One summer, I had a wedding to attend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I had a few days to spare, and my wife and I enjoy each other’s company, so I suggested to Linda that we drive instead of fly. She readily agreed and started collecting the maps we’d need for the trip. As we plotted the course, we would be driving from Toronto to Detroit, Detroit to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Lexington, Lexington to Louisville and then into Gatlinburg.
We were plotting the vision, you see, to get us from Point A to Point B.
When we got in the car to begin the trip, which city was I thinking of? Detroit. I had to get to Detroit first; if I missed Detroit, there’d be a good chance we wouldn’t find our way to the wedding at all.
Detroit was first on my list—that was my GOAL. After Detroit was accomplished, Cincinnati became my goal, and so on… all the way to my final destination—Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
I’ve had people come up and tell me that they’ve given up on their big dreams because they never seemed to get closer, no matter what they envisioned or tried. The error they’re making is that they’re looking for their Gatlinburg while they’re still sitting in the driveway in Toronto. In many instances, they’re writing their Gatlinburg goal on a Goal Card I’ve given them, or they’re writing it in a journal somewhere. This is all well and good, but if you’re not also plotting your course to get from where you are to where you want to be… if you’re not figuring out the first goal is Detroit, then following that plotline forward in progressive order, you’re going to end up in Montreal instead.
You’ve GOT to plot the course. Figure out what you need to do between here and there and make those your goals. Once you have the course plotted, though, there are three very distinct rules of thumb I want you to remember.
First, just because you’ve plotted the course doesn’t mean you can put your whole plan on autopilot. When pilots reach cruising altitude they’ll quite often put the plane on autopilot and let years of genius physics and calculus computations steer the plane toward its destination. But even with autopilot, you’ve got to manually get the plane in the air and manually land it. And even with autopilot, you’ve got to keep an eye on your instruments and pay attention to possible curveballs Mother Nature might toss your way.
You cannot rely on autopilot to get you where you want to go. You have to be personally involved and focused on the process.
Second, don’t get so carried away with the details of plotting the action steps within your vision that you don’t ever get out of your driveway. You know what I’m talking about—you see people around you do it all the time. They get so caught up in planning and charting and graphing their future that they never BEGIN it. This is fear in disguise—that’s all it is. Your plan doesn’t have to be perfect. Get the foundational elements in place and get moving.
Third, don’t be so intent on motoring to Detroit that you miss the scenery along the way. You’re on purpose… you’re on your way… enjoy the journey, for heaven’s sake. After all, that’s what you’re doing this for, isn’t it?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Five Rules for Entrepreneurship by Brian Tracy
Entrepreneurship is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur or business person has been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before someone else did. Here are the five rules for success.
1. Find a Need and Fill It
Human needs and wants are unlimited. Therefore, the opportunities for entrepreneurship and financial success are unlimited as well. The only constraint on the business opportunities available to you are the limits you place on your own imagination.
2. Find a Problem and Solve It
Wherever there is a widespread and unsolved customer problem, there is an opportunity for you to start and build a successful business. Once upon a time, before photocopies, the only way to type multiple copies of a letter was with carbon paper places between sheets of stationary. But a single mistake would require the typist to go through and erase the mistakes on every single copy. This was enormously clumsy and time consuming. Then a secretary working for small company in Minneapolis began mixing flour with nail varnish in order to white out the mistake she was making in her typing. Soon, people in other offices began asking for it. The demand became so great that she quit her job and began working full-time manufacturing what she called “Liquid Paper.” A few years later, the Gillette Corporation came along and bought her out for $47 million cash.
3. Unlimited Opportunities
There are problems everywhere. Your job is to find one of these problems and solve it better than it has been solved in the past. Find a problem that everyone has and see if you can't come up with a solution for it. Find a way to supply a product or service better, cheaper, faster, or easier. Use your imagination.
4. Focus on the Customer
The key to success in business is to focus on the customer. Become obsessed with your customer. Become fixated on your customer's wants, needs, and desires. Think of your customer all the time. Think of what your customer is willing to pay for. Think about your customer's problems. See yourself as if you were working for your customer.
5. Bootstrap Your Way to Success
Once you have come up with a problem or idea, resolve to invest your time, talent, and energy instead of your money to get started. Most great personal fortunes in the United States were started with an idea and with the sale of personal services. Most great fortunes were started by people with no money, resources, or backing. They were started by individuals who came up with an idea and who then put their whole heart into producing a product or service that someone else would buy.
Action Exercise
Look for business opportunities everywhere, develop, an entrepreneurial mind-set, and continually be open and curious about the needs not satisfied and problems not solved. One idea is all you need to make your first million.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
What it takes to be great, by By Geoffrey Colvin, senior editor-at-large
Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work
(Fortune Magazine) -- What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.
Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.
Born Winner? Golf champ Tiger Woods (pictured at 3 years old) never stopped trying to improve. Woods (pictured in 2001) devoted hours to practice and even remade his Swing twice, because that's what it took to get better. Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.
Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."
To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.
The irresistible question - the "fundamental challenge" for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.
Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time. But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.
No substitute for hard work
The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.
Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.
What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.
So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?
Practice makes perfect
The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."
Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.
The skeptics
Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?
Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age. But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents. And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.
Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn't do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast. Even those restrictions are less severe than you'd expect: Ericsson notes, "Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s." The more research that's done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.
Real-world examples
All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century's greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it." He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.
Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he'd have been cut from his high school team.)
In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.
Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.
The business side
The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.
Still, they aren't the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too? You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.
Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.
Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill. Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company's strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion. Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.
Adopting a new mindset
Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.
Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.
Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.
Be the ball
Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.
Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel as needed. Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market. John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever. He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.
That's a lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically.
Why?
For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.
The authors of one study conclude, "We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice." Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, "Some people are much more motivated than others, and that's the existential question I cannot answer - why."
The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.
Maybe we can't expect most people to achieve greatness. It's just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.
(Fortune Magazine) -- What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.
Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.
Born Winner? Golf champ Tiger Woods (pictured at 3 years old) never stopped trying to improve. Woods (pictured in 2001) devoted hours to practice and even remade his Swing twice, because that's what it took to get better. Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.
Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."
To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.
The irresistible question - the "fundamental challenge" for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.
Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time. But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.
No substitute for hard work
The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.
Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.
What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.
So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?
Practice makes perfect
The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."
Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.
The skeptics
Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?
Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age. But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents. And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.
Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn't do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast. Even those restrictions are less severe than you'd expect: Ericsson notes, "Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s." The more research that's done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.
Real-world examples
All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century's greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it." He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.
Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he'd have been cut from his high school team.)
In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.
Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.
The business side
The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.
Still, they aren't the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too? You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.
Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.
Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill. Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company's strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion. Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.
Adopting a new mindset
Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.
Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.
Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.
Be the ball
Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.
Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel as needed. Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market. John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever. He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.
That's a lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically.
Why?
For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.
The authors of one study conclude, "We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice." Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, "Some people are much more motivated than others, and that's the existential question I cannot answer - why."
The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.
Maybe we can't expect most people to achieve greatness. It's just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.
Friday, October 30, 2009
You Are Called By God, by Ps Kong Hee
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. 2 Timothy 1:9
There are four things 2 Timothy 1:9 tells us:
(1) You are called the moment you are saved. You need to see that being called is part of salvation. The moment you give your heart to Jesus, He saves you and calls you with a “holy calling.”
(2) Your calling sets you apart from the crowd. Because your calling is “holy,” it sets limits and boundaries to the things you can indulge in. Every Christian is like a champion athlete. An athlete sets himself apart to be better, faster and stronger. But in order to succeed, he must devote himself totally to that cause and go all out after it.
(3) God will give you the strength to fulfill your calling. It is not going to depend on your own abilities, level of education or social status. Whenever you go for job interviews, these are the things people generally quiz you about. What school did you come from? Do you have a degree? But when it comes to the calling of God, it is “not according to our works” or achievements. He is going to strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit. His grace is sufficient for you.
