Currently I work for Global Business Development Services in Ashland, Oregon. We develop businesses, websites and people. Check out the various business, web, marketing, broadcasting, mobile, media, and networking tools we integrate. If you desire to create something dynamic and powerful let me know.

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As some of you know I’ve done extensive teaching, mentoring, lecturing and training in the past including producing two 12-CD audio courses. Just launched three programs this year related to business and personal development. Next year I’ll launch the fourth.

• Web 2.0 Marketing Strategies for Your Business (August 2nd, 2008 )
• The Art of Entrepreneurship (September 6th, 2008 )(Agenda)
• Leadership of the Future (October 4th, 2008 )
• Being a True Human (TBD)

BY FREDRIC LEHRMAN

Chief in the New Context

I want to talk to you about being a leader in a new context. When we think about being the CEO, the boss, the manager, it sets off old authoritarian pictures in our heads. We think of the boss as being a kind of parent, and our old associations with our family quickly start to color our behavior in this role.

We live in changing times, and I am convinced that cultural change is influenced by deep instincts and intuitions which warn us that to continue running our businesses in the old way is becoming very dangerous. What appeared to work in the short term is now seen to be much too expensive in the long run.

As the world becomes smaller through greater interconnectivity and accelerated communications, we are noticing that what might have been a good idea in a less informed world would now be revealed as shortsighted. There is a fundamental shift towards sustainability and conservation of resources going on at all levels of business, society, and family. The essence of that new context is cooperation and support as superior to competition and domination.

Key to Success

The key to success as defined in this course is personal responsibility for the things that we cause and the things we find ourselves engaged in. Our simple presence as an observer is an influence in every situation. The new leader is driven not so much by a desire for power as by a willingness to engage responsibly in the shaping of a goal.

New Leadership is a function in a cooperative process rather than a position of control or command. Just as a ship without a compass can easily go off course, a project without a leader can lose focus in personal agendas. It is the role of the leader to create a vector, an alignment that enhances everyone’s talent and productivity.

What is the “leadership function” and how does it fit into your work and your life? As each person is unique, so each person must have a unique style of leading. What I want to discover with you is that unique style which only you can perfect. It is your original voice and way of being which will be your most effective card in the game of leadership.

In order to be very clear about this, I want to say that most of us have been operating under an illusion all of our lives. We have been playing a role, which isn’t our own. Our habits of posture, movement, and voice are artifacts of family dynamics and childhood environment, and of social trends and styles that are constantly changing. Underneath this mask is the unique person that you really are, who is more than just a subtype of your family and society. The opportunity of leadership is to learn to use this deeper and greater aspect of yourself in a public way.

The Secret of Charisma

This is the secret of charisma. As a photographer, I watch for the unguarded moment when the real person appears. As a musician, I listen for the intelligence and the sensitivity, which lies behind the notes, behind the technique. In addition to making good choices in strategy and giving good direction, a leader at any level of business or community is called upon to access those deeper qualities. Let’s call this factor “authenticity.” It is this element that gives the added edge to each action, reinforces in each member of the team a feeling of their own self-essence and inspires a wish to do good work.

Away From the Machine Model

As part of the new paradigm, we are moving away from the machine model of organizations where each person is just a moving part. Now we see each individual as a contributing force in an organic whole. The Old Leader ordered people to do things. The New Leader creates opportunities and challenges, which initiate a change of role in the individual worker towards a common effort.

A welder at home with the children will look like any other parent; but on the job it is appropriate to wear a mask and heavy gloves. In the same way a leader will adapt to the task at hand, always conscious of the responsibility which comes with the position and being willing to “wear the mantel.”

Artistic Aspect of Leadership

There is an artistic aspect to being a leader that involves using yourself like a fine instrument. This is easy and exciting for some, but very challenging for others, because they were pushed back into themselves as children and are not yet sure that it is safe to come out. In our advanced residential workshops we explore this. The surprising thing for most people is the discovery that they don’t have to change much to become very effective as leaders.

The adjustments are subtle, often involving no more than a slight adjustment of posture, a relaxation of certain muscles, an easing of the throat along with a moderate amplification of the voice. It is wonderful to see people surprising themselves with their newly accessed power. And once this behavioral threshold has been crossed, it is so pleasurable that it often settles in as a permanent shift.

Being A Winner

In my money seminars I talk about being a winner in a community of winners. Here you are a leader in a community of leaders. As a leader or a supporter in the new model, you must also be a good team player. The fully realized person doesn’t look for anyone to follow because they don’t expect anyone to do their vision for them. At the same time, they know that they don’t have to do it alone. Part of the new paradigm is “I do it right and everybody wins.” This is one of the major differences in the way companies will function and be structured from now on.

The old model, which is “I’m the boss and you do what I say,” can’t work any more. That’s the dinosaur, which is about to become extinct. So my sense is that what we are all looking for is a group of competent, committed, purpose- driven people who can pool their talents and work off each other’s strengths. For example, I am not an expert in business plans: it’s not the thing I like to think about all night. But I can do one if I have to.

And that’s important to know. If your car breaks down, can you fix it, even though you don’t like to work on cars? To know that you can is very important. But when you find someone who “likes” to work on cars, and whose part of the team, well that’s really great. They can say, “Look, I’ll become the leader at this point. Everybody get out of the way and let me fix the car.” When you are building your office, this is the spirit of it, that you have a whole crew of leaders there.

Introducing The Chief

The title of this section is “What does it mean to be the chief”? If you are the CEO of your particular office what does the “C” stand for? It means “chief.” So let’s look at what it really means. The word chief is the same as the word chef. In a kitchen you have the chef and the sous-chef and the pastry chef, there are all kind of chefs in there and right down to the chief dishwasher.

Basically the word just means “head.” It comes through several languages, as capo, cabeza, and kopf. Or there is the variant of chapeau, which means hat or cap. The chief is really the head. So what that means is that it’s the part of the system, which gives the direction. But it doesn’t operate alone; disembodied heads don’t work too well.

Head and Body

So the issue between the head and the body is the issue between the chief and the corporation. In Western industrialized culture we don’t generally have a good relationship with our bodies. This struggle for control is expressed in the way our corporate structures have been designed and operated.

So much importance is given to the head; the rest of the body is secondary. In the old business culture, everything every thing was for the benefit of the “ego” aspect of the company. No matter what is said, there’s always this implication of “Well, we’re going to be tougher and stronger than you.” This warlike aspect dominates the value system. We’ve reached the point where, at this millennial crossing, to continue that way is very hazardous.

