Your profitable quote: T. Alan Armstrong on Passion

If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.

-- T. Alan Armstrong

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.

Honda: The Power Of Dreams (Video)

The story of how Soichiro Honda was inspired to create his first motorcycle. A beautiful and inspiring reminder of how a dream can change the world.

Honda The Power of Dreams from micheledauria on Vimeo.

What action are you taking on your dreams?

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
View Tweet

"Don't delegate the purpose of your company to someone else"(to marketing dept.) Roy Spence
View Tweet

Roy Spence: "I realized many years ago that I don't want to be right if I'm wrong" - courage to face truth
View Tweet

Much "grunt work" of rsching competitors&customers is much easier today b/c of internet. It can be inspiring!
View Tweet


"You gotta pay the price -hard work- to be exceptional." Roy Spence
View Tweet

Know yourself, know your competitors, know your terrain (customers) Roy Spence
View Tweet

Are you bringing your passion to life? 2. Position yourself differently (Google=Help ppl find what they're looking4)
View Tweet

Are you bringing your passion to life? 1.Articulate your purpose (don't become an imitator) Roy Spence
View Tweet

"I'll bet on passion every time" Roy Spence
View Tweet

Passion doesn't have to be a Mother Teresa moment. It is simply what YOU feel strongly about. @andymatic
View Tweet

Roy Spence mentions Jim Collins' Three Circles (my blog post: http://tinyurl.com/afmjy9
View Tweet

A "higher calling" biz drives everything within the company so people have more fun (leads to more profits!) Roy Spence
View Tweet

Brands that succeed have purpose beyond making money (example: Pampers=child development) Roy Spence
View Tweet

Purpose must start from the top. Are bank CEOs purpose-based leaders? (Look where it has led them) Roy Spence
View Tweet

Johnson&Johnson: huge company,simple purpose ="To alleviate pain and suffering" Become purpose-based Roy Spence
View Tweet

"The only ppl who 'make money' is the fed govt coz they print it.The rest of us have to first make a difference
View Tweet

"People don't wake up in the morning and say I want a cup of coffee and another ad." Roy Spence
View Tweet

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
View Tweet

The nature of profit

I'm worried that in all of this discussion about the "Big Bailout", the concept and the merits of "profit" get lost.

The problem right now, as I see it, is that we have forgotten what profit means... Profit is not extortion, it is not injust, it is not unfair, it is not evil.

Profit, as I define it, is the value that I add to an exchange, a value that expresses the positive impact that this exchange represents for the client.

In calculus, a branch of mathematics that is the language of physics, each number has a "real" and "imaginary" term. The real term is what we can touch and count, and the imaginary term represents potential. As numbers are manipulated and combined through the equations of physics, the imaginary terms join to become real, and sometime real terms become imaginary. Electricity, magnetism, gravity, quantum mechanics, all these are physical phenomena that can be represented through the calculus of real and imaginary numbers. (for a deeper explanation, see here)

I believe that business is a similar transformational process. As I input or invest the real resources of time, money and effort into my business, I also invest the imaginary, intangible resources of passion, mission, intention, values and trust.

Profit, the value that I add to the exchange, is also represented by "real", tangible, and "imaginary"-intangible terms. The real terms are representable in accounting language: return on investment, increased cash flow, savings and so on. But these real results have to also be balanced through the intangible benefits: how has this transaction helped my client fulfill their potential just a little bit better? To improve the quality of their life? To advance community, nation, humanity, the environment, the planet?

Any business transaction has to generate a value added that is win-win, in the short term as in the long, in the tangible as in the intangible, in the local as in the planet, to you as to me.

When I sacrifice the intangible profit of doing good over the long term just to temporarily increase my tangible dollar results in the short term, the core reason for being of the business starts to rot, and you get the empty shells of the major institutions and corporations that you see today.

Business is about creating a bridge of trust between two people in order to exchange resources of value in order to mutually improve each other's lives. Business is personal, it is is a sacred responsibility. Focus on creating tangible and intangible value that expresses who you truly are, and you will build something that will make a lasting impact on the world.

You are what you do, not what you say.

I received this YouTube video today. It is somewhat old, but the words resonate just as strongly today as it did when Severn Cullis-Suzuki addressed the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro...





Raised in Vancouver and Toronto, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech, written with the help of her father, Dr. David Suzuki, that received a standing ovation.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki
Transcript of speech: http://www.sustainablestyle.org/sass/heirbrains/03suzuki.html
YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY

On Passion

In taking a major step to turn a dream into reality, there is a lot of resistance that comes up.

Inside are fear, doubts, worries... the "monkey mind" shouting out reasons why not to do this.

Yet inside you feel this all-consuming fire to finally have your ideas manifest in the world for all the world to see.

There is power in declaration. I am amazed at the level of support and goodwill that gets generated when I declare out loud what I'm creating. The declaration is an invitation to join in the dream, either actively by providing the means to make it happen or ideas to spark new learnings, or passively, through goodwill, warm thoughts and best wishes. Both types of support are equally as valid and equally as essential to the success of any step forward.

