36th Anniversary Nuggets of Wisdom
Today October 31, 2014 is my 36th business anniversary. It’s my 13,150th consecutive day being psychologically unemployable.
To commemorate here are 36 nuggets of wisdom I’ve learned about playing and winning, The NEW Game of Business™.
Feel free to comment and add your own nugget to the wisdom game. Feel free to share the love and play if forward!
1. The NEW Game of Business™ – The Rise of Enlightened Free Enterprise™ is conscious, compassionate, collaborative, cooperative, creative capitalism. Be a torch for enlightened business.
2. The NEW Game is interdependent. Your team is as important as your talent. Surround yourself with the best players you can find. Be a player who makes every other player better. Be a player other players want to play with. Know what you want and need, and start asking for help.
3. Success is not a pre-requisite for happiness. Success seekers often seek happiness. Happiness is not a destination, a place to go to. Happiness is a state of being, a place to come from. The NEW Game of Success™ is to come from happy, not become happy. I don’t do, have or get happy. I be happy. I can be happy with or without possessions. I can be happy for no reason at all. I can be happy because I’m alive. Choose happy.
4. Don’t confuse the spotlight with the sunlight. A profound distinction gifted me by my business partner and friend Sandy. She helped me see I was burying my gifts under a rock. I confused being in the spotlight with bringing the sunlight. Gifts light the path and the sunlight brightens the world. If you are an introvert like me and dislike the spotlight, this distinction will change your life. Let me know if this rocks your world like it rocked mine.
5. You can’t pay bills with vapor money. Another Sandy-ism. She always reminds me that if it’s coming but it isn’t here yet, it’s vapor money. Don’t be seduced by vapor money or vapor net worth. Pie in the sky is usually just pie in the sky. If you don’t have real money you don’t have money at all.
6. Bless every dollar. When business was dead and my back was against the wall, an unannounced gift showed up in my PayPal account. I blessed that $247. Money started to come and it continues to flow ever since. Bless whatever money shows up no matter how little. Every dollar matters and has the energy to trigger a windfall.
7. Control is an illusion. Be fluid, flexible, and adaptable. Trust others and trust first. Watch the world and everyone in it transform.
8. Focus on what you love most and do best. What you love most and do best may not make you the most money. It can earn you enough to enjoy a good lifestyle. It will bring you the most satisfaction in livelihood and fulfillment in life.
9. Compare not, it’s a losing game. There’s always someone “better” who can make you feel inferior, and someone “lesser” who can make you feel superior. Neither is healthy. You are unique. What makes you different is what makes you interesting and valuable. Stop trying to be the next someone else. Be the original you. That’s what the world is waiting for.
10. Sidney J. Harris on regret: “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for things we did not do that is inconsolable.” How to have a life without regret? Do what makes you happy. You’ll never regret it.
11. Selling is an elegant game and essential skill. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, sales pay your salary. No sales, no business, no job, no income. Most of us sell a product, service, issue, cause, or idea. We all sell ourselves. The NEW Game of Selling™ transforms you from a vendor to a partner to THE trusted voice of choice. Play the NEW Game, and you’ll never get old.
Get in The NEW Game of Selling here now.
12. Highest and best is highest and best. Don’t compromise. Maximize. Advocate for all parties in every deal to get the most possible. Highest and best is spiritual economics at its highest and best.
13. Don’t fall in love with products and services. Fall in love with serving people. People may not want your product or service. They do want to be loved and served.
14. NEW Rule: Rules don’t rule. Stop asking customers to obey your rules, policies and procedures. Don’t torture them with systems, automation and phone call hell. When given the choice to obey your rules, or love and serve the customer, love and serve the customer.
15. Expand the job, don’t shrink the person. The old game played from inside the box called job description. You were told the list of things you could do. Everything else you couldn’t do. The NEW Game throws away the job description box. It expands the job to the talent, ability and potential of the person. You liberate people when you don’t box them in.
16. ABC = Always Be Caring! When you care you win, even when you don’t make the sale, get the customer or win the account. People love to help, support and recommend those who really care about them. Be aware, alert, and attentive to what’s going on around you and what’s going on inside others. Always be caring. While you’re at it, always be… conscious, compassionate, collaborative, cooperative and creative.
17. Be THE most trusted voice of choice. You’ll always be in demand. In a world of information overload and choice overwhelm, we turn to those we trust. The words, “I trust you” create a sacred pact and a spiritual bond. You are no longer a seller. You are a trusted friend who serves the customer’s best interest.
18. It’s not just business. It’s personal. The NEW Game is about meaning, relevance and transformation. It’s a game of serving and being served. It’s personal.
19. We’re in the transportation business. We help transport people from where they are to where they want to be. Products and services are vehicles. They are not the destination. Talk about their destination then talk about your transportation.
