened up on pursuing anything lofty, significant, or spiritual. Everyone wants to light up on noble endeavors, but our roots lie in something more basic. In our experience, most people come alive around action and the toys that move them to action

Peak experiences and spiritual insights are considered sacred. We believe that material things are sacred, too. When you buy something you want, your purchase feeds and clothes the entire network of people who designed, and built, and sold that product.

Playful action is both material and spiritual at the same time. People genuinely delight in sports and recreation. Humans were made to play. Just about everybody we have ever worked with lit up when performing or making people laugh.

The thing you enjoy above all others is what makes you interesting and desirable. When you discover your function, your mind and body reorganize around it. That's why engineers often look like engineers, and lawyers often look like lawyers. Athletes look athletic, artists look artistic, and musicians look, well, musical. What you do for a living determines largely how you view life and the kind of person you become. People who work in cubicles begin to think inside the box. Those who serve people become more sociable. By making the right career choice for your particular nature and style, you are choosing the path of growth and fulfillment.

Your career shapes your body, facial structure, health, social life, tastes, and just about everything else that relates to the quality of your overall experience. If you want to be healthy and trim, conduct a project around fitness. Your body and face will conform to your function.

What is the activity that when you are engaged in it, makes your whole life fall into place? Once you realize your function, you want to perform it. Structure business projects around that activity. The best investment of your time and money is on projects that will earn you money for doing what you love.

There is a popular myth that entrepreneurs are risk takers. The opposite is true. We are the least inclined to bet on anything we can’t control. The majority of people who invest in stocks will eventually lose their investment. If you gamble in Las Vegas, you will inevitably lose money. And while creating your own business projects is risky, at least you control the risks.

Bet on yourself and your talent. Invest in your education and development. Invest your time and money in activities that build an exciting career. When you are doing the things that release you, people will pay you to do it.

So explore yourself more deeply. It can take years to discover the many dimensions of your gifts. Be willing to admit what you actually are. Don’t fear your greatness. Even if it shocks your parents or society, you must face your true nature. When you see what you love doing, it will consume you. There is no greater feeling than knowing you are living your dream.

The best possible plan builds community along with financial success. It grows your web of friendships right along with your fortune. Discovering your craft means finding the kind of people you want around you in your later years. Great friendships ensure the respect and appreciation that keeps your heart warm all the days of your life.

Your existence is a matter of great importance to a few people who resonate with you. On a larger scale, your life matters to all of mankind. Remember that the mere possibility of finding healing plants in the rainforests makes those forests important. If we lose them, we lose essential matter that may solve problems we haven’t even experienced yet. Your life is equally important when considering the larger scheme of things. If you fail to actualize your potential, we all lose. The rest of us need your talents for handling problems we face today and those yet to come.

Mother Nature designed you to produce a thing of great value, something that brings a bit of understanding to the evolution of intelligence. Society cannot live fully without your contribution. We may get by, but without your light we are impoverished.

VALUES

The following seven chapters will outline the stages that precede the launching of a new venture. The preparation phase is not just a time of planning. It is also a time to discover your mission, set goals, and try out a series of learning projects to test how your ideas will hold up in the real world. These projects will provide vital experiences and give you feedback that will let you know when you are growing your project or business in the right direction. But before you begin these activities, you must look deeply into yourself to understand the reasons for choosing a particular course of action. These reasons reflect your values.

Figure 2 lists the specific growth patterns of developing a business. Starting from the bottom, the words on the chart correspond to the titles of the following chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a specific stage of business.

We will present the stages of business in a linear, sequential order. In reality they overlap. Each stage occurs within the others, just as each section of a holograph contains images of the entire structure.

Values are the reasons behind your actions. Knowing yourself means knowing what really matters to you. You are happy to the extent that you are true to your values. When you conform to your own inner truth, your mood is light and cheery. To the extent that you remain true to your values, you will avoid disappointment. Values give direction to your intellectual and emotional intelligence.

