The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life 9781416561996, 1416561994

Citation preview

,

^

.

"Brilliant!"

Stephen

R.

Covey

What does "success" mean

you?

to

Is

it

building the

business of your dreams? Achieving financial

independence? Providing unlimited opportunities for your family? Giving back to the

make

to

n

community? What would

your dreams

all

me Ansae

ess -growth expert

and mental

Tools

become

take

of The Secret,

and

Murray Smi strategies they have us(

international

em re

:esstiu

ireneurs. In doing so. the

tionary

it

true?

team member

\ssaraf. a key

pnenomen; rial success

'hind th

o

come

eve it reader a

experience

in

how

thrive

to

manciailv and personally In this

life

lemonstrate

-changing book, John and Murray bold,

new ways to harness the mind and imagination in

inlimited power of your

>rder to achieve exactly what your heart desires,

"hen.

they

offer

steps

practical

to

grow any

>rganization or business into a meaningful

and

enterprise that can flourish in

any

)rofitable

:conomy or business climate. In The Answer, vou'll learn

how to:

Create predictable tra

vour business and Attract

more

life

of the right customers to

Pinpoint your

own passions and achieve

your business goals

Use the Law of Attraction to create the business of your dreams

Rewire your brain

use vour succe

to

make success ,mess to create

decisions witn

a

com men

Reduce your learning curve from years Develop the mind-set of

a

mega millionaire

THE ANSWER

THE ANSWER GROW ANY BUSINESS,

ACHIEVE FINANCIAL FREEDOM

AND LIVE AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

JOHN ASSARAF and MURRAY SMITH

ATRIA BOOKS \

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ronoNTO sin\i>

ATRIA BOOKS A

Division of

Simon

&

Schuster, Inc.

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New York, NY 10020 Copyright

© 2008 by Ria Ventures, LLC, and Murray Smith

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reproduce

this

book or

portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria

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Books hardcover edition

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Designed by Level

Manufactured 9

10

8

C United States of America

in the

6

7

4

5

2

3

1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Assaraf, John.

The answer grow any :

live

an extraordinary p.

life /

business, achieve financial freedom,

and

John Assaraf and Murray Smith,

cm.

Includes bibliogaphical references. 1.

Success in business.

HF5386.A795

I.

II.

Title.

2008

658.4'09-dc22 ISBN-1 3: 978-1-4165-6199-6 ISBN-10:

Smith, Murray.

1-4165-6199-4

2008011886

To the Reader

You have dreams, big dreams. Like most people, you also have questions.

And

We

like most,

you may have doubts.

encourage you

to set aside

your doubts,

find answers to your questions,

and throw

yourself headlong into the fulfillment

of your dreams.

We dedicate

this

book

to you.

CONTENTS

Introduction:

The Question

ix

1.

Inside the Box: John's Story

2.

The Search

3.

The Law

4.

The Universe

5.

How

6.

Your Dream Business

7.

The Neural Reconditioning Process™

103

8.

Neural Reconditioning FAQs

1

39

9.

The Important

1

55

to

for

How the

1

World Works

9

of Attraction

21

Inside Your Brain

35

Change Your Mind

Things: Murray's Story

55

73

10.

Vision, Focus, Action

163

11.

Your Ideal Customer

173

12.

Innovating Your Business

c l

^

Contents

viii

1

3

Finding Your Business's

DNA

2

1

14.

Reaching Your Ideal Customer

231

15.

Big Thinking

251

Conclusion: The Path

265

Acknowledgments

269

Appendix

273

I

Customer Survey Forms

Appendix 2 The Five Major

Industries:

Common

Hot Buttons Appendix Strategies,

3

279 Distribution Channels, Marketing

and Marketing

Appendix 4 The Five Major Distribution Channels

Resources

289

Tactics Industries:

and Marketing

Common Strategies

297 303

Introduction THE QUESTION

Close your eyes

for a

you can imagine

as

cess.

Whether

it's

moment and

think about the greatest rewards

you step into absolutely extraordinary

an amazing

lifestyle,

the

home

levels of suc-

of your dreams,

nancial freedom, charitable giving, or philanthropic work that

dream looks

like to you, picture yourself

the pilot of your personal

jet for

fi-

— whatever

basking in

it.

Thank

waiting a few extra minutes while

your family joins you on an exotic vacation; run your hands over the exquisite cabinetry in your vast, sunlit

ing of

knowing

no matter

you'll always

new

kitchen; savor the feel-

have enough money

to

pay the

bills,

their size; graciously accept the gratitude of the interna-

tional relief

agency

to

which you have

just

contributed a

gift

of his-

toric proportions.

Ahhh, now:

that's

What

worn, to be,

does your

stress,

then

Maybe

the dream.

Then

book

is

you see

is

if it

simply

isn't

everything you want

it

for you.

you're a small business

owner who

with big goals and bigger dreams, but

you're not the only one: In North

started a few years ago

now things seem

Are you working harder and harder, but not

a

predicament

have

stalled. It

so.

more than most of them you,

America alone, there

just like yours.

to

really seeing results?

twenty-five million small-business owners just like

being

Eyes back open

day-to-day life really look like? If what

or uncertainty, or

this

there's the realitv.

are

x

Introduction: The Question

a

company, corporation, or nonprofit looking

Or perhaps you

are an executive, department head, or for

ways

manager

to

for

grow vour

business unit out of a slump, to set yourself apart from the internal

own income

competition, or to take vour you're that business's

on the company's

CEO

or

CFO,

Perhaps

to the next level.

looking to

make

a

major impact

future.

Or vou might be one of the ~3 percent of Americans who want to start their own business but hesitate to take the plunge. You've heard that 95 percent of new businesses close their doors within five years, and you don't want to become another statistic. You're worried that you don't have what risks

it

and the

takes, that the competition's too stiff

too high, that vou'll run out of monev, that vou'll find vourself in

over your head. Still,

vou don't want

business take

Of

off.

go of that dream of finallv watching vour

to let

being your

own

better while generating big profits

boss.

Of changing

— doing well

ing on the cover of Fortune magazine.

Of having

a foundation that will use your wealth to address the

world long

after you're

no longer with

Of be-

the corporate

limousine waiting to take you to your next client meeting.

in the

lives for the

bv doing good.

jet or

Of creating

major problems

us.

There's the dream and then there's the realitv— and for millions of people, the two just don't look like they'll ever match up. But they should, and thev can. That's

Through

why we wrote The Answer.

the 2006 movie and book The Secret, millions of people were

introduced to the concept of the Law of Attraction, the idea that by focusing our thoughts,

most from

life,

we can

actually attract those things

turning even our w ildest dreams into

the authors of this book, John Assaraf, was fortunate

teacher in The Secret. Since

'How do cess in

I

its

release,

we want

realities.

enough

manv people have

asked us,

and business

life?"

Having worked with thousands of businesspeople over the

lie

we know

last few-

the hopes and fears, aspirations, and anguish that

behind those words. To

ruptcies,

of

be a

applv that idea, practically and specifically, to creating suc-

my work

decades,

One to

us, the millions of

unemploved and underemployed

business failures, bank-

across the land each year

Introduction: The Question

are not one-dimensional statistics, they are

names, and

How can

We

voices.

I

xi

human

with faces,

stories

hear the question behind the question:

access unlimited

abundance?

The Answer does not come from experts with advanced degrees ther of us has

of us has one of those, either).

come from money, and we ents to

show us the

clearly destined to

never went to college.

managed

the Middle East living in a poor neighbor-

who

path out of that directionless

to find a

a freak car accident that

— but that

ended

Murray Smith was labeled his classmates,

headed

his teen years

running

kept getting into trouble. In high school, he

reer as a professional athlete

away from

didn't

growing up we both seemed prettv

Canada, John Assaraf spent most of

in

We

fail.

with a group of kids

track

We

didn't have successful business-owner par-

ropes. In fact,

An immigrant from hood

(nei-

one of those) or an entrepreneurial upbringing (neither

life to a

promising ca-

promise was soon cut short

in

his prospects for pro basketball forever.

young age, pulled

as learning disabled at a

and placed

in a special school,

on

a voc-tech

out of school had

for a life of factory work. His first job

him cleaning sewers a hundred feet belowground. Yet for some reason, we both found our way to success. How? Through trial and error, buoyed by sheer determination, we each happened

fundamental laws that regulate the creation of busi-

to learn the

and we honed them

ness success,

into

an approach that has worked

again and again. For the past three decades,

applying

The Answer

from scratch

— eighteen of them, between the two of us. Yet all around

we saw people

us,

that

much

to share

the

we have each been busy

to building businesses, successful businesses,

failing.

One

thing we've learned

when you have people

sweeter

our experiences and the secrets

way with others — as many others

As best friends

for all these years,

cessful businesses together. In 2005,

ment and devote the around the world.

rest

to share

to success

is it

that success tastes

with.

We

wanted

we'd learned along

as possible.

we've built several of those suc-

we decided

to

conic out of retire-

of our lives to helping aspiring businesses

We launched a franchise business called C hieCoach,

4

Introduction: The Question

xii

which has become the world's

fastest-growing provider of small-business

Our

growth, coaching, and consulting services.

Coach

The Answer comes from book, you'll learn about

a

wide range of sources. In the course of this

all sorts

the power of your brain and to

experiences with One-

led us to write this book.

succeed in business,

of things, from simple ways to redirect

how the

universal laws of

based on your company's unique value, to forming your

mind group and thinking like critical

can be used

life

slam-dunk marketing message

to crafting a

own

master-

a multimillionaire. You'll learn the three

questions that are responsible for driving growth in your busi-

ness revenues, what your ideal customer looks like, and

hundreds of

crucial business activities, out of

which

are the

possibilities, that

you

absolutely cannot afford to ignore. All the answers that

make up The Answer have come from hundreds

of interviews with scientists and salespeople, business leaders and multimillionaires; they

have emerged from our experiences working with

thousands of clients and our in-the-trenches encounters with the ups

and downs, ness, all of

There

is

principle, at

trials

and

errors, failures

which provide

critical

known as Heisenberg's uncertaintywhen you change the way you look

a principle in phvsics

which teaches us

that

something, the thing you look at changes

true of your

life

The Answer

is

ently,

and your business

going to show you

would.

And

The Answer It is

as

it is

how

in response.

This

is

just as

true of subatomic particles.

to look at

your business

differ-

whether you work within an organization or own your own busi-

ness, so that your business will it

and successes of the world of busi-

elements of The Answer.

as is

change

in the

your business changes, so

way you've always dreamed will

your

about taking ownership of your

life

life.

and your business.

about understanding how the principles of cause and

ate in business,

and how

to design

effect oper-

and execute your actions

you are the cause, and not simply the

effect.

We'll

so that

show you how

to

dream business from the inside, by creating a picture within yourself of utter clarity and certainty. Then, we'll show you how to build vour

build that business by following battle-tested strategies for growing

your business's revenues

as large as

you want.

Regardless of whether you are a solo entrepreneur or a business

Introduction: The Question

owner; a professional in private practice or

running a department to start a business; or

the business you're

an extraordinary

at a

life,

,an executive or

manager

Fortune 500 corporation; someone about

someone who wants

in: If

xiii

you want

we wrote

this

to

become

to create financial

book

for you.

We

irreplaceable in

freedom and wrote

it

live

to inspire

you with the confidence you need, the information you need, and the specific, step-by-step actions

dream

you need

to take in order to build

We'll share both our stories with you as

we came

to the insights that

same

just

showing you how

businesspeople

answer

it,

but answer

shakable certainty that your

dream business

will

be not

it

life will

with such clear, strong, and un-

never be the same. That your

just possible,

stoppable.

How can

go,

ideas to create their

The Answer has and not

we

contributed to The Answer, along with

we know who have applied own dream businesses. one purpose: to help you answer The Question —

stories of other successful

these

your

business.

I

You'll find

access unlimited

The Answer

abundance?

in these pages.

not

just

probable, but un-

INSIDE THE BOX: JOHN'S STORY

One Tuesday morning

May

in

2000,

my

cardboard box that had been sealed for inside I

my life

changed

had no idea

seen a I

lot of

and

to happen; in fact, I didn't know exactly when we opened that box. It had been five those years we'd moved around quite a bit and

to see

in

career in business twenty years earlier, going to work as

basketball were long gone,

grocery store, and

old kid took his real estate a

I

My dreams

high school.

and

Real estate was the only thing at a

a

forever.

a real estate agent fresh out of

working

opened

change.

my

began

I

and what we found

was going

this

what we were going years, after all,

son Keenan and

five years,

I

had no idea what

to

of professional

do with

could think of that would keep so,

on June

my life. me from

20, 1980, this nineteen-year-

exam and became

a licensed Realtor.

Within

few months, seminars and workshops on goal-setting were teaching

me

about some odd-sounding personal growth techniques they called

visualization I

and

affirmations.

had been aware of the value of such

formal names. In

my

successful basketball

badly that

I

teens, star.

I

practices, long before they

wanted more than anything

In fact,

I

wanted

to

succeed

to

had

become

constantly imagined myself winning championship games,

sinking that winning shot as the clock ran out, running that movie

my head

a

in thai career so

before

I

ever stepped onto the court.

I

literally

went

in

to sleep at

THE ANSWER

I

night with a basketball next to injured,

me

under the

And

covers.

until

Now, however, winning on the court was no longer the it

w as I

about winning

all

was

I

was an impact player.

I

what the top achievers

started observing

watching them

hawk, listening

like a

issue.

Now

in business.

in

them

to

my

talk

were doing,

office

on the phone, even

on meetings w ith them, just to hear exactly what they said and how they said it. I started reading voraciously, absorbing evervthing sitting in

I

could get

come

my

me

hands on that might give

mv new

successful in

career.

I

clues as to

how

to be-

and

listened to audiotapes

at-

programs— and one of these was taught by a man whom I know as a friend, mentor, and business partner. His name is

tended

live

came to Bob Proctor.

Bob had moved from

In the early sixties,

cago

work w ith

to

man named

a

Toronto

his native

Earl Nightingale,

to

Chi-

who had launched

the personal development industrv a decade earlier. Nightingale's

mous audio

recording The Strangest Secret was the

history outside of popular gale, in turn,

had learned

thor of what

is

literature.

music

to sell a million copies. Earl Nightin-

philosophy from Napoleon

his

fa-

recording in

probably the most well-known book in

Hill, the au-

all

of success

Proctor,

one theme

Think and Grow Rich.

From Napoleon ran through

all

Hill to Earl Nightingale to

their teachings:

ling our thoughts.

The only

The

What

self-limiting thoughts.

know how

or

why

it

we

lies in

control-

on our accomplishments, these

place

thev said

Bob

our success

secret to

limitations

teachers were telling me, are those

didn't

first

upon

ourselves bv our

own

made complete

sense to me;

me the truth

seemed

worked, but to

of it

I

self-

evident.

Soon ously.

the

|

I

was taking

In fact,

summer

I still

this business

of 1982.

|

I

wanted

I

mind with new images

mv

of

mind, movies of my triumphs

That for

year,

my

first

age twenty,

down my

started writing affirmations

tures of the kind of success

bad

of writing

goals very seri-

have a copy of mv carefully w ritten-out goals from

I

and

to have, feeding

goals, plaving out

vivid

my

word

pic-

unconscious

new movies

in

my

as a serial entrepreneur.

year in real estate,

thought.

My

I

earned about S30,000. Not

second

year,

my

earnings totaled

"

Inside the Box: John

's

Story

3

$150,000. This goal setting, visualizing, affirmation repeating thing

was working! After that second year,

my

and expand

around the world.

decided to take some time off

I

horizons.

I

My trip

gathered

ended up

my

to take stock

earnings and set off to travel

lasting

more than

a year, as

I

cir-

cled the globe learning about other cultures and worldviews and ex-

panding

my

sense of what was possible. In late 1984,

Toronto and went back clear

and

I

wouldn't

to be

to

work

there long.

I

at

my

real estate office

was hungry

to

later, in late

who owned

the two guvs

.

but

to

it

was

do more,

1986, Walter Schneider and Frank Polzler,

Canada, approached

me

with the news that the

RE/MAX for RE/MAX sub-

become

available. (To-

and Frank are the most successful subfranchisors

day, Walter

me

.

the rights to the giant Realtor

franchising rights for the state of Indiana had

world.)

.

know more,

more.

A few years eastern

last

returned to

I

They knew I was

a partnership

if

I

itching to grow,

would move

and they had decided

in the to offer

to Indiana to build the business

there.

move

"John," they said, "would you like to I

said, "Absolutely!

that,

again?"

"Would you portunity

My

I

first

Journal

How soon

do

I

to Indiana?"

leave?" and then added, "Where's

hadn't even heard the "Indiana" part.

I

like to

move?" and

I

knew

I'd

they were offering

just

heard

me

an op-

couldn't possibly turn down.

week

came

in Indiana, a reporter

to ask

be the biggest

from the Indianapolis Business

about our plans. "In

real estate

company

in

five years,"

Indiana

— in

I

told

fact,

him,

we

"we'll

will sell a

billion dollars in real estate."

He

scribbled

down and then offhandedly asked, "So, have rattled off the names of the major owners of company in the area.

all this

you talked with — " and he the largest real estate

"Urn, why?"

I

He

"I

grinned.

hedged. guess you probably already

know

this,

but their firm

has been here for about eight) years, and they control seventy percent of the real estate market in these parts. I

I

had no

idea. I'd

never even heard of the guys he was talking about.

knew nothing about Indiana

real estate

— and

in tact,

1

knew nothing

THE ANSWER

4

how to run my own

about

such massive

business, let alone

Let alone

sales.

how to do

it

how to

build

it

to generate

in the face of dominant, well-

entrenched competition.

The reporter laughed. It was pretty clear that I'd stuck my foot so far down my mouth I might never get it out. Sure enough, a few days later, there was

my

picture in the paper, along with a story

headline, "A Billion in Sales Within Five Years."

I

on

me

with the

was the laughing-

stock of the town.

That

is,

my company

until five years later— when

generated $1.2

billion in sales for the year.

This visualization and affirmations thing was still

a mystery to

me

exactly

why

or

how

it

really working.

worked, but

who

It

cared

was

—

it

worked! In 1995,

1

making what

started

my mentors had called vision boards, and dreams

cutting out pictures that represented the goals

I

aspired to

achieve and pasting them onto bulletin boards; the idea was to create

everyday reminders of

power of this

By

my

that time,

I

had run

that

to over seventy-five offices

grown ties.

I

restless again;

it

direction.

life's

exercise, but that

didn't yet grasp the full

I

would soon change.

RE/MAX region for a decade, growing

and one thousand salespeople.

was time

to search for

left

Over the next few

Indiana,

years

my

and moved back

family and

looked for the next big opportunity.

I

also

new and larger opportuni-

hired and trained a replacement, packed up

put them in storage,

had

I

it

I

my possessions to

and

Canada.

moved around, while

I

invested in a few companies and

we kept moving and looking. named Len McCurdy invited me to come down

consulted for a few more, while

In late

1998, a friend

to

Francisco to look at something his son Kevin and Kevin's friend

San

How-

ard had developed.

'This program

is

amazing," Len told me.

"It lets

you do

a virtual tour

of a car or hotel property on the Internet, without any downloads or plug-ins. You've got to see I

it."

admired Len and knew that working with him would provide

with an amazing opportunity to learn and grow. His

had been worth Francisco and this

it

a fortune before

didn't take

Len

much

online application Kevin and

sold

it

to

IBM.

last I

me

company

flew to San

imagination to appreciate that

Howard had developed would have

Inside the Box: John 's Story

5

room

applications in real estate, car sales, hotel

fantastic

tising, all sorts

of areas.

Len

invited

me

And then he

adver-

as senior vice

new company,

president of sales and marketing for the

cepted without hesitation.

him

to join

a position

ac-

I

me

something that took

said

by surprise: "Hey,

why

don't

we

And why

take this thing public?

not do

it

b\ this

fall?"