20. Keep people R.I.P.E. Results transport. Improvement transforms. Progress transmutes. Experience transcends.
21. There is no “I” in TEAM, but there IS “M-E” in TEAM. Winning teams bring out the best in every player, including ME! If my team does not bring out my best game, it’s my job to find new players or change the team.
22. There Is NO “I” in System. Business is a human game. Never put system ahead of self. Systems don’t feel, have no compassion and cannot experience empathy. Systems are meant to serve us, not control us. You are the master. The system is your servant. How can the system serve you better?
23. Do your soul setting and role setting, and then do your goal setting. Read more here about how and why to do your soul setting and role setting then your goal setting.
24. Information is abundant. Knowledge is scarce. Wisdom is priceless. Good advice is not cheap. Cheap advice is not good. Products, programs and packages don’t help much if you don’t know what to do or why you’re doing it. Advice and counsel are secret weapons of successful, profitable, happy business people. Give your best advice and counsel. Get the best advice and counsel.
25. It takes courage to trust your intuition. The mind is a powerful master if not directed to serve. It diverts me away from my intuitive knowing. I trusted my intuition on many occasions this past year. Most of the time good emerged. I trust my intuition above my analysis. I trust myself!
26. The Law of the Farm is the iron law of nature. I can’t shortcut a crop. My harvest shows up because I nurtured my fields through real world summers and winters. My bounty reflects my care. I care a lot. Your bounty will tell you how much you care.
27. I can earn a living without someone paying me a salary. When I was down to my last dollar, I found a way to exchange my products and services for money. If you lost your job or your business tanked, how would you start again? If you don’t have a business or source of income other than your salary, I encourage you to start something NOW! It’s likely a matter of “when” not if something changes. Don’t wait for the change to shock you. Innovate and find your next thing now.
28. Imperfect action beats perfect inaction. I created this mantra 20 years ago to combat my pathological perfectionism. I still chant this mantra every day. I tell myself to “take imperfect action” then measure and modify because… imperfect action beats perfect inaction.
29. ROE is more valuable than ROI. Return on Energy is the most important metric of life. Energy is life force. You want maximum value from this precious resource. Money can return many times, again and again. Energy is exhaustible. Use yours wisely.
30. Life is a dance between self-reliance and interdependence. My dad told me when I was a lad, “If you want to get something done…!” I bet you know the last three words of Dad’s phrase are… “…do it yourself!” So I become independent, very self-reliant. Then the game changed. I must be both self-reliant and interdependent.
31. Wisdom is a supply and demand game. Is your “Money Talk” talking commodity, time or value? The commodity game is price game. Advice is often a time game. Wisdom is a value game. Being comfortable talking money is a big challenge I had to overcome. I got good at helping people see the value of my treatment, not look at the time it takes me to write the prescription. Wisdom is a value game based on results, not cost or time. Value your wisdom. Price it highly.
32. Your IP – intellectual property – is a gift to the world and your most under valued asset. Is it time to liberate your knowledge, wisdom and experience to benefit others? Stop obsessing over “information products” and start thinking “intellectual property.” The most valuable real estate in the world is the six inches between your ears. You deserve to capitalize, monetize and actualize it.
33. Mitch’s NEW Math: addition by subtraction, multiplication by division. In the old game, more is more. In The NEW Game less is often more. I add by subtracting what I don’t want. I multiply by dividing the rights to my intellectual property and letting more people use it. How can you add by subtracting, and multiply by dividing?
34. ROI x 2! My game is fast return OF your investment, and a forever return ON your investment. The faster you get return OF investment back, the sooner you’ll reinvest with me. The longer you get return ON investment, the longer you’ll stay in the game with me. How do you generate ROI x 2 for your customers, partners and investors?
35. Synergy, synchronicity and serendipity can be more powerful than effort. Stuff out of my control is more life changing than stuff I “control.” More and more I’m allowing things to happen rather than making them happen. I’m valuing surrender more than effort. Synergy, synchronicity and serendipity are effortless. Jump into this river and let the tide take you.
36. Expand the pie by asking, “Whom can I love and serve today? I keep these words above my desk. I love and serve, and people reward me with their money. It’s a complete loop. I will always be rich, and never be poor, if I love and serve. The NEW Game is an abundance game. You win by expanding the pie, not by taking someone else’s piece. Creating more pie for yourself and others is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. How can you create more pie, more value and more money? Start by asking yourself, “Whom can I love and serve today?”
BONUS… One more for good measure to start year 37:
37. “May we be kind to others.” Simple yet profound wisdom comes from the Dalai Lama. Alan Cohen writes, “Keep memories of insult on a short leash, and memories of blessing on a long one.” Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your loved ones. Be kind to everyone.
Today is a blessing. I thank and bless everyone who helped me get to this milestone. You know who you are and how much you mean to me. I couldn’t have made it without you.
With love and serve in my heart,
Mitch, CEO – Chief Encouragement Officer
36th Anniversary Playing The NEW Game of Business™