Most decisions are emotional decisions. Your feelings decide, then your mental processes kick in to give logical reasons for your decisions. When you aren’t clear about your values, unpredictable feelings run your life. When you outline clear, coherent values, you become decisive. Your actions are integrated with your nature.

Success is built on a foundation of clarity. So unless you have a clear perception of reality, your business will get bogged down in fantasy or pessimism. Values are the foundation of clear perception.

The next time you find yourself in a particularly lucid state of mind, ask yourself honestly what really matters to you. What is most important? What do you consider desirable? Value is often used to describe the tangible cost of something. But clarifying your values goes beyond cost and return on investment. Values are the measure of the relative meaningfulness of things more important than money alone.

What value do you assign to health? When you don’t have it, it is worth far more than fame and fortune. But is health more important than family? And where does freedom fit into your evaluation? People raised in a middle-class environment might aspire to wealth, only to find it incongruous with their self-image. A radical environmentalist may be unwilling to lead a corporation that wastes natural resources.

Some personal values shift with the wind, while others are deep and abiding. Some values apply to all people, while others are unique to each individual. Some values are universal. Without exception, people are born sweet and loving. Our pure human nature is happy and optimistic, but that natural aliveness erodes over time. Each person must find his or her own path to restoring and maintaining that quality.

An active person might find happiness through action, while a passive person might find it through rest and contemplation. Each person has a built-in temperament. Every parent knows that two children sharing the same mother and father can have radically different dispositions. There are strong variations in sensitivity, character, and activity level. Yet all people share an innate respect for life. Our need to grow and to connect with others is hardwired into our systems.

Personal values appear in early childhood. They are woven into the fabric of our muscles and nerves as we grow. Much of what is considered our mind is muscle memory. From our parents and community we learn to define ourselves with certain attitudes and beliefs that become deeply held convictions. We view time and money through the filters of our culture. Hopes and fears create deep moods which form our personalities. People who suffer poverty early in life often feel insecure as adults, even if they are actually successful. Unconscious feelings color every transaction.

Personal values are the secret ingredient in wealth. If you can train yourself to have courage, alertness and humility you can win the success game. Those who were raised by entrepreneurs in a stable family environment are likely to have more of the personality characteristics required for success. The rest of us have to find role models to help us develop that perspective. Too many people have trained their minds to make excuses and blame their situation on others. If they spent half as much time getting results as they spend fabricating reasons for failure, they would be rich.

Each time you approach success, personality glitches surface to destroy your best laid plans. There simply aren’t enough years in a lifetime to correct all of these flaws. However, you can compensate for your weaknesses by building character as you earn. The first challenge is to uncover your true values, both positive and negative.

Your talent determines your potential success, but it is your personality that determines your actual achievements. You can change your personality if you are willing to go through a powerful crisis. It requires facing up to how wrong you are and it goes against your deepest feelings of what is right. Right now, the final conclusion of all of your thoughts is that you are right and everyone else is wrong. It is an expensive argument. You can be right or you can be rich. Ultimately, you will be one or the other.

Personality values are stubborn traits because we believe they reflect who we really are. If you identify yourself as a nice person, you probably believe your own press. Unconsciously, you expect other people to act nice as well. The trait of forcefulness becomes taboo, rendering you unable to lead people in a difficult or dangerous situation.

Negative personality values include prejudice and bigotry. People who hate because of race or religion find it extremely hard to let go of feelings they have most likely shared with family members and friends since childhood.

Ego values exist more on the surface. On top of our core and personality values, we carry superficial values related to style or preference. These are shallow social values learned from peers. If a persona is the mask we wear in society, ego is the makeup. It exists in the way we use words to make ourselves seem important. These are childish values that give way to reason. You can change them easily if you are willing to endure the embarrassment of seeing yourself as others see you.

Ego values are related to false pride. Some of them are fun: Who doesn’t enjoy dressing up and going out with friends? And don’t we all love to tell stories that make us look good? Other ego values present galling limitations. The ego wants to exclude people who are different. That kind of thinking can damage one’s career.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

We are attracted to other people who share our values. Wealthy people make friends with other wealthy people. Prosperity begins with an appreciation for money and the things it can buy. People who share that value are attracted by superior products. They dress alike and live in similar homes.