He wanted to do an IPO — in nine months. Even in those heady dotcom-boom days, that was a pretty outrageous goal. But Len knew a lot about how to achieve extraordinary goals; he had read the same books and studied with some of the same people had, and he knew that we are constrained only by the limitations we place upon our own I

thoughts.

took a deep breath, and said, "Sure,

I

Los Angeles, and

do

let's

Vancouver

to

and

between L.A. and San Francisco.

forth

launched our new company later

I

We moved

it!"

from

spent the next year or so flying back

in the

My

colleagues and

I

beginning of 1999; nine months

IPO on NASDAQ, followed by a merger of another company that left our new venture with a market

we placed

equals with

a successful

valuation of $2.5 billion.

This whirlwind adventure had three vivid proof of the

with the financial wherewithal to

wanting

move on and

to

results.

power of our thoughts

that

And

retire.

search for

I

new

It

offered

me

had ever seen. it

me

found

horizons.

It

the most

once again

wasn't at

clear

all

what those horizons would be, but there was absolutely no doubt

where

I

wanted

to live

while

I

me

It left

as to

chased them: San Diego.

Living in San Diego had been a dream of mine for nearly twenty years.

Way

back

in

1982, while traveling around the world,

stopped over in San Diego and told myself, "Someday, ford to live

Now,

wherever

in the

the bluffs of

I

want, I'm going to

my

beginning of 2000,

San Diego and

started

closed on an amazing property and

I

when

I

I

had

can

af-

live here."

family and

I

rented a house on

house hunting. Bv April we had sent for our

stuff,

which had been

languishing in storage back in Indiana for years.

A

few weeks

later, all

my

furniture arrived, along with dozens ot

cartons.

Which

is

how

it

happened

that

I

was

sitting in the stuck ot

my new

THE ANSWER

6

home,

one beautiful Tuesday morning

early

Keenan,

up on

boxes, catching

still-sealed

sat

on

my

a carton near the door of the

and banging them against the box.

said,

I

in

email.

May, surrounded by

My

six-year-old son,

room, swinging

his legs

"Honey, I'm trying

something done here, do you mind not banging your

to get

legs like that?

It's

kind of distracting."

"What's in the box, Dad?" he

he continued banging

said, as

his

legs. I

peered

at the

Magic Marker

when

I

on the box. "Those are

my vi-

remember Indiana?" Keenan had been

sion boards, from Indiana,

toddler

scrawl

a

had packed those boxes away.

"What's a vision board?" I

explained, as simply as

of pictures of things

my life. "Why do you I

tion

do

was tempted

and

I

could, that this was something

I

wanted

I

achieve in

to acquire or

I

made

out

my business or in

that?"

to say "Just because," so

could get back to

my email,

was obviously having a great time

just

we could

close the conversa-

but one glance

hanging out

Keenan, who

at

in this exciting

new

home, made me change my mind. As a fully,

kid, I'd

promised myself that when

mature enough)

to

have kids of

was old enough (and, hope-

own,

I

would never

open the packing tape, opened the

because." So

I slit

out the

vision board.

first

my

I

There was

carton,

a picture of that

say "Just

and pulled

Mercedes

I'd

wanted back then, which had since been purchased, driven, enjoyed,

and

sold.

There was an image of a nice wristwatch, and next to

of alligator shoes.

I

and then pulled out the

it,

a pair

moment, reminiscing, second board — and we were staring at a pic-

gazed

at the pictures for a

ture of a huge, stunning, gorgeous house.

My

first

real estate

thought was, "Hey,

how

did this get in here?"

ting ready to

been sealed

move.

.

.

for years!

.

I

I

started to cry.

a

get-

But no, how was that possible? The box had stared at the house in the picture. This was

no brochure. The picture was glued board.

And

Somehow,

brochure must have fallen into the box when we were

to the board;

it

was part of the

Inside the Box: John

my

There, on lier

on

was

vision board,

a picture I'd clipped five years ear-

from an old copy of Dream Homes magazine.

Not

like

was

It

it.

When

I'd

cut

mind

And

all at

is

and

a

a pic-

moment.

How would

once,

I

What we

what happened

hadn't even

I

known where

it

much it cost. It was just a picture in a magazine. What were the odds of my ending up buying that you even begin

to calculate those

knew what I was going

you have seen the movie The

this scene.

was

It

it.

sitting in at that very

out of that magazine,

raced.

actual house?

trees,

this house. it

was located or how

My

was a unique house

was no mistaking

house that the two of us were

ture of the

It

with 188 windows, 320 orange trees, 2 lemon

six acres,

slew of other special features. There

If

Story

's

to

do with

my

me

you have heard

Secret,

did not have the chance to describe in

next.

This event was a pivot point in

epiphany that has driven everything

my

in

life

odds?

life.

describe

The Secret

my

life,

since then, and

it

an

had

everything to do with the genesis of the book you hold in your hands.

For twenty years

I'd

been engaged

in the careful, consistent practice

of affirmations, vivid goal setting, visualization, and meditation, and I

had seen plenty of proof that

known why to

it

worked. But

it all

worked, nor, in truth, had

I

I

had never

ever really cared.

really

Now had I

know. In 2000,

1

had

just "retired,"

moment, no immediate start

one.

I

was

and had no business on the table

in the incredibly fortunate position that

reader of this book aspires to be

freedom.

I

we expect every

position of complete financial

didn't have to work.

I

this

related to this quest, ten.

in: a

became my work. That burning need to know how my house inside that cardboard box became my full-time occupation. began by making a list of the top scientists in eveiy held that seemed

So got

at the

prospects for one, nor any pressing need to

Soon

calling

I

them on

months and minds related

years,

the I

quantum fields. What

in

and then

set

out to read even thing they had writ-

was flying around the country

phone

to talk

to

hear them speak, and even

with them. Over the following

communicated with some

ot the best

physics, neuroseienee, philosophy,

they told

me

blew

my

mind.

It

and and

brightest a host ot

explained how

I'd

THE ANSWER

8

built

one successful company

had ended up

living in the

after

another

dream home

— and

it

explained

how we

that lived inside that card-

board box. In the next few chapters,

we want

to take

you inside that box,

and share with you some of the amazing things these

shown

us.

scientists

too,

have

HOW THE WORLD WORKS

THE SEARCH FOR

In 1633,

an aging

before the to

Roman

spend the

rest

Italian

astronomer named Galileo Galilei was taken

Inquisition, tried, convicted of heresy,

of his

Galileo's crime?

life in

and sentenced

prison.

He endorsed the

idea,

proposed a century earlier by

the great Catholic astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, that the earth

not the center of the solar system. In

way around: The sun

sits at

fact, said Galileo,

the center, and the earth

handful of planets that revolve around

is

it is

is

the other

simply one of a

it.

This idea was judged as being diametrically opposed

to the position

taken by Holy Scripture. Galileo was forced to publicly recant his views,

and

his

book containing the offending

idea,

Dialogue Concern-

Two Chief World Systems, was banned. The old man's sentence was later commuted to house arrest, and he lived out the rest of Ins ing the

days confined to his villa outside Florence, where he eventually went blind. Still,

Galileo's views persisted,

mathematical models he used

and the meticulous experiments and

in his search to

understand nature

set

modern science that followed. Three centuries later, a German physicist named Albert Einstein called him "the father of modern science." the stage for

all

the developments of

THE ANSWER

10

For more than a thousand years leading up to the time of Galileo,

more

science had been

interested in creating intellectually satisfying

descriptions of reality than in trying to see

if

those descriptions could

be supported by proof. But with the age of Copernicus and Galileo,

European scientists began the vigorous pursuit of empirical evidence. Thought experiments gave way to actual physical experiments, such as the famous

ing

moment when

Tower of Pisa

to test

Galileo dropped two objects from the Lean-

out Aristotle's assertion that heavier objects

fall

than lighter objects. (They don't.)

faster

From

Galileo's time onward, scientists' precise observations contrib-

much

uted to a picture of the world that looked very piece of mechanical clockwork; they had

little

like a

massive

practical use for

such

The French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, a contemporary of Galileo's who is today regarded as "the father of modern philosophy," declared that the best way to understand how the world works would be to divide exisideas as soul, spirit, or consciousness.

tence into two

parts:

the objective or material world, governed by the

principles of science, soul,

Descartes

is

especially

am. But the truth cartes, it

and the subjective world of the mind and the

which would be the province of the church.

that

much we

as

it

think?

is,

famous

for the

statement

I think,

therefore

I

the think part of that declaration puzzled Des-

has puzzled scientists for centuries since. Just

Where do our

thoughts

come from? How do

how

the

is

bits

of physical matter that constitute our brains generate consciousness? As

contemporary physicist John Hagelin has sophical problem surrounding

said,

"There

is

a

deep philo-

how you get consciousness out of a hunk

of meat."

Despite Descartes' neat division of reality, that our thoughts

must be connected

But how, exactly? The answers dous new world of possibility

for

common

sense suggested

to the rest of existence

somehow.

open up

a tremen-

to those questions

what we can achieve

in

our

lives,

and

they form a central part of The Answer.

A WORLD INSIDE THE ATOM In the generations following Galileo

took the idea of nature-as-machine

and Descartes,

much

Sir Isaac

Newton

further, detailing the precise

1

The Search

modern

ated by Newton, space, through

How

how that machine

laws that govern in fact, all of

for

who

the World Works

operates. All of classical physics,

and

upon the foundation

cre-

been

science, has

1

built

described a universe of empty, three-dimensional

which physical objects move according

to

immutable

These laws of motion made possible the advance of modern tech-

laws.

nology, from simple steam engines to the space probes that have ana-

lyzed

samples on Mars.

soil

What we have been

able to accomplish by applying Newton's laws

has been truly astonishing. But scientists eventually reached the limits of the Newtonian worldview. As their tools grew their explorations of the physical

more

sophisticated,

world took them deep into the heart

of the atom, where the nature of reality proved to be something quite different

from anything Descartes or Newton ever imagined.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the

view of the world began

tic

tivity in

to fall apart.

mechanis-

tidy, objective,

With the

discover) of radioac-

the late 1890s, scientists began looking into the world within

the atomic nucleus, and they were shocked to discover that on the sub-

atomic said

it

sion:

level, the physical

should. In

The

fact,

world did not behave

the "atom"

itself

at all the

way Newton

turned out to be a sort of

closer scientists looked, the less

it

really

appeared

illu-

to

be

there.

Coined

in ancient

Greece, the term atom means "indivisible

and through the nineteenth century, physical universe was dioactivity

showed us

scientists believed that

composed of these elementary that the

atom was

particles.

divisible after all

But

And when our

v

ra-

— in fact, there

was a whole new world of phenomena inside the atom, waiting explored, measured, and described.

unit,"

our entire

ision of the

to

be

atom

fractured, the foundation of classical physics fractured along with

Our view

of

how

EVERYTHING

When we

it.

the world works was in for a radical transformation.

IS

ENERGY

name Albert Einstein, what comes to mind 7 Perhaps you think of his wild mane of white hair, or that famous picture of the distinguished physicist sticking out his tongue. Or maybe you think say the

simply, "Genius." But whatever picture you have, you w bly

come up

with

U

E=MC

."

Why

on earth would

a

ill

also proba-

mathematical

THE ANSWER

12

equation for a sophisticated theory be so famous that even nonscientists recognize

it

immediately? Because with that simple equation, "Energy

equals mass times the speed of light squared," Einstein shattered centuries

of thinking and radically altered our view of how the world works.

In his effort to explain the puzzling behavior of light, Einstein found

the only viable solution was to stop looking within the neat framework

own

of Newtonian physics. Instead, he introduced his the world works: the theory of relativity. so transformative

was that

for the first

One

picture of

how

reason Einstein's idea was

time ever,

described

it

how

ergy and matter are not only related, but can be transformed back

en-

and

A chink had been found in the wall separating the worlds of matter and energy. Now the elegant, clear-cut world of classi-

forth into each other.

cal,

Newtonian physics would be forced

for the fuzzy, strange, nearly

Quantum

physics

is

to

move

over and

make room

unimaginable world of quantum

the study of

est scale, at a level far smaller

how

physics.

the world works on the small-

than the atom.

And

as scientists studied

the nature of reality on a smaller and smaller scale, something strange

began

to

happen: The deeper we went into

to dissolve

from view. The search

reality,

matter had instead turned up distinct yet elusive ergy,

which

The ergy.

made

This

smell

is

how you dream is

—

made

to this: Everything

it's

all

made

of molecules, which are

is

en-

you can

made

of

of protons and electrons and neutrons, which

of nothing but vibrating packets of energy.

where quantum physics

that cardboard box.

there

comes down

rock, a planet, a glass of water, your hand, everything taste, or

atoms, which are are

packets of en-

little

physicists called quanta.

Einstein breakthrough

A

touch,

more it seemed known particle of

the

for the smallest

What

are going to create the

business. For

no absolute

intersects with

physicists life

what

found inside to

do with

of your dreams by building your

once we know that everything

distinction

I

found has everything

is

energy— that

between matter and energy— then the

boundaries between the physical world and the world of our thoughts start to

disappear as well.

3

The Search

for

How

the World Works

1

READING THE MIND OF GOD In the decades that followed Einstein's theory of relativity, the

quantum

physics began to reveal

packets of energy

known

as

some

very strange things.

new

The

tiny

quanta exhibited some very peculiar behav-

including an unexplainable ability to influence one another, a

iors,

property called entanglement. In his

book Science and

the Akashic Field, physicist Ervin Laszlo

describes a series of experiments conducted by

lie

detector expert Cleve

some white blood cells from the mouths of his subjects and cultured them in a test tube. He then moved the cultures to distant locations, more than seven miles away. He attached lie detecBackster. Backster took

tors to the cultures

and then performed

a series of experiments

on

his

subjects.

In

one of

he showed

his tests,

picting the Japanese attack

former navy gunner during the attack.

on

who had

When

his subject a television

Pearl

Harbor

actually

in 1941.

been present

moment,

the

jumped, exactly as self,

and not

it

a

Harbor

the face of a navy gunner appeared on the

lie detector's

— and

at that

needle seven and a half miles away

would have had

just to a test

man was

at Pearl

screen, the man's face betrayed an emotional reaction precise

program de-

This

it

been attached

to the

tube of his cultured white blood

man

him-

cells miles

away.

Subsequent experiments varied the circumstances and increased the distances involved to dozens and even hundreds of miles, with the

same astonishing

How

is

results.

such a thing possible? In the language of quantum physics,

the particles of the gunner's body are

with one another, and no matter

how

space, they will continue to influence

still

connected or "entangled"

far apart

they are separated in

one another. In

fact, this effect

appears to occur at speeds faster than the speed of light, which violates

one of Einstein's basic Scientists

dubbed

rules.

this

mind-boggling capacity

for

instantaneous

terconnection nonlocality. Einstein had a somewhat

less

in-

technical

for it. He called it spooky action at a distance. What could this force be? Could it be something even more basic than energy? The search was on for an underlying force that could

term

THE ANSWER

14

bring together a single all

the different kinds of energy

we knew. This

mathematical equation that would account

known

the

all

forces in the universe

of everything"

— has

astrophysicists,

such

become as

quest for

behavior of

for the

— a unified field theory, or "theory

the holy grail of science.

Some

leading

Stephen Hawking, say that when we come up

with this theory of everything,

we

will

know

mind

the

of God.

A BIZARRE DISCOVERY: THOUGHT INFLUENCES MATTER Within twenty years of worldview occurred,

Einstein's radical work, another revolution in

just as

cataclysmic as Einstein's.

It

started with

two of the early pioneers of the quantum world, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr and his protege

Werner Heisenberg.

Bohr and Heisenberg studied the puzzling behaviors of these

tiny

subatomic particles and recognized that once you look deep within the heart of atoms, these "indivisible particles" are not at little

all like

the neat

miniature solar systems of billiard balls everyone had expected,

but were something

far messier:

They were something like

tiny packets

of possibility.

Each subatomic

particle

appeared

"thing," but as the potential of

not as a solid, stable

to exist

any one of

its

various possible selves.

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle stated that

measure

all

example,

if

was not possible

same

to

time. For

you record information about the location of a proton, you

cannot pin down its

it

of a subatomic particle's properties at the

its

speed or trajectory;

if

you figure out

its

speed,

now

precise location eludes you.

Bohr and Heisenberg's work suggested

that at

its

most basic

level,

physical matter isn't exactly anything yet. At the subatomic scale, ac-

cording to

this

new

understanding, reality was

made

not of solid sub-

stance but of fields of potentiality— more like a set of possible sketches or ideas of a thing than the thing

itself.

A

particle

would take on the

specific character of a material "thing" (in the scientists' terms, erties

would collapse

into a single state) only

when

it

its

prop-

was measured or

observed.

And

that

was the

really strange thing: the discovery that the act of

observation influenced these particles' behavior.

5

The Search

Every time the

scientists

for

How

looked

the World Works

for

1

an electron, an electron would

appear, right where they were expecting

And

it.

it

didn't matter

if

the

person performing the observation was a scientist or a bus driver. In fact,

even more bizarre,

measuring

would

particles,

it

was soon found that the mere intention of

even without carrying out the actual act

itself,

affect the particles in question!

still

Suddenly subjectivity— the action of consciousness upon a piece of "matter"

— had

become an

essential

component

in the very nature of

reality.

THE ZERO-POINT FIELD As

continued pursuing their explorations on staggeringly

scientists

small scales, they eventually found themselves staring at something truly

confounding. They termed

at this

the zero-point field (ZPF), because

it

most infinitesimal of levels, some

appears to be pres-

sort of force

ent even at a temperature of absolute zero,

when

known forms

all

of

energy vanish.

This

is

the place where the instantaneous connections of entangle-

ment— those

action-at-a-distance

spooky— begin

to

exists a

more

still

make is

termed

Einstein

sense. Here, beneath the level of energy

basic level.

ergy" anymore, nor

phenomena

it

The

field at this level

empty

a field of

space.

It

itself,

not exactly "en-

is is

best described,

physicists realized, as a field of information.

To put

it

another way, the undifferentiated ocean out of which en-

ergy arises appears to be a sea of pure consciousness, from which matter

emerges

in clustered localities here

what the universe

is

made

and

there.

Consciousness

is

matter and energy are just two of the

of;

forms that consciousness takes. Ervin Laszlo calls this field that underlies and connects

all

things

the A-field, in deference to the ancient Vedic concept of the Akashic record, a nonphysical repository of

cluding

all

human

experience.

The

collective unconscious; Teilhard

Rupert Sheldrake tuited

refers to

and described

for

it

all

knowledge

in the universe, in-

psychologist Carl Jung called

de Chardin dubbed

as the

morphogenetic

thousands of years and

it

field. It

in a

it

the

the noosphcre:

has been

multitude

t

in-

terms

THE ANSWER

16

and images throughout human has science caught up to what

history.

we

Only

in the last

few decades

always sensed but could never fully

explain.

Says Laszlo: origin

"The ancients knew

and memory of

[This insight]

is

sciences [and

is

all

that space

things that exist

now being emerging]

is

not empty;

and have ever

it is

existed.

the .

.

.

rediscovered at the cutting edge of the as a

main

pillar of the scientific world's

picture of the twenty-first century. This will profoundly change our

concept of ourselves and of the world." In fact,

it

1

has already profoundly changed our picture of ourselves

and our world — and

it

will radically

change how you approach your

business.

THOUGHT CREATES EVERYTHING So what are we saying here, that everything that

That thought

is, is

creates the physical world? Yes, that

saying. Here, in a nutshell,

is

is

made

of thought?

exactly

what we're

the conclusion so far of humanity's epic

quest to understand the world:

is made out of atoms. made out of energy. And energy is made out of consciousness.

Everything in the physical world

Atoms

are

Your thoughts not only matter, they create matter. Thought everything comes from.

