“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
Please take a moment to reflect on what you read and have a wonderful day.
A few days ago, I had a delightful dinner conversation with Mitchell Levy and Kiruba Shankar. We talked a LOT and covered many things.
A story about a “Present” shared by Mitchell totally touched my heart. Here it is in his own words.
This happened when D (Mitchell’s son) was about two years old. His Grandpa had brought D a rocking horse as a present. It was in a big cardboard box. D knew it was a present for him and he was so happy to see it. He jumped on the box quickly and started playing with his “present.”
D’s Grandpa had to explain (with great difficulty) that it was not the present and the real present was inside the box. D was not in a mood to listen anyway. After some negotiation, Grandpa finally got D away from the box and opened the box and took the rocking horse out.
D was happy to find his present. He now jumped inside the box and started playing there. Remember Grandpa had told him the present was inside the box.
Grandpa had to convince D again that the present was really “outside” the box. D came out and looked at what was outside and for him it probably looked like two wooden pieces and he was totally not interested in that. Playing inside the box was more fun.
Long story short – Grandpa fixed the rocking horse for D and it took a few more minutes of convincing and FINALLY D decided to play with his real present – the rocking horse.
Shows that sometimes the “Present” is right in front of our eyes but we can’t see it.
That’s the first question that comes to your mind when you hear a quote or anything interesting.
Think about this quote
“Stay hungry, stay foolish!”
If you didn’t know that the above quote (source: You have got to find what you love) was from Steve Jobs, you may be lost. You might think, why should I stay hungry and for God’s sake why should I stay foolish? But the moment you know this quote was from Steve Jobs, things become clear.
I love the above quote but on a lighter note, don’t take it literally
Remember that:
You cannot change people’s need to know the “Who” but you can take care of it by working on your identity.
“One of the great challenges in getting new and valuable ideas accepted is that many intended users, even those who would benefit enormously from what is being offered, spend a lot of energy and time trying to figure out who the person is behind the innovation. Until we feel comfortable that we know the answer, it’s hard for us to accept the advice, no mater how valuable it might be.”
We also have Chris Pirillo who sums this up in a tweet below.
We still have more than 10 months in this new year. So may be you can work out a plan to address the “Who” question more powerfully?
This gem from Paramahamsa Yogananda sums up what is required to build lasting relationships.
“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first… when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.”
A plane is getting hijacked and everyone on the plane is VERY scared. There is fear on everybody’s face. It is clear to them that they are not in control anymore. At one level, they were not in control anyway once they got into the plane but this was different. They signed up for it knowingly. They knew the risks before they boarded the plane. Hijack was different. They didn’t sign up for it and they didn’t want it.
Somewhere in the backseat, there is one person who seem to be not perturbed by this hijack. In fact, he is smiling and going about his work.
Do you think this is odd?
I presented this scenario in one of my recent talks and the reaction ranged from “odd” to “idiotic.” I concur.
However, when the context is changed, we all behave like that “odd” person on the plane.
Think about a typical moment in your life. It is typically “hijacked” either by your past or your future. Most of the time, you don’t notice it or behave as if there is no problem with it. The moment is taken away from you – robbed. Moment after moment disappears without you noticing or trying to escape from this hijack.
I wish there was a simple trick to snap out of this hijack and start living in the present moment. But not trying to “live in the present” is to throw away the “gift of life.”
For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you know that one of the themes on the blog is how to escape the prison of commodotization – being one of the many.
Why?
Simply because commodotization erodes value.
If you are valuable and can distinguish yourself, you can claim a premium in the marketplace.
Of course, nobody is smart to be able to permanently distinguish themselves because for anything that is getting a premium, there are others who will follow suit and compete for attention until that “anything” is commodotized and loses the early premium that marketplace awarded.
So, how does one continue to command a premium?
For starters, there are two ways:
1. Continue to accumulate valuable accomplishments – It’s easy to duplicates strategies and tactics but it’s hard to copy valuable accomplishments.
2. Continue to innovate: If you are changing the game all the time, it’s hard for someone to copy. People can copy if there are set of rules. If the set of rules keeps changing, they won’t know what to copy until they figure out a pattern. By the time they have figured out a pattern, you move on to a new game.
Ok, we are getting ahead here. The topic of the post is to discuss the “Distinguish Cycle” and to keep it simple and actionable and then build on it in the future posts.
Here is the distinguish cycle.
Think about it for a second. You can start wherever you want in the cycle and work through the other parts.
For example, you can start and move in this fashion
1. You can BE a different person to start with
2. You will SEE different things as a result of that.
3. When you SEE different things you don’t have a choice but to THINK differently.
4. When you THINK differently, you will PLAN differently.
5. When you PLAN differently, you will DO different things.
And, hence
6. If you DO different things, you will BE a different person
You can play with the cycle and you will see that you can start anywhere else and lead to the same conclusions. All parts are important and no part can be skipped.