Entrepreneurs share certain values that are recognized and appreciated by other free agents. They tend to be thrifty and generous at the same time. They keep expenses low, yet they reward performance generously. We have heard reports from entrepreneurs about the difficulty of hiring corporate people. It seems that big company folks have a habit of busting small business budgets with high priced meeting rooms and marketing schemes that bring no clear return on investment. Reality-based values are the difference between survival and disaster for entrepreneurs.

When you build the web of connections that will determine your future, look for people who have the values you desire to have for yourself. Values determine compatibility. If yours don’t match up with those of potential partners, you won’t get along for very long.

To attract compatible people, communicate what is important to you. Declare aloud the values that bring you fulfillment. Let everyone know where you stand, or risk unconsciously deceiving other people. You can’t build a successful business or a happy life with people who don’t share your values.

Beware of self-deception and double binds. Imagine, for instance, a father whose most important value is his family. He wants to provide for them and works long hours to do so. But at the end of the work day, he is too tired to spend time with them. If you understand your priorities clearly, you can begin to design a lifestyle that protects what is really meaningful.

Most people’s careers begin with an accident and unfold as a tragedy. You may have taken a test and scored high in a certain area, so your guidance counselor designed your education to follow that tendency. Or perhaps your parents wanted you to be something they, not you, could be proud of. On every step along the way, someone else was making a design for you. When you finally arrived at your career, it may not have been the one you would have chosen. If so you must assess your values all over again.

It takes courage to declare what matters most to you. People close to you may be shocked when you affirm your values. But when this piece is in place, your dream has begun. You have established roots.

UNIVERSAL VALUES

The values of business have evolved over centuries through tribes and villages in bazaars and marketplaces. Over the centuries we have learned how to understand the needs of others.

The first two needs that must be fulfilled in business are trust and pleasure. Before people spend money, they must first have trust. Earning the trust of your customers and associates is the first order of business for an entrepreneur. Honesty is the foundation of integrity. Business systems based on corruption eventually fall.

The golden rule is your best counsel. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Treating other people the way you want to be treated isn’t just a good philosophy; it’s good business.

Work with honest associates. Finally, you will be judged by the company you keep. How people perceive you and your team determines whether or not they will use your product or service.

Price also sets the tone for the value of your product. While the lowest economic rung of society spends their money based on the price of the product alone, the wealthier portion of society is developing a more sophisticated set of values: they are attracted by quality, and they are willing to pay for it.

Once trust is established, people need pleasure. Babies that are untouched as infants grow slower and suffer more illness than those that are held and caressed. People require sensory gratification. After survival needs are fulfilled, recreation needs take precedence. Perhaps that is why the most important U.S. export is films. Entertainment is good for the soul.

Values actually stem from physiological sensations. Our bodies crave pleasure. We want to play and be happy. We perform best when we achieve a complete emotional release that enables us to perform on the stage of life with abandon.

HIGHER VALUES

The new service economy is based on entrepreneurs who spend most of their waking hours trying to figure out better ways to serve consumers. This application of human inventiveness is changing society for the better. Our culture is less focused on exploitation of people and more focused on serving them. Rather than trying to win at the expense of others, we are learning to create greater value for one another. The changes in business reflect a new maturity.

In this positive new environment, we strive for perfection. We expect exquisite service. Poor service still occurs, but now we can make a distinction when it works and when it doesn’t. Humanity is achieving a new standard of excellence.

These new standards lift us up. Higher values offer a defense against our own deterioration and mortality. They lend greater dignity to our existence. By discovering your own values, you gain perspective on what service or product you can provide. Digging beneath the mind chatter and getting down to what really matters in your world requires asking yourself some tough questions.

What matters for humanity? What contribution can you make with your life? How do you feel about dying? Do you have a specific fear regarding death? What do you resist about dying? Is there anything you would give up your life for? Addressing these questions is vital, because having something worth dying for means having something worth living for. What matters enough to you that you would commit your entire life to it? How can you organize a business around something that matters that much to you?