And your

is

where

thoughts are where your business

comes from. If all this

seems

have seemed to

people of Galileo's time

imagine what

when

it

must

they were asked

consider the proposition that the earth travels through space around

the sun. it

difficult to grasp or accept,

like to the

To the

ordinary citizen of the sixteenth or seventeenth century,

was so patently obvious that the earth stood

even warrant serious discussion. After space,

why weren't we

all, if

still

that the matter didn't

we were

shooting through

blasted by hurricane-force winds? "Besides, any

l.Ervin Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2004), 112-113.

The Search

fool

can see that the earth

for

isn't

How

17

the World Works

hurtling through space: We're just stand-

ing right here!"

Or

back

travel

a

few thousand years further,

world was generally perceived to be

mean, So

aren't

it is

you going

flat.

evidence of your own eyes?" modern physicists. Anytime our view things seem uncomfortable, strange, bi-

Even impossible.

"The world, round?" "So you're saying the

earth moves, that

— not the other way around?" "Matter and

same thing? You mean, matter of thought?

And our thoughts

it

orbits

energy are actually

made of energy?" "What, now

is

and energy and everything

you're saying that matter

made

the

is flat! I

to believe the

shifts radically,

zarre, surreal.

the

when

with the discoveries of

of the world

the sun

to antiquity,

"Of course the world

in

our world

is

actually influence the formation of

matter?!" Yes, indeed, this

seems

surreal.

did the idea of a spherical earth. there.

We

see

But

to pre-Socratic philosophers, so

The

what we are prepared

we

don't see what

is

what we are conditioned

to

truth

to see,

is,

see.

There

a story that

is

didn't

mount much

vessels represented

when

Fuego

shores of Tierra del

USS

first

of a response, because the vast European sailing literally

and Mr. Spock and the

rest

seemed

to the natives as

You've heard the old expression not really

you believe

ity

could not

of the team of

though thev stepped out into

their smaller canoelike landing craft literally out of thin

reflect

on the

Enterprise stepping out of their invisibility-cloaked spaceship,

the foreigners

that's

arrived

canoe-going population

such an alien concept that they

see them. Like Captain Kirk

the

Magellan's expedition

in 1520, the native

your

it.

how

it is.

The

truth

"I'll is

believe

more

it

air.

when

like this:

You

I

11

see see

it." it

But

when

In a very real, concrete sense, your beliefs don't simply

reality,

they create your reality— and that applies to the real-

of massive success in business. In the chapters that follow, we're

going to walk through the process, step by step, of building your dream business by

your

beliefs.

first

harnessing the most powerful force in the universe:

THE ANSWER

18

THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE If

the idea that the universe

here

is

is

amazing thing about

the truly

IN

THE UNIVERSE

made of thought seems amazing, here is The scale of power we're talking about

it:

staggering beyond comprehension.

The universe appears to be structured as a much like an onion or Russian nesting dolls:

series of layers or levels,

Inside of organisms,

we

find cells; inside cells, molecules, then "indivisible" atoms, then elec-

trons

and protons, then quarks, bosons, mesons, photons, leptons

and the smaller the world, the greater the amount of force we

wrapped inside

The deeper

.

.

.

find

it.

in nature

other words, the

vou

go, the

more fundamental

more dvnamic nature becomes. In the level to which you penetrate,

the greater the power vou'll find.

For example, chemical power, the force of chemical interactions, operates at the level of molecules and atoms. Nuclear power operates

of the atomic nucleus, about a million times smaller— and

at the level it is

a million times

comparison According

to the

levels todav's

ergs per cubic

the nuclear level pales in

quantum

to Laszlo, the zero-point field has

billion times

that's just

all

in a single

physics

is

exploring.

an energy density of 10 94

centimeter— that's ten thousand

more energy

than you have in

And

more powerful. Yet even

deeper

billion, billion, billion,

cubic centimeter of "empty space"

the matter in the

known

universe.

one cc of emptv space. Imagine what you'd have

in a

quart.

HOW QUANTUM

SCIENCE HELPS YOU BUILD YOUR DREAM BUSINESS

In 1902, two years after the physicist

quantum

named James which drew

Allen penned a

its title

and

thinketh in his heart, so the two

2.

Max

Planck

to describe the core reality of light, a

men and

Proverbs 23:7.

its is

little

book

entitled

first

coined the term

young As a

British writer

Man

Thinketh,

message from the biblical verse "As

he."

2

a

man

At the time, few would have associated

their work, but with the hindsight of a century's dis-

The Search

we can now

coveries,

for

How

19

the World Works

see the connection.

While

spent the

scientists

of the century pursuing the horizon set by pioneers such as Planck,

rest

Einstein, Bohr,

and Heisenberg, which would ultimately lead

to the

quantum vacuum, philosophers like Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, and Bob Proctor worked to articulate its application to the practical world of

human accomplishment.

This idea, that our thoughts have a ity,

has been observed, but

nal people couldn't

answers.

buy

Now science

Remember

it

direct, causal

into,

is

has given us that set of answers.

the mind-boggling

amount

of power in that cubic centi-

When

Victor

Hugo

said,

nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,"

we now know fully realized

how

real-

ratio-

an idea that created more questions than

meter of "empty space," or consciousness?

"There

impact on our

always seemed like something that

was more than a metaphor.

that this

it

at the time,

but he was giving us

He may

not have

a literal description of

reality works.

Thought

The idea precedes the

That

what we manifest and create

how my dream house showed

every business I've built, and the

person

who

Science

I

thoughts

our

lives.

same thing happens

to

up, as well as

even business-

has a vision and applies these strategies and tactics.

started as a picture,

happened,

in

thing.

at the heart of

is

Our

the most powerful force in the universe.

is

are the controlling factor in

was living

tells

my

an idea in in

mind, and before

I

It

knew what had

it.

we know as the world is a field upon billions of times more powerful and that this field of absolute conscious-

us that underlying what

of pure consciousness, billions

than any measurable energy, ness

knows everything

that happens,

universe, instantaneously different

anywhere and everywhere

and with absolute accuracy. This

from the kind of descriptions people have given

in their efforts to grasp the ultimate

for

is

in the

not so

millennia

nature of our universal source,

what some of us is

of a world

intelligence, its

call God. Whatever you call it, the picture that emerges bounded by an infinitely large, omnipotent, omniscient which lies behind everything in the phenomenal world as

source, author, and ultimate destination. Tins

is

the

which you

dream world we

will

shape and give

live in, life to

you and

I,

and

it

is

the cla\ from

vour dream business.

3

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

We

live in a

level

and

universe of absolute laws, a world that operates on even

in every detail with absolute precision. In the

verse, there

may be random

no coincidences; every laws by

which

it

particle

operates are

place an astronaut on the

Descartes was wrong: ingenuity, creativity,

and

and every action all as

moon and The world enterprise,

uni-

is

accounted

for.

The

exacting as the calculations that

bring

him home

alive.

of thoughts and ideas, of is

chemistry and gravity and fields and

come from

quantum

occurrences, but there are no accidents,

human

not separate from the world of forests.

There

are

same rulebook. The laws

no separate

that govern the

rules— they

all

movement

of subatomic particles and solar systems also govern our

the

thoughts and feelings, families, and careers.

This fundamental truth daily routines, because

unseen, the world

world that

lies

we can

too easy to forget as

is all

we seem

to live in

touch,

taste,

we go about our

two worlds, the seen and the

and

see,

and the intangible

hidden away behind the curtain of our senses. The

events and circumstances of your business take place in the seen world.

But — and truth,

this

is

the

key— that

is

not where thev originate. Grasp

and you have grasped the reason behind the success

this

or failure of

every business ever created.

As quantum physics has taught powerful than the seen world.

It is

us, the

the

unseen world

is

vastly

immense, hidden portion

more ot the

THE ANSWER

22

iceberg that most of us are unaware of 99 percent of the time, while the

we

tangible, material world

think of as "real"

is

only the minuscule

that juts above the surface of our conscious awareness.

ness that ends

As a

up closing

its

And

the part that sinks every busi-

is

doors.

The

result of the film

that

people have become

Secret, millions of

Law

aware of the principle called the

of Attraction, which explains the

which the unseen world

creative process through

the

nobody saw coming,

Titanic was that hidden part of the iceberg that

the part beneath the surface.

What sunk

tip

circumstances and events of our

lives.

As a

gives birth to the

result of

The

Secret, thou-

sands of people from around the world have emailed, written, and called our office at

and applying

this

OneCoach,

telling us stories

law has changed their

how knowing

about

These

lives.

stories are

some-

times astonishing, often quite moving, and the range and variety of the

circumstances involved

is

staggering.

number of distinct laws or principles at work within what is called the Law of Attraction. In this chapter, we'll look at each of them and see how they work together, so that you can begin There are actually

using the

irresistible

a

power of the unseen world

your ideal

to create

life

and business.

EVERYTHING STARTS AS AN IDEA As Einstein's

relativity revolution revealed,

everything

molecules, atoms, protons and

ergy. Cells,

The

mesons, and bosons— they're

all

to us, including ourselves, are

simply energy slowed way

that

we recognize

it

up, that

ice cube:

is,

We

its

exactly,

by adding energy

vibration,

of en-

things that

seem

tangible

down to a state

and

"energy slowed way down"?

came from by speeding its vibrational state. When we

can find out where

apply heat to our ice cube,

up

made

as "solid."

But what does that mean, Take an

energy.

is

neutrons, quarks, gluons,

it

to

it

soon

to raise

it

reverts to a liquid.

Continue speeding

that liquid soon evaporates to steam,

ther into water vapor.

Continue accelerating

its

and then

rate of vibration,

fur-

and

the elements that formed that ice cube will eventually revert to a state

of pure energy, and beyond that, cross the Cartesian barrier to

what

lies

beyond energy, which

is

become

consciousness or information.

The Law of Attraction

where the

That's

ice

In our daily lives,

cube came from:

we

It

23

was

an

first

idea.

often describe those rarefied, superenergized

we cannot see as "spiritual," and the slowed-down, more substanstates we can see as "physical," but science has now told us that this

states tial is

an arbitrary distinction,

tion.

The

truth

is,

water

convenience of language and percep-

just a

is

water;

it

came from

"quantum

the idea or

potential" of water through the states of vapor, steam, liquid, water.

It's all

But

and

ice.

with an idea.

starts

it

Remember our summary of the stand how the universe works?

history of humanity's quest to under-

is made out of atoms. made out of energy. And energy is made out of consciousness.

Everything in the physical world

Atoms

are

In other words, everything in nature, every verse, starts as

What

does

an

this

have

to

in the uni-

do with your dream business? Even-thing.

Because everything you manifest

in

your

pathway, from idea to physical form. turning that which

level,

phenomenon

idea.

we

We

life

follows the precise

same

create from the nonphysical

can't see into that

which we can.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

An

important client says "Yes" or "No."

through or edly.

falls

Markets

surprise us.

shift,

We

see

rise

sharply or

hurricanes blow through, and

and react

are but the seen tip of the

to all these events

out realizing the role that

we

We often

without realizing they

respond

greater world that gives rise to

it.

them about.

phenomena; we don't That

results of a

to these events with-

ourselves play in bringing

see the world of tangible

unexpect-

fall

new developments

unseen iceberg, the physical end

nonphysical process of creation.

We

A substantial investment comes

through. Real estate prices

vastly greater

see the vastly

world

is

the world

of cause.

Newton used physical,

the principle of cause and effect as

mechanical world

as the basis of his law of

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

it

operates in the

thermodynamics:

What

the science of

THE ANSWER

24

Newton's day did not yet grasp was that matter, energy, and conscious-

and separate domains, but

ness are not distinct

What

frequencies along the same continuum.

now shown

but science has

applies not simply to the

us,

is

are

all

simply different

they did not fully grasp,

that the principle of cause

mechanics of matter, but

to the

and

effect

mechanics of

everything, including our thoughts.

Every thought you form broadcasts a distinct and particular quency, and that frequency verse as surely as a swinging strikes.

Things don't

response from the

elicits a

hammer

to you.

are the reflection of your thoughts, the

ple

this:

is

You

echo of your own actions and

Eor many,

this

life

and

in

Embracing

princi-

your business.

a challenging principle because

is

in the driver's seat.

reflected in the idea

is

Golden Rule. The core of the

are at cause in your

it

Events in your business

the thinking behind them. In the East this truth

of karma, and in the West in the

fre-

uni-

has an impact on the surface

happen

arbitrarily

quantum

it

puts you squarely

means you no longer have

this principle

the luxury of blaming other people or external circumstances for the things that

happen

Embracing

this principle also

in

your

life.

Here

and circumstances

ate the events

the

is

flip side

means you have in

your

life

far

of that equation:

more

capacity to cre-

than you have ever imag-

ined possible.

When we

don't recognize this principle operating in our

lives,

it's

easy to start seeing ourselves as being the effect of those events. Rather

than seeing that

we

are

making things happen, we

start to

believe that

things are simply happening to us. This easily leads to what

is

often

called victim mentality. If

you are someone who

there

is

no place

mind— victim

is

growing

compatible and mutually exclusive.

initiates.

commitment

your

life.

The two

states of

thinking and entrepreneurship— are 100 percent in-

from the French word that

who

a massively successful business,

for victim mentality in

The word

refers to the

entrepreneur derives

source of the event, the one

Building and growing a successful business requires a to

being

at cause,

not at

There are many things you need

effect.

to

know

to successfully play the

game

of business.

A great many of them you can learn as you go, and a

great

many

and

skills

fields of expertise

ness by hiring or partnering with people

you can bring into your busi-

who

possess them.

But there

is

The Law of Attraction

you must have yourself, and

25

the single most impor-

one

skill

that

tant

skill

of any successful businessperson, the one without which suc-

cess

is

it

is

impossible: You must be practiced at creating the thoughts that

your business.

will serve

RESONANCE Let's

go back

from

ice to liquid to

same

stays the

changes

to that ice

as

as

cube

steam

to

for a moment. We saw that it changes vapor— but what exactly is the "it" that

goes through

it

something about

it

these transformations?

all

form

Its

energy level changes. But there

rate of vibration or

its

that doesn't change, a basic waterness.

essence that stays constant, even while

it

changes

all

of

What

physical

its

is

that

is

at-

tributes?

In a word, pattern.

There

of vibrations that holds

form and

its

medium might

is

an essential

no matter how much its physical You can see this principle operating

down

is

captivating

The sound your neighbor is making sing.

if

that

tissues

tion:

The

How

and you

rec-

stop, entranced.

created by the vibration of her

nobody would ever hear her

it,

impart the pattern of their vibration

and out

to the air inside the singer's throat is

is

were the end of

Those vibrating throat

where she

the street, and as you pass

you hear a singer practicing her music. You don't

ognize the song, but the sound

vocal cords, but

shape

integrity, shift.

with sound. Imagine you are walking a certain house,

identity, a pattern or

room

into the air in the

practicing her aria. But that doesn't really answer the ques-

is it

you are hearing

that

her room

air inside

isn't

this?

The windows

are

all

closed.

pouring out of the house or coming any-

where near you. No, the

air isn't

escaping the house

vibrating air hits the

which passes

it

on

windowpane,

it

— but the pattern

imparts

to the air outside the

reaches you. Entering your ear,

it

its

house, where

strikes the delicate

When

is.

waveform

it

eventually

membrane

your eardrum, passing that same waveshape into the interior ear, to

where

it is

then transferred through a series of

become waves within

the cochlear fluid,

which

that

to the glass,

ot

tiny, delicate

transfers that

of

vour

bones

same

pattern of vibration to thousands of microscopic, hairlike filaments

within the cochlear

coil,

which convert

it

to electrical

impulses

in the

THE ANSWER

26

auditory nerve, through which nallv hear

From

your brain — where vou

travels to

membranes and bones

to

— the

harmonious pattern of

vi-

to nerves to brain

brations of your neighbor's voice passes through

media,

cal

fi-

vocal cords to air to glass to air to

and filaments

fluid

it

it.

just

many

different physi-

the vibration called water passes through the

as

dimensions of vapor, steam, liquid, and solid

— but thev are

all

recog-

nizable as the same thing.

The

transformation that occurs with the ice cube and the song also

happens within you. from

moment

second, about ten million of \ our

Most of your

million are created.

today will

still

moment

without ceasing. Even

of cells die. and another ten

tissues are replaced with

new mate-

few months from now. hardlv anv of what

davs: within a

rial in

to

trillions

be here. But you

will

"vou"

is

be here. So. what

still

is

that

"vou*"" It is

not what you're

physical

made

of: It is

the pattern that underlies your

self.

Buckminster Fuller used

to

demonstrate

this

with a rope stitched

together out of several smaller segments, one nvlon. one cotton, and

one

He would

silk.

tie a

slipknot in one end. and then slip

along the entire length of the rope.

Then he would

ence and saw "Now. was the knot nvlon. or cotton, or answer, of course, of view.

"None

is,

"All of the

of the above."

material through which

it

above"

The knot

You

are the pattern that

posed of this particular substance, Let's return to

is

is

down

silk?"'

And

the

depending on your point

the shape, regardless of the

takes physical form.

then point out. "you are not your body the knot."

— or.

it

turn to his audi-

"And you," Fuller would rope. You are

— you are not the

taking this particular form,

at the

com-

moment.

your neighbor. As you continue past her house, she

note— and vou hear a crash followed bv a series of tinkling noises, coming not from her house but from the house next door. She didn't mean to do it. but the singer has broken her neighbor's chande7 lier. How Through the phenomenon of resonance. hits a

high

Resonance, from the Latin meaning "to sound again." transfer of vibration

from one

medium

to another.

high note shatter the neighbor's glass? Here

vou were

to lightly strike that specific

is

is

simply the

Why did the singer's

a clue to the riddle: If

piece of that chandelier with a

The Law of Attraction

tiny

hammer,

it

would ring out a

27

tone: a tone with the

same

pitch as the

high note.

singer's

This

is

the principle of the tuning fork:

A440 near any musical instrument,

fork will vibrate. Play a different note,

A-string

Hold

play that

and

it

a tuning fork

same

note,

high note and the chandelier, which

is

why

to

The

piano's

do the

singer's

won't vibrate.

and the tuning fork share the same waveform,

tuned

and the tuning

as

they resonate.

You and your parents share patterns that are not identical but are strongly similar, enough so that you resonate. This is also true of vou and your spouse, you and your best friends, you and your kids, even you and your dog. As we

your dream business. These are

The way

chapter

will explore in all

6,

it is

things with

also true of you

which you

and

resonate.

the right note, sung clearly and loudly enough, can cause

a tuning fork to vibrate

and even

shatter glass,

is

the

same way the

right

thought, held clearly and strongly enough, can cause events in the

A single thought, held clearly and firmly, Gandhi demonstrated. And the right thoughts, and resolutely, can build your dream business.

physical world to happen.

can defeat an empire, held clearly

The

as

principle of resonance says that energy in a specific pattern or

frequency will resonate with every other form of energy pattern.

The Law

of Attraction

is

in a similar

simply the action of resonance

to-

gether with cause and effect. Thoughts create events and circumstances that have the

thoughts.

Or

same shape as

or pattern,

James Allen put

eth in his heart, so

is

it

and are thus resonant with those

(quoting Proverbs), "As a

man

think-

he."

THE DREAM WITHIN THE SEED Let's

go back once again

her song in

start

to

your neighbor the singer. Did the

with her? Probably not.

another place and an earlier time.

strains of

More likelv they were composed The song may even have traveled

through centuries, and through countless media, forms, and dimensions before

its

singer's voice

the

fruit;

it

sound reached your brain and caused your smile! The

and the smile on your face when you hear her sing

are

was the composer's imagination that created the seed.

Take an acorn ment, where

is

in the

palm of your hand and examine

the oak tree?

Is it

in the

it.

At this

mo-

acorn? In other words, could

THE ANSWER

28

you find

it if

you cracked the acorn open? No.