(4) God’s calling for you was settled before time began. God has settled in advance the destiny of your life. And when the right time comes, He calls you. Nothing in life happens by accident. You are part of God’s eternal plan even before He created anything. That is why when God saves us, He can immediately call us. Because your purpose was already in His mind. As such, you need to discover your calling. The way you do that is to unreservedly give God your life. Once you discover your purpose, you need to cultivate that calling. That requires focus, discipline and training.
One of the greatest soccer players who ever played for Manchester United is George Best. In practically every game he played, MU would win that match. But George Best was addicted to women and drinking. No one could rely on him to turn up for a game. The club wanted him so much that they offered him £50,000 every time he showed up, which was a lot of money in the sixties! But George Best blew it all away. Why? A lack of dedication. He never achieved his greatest potential because he didn’t cultivate his calling. The Holy Spirit will never lead you beyond the point that you want to be controlled by Him. There can be no substitute for the decision you make of your own accord. Don’t blow your calling because of a lack of decisive, radical dedication.
There are four things 2 Timothy 1:9 tells us:
(1) You are called the moment you are saved. You need to see that being called is part of salvation. The moment you give your heart to Jesus, He saves you and calls you with a “holy calling.”
(2) Your calling sets you apart from the crowd. Because your calling is “holy,” it sets limits and boundaries to the things you can indulge in. Every Christian is like a champion athlete. An athlete sets himself apart to be better, faster and stronger. But in order to succeed, he must devote himself totally to that cause and go all out after it.
(3) God will give you the strength to fulfill your calling. It is not going to depend on your own abilities, level of education or social status. Whenever you go for job interviews, these are the things people generally quiz you about. What school did you come from? Do you have a degree? But when it comes to the calling of God, it is “not according to our works” or achievements. He is going to strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit. His grace is sufficient for you.
(4) God’s calling for you was settled before time began. God has settled in advance the destiny of your life. And when the right time comes, He calls you. Nothing in life happens by accident. You are part of God’s eternal plan even before He created anything. That is why when God saves us, He can immediately call us. Because your purpose was already in His mind. As such, you need to discover your calling. The way you do that is to unreservedly give God your life. Once you discover your purpose, you need to cultivate that calling. That requires focus, discipline and training.
One of the greatest soccer players who ever played for Manchester United is George Best. In practically every game he played, MU would win that match. But George Best was addicted to women and drinking. No one could rely on him to turn up for a game. The club wanted him so much that they offered him £50,000 every time he showed up, which was a lot of money in the sixties! But George Best blew it all away. Why? A lack of dedication. He never achieved his greatest potential because he didn’t cultivate his calling. The Holy Spirit will never lead you beyond the point that you want to be controlled by Him. There can be no substitute for the decision you make of your own accord. Don’t blow your calling because of a lack of decisive, radical dedication.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Paradox of Purpose, by Rebecca Fine
[Note from Rebecca: As we continue our tenth anniversary "flashbacks" to favorite articles from the first ten years of The SOGR NETwork and The Certain Way, our article today comes from 2003 and is based on a talk I gave in Olympia, Washington that year. Because it was a half-hour talk, the article is longer than usual, yet it was one of the most popular ever and I think you'll
find it enjoyable and really USEFUL, too. Let me know!]
Through this wondrous thing called the internet, I get to "talk"
with and work with people all over the planet, and whenever I ask
them what it is they truly desire to be, do, and have -- their
heart's deepest desires -- two things come up frequently:
* Most people say they want to be of service.
* An awful lot of them also say that beyond
some vague notion of that, they just really
don't know what they TRULY, deeply desire.
Well, way back in the 1800s, the American author and humorist
Mark Twain said, "I can show anyone how to get what they want. The
only trouble is I can't find anyone who can tell me what they
want."
I know what he means!
So it's a pretty safe bet that there are quite a few people
reading this right now who are in that camp. Maybe YOU, to a
greater or lesser extent. And if you don't know what it is you
REALLY desire to do, chances are you're not DOING it.
Consider this possibility, please: If you don't know -- can't
articulate clearly and specifically what it is you really want to
be, do, and have; what lights your fire; what it is you'd love to
spend your time doing if you could be doing absolutely ANYTHING --
then it's because you don't really know ...
... who you are.
And if you're not living with real JOY, if you're consistently
unhappy with any part of your life, it's because you are (perhaps
unconsciously) denying the full expression of your true, higher
self.
Because you don't KNOW your true self too well anymore. You've
lost touch, little by little.
Sounds a little grim, doesn't it?
But actually it's wonderful how this works, because when you DO
go within and begin to get reacquainted with your true self,
rediscover what you love to do and begin doing it -- really just
getting out of its way and releasing it -- then you will be
NATURALLY fulfilling your life's purpose, giving the unique gift
you came here to give, and being of service to the entire world.
Now while Mr. Wattles doesn't go into any detail about your
unique life purpose, he does cover the subject in various ways.
* He tells us that we don't have to waste our
time in jobs we don't like, and that, in
fact, we SHOULD not.
* He pounds away at the notion that each of us
has within us the necessary talent to do
whatever it is we would absolutely LOVE to do.
* He also notes that it doesn't take a lot of
energy or will power to keep your mind fixed
on something that really grabs you -- but
that it's VERY difficult to stay focused
positively on what you DON'T really want.
* And he gives a lot of ink to the Law of
Increase which shows us that every being is
either growing or dying, either moving onward
and upward, or falling back and stagnating.
A contemporary of Mr. Wattles, Charles Fillmore -- who wrote the
book, PROSPERITY, and co-founded the Unity movement -- called that
last one the Principle of Infinite Expansion, and he defined it as
"the principle of never-ceasing growth and development of God's
perfect idea that is firmly fixed in all Creation."
Now, whether you use the name "God" or any other to refer to the
Power that creates, regulates, sustains, and animates the universe
doesn't really matter. (Our friend Wally calls it God, the
Universe, the Formless, the Infinite, Supreme Intelligence, and
others.)
What IS important is that this perfect idea is in ALL creation.
Including you and me. God's perfect idea is already IN you, ready
to grow, develop and burst forth.
Your life purpose.
And the way that perfect idea makes itself known is through your
natural gifts and talents, through the things you LOVE to do. I'm
not talking about learned skills, but inborn gifts. (Although you
may get coaching or training to enhance those gifts.)
You know -- the things that you're naturally good at, the
activities that lift you up and carry you along so that it almost
seems effortless at times. The things you'd often rather do than
eat or sleep. The activities that bring you more than just
momentary pleasure -- they fill you with real joy and peace.
And that can be absolutely ANYTHING. It's different for everyone.
But so many of us lose touch with that joy as the years go by. We
"settle down," we fall into a routine, we grow up and give up our
dreams. Sometimes we get talked out of them or shamed out of them
or worse. Sometimes we just decide to be what people call sensible
or practical or responsible. Sometimes we don't even notice
they've slipped away.
We think we have to hold down a particular job even if we hate
it, even if it's killing us. We do it for the money ... the
so-called security ... the prestige ... to "keep up with the
Joneses" ... because we're afraid not to ... because that's "just
the way it is" ... because "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta
do" ... because we don't really think we can do any better ...
endless reasons.
And they all seem so, well, so REASONABLE.
I know a woman named Sue who is a social worker. She's been a
social worker for 12 years and she has hated every minute of it.
But she won't even consider doing anything else even though it's
making her sick -- quite literally. The stress causes her constant
pain and she's undergone several surgeries with long, excruciating
recoveries.
But Sue doesn't see the connection. She just sees that she's got
12 years already invested and, as she puts it, "only eight years
to go" til she gets her pension.
Now I don't know about you, my friend, but to me the word "only"
just doesn't go with "eight years!" Especially in a situation like
that, serving a self-imposed sentence of eight more years at hard,
soul-killing labor.
Sue's absolutely miserable -- and not just the 40 hours a week
she's at work, but all the time she's going to and from work, all
the time she's getting ready for work, all the time she's THINKING
about her work.
And the really sad thing is that by doing what she hates instead
of uncovering what she loves and doing that, she's not just
cheating herself, but cheating everyone involved -- and in fact,
cheating the whole world of her real gifts.