Use these questions to create new possibilities. If you had only a year to live, what would you do with your remaining months? How would you spend your time? What would take priority? What if you were given only a month to live? If you were certain you had only thirty days left, where would you direct your attention? How many days would you schedule for self-pity?

And what if you had only a day or one hour, what would take priority? How you answer these questions is the beginning of a lifelong search for determining your own values. Effective living requires an exploration of your relationship with your own mortality.

There are absolute values coded into your body type and cultural patterns. The more closely you conform to your ideal values, the more alive you will feel. Your perceived value to other people can be measured by accounting for the vitality you experience in your body and by the physical energy you generate in your employees and clients.

When you live according to your highest values, you achieve fearlessness. You may still feel moments of anxiety, but you stare them down. You experience a release from your mental arguments and conflicts. A larger perspective begins to soothe the savage within.

MISSION

According to Albert Schweitzer, those who find happiness are those who have a sufficient purpose. When you distill your values into a challenging purpose, your mission appears.

Before you can hit a target, you need a clear aim. Your mission is a life game that attracts like-minded people to participate in fulfilling your values. By combining your values into one coherent mission, you create a purpose that provides direction for your life. That mission brings together people who share the same values and gives them a way to help each other achieve what they all desire.

Your mission is your personal vision. It may be lofty and wonderful, or it may be simple and sweet. Some people want to change the world, while others may be more interested in earning a decent living or raising a family.

Vision means clarity. Your mission isn’t a mental image, but rather an ability to give your attention to events in the real, physical world. You become successful by seeing things as they are. To succeed, you can’t afford to harbor any illusions about your limitations. What one person can achieve, another can surpass. Viewing yourself as a small player won’t inspire others to join you on your mission.

Reach for great achievements. Make your mission a mighty one. Live your life as a series of amazing events. Throw parties. Schedule trips. Meet the people you admire. Become the person that other people admire. Organize people and events to serve your higher purpose. Goethe’s voice echoes through the ages, reminding us that boldness has genius in it.

Vision means looking to the road ahead. Remaining within the boundaries of your path allows you to more easily enjoy passion and pleasure. When you stray from your natural direction, your body signals you with fear and pain. Over time, pleasurable impulses provide frames of reference that focus your attention and keep you on track. Good sensations are linked to behaviors and procedures that accomplish your aspirations. Your senses provide the feedback that keeps you on course.

When you are focused on your mission, you won’t have much time for conflict. That kind of attentiveness is riveting. It makes you a better person. Your commitment inspires other people. You become so enlivened by living your values and fulfilling your purpose that people ignite their own careers by association with you. Your magnetism increases in proportion to the scope of your mission.

Your purpose sets the tone for your life; it focuses your allies on the same channel. A compelling mission creates attraction. It defines a game that aligns people and encourages them to tell others about your business.

When numerous individuals combine their visions into one shared mission, together they create a living system. When you start to understand yourself in terms of deeper connections, you find your place in the timeless flow of life. You achieve immortality by merging your intelligence into a purpose that continues beyond your life span.

In the world of worries, on the other hand, you drift, lost in time. You are a wretched mortal striving to acquire all you can before your miserable end. Recognizing your role instead in the larger family and community gives you a long range perspective. It provides a sense of meaning.

SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US

How do other people view your business? What do your clients experience? You must know the answers to these questions in order to structure your business. When you achieve sensitivity to the needs of your customers, all other aspects of your business will fall into place.

People who have found their purpose move purposefully, as if they are going somewhere. Their aim is clear, their stride is confident. Those with no aim meander through life, trying to fit into someone else’s vision. They begin to exaggerate the losses and feel cheated by life.

Begin your business journey by establishing your own purpose. Try to summarize your mission in a few brief sentences. Be sure your mission ignites your passion. Just thinking of and stating your purpose should quicken your pulse and brighten up your day.