Gender Issues

Gender issues affect everyone; each individual has masculine strengths and feminine strengths and the balance of them is the most important thing. But culturally, in the patriarchal system, you get to the place where you realize that there’s a very interesting double bind going on: if we continue to indulge in our survival instincts, we will destroy ourselves.

Win-Win Strategies

So now, the survival instinct itself has to turn around, to try to re-form into something more cooperative. Survival now means going from the competitive to the cooperative. That’s why I say “only you can do it and you don’t have to do it alone.” If we win, I win. But if I win and you lose, then I didn’t really win.

It’s really different in the matriarchal style of management. It’s taken a lot of time for the traditional business sector to recognize this, but its time has come; anything else is global suicide. Human culture is about to make this evolutionary choice, which Buckminster Fuller identified as “Utopia or Oblivion.”

This is also intrinsically bound up with our notions of power and of ability. Being in a position of responsibility without having the ability to do the job is very uncomfortable. Power without wisdom is ultimately dangerous.

Everyone Has Power

Everyone has power. The fact that you’re breathing means the switch is on. That’s the power I’m talking about, the one we take for granted. The old way of managing power is to first try to amass a kind of hard strength. And you say “o.k. I’m really strong and it’s me against the world. And the stronger I am the more power I have.”

That’s the old way. The new way is to say “I am alive in an ocean of power: let it use me.” See how much easier that is? You didn’t have to wake up in the morning by throwing a switch. You just woke up! That’s the first sign that power is using you. The power is ambient. We are simply nodes where it concentrates. It charges as we breathe in and out.

Just go back and read the old Chinese Taoist writings; it’s very clear there. All the old spiritual masters knew this. The more you relax into the power the more you will discover your “homing device” like a salmon returning from the sea. You can ask “What’s my vision and how does that fit into our project, our company’s vision?” You’re going to find yourself moved to exactly where you need to be. You’ll be in rhythm and you’ll be in the flow.

The Old Paradigm Chief

Now it’s confusing when you are the chief and people expect you to play the game the old way. They expect you to be the patriarch or the boss, even if you’re a woman. The old Industrial barons had all those factories and people slaving at the assembly line, getting exhausted and burned out. It was like an engine that they didn’t feel they had to take care of because the parts could be replaced. That is never going to work again as a management strategy.

Part of your job now as the chief is to teach people how they can operate in their own certainty, to empower rather than to dominate and control. So the smart thing in business, if you really want to make money in business, is to start supporting the well being of your entire organization. The way to be successful now is to nurture people, not to drain them.

Now understanding this verbally is good, but experiencing the truth of it directly is a thing that you want to start relaxing into and testing out. I’ll give you certain characteristics, which are necessary in order to be an effective leader in this New Economic Order System (NEOS).

Principles of Leadership and Something of Value

A first principle of leadership is to have something of value that you want people to have or get. That’s your motivator that you have something to give. So anytime you get a little stuck in your old “uniform” with all the epaulettes and medals, just stop and remind yourself that that’s the old leadership model. Stop and say “Alright, what am I here for? What do I have that I really want people to experience and get?” Whether it’s a good product, or a better state of mind, or more money, concentrate on the giving side of the equation.

Your Mission

There’s something there that’s part of your mission. A mission is what you were sent to do. That’s what the word actually means- something sent you to do that. So come back again and again to the question “What’s the gift that I’m trying to deliver to people?”

Commitment to Excellence

A second principle of leadership is a personal commitment to excellence. No job is “just a job.” It is also, always, an opportunity to grow, to improve, and to achieve mastery. Only when this example is being demonstrated from the top down will it permeate and energize an organization.

No Defense

The third characteristic of the new leadership is subtler. It’s called “No Defense.” Part of the old model is to defend your position at all costs. So the moment you feel someone’s criticizing you or doesn’t like the way you’re doing things, you get defensive about it. You immediately step out of the NEOS back into the old model.

It takes a lot of personal development to be able to drop the defensiveness and still know that you’re safe. I studied T’ai Chi for years and years and years to learn this. The Course in Miracles says, “If I defend myself I am attacked.” T’ai Chi principle says, “Relax and no one can attack you.” The same insights appear over and over again in widely different cultures.

Allow Feedback and Criticism

To let in feedback and criticism, you don’t have to fall apart and fold and just say “oh my God I’m sorry I made such a terrible mistake”, but let people tell you what they have to tell you and realize that this is only going to improve the situation. You must remind yourself to be open because when you’re not you go right back into the old model of trying to always be right. Then even the most talented people who are trying to support you will get frustrated with you.

If you do these two steps, then you will actually be functioning like the head of a horse. You’ll be the orientation, showing which way the horse going to go, which will allow others people’s energy to fall in to line and integrate into synergy. And that’s what exciting, when you feel that your particular job is actually part of some bigger picture. Then you feel, “I have a meaning, I have a function in a larger plan.” This is what everybody wants. You as chief have to provide the space where people can discover that.

Be Willing to Be the Leader

The fourth requirement for being the chief in the new environment is often skipped over because it seems obvious. It involves making a conscious and impersonal decision to be willing to take the role of leader. Now what does it mean to take the role of leader?

This is where the old and the new cross over. Sometimes people are so cool and laid back, that they sit in the leader’s chair and act like they are just there by accident. And that doesn’t make anybody happy. In the old paradigm, the robe of authority was quite literal, a distinguishing visual signal, whether a uniform, a badge, or a name on the door. In the new paradigm, the most effective signal is behavioral, and harks back to basic gestures common to all species.

Among wolves, for example, the leader stands tall and the other wolves yield in a way, which works best for the whole pack. Humans are not very different. We want our leaders to speak out, to inhabit themselves fully, to project. In the insect world and the animal world there’s an intricate signaling system to assume the role of leader of the pack. You either have to practice it by literally standing tall, or you can be tall inside, even if outside you are lounging around. It works both ways.

It’s not a formula; it’s not “Toastmasters” that I’m talking about here. It’s an “innerstanding.” As the leader you are allowed and even expected to speak twice as loud as everyone else. You know how frustrating it is when somebody gets up and they start to lead and they’re just kind of talking along like this (tone example – mumbled), it doesn’t really work. I mean it works, but it works better (tone example – pronounced and more clear, louder) if I talk like this.