But she's got all her REASONS.
And she believes her reward -- financially and otherwise -- lies
on the other side of those long, stifling eight years.
What do YOU think?
Will Sue's life somehow be miraculously
transformed from misery to lasting joy after
eight more years of same old, same old?
Shakespeare wrote, "Go to your bosom. Knock there and ask your
heart what it doth know." And one of the oldest and most profound
pieces of advice we have from the ancients is the simple phrase,
"Know thyself."
My friend, if you're not joyful in the life you lead NOW, it may
be time to back up and start there: Know thyself. Otherwise, the
gift you came here to give -- to yourself and to all of us -- may
be lost in transit.
Once you go within and rediscover the unique inborn talents and
gifts that fill you with joy and satisfaction when you DO them,
the next step is to say yes to them. That's saying yes to your own
nature and to God's perfect idea within you. Those talents and
gifts are there for a PURPOSE!
And the way you say yes is to DO them, to take action.
There's a balance between doing the inner work -- the
contemplation, prayer, meditation, the listening for that still
small voice, or however you approach it -- and then moving into
action. The early 20th century evangelist Billy Sunday used to
urge his listeners to pray, and then he'd add, "And when you get
off your knees, hustle!"
Our Mr. Wattles insists that "you must not rely upon thought
alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock
upon which many otherwise scientific thinkers meet shipwreck --
the failure to connect thought with personal action."
Taking action is how you GIVE your gift and live a life of true
service to yourself and others. And that doesn't mean that your
life's work has to be something that seems grand and noble. The
real key to being of service and living your purpose is simply to
do what you LOVE to do -- whatever it may be.
Painting, scientific research, cooking,
running a business, teaching, woodworking,
fishing, caring for children or those who are
ill or animals, making music, selling, keeping
an office running smoothly, growing or cooking
or serving food, dancing, programming, writing,
gardening, making things, moving things,
fixing things, -- any- and everything. You
name it!
The possibilities are as infinite as we are.
I want to show you more about how this works and to do that I
need to tell you another story about someone else, this time
someone you've probably heard of.
Buckminster Fuller was one of greatest inventors and thinkers of
the 20th century. Some thought him a genius, some a crackpot, and
some thought he was both (not an unusual way the world describes
people who follow their hearts).
But in his early years he was rather wild and directionless, a
party animal that marriage and family hadn't tamed.
One day he went off to a football game, leaving behind his wife
and six-year-old daughter, Alexandra, who was seriously ill. He
promised Alexandra he'd be back soon and would bring her a
souvenir from the game.
But, as usual, he didn't keep his promise. He didn't come home
for three days.
When he finally arrived, he found that she had taken a turn for
the worse. As he gently gathered her into his arms, Alexandra
smiled up at him and asked, "Daddy, did you bring my prize?" Then,
while his own heart ached with the pain of disappointing her, her
tiny heart stopped.
Fuller went off by himself and, deep in despair, decided to
commit suicide.
But something happened.
He had a realization, heard an inner voice that said, "You have
no right to take your life. It isn't yours to end. It has a
purpose, and so far you have not yet done what you came here to
do."
For Buckminster Fuller, this was the big tap
on the shoulder, the huge wake-up call he
needed. And he finally paid attention and set
about doing what was his to do.
He wanted to know the rules by which God had set up the universe.
Through his explorations, he came to believe that the plan was for
all people to live in abundance and that we all simply needed to
do what we each came here to do for that to become reality.
Over the course of his 88 very full years in search of those
rules, he came up with what he called Generalized Principles, some
of those rules he was seeking to understand. The one I want to
share with you now, as briefly as I can, is called PRECESSION.
Rather than attempting a scientific explanation, let me just give
you a couple of simple examples.
First, if you drop a pebble into a pond, what happens?
The stone sinks -- there's motion in one direction: Down. Then,
ripples spread out on the water's surface at right angles from
that direction. So the one original action causes the MAIN effect
and a SIDE effect.
Here's another example that shows why BOTH effects are so
important.
The honeybee has a job, or you could call it a mission: Gather
nectar to make honey. And the honeybee is more than merely good
(talented) at it. Gathering nectar is its very nature.
So every day the honeybee wakes up and does what comes naturally.
It goes into motion, takes action: Flower. Nectar. Hive. Repeat.
Honey is the MAIN effect of that motion or action in that
direction.
But something else is happening!
As the bee travels from flower to flower, he cross-pollinates the
blossoms.
So while the bee is going in one direction, going about his
business of making honey, another action is happening off at right
angles to that line of motion: cross-pollination.
Now gathering nectar is good, honey is good. We all enjoy it. And
that's the bee's job, or mission.
But without that side effect of cross-pollination none of us
would be here to enjoy the honey because cross-pollination is
essential to supporting life on this planet.
So here we have this little honeybee just going along, doing what
comes naturally, what it was put here to do, and all along ...
... its TRUE PURPOSE is happening as a SIDE EFFECT!
If the honeybee has a purpose, my friend, so do you.
If the bee fulfills its purpose by simply doing what comes
naturally ... well, you see where this is going, don't you?
Fulfilling YOUR life's purpose is a side
effect of pursuing a goal or vision that is
NATURAL to YOU. It may seem paradoxical but
you may never actually know what your true
PURPOSE is.
You just need, first, to know what you love
to do -- what's YOUR nature, your natural
gift -- and then, to DO IT.
Precession requires MOTION, or in our Science of Getting Rich
terms, ACTION. No motion, no side effect. Thought, contemplation,
all the forms of going within are necessary to uncover the vision
of what we desire to be, do, and have -- but so's the "hustle."
The INSPIRED action that springs with enthusiasm from the
contemplation of that "clear mental image."
Otherwise, the true purpose is never fulfilled.
The wonderful thing is that the ACTION -- inspired action -- is
where all the FUN is!
Bucky Fuller believed the primary goal for each of us should not
primarily be going after all those things we mentioned before --
money, approval, security, and so on -- but to do something we
love and feel passionate about. His idea was that each of us could
ADD VALUE and somehow improve the quality of life for the earth
and its creatures.
The real profit, as he saw it and as I believe Mr. Wattles tells
us, comes from being true to our higher selves. For Wally,
becoming REALLY rich "includes everything else" and the way to go
about it, he says, is to do what you love. Know what you love to
do and do it, and all the rest happens precessionally, as a side
effect.
Including prosperity. Including purpose.
Fuller also noticed that no plant or animal has to work for a
living. They just do what they're meant to do and the Universe
provides for them. (A fellow named Jesus noticed that, too, by the
way!) They just live and grow -- never-ceasing growth and
development, fulfilling God's perfect idea in them.
Now, of course, honeybees, plants, and animals don't get
sidetracked from their natural missions like we do. They don't
have the faculty of CHOICE (so they can't make "wrong" ones).
But we DO have a choice.
For us, the "never-ceasing cycle of growth and development"
requires first the "Know thyself" part and THEN the action part.
Then, it's a matter of step and repeat. If we choose to.
What are you doing right now, my friend? Whatever it is you are
giving your time to, realize that you are giving your LIFE to it.
If it brings you into touch with your joy, congratulations! How
wonderful! You are living your purpose!
If that's not your experience up 'til now, perhaps this gem of
advice from the new "Harry Potter" movie will shine some light:
"It's not just your talents that make you who
you are, Harry. It's your CHOICES."
find it enjoyable and really USEFUL, too. Let me know!]
Through this wondrous thing called the internet, I get to "talk"
with and work with people all over the planet, and whenever I ask
them what it is they truly desire to be, do, and have -- their
heart's deepest desires -- two things come up frequently:
* Most people say they want to be of service.
* An awful lot of them also say that beyond
some vague notion of that, they just really
don't know what they TRULY, deeply desire.
Well, way back in the 1800s, the American author and humorist
Mark Twain said, "I can show anyone how to get what they want. The
only trouble is I can't find anyone who can tell me what they
want."
I know what he means!