Design your purpose to benefit others. A great purpose serves humanity. As you formulate your mission, share it with people you respect. See if they react favorably. When your mission is meaningful, your natural enthusiasm inspires other people. Find the primary thing that moves you. It’s hidden within the activity that you most enjoy. The more you refine your mission, the happier you will become. Life is much more interesting when you make a big impact.

A proper mission is based on ambition. It requires a strong ego. Leaders are moved by one of three basic drives: Wealth, fame and winning. At the most basic level, entrepreneurs are not more noble than other people. We just want to get our way, just like happy children who demand everything without guilt.

To harness your inner drive you must know which of the three motivators moves you most powerfully. Do you secretly dream of fame? Or does financial freedom seem more important? Perhaps you are one of those people who prefer to win at any cost? Don’t use logic to figure it out. Instead, see which one excites you most. You might initially feel the excitement as fear. Don’t let that deter you. By facing your “positive” fears you unleash the power to thrill.

Even if you aspire to all three desires, one will emerge as your primary driver. If you are like most people, you have probably lived in denial of what you really want. Until you recognize your fundamental drive, you can’t even get on the game board. In lieu of fighting against the base side of human nature, learn to harness it. Ambition is the drive that determines the size of your target. False humility suppresses your arousal. Hiding from your challenge dulls the senses.

As you step out onto the playing field you leave your timid character behind. Standing up for your mission makes people see you in a new light. Think about how you want others to view you. Brand yourself with the image you want to live, before someone else puts their brand on your hide. What kind of character will you play? How will you costume that character? What position will you play in the theater of business?

The image you convey is the only direct link most people will have to your purpose. Your business style must relate to the people who are your target audience. It must arouse their desire to do business with you.

In the beginning of your career you may need to try some different images. Trial and error lets you know when your “look” is right to bring you the connections you desire. People are birds of a sort, who associate by their “feathers.” How you present yourself determines your flock. Evolve an image that expresses who you really are. If you aren’t being yourself, you are presenting a false image that will halt the growth of your business.

BARRIERS TO LIVING YOUR DREAM

It takes a compelling reason to exact real change in anyone. Determining your purpose provides that compelling reason. That reason must be stronger than the obstacles you will face.

The moment you embrace your purpose, your faults will begin to show themselves. You will discover that your self-image is at odds with reality. Part of refining your aim in life is seeing yourself more clearly. Be prepared to not like all that you see. Your evaluation of your capabilities is based on assumptions that don’t hold up under fire. The very act of deciding where you want to go will force you to notice some of the things you are doing that are taking you in the wrong direction.

Maybe you are too pushy. Or do you quit too easily? Perhaps you even secretly prefer to prevent other people from enjoying their own lives. It is impossible to find your fatal flaw by simply looking for it. If it were so easily found, you would have already fixed it. Still, unconsciously you think you know where the problem resides. But each step of business reveals a new crop of petty attitudes that must come to the surface to melt away.

One way to confront your weaknesses is to get help from people who love and respect you. Ask them to be candid. Ask them if they see any patterns in your behavior that might interfere with your success. Set up ground rules. No criticism and no advice. No personal agenda. Just accurate descriptions of actions and behaviors they have seen that might sink your craft. Some of what you hear might sting, so don’t respond. Sit with their feedback for a couple of days. Then go back and repeat their observations to them without comment to make sure you heard them right.

The mind is incredibly effective at self-delusion. That’s why you want to learn to think as objectively as possible at this point in your career. Further refine your ability to stop thinking in terms of who is right and who is wrong. Instead, expand your skill at viewing each situation in terms of what worked and what didn’t work. This theme will come up again as you grow into new stages of business.

Until now your mind has been trained to focus on simple answers and seek simple solutions. Associate with people who think differently. Practice thinking with scenarios that allow you to consider many possible courses of action. Use analysis to catch the inconsistencies in your thinking. Let logic replace the mental habit of twisting events to make your view right and prove that other interpretations are wrong.

Stop making excuses. Let your results speak for you. Allow your mind to concoct all the reasons explaining why you have yet to reach your goals. Acknowledge those ideas, and then let them float by. None of them hold any clue to your effectiveness. Train your attention to watch the outcomes you produce.