All you'll find inside

seed that contains the possibility of an oak tree, the idea of an oak Yet

if

you plant that acorn

nance, those elements in

and sunlight

that

it

a

through the principle of reso-

in fertile soil,

surroundings that resonate to that oak tree

its

idea will be drawn to the seed. water,

is

tree.

will attract to itself all the nutrients,

It

needs

to transform that invisible,

immaterial

idea into a fully formed tree.

So when you

planted that acorn, where was the oak tree?

first

not in the acorn

—

was scattered

it

was

It

in pieces of tree potential through-

out the acorn's environment. Successful businesses are created in exactly the

same way.

physical business

is

When you

form the idea of a business, the actual,

not inside you. But several years from now, your

business will have hundreds or thousands of customers and dozens of

employees. There will be thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars flowing through your business, and perhaps hun-

dreds of thousands or millions

more

built into the substance of your

business, in the form of product inventory, capital goods, buildings, or intellectual property,

such

as designs, patents,

copyrighted words, and

images.

As

I

write these words, our business,

OneCoach,

operates out of an

eleven-thousand-square-foot office space in San Diego with about sixty

employees and a group of franchisors operating cations around North America.

serves about

It

own

their

offices at lo-

one thousand

clients in

thirty-three countries,

and those numbers are rapidly expanding. One-

Coach's stated goal

to

is

help more than one million people build the

businesses of their dreams, and that goal tion. Yet in

a

is

well on

January 2005, just a few short years ago,

thought expressed in a phone

call

stuff right als,

it

will

be composed of a

now? Where

way

to realiza-

existed purely as

between the two of us.

Whatever the nature of your business, within cessful launch,

its it

lot

of

a

few years of

stuff.

Where

its

suc-

is all

that

are the customers, the employees, the materi-

the designs, the dollars?

They

all lie

scattered in pieces throughout

your environment, the water and nitrogen and sunlight of your

tree.

Everything you could possibly need to build your dream business,

all

the tools, resources, capital, people, ideas, expertise, everything,

it

all

been gathered and

as-

surrounds you today, right

sembled

vet.

now—

it

just hasn't

The Law of Attraction

What

force could possibly find

them from where they

are now,

those disparate elements, extract

all

and bring them

your successful business, you need to sees, the

vision.

together?

all

To

create

with the part nobody else

start

hidden part of the iceberg: The seed of your business

This

is

What you have

It starts

good

to get

never sprout or take

root.

at

with the power and precision of an

doing

is

creating the seed of what

A vaguely formed,

you want with great precision. "Yes, but

the

is

the groundwork for every- successful business that has

ever been and ever will be: idea.

29

For a seed to flourish,

it

ambiguous seed must be

will

viable.

how?"

People tend to be focused on looking for the how, thinking that

where the answer

lies.

But

not. Yes,

it's

hows, and in the second part of

this

you need

book

are crucial to the success of your business.

your dream business

lies in

is

to learn all sorts of

show you which ones

we'll

But the

key to building

real

the clarity and strength of the idea

The how always comes after the vision and decision. This is why "more capital" is rarely the answer to business

— the

seed.

challenges. People often believe that lack of funding business's

major problems.

It's

not. In the

sunlight are not hard to find, financing

you have growth. to flow

we'll

a

same way

is

not

all

that

is

start-up

one of air,

new

a

water,

and

—

that hard to find

compelling and clearly viable idea and

The world around you

is

absolutely flooded with

money, ready

toward you and nourish your sprouting business. In chapter

walk you through forming that seed, and

you through how

to plant

it

in

nourishing

in

soil so

chapter it

if

strategic plan for

7, we'll

6,

walk

will take root

and

grow.

THE LAW OF GESTATION Ambitious businesspeople tend have big appetites ger.

We

for

want things

There

is

to

be impatient.

achievement, we

to

happen

nothing wrong with

We

are ambitious,

like to think big

and dream

we

big-

fast.

that. In fact, a big appetite for

achieve-

ment is prettv much a necessity for a successful business; dreaming big comes with the territory. But we have to be careful here. Ecclesiastes, Pete Seeger, and the Byrds had to

reap ... a time you

it

right:

may embrace,

There .1

rime

is

"a tunc to plant, a

to retrain

tunc

from embrao-

THE ANSWER

30

ing."~

most

And when

The Law a specific

is

comes

vour dream business, there

to building

is

definitely a time for patience.

of Gestation

it

complements the Law of

even seed, there

clares that for

fore

it

is

span of time that particular seed needs

can unfold from blueprint into

true everywhere in nature,

de-

It

to establish itself be-

This

fully realized physical form.

and vour

much

life is as

a part of nature

For example, a carrot seed takes about seventy davs

as everything else.

from the time vou plant ready for the eating. birth, of

Attraction.

a set gestation or incubation period,

it

vou have

until the time

A lamb has a gestation

about 145 days. For a

human

grown

a fullv

carrot,

period, from fertilization to

being, that period

about 280

is

days.

Even one in itself,

of your clearly articulated, vividly formed goals

and each has a gestation period,

moment you phvsical form.

We

"plant"

How

it

to the point

long

is

where

it

is

a seed

span of time from the

a set

has fully grown into

that gestation period? This

is

its

the hard part:

simply don't know

How

long does

take to attract the tools, resources, capital, and

it

partners you need for a

new business? How long

will

the right soul mate for the relationship you envision?

it

take to attract

How

long will

it

take for the world to wrap vou in the right set of circumstances for vou to step into that career or position that

We time.

you see yourself occupying?

have no idea. But what we do know

And we know

this, too: If

you Ye planted them,

their order

back

this: It will

take

some

vou keep digging up those seeds

after

vou'll stop the process cold.

Imagine vou are a waiter favorite customers,

is

at a

who have

to the

wonderful restaurant, waiting on your

just

ordered an exquisite meal. You take

kitchen and give

it

cook — and then,

to the

as

he gets to work preparing the food, you stand there right behind

him

ready yet?

Is it

talking in his ear: "Is

readv vet?

Is it

? "

it

ready yet?

You

Is it

ready yet?

are not helping! In fact,

Is it

if

you keep

it

up, one

of two things will probablv happen: Either you will shatter the cook's

concentration and ruin the meal, or vou will be ejected from the kitchen.

5.

"Turn! Turn! Turn! To Eventhing There

adapted from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Is

a

Season

."

music by Pete Seeger.

text

1

The Law of Attraction

When

you create

dream

a picture of your

3

business, you are both the

diner and the waiter. After placing your order for this delicious meal,

you take

it

back

to the

kitchen where

meal

that leads to the finished

all

the preparation work

Once

itself.

is

done

you've delivered the order,

you can't nag the chef. Restaurants don't work that way. You need quietly exit the kitchen

The same

and leave the work

holds true for the garden:

If you

may have

anything

at all.

started to sprout,

up

are constantly digging

your seeds and poking through them, eagerly searching that they

to

to the kitchen staff.

any sign

for

you can forget about ever growing

Gardens don't work

do your

that way. Neither

life

goals. If

you

try to force

an idea,

it

back. root

You have

and

find

to allow

its

never work.

will

that force always negates. If you

an idea the time

resources in

its

One

push on the process,

own

Let go of impatience. Instead,

to

it's

putting your trust in your

quantum vacuum,

Remember

ready and willing to

give

you everything you want, once you are clear on what

enough

to let

it

do

its

own

that the

all-knowing, all-powerful,

is

all-capable.

tient

to take

time.

start

and

Understand that

is

going to push

germinate and grow,

resourcefulness and in the universe around you. zero-point field, the

of nature's laws

this universe

is

it is

and pa-

work.

THE LAW OF ACTION There

is

one more ingredient

not enough to simply plant

it's

in this process. it

work, tucked away within the

its

and

For the plant to grow,

While you're

wait.

fertile soil,

letting

do

it

you have your work

to

do, too.

"Wait,"

we can hear you

and creating

traction into gear, ize

what

do

is

sit

I

The least

that

why would need I

want and wait

around and

trucks will

saying. "If everything starts

a crystal clear picture of

come and

what

to

I

work

for the business to

visualize, the

take

men

away your

who have with the Law

millions of people

somewhat familiar so main people seem

to

from an

idea,

want kicks the Law of at all?

At-

Why not just visual-

grow?" Because

if all

you

in the overalls with the big

furniture.

seen The Secret have of Attraction. But here

have missed: The Law

become is

.it

the pail

ot Attraction

can-

THE ANSWER

32

not work effectively unless you also follow the

you get

much

off

will

your butt and do something,

it's

Law

not

of Action. Unless

"When you

happen. The Quakers have an expression,

move your

Another one we've heard goes

feet."

expect that

realistic to

pray,

like this: "If you're go-

ing to be praying for potatoes, you better have a hoe ready." After

You

you

you water; you weed; you take care of your garden.

plant,

do the

can't

have your work

seed's to

work

do

to

for

sources available to pull in what So, ters

what

it

key point

is

sum them up put

all

all

latter

that

chap-

weeding

your dream business scenario. For now, the

understand that these three laws work together: the

to

of Attraction, the this

Law

re-

needs.

it

of this book, where we'll walk you through what like in

But you do

plant.

has the environment and

"your work"? That's what we'll cover in the

is

and watering looks

to

you don't grow the

it:

ensure that

of Gestation, and the

Law

of Action.

Law

You might

way: Be purposeful, Be patient, and Be active. Learn

three of these laws to work, and you will save yourself years of

heartache and in your life

trial

and

error. Instead,

and your business much

you

will manifest

faster

what you want

than you've ever created

anything before.

CLARITY AND FOCUS

We

started this chapter by talking

about the precise workings of the

dream business will require that you act with that same level of precision. This means your thinking and your vision for your dream business have to be clear in every detail— which brings universe. Creating your

us to the single most crucial concept that

lies at

Law

of

and you have

in

the heart of the

Attraction: focus.

Imagine you're outside on

one hand

a

magnifying

glass

a beautiful

and

sunny

day,

in the other a dried

oak

leaf.

Hold

the magnifying glass at a certain angle that focuses the sun's rays onto the leaf, and what happens?

The

leaf catches fire

and burns. That's the

power of focus. Take that same energy and focus

it

even further, and you have

that will cut effortlessly through steel. That's the

your is

command when you

learn to focus your ideas

the crucial importance of

clarity.

a laser

power you have and

Sunlight diffused

at

intention. This

may

cause the

The Law of Attraction

leaf to it

warm

burn.

slightly; that

When

same sunlight focused with

it

can do no more than

certainly cannot cause

it

to catch fire

and focus of the magnifying

We

a glass will

make

your thought energy takes only vague form, without a

crystal clear focus,

ate

33

and again. The more

in every aspect,

from

the particulars of your everyday actions, the

mind-boggling power of the quantum bring that idea into

reality.

the leaf slightly;

it

clarity

glass.

will return to clarity again

around your business

warm

and burn. You need the

its

clarity

you

more you harness

field to

cre-

largest objectives to

the

do your bidding and

THE UNIVERSE INSIDE YOUR BRAIN

While

physicists

were plumbing the depths of the atom, another group

of scientists was making equally startling discoveries about the universe that exists within the

human skull. What they found has revoluhuman brain almost as dramatically

tionized our understanding of the as

quantum

physics has altered our picture of the world.

Until recently, the actual operation of this world within our brains

was

as

much

the atom.

a mystery as the workings of the

Then, during the 1980s and 1990s,

strides in the

development of

quantum world within made amazing

scientists

a technique called magnetic resonance

imaging (MRI), followed by newer and more precise brain-scanning technologies, including positron emission tomography (PET), single

photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and magnetoencephalography (MEG). With increasing sophistication, these

ments were able first

to

map

the brain's electrical acti\

itv in detail.

instru-

Eor the

time since the dawn of science, researchers found themselves look-

ing through a living, real-time

ous and remarkable human brain think in real time,

window

brain.

into the workings of the mysteri-

They were

able to actually watch the

and what they saw has turned the world of

neuroscience upside down. hi fact, neuroscientists have estimated that 98 percent of what we know about the brain we have learned within the last deeade. Even more startling, more than SO percent of what we thought we knew

THEANSWER

36

how the brain works has turned we have leaped from what was

about

decade,

out to be

false. In just

essentially a

the

last

Newtonian model

of the brain-as-machine to a quantum-universe. Akashic-field view of the brain.

With the new

we have a much clearer scihow the brain operates— and this has illumihow we use our brains, an error that most of us

insights of neuroscience.

understanding of

entific

nated a

critical error in

are making, day after day. This critical error

from achieving our dreams and keeps us

what prevents most of us

is

in a prison of repeated failure.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain what make it, and most important, how we can shift our own brain so that we never make it again.

that error

is,

why we

way we approach

the

THE AMAZING BRAIN

The human verse.

brain

is

the most complex, powerful

machine

in the uni-

Your brain contains a network of about 100,000 miles of blood

vessels

and 100,000,000,000 one hundred

capacity to perform

some ten

neurons, with the

billion

quadrillion operations per second. Imag-

ine the scope and complexity of even telephone system throughout the entire planet:

Your brain embodies

capacity in each individual brain

Imagine

for a

moment what

you're reading this page.

and another ten million unaware of

pletelv

it

that

same

scale of complexity

and

cell.

is

going on in your bodv right now, as

Even second, about ten million cells die off new ones are created. .Although you are com-

consciouslv. since vou began reading this para-

graph, your brain has overseen the decommissioning of some hundred million cells and the construction and installation of another hundred million replacements— without breaking a sweat.

If

you were

to write

out vour brain's potential as expressed by the number of possible neural

connections out

all

it

could make,

it

would take vou

vour disposal even

v

ears to write

moment of every day.

In other words, vour potential to achieve

without

is

what you want

is

essentially

limit.

The human body there

seventy-five

the zeros. That's the level of power and capacity you have at

no organ

is

designed to treat the brain

in the

body

like the

that receives better or

more

king

it is;

elaborate

n

The Universe Inside Your Brain

care.

Snugly encased

in

its

weight, yet

your

total

it

bony

protective

only two to three pounds, a mere

to 2

1

consumes 20 percent of the

shell,

your brain weighs

percent of your

air

body

total

you breathe, 25 percent of

blood flow, 30 percent of the water you consume, and 40

percent of all the nutrients drawn from your bloodstream.

The

brain

made up

is

a different era

and

of progressive layers, each one tracing back to

different stage of

plest reflexive functions

human

evolution, from the sim-

designed to ensure our physical survival, to the

most advanced and sophisticated functions of imagination and lectual analysis.

The most

layers at the center of the brain,

most are

which were the

intellectually sophisticated

managed by

intel-

primitive functions are controlled by those earliest to develop.

The

and most recently developed functions

areas toward the front

and surface of the

brain.

THE HUMAN BRAIN Motor Cortex Controls physical

movement and Frontal Lobe

Prefrontal Cortex

\

Deals with conscious thinking

of

body

/

activity

parts.

Parietal Lobe

Handles spatial sense, the ability to perceive and mentally manipulate

forms or objects.

Occipital Lobe Visual center.

Temporal Lobe Hearing and speech

Cerebellum

center.

Also known as our "little brain." Plays a key role in

"Gatekeeper" Three "gatekeepers": the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the caudate nucleus; the gatekeeper function filters incoming (sensory) information and relays certain portions to other

areas of the brain.

maintaining posture and physical balance. Acts as an "autopilot" for performing learned functions (walking, riding a bicycle, driving, etc.).

THE ANSWER

38

The

brain stem, also

manv

controls

and

digestion.

operates by instinct and

alive.

and function

similar in structure

The

is

respon-

mammalian" brain, of other mammals, con-

"old

to the brains

your emotions and sexuality and plays a key role in the regulation

trols

of memory.

The most

frontal lobe

is

human

recent part of the

where we

brain to be developed

which governs our conscious thoughts.

the frontal lobe, or neocortex,

The

it is

to the brains of cold-blooded reptiles,

It

keeping the organism

sible for

because

as the "reptilian" brain

of vour body's instinctive functions, such as heart-

beat, respiration,

is

known

and function

similar in structure

create, speculate, learn, concentrate,

and

focus.

Don't worn" about learning

what fall

is

into

crucial to understand:

two

all

these different distinctions. Here's

These various functions and aspects

larger, basic divisions of the brain: the conscious brain

all

and

nonconscious brain.

How these

two divisions of your brain

and with the outside world,

is

interact,

both with each other

the central point of this chapter, and

has everything to do with creating your dream business.

derstand

how

it

Once you un-

these two functions of the brain work together and sup-

why so many how we can escape that

port each other, you will have the key to understanding

people struggle in pursuit of their goals, and struggle

and

start

achieving every

last

goal

we

set for ourselves.

THE FACULTIES OF YOUR CONSCIOUS BRAIN

The

conscious brain

part through

is

the part of the brain that thinks and reasons, the

which you exercise your

free will.

This

is

the part of

the brain you use when you evaluate options and make new decisions. The frontal lobe is the crowning achievement of human development. More than our opposable thumbs, bifocal vision, or any other trait, it is

the size of our frontal lobe in relation to the rest of our brain that distinguishes us from

CEO

all

other animal species.

of the brain, responsible for focus

ing and the power of observation.

It is

The

frontal lobe

and concentration,

the part of you that

these words right now, while your brain stem and other

is

the

for learnis

reading

more primal

centers maintain your breathing, heartbeat, and a myriad of other functions well

beneath the radar of vour conscious awareness.

39

The Universe Inside Your Brain

If

your dream business

is

a ship,

your frontal lobe

the captain.

is

It

decides where you want to go, charts the course, and gives the orders.

And

just as all ships' captains

have distinct personalities, each of us has

a prefrontal lobe that fulfills this

commanding

unique and

role in a

distinct way.

We

tend to think of our conscious capacity narrowly, as

ligence were something that could be reduced to a In fact, our intelligence has a ities.

We

can look

at these

wide range of varying

"better" than

attributes

any other, and none of us has

these abilities to the exclusion of any other. gle

one of these

because

abilities in

intel-

and

None

abil-

We

ample supply, and

of these

one or two of

just

each possess even'

it's

some of these more than

sin-

good thing we do,

a

come

in the course of building a business, they all

Yet each of us will possess

our

called IQ.

functions as existing on a spectrum, like a

color palette, ranging from lower to higher frequencies. traits is

if

number

others.

into play.

This

is

one

reason that various forms of partnership and teamwork are so critical in

building a successful business.

From

the lowest frequency to the highest,

we

call these different as-

pects of the conscious spectrum will, memory, perception, reasoning,

and imagination.

intuition,

Will

Almost by

definition, all successful businesspeople tend to have a strong

degree of will. This it's

to be,

make

it

it's

up

to

happen.

is

the essential quality

Still,

trait.

entrepreneurship.

Will

is

Just as there

the conscious faculty involved different. Will

that catalyzes circumstances

Coach we if

is

you're committed, vou'll

exercise of that quality of

thing into motion.

dig

happen; thev

to

when you make

a decision to

what supplies the basic drive

and moves the action forward. At One-

often say, "If you're interested, you'll

someone who can

in the phrase "If

it

mean this is necessarily your stronare many styles of leadership, there are

many

do something new or

for

that doesn't

gest conscious styles of

embodied

me." Entrepreneurs don't wait

do whatever

commitment.

it

do what's convenient;

takes." Will

A person

with

down deep and do whatever

it

is

a

the conscious

"strong

\\

ill" is

takes to gel the

THE ANSWER

40

Courage, discipline, commitment,

loyalty,

perseverance— all of these

are reflections or variations of this core conscious drive

traits

we

call

will.

Memory Neuroscientists

tell

us that short-term

enon, while long-term

memory

is

memory is an

electrical

chemical. However,

phenom-

memory

itself

is

more than

a simple

Memory

the capacity to use your conscious brain to search and pull

is

mechanical action of data storage and

retrieval.

together information relevant to the situation at hand. That can

something

and

it

simple as recalling someone's

as

name

or

mean

phone number,

can also mean an incredibly complex process of drawing on

scores of different experiences

considering

Having

a

them

to

and

help make a

factors, all at the

same time, and

difficult decision.