So it's a pretty safe bet that there are quite a few people
reading this right now who are in that camp. Maybe YOU, to a
greater or lesser extent. And if you don't know what it is you
REALLY desire to do, chances are you're not DOING it.
Consider this possibility, please: If you don't know -- can't
articulate clearly and specifically what it is you really want to
be, do, and have; what lights your fire; what it is you'd love to
spend your time doing if you could be doing absolutely ANYTHING --
then it's because you don't really know ...
... who you are.
And if you're not living with real JOY, if you're consistently
unhappy with any part of your life, it's because you are (perhaps
unconsciously) denying the full expression of your true, higher
self.
Because you don't KNOW your true self too well anymore. You've
lost touch, little by little.
Sounds a little grim, doesn't it?
But actually it's wonderful how this works, because when you DO
go within and begin to get reacquainted with your true self,
rediscover what you love to do and begin doing it -- really just
getting out of its way and releasing it -- then you will be
NATURALLY fulfilling your life's purpose, giving the unique gift
you came here to give, and being of service to the entire world.
Now while Mr. Wattles doesn't go into any detail about your
unique life purpose, he does cover the subject in various ways.
* He tells us that we don't have to waste our
time in jobs we don't like, and that, in
fact, we SHOULD not.
* He pounds away at the notion that each of us
has within us the necessary talent to do
whatever it is we would absolutely LOVE to do.
* He also notes that it doesn't take a lot of
energy or will power to keep your mind fixed
on something that really grabs you -- but
that it's VERY difficult to stay focused
positively on what you DON'T really want.
* And he gives a lot of ink to the Law of
Increase which shows us that every being is
either growing or dying, either moving onward
and upward, or falling back and stagnating.
A contemporary of Mr. Wattles, Charles Fillmore -- who wrote the
book, PROSPERITY, and co-founded the Unity movement -- called that
last one the Principle of Infinite Expansion, and he defined it as
"the principle of never-ceasing growth and development of God's
perfect idea that is firmly fixed in all Creation."
Now, whether you use the name "God" or any other to refer to the
Power that creates, regulates, sustains, and animates the universe
doesn't really matter. (Our friend Wally calls it God, the
Universe, the Formless, the Infinite, Supreme Intelligence, and
others.)
What IS important is that this perfect idea is in ALL creation.
Including you and me. God's perfect idea is already IN you, ready
to grow, develop and burst forth.
Your life purpose.
And the way that perfect idea makes itself known is through your
natural gifts and talents, through the things you LOVE to do. I'm
not talking about learned skills, but inborn gifts. (Although you
may get coaching or training to enhance those gifts.)
You know -- the things that you're naturally good at, the
activities that lift you up and carry you along so that it almost
seems effortless at times. The things you'd often rather do than
eat or sleep. The activities that bring you more than just
momentary pleasure -- they fill you with real joy and peace.
And that can be absolutely ANYTHING. It's different for everyone.
But so many of us lose touch with that joy as the years go by. We
"settle down," we fall into a routine, we grow up and give up our
dreams. Sometimes we get talked out of them or shamed out of them
or worse. Sometimes we just decide to be what people call sensible
or practical or responsible. Sometimes we don't even notice
they've slipped away.
We think we have to hold down a particular job even if we hate
it, even if it's killing us. We do it for the money ... the
so-called security ... the prestige ... to "keep up with the
Joneses" ... because we're afraid not to ... because that's "just
the way it is" ... because "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta
do" ... because we don't really think we can do any better ...
endless reasons.
And they all seem so, well, so REASONABLE.
I know a woman named Sue who is a social worker. She's been a
social worker for 12 years and she has hated every minute of it.
But she won't even consider doing anything else even though it's
making her sick -- quite literally. The stress causes her constant
pain and she's undergone several surgeries with long, excruciating
recoveries.
But Sue doesn't see the connection. She just sees that she's got
12 years already invested and, as she puts it, "only eight years
to go" til she gets her pension.
Now I don't know about you, my friend, but to me the word "only"
just doesn't go with "eight years!" Especially in a situation like
that, serving a self-imposed sentence of eight more years at hard,
soul-killing labor.
Sue's absolutely miserable -- and not just the 40 hours a week
she's at work, but all the time she's going to and from work, all
the time she's getting ready for work, all the time she's THINKING
about her work.
And the really sad thing is that by doing what she hates instead
of uncovering what she loves and doing that, she's not just
cheating herself, but cheating everyone involved -- and in fact,
cheating the whole world of her real gifts.
But she's got all her REASONS.
And she believes her reward -- financially and otherwise -- lies
on the other side of those long, stifling eight years.
What do YOU think?
Will Sue's life somehow be miraculously
transformed from misery to lasting joy after
eight more years of same old, same old?
Shakespeare wrote, "Go to your bosom. Knock there and ask your
heart what it doth know." And one of the oldest and most profound
pieces of advice we have from the ancients is the simple phrase,
"Know thyself."
My friend, if you're not joyful in the life you lead NOW, it may
be time to back up and start there: Know thyself. Otherwise, the
gift you came here to give -- to yourself and to all of us -- may
be lost in transit.
Once you go within and rediscover the unique inborn talents and
gifts that fill you with joy and satisfaction when you DO them,
the next step is to say yes to them. That's saying yes to your own
nature and to God's perfect idea within you. Those talents and
gifts are there for a PURPOSE!
And the way you say yes is to DO them, to take action.
There's a balance between doing the inner work -- the
contemplation, prayer, meditation, the listening for that still
small voice, or however you approach it -- and then moving into
action. The early 20th century evangelist Billy Sunday used to
urge his listeners to pray, and then he'd add, "And when you get
off your knees, hustle!"
Our Mr. Wattles insists that "you must not rely upon thought
alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock
upon which many otherwise scientific thinkers meet shipwreck --
the failure to connect thought with personal action."
Taking action is how you GIVE your gift and live a life of true
service to yourself and others. And that doesn't mean that your
life's work has to be something that seems grand and noble. The
real key to being of service and living your purpose is simply to
do what you LOVE to do -- whatever it may be.
Painting, scientific research, cooking,
running a business, teaching, woodworking,
fishing, caring for children or those who are
ill or animals, making music, selling, keeping
an office running smoothly, growing or cooking
or serving food, dancing, programming, writing,
gardening, making things, moving things,
fixing things, -- any- and everything. You
name it!
The possibilities are as infinite as we are.
I want to show you more about how this works and to do that I
need to tell you another story about someone else, this time
someone you've probably heard of.
Buckminster Fuller was one of greatest inventors and thinkers of
the 20th century. Some thought him a genius, some a crackpot, and
some thought he was both (not an unusual way the world describes
people who follow their hearts).
But in his early years he was rather wild and directionless, a
party animal that marriage and family hadn't tamed.
One day he went off to a football game, leaving behind his wife
and six-year-old daughter, Alexandra, who was seriously ill. He
promised Alexandra he'd be back soon and would bring her a
souvenir from the game.
But, as usual, he didn't keep his promise. He didn't come home
for three days.
When he finally arrived, he found that she had taken a turn for
the worse. As he gently gathered her into his arms, Alexandra
smiled up at him and asked, "Daddy, did you bring my prize?" Then,
while his own heart ached with the pain of disappointing her, her
tiny heart stopped.
Fuller went off by himself and, deep in despair, decided to
commit suicide.
But something happened.
He had a realization, heard an inner voice that said, "You have
no right to take your life. It isn't yours to end. It has a
purpose, and so far you have not yet done what you came here to
do."
For Buckminster Fuller, this was the big tap
on the shoulder, the huge wake-up call he
needed. And he finally paid attention and set
about doing what was his to do.
He wanted to know the rules by which God had set up the universe.
Through his explorations, he came to believe that the plan was for
all people to live in abundance and that we all simply needed to
do what we each came here to do for that to become reality.
Over the course of his 88 very full years in search of those
rules, he came up with what he called Generalized Principles, some
of those rules he was seeking to understand. The one I want to
share with you now, as briefly as I can, is called PRECESSION.
Rather than attempting a scientific explanation, let me just give
you a couple of simple examples.