Assess your cash flow and your intimacy every day. Both are dependable barometers of your aliveness. If you are doing without these essential qualities, you are probably frozen in your mental interpretation of life.

Clarity comes from observing the outcomes of your actions. Every experience either provides additional energy or robs you of it. The rest is just explanation or justification. When you truly learn something, your vitality increases. Your mind may react with confusion. That just means you are entering new territory. Often when your plans go awry and your whole life is collapsing, you will catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror with eyes as bright as fire.

Contemplation is a technique of relaxing while considering many possibilities and perspectives. By remaining calm, you can accept all possible outcomes emotionally. Once your mind is clear, a clear mission begins to emerge.

THE MISSION STATEMENT

Your mission requires a plan, just as a journey requires a map. The details may be fuzzy at this stage of business, so don’t worry about getting a business plan together yet. Just start with a simple mission statement that communicates to other people what your career means to you. Write your aim in a few simple sentences so that potential associates can evaluate your intention. What will your project or business deliver to other people? How will you achieve your purpose? Why would others be inspired to assist you? Be sure to put your aim in positive terms.

GOALS

As your mission evolves, your business game grows increasingly attractive. Because you are forging ahead in a specific direction, the kind of excitement you generate makes other people want to join your cause. To organize your efforts you must break your mission down into specific goals with measurable outcomes.

You are setting goals from the first moment you decide to start your own business. But now, your goals take center stage. This section refers to the phase in business building in which you begin making the promises you intend to keep over the course of your career. You don’t pay professionals to play. You pay them to win. Other people will base their own careers on the assumption that you will keep your word and win your game.

Planning gets more specific at this stage. What will you accomplish with your life? What will you achieve in the next week, month, and year? What can your team count on you for? Having goals is important, but achieving those goals makes you more trustworthy.

The words integrity and integrated stem from the same root word. Your integrity refers to the extent to which you earn your fortune while remaining true to yourself. It isn’t morality. No one else can define or dictate your integrity. When you are authentic, you will attract one half of society while repulsing the second half. If you do what you say, you will win over the people who are right for your product or service.

Some goals are tangible. You want to earn a hundred thousand dollars or buy a new home. Others are intangible. You need the good will of your customers. What are the people whom you admire saying about you? What are your customers saying about your business? The ultimate goal of business is to get people talking about you and your product. While some goals can be measured by money or things or outcomes, the most valuable goal you can achieve is the good will of others.

We all have deep, primary goals that underlie all other goals. These essence goals reflect your basic needs. Often people set goals and reach them, only to realize that they really don’t fulfill. Owning a nice house or beautiful car is important, but there are goals that are closer to our heart. There is nothing wrong with wanting to become an executive vice-president. But our true desires are psychological needs that define us and give us a reason to live.

The most essential goals you can pursue are good connections with people who are points of light in your world. These folks are luminaries, because they light up your life. They inform you of when you are traveling the right path by the pleasure and aliveness they glean from your services. They make you want to be a better person. You feel good about yourself when you are near them.

Good people return your gestures of good will. By building their satisfaction you are setting up a web of connections that can generate a fortune. Your success in life derives from the story that influential people tell about you.

Along with our essential needs, we all have lots of things we consider personally important. These goals reflect our desires. Desire is an obsession. People have a tendency to focus on desires at the expense of actual needs. Desires are important. To ignore them is to repress the things that motivate us. It is important to give priority to our essential needs, but we should also pursue our desires.

Our desires fall into two categories. Business objectives are what we want to achieve and personal desires are what we want to acquire. Everything you want can be categorized as either a personal or professional goal. If you fail to achieve your goals you will unconsciously thwart the desires of other people. But when you take care of yourself you free up your mind to attend to others.

GOALS MAKE THE GAME FUN

Human beings are obsessed with obtaining that which we desire. Goals refine our aim. They bring the target into focus and increase the intensity of the business game. Goals include the things you want and those that you want to do. The wrong goals add pressure to your life. The right goals lift your spirits. They may cause stress, but never strain.