This doesn’t seem too loud, but if I were in a conversation with you I wouldn’t talk this way. I’m in the leader/teacher role, that’s all. But it doesn’t mean that I identify with that, in the old way of saying, “I’m in charge here, so be afraid of me!”

The opposite is also true. There are people who dominate by just quieting down. (Tone example – very low volume) They just sit back and you’ve got to lean forward to hear what they say, kind of like Marlon Brando in The Godfather. It’s just as effective… as long as you can still be heard. But you see, it’s “twice as,”- either twice as loud or twice as soft. And even this style requires that you express yourself with certainty and assurance rather than timidity or doubt.

So you want to practice that. When I train seminar leaders, I always see them get up and try to be just their normal selves. It doesn’t work. You have to be yourself as the leader; you have to take that role of leader. The details of style will change. Sometimes you’ll speak faster, sometimes slower. Play with it, eventually you’ll find your pace, your rhythm, your stride.

Body History and Story

Another aspect of what we’ve been looking at is that your body has a history. You may stand up there and say what you want to say, but your body may be communicating a whole different story. For example, some people walk around in a victim attitude all the time and they don’t even realize it. You look at them coming down the street and what you pick up from them from a long distance away is a complaint, or anger, or sadness.

They’re saying, “look what you did to me.” They go around all day like that. They’re still communicating with their father or their mother or someone else who isn’t even there any more, without being aware of it. It’s built into the body as a gesture, a habit.

Almost all of us have this or some other unconscious attitude, which comes through us to some extent. If the history is there it doesn’t have to be repressed. When you are in touch with it, then it doesn’t get in the way. If the person is willing to say, “I’ve had problems just like everybody else, but I’m going to be the leader now and I’m going to do my best,” you will immediately support them.

Principles of Being the Chief

So to summarize: the four principles of being the Chief in the new paradigm are:

1. Have something of value which you wish to give
2. Be committed to excellence
3. Operate with openness to feedback: No Defense
4. Be willing to assume the behavior of a leader

Optimism and Belief in the Future

The last thing I want to talk about is optimism and belief in the future. As a leader you want to balance being realistic with being open to new possibilities. In the new paradigm change is continuous and good. If you only do what worked before you will soon be obsolete. So you must always accept a certain amount of risk while avoiding a tendency to be impractical or overly idealistic.

Your project or venture will be at its most exciting creative edge when it itself becomes a pioneer in its field. In this way everyone in the project is identified with the leadership function. You will all join together into a coherent organism, like the dragon in the Chinese New Year Celebration, which consists of a big dragon mask and a long cloth body carried by many people. Everyone has to move individually but with one mind to make the dragon dance realistically. And when the person in the front becomes tired, someone else can switch places temporarily while the dance continues.

Now imagine that your company is this dragon, and that the dragon is real. Let the combined knowledge and intelligence and skills of all the dancers fuse into a synergy of talent. Like the traditional Chinese dragons that chase the pearl of wisdom, let this dragonmind lead you all towards the pearl of success, which draws you, like a magnet, to the future.

In summary, what does it mean to be the chief in the new paradigm?

1. Come to serve rather than to be served
2. Bring something of value to give or represent
3. Inspire excellence by being committed to it in yourself
4. Stay open to feedback without being directed by it
5. Be willing to take the role of leader without making it your identity
6. Remember that success of a venture implies success for all participants.

A Health and Wellness Plan

Whether you are a professional, a small businessman or woman, an entrepreneur, or an individual looking at your career, examining your professional goals is important for success.

Health and wellness is often an overlooked area of our professional and business lives. In the rush to make money, our health and wellness is often shuffled to the bottom of the priority list. But to be truly successful in both your personal and professional lives, you cannot compromise your health and wellness. So make it one of your personal and professional goals to live in an area that has fresh air, clean water and good food, and take your health and wellness seriously.

Communications and Networking Plan

In today’s world, our ability to access the information, people and resources we need, when we need it, is paramount to our success. If we are cruising around on the Internet like bumper cars banging into the information we need, then we are lost. Without an effective search engine and the ability to know how to find the information we need, we are truly lost. To be able to effectively navigate the information universe that is exploding around it, we must develop a communications and networking plan to further our goals and objectives.

Communications planning involves assessing your interpersonal communications and technology skills, your networking and leadership skills, and networking your professional, organizational, media and community affiliations.

Towards this end, we’re developing a networking backbone of 144 Resource Centers to organize the information fields of each local/regional area. Then we can identify the people, projects, businesses and media that are in alignment with our free enterprise development goals.

We want to locate the people and resources that have the highest potential of success, then guide them through a system of development as quickly as possible. In 3 months or 3 years, however long it requires, they will be strong, independent members of a free enterprise network.

Free Enterprise Business Plan

After you have determined your purpose and calling in life, have identified your passion, your talents and skills, then you are ready to embark on the development of a free-enterprise project or business that can bring your gifts into the world. If you already have a business, or are willing to learn what it takes to develop one, we’ll assist you in getting your goals to the finish line. Make it your professional goal to be in a satisfying and fulfilling business enterprise for yourself.

Business planning involves assessing your individual strengths and weaknesses, your planning skills and abilities, your interpersonal communications and technology skills, your networking and leadership skills, and the overall project or business evaluation.

Financial Plan

If you have not ever thought of creating a financial plan for your future, then we suggest developing one. Many people struggle for years in their lives around issues of money and the lack of it. Much of this comes from not understanding the nature of the money system and their own limiting belief structures.

After you’ve dealt with your issues around prosperity consciousness and untangled the subconscious patterns that have sabotaged your efforts to be financially independent, then you can begin your financial plan.

Financial planning for yourself as an individual, your family or your business involves calculating your basic overhead or operating costs, monthly expenses and income, your personal household budget, your assets and liabilities, start-up or expansion costs for your projects and businesses, and an overall investment strategy. This can be done in a standard spreadsheet with a column for income and expenses.

If you implement a financial plan, then you won’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck forever like so many people do today. So make it a priority to develop a financial plan for the future.

Achieving Your Personal and Professional Goals

Achieving your personal and professional goals is a matter of providing a healthy combination of intention, attention, good planning, excellent timing, resources, wisdom and the application and implementation of what you learn in this course.

In summary, your professional goals of success include:

1. Developing a Health & Wellness Plan
2. Developing a Communications and Networking Plan
3. Developing a Free Enterprise Business Plan
4. Developing a Financial Plan
5. Achieving your professional goals and objectives.

