Author, Entrepreneur, Speaker
Without a picture of an ideal future life, you can’t even head in the right direction.
A true visionary has no fear and hasn’t erected any barriers to his own success.
Need to visualize?
Write a story, draw a picture, cut out photos. Seriously. If you’re skeptical, or think it sounds ridiculous, do it where no one can see you. Once you determine your destination, the path to success practically creates itself.
A re-post from January.
Fear Of Transformation From The Essene Book of Days
Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings.
I’m either hanging onto a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life, I’m hurtling across space in between trapeze bars.
Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment. It carries me along a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I am in control of my life. I know most of the right questions.
As I swing along I look ahead of me into the distance and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me.It is empty, and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness coming to get me. In my heart-of-hearts I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present, well-known bar and move to the new one.
Each time it happens to me, I hope (no, I pray) that I won’t have to grab the new one. But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar, and, for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar.
Each time I am filled with terror. It doesn’t matter that in all my previous hurtles across that void of unknowing I have always made it. Each time I chasm between the bars. But I do it anyway.
Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience. No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because, somehow, to keep hanging onto that bar is no longer on the list of alternatives.
And so, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void. In that space the past is gone and the future is not yet here. It is called transition.
I have come to believe that it is the only place that real change occurs. I mean, real change, not the pseudo-change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched.
I have noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a nothing, a no-place between places. Sure the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one coming towards me, I hope that’s real too. But the void in between? That’s just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible.
What a waste! I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusion we dream up to avoid the void, where the real change, the real growth occurs for us. Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even savored.
Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily)accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives. And so, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to hang out in the transition between the trapeze bars.
Transforming our need to grab that new bar-any bar-is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens. It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word. Hurtling through the void, we may just learn to fly.
….and how you act and what you say.
This sits on my desk where I can look at it everyday.
It reminds me that I am responsible for creating my life.
“Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special about them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.”
Optimist by Christian D. Larsen
The big news of the day is the forced resignation of Carly Fiorina, CEO and Chairman of Hewlett Packard. Fiorina, one of the most recognizable and highest ranking female executive in the corporate world, was the driving force behind the HP/Compaq merger 2 years ago.
The merger is most likely the reason for her departure but don’t feel too bad for Carly. She is leaving with a $21 million dollar severance package (golden parachute anyone?)
Her departure means the loss of a high profile role model for women in the corporate world. Still, I can’t quite decide if her firing is a sign of progress or a setback.
Equal treatment means that when you mess up, you fess up and pay the price.
Under Carly’s reign, stock prices dropped 63%. After the resignation announcement, the stock rose 6%. The big issue was the vision and future of HP. The merger with Compaq was supposed to create a company that could compete with Dell and IBM but, in reality, the combination of two low margin product lines (printers & pcs) hurt more than helped the bottom line.
With Carly’s departure, Meg Whitman of e-bay is now the only woman CEO of a Fortune 500 Company.
Just one.
Despite all the studies about how women are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to nab the top spot, I find it hard to believe that we are completely at fault.
The system is rigged in favor of men. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.
But, we are our own worse enemy.
More often then not, top female executives are fighting each other instead of helping each other. The atmosphere of scarcity creates the mindset of “her or I.” Author and former CNN executive Gail Evans addresses this phenomenon in her book She Wins, You Win.
Gail knows that
-if we stick together and believe, really believe, in the abundance of opportunities for women;
-if we help each other achieve our dreams; and
-if we cheer when one of us makes it to the corner office
we will change the corporate culture. Change the culture and we change the system.
I’m not crying about Carly’s ousting. I’m celebrating her 6-year term as the first woman to hold the posts of Chairman, CEO, & President of a major computer company (one of the 30 Dow Jones blue chips) and I’m looking forward to the day when her accomplishments won’t be thought of so far out of the ordinary.
Statue of Philo Farnsworth on the grounds of the Beaver County Courthouse
The first thing you need to know is that Beaver, Utah, is not exactly crawling with tourists. Strategically located off Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, it’s more popular cousin to the south, Cedar City, receives most of the overnight traffic.
The second thing you need to know is that Beaver, an original Mormon settlement, is the birthplace of two famous American icons: Butch Cassidy and Philo Farnsworth.
What do you mean, you’ve never heard of Philo?
Actually, you are not alone. Time Magazine ,in their issue spotlighting the most important people of all time, posited that “no one outside of the industry ever heard of him. And yet, Philo invented something we use every day. Something so everyday and common that only the Amish would be expected not to know him.
At the tender age of 21, Philo Fransworth created the first working television system. The idea actually came to him at age 14 but, it took him a couple of years to get financing and perfect the system.
So, why isn’t he studied alongside Eli Whitney, Albert Einstein, & The Wright brothers? Why did he die in obscurity with only a statue in Beaver, Utah and a handful of industry insiders to remember him?
You may not be surprised to learn that it all boils down to money & lawyers. A competitor of Philo’s who was affiliated with RCA had filed a patent four years before Philo perfected the technology. The ensuing patent fight lasted years and, although Philo ultimately won, the litigation and subsequent halt of TV set sales during World War II took so long that the original patents expired.
Upon expiration of the original patents RCA began to promote their scientists and the rest is history.
Philo Farnsworth, child prodigy and inventor of television, died in obscurity after battling alcoholism, depression, and mental illness.
Proving that he was still ahead of his time when asked about his opinion of the medium he had invented he replied, “There’s nothing on it worthwhile….and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”
This post is dedicated to GM who introduced me to Philo Farnsworth.