Make sure you have the right goals by noticing if they light you up. Be certain that you are aiming for an outcome that will really satisfy you. Goals are a public declaration of what you want. People typically shoot for ego-based desires that don’t bring much joy when they are fulfilled. Unless your goals elicit spontaneous enthusiasm, achieving them is not satisfying. A lot of people get everything they never wanted. They don’t realize until it is too late that they are going nowhere fast.

Will Rogers once said that too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like. Your real goals don’t just please other people. They please you.

Some of your goals might seem totally outrageous. You may find that you are an undiscovered rock star, or that you’d rather be a fishing guide in Alaska. If such seemingly outlandish goals turn out to be genuine, you must honor them. But remember that each thing that lights you up is only a piece of a very complex puzzle. Only when you see how all of the pieces fit together will you fully comprehend what you should be doing.

Goals work best when they are stated in positive terms. Start by saying exactly what you want. Don’t even consider what you don’t want. Whatever you resist persists. If you try to avoid conflict, it will find you. If you work to escape poverty, it will lurk behind every tree. Accentuate the positive.

Desired outcomes happen automatically when you organize your work properly. Hankering after things only creates frustration. If you bend yourself out of shape and push past resistance to produce an out come, you lose your aim. The monetary result becomes insignificant.

Aim directly for what you do want. Declare it publicly to attract other players who may want to participate in your game. Chart a precise navigational course. Give your magnificent brain a game worth playing and a dollar amount worth earning. Instead of saying you want prosperity, set an exact number you will achieve and a specific time when you will achieve it.

Set goals that will attract people with compatible skills. If you aren’t an accountant, ensure that your game earns enough to attract a person with good accounting skills. If you don’t enjoy selling, set goals that enable sales people to contribute. Cooperation occurs when your goals jibe with the goals of other people.

Millions of people tune in to professional sports because they love the thrill of watching people work hard to score goals. Goals lift us up to our essential nature by forcing us to face reality. You can’t fake a goal. You either reach it or you don’t.

GOAL SETTING

You can reach your goals most effectively when you write them down. The mere act of committing them to paper makes them seem more significant in your mind. Begin by listing your primary goals. What do you want to accomplish that would really change your life? Then spend some time deciding how much you want to earn and what you will get with it. Every goal is sacred if it comes from you.

Put enthusiasm into goal setting. Low vitality goal-setting leads to boring results. If your goals don’t energize you and make you want to yell, they are probably just ideas bred from your worries. Make your goals realistic yet challenging. They must be trying enough to flush out your hidden talents. Set goals for all of the important areas of your life. Well-rounded goals balance business with career, health and family. Balanced goals transform life from a bleak never-ending chore to an exciting adventure.

Let the enjoyment of life organize your thinking. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask. No one can achieve goals alone. Find people to assist you. Reaching goals requires teamwork. People love to participate in exciting games.

The first step in goal setting is brain storming. Record everything that occurs to you. Avoid analysis at this point; otherwise you will make up reasons to stop before you’ve even begun.

Some goals matter more than others. Over time, your goals will self-organize according to a spectrum of importance and you’ll see which goals you can turn into promises. Test your early ideas with action. When you start doing what you love, natural goals emerge that entice you to keep on enjoying yourself.

Keep your goals simple. State your goals loud and clear to everyone who supports you. Communicate them repeatedly. As you continue to declare your desires in various ways, they will become clear to other people. But if you fail to repeat your goals often, people will write them off. Advertisers understand the importance of stating the same message over and over again until it becomes a part of people’s thinking.

As your goals crystallize, implement them with all your energy. Putting off your desires confuses other people. Speak your mind. Begin immediately so you don’t get distracted. Act, or you will deprive yourself in a way that also interferes with what is best for other people.

Procrastination is nothing more than having the wrong goals. If your objectives are comprised of things you love to do, no one will be able to distract you. If you are really a dancer, you must dance. You will overcome any obstacle to do so.