You Are Not A Victim – Be “Response-Able”

You must know and understand that you have a choice at all times, that you create your own reality and are not a victim. You must be willing to acknowledge both the internal and the external aspects of the seven aspects of sovereignty, and achieve balance in all these areas. You must acknowledge that education is the key to unlock the door of a successful life.

You must factor yourself into the new paradigm development plan with education, training and human development at the core. There is no project or business development that can ultimately succeed without both personal and professional development. True holistic education and training has been sorely undervalued and largely unavailable to the general population, and as a developed society and nation, we’ve paid dearly for the mistake. Remember, freedom and ignorance can never co-exist.

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

You must examine your belief structures and end self-deception and denial. This involves telling the truth, for the truth shall set you free. It means a thorough reflection, self-examination and assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Where there is strength, the integration of those strengths with what you do and who you are. And where there is weakness, the healing and development of those aspects of yourself.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates

This may involves embracing the shadow, or unconscious aspect of yourself. This may also involve looking at your self-worth and self-esteem issues. This may involve your physical or emotional health and well-being. You must deprogram the mind control systems that dominate our information systems today, and free your own mind. You must retire political correctness and the good opinion of others over your own thoughts.

You must release the prejudices and preconceptions that have kept you a slave in your own mind. You must release feelings of insecurity, expectations and false attachments.

“The people who are the most bigoted are the people who have no convictions at all.” -Gilbert Chesterton

You must break through all fears. Fears such as – not understanding, making a mistake, fears of the government, of the IRS or Revenue Canada, of going to prison, of offshore investments, of losing money, of death and taxes, of being yourself, of being seen, of public speaking. There are so many kinds of fears but they are all rooted in the same fear of death or survival.

“Fear leads you directly into the path of that which you fear.” -Anonymous

“If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.” -Raymond Inmon

You must experience yourself as worthy and break through old family patterns that keep you from living an abundant and prosperous life. You must experience courage, faith, kindness, contentment and joy to reach your goals for a happy and successful life.

Deepak Chopra stated in his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, a book that I highly recommend everybody read, “Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease.”

In summary, your human and community development includes:

1. Breakdown and breakthrough experiences
2. Knowing that you are always at choice
3. Knowing that you are responsible to create your own reality
4. Knowing that you are not a victim
5. Embodying the seven aspects of sovereignty
6. Achieving balance in your work and living
7. Acknowledging education as the key to your personal development
8. Examining your belief structures and ending self-deception and denial
9. Telling the truth
10. Taking a serious look at yourself through reflection, contemplation, self-examination and assessment
11. Assessing your strengths and weaknesses
12. Embracing the shadow aspect of yourself
13. Deprogramming mind control systems, media and other limiting thoughts
14. Reevaluating political correctness and the approval of others
15. Releasing prejudices and preconceptions
16. Breaking through all fears
17. Experiencing yourself as worthy of receiving and having a successful life
18. Dismantling old family patterns that imprison you
19. Being courageous through the course of your living

Individual Sovereignty and Response Ability

Individual sovereignty and response-ability is the foundation of everything. What does individual sovereignty mean to you? What does it mean to be response-able? What it means to us is that we embrace, we accept, we acknowledge our sovereignty as individuals, first and foremost.

Committed to Continuing a Lifelong Education

Nothing happens, nothing changes and nothing is possible until you make a commitment to action. This requires an act of will. You must make a commitment to continuing a lifelong education and be willing to complete this course. Those who hesitate or procrastinate have little chance of being successful.

You must commit to be willing to learn with an open mind. Release all your prejudices and preconceptions for the next twelve hours and listen intently. There may be information here that you have never heard before or that shocks you, and other information that may contradict what you presently believe. This is okay, don’t fight it, remain calm and allow it to be. We’re not here to tell you what you think or believe, but to teach you how to think for yourself.

You must be willing to make mistakes, even fail. It’s not the failure that stops us, but when we give up and don’t learn from our mistakes. You’ll be on a steep learning curve, but what an exhilarating ride!

Recognizing Your Purpose and Calling

Some people are born with a clear purpose or calling, and others must search one out. Some are very successful in fulfilling their purpose while others die without ever really knowing why they lived.

So what is your purpose and calling? What gives you the most joy? What are you most excited and passionate about? What innate skills and talents have you developed, that can best benefit yourself and others in service? What project and business ideas have you developed that could serve human needs, wants or aspirations and be brought to market?

Besides recognizing your purpose and calling, you must assess the strength of your commitment and desire to manifest, have the patience to develop a plan of action, and the courage to implement it.

In today’s busy world full of distractions, it’s easy to get off-purpose. It takes a strong focus of will to stay on purpose long enough to realize your dreams. One goal of success education is to be very clear at identifying and organizing your purpose or calling in life, then to develop a project or business around it.

Being in Contribution and Service

As long as we are still struggling to make ends meet, to pay the bills, then our attention is not directed to our highest purpose. All human beings desire at their innermost core to leave a legacy, to be loved and remembered, to give of their talents and to be in contribution and service to others. Once you recognize your purpose or calling, then giving to others is a natural extension of what you do, above and beyond your basic survival needs. The best way to serve the poor is, to not be one of them.

You do not have to be rich to be in contribution and service. Nor do we have to wait. Everyone beyond their basic survival needs has the capacity to give something to others, without expecting something in return. Giving back builds character and serves the soul. Giving back creates a circulation of energy that enhances the quality of life for all. The gift is always coming back to you. You don’t have to be in control.

Another goal of success education is to identify ways that you can be in contribution and joyfully circulate resources, energy and wealth to others.

Being in Meaningful Relationships

It’s impossible to avoid being in relationship and be alive. We are in relationship with everything we know, even everything we don’t know.

These relationships can involve people, organizations, networks, and information systems; both visible and invisible that is connected in some way through communication. With regards to people, some of these relationships are personal, others are impersonal. Some are purely professional or work-related. Others are very intimate and familiar. Relationships are either short-term or long-term in duration. We are always at choice in relationship, whether we are aware of it or not. Another goal of success education is to be in meaningful relationships. Since we’re always in relationship anyway we might just as well get good at it.