"good memory" means having

a well-developed faculty for

tuning your brain.to those specific stored experiences you need to draw

on

at the

moment.

In a way,

out, the best techniques for

it is

a type of associative logic; as

improving

memory

of associating one thing with another to

make

it

it

turns

typically use a process

more

readily available

to recall.

While conventional wisdom brain,

some

researchers are

says

now

our memories are stored in our

saying that

some of our memories

(or

perhaps even most of our memories) are "stored" outside ourselves in the

quantum

field.

That idea might seem

like science fiction,

but think

Where moments before you turned on the set? Was it in the set? No, it was swimming in the air all around you. In a similar way, scientists are now suggesting that once you have an experience or about

this the

next time you're watching a show on television:

was that program

in the

a thought, that experience or thought

tum

field

one.

Of course

brain

and

is

and

resides there in it

will

the one that

is

broadcast out into the quan-

wave form, potentially available

be most readily accessible

first

to you,

processed that experience

that experience have

— that

to any-

because your is,

your brain

unique resonance.

Grasp, perspective, insight, and having a big view are

ways we have of describing

this

all

different

conscious function of memory.

41

The Universe Inside Your Brain

Perception If

I

ask you,

But

eyes."

wear

"What do you

see with?"

this isn't really true:

glasses or contacts,

You

you would probably

you see through those

your brain. Because of this, what you see

is

lenses.

why

perception

in

so individual,

is

if

you

But you see with

based not on what the eye

can detect, but on the neurological patterning This explains

"My

say,

see through your eyes, just as,

your brain.

and

so variable.

can have several people observe the same event, yet when you

You

inter-

view them carefully about what happened, you can get a completely different story

from each one.

They may

be

all

It's

not that only one

telling the truth.

It's

is

they

just that

telling the truth:

all

saw something

different.

When tation

is

your perception

different

is

to dismiss their version as

you how they see what they their experiences

see.

else's,

the temp-

This allows you to have the benefit of

and perspectives, and

to

add that

to

your own. Then,

me my goals, or not?" When you learn how to take somebody else's

and only then, can you ask achieve

from somebody

"wrong." Instead, ask them to show

perception and add

it

yourself, "Will their perception help

to yours,

you

significantly increase your

own

in-

telligence.

Reasoning

While

will

is

more

related

to physical action

put of the senses, reasoning cerebral activity

we

is

where we

and perception

start

moving

typically think of as intelligence.

to the in-

into the

Reasoning

more is

the

capacity to connect the facts of a particular situation with larger principles, in

based on thousands of other experiences, even those

far

removed

time and space. There are two broad types of conscious action here,

deductive and inductive. Deductive reasoning

examine available

facts

and

sistent principles. Inductive

is

the ability to logically

arrive at a logical conclusion based

reasoning

is

taking the

on con-

same process

in the

opposite direction: arriving at a principle or set of principles by extrapolating In

from observed

modern,

facts.

literate societies,

we tend

to

put reasoning on a

bit

of a

THE ANSWER

42

And

pedestal.

pacity

is

there's

no doubt about

it,

of remarkably successful businesspeople in this area.

It is

not a good or bad

having a strong analytical ca-

At the same time, the world

a fantastic strength to have.

who are

is

full

not particularly strong

but simply another color in the

trait,

spectrum. For example, between the two of us. Murray has an especially strong

which

logical, analvtical sense,

analvtical logic ition

is

perhaps

is

is

nowhere near

my

why

On

authored primarily by Murray.

the second part of this book

my

the other hand, while

as strong as Murray's,

most acute conscious

attribute.

We

the two of us work so well together:

is

sense of

my sense of intu-

This

is

one reason

complement each

other's

strengths.

Intuition

Intuition

the faculty of knowing before you think. In business, you'll

is

often hear people use other terms to describe this capacity, such as

hunch, judgment, or sharp judgment"

instinct

— "He

— but none of these

mean is intuition. The word intuition comes from look upon";

it

our

refers to

has good instincts," or "She's got is

reallv accurate.

the Latin intueri.

WTiat we reallv

which means

"to

ability to observe a situation instanta-

neously, without our sense perception or our logic acting as intermediary.

It is

closely related to that "action at a distance" that Einstein

called spoofo.

Have you ever walked

known

that

into a

full

of people and immediately

something was wrong, even though nobody

or gave anv outward indication just

room

7

You

didn't

said anything

know how vou knew — you

knew: That's intuition.

Imagine walking into

a partv

and noticing

He's not smiling, and vou immediately pick

a person across the

up

room.

a strong sense of nega-

You might think "Jeez, what's his problem?" or perhaps conclude that you've done something that has offended him. Or. perhaps vou just think "What a jerk." or whatever other inter-

tivity— a "negative vibe."

pretation you

one

come up

else whispers to

with to

vou that

make

sense of the situation.

earlier that day. this guy's

Then somedog was run

43

The Universe Inside Your Brain

over by a

Suddenly you have

car.

a very different understanding of that

"bad vibe" you'd picked up on, and what

Here

is

what

actually means.

it

happened: Your intuition read the information

just

absolutely correctly— but your reasoning gave tation.

was not your intuition that was

It

process of trying to understand ition

is

to

put complete

faith

the temptation to attach sensing. Intuition

never

and

The way

trust in

meaning

interpre-

was the rational

it

your intu-

to strengthen

and

it,

wrong

the

at the

same time

or interpretation to

resist

what you are

the direct perception of pure energy, and energv

lies.

Intuition ity

is

it.

it

at fault,

is

not the same thing as instinct. Instinct

is

a primal capac-

of your nonconscious brain, something that dates from very early in

the brain's development. Intuition, function:

It is

ing the world. In fact, have.

It

gives

on the other hand,

a highly refined, high-vibration it is

is

a conscious

way you have of observ-

one of the most powerful conscious

you the capacity

to feel the

gifts

you

energy within you and

all

around you.

There tuition."

is

no such thing

We

all

as

someone with "poor

intuition" or "no in-

have an acute intuitive capacity; we with the

ability to integrate that intuitive sense

functions. Often

we

let

and question what we're

rest

differ

our other conscious functions get

When we

feeling.

strong intuition, what we're really saying

say

is

only in our

of our conscious in the

someone has

that

he has

way

especially

a particularly

well-developed ability to be aware of his intuition and not drown

out

it

with other conscious processes.

Imagination

The capacity to imagine

is

perhaps our most powerful conscious

the context of business, this sion. Creativity, vision,

color,

and

it

is

is

gift.

In

the faculty that people typically call

vi-

imagination

.

.

.

They're

all

shades of the same

end of the spectrum of human con-

right at the top

sciousness.

Imagination means that

we

are able to create pictures in our

out of images drawn from the quantum

make

those pictures as vivid as

if

minds

field of all possibilities,

and

they were physically happening. \nd

THE ANSWER

44

some

has

this

is

where every

we

are going to

very powerful implications. Imagination

single successful business

is

be working with some very

born. In chapters 6 and 7,

ing your imagination and harnessing ate the seeds that will

techniques for unleash-

specific, practical

amazing

its

creative

power

to cre-

grow your dream business.

Unfortunately, imagination

often a prime casualty of the process

is

of growing up. For most of us, by the time we're in our midthirties, 95

percent of the creative-imagination neurons in our brains have atro-

phied from lack of use.

Why? Because when we were

kids

we were

"Hey, stop daydreaming— pay attention. Get your head out of the

told,

clouds!" If

vou want

derful

life for

to build

your dream business and create the most won-

you need

yourself, then

your head right back up

to get

there in those clouds and exercise your imagination to ination

is

your dream business, a wonderful home, a magnificent

Einstein put

life.

it

than knowledge." Imagination

ment

and

And

crucial that

It's

start to

here

nobody

told

is

daydream

is

more important

where every extraordinary achieve-

is

no

limits,

you can be com-

you reawaken that faculty you had

if

you're like most people,

you when you were young: Once you have seen that vision the faculties you need to bring that

all

vision into physical reality, using the very

acorn into an oak

same processes

that turn

Right about now, you might be saying, "But wait, guys!

just that they aren't

We fact,

cut

and

it.

it

In fact,

all six

I

do

right:

all

the time.

I

I

do day-

have big dreams.

Imagination alone doesn't cut

of these conscious

You can have

it

turning into reality!"

hear vou, and you're

having

an

tree.

dream about my business. It's

as a

again.

the best part, the part that,

your imagination, you have

in

Imag-

fullest.

fulfilling relationship, a

well: "Imagination

begins. In your imagination there are

pletely free.

child

its

the seat of your capacity to create anything: a thrilling career,

traits

going at

the biggest, most wonderful

won't do a lick of good

fallacy that sabotages so

many

if

you're

still

full tilt still

dream

In

in the world,

falling prey to that

people's business dreams.

it.

doesn't

grand

The Universe Inside Your Brain

45

THE GRAND FALLACY Six frogs sat on a

were

lily

you answered

If

reasoning swer.

pad. One decided to jump

How many

off.

left?

is

The

in

"five," congratulations!

Your capacity

good shape. Unfortunately,

correct answer

is

that

is

for analytical

not the correct an-

"six."

That's right: All six frogs are

Because one only decided

on

sitting

still

jump off— he

to

that

lily

pad.

Why?

do any

didn't actually

jumping. This

is

exactly our grand fallacy.

We

think that because

we have

imagined something, understood something, figured something out, planned something, decided something,

we

are going to

do

But

that something.

Because we so strongly tend

it's

in

a foregone conclusion that

most

to identify with

cases,

we

don't.

our conscious thoughts,

we naturally tend to think of our conscious thoughts as "me." We assume it is our conscious mind that is calling the shots, the one that is at the controls, that is in charge of what we actually do. But it's simply not true. In fact, the amazing thing is that we keep thinking this despite the wealth of evidence to the contrary! Visit

any health club

you'll see

America

in

in the

what has become of everyone's

barely six weeks into the

New Year,

middle of February and

New

Year's resolutions.

and the place

Or, go into your local bookstore and take a look at in the

Dieting section— as

if

lack of books

and worthy decisions

.

.

.

but no

In the Bible, the apostle Paul writes this

beautifully captures the

"For the good that that

I

practice."

I

common

will to do,

Here's the grand fallacy.

Romans

many

the different

lily

It's

ghost town. titles

pads, so

rea-

many

results.

wonderful statement that so

frustration of the

do not do; but the

human evil

I

experience:

will not to do,

4

functions control what

4.

I

all

like a

on the subject were the

son the rate of obesity continues to climb. So excellent

is

7.19 (NK)\

we

We

think that

all

our wonderful conscious

do. But thev don't. Pbr

all its

brilliance, the

THE ANSWER

46

conscious mind has one huge handicap:

It

doesn't get things done in

may be the captain of the ship, but it's the guy in the engine room who actually makes the ship go, not the captain. In fact, here's how much control our conscious functions exert over what we the long term.

It

actually do: somewhere between 2

and 4

percent. That's

it.

THE INCREDIBLY LIMITED CONSCIOUS BRAIN

One we

we

reason

believe this grand fallacy of conscious control

are so acutely aware of that

brain does exert.

only a tiny

bit,

remember,

is

explored.

It's

it's

mistake, even

if

a critically important tiny bit.

Our

risks

is

conscious brain,

visions

taken,

and dreams

new

initiatives

the conscious brain that takes control and gives

new

an exhilarating adventure when that happens.

it's

just that

that

4 percent

that 2 to

where imagination happens, where

It is

and

is

of control that our conscious

where new paths are chosen, new

are born,

orders,

And make no

little bit

it

doesn't

citing kind of control

last.

— but

The

conscious mind can exert a very ex-

only for the short term.

The

very short

term.

For

all its

brilliance, the conscious brain has severely limited pro-

cessing ability. That's right: severely limited. This

most people, but

it's

not hard to see that

it's

true.

comes

as a

shock

to

How many numbers

random sequence can you remember? Think about the last time you called directory assistance for a phone number. After you hung up, how long were you able to remember all ten digits without writing them down? Can you remember them now? (In fact, can you even rein a

member the last time you called directory assistance?) Our conscious brain has a very difficult time remembering more or seven digits or

than

six

try

right

it

more than two

or three events at a time. Let's

now: 492-625-35-86937-4

Now,

quick!

While you're reading

this

sentence, cover

quence of numbers with your hand. Can you remember quence without looking first six

numbers? The

at

first

it

again?

three?

And

(No

if

not,

up

that se-

the entire se-

can you remember the

cheating:

Keep them covered!)

47

The Universe Inside Your Brain

Okay: ber

If you

ory

remember the numbers how many digits there were in

If you can't

at least

themselves, can you

can answer any of these questions, then your short-term

stronger than most people's. In fact, listen to

is

remem-

the sequence?

person loses focus every

The

this:

mem-

average

six to ten seconds.

why we keep breaking the lines of text in this book to make new paragraphs, and why every other book does the same thing, too. If we ran this entire chapter as one long paragraph, who This, by the way,

would read

Now, ning

all

is

it?

aren't

you glad that part of your brain

your biochemistry? Think about

on inside you

tions going

all

number,

(the

you

in case

quadrillion reactions per second). If you had to do

conscious brain, you would not Yet that

last five

charge of run-

isn't in

those biochemical reacforgot,

is

ten

that with your

all

seconds.

the part of our brain that most of us are trusting with our

is

most precious

life

goals.

While your conscious

That's the bad news. Here's the good news:

brain can't possibly keep track of all that, your nonconscious brain can,

and

it

does, nonstop, twenty-four hours a day, every day of your

your conscious brain conscious brain If your

is

is

a lot

vastly

conscious brain

is

more

more powerful than you have

ever imagined.

the ship's captain, your nonconscious brain

the guy in the engine room, along with everyone else on board. entire ship's crew, fulfilling every last function that

and doing

it

life. If

limited than you realized, your non-

It is

is

the

makes the ship run,

impeccably, perfectly, every moment.

Remember how

often your conscious brain loses focus? Even' six to

Guess how often your nonconscious brain

ten seconds.

loses focus?

Never. Not once. Not ever.

YOUR MAGNIFICENT NONCONSCIOUS BRAIN The power

center of the brain

bulk of perception happens;

is

it is

nonconscious. This

where your

accomplishments and achievements take what you use scious

mind

to define, articulate,

and

that follows through with

root.

where the

great

where your

Your conscious mind

set goals.

all

is

habits reside,

But

it's

is

your noncon-

the dozens, hundreds, or mil-

lions of actions necessary to achieve those goals.

THE ANSWER

48

CONSCIOUS AND NONCONSCIOUS Conscious

Nonconscious

17%

83%

mass

Brain

120-140 mph

over

100,000 mph

Bits per/second

2,000

400

billion

Control of perception and behavior

2-4%

96-98%

Function

volitional

servile

Time

past and future

Speed

of

Memory

impulse

up

horizon

The conscious

to

present

20 seconds

forever

brain occupies 17 percent of total brain mass it

controls only 2 to 4

percent of actual perceptions and behavior.

The nonconscious

(about one-sixth of the brain's weight), yet

brain occupies 83 percent (about five-sixths) of total brain mass

and controls 96

to

98 percent of perception and behavior.

Conscious impulses

800 times

The

faster

120 to 140 mph. Nonconmore than 100,000 mph, or

travel at speeds of

scious impulses travel at speeds of

than conscious impulses.

conscious brain processes about 2,000

second.

The nonconscious brain

(four

hundred

The

conscious brain

conscious

billion

will,

I

bits

is

bits

of information per

processes about 400,000,000,000

of information per second.

volitional:

It is

the part vou control bv

the part that sets goals and judges results.

nonconscious brain

is

senile:

stead executes the goals

it is

It

sets

no goals of

provided with;

it

its

The

own, but

in-

does not judge the

merits or values of results, only whether or not thev

match the

given goals.

The

conscious brain perceives past and future.

The nonconscious

brain has no perception of past or future; to the nonconscious brain, even-thing

The conscious

is

happening now.

scious brain

memory The noncon-

brain operates with a ven short-term

span, generally limited to about twenty seconds.

remembers evervthing

it

experiences forever.

49

The Universe Inside Your Brain

It is

staggering to contemplate even a fraction of what your noncon-

scious brain achieves every second of every day in your

happens without the

this

Yet

part.

ing

it,"

it

would not be accurate

because there

maze

plex

faintest shred of conscious

is

to say

is

also the repository of

operating system, too, proves to

it

also runs all

demand an

all

of this

all

of biochemical activity, and that intelligence

and mental. In other words,

— and

all

happens "without your know-

an intelligence that manages

Your nonconscious brain physical

it

life

awareness on your

is

com-

also "you."

your habits, both

running your basic

in addition to

your programmable software. This,

absolutely staggering

amount

of moment-to-

moment activity. you've ever observed an infant go through the process of learn-

If

ing this

how is.

to walk,

It

you have

a sense of just

walk naturally without losing this

sequence, learned

giving

it

how complex an

activity

has taken scientists decades to develop a robot that can

a thought.

it,

We

its

balance. Yet once

and mastered walk,

tie

it,

we do

it

all

we have

studied

the time without

our shoes, speak in one or several

languages, type on our computers, and drive our cars,

without

all

thinking.

What's more, habits covers a good deal more ground than basic, physical routines.

into your car,

clear

just these

the experience of getting

and the next thing you know, you're home, without any

memory

thought?

Have you ever had

If you

of having driven there because you were so

lost in

were paying no attention, why didn't you crash the car?

And how did you end up of habit— a slightly

at the right

house? You did

more complex form

it

all

through force

of habit than tying your shoes,

but a habit nonetheless.

What exactly

is

a habit?

It is

what you create when you do something

over and over, to the point where you no longer need to think about consciously in order to repeat the process perfectly.

And

it

this applies

not only to things you do physically, but also to your thoughts.

When you think the same thing over and over, A habit of thought over time

it

a habit of thought.

comes an

attitude or belief.

eventually

becomes

(and repetition) be-

THE ANSWER

50

FORCE OF HABIT, FORCE OF BELIEF

some

Beliefs are not

special category of idea sitting at a higher station

of truth than our ordinary, everyday mortal thoughts. Beliefs are not necessarily "the truth" at

all.

one believed the earth was

(Remember, there was

flat.)

when

a time

Beliefs are nothing

more than

every-

specific

neural patterns in your brain, thoughts that are so ingrained they have

become automatic. They

are not there because they are "the truth,"

down from generation someone put them there.

they have simply been handed

They

are there because

to generation.

We are not talking here about your faith or religious views. We're not faith. We are talking here about your beliefs —

here to challenge your

your habits of thought, opinion, and attitude about the world around you, and especially your beliefs about you, about your

and your

life

prospects for financial fulfillment.

By the time you're seventeen

years old, you've heard "No,

an average of 150,000 times. You've heard times. That's thirty nos for every yes.

of

"Yes,

you

can't,"

you can," about 5,000

That makes

for a

powerful belief

"I can't."

Most people view hope lars

.

succeed

I

.

."

Here

their

own

goals in the form of hopes or wishes. "I

in this business," or "I

is

wish

I

would earn

the rest of the unfinished thought, whether conscious

or not, that usually lies after those three dots: "... but

The

a million dol-

I

bet

won't."

I

biggest obstacle to most people's goals has nothing to do with any

external conditions or factors. or that

it

can be done.

guaranteed that

it

If

won't.