Enlist effective people to collaborate on your goals. Cooperation with others is central to everything you want to accomplish. You must understand other people and make yourself understood in order to get where you want to go. All of business is organized around goals. People work together to accomplish complex productions. Invest the time to learn what people want because you’ll only reach your own goals by helping others reach theirs.

Goal achievement is a natural human process. Children don’t think of playing; play is their whole entire existence. When they try to have fun, it is lost. If they try to be cute, it is impossible. These things just happen. The same is true of achieving goals.

Goal setting is part of the preparation stage. Contemplate your goals often. Stay relaxed during the times you spend sorting through your goals. Business isn’t busyness. Take action, but don’t rush around in pursuit of them.

People who take action without preparation wind up going around in circles. Learn to let your intelligence do all the work. Intelligence incorporates mental, emotional, and physical vitality. We recommend goal setting parties where you can share ideas as they roll off your brain. Let your imagination run wild. You can sort through them later to see which ones are viable.

Too many people fail to reach their goals in life simply because they won’t speak up for what they want. When anxiety clenches the throat, they squelch their desires so they can avoid making waves. This condition is called constriction. It leads to disappointment, and, if continued for too long, eventually hardens into melancholy and depression.

It requires an act of will to keep the words flowing when you are choked with fear. Take a deep breath and speak up. Do it every time. Keep your needs and desires front and center, since they are the script for the life you were meant to live. Keep insisting on expressing yourself or you will be shouted down.

GAME STRATEGIES

One reason for America’s economic success in the last century is our use of game strategy in business. People love games and sports. Some will go any distance or pay any price to watch their favorite team play. Smart managers design their businesses to make people feel like they are playing for their favorite team. Goals are designed to make life into a game.

Kicking a ball around can get a little boring. Put up two goal posts, however, and watch the excitement grow. Millions of people organize the meaning of their lives around watching others kick a ball back and forth. Wise business leaders tap into that playfulness.

People love to play. When human beings are fully engaged in a delightful game, their fears and worries dissolve. Action is the attraction. Focused action is the secret ingredient to pleasure. Games are simply sustained patterns of focused action.

Men and women tend to be attracted to different games. Masculine games simulate combat. They are generally contests with winners and losers. One person triumphs over someone else. Sports, computer games, and board games fall into this pattern. These are win-lose games.

Feminine games are more like stories. Women are more likely to talk in detail about connections between people. They put less emphasis on defeating another player. The focus instead is on uniting and cooperating to overcome external conditions such as separation or ignorance. These are win-win games.

The public education system is based on masculine games. Some children get top grades while others fail to make the grade. Movies and literature carry the same theme, featuring good guys and bad guys, winners and losers. Masculine games predominate throughout human culture.

The win-win concept has been refined by twentieth-century mathematicians. Combining win-win theory with business creates an extremely beneficial game that generates great value with little waste of resources.

Capitalism and communism were masculine games that squandered time and money. Now we are seeing a new force in business. Today’s entrepreneurs are defining a new economy that makes winners of us all. This new service economy values nurturing and receptivity to customer needs as highly as it values capital and natural resources.

The service industry favors soft skills such as politeness and good communication. Modern entrepreneurs are more alert to what people want. When customers win, business wins. Sensitivity is as valuable as forcefulness. Business is becoming a warmer, friendlier place.

Masculine oriented businesses take bigger risks, grow more quickly, and fail more often. Feminine oriented businesses avoid risk, grow slowly, and enjoy a longer life span.

America clearly leads the way in integrating men and women together into the work force. Other countries may aspire to our productive levels, but they keep half of their team—women—on the sidelines. Women who play the business game in other countries are not in a position to contribute much to the overall goals of their nations because they are kept from power and are poorly paid. There is a strong correlation between the prosperity of a nation and the degree of opportunity they allow women.

It’s true that there are a few jobs that men can do better than women, but there are also plenty of jobs that women can do better than men. A service industry favors sensitivity over strength. Entrepreneurs and business leaders must learn to view goals through a different lens to understand how both genders can work together to achieve the goals of the entire culture. Larger goals can be achieved by dedicated groups of professionals who play on the same team, move in the same direction, and work for the same outcome.