Mastering the Art of Communications

In the communications age being an active listener who has a serious interest in the concerns of other people is more important than ever. People talk, but who is listening. Too often we’re bombarded with information, but there is no true communications. True communications is person-to-person, and involves more than a one-way monologue, a sales pitch or information transfer. True communications means, “to share.” This implies a two-way transfer of information, personal or impersonal. This is communications with a human face. No machine or computer in the world can ever or will ever replace it.

Without communications, energy does not move effectively. If you control the communications systems, then you control the movement of energy. Communication is what creates circulation and exchange in all economies. Communications is the basis for all meaningful relationships.

Today, technology and computers coordinate most communication. Machines often get between people instead of facilitating true communication.

Another goal of success education is to facilitate true communications on the personal, interpersonal, managerial, organizational, community, regional, national and global levels. Our goal is to teach people how to master the art of communications.

Being a Great Networker

If we have meaningful relationships and true communications, then great networking can happen on an unprecedented scale. Being a great networker in the larger sense, not just a network marketer involves the ability to access people, information and resources that are relevant to your own endeavors, or whatever project or business you may be developing. Great networking creates lasting relationships and opportunities that are not dependent upon money, wealth or status. Great networking also connects people to people.

Being a great networker is an essential skill in the communications age. Great networking is a gift we give each other. Another goal of success education is to teach people how be effective networkers and create opportunities everywhere, like magic out of thin air.

Our goal is to teach people how to become great networkers

Being a Leader

Being a leader has its own challenges. You have to be willing to show up and be seen, to make mistakes, to take risks and share the rewards, to take individual responsibility for the consequences of your actions, and to detach oneself from the approval or disapproval of others. You must be able to encourage leadership in others, to mobilize the creative talents of your organization or community, and be willing to be the leader.

Being a leader is about understanding basic principles, demonstrating ethical behavior, and implementing the underlying dynamics of human and business development.

As you might imagine, leadership can mean different things to different people. But what it means to us is this – that leadership includes being committed to our own continual growth and education, expanding our roles and responsibilities in our home, work and business life, as well as our role in the world around us.

All successful people are leaders. Leaders step out and make the trends that others follow. Leaders invent and innovate where others fear to tread. Leaders walk the road less traveled. Leaders are able to be themselves more fully and are confident and secure in themselves. Leaders are not born, but made.

Our goal is to teach people leadership skills they can apply throughout their lives.

Being Creative

Is it not the inherent nature of a child to be creative, to live in a fantasy world of imagination? As adults, we still have the same capacity as a child to be creative in the real world. So much creative talent is devoted to producing films, movies and entertainment. As mature adults, we can apply high levels of creativity in our professional work, associations and relationships.

That many of us have stifled our creativity and adopted beliefs that we are not good enough, or that others might not approve, must be overcome. To stimulate the imagination, to facilitate the unleashing of your creative potential, and teach you about the creative cycle, are important components of a successful life. Another goal of success education is to release and empower your imagination, to unleash your creative potential, and to become what we dream.

Being A Producer in the Economic System

Why are people referred to as consumers and taxpayers by the media and politicians, instead of producers and Citizens deserving of respect? It’s not the means to go shopping that makes you successful; any more than paying taxes makes you a good citizen.

The key to unlock the door to success is whether or not you have embodied the principles outlined in this course as your new operating system, and shifts your identity from that of being a consumer and taxpayer, to that of being a producer in the economic system. This is what really matters. For in truth, the producers are the most powerful component of any economic system, not the government, and certainly not the consumers or taxpayers.

If you become a producer in the economic system you won’t have to chase money, because the money will chase you. Another goal of success education is for everyone to become producers in the economic system.

In summary, your personal goals of success include:

1. Individual Sovereignty and Response-Ability
2. A Commitment to Continuing a Lifelong Success Education
3. Recognizing Your Purpose & Calling
4. Being in Contribution and Service
5. Being in Meaningful Relationships
6. Mastering the Art of Communications
7. Being a Great Networker
8. Being a Leader
9. Being Creative
10. Being a Producer in the Economic System.

INSPIRED BY STEVEN COVEY

Stephen Covey has written several great books and audio seminars including the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Principle-Centered Leadership.” We highly recommend both of these for your continuing education.

In his “Principle-Centered Leadership” he discusses the ten dilemmas of professional managers, the distinction between the law of the farm and the law of the school, the four levels of natural law, and the power of turning your company mission statement into a constitution. We’ll be summarizing those for you here.

Ten Dilemmas of Professional Managers

Like being a leader, being a business manager can be frought with challenges and opportunities. According to Mr. Covey, there are ten dilemmas of professional managers.

1. First, how do you achieve a healthy balance between work and family? How do you achieve balance and peace of mind in the middle of constant change, stress and crisis? How many years can you endure before this balance is achieved?
2. Second, how do you unleash the creative talents from the vast majority of people who have more talent than their jobs allow? How do you overcome the blocks to personal and human development that have stifled the creativity and productivity of most of your associates and co-workers?
3. Third, how do we uncover the hidden agendas in ourselves and become trustworthy? How do we achieve peace in a culture with so much conflict, rivalries and jealousies? How do we learn to trust each other and create a safe space to tell the truth?
4. Fourth, how do we emerge into the new paradigm of principle-centered leadership and not slip back into the old authoritarian hardball approach?
5. Fifth, how do we have security in an insecure world? What is the wisdom of insecurity? Can we embrace change, flexibility and adaptability and still meet our security needs? Can I have security in the middle of constant change and thrive?
6. Sixth, how do we invoke a deep sense of commitment to the project or business, to invoke a commitment to the strategy of those who founded it? How do we create a sense of ownership and equity, social, psychological and financial?
7. Seventh, how do we internalize the qualities of excellence and performance when so many people are cynical, fatigued and disillusioned? How do we continue to maintain and improve quality?
8. Eighth, how do we facilitate respect and the value of diversity without prejudice clouding our perceptions? How do we get away from pre-judgment and keep an open mind to new ideas and people?
9. Ninth, how can we turn a mission statement into a constitution that everybody can get on board with?
10. Tenth, how do we maintain control yet give people the freedom and independence to be effective and fulfilled in their work?

Law of the Farm

Under the natural Law of the Farm, you cannot procrastinate and still expect to eat. You either get the seeds in on time, when the conditions are right, or you miss the harvest. You must work within natural law or go hungry. On a farm, you cannot fake it. Nor can you pretend to be strong and work hard every day plowing the fields. When it comes to natural things, or principles, there’s no fudging it.