First, if you drop a pebble into a pond, what happens?
The stone sinks -- there's motion in one direction: Down. Then,
ripples spread out on the water's surface at right angles from
that direction. So the one original action causes the MAIN effect
and a SIDE effect.
Here's another example that shows why BOTH effects are so
important.
The honeybee has a job, or you could call it a mission: Gather
nectar to make honey. And the honeybee is more than merely good
(talented) at it. Gathering nectar is its very nature.
So every day the honeybee wakes up and does what comes naturally.
It goes into motion, takes action: Flower. Nectar. Hive. Repeat.
Honey is the MAIN effect of that motion or action in that
direction.
But something else is happening!
As the bee travels from flower to flower, he cross-pollinates the
blossoms.
So while the bee is going in one direction, going about his
business of making honey, another action is happening off at right
angles to that line of motion: cross-pollination.
Now gathering nectar is good, honey is good. We all enjoy it. And
that's the bee's job, or mission.
But without that side effect of cross-pollination none of us
would be here to enjoy the honey because cross-pollination is
essential to supporting life on this planet.
So here we have this little honeybee just going along, doing what
comes naturally, what it was put here to do, and all along ...
... its TRUE PURPOSE is happening as a SIDE EFFECT!
If the honeybee has a purpose, my friend, so do you.
If the bee fulfills its purpose by simply doing what comes
naturally ... well, you see where this is going, don't you?
Fulfilling YOUR life's purpose is a side
effect of pursuing a goal or vision that is
NATURAL to YOU. It may seem paradoxical but
you may never actually know what your true
PURPOSE is.
You just need, first, to know what you love
to do -- what's YOUR nature, your natural
gift -- and then, to DO IT.
Precession requires MOTION, or in our Science of Getting Rich
terms, ACTION. No motion, no side effect. Thought, contemplation,
all the forms of going within are necessary to uncover the vision
of what we desire to be, do, and have -- but so's the "hustle."
The INSPIRED action that springs with enthusiasm from the
contemplation of that "clear mental image."
Otherwise, the true purpose is never fulfilled.
The wonderful thing is that the ACTION -- inspired action -- is
where all the FUN is!
Bucky Fuller believed the primary goal for each of us should not
primarily be going after all those things we mentioned before --
money, approval, security, and so on -- but to do something we
love and feel passionate about. His idea was that each of us could
ADD VALUE and somehow improve the quality of life for the earth
and its creatures.
The real profit, as he saw it and as I believe Mr. Wattles tells
us, comes from being true to our higher selves. For Wally,
becoming REALLY rich "includes everything else" and the way to go
about it, he says, is to do what you love. Know what you love to
do and do it, and all the rest happens precessionally, as a side
effect.
Including prosperity. Including purpose.
Fuller also noticed that no plant or animal has to work for a
living. They just do what they're meant to do and the Universe
provides for them. (A fellow named Jesus noticed that, too, by the
way!) They just live and grow -- never-ceasing growth and
development, fulfilling God's perfect idea in them.
Now, of course, honeybees, plants, and animals don't get
sidetracked from their natural missions like we do. They don't
have the faculty of CHOICE (so they can't make "wrong" ones).
But we DO have a choice.
For us, the "never-ceasing cycle of growth and development"
requires first the "Know thyself" part and THEN the action part.
Then, it's a matter of step and repeat. If we choose to.
What are you doing right now, my friend? Whatever it is you are
giving your time to, realize that you are giving your LIFE to it.
If it brings you into touch with your joy, congratulations! How
wonderful! You are living your purpose!
If that's not your experience up 'til now, perhaps this gem of
advice from the new "Harry Potter" movie will shine some light:
"It's not just your talents that make you who
you are, Harry. It's your CHOICES."
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Finding Intrinsic, Lasting Motivation to Succeed by Denis Waitley
For the high achiever, it's natural to seek out challenging goals because he or she has an inner, intrinsic drive to succeed. And success doesn't mean pet rocks, get-rich-quick schemes, lotto jackpots or chain letters. High achievers are looking not to receive, but to contribute, to give. They're looking for problems that are personally satisfying to solve. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett, three of the wealthiest individuals in the world, eagerly go to work every day to face the challenge of solving a new and bigger problem. All could be playing Backgammon on a tropical island or two rounds of golf per day.
Since the accomplishment of a difficult task means more to the high achiever than any external motivation, it means that motivation will remain strong throughout his or her career. Think of how much stronger and more permanent such a motivation is compared to one that is extrinsic.
Suppose you choose a particular career because of the money. What happens when there's more money in doing something else? You're likely to abandon one path as soon as another possibility opens up, and eventually you'll find yourself wondering what you're really doing… maybe even who you really are.
Since there is no inner drive to stay on any particular path, the journey will be arduous, and motivation will tend to weaken whenever the external reward seems remote or out of sight. This is especially true with individuals who want a home business with high rewards and minimal risk. Some people spend their entire lives wandering from one field to another, always looking for an easier way to find that pot of gold, never achieving a significant goal worthy of their inner potential.
I've met many people who fit this description. If they're in sales, they move from company to company, from industry to industry, for one product or service to another. They are very hard to keep on your hand held electronic address book or in your directory of contacts because they are always either coming or going or starting another new business of their own. When that doesn't work, they get involved in sketchy enterprises, especially start-up-companies offering big, easy rewards, such as a wonder diet company where you can lose all the weight you want by eating anything you want and swallowing one amazing pill a day. They go from one Roman candle to another, from one "exciting opportunity" to another disappointment.
The problem is, money alone does not stimulate intrinsic motivation and therefore is a means, not an end. Money is like fuel for your car. It is not the destination. It is not the journey. It is only part of the transportation system. Make your "why" grab you by your very soul. You'll never be disappointed for very long. And you'll stay committed regardless of "stock market gyrations" or setbacks.
This week, find your unique "why" and pursue it with passion!
Since the accomplishment of a difficult task means more to the high achiever than any external motivation, it means that motivation will remain strong throughout his or her career. Think of how much stronger and more permanent such a motivation is compared to one that is extrinsic.
Suppose you choose a particular career because of the money. What happens when there's more money in doing something else? You're likely to abandon one path as soon as another possibility opens up, and eventually you'll find yourself wondering what you're really doing… maybe even who you really are.
Since there is no inner drive to stay on any particular path, the journey will be arduous, and motivation will tend to weaken whenever the external reward seems remote or out of sight. This is especially true with individuals who want a home business with high rewards and minimal risk. Some people spend their entire lives wandering from one field to another, always looking for an easier way to find that pot of gold, never achieving a significant goal worthy of their inner potential.
I've met many people who fit this description. If they're in sales, they move from company to company, from industry to industry, for one product or service to another. They are very hard to keep on your hand held electronic address book or in your directory of contacts because they are always either coming or going or starting another new business of their own. When that doesn't work, they get involved in sketchy enterprises, especially start-up-companies offering big, easy rewards, such as a wonder diet company where you can lose all the weight you want by eating anything you want and swallowing one amazing pill a day. They go from one Roman candle to another, from one "exciting opportunity" to another disappointment.
The problem is, money alone does not stimulate intrinsic motivation and therefore is a means, not an end. Money is like fuel for your car. It is not the destination. It is not the journey. It is only part of the transportation system. Make your "why" grab you by your very soul. You'll never be disappointed for very long. And you'll stay committed regardless of "stock market gyrations" or setbacks.
This week, find your unique "why" and pursue it with passion!
Commuters' University: On-The-Road Learning, by Marv Dumon
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about nine out of 10 workers drive to work. An additional 5% of workers take public transportation, and about 2.5% walk. Of those that drive, about three out of four drive alone. The Census Bureau also estimated the average commute per worker (in 2005) at 24 minutes, which translates to about 100 hours of work-related commuting per year.
The Costs of Driving
Those 100 hours of driving to work (and "fighting" traffic) represent more than two weeks of vacation. Given worsening traffic conditions in major metropolitan areas, commute times appear to become exacerbated over the years.
