Sunday Thoughts

Developing a program to enhance people's skills in entrepreneurism, social dynamics and personal development, is a unique opportunity. Not everybody is interested in all the subjects, and some may only be interested in just the one at first, but once you start to learn, each one retains a very close relationship with the other so you cannot help becoming interested in the others. For example, the three levels in the twenty one week program the experiment covers are Influence, motivation, and leadership. Now you might think these apply only to the entrepreneurial angle, but you would be wrong. To be a good influencer means you can influence your own internal states as well as other peoples. Motivation is what we all require every day, as well as the facility to be able to motive our loved ones, friends and work colleges. Leadership is very important, because we are all leaders and follows at some time, in our lives at work, in relationships and our families. So this is a practical learning exercise, where in the the security of a structured and progressive system, people who are interested in how to run a business or their lives successfully can develop their knowledge and practice their skills. All businesses are structured in exactly the same way as this program, i.e. learning how to sell and promote a product, learning how to motivate the sales force or middle management, and finally leading, inspiring and innovating. Within the realms of society, you again have the same structure of leaders, civil servants and the public. It's a hierarchy based on privilege and votes, not especially worth. As I said, to really understand the way the world works you have to step into other peoples shoes, feel their feelings, their drivers, their motivators, their needs, and their wants; to have any real understanding of a subject, you have to get your feet wet, rather than comment from the side lines. This is actually a lot of fun, as working with other people in a zero risk situation with great personal gains as well as the potential to create a really meaningful legacy is very rare. Personally, I like the idea of working with people who have ambition and the desire to be more, unfortunately the majority of people I meet have had their ambition and creativity drummed out of them by the societies we empower to keep the law and the order. This structure actually creates a lot of discontented people, from the disillusioned banker needing therapy, to the used and abused PA going no where. I'm not saying there aren't many people who love their jobs but as I always say, if they were so great why would you want a weekend or a holiday. Why not make most of life a holiday and only work a couple of days a week to make the same money. The thought of working 40-50 hours a week for a set salary, is simple prostitution of the mind and the body. Selling yourself to make another's fortune. The world relies on 99% of people doing this. Over the last twenty years, entrepreneurialism has become the new religion, with people subscribing to an alternative they know very little about. Just an idea to sell bikes or create a business on line, or any number of ideas that will actually go nowhere. I know what this feels like, I understand the desire to make something work against the odds, the desire not to fail because to admit your idea is flawed, is too much to admit. I've seen people sink their lives, wives, and houses into an idea, that really if they'd taken just a little bit of advice or research into, would not have drained their resources and the days of their lives. Not so long ago many people had ideas but never followed them up, keeping their great money making plan secret and taking it to the grave; just having a possible ticket to win in life is all people needed as comfort, and to find out it's fallibility is no conciliation. It's avoiding disappointment, avoiding failure, it's fear of losing the dream and the hope by testing the validity. Now days, people leave their jobs to become, entrepreneurs without any idea at all, and then go on search for one as if the skills of business are as easy as 123. In the UK 250,000 businesses register every year, and 250,000 business fail every year. Why...it's lack of knowledge and skill. Marriages are just the same with divorce figures muted by people not marrying, and then breaking up...due to a failure of communication and the facility to understand ..themselves, their partners and the relationship itself. Understanding and skill in communicating is the key. Why society is so flawed is because people don't understand society, it's drivers or how to fix it, and that almost concrete mindset is to the benefit the established order. Responsibly is absolved to others and blame follows failure. Just maybe we should look inside ourselves and start remedy the shortcomings society and education condition us to be successful at. Words that pass my lips many times include freedom and choice, these are two of the most important values and beliefs I hold. For me freedom is have the choice on how I live my life, and what I think about. I'm always fighting to find out why I'm moving in a certain direction and how it feels. My patience for anything that compromises my sense of freedom is very limited. I know there are many people out the who like the illusion of freedom, and the illusion of having choice, in truth we are all governed by something; advertising, government, obligations and responsibilities. When you enter into a relationship with someone else in your business or your personal life, you take on the responsibility to value their values and beliefs that may be influenced by vastly different drivers than you. Projecting your assumptions on to their characters..so you think you understand them, can cause all sorts of problems, especially the phrases "you're not who I thought you were", and "you've changed". How people react to situations is both predictable and vastly different in certain circumstances, so when it comes to developing a program of unity, support and opportunity to all, the difficulty is to find that single switch that moves all people in the same direction. True entrepreneurs are all around us, trying to develop new ways to do things or slight changes in established ways for a new look. There is actually very little that has not been done before by someone, it's just developing an opportunity of the moment and finding a successful method of delivery that allows the successful entrepreneur to step through a moving door and appeal to the Market place. Therefor, we come to the unique selling point of this program, it is purely fashioned for the success of the individuals involved, on a linear but progressive way. Self development, business development and social development, based on the idea of working two days out of seven rather than five. Bruce Lee said of life, 'without being better than you were the day before, what is the point. 'And I have to agree. Without growth we stagnate, and look for diversions. Diversions that do not construct, build or benefit the host, but simply pass the time while you reside on this planet. If you're looking for hell on earth, this is about as good as it gets. To be honest, the idea of living forever to suffer this never ending social program is probably the worse nightmare I could think of. For when you sum up existence, as a few friends and family supported by fifty years of hard work, don't you think it's about time for a change...a bit of evolution, not a slow decent into apathy and how many followers you have on face book you don't know. Maybe I'm not of the moment, I certainly don't feel I have a great deal in common with the overwhelming majority of people. I have an insatiable appetite for adventure and knowledge, not just for it's own sake and an official certificate to say I've done the course work in a classroom, but real life. I want to take action now, and give some value to people including myself, for without it we are simply lost and alone.