In the end, it is Passion that makes things happen. An Internal Passion, expressed as an intense, single-minded, stubborn determination. And the Outward Passion, the enthusiastic, shout-it-out-to-the-world joyful abandon.

Internal Passion is what drives you to create despite the obstacles. Internal Passion is your momentum, it propels you forward. It is a Glorious Obsession that consumes every waking thought while honouring who you are and what you stand for. It causes you to wake up in the middle of the night, suddenly clear of mind and spirit, with the solution vividly in front of your eyes.

Outward Passion ignites people around you to support them in your cause...to join you in creating what is most important to you. Outward Passion opens the doors, parts the waters, clears the snowdrifts... it makes way for you to "stride confidently in the direction of your dreams".

Both Passions are essential to make dreams come true. Internal Passion without enthusiasm is confining, frustrating and eventually implodes on itself in the face of overwhelming resistance. Outward Passion without the internal drive is empty, hollow and insincere. Internal Passion is the "yin" while Outward Passion is the "yang": both must be balanced to be healthy and nurturing.

So many dreams go unfulfilled because the dreamer hesitates to give voice to the dream, fearing that in speaking it the energy is dissipated. Wrong! The essential component of making any dream come alive is to attract a community around you that fervently believes in what you are creating, that supports you in manifesting what is most important to you.

Declare what is most important to you. Ignore the shusshers. Live life OUT LOUD!

Then make your dreams happen.

This is what the Internet is about...

An interesting story in today's New York Times about an internet video that is circulating around.

A Private Dance? Four Million Web Fans Say No
by Charles McGrath

The peripatetic Matt Harding’s dancing videos have been his ticket to Internet fame, travel and a lot of impromptu dance partners around the world.




This, to me, is what the Internet is about... bringing people together for the sheer joy of it.

(Did you know that this project was sponsored by a chewing gum company?)

Original site: www.wherethehellismatt.com

"To attract" is an active, effortful, even exhausting verb

An excerpt from George Bernard Shaw's play "Man and Superman"

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. [...]I want to be thouroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

(As read in "Learning To Lead" by Warren Bennis, emphasis mine).

Touching the sacred

While riding the bus today (Mar 4 '07) I happened on the CBC Radio One program "Tapestry", a "weekly exploration of spirituality, religion and the search for meaning". "Tapestry" happens to be one of the CBC radio shows I really like, because their guests often get me thinking.

This week's guest was Bo Lozoff of the Prison Ashram Project and the Human Kindness Institute. Bo Lozoff dedicates his life to promoting the practice of human kindness, especially in prison populations around the world.

At one point he mentions the "Sanatana Dharma", or the central teachings of Hinduism. Mr. Lozoff has a beautifully succinct way of describing it, which I found later on the net in a sermon he gave:

(...) There's something in the East called Sanatana Dharma, which roughly means "Eternal, Universal Truth," and it consists of only three principles:

1. There is indeed something transcendent, beyond comprehension, something divine. It's real. It exists.

2. Each of us -- you and I, not just the Dalai Lama, St. Francis, Mother Teresa -- but you and I, can and must directly experience this divinity.

3. That is the only purpose of life. Everything else, who we are, what we look like, how old, how wealthy, how poor, how much or how little we suffer or find happiness, what we do for a living, what we do in the world, how many children we have, EVERYTHING else is a support system toward our direct experience of the eternal Great Mystery. [emphasis mine] (...)

Bo Lozoff then goes on to say on the radio program "if we do not strive to touch the sacred, then we are wasting our lives" (this is the part where I grabbed my pen and paper and scribbled it down)

Where am I going with this?

It was the "touch the sacred" part that really connected with me. This is a powerful reminder to me about the importance of discovering my life mission, vision and permission, to use it to ignite my passion and to live it through everything that I do.

Being a solopreneur, being an entrepreneur, the whole point of this way of life called "business" is about creating a means to channel our passion and make a difference in the world. In business we have the freedom to choose our direction and the initiative to move into action. This is why I believe entrepreneuring is such a high calling...

Business is more than just making money to survive... if that's all that I'm doing (surviving), then I am not really living, I am just existing. What Bo Lozoff is reminding me is that it is my duty to live a bigger picture, to strive towards a higher vision.

Bottom line? If what I am doing right now does not fire up my passion and make this world a better place, it's time to change what I'm doing!

This is why I put so much emphasis on exploring mission (who I am), vision (what I want) and permission (why I want it), to ignite passion and channel it to power oneself "from passion to profit", where profit is about the intangible experience as much (or more) than the tangible financial impact.

If "success" is creating an experience of living that fully expresses "Who I Really Am", and if this transcendant, higher, sacred energy as described in the Sanatana Dharma infuses this "Who I Really Am", then as a solopreneur, channelling my passion through my livelihood to make the world around me a better place, I can think of no higher calling, no better way to "touch the sacred".