Bill Baren Blog

(Cartoon courtesy of Gaping Void.)
My worldview was supported in BOOMING fashion in a post by Seth Godin. I already believed that change has to happen outside of the system. I already believed that changing from within paradigm is flawed. Seth once again was able to market to me in a way that solidified an already existing belief in me.

Most politicians get into politics because they want to make a difference. Doctors want to save lives and care about their patients. Lawyers have their own idealistic views when they get into the game and then the game changes them. We want acceptance. We want success. Acceptance and success in the game means conforming, means compromising, means playing by someone else’s rules. The only way to create change is to play a different game.

Change happens by creating new rules, new fields and new cultures.

This change, in turn, influences what happens in more established arenas.

This is what Seth Godin says about it:

“Once something makes its way to the mass market, the mass market doesn’t want it to change. And once it moves from that big hump in the middle of the market to become a classic, the market doesn’t just want it to not change, they insist.

History has shown us that the answer is crystal clear: if you want change, you’ve got to leave. Change comes, almost always, from the outside. The people who reinvented music, food, technology and politics have always gone outside the existing dominant channels to create something new and vital and important.”

We have no competitors. It’s not about measuring our self or our business against anyone else. It is about continuing to refine what’s unique about what we do. It’s about zeroing in on your essential zone of genius.

Shift into the mode of creating peak performances for yourself, your team and your business away from the mode of comparing yourself to others.

When your business starts to become more about you and less about your competition, you will cease to have any competitors.

The explorers of our time are people who are exploring the depths of what’s possible for themselves personally, for human kind as a whole and for the process of creating ideas and bringing them to life.

Prosperous Entrepreneurs are explorers. They ask the questions:

• Who do I have to be in order to create what I want?
• How can what I do continue to move the human race forward consciously?
• How can I continue to stretch the boundaries of what’s possible creatively?

The television and film establishment hasn’t been overly friendly to the business world lately.

The Business & Media Institute studied 129 episodes of the top 12 Nielsen-rated network TV dramas airing on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. Only 39 episodes featured plots alluding to commerce or primary characters who were businessmen. Of those, 30 (77 percent) were anti-business - almost four times as many as were graded pro-business. Only nine episodes (23 percent) were graded pro-business for the actions of the characters or the nature of the plot.

On primetime television, victims were 21 times more likely to be kidnapped or murdered by businessmen than the mob. Businessmen also committed crimes five times more often than terrorists and four times more often than street gangs. They were nearly as prolific villains (21 felonies) as hardened criminals like drug dealers, child molesters, and serial killers put together (23 felonies).

Businessmen and women killed their associates and slept around the office, while their corporations were painted as big, faceless and evil. While one character on CBS’s “Without a Trace” accused drug companies of “doing experimental drug trials on kids, seldom did any business-related characters produce honest work or benefits for society.”

Film, especially documentaries, aren’t angling to become business’ best friend either with a slew of documentaries bashing corporations. Filmmakers have exposed the concept of the Corporation, Enron, Walmart and McDonald’s. This is just the tip of the iceberg (which maybe melting as we speak) of what’s out there in the business NegativLand.

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• Is this perception right on?
• If so, what can we and our businesses do to alter that perception?
• Is the rise of a conscious corporation possible?
• What can we as individuals do to be a part of that movement?

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As I sit, write and ponder the global transformation of business, I am overwhelmed by the long road ahead of us. How can I be more of a catalyst for a change towards a more conscious triple bottom line approach (profit, planet, people) to business? Is it even possible? I am reminded that revolutions happen one person at a time. Revolutions are fueled by the passion of a few individuals that are able to ignite the belief of others and incite them to action. I want this revolution and I want the whole world to want it. I am now more inspired then when I began writing this post. I feel more connected to my mission of helping entrepreneurs create conscious businesses and prosperity for themselves and beyond.

What can I do today? What can I do to align my belief system with my actions now?

I find that it’s important for each of us to create an environment where we can tap into our ideas. Yet, the art of business (and life) is more about tapping into our intuitive knowing of which ideas we actually pursue. Yes, and pursue them regardless of what other people and the marketplace thinks. We live in a world that reinforces our need for approval and for constant seeking of external gauges of what works and what doesn’t. The only gauge to listen to in making decisions is your gut.

Let your mind gather all the data, but let your gut be your guide.

This is what Seth Godin has to say about it:

“Do you go with your instinct? Is your gut reaction to be trusted? After all, you’ve been right before. After all, you’ve been wrong before.

The analysis, based on past events, certainly seems sound. But your instincts are the only way you’re going to do something unsound.

And unsound things become hits. Sound ones never do.

Who Moved My Cheese was unsound. So was publishing a book two years after you started blogging every chapter. So was an expensive, unfitted, almost untailored suit from Milan. So was running against Joe Lieberman.

The challenge is not to somehow persuade those in search of soundness to change their minds. The challenge is to do enough of a gut check to decide whether you should defend your instinct. And then do it.”

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• Which idea you’ve had simply not leave you alone?
• Which idea feels right, yet really scares you?
• Which idea would revolutionize your industry?
• The pursuit of which idea, would make the biggest difference in your business and your life?

Seth Godin inadvertently gives all coaches, consultants and other professionals great advice on giving advice. Below is my version of Seth’s ideas:

Timing is everything

• Don’t point out spelling mistakes in the first draft of a book.
• Don’t tell someone you don’t think their product is going to sell the day before launch.

Give analysis and ask questions

What I want instead of your opinion is your analysis. It does me no good to hear you say, “I’d never pick that box up.” You can add a great deal of value, though, if you say, “The last three products that succeeded were priced under $30. Is there a reason you want to price this at $31?” Or, “We analyzed this market last year, and we don’t believe there’s enough room for us to compete. Take a look at this spreadsheet.” Or even, “That font seems hard to read. Is there a way to do a quick test to see if a different font works better for our audience?”

Compliment whenever you can

• Be genuine
• Point the parts your like best
• Don’t just say you like something, explain why you like it

Don’t give advice unless asked

(I just realized that this works in personal situations as well. Perhaps I could use this advice once in a while.)

Conscious Capitalism is based on the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. Seth Godin reminds me today that it’s also about integrity. It’s not enough for integrity to be part of the personality of your business. Integrity must be a part of its essence.

Systems are always going to be manipulated by some. That’s inevitable. What’s happening today is that manipulation has become part of the system. How unfortunate it is that the people that choose not to manipulate are the ones going against the grain. Integrity is going against the grain. How sad is that?

We don’t have to play the game, we can, we should, we must create a new game. Integrity is a choice. It’s not an easy choice. Conscious Capitalism is about making conscious choices.

*** Thank you Andrea for such an appropriate post…

Singularity of purpose, clarity of vision and lack of any doubt is what we expect of our leaders. They are either pro-environment or pro-business, pro-choice or pro-life, fiscal conservatives or social progressives. We like it that way. It makes us feel RIGHTEOUS. — Econtrario

We all have our unshakable beliefs. How do they serve us? What do we gain from limiting our perspective? Can passion come from the grey area of the black & white spectrum?

I am committed to my evolution to not only see grey, but to lead from that flexible stance. I want to be powerful and flexible at the same time and I know it’s possible.

I want to thank Econtrario for inspiring me