The Law of the Farm requires having a long-term goal that is, making the harvest. Natural laws are self-evident and not arguable. There is no debate, except amongst fools. Natural law is universal in all religions and societies throughout the ages. Reality is based on natural laws. The natural Law of the Farm is in contrast to the Law of the School.

Law of the School

But the Law of the School is different. You can procrastinate for weeks in class not doing your homework, then cram for the exam, memorize lots of facts and still get the grades. You can fake it. You can fudge the tests. You can pretend to know things that you really don’t know. You might learn it today, but then forget tomorrow because you’ve never applied it. It’s an artificial simulation of the real world, and reality may not be anything like what you’d expect once you’ve graduated.

The Law of the School is about short-term goals, making it through the test, or tenth grade.

If your goal was to get a degree, instead of getting an education, then school could work for you. But dare you apply what you learned in school on the farm if you were faking it? I dare say not.

The Law of the School is based on social agreements, norms and economic values relative to getting a job or developing a career or business. These are relative and change from society to society, and from time to time. You cannot count on social values to remain the same. Trends will change and you must change with them. Reality may appear to be based on social values as projected by the media, but they are always subject to natural law.

Be aware, that what works in school may not work on the farm. Do not confuse the Law of the Farm with the Law of the School.

Four Levels of Natural Law

The four levels of natural law include the personal, interpersonal, managerial and organizational. All these systems of natural law are integrated with each other and must be present for a successful project or relationship.

Personal – Trustworthiness

The personal level of natural law is based on trustworthiness. Are you trustworthy? Do others experience you as trustworthy? If you are unscrupulous in your character or double-minded with hidden agendas, then you will sabotage your projects or relationships with others.

If you have integrity and are in alignment with higher virtues and values, then you will prosper in your projects and relationships. Whenever someone in a business, or family, undermines trust, then it sabotages your best efforts to succeed. True security lies in the adherence to principles of natural law and trusting your own abilities. This develops independence, character, competence and skills that are integrated into your personal and professional life.

Interpersonal – Trust

The interpersonal level of natural law is based on trust. Do you trust other people? Do they trust you? If there is no trust, then communications and relationships are not possible. But we’re not talking about blind trust, or trusting people who are not trustworthy. Trust must be established and earned.

Having trust in other people yields empowerment and teambuilding for your projects, or in your families when it is established and earned. Teambuilding builds trust in the family or the company. When trust is high then communications is more effective. People will compensate for each other weaknesses with their strengths. Your project or business will have a greater likelihood of success.

To be a leader on the interpersonal level means making emotional deposits in other people. Build people up, don’t tear them down. This develops interdependence and strong relationships that can bend like the oak during the toughest or the best of times.

Managerial – Empowerment

The managerial level of natural law is based on empowerment. Your delegations of tasks or assignments to others will work if the trust is strong and you have empowered them with your management style. People first become independent, then interdependent. Then they are empowered to create and complete their responsibilities with the minimum of authoritarian oversight and control.

When there is no trust or empowerment in an organization, then the managers must use control systems, and follow-up and check-up on everybody. This takes an incredible amount of energy to accomplish. And fear and intimidation become the methods for enforcing company policy instead of common sense.

But will these command and control systems produce the world-class project or business that can compete in an emerging market? Treat your people the way you’d treat your customers. And you know what happens if you treat your customers badly. They go elsewhere.

Under principle-centered leadership, you do not manage people, but things like money, information, and time. Managers empower people to be their own leaders and let them do what they do best.

Organizational – Alignment

The organizational level of natural law is based on alignment. You can make change after change in the organizational structures and protocols, rules and procedures, guidelines and incentives and not achieve the desire result of any organization, that is, alignment. When all the people, stakeholders and joint venture partners in your organization are in alignment, then things just work. Stakeholders include investors, management, staff, customers, suppliers and the government when necessary.

Of course, quality in the spirit of continuous improvement and service, and excellence are a necessary part of a successful project or business.

Integrating all these levels of natural law is the true test of whether or not you’re willing to play in the new paradigm of leadership. Remember, leadership is about being effective, not just efficient.

Mission Statements Into Constitutions

Mr. Covey suggests that every individual, every department, and every branch office author their own mission statements along with the overall company mission statement. This process creates a powerful tool for alignment of the organization on every level.

These mission statements cannot be coerced, but must originate from the free will and autonomy of the individuals involved. They must be able to interact freely, be safe and secure from persecution or being fired, and be advised of the realities of the challenges and problems in each department. Covey asserts that if given the opportunity, people will step up to the challenge and arrive at goals and values that everybody will hold in common. Natural law will prevail.

Peter Drucker studied the managers of America’s largest business institutions. After much analysis and study, he arrived at the conclusion that “Executive ability seems to have little correlation with intelligence, imagination, or brilliance.”

Rather, he found that effective leaders do four things:

1. They practice conservation of time
2. They have an eye fixed on new developments
3. They build on the strengths of their colleagues
4. They starve the problems and feed the opportunities.

In summary, according to Steven Covey, principle-centered leadership involves:

1. Understanding and resolving the ten dilemmas of professional managers
2. Understanding the Law of the Farm versus the Law of the School
3. Four Levels of Natural Law including personal, interpersonal, managerial and organizational and their corresponding principles of trustworthiness, trust, empowerment and alignment
4. How to turn Mission Statements into Constitutions
5. Becoming an effective leader.

Plan for Your Life

Your education will be ongoing. It will continue through your life. For the truly living, it’s not going to ever stop.

In the words of Bob Dylan, “a man not busy being born is busy dying.”

It might just be that we don’t really die. We just stop regenerating and healing. With this commitment to your life locked in to your consciousness, you can begin to plan your life as if it might just go on forever.

Everything you learn, perceive and experience, every communications and contact with others is potential information that could be usefully integrated into your plan. But you must be very discerning not to include information that is irrelevant. So be alert, listen carefully and don’t miss the diamonds in the rough.

With what you’ve learned in this course and the other continuing education programs to follow, you can confidently step into structuring and planning for financial independence to meet your goals and objectives. So now you are going to start doing a plan for your life.

Your Life is the Project

Your life is your most important project of all. Imagine and think deeply about what might be the action steps necessary to take this project, your life, from concept to action to completion. Now, this is quite a forward-thinking plan. You might have to look ahead seven generations into the future. But let’s begin by creating a 3-month plan, a 1-year plan, and a 5-year plan. The rest will follow. Begin by formulating your purpose, if you have one. And if you don’t have one, then it’s time to consider what the purpose of your life just might be.

