Profitable quote of the day: "Don't ask what the world needs..."

"Don't ask what the world needs. Rather, ask what makes you come alive? Then go and do it! Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman (1900-1981)
author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader.

AuthorTeleseminars: Roy Spence on "It's Not What You Sell" (LiveTweet)

I participated in a fantastic AuthorTeleseminars.com call led by Liz Marshall, as she interviewed Roy Spence, author of "It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For". Also on the call were Andy Wibbels and Suzanne Falter-Barns . You can still grab the audo through this link to AT.com page: http://sn.im/buffz

Here are some thoughts I live-tweeted during the call (last ones first)


This is the ideal time for a passion-driven entrepreneur to bring value to people's lives. Wallets are shut to the old ways." Roy Spence
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"Don't delegate the purpose of your company to someone else"(to marketing dept.) Roy Spence
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Roy Spence: "I realized many years ago that I don't want to be right if I'm wrong" - courage to face truth
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Much "grunt work" of rsching competitors&customers is much easier today b/c of internet. It can be inspiring!
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"You gotta pay the price -hard work- to be exceptional." Roy Spence
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Know yourself, know your competitors, know your terrain (customers) Roy Spence
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Are you bringing your passion to life? 2. Position yourself differently (Google=Help ppl find what they're looking4)
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Are you bringing your passion to life? 1.Articulate your purpose (don't become an imitator) Roy Spence
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"I'll bet on passion every time" Roy Spence
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Passion doesn't have to be a Mother Teresa moment. It is simply what YOU feel strongly about. @andymatic
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Roy Spence mentions Jim Collins' Three Circles (my blog post: http://tinyurl.com/afmjy9
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A "higher calling" biz drives everything within the company so people have more fun (leads to more profits!) Roy Spence
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Brands that succeed have purpose beyond making money (example: Pampers=child development) Roy Spence
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Purpose must start from the top. Are bank CEOs purpose-based leaders? (Look where it has led them) Roy Spence
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Johnson&Johnson: huge company,simple purpose ="To alleviate pain and suffering" Become purpose-based Roy Spence
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"The only ppl who 'make money' is the fed govt coz they print it.The rest of us have to first make a difference
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"People don't wake up in the morning and say I want a cup of coffee and another ad." Roy Spence
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Hey DC:"To save the big, we need to stand tall for small". Past 10 yrs, 80% of jobs r created by biz less than 500employees
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It's not the medium, it's the message

I have a new friend on Facebook, Kneale Mann.

When he sent me his Friend Request, I Googled him and found a very interesting article he wrote, here are two quotes that I liked:

"Microsoft Word does not make you Hemmingway. Whether it’s an ink dipped feather or a blackberry, if the message is of no interest to its recipient, the instrument is irrelevant."

and

Content, context and community are powerful forces we cannot ignore.[...] Are you creating an atmosphere that will satisfy people's inherent need to belong? [emphasis mine]

With all the hype about Facebook, Twitter, the Social Web, whether it's better to write or podcast or put videos on YouTube, to succeed you need to go back to the basics: is my message one that someone wants to hear?

I'm getting a bit tired of the Social Web stuff, especially with Twitter, because it is becoming one big echo chamber, where people are RT'ing each other (repeating tweets or messages) in a bid to climb higher on some popularity algorithm. And that's when I'm not being bombarded with tweetspam.

What I crave is to exchange smart ideas with smart people: that's the community I want to belong to.

Although Kneale doesn't speak specifically about Twitter [UPDATE: Now he does through his blog http://onemann.blogspot.com !], his message applies directly to what you and I are doing as passion-driven entrepreneurs: instead of getting lost in how things look, let's focus on what we are communicating through what we do.

Read the rest of Kneale's article here (via Humble Howard's blog http://www.humblehoward.com)
(ContentContextCommunity part 1) http://is.gd/fmUe
(ContentContextCommunity part 2) http://is.gd/fmUu

On the right questions

The Coach's thought of the week:

The quality of our results is determined by the quality of the questions that we ask ourselves.
- Coach Davender

Too often as solopreneurs and in life, we search exhaustively for the "right answer", this mythical book of instructions which contains all of the recipies to create what we say we want.

We live in a time where the common citizen has at hand more information than at any other moment in the history of humanity. This knowledge is constantly changing and evolving at an accelerating rate. You want answers? Simply ask the Great Google and it will direct you to tens of thousands of books, audios, videos and Web sites which each have their own take on the subject, and all in 0.03 seconds or less.

We are drowning in information, and yet so many have so little direction. Even with all these answers, be they may so easily available, why are people are still dissatisfied of their results, their situation, their life?

True leaders, those who break out of their comfort zones, who go beyond the possible to create new realities, they do it without a map, for there are no maps for where they're heading. Just as ancient explorers set off towards the horizon, towards unknown lands marked "here be dragons", aremed only with a compass, a sextant and a clock for navigation.

The compass, the sextant and the clock of success, are the questions we ask ourselves, the questions that remind us of our mission, our vision and our permission, our "who?", "what?" and "why?" These are the fundamental and invariable questions from where from appear all the answers that we really need to act with confidence and courage in the present moment.

Whether it is in your business project, or in any other aspect of life, it is necessary to go beyond your past to create the future that you really want. To do so, you have to let go of searching for the "right answers", and learn how to ask the "right questions". And it is the exploration of these right questions that will lead you farther and higher than you ever thought possible.

Free Will - Illusion or reality?

An enlightening New York Times article today discusses the nature of "free will" as the author is confronted with the choice of having chocolate cake (or not) for dessert...

Experiments show that we tend first to take action subconsciously, after which our conscious mind then creates a reasoning to justify it. We act on our urge then "make up stories about being in control".

However, if we wanted our conscious mind to first take a decision before we act, imagine the "analysis paralysis" as the conscious brain tries to figure out the millions of possibilities.

I believe our subconscious actions can be guided, by first integrating a strong "programming", such as a moral code (the Ten Commandments), or what I teach with "Mission - Vision - Permission" (Who am I? What do I want? Why do I want this?). This provides a coherence, an order, a kind of determinism, that simplifies and clarifies the "unconscious" urge to act. It also ensures that the subconscious actions lead toward an ultimate experience of life that we choose. So "free will", in this way of thinking, is more about creating a framework of action to consciously be in the moment instead of trying to figure out each single decision independently, to be a human "being" instead of a human "choosing".

But on the other hand, what determines the specific Mission or Vision that we are attracted to? Can we really live a conscious, deterministic life? Do we really have "free will"?

Maybe there is some truth in the Islamic idea of "Insh'allah" (God willing)

Favorite quote:

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, as Einstein paraphrased it, that “a human can very well do what he wants, but cannot will what he wants.” Einstein, among others, found that a comforting idea. “This knowledge of the non-freedom of the will protects me from losing my good humor and taking much too seriously myself and my fellow humans as acting and judging individuals,” he said.

See the New York Times article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/science/02free.html