Using a commuter calculator, based on a 10-mile (one-way) drive every weekday, if gas is at $2.30 per gallon and at an 86-cent per mile driver's direct cost (maintenance, parking) the driver can expect to pay an annual driving cost of nearly $6,700.
In terms of opportunity costs, drivers can spend 100 hours of unproductive time if they are not careful of how they manage their commute. Assuming an hourly rate of $25, those 100 hours represent $2,500 in potential lost productivity per year. Over a 10-year period, that translates to $25,000 in potential lost productivity. (To learn more, see our Economics Tutorial.)
Granted, we could use somewhat more conservative numbers as drivers these days use their cellphones in order to conduct a variety of transactions and conversations. Still, the costs add up. Direct costs and opportunity costs amount to several thousand dollars per year. Therefore, it behooves business professionals to attend "Commuters' University" in order to extract benefit without committing any additional time to the learning process.
Using Commute Time to Earn a "Virtual Degree"
Business, accounting and finance professionals can use their commute time in order to enhance their skills. Workers can listen to a variety of business, leadership and management audiobooks that can improve work performance, while investors can learn certain insights by listening to finance, economics and investing audiobooks. (For more, see You Don't Know Jack Welch.)
Benefits:
1. Commuters can "read" several dozen books in their field per year, without committing additional time to do it. Assuming 100 hours of commute per year, and further assuming 5 hours as the average length of an audiobook, it's possible to absorb 20 additional books annually. Most would agree that a professional within a certain function (say finance), who has read 200 books (which is essentially a small library) in his or her field, is a qualified expert in his or her chosen profession.
2. Leveraging the expertise and business wisdom of the likes of Jack Welch, Donald Trump and other business gurus can lead to much higher performance at work within a short period. New insights and knowledge can lead not only to improved professional decisions, but potentially higher quality decision-making in one's personal life.
3. Elevated knowledge can not only bring tangible benefits (salary increases, bonuses, promotions, esteem from colleagues), but can also serve to prevent disadvantages in the workplace, heartache and hard lessons. Peers and colleagues who have significantly less commuting time, who listen to audiobooks, or who take public transportation and can access wireless signals for their laptops (and therefore, do work) can enjoy productivity advantages over passive commuters.
Most U.S. universities require 50 classes in order to earn a bachelor's degree. Assuming each college course requires students to read four books over an entire semester, a commuter who listens to 200 audiobooks over a 10-year period will have taken in roughly the same amount of material and knowledge equivalent to a bachelor's degree - without committing additional time. Would it be reasonable to assume that a worker who periodically "earns degrees" would have more salary increases, promotions, and recognition over the course of an entire career? Promotions and additional exposure can provide a variety of other opportunities to graduates of "Commuters University."
Conclusion
Business professionals can go beyond work-related commuting pro-activity. Professionals can listen to business audiobooks while undergoing a variety of activities including personal commutes, fitness routines at the gym, doing the laundry or washing dishes, which can add that much more knowledge base and enhancement to one's career.
The Costs of Driving
Those 100 hours of driving to work (and "fighting" traffic) represent more than two weeks of vacation. Given worsening traffic conditions in major metropolitan areas, commute times appear to become exacerbated over the years.
Using a commuter calculator, based on a 10-mile (one-way) drive every weekday, if gas is at $2.30 per gallon and at an 86-cent per mile driver's direct cost (maintenance, parking) the driver can expect to pay an annual driving cost of nearly $6,700.
In terms of opportunity costs, drivers can spend 100 hours of unproductive time if they are not careful of how they manage their commute. Assuming an hourly rate of $25, those 100 hours represent $2,500 in potential lost productivity per year. Over a 10-year period, that translates to $25,000 in potential lost productivity. (To learn more, see our Economics Tutorial.)
Granted, we could use somewhat more conservative numbers as drivers these days use their cellphones in order to conduct a variety of transactions and conversations. Still, the costs add up. Direct costs and opportunity costs amount to several thousand dollars per year. Therefore, it behooves business professionals to attend "Commuters' University" in order to extract benefit without committing any additional time to the learning process.
Using Commute Time to Earn a "Virtual Degree"
Business, accounting and finance professionals can use their commute time in order to enhance their skills. Workers can listen to a variety of business, leadership and management audiobooks that can improve work performance, while investors can learn certain insights by listening to finance, economics and investing audiobooks. (For more, see You Don't Know Jack Welch.)
Benefits:
1. Commuters can "read" several dozen books in their field per year, without committing additional time to do it. Assuming 100 hours of commute per year, and further assuming 5 hours as the average length of an audiobook, it's possible to absorb 20 additional books annually. Most would agree that a professional within a certain function (say finance), who has read 200 books (which is essentially a small library) in his or her field, is a qualified expert in his or her chosen profession.
2. Leveraging the expertise and business wisdom of the likes of Jack Welch, Donald Trump and other business gurus can lead to much higher performance at work within a short period. New insights and knowledge can lead not only to improved professional decisions, but potentially higher quality decision-making in one's personal life.
3. Elevated knowledge can not only bring tangible benefits (salary increases, bonuses, promotions, esteem from colleagues), but can also serve to prevent disadvantages in the workplace, heartache and hard lessons. Peers and colleagues who have significantly less commuting time, who listen to audiobooks, or who take public transportation and can access wireless signals for their laptops (and therefore, do work) can enjoy productivity advantages over passive commuters.
Most U.S. universities require 50 classes in order to earn a bachelor's degree. Assuming each college course requires students to read four books over an entire semester, a commuter who listens to 200 audiobooks over a 10-year period will have taken in roughly the same amount of material and knowledge equivalent to a bachelor's degree - without committing additional time. Would it be reasonable to assume that a worker who periodically "earns degrees" would have more salary increases, promotions, and recognition over the course of an entire career? Promotions and additional exposure can provide a variety of other opportunities to graduates of "Commuters University."
Conclusion
Business professionals can go beyond work-related commuting pro-activity. Professionals can listen to business audiobooks while undergoing a variety of activities including personal commutes, fitness routines at the gym, doing the laundry or washing dishes, which can add that much more knowledge base and enhancement to one's career.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Life is Art by Jim Rohn
In my years teaching people to be successful, I have seen that basically people break their lives down into two major parts: Wealth-building and the rest of their lives. Having done a lot of reflection on these two topics - wealth and life - I am coming to some new conclusions about how to perceive the two.
Until recently I thought that there was a significant difference in how we should tackle the two areas. In fact, I thought that the two topics should be addressed in almost opposite fashion.
You see, wealth-building is just math. While life -- Life is art.
Think back with me to high school. Most of us were required to take math and most of us probably took art as well.
Now, think about your final exams in the two areas. Your math paper was graded on hard facts:
Ten times ten is always one-hundred
Thirty divided by three is always ten
Seven plus seven is always fourteen
Fifty minus twenty-five is always twenty-five
There is always just one answer in math. The answers are hard fact, set in stone. Math is a science. It is formulaic. You can know the outcome before it happens, every time.
But what about your final art project? Art is much more subjective. "Beauty," they say, "is in the eye of the beholder." There is no one right answer.
Think of the different styles of the famous artists:
Renoir. Monet. Picasso. Rockwell. Warhol.
Different people find different styles beautiful, and that is what makes art, art.
So how does this fit with wealth-building and life? Wealth-building is like math:
If you add $1000 to your retirement account each month and gain seven percent interest over twenty years, you can know now how much you will have then. It is math. If you buy a rental property for $200,000 now and it increases in value by three percent a year, you know exactly how much you will be able to sell it for in ten years. The beauty of math is in the knowing. You can work the system, set it on auto-pilot and the math does the work for you, and you know the outcome.
But life? Life is art. And that is the beauty of life. You do not know how it is going to turn out. Life, like art, is always changing. Different people provide different colors. When you make a mistake, you can go back, erase it or even paint right over it. You can change the scenery. Life, like art, is ever evolving, and what looks good to one person is of no interest to another. And that is what makes life beautiful.