Taking Inventory

Consider your life a research project as well as your business development. If you do not have the information you need to begin or complete your individual or business plan, then you must do your own research. You can accomplish this through networking access to the key people, projects, programs and media in your local area? There is your local and regional area, national and global resources that might have to be found. You can learn how to use Internet search engines to be able to selectively find exactly what you’re looking for. Remember, to have discernment in all areas of your research and be able to sort through the information and the disinformation.

As you begin to assemble the research and all the pieces of the puzzle, be sure to have a tracking system, some method of organizing and filing the information so you can retrieve it at will. Information is only as good as your ability to track it.

So first you’re doing research and taking inventory. Second you’ve got to evaluate the information and screen for relevance. Third, you might have to create communications as well as writing a business plan, doing market research and a capitalization plan. Do not be overwhelmed. Take one step before the other, just like walking. Once you get good at it, you’ll be able to run.

In summary, planning skills and evaluations include:

1. A plan for your life
2. Considering your life is a project
3. Taking inventory of your resources.

The Road to Success

Before starting up the road to success, it is important to stand still for a moment and check your gear and your roadmap. Make sure that you are taking with you what you will actually need, and that your values are sensibly packed and easily accessible. Try on your concepts to see that they fit well; otherwise you will soon lose time while waiting for your blisters to heal. And finally, review your goals to determine that they lead to someplace worth getting to.

In this next section we’ll help you to check through your equipment and to focus your plan.

Solid foundations are built upon solid ground. Thus the foundation of success must be built upon common principles, values and natural law that are changeless, not upon social values and norms that change with the seasons.

There must also be commitment and staying power, the ability to complete what you’ve started, and overcome fear, intimidation and incompetence at every turn in the road. You must be willing to be accountable and response-able from the beginning to the end of your journey. Being in integrity. Being honest. Being adaptable and flexible. Being a team player. Being in alignment with your purpose. These are all the foundations of success.

Common Principles

The principles of success are multifaceted and at all times consistent with the principles of the universe. They are based on natural law and the perennial wisdom of the ages, drawn from common human experience throughout time. Freedom and sovereignty are two of the basic principles of success. Others will be discussed later in this course.

So what are principles? Principles are derived from natural or universal law and do not need to be explained or proven. Principles are unquestioned, accepted a priori. Principles are not only agreed by consensus, but will also be derived from any process that involves an exploration of the truth.

“To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities.” Johann von Goethe

Common Values

So what are values? Values are what is important to you, what really matters.

There are personal, social and natural values. Personal and social values are relative from person to person, or culture to culture. Personal or social values bend over time and are changeable. These are not natural values universal to all humanity.

Natural values based on natural law are the values that last and endure over time. Natural values are written in the common laws and constitutions, the Ten Commandments, the holy books, and other codes of ethics.

For example, under the common law, everything was permissible providing you did not damage the property or the person of another. No damaged party, no crime. Respect your neighbor. Love your neighbor and practice the golden rule. Providing people respected each other, there was an enormous exercise of freedom under the common law. Clearly this was before lawyers got involved, and people gave their power and rights away to external authorities.

The U.S. Constitution embodied natural values as well, including the original Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights included guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, right to bear arms, right to contract, etc. In law, these were limitations upon the government to interfere with the natural rights and natural values of the people. This was before the politicians got involved and realized how easy it was to pull the wool over the people’s eyes.

If you want to understand the values of a nation, and whether or not they are social or natural values, look to its constitution and compare whether or not the people are living by it or not. Look to the holy books and see if people are abiding by the principles set there. Look also in the prisons and see how people are treated both before and after conviction. These exercises will teach you much about the values of a nation and a people.

The Ten Commandments embody values such as, “Do not steal. Do not kill. Do not envy the property of your neighbor. Do not commit adultery or dishonor your parents.” When natural values are in alignment with natural law, you have peace and prosperity. When they’re in conflict, you have war. We’ll be discussing more on natural law in the section on Principle-Centered Leadership.

Archetypes

There are also archetypes, which emerge in the stories and dreams of every people through time.

Commitment & Staying Power

Commitment is how divine providence moves through us. Without commitment nothing happens. Therefore removing the blocks to our ability to commit, to take an action and to learn from our mistakes is fundamental to all personal growth and social, economic change.

Commitment is staying power. The ideas that you’re going to develop, you must have staying power from (3) three months to a year, to five (5) years to twenty (20) years. You must be able to see your project, even your life, through to completion. If you start something, finish it.

Otherwise you’ll be spinning your wheels in the mud for years wasting your time and effort. Don’t start what you do not intend on finishing. If there is any doubt, eliminate it before you begin. If there is any fear, deal with it as it arises.

Integrity and Honesty

Being in integrity is the name of the game. It’s a measure of honesty. It’s easy to talk and talk until you are blue in the face. But until you can walk your talk, the talk doesn’t amount to much. So many people love to talk, but its not the words I’m listening to, it’s the actions behind the words.

Until you take an action, there is no power. Being is when you bring your thoughts, words and deeds into action. You are being in communications. You are manifesting. You are in alignment with your purpose. How honest can you be? How much integrity do you experience? When your thoughts, words and deeds line up, you have integrity.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Being adaptable and flexible to change is necessary in a complex world such as ours. Things shift in the world and the marketplace all the time. You’ve got to learn to adapt, shift and move with the times. You’ve got to move with the market, new technology, or whatever else is coming down the pike. You might have to change your direction, change your marketing plan, or collapse your business to survive. How much are you willing to bend?

Being a Team Player

Being a team player is a foundation of success. Most of us are really good at doing our own thing. But there are areas of our lives that involve being with other people, being in relationship. And whenever interpersonal relationships, communications and groups are involved, there must be team building. Teambuilding is based on creating “win-win” situations where everybody can win. To generate loyalty and commitment to your project, or business, or family requires leadership skills. We’ll discuss more on leadership skills later in this course.

Identification and Beliefs

Human beings develop egos, self-images and identities as part of a self-referencing system within different social and cultural contexts. These include personal and organizational, as well as local, regional and national identifications. Understanding the level of identification assists in communicating and networking across boundaries that have typically separated and divided people from each other.