My personal favorite is to start with THINKING differently.
How do you start that?
By rubbing shoulders with people who think differently. A few decades ago, this was hard to do. But today in the digital age, you get an opportunity to do that simply by following a set of blogs, Twitter accounts or websites.
When you are exposed to thinking that’s different, you don’t have a choice but to think different. Without your knowledge, you will set forth to transform yourself.
Once you THINK different, it’s easy to set the the distinguish cycle in motion.
Here are a few resources to trigger that much needed “THINKING”
2. SpringWise – Innovative Business Models from all over the world. (Hat Tip: Dan Pink)
3. Seth Godin – Daily dose of simply brilliant thinking
4. Innocentive – Companies looking to pay money for innovative solutions. Take a look and see what problems they are trying to solve.
5. TED Talks – Brilliant insights in less than twenty minutes
6. ChangeThis – Manifestos that you can read in less than one hour
7. THINKaha – Our own series of bite-sized books for thinking people. You will be guaranteed to get a dozen “aha-moments” in less than 30 minutes
(Disclaimer: I am the executive editor for the series)
8. Lateral Action – Where creativity and productivity intersect.
9. Meylah – Resources for creative people.
(Disclaimer again: I am a mentor to the founders)
In this short (around 2-minutes) video, one of my heroes, Tom Peters explains (with examples) why the problem is never the problem, the response to the problem is.
Totally loved the video and is embedded below for you:
Why did the 2-minute video touch my heart?
The way I look at it, the statement can be extended to many other things – such as an “opportunity.” An opportunity is not an opportunity unless you do something about it.
The trick is in “taking action” and doing something about what we are faced with. And, that is in our control.
The other day, I was at the Campbell post office standing in the line waiting for my turn. It was a long line so (as usual) I was busy browsing a book. The person in front of me brought me out of my dream when he stepped out asking me to hold his place. I nodded and continued reading.
I couldn’t help notice what the person did.
There was a box to drop off a business card to win a prize at the end of the month. The person dropped off his business card and walked back. I looked at the box again. There were probably 200 other business cards in the box.
Not fully believing what I just saw, I struck a conversation with the person in front.
I asked, “So, what exactly is the prize they are promising?”
He said, “No clue on that one.”
I asked, “But you put in your business card in there…”
He said, “Yeah, what’s there to lose. There are hundreds of them who have already put in their business card. They can’t be wrong.”
We both smiled and ended the conversation there.
I couldn’t help thinking about what happened.
1. There is something “free” that is promised. Don’t know what that is.
2. Around 200 other people thought it was good to get that “free” thing and opted in to the offer
3. A new person thought that if 200 other people are not wrong, he can’t be wrong.
4. It takes only a second (and a business card) to opt-in to the offer
5. The new person takes the bait and opts in to the offer.
Just a simple example that the combination of “Free,” “Social Proof” and “Now” is a killer combination.
Here is an example of how Amitabh Bacchan (who needs no introduction for anyone who has heard of Bollywood) handled criticism from another superb Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah.
Here it is, in his own words (on his blog)
[ Note: I made VERY minor edits for the sake of readability. Emphasis is mine ]
A question came my way during the reading of the latest Filmfare. When told to comment on Naseeruddin Shah’s remark on how I had become a victim of my star hood and forgotten how to act (That he had preferred me in my earlier ventures due to the simplicity of playing characters who were closer to the earth)
I replied that when an actor of Naseeruddin’s stature speaks, you just listen head down and quietly with your hands behind your back.
We can all learn a lot from just the above incident.
When you are on the fence, sometimes all it requires is a gentle push and you will move to one side. But someone or something has to give that gentle push. It does not take a lot of effort (remember: it’s gentle) but someone still has to do it.
With that in the background, let’s put the “proverbial” fence aside and take a real situation.
You are contemplating whether to attend a networking event or not. You want to do it but you also have other competing priorities to take care of. You know that in the long run it will help you but there are some short-term fires to put out.
You are in a dilemma.
In other words, you are on the “proverbial” fence.
You are waiting for someone or something to give you a gentle push – and help you make that decision.
What is that one thing that the organizers can tell you that will give that gentle push?
How about the following?
What if they said:
As of <date> and <time> we have 40 CEO’s or Presidents of companies attending.
You suddenly have that “information” – something attractive enough to give that gentle push and nudge you towards making a decision to go to that event.
I was fascinated by the CEO Counter that was shown on the homepage of the website called The BD Event. It is a networking organization and someone there designed a much needed “carrot” to provide that gentle push.
Something to think about in your own situations -
What is that thing that will provide that (much needed) nudge or gentle push?
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