Another lesson I think we can draw is that in life we should do our math, of course, but life isn't made up of just wealth-building. Wealth-building should serve our ability to live our lives. Jesus, the master teacher, said that our lives are not made up of the abundance of our possessions. He didn't mean that possessions aren't good, just that wealth isn't what life is all about.
So let me ask you: Are you spending more time on your math or your art? Do your math.
Everybody should do their very best at their wealth-building plan so they can take care of themselves and their families.
But life is about the art. What does your canvas look like? What kind of picture are you painting? What kind of pot are you creating? What kind of statue are you sculpting? Take your time, make bold strokes, use brilliant colors, and make of your life the most beautiful masterpiece that you can.
In other words, do your math so you can focus on your art.
To Your Success,Jim Rohn
Until recently I thought that there was a significant difference in how we should tackle the two areas. In fact, I thought that the two topics should be addressed in almost opposite fashion.
You see, wealth-building is just math. While life -- Life is art.
Think back with me to high school. Most of us were required to take math and most of us probably took art as well.
Now, think about your final exams in the two areas. Your math paper was graded on hard facts:
Ten times ten is always one-hundred
Thirty divided by three is always ten
Seven plus seven is always fourteen
Fifty minus twenty-five is always twenty-five
There is always just one answer in math. The answers are hard fact, set in stone. Math is a science. It is formulaic. You can know the outcome before it happens, every time.
But what about your final art project? Art is much more subjective. "Beauty," they say, "is in the eye of the beholder." There is no one right answer.
Think of the different styles of the famous artists:
Renoir. Monet. Picasso. Rockwell. Warhol.
Different people find different styles beautiful, and that is what makes art, art.
So how does this fit with wealth-building and life? Wealth-building is like math:
If you add $1000 to your retirement account each month and gain seven percent interest over twenty years, you can know now how much you will have then. It is math. If you buy a rental property for $200,000 now and it increases in value by three percent a year, you know exactly how much you will be able to sell it for in ten years. The beauty of math is in the knowing. You can work the system, set it on auto-pilot and the math does the work for you, and you know the outcome.
But life? Life is art. And that is the beauty of life. You do not know how it is going to turn out. Life, like art, is always changing. Different people provide different colors. When you make a mistake, you can go back, erase it or even paint right over it. You can change the scenery. Life, like art, is ever evolving, and what looks good to one person is of no interest to another. And that is what makes life beautiful.
Another lesson I think we can draw is that in life we should do our math, of course, but life isn't made up of just wealth-building. Wealth-building should serve our ability to live our lives. Jesus, the master teacher, said that our lives are not made up of the abundance of our possessions. He didn't mean that possessions aren't good, just that wealth isn't what life is all about.
So let me ask you: Are you spending more time on your math or your art? Do your math.
Everybody should do their very best at their wealth-building plan so they can take care of themselves and their families.
But life is about the art. What does your canvas look like? What kind of picture are you painting? What kind of pot are you creating? What kind of statue are you sculpting? Take your time, make bold strokes, use brilliant colors, and make of your life the most beautiful masterpiece that you can.
In other words, do your math so you can focus on your art.
To Your Success,Jim Rohn
Friday, March 27, 2009
We are all meant to shine...
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Productivity and Attitude by Zig Ziglar
I'm the only one who does anything around here! Several years ago I was on a late-night television show in New York City. For some strange reason, they wanted me in the studio that afternoon at 4:30. I walked in and was stunned by the small size of the reception area. It contained a couch for three, a chair for one and a sink, refrigerator and coffee maker.
As I sat down a woman walked in, shook her head and said, "Nobody makes any coffee except me!" She got busy and started a fresh pot of coffee. A few minutes later a guy walked in and, following the same procedure said, "I can't believe it! This place would be a pig-pen if it weren't for me! I'm the only person who ever does any clean-up," and he cleaned up the small area. Still later another woman walked in and complained, "Nobody ever puts anything up but me," and she proceeded to put things away.
Interestingly enough, all three of those people sincerely felt they were the only ones who ever did anything. Each one did their own private halo-adjustment as they went through the process of "making up, putting up and cleaning up."
Question: Is that the way it is in your company, where "nobody does anything," but everybody thinks they're the only one who actually works? Thought: If that is true and you are the only one who does anything, think of the incredible advantage that gives you. Not only do you have job security, but the opportunity door is wide open for your move to the top. However, if you have a chip on your shoulder, if you honestly feel that you do everything and you share that feeling with others, your bad attitude negates your good work. So, stay busy, keep working, smile about it and your good attitude about "doing everything" will catch up with you. Think about it and I'll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!
As I sat down a woman walked in, shook her head and said, "Nobody makes any coffee except me!" She got busy and started a fresh pot of coffee. A few minutes later a guy walked in and, following the same procedure said, "I can't believe it! This place would be a pig-pen if it weren't for me! I'm the only person who ever does any clean-up," and he cleaned up the small area. Still later another woman walked in and complained, "Nobody ever puts anything up but me," and she proceeded to put things away.
Interestingly enough, all three of those people sincerely felt they were the only ones who ever did anything. Each one did their own private halo-adjustment as they went through the process of "making up, putting up and cleaning up."
Question: Is that the way it is in your company, where "nobody does anything," but everybody thinks they're the only one who actually works? Thought: If that is true and you are the only one who does anything, think of the incredible advantage that gives you. Not only do you have job security, but the opportunity door is wide open for your move to the top. However, if you have a chip on your shoulder, if you honestly feel that you do everything and you share that feeling with others, your bad attitude negates your good work. So, stay busy, keep working, smile about it and your good attitude about "doing everything" will catch up with you. Think about it and I'll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
After Office Hours by Kenneth Goh
Many years back, I attended a seminar by Brian Tracy and I learnt an important concept about success.
The concept is "Your achievement depends on what you do after the office hours".Let me show you how this concept changed my life.
When I first started working, I was one of the most hard-working employees in my office. While most people work until 6-7pm, I usually worked until 8-9pm. I did well in my job, but I saw no future. At that time, I was spending most of my after-office hours "working".
Then I discovered a field of study called success philosophy and I became addicted to it. During that stage of my life, I spent most of my after-office hours reading self help books, until the day when I finally realized that success is inevitable.
When I started my offline business, I spent the office hours running the business. I spent my after-office hours reading about other businesses, including internet marketing. I also spent many nights learning how to build and promote websites.
Now that I'm full time in internet marketing, I spend the office hours running my online businesses and my after-office hours developing new online businesses.
The point is...We spend most of our office hours on day-to-day operation. The only time when we can do things that will have major impact in our future is after-office hours.
However, most people spend their after-office hours watching TV programmes, playing games etc. I have many friends who have the thinking that "office-hour is for work, after-office-hour is for relaxation". I can't say they are wrong. But what I know is, if I were to adopt such a mentality, I will not be where I'm today.
How about you? What do you do after your office-hour?
To your success,
Kenneth Koh
The concept is "Your achievement depends on what you do after the office hours".Let me show you how this concept changed my life.
When I first started working, I was one of the most hard-working employees in my office. While most people work until 6-7pm, I usually worked until 8-9pm. I did well in my job, but I saw no future. At that time, I was spending most of my after-office hours "working".
Then I discovered a field of study called success philosophy and I became addicted to it. During that stage of my life, I spent most of my after-office hours reading self help books, until the day when I finally realized that success is inevitable.
When I started my offline business, I spent the office hours running the business. I spent my after-office hours reading about other businesses, including internet marketing. I also spent many nights learning how to build and promote websites.
Now that I'm full time in internet marketing, I spend the office hours running my online businesses and my after-office hours developing new online businesses.
The point is...We spend most of our office hours on day-to-day operation. The only time when we can do things that will have major impact in our future is after-office hours.
However, most people spend their after-office hours watching TV programmes, playing games etc. I have many friends who have the thinking that "office-hour is for work, after-office-hour is for relaxation". I can't say they are wrong. But what I know is, if I were to adopt such a mentality, I will not be where I'm today.
How about you? What do you do after your office-hour?