It is this:

They don't

you don't believe

it

will

believe

You simply cannot achieve

not believe you can achieve, because those beliefs the brain that

is

it

happen,

happen

will it is

almost

a goal that

you do

live in that part

of

running the show, even though we typically are not

aware of it. Let's say

family,

you love your family very much, you place

and one of your biggest goals

in life

is

to

have a

a

high value on

rich, full family

life— yet you also have a belief that the only way you can be truly successful

and earn enough income

really, really hard.

to provide for

So what happens? You

your family

is

to

work

find yourself working eighty

hours a week and never see your family. Why, because you don't value

them? No, you value them,

all right,

but your beliefs have you captive

1

The Universe Inside Your Brain

on

that eighty-hour track, like a

sires,

money

is

simply the

credit card debt

not the problem,

To

fruit.

and

it is

financial struggle in vour

lack

life,

only the symptom. Lack of money

find the cause,

always match the seed.

will

fruit

hamster on a wheel. Beliefs trump de-

every time.

you have

If

of

5

you need

And

the seed

is

The

to look at the seed.

your habits of

is

thought. Here's the problem: Beliefs tend to be self-fulfilling. This

That

habits are thousands of times stronger than desires.

worth

restat-

not twice as strong, not even three times as strong, but thousands

ing:

of times stronger. You tenfold, but to occur,

no

is

because

is

it

if

may have

the desire to increase your

income

your habits of thought do not expect anything

like that

be next

will

to impossible for

it

to

productive action toward that goal.

lasting,

happen; you

Why

will take

not? Because

it is

your habits, not your desires or other conscious thoughts, that run your actions.

This

is

one of the

logical research:

This

why we

is

96

greatest discoveries of the past

to

set goals,

tion of the conscious

decade of neuro-

98 percent of all your behaviors are automatic. but don't reach them. Setting them

mind. Reaching them

is

a func-

is

a function of the

noncon-

scious mind.

HOW Here

is

TO TAP THE POWER OF THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE

the critical question:

You could beliefs.

If

the beliefs you presently have are not

how do you change them? How do you adopt new

serving you,

And

try

using your willpower, and simply decide

that will probably

work very well— for

to

beliefs?

a feu minutes, any-

way. But conscious thoughts are hard to sustain, as we've seen.

change your habits and

are going to

they reside, which the

is

in the

beliefs,

you have

nonconscious mind

new

have

— the

to

do

dog

it

It

you

where

that

wags

tail.

Your conscious mind

is

excellent at assessing the situation and

mulating a plan. Your conscious mind beliefs

— but

conductor:

it is

He

sense of how

it

is

where

For-

you design vour new

not where you hold those beliefs.

It

is

like a brilliant

understands the music perfect!) and has

a masterful

should sound, but he doesn't actually play any

ot the

THE ANSWER

52

instruments. Unless he gets the

members

of the orchestra to actually

play those instruments, the music remains nothing but an idea in his

head — not

a

sound

Which

heard.

is

is

exactly

what happens

to

most

people's goals.

Retraining this nonconscious part of your personality process. First, using your conscious faculties,

vou want to have

as

vour

beliefs.

is

a two-step

vou choose the thoughts

Then, you svstematicallv impress these

thoughts on the nonconscious part of your brain.

Remember exactly

what

sibilities

is

the analog) of placing your order at a restaurant? That's

this

is

like.

great selection

choice.

Our stomach

there

a

problem:

derful food,

ourselves,

rumbles.

No

matter

We

and knife ready

What's missing 7

We

and choosing

a

can imagine that delicious meal,

We can already taste this great dish. how much we a

choice

But

look forward to this won-

we have made, our

plate

tuck our napkin under our chin, hold our

in anticipation:

We

thought from the universe of pos-

knowing we have made an excellent

no matter how excellent

continues to be empty. fork

a

at a table in a restaurant

from the menu.

and we congratulate

is

Choosing

down

like sitting

Oh,

boy!

Still,

haxent actually placed the

no

food.

order.

The

frog has

jump off the lily pad — he hasn't actually jumped yet. we relav our order to the kitchen, nothing happens. We know what we want, but nothing's being cooked back there. The glorv of our conscious mind is that using the power of will and imagination, we can pluck an idea out of the quantum sea of possibilities. We can choose what we think. Our mistake is assuming that because we have that idea, we will act on it; we believe that because we think it, we will do it. But the odds are, we won't— not unless we take those conscious thoughts, buff them to impeccable clarity, and deliver them to our nonconscious faculties. only decided to Until

This

is

what makes the difference between

ing goals. Setting goals itual

and nonconscious

is

a

parts of our brain.

that

is

That

exactly

exercise.

is

and achiev-

conscious exercise; achieving goals

To achieve our goals,

and build our dream business, we need

And

setting goals

to

become

is

a spir-

to actually create

expert at using both

what most of us have never been taught to do.

what we

are going to learn over the next several

chapters.

We'll start bv using vour conscious faculties

— your imagination,

in-

The Universe Inside Your Brain

tuition, reasoning,

dream

and the rest— to

53

craft a crystal clear picture of

simple imprinting techniques that mimic the way you beliefs

your

business: the perfect seed. Then, using a broad repertoire of

you presently hold, you're going

in the fertile soil of your

to learn

how

first

learned the

to plant that

seed

nonconscious brain.

"You can't always get what you want," sang the Rolling Stones, and they were absolutely right, because what you want has very

little to

with what you end up

to achieve

getting.

Simply having the desire

something does absolutely no good,

in

and of

itself.

You can want

do

all

you want, and nothing happens. But impress that desire onto the power center of your brain as a

new

that desire into a habit of

set of instructions,

thought— a

force in the world can stop

it

belief.

and you can transform

And once you do

from happening.

that,

no

5

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

Except the

girl

for the fact that she

is

on the stage seems

the lead singer for her high school choir,

just like

any other sixteen-year-old. As the

concert proceeds, Beth keeps close watch on the choir's conductor, intently picking

up

his every

movement and gesture. Her voice

and her keen observation of the choirmaster, wedded musicality,

makes

for beautiful

her different from

Beth

is

is

is

may seem

that

is

like any-

something about her that makes

been blind from is

birth.

she able to so keenly observe the

watching him with her tongue.

wearing a device designed by the

late

Paul Bach-y-Rita, a

neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison,

much

lovely,

the other girls in the choir.

naturally wonders,

conductor? She is

but there

blind. In fact, she has

How, one Beth

all

girl,

is

her innate

music indeed. But her musical sense

not the only thing that makes Beth special. She other sixteen-year-old

to

who

devoted

of his career to researching and demonstrating the proposition

all

senses are created equal.

And

not

just equal,

but pretty

much

interchangeable.

The

tongue, explained Bach-y-Rita, has more tactile nerve receptors

than any other part of the body except for the

even referred quisitive

see

to as the curious organ.

your tongue was the

win the phrase makes

last

lips,

and

is

sometimes

(Think about how busily

in-

time you had dental work, and you'll

sense.)

So why not use the tongue

to see"

THE ANSWER

56

camera strapped

Baeh-y-Rita's device starts with a video

head that feeds video information to a 144-pixel signal that rests

to a laptop,

to the user's

which reduces the image

then fed through electrodes to a grid that

is

on the tongue, which reads the image

as a sort of superlingual

braille/

At the time of his death in 2006, Bach-v-Rita was also working with

Navy SEALs on

the military's

infrared through their tongues.

a system that

tem

that

hidden

to

would

to see

develop suits.

develop a miniature version of his tongue-vision

fit

into a wireless retainer

and run

off a tiny

svs-

camera

in a pair of glasses.

"Anything that can be measured can be transported said the scientist, "J and

how to And

to

on the outside of their space

sensors that let astronauts feel things

He had hoped

would allow them

NASA had worked with him

use

if]

we can

get

it

to the brain,"

to the brain, the brain

can learn

it."

that last phrase

is

what holds the miraculous part of the

thing:

The brain can learn how

to see

with the tongue and read with the fingertips, what other

might the brain learn

to

to use

it.

Because

if

entire

the brain can learn

accomplish? The answer turns out

man els

to be, anv-

thing and even thing.

NEUROPLASTICITY: THE DISCOVERY OF THE DECADE In the last chapter,

we

said that neuroscience has taken a

physics-like leap in the past decade,

and revolutionary finding in

that

quantum-

and the single most astonishing

embodies

summed up

that leap can be

one word: neuroplasticitw Before the advent of real-time brain scans, scientists believed that

the process of cell division that creates genesis, slows

down

early in

life

and

new

brain

cells,

called neuro-

stops altogether by the time

we

are

into adolescence.

At about divide

six

months

circuitry

embrvonic development, brain

cells start to

bv establishing new connections continues actively until

about the age of two.

5.

into

and make connections. This process of building up crucial brain

at

which point we've more

or less

completed the

Michael Abrams. "Can You See with Your Tongue?" Discover June

1,

2003).

How

down

nailing

to

Change Your Mind

5

of our basic genetic neurological heritage. This founda-

makes up about 50 percent of the configuration of our adult brains;

tion

the other 50 percent

contributed by our experiences and obser-

is

vations from that point on.

number of

Children's brains contain a significant

a certain type of

their name They help us mimic the behavior we observe around us. As children, we experience the events, behaviors, and emotions taking place in our environment, and by mirroring these, we fill out the balance of what becomes our own personality, complete with its unique profile of

neuron called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons do exactly what implies:

we grow older, in we learn to behave the way we are taught to behave and to think the way we are taught to think. By the time we are adults, the cognitive filters through which we see the world are quite well established and solidly in place. Our brains are hardwired, so the scientists believed we are who we are, and how we see the world and our own place within it pretty much determines how we view am new experience behaviors, feelings, attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs. As

other words,

.

Except that neuroplasticity changes This dramatic

new

finding,

which more than any other

covery has turned neuroscience upside down,

we

making new brain

are

time. As

it

cells

neural pathways.

Ten

is

human

scientists like Paul Bach-v-Rita are

much

life

span.

even using the term

Which

You already know

Yes,

it

is

this,

actually

felt

we

because you've

almost physically shaken by

felt

it.

a

new thought or

it.

all

when some new

Think of a time

sudden

insight so palpable

If this fell physical,

Von were carving out new pathways

are

today,

making new neural connections.

von had never grasped before,

was:

why

being taken seriously— and why

turns out that every time you have a significantly

you

new

plasticih' in is

you've suddenly had a burst of inspiration, a revelation of

cause

matter

older than Beth have learned to see with their tongues,

experience, vour brain

that

No

years ago, scientists didn't believe there was such

papers on neuroscience was taboo.) Not anymore.

truth that

the

all

perfectly capable of creating entirely

a thing as brain plasticity. (In fact,

It

single dis-

the observation that

is

turns out, the process of neurogenesis does not stop with

what your age, your brain

too.

.

and new neural connections

adolescence but continues throughout the

people

.

all that.

m

it's

be-

vour hram.

shaped by our genetic heritage and upbringing, and

THE ANSWER

58

if

we do nothing

significant to alter our existing wiring,

tinue to go through

we

will

con-

with the same attitudes, perspectives, beliefs,

life

and patterns of thinking we have always had. But these new findings neuroscience if

we

learn

tell

how

us that

we can

override our

own

genetic code

power center of our

to gain access to the

brain,

in

— that where

we

those attitudes, beliefs, and established thought patterns are stored,

can actually rewrite our genetic code.

And we

minor changes here. The number

are not talking about only

of potential connections your brain can

about one followed by brain has

room

volumes of the

to store

six

million zeros.

all

to

do exactly

that.

We

of

it

and

change your brain dramatically, but

it

fit

into six million

Not only can you

designed specifically for you to

are structured so that for

is

another way, your

with the nonconscious brain's

total recall.

it is

and capacity

creativity, intelligence,

over your lifetime

more content than would

New York Times,

capacity' for instantaneous access

be able

make To put

we can grow our

achievement throughout our

lives.

THE GUARD AT THE DOORWAY OF YOUR MIND As you

start

learning the process for changing your mind, there are

several crucial functions of the

become

familiar with.

left

on

their

to

own, they can com-

between you and your goals— yet once you learn

pletely block that path

how they operate,

nonconscious brain that you need

Untended and

become magic genies that can help you achieve The first of these two functions is a network of

they

your heart's desire.

nerves that stands guard at the doorway of your mind.

Remember what

it is

you see with? Not with your eyes (and no, not

with your tongue) but with your brain. Your sense organs simply con-

vey data. Your brain

where the

it

same thing

The

is

what turns

gets really interesting: as

that data into perception.

What

And

your conscious brain sees

what your nonconscious brain

this is

is

not

sees.

brain processes over four hundred billion bits of information

every second, yet

we

are aware of only about two thousand. In other

words, for each bit of information you are aware

hundred million

bits that

of,

there are about two

your brain processes behind the

awareness. So what determines which

bit

we

will "see"

veil

of your

and which we

How will skip over?

ment

to

to

Change Your Mind

That all-important,

moment,

all

59

life-shaping decision

is

made mo-

the time, day or night, awake or asleep, by a part

of your brain called the reticular activating system (RAS).

The RAS

the scientific term for a network of nerve pathways at the

is

base of your brain that connects the spinal cord, cerebellum, and cere-

brum and

acts as a filter for all the sensory input

your brain draws from

your external world. {Reticulum, from the Latin for

means

a netlike structure.)

Anything that you

"little net,"

simply

see, hear, feel, taste, or

smell passes through this fine network, which then relays the signal or

message on

Your

to the appropriate part of

your brain

reticular formation stands guard at the

sorting through the torrent of

those specific bits that best

for processing.

doorway of your mind,

incoming information and searching

match those information

up

established in your brain. Your reticular formation picks sory input

from your environment and,

signal to your conscious brain to alert

going on.

And

it

does

your conscious brain

This

is

why

a

this at a

if it's

for

patterns already

important

the sen-

all

to you,

sends a

you that something important

speed eight hundred times

faster

is

than

cells operate.

mother standing outside

undifferentiated stream of sound

a

schoolroom

coming from

fifty

will

hear the

children, but the

moment her own child cries or exclaims, she'll hear that child and only that child. Why? Because she recognizes that sound, and she has programmed

herself to

In the film

filter

out

all

the

West Side Story there

rest. is

a

scene where the young lovers,

They are standing across the room from each other at a dance, when suddenly even' other person in the room goes blurry, and from clear across the crowded dance floor they both become acutely aware of each other. It is as if nobody else in the room exists. This is more than good storytelling. It's a vivid example of the reticular formation at work. Tony's nonconscious brain is fully programmed

Tony and Maria, meet

to search

through his sensory environment

to his brain's picture

brain

is

for the first time.

of his "dream

girl,"

for information that relates

and Maria's nonconscious

likewise conditioned with the specific neural pattern

"dream guy." To each other, they both become tion out of four

scious brain.

hundred

billion that

is

that

one

hit of

tli.it

says

informa-

critically relevant to the

con-

THE ANSWER

60

You can think of this system as being something like Google. When you type a word or search string into Google, it scours the Internet for everything it

can find that

it

and presents

it

to

you

ter of seconds.

Your

only

work not

it

does

its

then retrieves

relates to that specific phrase,

for

your inspection, and

reticular formation does in

it

does

much

mat-

all this in a

same

the

thing,

seconds but in thousandths of a second.

Your RAS works so rapidly and

efficiently,

it

makes Google seem

like

carving a stone tablet.

Here

is

the most important thing about the reticular activating

sys-

tem: Just as with Google, you can enter whatever search string you

want

it

When you

to look for.

program

a specific idea or goal into your

RAS, no matter whether you're asleep or awake, thinking about not, the

RAS

will

do

its

job

mation swirling about you it

to find, picking out that

and

at all

one

through the entire ocean of

sift

it

or

infor-

times to find precisely what you've told

bit of crucial data for

your awareness and

editing out the other 399,999,999,999 bits of irrelevant data.

Imagine you're asleep, and you're the next room. Cars

home

door comes

honk

late

clock downstairs rings

outside, a

and slams its

in

charge of your baby sleeping in

dog barks nearby, the guy next

his car door,

rouses you from sleep. But

when

that

baby

whimper, you're up and out of that bed brain heard

all

baby managed

you up. The

and the grandfather

gong every quarter hour— yet none of in the next

in a flash.

room

that

starts to

Your nonconscious

those other sounds perfectly, but only the sound of the to get

through

to

your conscious awareness and wake

reticular formation

is

the most intelligent and sophisti-

cated alarm system in the universe.

When you

create a clear, focused picture of what

you want,

of your brain kicks into high gear, and doesn't stop until you.

You may

it

this part

finds

it

be at a party, standing in the middle of a noisy room,

for

and

suddenly pick up a snippet of conversation between two people standing thirty feet away, because one of

them happens

thing about short-term warehouse leasing— and

you need that in

to find a

way

to lease a

same moment there may be

warehouse a

this

to

mention some-

just so

facility for a

happens that few weeks. At

dozen other conversations going on

your audible environment, some of them

than

it

much

one. Yet you don't hear any of those.

closer

You hear

and louder

just that

one

1

How

to

Change Your Mind

6

fragment of conversation that you needed to hear. That's your reticular activating system at work.

The

reticular formation

earlier.

I

had imprinted

I

when went real

happened

to be,

I

my

hunting

estate

reticular formation

why

my

had pasted onto house into

that

years later,

my

part of the answer to

is

same house

ing in the very

liv-

nonconscious mind and,

in the area

had

ended up

I

vision board years

where

that

house

neurological radar out

its

and picked up on that one house out of two hundred million.

YOU GET WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR This amazing

through an ocean of information and find

ability to sort

the one droplet of water you're looking for can function as a blessing or as a curse, string.

depending on what you've got entered into

This

First, if

is

it

as

your search

true for two reasons.

RAS

your

no matter how

not

is

diligently

programmed

you pursue

your environment and overlook

for

what you

really want,

then

a goal, you'll miss all the cues in

and

the resources, connections,

all

other pieces of the puzzle that might help you realize that goal. Let's say you've

that

is

been earning about $50,000

what seems "normal"

worth $50,000 a year,

nonconscious mind

that's

it

my

This translates into a

normal income

level."

belief: "I

if

a million-dollar idea

right out so that

comes

along, your

this

is

it

is

Greek

for "blind spot."

way your RAS can work

with what you dont want, then that

find,

and

make

the

you'll

shuffled

keep finding

it.

This

is

same mistakes over and over

in love, in health, or

anything

else.

why

is

in life,

How

it.

against you: precisely

so

It

you pro-

what you

will

many people seem

whether

it's

to

in business.

do you program vour R \S

with what you don't want? Simply by focusing on habit of thought around that thing.

for

The answer could be

under your nose, but you don't see

Here's the second

gram

is

your nonconscious brain. The neurological term

scotoma, which

literally right

RAS

you never even become aware of it. Rather

than being routed to your conscious brain, that information off to a closet in

am

Because your

holding tightly to that picture of you earning

is

$50,000 per year, even will filter

to you.

a year for a while, so

it,

thereby creating

a

THE ANSWER

62

When

you focus on what's not working

unhappy about, you

things you are

in

your

or

life,

on those

are entering those problems as a

search string into your reticular activating system, and like the good little

ing If

search engine

you unwittingly

appointment,

it

on

when

really, really

is

go searching

will absolutely find

it,

own

good

will

it

new business might not make

it

past

Why? Because you

told

What's more, your

RAS

means

that

tion that

all

its first

bits

year,

humming and to find those

overheard conversation, and other

evidence— and only those

to

you wish you didn't have, on

brain stem network goes diligently to work,

support precisely those things you dont

does.

on the ten pounds you want

buzzing away, digging through the morass of sensory input

pieces of

it

guaranteed, every time.

you're focused

ideas, opinions, snippets of

go look-

what

at

for trouble, heartbreak, or dis-

that twenty-thousand-dollar debt

your worries that your your

the brain

tell it to

This means that lose,

those problems are exactly what

it is,

And remember,

for.

bits

and

and pieces of evidence— that

want

to.

it

will dutifully ignore everything else.

Which

the evidence, resources, ideas, or other useful informa-

might actually help you lose those pounds, dissolve that debt,

or successfully build that business will be discarded by your

RAS

as

ir-

relevant. Let's say, for

example, that you're in a

because of

say, further, that

all

you were growing up, you have

that

new

relationship.