As part of this identity, human beings have adopted beliefs, mindsets and attitudes that either further or hinder their personal development. We have the power to change the self-programming of our minds to reverse victim mentality, negative thought patterns and dependency upon parental or external support systems such as government or welfare. Success is built upon our ability to transcend these limiting identifications and beliefs and step into another world.

As we’re beginning to learn, every thought has a direct effect upon the world around us. Limiting thoughts limit us, and unlimited thoughts free us. With every breath we take, we breathe creative power into whatever we are focusing on, whether conscious or unconscious. Many of our difficulties in life are the result of conflicting conscious and subconscious beliefs which remain unexamined. For example, many people think that money is dirty and bad. Yet every day they go out and try to earn more of it. Is this not a conflict? Is this not a self-sabotaging behavior?

Accountability and Response-Ability

In a perfectly sovereign world, none of us want to answer to anybody else, except ourselves. When you accept sovereignty as your operating system, you’re answering to yourself, you’re accountable to yourself, you’re accountable to your agreements with others, you’re accountable to your agreements to us, to me, or anybody else. There is accountability to a higher power and the principles of the universe. You must be counted on to keep your word. Your word is your bond.

The importance of accountability and “response-ability” cannot be overemphasized. Without accountability, external forms of governance intervene and establish rules and laws to govern behavior. Without “response-ability,” human beings become hopelessly dependent upon external forms for their existence, leaving them powerless to act in a functional way. Once again, to be “response-able,” is defined as the “ability to respond.”

Accountability, or being response-able for things in your experience, is the only way to reclaim your power. And this must be done internally before you can reclaim your power from external authorities. But it is important not to confuse responsibility with guilt. They are not the same. Guilt contains a value judgment, whereas responsibility is a condition of choice. Success is built upon accountability and response-ability.

“In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments; there are consequences.” Robert Greene Ingersoll

Strong and Healthy Work Ethic

For those of us raised in a working class family or on a farm, the work ethic was taught and practiced. Hard work was not a dirty word, nor was the idea of being a producer in the system. I learned that if you worked hard, you would have your survival needs taken care of. This has been pretty accurate except that my parents had no understanding of the nature of money or how investments really worked. They also did not understand how to leverage what they earned beyond hard work alone. They reached a certain threshold and could not rise above.

How do you maintain a balanced and healthy work ethic? It begins with your choosing work that matches your purpose and calling. Then, find work that utilizes your talents and interests. Study how to organize your time to produce the most results for the least cost. Work for a purpose beyond mere survival alone. Instead of sacrificing yourself in your work or job, maintain your health and well being in the midst of it. Work hard, but work smart as well. Success is also built upon a strong and healthy work ethic.

Raising the Threshold of Success

Every profession has certain thresholds that defines how successful, at least financially, you can be. For example, you can only make so much as a hairdresser; no matter how hard or long you work. There are only so many hours in a day. There’s an upper limit for hairdressers on how much you can earn per session, unless you’re doing hair for the super-rich. So raising the threshold of success as a hairdresser takes some careful thought and planning on your part to transcend the barrier or create another profession altogether.

The threshold limit applies to other professions as well, and also has plenty to do with your savvy and education regarding money, business and investments. So creating a project or business that rises above your present threshold is an important task.

Remember being a child when saving $1.00 seemed like a lot of money. Then it became $10.00, then $100.00. As adults we cross the $100 threshold, then the $1,000.00 threshold. For some people deciding to spend $1,000 is a major life decision. For others that threshold might be $10,000 or $1,000,000.00.

It is also important to realize that just working harder doesn’t raise the next threshold. If you earn only $10 per hour, there is no way possible to work hard or long enough to earn $1,000,000 in retained earnings. You must work smarter, finding a way to serve more people more effectively. You must learn how to leverage your time and money into receiving more for less. That is the domain of project and business development.

In the example of the hairdresser, they would have to teach, design and market a line of products, train and employ assistants, and create unique hairstyles for individuals who will be seen not just by their friends, but by the mass culture. Then that hairdresser can develop a cash flow in the millions of dollars. Success is built upon raising the threshold and creating new business models.

In summary, the foundation of success is built upon:

1. Common principles and natural values
2. Being in alignment with your purpose
3. Commitment and staying power
4. Being in integrity and being honest
5. Being adaptable and flexible
6. Acquiring teambuilding skills
7. Expanding identification and beliefs
8. Changing mindset and attitude;
9. Accepting accountability and response-ability;
10. Maintaining a strong and a healthy work ethic;
11. Raising the threshold of your success. These are the foundations of success.

Success and Failure

What does success mean to you? Success is about living beyond your means, reaching beyond what is comfortable and raising yourself up to a new threshold. Success is practicing your highest purpose and calling.

Success is usually associated with material wealth and acquisitions, but in our view that’s not necessarily so. Success might also be defined by something such as getting what we want. Clearly, we have to know what we want before we can get it. But not getting what we want might also lead us to success.

“One must be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.” Anton Chekhov

Failure is often perceived as the opposite of success. We perceive failure as the complement to success, not it’s opposite. Without failure, no success is ever possible or sustainable. Failure is what teaches us the road to travel. Accepting failure as a necessary complement to success is essential. Being afraid to fail is the same as being afraid to succeed. You must overcome this fear to ever be successful.

“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” Anonymous

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” Elbert Hubbard

Many Things to Many People

Success can mean many things to different people depending on their values, mindset and attitude. Success for one person may very well be perceived as failure for another. Is success about having a lot of money, fame, prestige, or recognition? Or are you governed by strong internal principles and values? Either way, life is a gift that we’ve been given regardless of the conditions of our birth, culture, economics or opportunities. Being truly successful at life is about manifesting your potential, living your life to the fullest and getting out of your own way.

In reflecting upon what success means to me, success is being able to work at home most of the time, having my family nearby and happy with their lives, listening to the sounds of birds and children singing, looking upon a sunset every evening that is an awesome work of art, being able to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and having work that is meaningful and profitable – work and a livelihood that makes a difference and uplifts other people.

“The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.” Dr. Samuel Johnson

What is Happiness?

For example, in my definition of success, happiness is the elusive state of being connected, truly connected with the source of all creation, at peace within and without. This is indeed a lifelong pursuit for the changing, growing, learning human being.

So what does success mean to you? Take a moment to reflect on what success means to you. Take a piece of paper and write down a list of ten words or more that equate with success before you proceed. We’ll be addressing your personal and professional goals later in this course. Now, push the stop button.