To your success,
Kenneth Koh
Friday, February 27, 2009
Crisis of Credit Visualised
This is such a cool video on how the credit crisis came about...
http://vimeo.com/3261363
Well explained.. thumbs up!
http://vimeo.com/3261363
Well explained.. thumbs up!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
From Homeless to Multimillionaire By Carmine Gallo
Chris Gardner, the man whose rags-to-riches story inspired the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, explains how he harnessed his passion to turn his life around.
It's not every day you get the chance to pick the brain of a man whose real-life rags-to-riches story was turned into a Hollywood movie starring one of America's top actors. But the other day I had the opportunity to spend time with Chris Gardner, subject of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, in which Gardner was played by Will Smith.
While attending an unpaid internship program at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1981, Gardner spent a year on the streets with his two-year-old son. They took refuge at night in a church shelter or the bathroom of a BART subway station in Oakland, Calif. Nobody at work knew. Gardner eventually won a position as a stockbroker at Dean Witter. Two years later he left for Bear Stearns (BSC), where he became a top earner. In 1987, he founded his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich,in Chicago. Today, Gardner is a multimillionaire, a motivational speaker, a philanthropist, and an international businessman who is about to launch a private equity fund that will invest solely in South Africa. His partner in the fund? Nelson Mandela. Not bad for a guy who, six years before founding his own brokerage firm, was "fighting, scratching, and crawling my way out of the gutter with a baby on my back."
"Passion is Everything"
Gardner is a magnificent speaker and has an engaging personality—qualities all business professionals would crave. But what's behind his success? What is the one thing—the one secret—that helped him change his life? "It's passion," he told me. "Passion is everything. In fact, you've got to be borderline fanatical about what you do." Gardner says he was fortunate to find something he truly loved, something where he couldn't wait for the sun to rise so he could do it again. His advice to entrepreneurs and those seeking a career change? "Be bold enough to find the one thing that you are passionate about. It might not be what you were trained to do. But be bold enough to do the one thing. Nobody needs to dig it but you."
Gardner wanted to be "world-class at something." For him, that something was being a stockbroker. For you, finding something you are passionate about will make the difference in how engaging you become as a communicator and as a leader. If you love what you do, you'll eagerly share the story behind it with boundless enthusiasm.
Passion is not teachable. As a communications coach, I can help clients craft and deliver a powerful story, but I can't create passion. But it's passion that separates the electrifying presenters from the average ones. I'm absolutely convinced of it. As a former television journalist, I've interviewed thousands of spokespeople and personally coached hundreds of others in my current profession. Donald Trump once said: "Without passion, you have no energy—and without energy, you have nothing." Your listeners want to be in the presence of someone with energy, a person who greets people with a smile and an abundance of enthusiasm. Passion is not something you necessarily verbalize, but it shows. When Gardner walked into Dean Witter after having slept in a subway station the night before, he only wanted to leave one impression on his co-workers. "All they needed to know is that I would light it up day after day. Passion is not something you have to talk about. People feel it. They see it just as clearly as the color of your eyes, baby."
Coffee and Commitment
I have spent the last several years interviewing inspiring leaders, and I can say without hesitation that passion is the No. 1 quality that sets them apart. In many ways, my talk with Gardner reminds me of a conversation I once had with Starbucks (SBUX) Chairman Howard Schultz. Like Gardner, Schultz used the word "passion" throughout our entire conversation. But remarkably, the word "coffee" was rarely spoken. You see, for Schultz, coffee is not his passion. Instead, Schultz says, he is passionate about creating a workplace that "treats people with dignity and respect;" a workplace environment that his father never had the opportunity to experience. The coffee product offers the means to help Schultz fulfill his passion. In much the same way, stock trading and commissions offered Gardner the means to fulfill his passion, which was to give his son something he never had—a father.
Passion is the foundation of effective communication. Dig deep to discover your core purpose, your true passion. Once you connect to it, use it as fuel to build a rapport with your audience—recruiters, managers, employees, etc. Your presentations, pitches, speeches, and all forms of business communication will be more engaging than ever. Nearly everyone has room to increase what I call the "passion quotient"—the level of passion you exhibit as a speaker. The higher your passion quotient, the more likely you are to connect with people. Chris Gardner's passion fueled his determination in the face of overwhelming odds and obstacles. Take the time to imagine where harnessing your passion can take you.
It's not every day you get the chance to pick the brain of a man whose real-life rags-to-riches story was turned into a Hollywood movie starring one of America's top actors. But the other day I had the opportunity to spend time with Chris Gardner, subject of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, in which Gardner was played by Will Smith.
While attending an unpaid internship program at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1981, Gardner spent a year on the streets with his two-year-old son. They took refuge at night in a church shelter or the bathroom of a BART subway station in Oakland, Calif. Nobody at work knew. Gardner eventually won a position as a stockbroker at Dean Witter. Two years later he left for Bear Stearns (BSC), where he became a top earner. In 1987, he founded his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich,in Chicago. Today, Gardner is a multimillionaire, a motivational speaker, a philanthropist, and an international businessman who is about to launch a private equity fund that will invest solely in South Africa. His partner in the fund? Nelson Mandela. Not bad for a guy who, six years before founding his own brokerage firm, was "fighting, scratching, and crawling my way out of the gutter with a baby on my back."
"Passion is Everything"
Gardner is a magnificent speaker and has an engaging personality—qualities all business professionals would crave. But what's behind his success? What is the one thing—the one secret—that helped him change his life? "It's passion," he told me. "Passion is everything. In fact, you've got to be borderline fanatical about what you do." Gardner says he was fortunate to find something he truly loved, something where he couldn't wait for the sun to rise so he could do it again. His advice to entrepreneurs and those seeking a career change? "Be bold enough to find the one thing that you are passionate about. It might not be what you were trained to do. But be bold enough to do the one thing. Nobody needs to dig it but you."
Gardner wanted to be "world-class at something." For him, that something was being a stockbroker. For you, finding something you are passionate about will make the difference in how engaging you become as a communicator and as a leader. If you love what you do, you'll eagerly share the story behind it with boundless enthusiasm.
Passion is not teachable. As a communications coach, I can help clients craft and deliver a powerful story, but I can't create passion. But it's passion that separates the electrifying presenters from the average ones. I'm absolutely convinced of it. As a former television journalist, I've interviewed thousands of spokespeople and personally coached hundreds of others in my current profession. Donald Trump once said: "Without passion, you have no energy—and without energy, you have nothing." Your listeners want to be in the presence of someone with energy, a person who greets people with a smile and an abundance of enthusiasm. Passion is not something you necessarily verbalize, but it shows. When Gardner walked into Dean Witter after having slept in a subway station the night before, he only wanted to leave one impression on his co-workers. "All they needed to know is that I would light it up day after day. Passion is not something you have to talk about. People feel it. They see it just as clearly as the color of your eyes, baby."
Coffee and Commitment
I have spent the last several years interviewing inspiring leaders, and I can say without hesitation that passion is the No. 1 quality that sets them apart. In many ways, my talk with Gardner reminds me of a conversation I once had with Starbucks (SBUX) Chairman Howard Schultz. Like Gardner, Schultz used the word "passion" throughout our entire conversation. But remarkably, the word "coffee" was rarely spoken. You see, for Schultz, coffee is not his passion. Instead, Schultz says, he is passionate about creating a workplace that "treats people with dignity and respect;" a workplace environment that his father never had the opportunity to experience. The coffee product offers the means to help Schultz fulfill his passion. In much the same way, stock trading and commissions offered Gardner the means to fulfill his passion, which was to give his son something he never had—a father.
Passion is the foundation of effective communication. Dig deep to discover your core purpose, your true passion. Once you connect to it, use it as fuel to build a rapport with your audience—recruiters, managers, employees, etc. Your presentations, pitches, speeches, and all forms of business communication will be more engaging than ever. Nearly everyone has room to increase what I call the "passion quotient"—the level of passion you exhibit as a speaker. The higher your passion quotient, the more likely you are to connect with people. Chris Gardner's passion fueled his determination in the face of overwhelming odds and obstacles. Take the time to imagine where harnessing your passion can take you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)