And

let's

you witnessed around you while

a belief that relationships that start out

looking happy eventually turn sour and break apart. Now, while you love this person

and the two of you seem very happy together, you are

secretly worried that

about

this,

yourself. isn't

in

it

maybe you

But

to

won't

last.

Maybe you

haven't told anyone

haven't even voiced those worries out loud to

your nonconscious, there are no

simply gnawing

at

you,

it's

secrets.

That worry

taking center stage as the search string

your RAS.

You could be surrounded by

all

the evidence

and

as healthy as

can be, with everyone around you seeing the two of you

as perfect for

Here's what happens: in the

world that your relationship

each other, and everything sweet conclusion

because your

in

is

solid, secure,

both your

lives

pointing to that same

— but none of that evidence will make any difference,

RAS

will edit

it

all

out. If

even a wisp of pessimism

How arises— say, a cynical vies

your happiness

to

Change Your Mind

comment from an acquaintance who

— your well-trained

hundred million pieces of

the two

63

secretly en-

reticular formation will ignore

positive evidence

and rush

deliver to your awareness that single negative perspective. As

in to

joins

it

with your already-established belief, your worry that this relationship

doomed moves

becoming

closer to

a conviction.

and habits are thousands of times stronger than

becomes

a self-fulfilling prophecy: If

doomed, then

And

in

desires, that conviction

you believe the relationship

your financial and business

on the hunt

reticular formation goes

for

And

if

that viewpoint

is

Worry

is

is

re-

programmed

into

negative, that's exactly the evidence

and

"reality" you'll find, reinforce,

This

is

Your

life.

supporting evidence and

sources to bolster whatever viewpoints have been it.

is

beliefs

doomed.

it is

same thing happens

the

And because

and amplify.

a prayer for what you don't want.

why

it's

you learn how

so critical that

your reticular activating system, and

why

to consciously direct

neuroplasticity

is

so

life-

changing.

The through

we

process

call

in detail in

into your

neural reconditioning, which we'll walk you

chapter

7,

is

designed to write a

reconditioning, you can train your to focus tion,

and

not the problem.

Now

RAS

it

can

to direct

so stubborn!

the house!"

My

will

What he

"Let

the neck.

me

And

I

solu-

reach them.

Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toula complains

Her mother

voice replies,

am

amazing capacity

goals, not the worry, doubt, or

mother about her father and how autocratic he

I

its

sort for the excitement, fulfillment,

evoked by reaching your

about whether you

In the film

is

search string

on what you do want, not what you dont want— on the

satisfaction

fears

new

nonconscious neurological search engine. Through neural

says goes.

Ah, he

is:

"Ma," she

says, the

man

is

to her

says,

"Dad

the head ot

looks at her, nods wisely, and in a confidential

tell

you something, Toula: He

can turn him any way

I

is

the head

— but

want."

Using the simple techniques of neural reconditioning, you tan be the neck that turns your nonconscious brain and points direction you want.

it

in

whatever

THE ANSWER

64

GORDON'S DILEMMA Along with

resetting your

RAS

to search

want from your environment, you brain so that threat.

To do

it

accept

will

that,

we need

this

out the

will also

new

new

want

information you

to recalibrate

information and not reject

to look at the

function, sometimes called the set point.

your

it

as a

second crucial nonconscious

To explain how

works,

it

let's

look at Gordon's dilemma.

One

day Gordon takes his friends fishing in the brand-new boat he

has just bought. After heading due west about a mile out to sea, he and his friends start fishing.

friends

beg Gordon

heard the fishing

Gordon

is

is

to

They

fish for

hours, but with no luck. His

change course and head south, where they've

better.

anxious for his friends to have a great time, so he heads

to the front of the boat, grabs the

wheel, and brings

now headed due

ninety degrees port,

rejoin his friends. After

it

about a good

south, and then he goes back to

an hour goes by without a catch, one of

Gordon's friends glances up

at the sky

and

says,

"Gordon! We're

still

headed due west!"

Gordon realizes it's true. He goes back up to the helm time, just to make sure, he steers the boat way past 90 degrees

Mortified,

and to

this

135 degrees, heading southeast, before returning to his friends. After

another hour of no

headed due

results,

they realize that, once again, they are

west! Frustrated

still

and embarrassed, Gordon now rushes

to

helm and pulls the vessel clear around, 180 degrees, setting it on a course due east, headed back for home. Yet fifteen minutes later, they are mysteriously headed due west again! Gordon is ready to tear his you know hair out, when one of his friends says, "Hey, Gordon the

.

about the automatic

.

.

pilot, right?"

Gordon doesn't know what to say. The automatic what? He didn't know the boat had one of those. Does Gordon's dilemma sound at all familiar? Most of us have had experiences like this in our

lives.

After the third failed relationship, or

the fourth failed business effort, the seventh time losing our temper

when we swore we weren't going to, or the eighth (or eighteenth) time we "forget" to stay on our diet or exercise routine, we say, "Why does this

keep happening

to

me?"

How could simply be

It

Change Your Mind

to

that, like

Gordon, you've never given your auto-

thought because you didn't even know

pilot a

just boats that

have them.

We

65

it

existed.

have one, too, and

Because

it

isn't

called the psycho-

it's

cybernetic mechanism.

THE THERMOSTAT

The term

ture,

A

program the thermostat

will control the activity of

it

YOUR BRAIN

cybernetic refers to a control-and-response

organisms and some machines. 6

When you

IN

thermostat

in

your

home

mechanism

a simple

is

to a specific

in

example. tempera-

your heating-and-cooling system to

maintain that temperature, regardless of fluctuations in the external climate. If a current of cold air enters the

room and

lowers the

temperature, the thermostat will activate the heating svstem to raise it

back

house

to the set temperature. Likewise, if the July raises the building's internal

prompt the had

air

sun baking your

temperature, the thermostat will

conditioner to kick in and restore the temperature you

set.

The term of that

set point

is

same mechanism

often used to describe a physiological version that controls our

body temperature, weight, or

any one of many other types of bodily homeostasis. In the 1950s, a plastic surgeon

dering discovery. gery,

many

He found

named Maxwell Maltz made

of his patients didn't see any changes

themselves in the mirror.

a bewil-

that even after significant facial plastic sur-

He was

fascinated.

when

How

they looked at

could

this possibly

be? Dr. Maltz studied the dynamics of self-image and discovered an internal self-corrective process

he dubbed the psycho-cybernetic mech-

anism.

According

to Maltz,

any change that we make

our finances, health,

in

spiritual

our lives— whether

in

connectedness, relationships, or ca-

reer—that takes us out of our comfort zone, sends a chemical signal the rest of our nervous system.

6.

I

lie

Our

term was coined by \orbert Weiuer

brain picks

in the

to

that signal as doubt.

M(K and popularized through

C 1

up

his

hook Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal unci the Machine 1948). The word itself is derived from the Creek kybemetet, meaning "pilot" or "rudder."

THE ANSWER

66

and automatically

fear, or anxiety,

signal,

prompting us

But what

if

make whatever adjustments

to

us to our previous state

interprets that feeling as a

— just like a thermostat.

you want

from your

to deviate

set path?

For sheer survival, the psycho-cybernetic mechanism jolt

to

danger

necessary to return

is

brilliant:

A

of epinephrine triggered by a signal from the brain will cause you

jump back

glimmer of

off the street

and onto the sidewalk without even the and quite possibly save your

a conscious thought,

life in

the process. However, in a world where our day-to-day survival

dom

threatened, this

forts to

same

life-saving

grow and change, both

The problem

is

our

in

mechanism can and

life

mechanism "danger." The

not the

of that chemical signal as

stretching oneself that goes with

it

in

itself

fact

are part

is

cripple our

selef-

our business.

but our interpretation risk

is,

and the sense of

and parcel of the entrepre-

neurial experience. In fact, they are an integral part of any sort of genuine growth.

Here's what

we need

signal does not literally

to understand:

mean

"danger,"

That psycho-cybernetic

simply means "Hey, you're

it

stepping out of the normal range and moving into uncharted tory, are

you aware of

this?

Are you sure

alert

this

is

what you want

terri-

to

be

doing?"

The

psycho-cybernetic

mechanism

is

an autopilot that

will

always

kick in and attempt to steer your ship back on whatever course

programmed

into

its

scious effort bursts,

neural circuits. Just as with

change

fated attempts to

may have an impact on your

modification programs: brain

is

They

at

we need

impact

at the level

live: in

our nonconscious brains.

ill-

course, but only for short

the great flaw in

are conscious efforts,

simply not very effective of cause,

is

his

has

your willpower and con-

his boat's course,

never for the long term. That

Gordon and

it

all

behavior

and the conscious

modifying our habits. To have an to address these habits

where they

CHANGING YOUR FINANCIAL SET POINT Last chapter,

we

said that

level tenfold, unless

even

if

you want

to increase

your income

you impress that intention upon your noncon-

scious brain, the wish will remain nothing but a wish. Gordon's di-

How

lemma

Change Your Mind

why — because you

the reason

is

to

6

also have a financial set point.

Before you can significantly increase your income, you need to recalibrate that financial set point, because

if

you don't, every time you

taking any significant action that might result in your tially

mechanism

increasing, your psycho-cybernetic

your brain with epinephrine and

with a

illustrate

Two weeks

will kick in, flood

and cause you

Cortisol,

up onto the curb and get back on course! So, just how do you go about recalibrating

start

income substan-

jump back

to

that thermostat 7 Let us

story.

Keenan

before John Assaraf's son

started kindergarten,

Keenan up to the kindergarten building and looked through the window with him. John told his son all sorts of stories about what a blast John had had when he first went to kindergarten, how the classJohn took

room had stuff

was going

how

to do,

be

to

who

kinds of toys and other kids

all

he liked

By the time

for

cool

it

was

for

liked doing

all

the

same

John, and what a great time

it

Keenan. day of school arrived, Keenan w as completely

his first

psyched. As John and he walked up the steps together to enter the building for the in there

was

first

time, John could barely keep

ahead of him.

totally

ready for

It

it.

was

him from running

brand-new experience, but Keenan

a

He had

recalibrated his psycho-cybernetic

mechanism. John noticed another dad bringing

w ith them was very gerly, this

and he

different.

boy hung on

to his dad's leg for

clearly looked like

the expression

on

his

face:

his

in, too,

life;

to cry.

only the scene

into the

his lip

It

it.

room

ea-

w as trembling

wasn't hard to read

This was way, way out of

zone, and he didn't want any part of

nism was going

dear

he was about

young

son

his

While Keenan rushed

his

comfort

His psycho-cybernetic mecha-

off like a firehouse alarm,

dumping chemicals

into

blood that were screaming, "Stop! Danger! Turn around! Run!"

The

boy's

dad was being

supportive, yet at the

ing to find the courage

He that

great;

he was clearly being very kind and

same time firm it

would take

in his resolve that his to let

urged, explained, coached, calmed, and assured

no matter what he

said or did, nothing

not? Because at that point,

was happening

at

it

was too

late.

the conscious level.

son was

go and enter the classroom.

made any

— but

it

seemed

difference. \\ h\

Everything the dad could do

THE ANSWER

68

And whenever you have

a contest

between the conscious and non-

out— hands down, no

conscious mind, the nonconscious will win test,

con-

every time.

Remember, your psycho-cybernetic mechanism what

it's

taught does,

supposed

how

to do:

keep you feeling

safe.

to analyze these feelings, you'll

which

is

to retreat to the safety of your

If

doing exactly

is

you haven't been

do what everybody

else

comfort zone. You'll sabo-

— — in order to

tage any success you might begin to have in the pursuit of your goals in

most

cases,

completely without being aware of doing so

return to your preset homeostasis.

And by the

way, this has nothing to do with happiness. You could be

miserable, and delivering an equally miserable performance at work,

but

if that's

what you've established

as

normal, your psycho-cybernetic

mechanism will obediently manage all of your nonconscious habits, modes of thought and action, every mechanism, to keep you safely in that miserable place. Let's take a closer look for a I

to

new surroundings. He became acclimated

to

feel

a

moment at what happened with my son.

helped him formulate new neural connections, which caused him comfortable with the

new experience — in

his case, the kindergarten

ating that experience internally. distinguish

conveyed

And

the nonconscious

between an external experience

to the brain

environment— by cre-

by our senses, and that same experience con-

veyed to the brain purely by our imagination. For all this

is

And

this plays beautifully into the

strength of our conscious mind. tiny

its

awesome power,

the critical limitation of our nonconscious mind,

blind spot.

amount

mind cannot

in the physical world, as

of horsepower,

While

it

its

magnificent

hands of the magnificent

has only an insignificantly

compared with the awesome power of the

nonconscious, our conscious brain has an amazing capacity to create pictures through imagination

— pictures

that the

powerhouse of our

nonconscious cannot distinguish from the "real" thing.

When my

son was imagining himself having

classroom with

happening

and

it

new friends and

in a physical sense.

didn't care.

in that

moment,

To as

his it

stepped into the room.

all sorts

of fun in that

fabulous toys, none of that was actually

But

his

nonconscious didn't know

nonconscious, the experience was

would be two weeks

later

when he

that,

just as real,

physically

How

What self

I

did with

my son

to

is

in

when you

business, instead of rejecting

The kev

and do

first

new

the

that

rejects a

situation with

day of school.

know

doubt,

going to be

there's

else;

they just interpret those alerts

to recognize that feeling

instead of reacting protectively to

as a sign that a

mechanisms

work on building

anyway. Successful entrepreneurs don't have

than everyone

alerts

genuine experi-

will recalibrate the

welcome

will

his

They have learned how

move forward it

it

do with your-

to

way your immune system

the

to feel the fear, feel the

is

fewer chemical differently.

my son on

just like

uncertainty,

it

as a vivid,

actually go to

your nonconscious

hostile virus,

open arms,

pret

it first,

your nonconscious mind. This

of your brain so that

to

what you're going

exactly

and your dream business: create

ence

69

Change Your Mind

breakthrough

is

— that

it

in the offing rather

and use

is,

it

to inter-

than seeing

it

as a threat.

Think back

to

anything you've ever done that was

thrilling:

stepping

off a chairlift at the top of a ski slope, preparing to dive off a high diving

board, asking your future spouse on that

date, writing out that ter-

first

check

for a

down payment on your

adrenaline rush that

tells

you that you're up

riryingly large

of that feeling, and

and

remember

thrilling levels of success

This capacity the stronger

is

gets.

it

no

it

when your

— because

different

to

it is

hurt me, or

is

it

home. That's the

the

same

new

from a muscle: The more you work

genuine danger?

my

Think

thing.

When you start having doubts or an

part of

great.

business breaks into

— and

nervousness about your goals, pay attention yourself, "Is this a

first

something

Is

this really

it,

edgy feeling of

take control. Ask

something

natural growth process as

I

that

can

achieve

my

goals?"

Anytime you learn something new, whether

making more money than you have ever made new to

relationship, or starting your

first

it's

before, entering a brand-

day of kindergarten,

be a point of resistance, a point of fear where you

fort.

riding a bicycle,

there's

will feel

going

discom-

Here's what that means: You're growing.

THE AMAZING PROCESS OF REWIRING YOUR BRAIN \s

you

start

reprogramming your

brating your psycho-cybernetic

reticular activating system

mechanism,

realize

what

it

and is

recali-

you arc

THE ANSWER

70

actually doing:

You

upbringing, with

You

years of ingrained habit.

aren't simply entertaining a

new thought

programming and your

are overriding your genetic

all its

that will last

new thought

no longer than

a

in

your imagination, a

New Year's

decision to join

gym or cut out excess carbs. No, you are fundamentally changing how your brain works by physically forging new neural pathways within

the

the tissues of your brain. There

can possibly make

is

no more fundamental change you

You

are changing the defini-

go on a hike through

a stretch of wild forest, a

your

in

life

than

this.

tion of you.

Imagine deciding

to

been traveled

tract that hasn't

for centuries.

You have

to

knock

tree

limbs out of the way, treading plants and grasses underfoot. As you trace your steps

on the way back

later that day,

you can

re-

make out

just

the path you traveled a few hours earlier: a broken limb here, flattened

there— but

grasses

The

it

takes an acute eye.

next day, you

only this time the

trail

make

the trek again, following the

you blazed the day before

is

Everv dav you repeat \ our journev, widening the

same

path,

easier to follow. trail

and eventually

creating an obvious, comfortable pathway through the forest.

This

is

what happens when vou create new neural pathways.

take an incredible act of will and imagination to have a to forge that faith,

new pathway

in

your brain.

It

new

may

It

thought,

can take a similar leap of

courage, and imagination to picture yourself building your dream

business and creating a personal net worth of millions. You're cutting a

new path through

thickets of habitual thoughts,

born, overgrown forest indeed. But you the underbrush with your laying

down

a

new

new

make

which can be one

the leap and slice

stub-

through

thought, and in the process, you

start

trail.

Neurologically, here's what's happening: Your thought

is

carried

along a series of electrical impulses, moving from neuron to neuron

by leaping across the gaps, or synapses, electrical

charge

to leap the synaptic

hold.

The

You begin

between. For that thought's

chasm,

old must be reached and exceeded. fascinating happens:

in

And

a certain electrical thresh-

with that leap, something

ever so slightly to lower that thres-

next time you evoke that same thought, there

less electrical resistance to that

same synaptic

leap.

is

a tiny bit

Over time,

as

you

repeat the thought over and over, the threshold gets lower and lower,

1

How making ier to

it

easier

and

to

Change Your Mind

7

easier to pass along those electrical charges, eas-

have the thought. You are bushwhacking a new pathway with

your thoughts. Neuroscientists have an expression: "Neurons that together." As your

new

new thought

pattern

neural patterns in your brain

is

fire

literally

wire themselves together,

creating a brand-new network of neurons. In time, your

superhighway, across which the constant

comes

a

beliefs

and new

identity drive effortlessly

Changing from the dream

business.

inside out,

together wire

repeated over and over, the

traffic

new

path be-

of your

new

and automatically.

you have paved the way

for

your

YOUR DREAM BUSINESS

In a recent study, five thousand successful businesspeople

viewed

to see

what

come

surprisingly, they varied enormously. Successful people

imaginable shapes, alities.

There

and colorful

is

a

no

sizes,

backgrounds,

histories, skill sets,

single "entrepreneurial type." This

group of humanity

searchers did find one

were

inter-

characteristics, or attributes they shared.

traits,

trait in

as

Not

in all

and person-

was

as varied

one could imagine. But the

common:

All the subjects

re-

had an intense

passion for what they were doing.

There

is

a difference

between being committed

being interested in your success. convenient.

If

who

or

it

takes

is

where you

It's

you

do whatever

will

what you need are.

your success and

to

are interested,

you are committed, you

doing whatever matter

If you

to

no longer

succeed

possible

will it

do what's

takes— and

in business,

(if

it

no

ever was) to

get by with a halfhearted approach. "Yes,"

you might

say,

"but

let's

keep

this in perspective.

I

mean,

it's

not like we're trying to change the world here, right?" Actually,

it's

exactly like that.

The

truth

is,

successful businesspeople

are driven by the idea of changing the world around them. The) want to leave their imprint.

Of course, it's

part of that passion

natural to focus on

ness;

it's

is

financial.

money. Money,

how you measure the

When

after all,

is

you're in business,

the

relative success of

medium

of busi-

what you're doing.

THE ANSWER

74

But here

is

something that too many businesspeople never

are never taught:

because

money

There

difficult to

It's

One

is

monetary income, and

great to have the comfortable or even luxurious lifestyle

But

in order to

also

need

feeling that

be genuinely happy and

fulfilled, to

you are making meaning. This

is

life

income

the

is

There

is

no

better

and your business have purpose and

the ultimate goal of a successful business.

For example, here

is

our stated purpose

at

OneCoach:

At OneCoach, we are changing the world by helping million people build the businesses of their dreams

have a ripple

it's

can provide.

that your contribution matters, that

a positive difference in the world.

knowing your

it

be truly successful,

a healthy flow of psychic income. Psychic

comes from the sense

feeling than

and

has no intrinsic character.

are two types of income.

you

realize

be genuinely passionate about money,

effect that

makes

at least a

— which will

a tangible difference to

hundreds

of millions of people worldwide.

Now that gets

us out of bed in the morning!

Scale and size are not the issue here: impact

whether your business

and

shelters

company

is

It

doesn't matter

hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people, a printing

makes brochures and

that

serves your neighborhood.

putting a

is.

a multinational nonprofit that feeds, clothes,

little

plastic piece

about what they

signs, or

an auto body shop that

We've seen people who are responsible

on the end of

a shoelace

do— because they can visualize the safely tied shoes of

children, athletes, students, firefighters, hospital workers, the elderly

they can see their shoelaces having an impact on the world.

lives.

From

.

.

.

cof-

any business can make a contribution

fee shops to software giants,

other people's

for

be passionate

to

Every time either of us has been a part of creating

or building any business, for us that business has

been

a cure for cancer. Successful businesspeople truly

like

working on

do want

to

change

the world.

The United debt— trillions get out

States today

is

buried under a staggering mountain of

of dollars' worth.

from under? There

is

How will

this

country ever be able to

one and only one way

that will ever hap-

Dream Business

Your

75

pen: through the efforts of creative and passionate people building the businesses of their dreams.

The

planet's ecology

How will we

some

also facing

is

serious threats right now.

ever be able to solve our worldwide energy needs without

ruining the planet in the process? There

is

one and only one way:

through the ingenuity and passion of entrepreneurs. People

like

you don't

just

want

change the world: You are chang-

to

ing the world. This group of people

is

going to rewrite the future.

It's

not about governments, corporations, and organizations anymore. In

ately in pursuit of their business

man and woman passiondreams who will have a positive, trans-

formative impact on everyone's

lives.

the twenty-first century,

it's

the individual

LIVING A LIFE OF PASSION

There

We're not saying that to live

between being passionate and being obsessed.

a difference

is

and breathe

in order to build a successful business,

that business every

the other dimensions of your

vitally

life. It's

your growth and sustain

It

needs

to

amazes us

often

to learn to live

including your relationships, physiological and spiritual

life,

health, personal development,

that business

important

home, between business and

with a sense of balance between work and personal

it,

if

and more. But

you want

to

if you

want

to accelerate

create your dream business,

be an expression of your passion. that

anyone would consider getting

into a busi-

ness doing something they were not passionate about. But all

the time

— you've seen

it,

too. All too often,

thev can follow their passions and

and dreams.

their goals

still

make enough mone)

what

Is it

this

chapter

that choice,

is all

happens

a choice.

and becoming

achieve

want

to,

But they do,

crystal clear

about

about.

possible to grow a successful business based on a concept or in-

dustrv that's not your passion? Yes, Let's

to

In a word, they settle, not because they

and so do you. Making is

it

people don't believe that

but because they simply don't believe they have

it,

you have

second of the day while ignoring

it's

possible

have no illusions here, building

not easy.

It

a

— but

it's

not sustainable.

hugel) successful business

takes discipline and work and involves

a lot ot

challcn.

is

THE ANSWER

76

not about convenience or waiting for opportunity' to knock on your

It's

door.

you ever

business's gestation,

start it

about meeting those challenges, persevering through your

It's

dream

And

takes.

Besides,

something a reason

the only

if

where

to the point

you're going to do that

it,

is if

you are

why bother? Why

than a business that will absolutely

in

settle for

you? There

thrill

you want abundance: That's what you are designed to

much

have so

thing that will bring

it

potential within

and

to the surface

form that makes you is

way

you're not passionate about

less

makes no sense

lenge

through

it

requires your being willing to do what-

It

what you're doing.

love with

in a

and seeing

reaping the rewards.

your

feel

realize

life is

for.

is

It

you and not do someit

in

abundant terms,

complete and

all

the chal-

worthwhile.

Rather than ask,

"Am

reverse that question

and

I

my goals?" we encourage you to my goals worthy of me?" When you

worthy of

ask,

"Are

are finished creating a vision for your

dream

business,

you should be

able to look at what you've written, ask yourself that question again, and

answer with

a

resounding "Absolutely!"

WHY ARE YOU

BUSINESS?

by asking a fundamental question:

Let's start

business?

IN

Why are you

Why? Why

People talk about motivation, but motivation usually interpret the

are

you

in

doing what you're doing?

word — is

— at

way we pumped up

least the

Getting

fairly ineffective.

because someone else has cheered you on or whipped up your enthusiasm

is all

very well, but typically

hours or days. Here's what does

last, for

it

doesn't

months,

last

more than

a few

years, a lifetime:

your

motive.

Big goals, in and of themselves, do not create great accomplish-

ment. goals: to

What creates great accomplishment is what lies behind the big own personal motive, the force that drives you. It may have

your

do with other people; perhaps somebody else

is

relying

on you — your

may be

that you've

children, your spouse, your business partners.

It

made

that motive

call

a

commitment

to yourself.

Whatever

it is,

your why. Clearly knowing why you want

play a major role in your achieving them.

to

is

what we

achieve your goals will

Your

Remember

the power of the seed, the power that enables that

acorn to pull in everything business

also

is

when

On

needs from a seed,

its

and your why

is

what

lies at

seem bigger than the

possibilities,

it

the

takes,

it is

that

within you that will provide everything you need.

step in the process of growing your

first

tiny-

environment? Your dream

the days you don't feel like doing what

the obstacles

irresistible force

The

it

formed around

core of that seed. the days

Dream Business

ing the right seed

dream business

— not just a strong seed, but the perfect seed.

words, creating a picture of the end result with as

much

is

creat-

In other

clarity

and

emotional meaning as possible.

HOW Up is

TO GET THE MOST VALUE FROM THIS BOOK

to this point, we've

where we

shift gears

been sharing information and

and The Answer becomes

a

insights; this

more

interactive

process.

From

we

this point on,

and do something.

will periodically

most cases,

In

answers. As you can see, there writing, but title

ume

it

is

"My Answers," and keep

sions every time

a bit of lined

writing

down your

space here

much

and conclu-

you take action and do what we're sug-

If

in

as your personal companion vol-

we hope

that

you'll find in

The Answer,

a

moment now

What does success look Tome, success means:

to consider the following questions:

like to

you'll

companion notebook and your own

answers.

lake

for your

to a point like this one.

value as

more value

it

to write out your thoughts

it

we come

Here's our promise:

find even

ask you to stop reading

mean

you might also take a blank notebook of lined paper,

to this book, using

gesting, as

this will

me?

What

ANSWER

THE

S

is it 1

Mv dream

lore to

do that

business

is

lies

at the heart of my

a vehicle that allows

What feelings do I want

to

me

experience as a result

Because of my dream business,

I

get to feel:

Because of my dream business,

I

arrive at the

dream business?

to do:

ofmx dream

business?

end of even day

feeling:

Dream Business

Your

Each of us has which

gives our

a purpose that

meaning;

life

we

it is

are here \o serve. Purpose

our reason

have a strong sense of what that purpose happier but also

far

more

79

effective at

to

and when we

be not only

far

whatever we're doing.

Your dream profession or business

which these questions are designed

for living,

we tend

is,

that

is

an expression of your purpose,

is

to

help define.

THE POWER OF GOALS Equally as important as defining your purpose

The

or business goals. What's the difference? this: is

You achieve

goals;

you

live

is

defining your career

simplest

way

to say

it

is

purpose. In other words, your purpose

something ongoing and never-ending;

it's

not something you ever

"finish."

Your purpose

is

a description of what living your ideal

Goals, on the other hand, are concrete and that

you most definitely can

you'll

then

set

new

goals,

is

as well, leading to

are mileposts along the road of

Practically speaking, goals in business

business without a concrete

numbers

number

either of

you know where

Setting numeric targets

is

come down is

critical.

as a target

a friend, but neglecting to set a

How will

still

pur-

to go, or

the pivotal

numbers

like Alice in

to

which you commit

Wonderland,

to

numbers. Cre-

Trying to grow your is

like saying you'll

time or place for the meeting:

first

when?

step in taking an idea

the abstract dimension to the realm of physical clear

life;

the direction the road takes.

ating a set of definite, concrete

meet

looks like.

and should. And when you do,

and complete those

newer ones, and so on. Goals pose

finish,

life

they are something

finite;

yourself,

as illustrated in

reality.

you

from

Without

a set of

wander

forever

will

her conversation with the

Cheshire Cat:

"Would you

tell

me,

please,

which way

1

ought

to

go from

gd

to." said

here?"

"That depends

a

good deal on where you wan!

the Cat. "I

don't

much

care where

—

"

said Alice.

to

THE ANSWER

80

"Then

doesn't matter

it

"—so long

as

I

which way you

get somewhere," Alice

"Oh, you're sure

do

to

go," said the Cat.

added

as

an explanation.

that," said the Cat, "if

you only walk

long enough."

— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Without

numbers, you're sure

a set of clear

who knows where?

If

it's

to get

somewhere

your dream business you want

.

.

.

but

then

to build,

you're going to need to supply the coordinates!

So which numbers are crucial? There are might be relevant

to

all sorts

of

For example, you might

set goals in

terms

Size of market

•

Number

of territories served

•

Number

of items sold

•

Number

of customers served (think McDonald's!)

•

Ranking

in industry (think

•

Annual

•

Growth

•

Net worth

•

Dollar value of receivables

•

Net income

•

Stock value

•

Distribution to investors

•

And more

There

that

of:

•

sales

numbers

your business, or to your position in a company.

GM — no, Toyota!)

volume

in sales

are literally

hundreds of numbers that might be relevant

goals for your business, or the business you generate. For the sake of simplicity,

we

bers but your

will focus

own

here on three that are not your business's

personal numbers:

num-

1

.

Dream Business

Your

8

Your net worth

1

2.

Your annual gross income

3.

Your annual contribution

CREATING POWERFUL FINANCIAL GOALS

Why

these three numbers?

financial state. cial

They

Your net worth defines your present position

space; your annual

income defines the

ently playing the

game

defines the scale at

which you

is

are three critical dimensions of your in finan-

which you are

level at

pres-

of business; and your annual contribution are giving to causes

you believe

in,

which

another way of saying, the financial impact you are having on the

world around you.

Money

is

like water:

It is

a universal solvent, capable of flowing any-

where, nourishing anything, and wearing

And

like water,

vented from flowing

The

freely.

and volume of your money; the

When take a

number

You that in

first

third

if it is

pre-

two numbers measure the force

number

is

a

measure of

its

flow.

what they think they can earn, and add

that represents

more, perhaps 10 percent— as

But hope

Income

come

to

is

that represented a

any amount

of

exactly like the sunshine,

an acorn

abundance.

if

"hope"

not a business strategy.

is

are capable of earning

to earn.

the hardest stone.

projecting financial goals, here's what most people do: The\

just a little factor.

down even

becomes stagnant and even poisonous

it

to

grow an oak

How much

tree. It

you draw

all

is

income you

air,

water,

available

wan!

truly

and minerals

all

around you,

begins with the seed you

plant.

When

you write out your

goals, don't write

what you think you can

achieve. Write what you want. The word desire has a wonderful derivation:

comes from

It

stars."

the Latin de sidere,

What you want

infinite

in life

ocean of intelligence

is

that

Your desires are an expression

which means

something

ot

is

the source ot

tells

you

thai

all

you

"from the troin the

energ) and matter.

the universe seeking realization

manifestation through the unique vehicle that

conditioning

literally

that arises in

is

you.

It

youi

and

social

your desires are somehow unworthy, don't

THE ANSWER

82

believe

Don't be intimidated or skeptical of your true

it!

knowledge them; honor them. They come from the

GIVE Finally, there

IT

these

numbers have no meaning

people often miss the effective

and powerful

Suppose you gross it

MEANING

a third crucial ingredient to goals:

is

mean. Remember, money has no

critical

intrinsic value,

what those numbers

which

means nothing— that

is,

you reach your

that actually

you give

What

it

a

mean? The

for

meaning. And you do that

an annual income of $50,000, or

your child, financial security

a

tile

It

may be

for

a

new

your golden

salesman in Brooklyn,

dream vacation home

New York,

in Italy.

CASE STUDY: MER0LA

plier to all

is,

will that provide?

target of

you are a wholesale ceramic

Merola Tile

truth

your spouse free from the job he or she hates.

years, or setting If

where

having a $500,000 net worth and annual

$500,000, or $5,000,000, what will that provide you?

may even be

is

connection that makes written goals an

until

with a very simple question:

it

to say that

force.

set a goal of

home, an education

is

and of themselves. This

in

income of $200,000. What does

When

desires: ac-

stars.

TILE

New York-based wholesale ceramics supHome Depot stores and about two thousand

a Brooklyn,

is

two thousand

other retail outlets. Kevin Merola started Merola Tile in 1988 as a one-

man

operation.

By the time

dav training for his

an annual

sales of

Kevin has

his

I

(John) visited Kevin's facility to do a one-

sales force in

2005, Kevin had built the business to

about $13 million.

company's vision and purpose emblazoned

right

their website:

Vision:

We

Are the Leaders

in the

Ceramic

Tile Industry Trans-

forming Living Spaces Across America.

Mission

[i.e.,

purpose]: To

make our customers

feel like they are

the most important people in the world, because to us, they are.

We

on

Your

accomplish

this

by delivering exceptional

and doing whatever

mile,

Dream Business

it

going the extra

service,

takes to go above

and beyond our

cus-

tomers' expectations.

But

it's

one thing

founder

for the

to set a vision for his

company.

What would it be like [{everyone in the business operated out of their own equally compelling sense of vision? "John Assaraf taught us how to focus on what we really want." says Kevin, "and not just what want, or what Cono Tavolaro, my sales I

manager, wants, but what we

all want."

Kevin has always been a big believer in setting ambitious goals and

committing

differently

was

goals

and define

his

"We'd always

have each person

to

One

out to hit those numbers.

to play full

little

thing

we

did a

set his

own

Tavolaro, "but

now

company

in the

own dreams. company,"

set goals as a

says

Cono

we started having each guy put down his own number. If we could get them to put down their own thoughts and ambitions and dreams, then it all starts becoming more real. John had even-one there write down what they wanted, both ever

it

for their careers

and

their personal goals.

What-

how outrageous— you want to have your own someday? Put it down! And there were definitely some

was, no matter

personal

jet

ambitious goals on those pages.

We

had people talking about having

homes in Italy — and for a tile salesman, that's pretty ambitious. But you know what? If you want it bad enough, it's doable." What we did that day was to make Merola Tile not just Kevin's dream company, but the dream companv for everyone on his team, too. In the year since we worked together, Merola Tile has grown from SB million to $20 million. "And hang on," adds Kevin, "cause we're

vacation

just getting started."

YOUR DREAM BUSINESS, ONE YEAR FROM TODAY

Now

it's

your turn. Take

your goals. Imagine that describing your

a

moment

it is

below and

now one year from

dream business and your own

cluding your financial

state,

from

Don't worn about making

that

fill

in a description ot

today,

and

that

\ou are

position within

it,

in-

vantage point

tins perfect; just let

it

np. Creating goals

THE ANSWER

84

is

always a work in progress. In

to this exercise

a

regularly— not

month, even once

a week.

fact,

just

we

recommend

strongly

once a

year, but

As you grow, so

returning

once a season, once

your goals.

will

MY ONE-YEAR GOALS Today

(one year from today)

is

moment

out of

my

busy day

,

to reflect

on

have happened over the past year, and

which

I

all

and

I

need

to take a

the amazing things that

to note the

amazing place

Purpose

1.

My dream

business or career

around me, because through

is

making

a

huge difference

in the

world

it:

Numeric Targets

2.

I

now have

a net worth of $

,

an annual gross income of $

and

I

am

giving $

,

to

(church, charity, or other

recipient).

Meaning

3.

As

at

have arrived:

a result of this extraordinary financial

feel:

abundance,

I

now have and

Your

Dream Business

85

YOUR UNIQUE STRENGTHS

Now

how you go about

take a closer look at

let's

through your business by seeing

A son.

successful business

what

is

realizing those goals

inside that business.

always the expression of a successful per-

is

Your dream business

In other words, at heart,

just

one manifestation of your dream

just

is

your business

get a clear picture of your business,

is

life.

an extension of you. To

really

we need

to take a closer look

at you.

Many

of us were given

growing up that

and

how

value. For example,

answer that question,

When

all sorts

of messages about ourselves while

us with a very skewed sense of our true strengths

left

talk

let's

intelligent are

John Assaraf was a child, he was

in school,

he wouldn't be able

amount

much. Murray

to

you?

Wait— before you

about what intelligent means. told that

if

he didn't do well

to take care of a family

didn't even get that

far.

and wouldn't

He was

placed in a

school for kids with "special needs." Both of us were given the clear

message that we

enough

to

just didn't

make

it

cut

it:

We

were not smart enough or good John

in the real world.

started

rough crowd, heading down the path toward a ray

found himself cleaning out sewers

life

hanging out with

a

Mur-

of petty crime;

for a living.

we had both carved out very successful millionaires who were— wonder of wonders —

Yet within just a few years, careers as self-made

pretty savvy in business.

For one thing, using

when

for success.

it

How was

this possible?

was possible because the definitions people were

they labeled us were useless for predicting true potential

Today,

new

information

a single, one-dimensional

trait,

but

tells is

us that intelligence

expressed in

many

is

not

different

ways.

For example, your brain has two hemispheres connected b\ of fibers called the corpus callosum, which

tween the two. You're probably already

allows

left-brained, you'll tend to be

familiar, to

and organized

more

in

some

IQ

analytical,

testing

and the

more

more rhythmic and tree-How

traditional "three Ks"

be-

extent, with It

you are

structured

your thinking. More right-brained people tend

creative or arts-oriented,

thinking.

more

sheat

communication

the distinct nature of the functions of these two hemispheres.

more

a

ing

approach

to

m

to

be

their

cduca-

THE ANSWER

86

tion tend to place far

more value on

left-brain capacities

than on those

of the right brain.

TWO HEMISPHERES

While we

OF INTELLIGENCE

Left Brain

Right Brain

Words

Rhyme

Sequence

Rhythm

Numbers

Pictures

Mathematics

Music

Logic

Imagination

all

have

abilities that

emanate from both brain hemione

spheres, each of us also tends to emphasize other.

side

more than the

Are you more organized, methodical, analytical, and structured?

Are you more creative, more into the free flow of life? Neither side of the brain

is

and both can be helpful

better or worse than the other,

when it comes to achieving success in business. The point is simply that we are all unique, and those traits and characteristics that make you unique are what make you shine. What you need to discover is which

talents are special to you.

There are many, many ways of measuring intelligence beyond the classic intelligence quotient (IQ) that

and

end-all.

As

it

turns out,

IQ

is

specific intellectual capacities. For

Emotional

used

to

be considered the

be-all

narrow measure of certain

a fairly

example, in his bestselling book

Intelligence, science writer

and

New York Times

bestselling

author Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., writes about a quality he terms emotional intelligence (EQ); elsewhere

he has written about further

levels

of ability he calls social intelligence. In her coauthored book physicist

Danah Zohar

SQ,

explores a capacity she identifies as spiritual

intelligence.

There type or

mind.

are multiple facets of our innate

number can hope

Some

human

to represent the

of these types are

still

intelligence;

no one

human named and

complexity of the

in the process of

described by contemporary researchers, and

it is

being

very likely that there

Your

are

many

variations

Dream Business

87

that yet lie over the horizon. Below, you'll find sonic of the

we now know something about. Which

type or types of intel-

ligence resonate most with yon?

THE MANY TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence Exhibits sensitivity to the sound, meaning, and order of words. Loves to read, talk, listen,

on

this type

and

write. Writers, speakers,

and

linguists draw

of intelligence.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

Demonstrates

mathematics and other logic systems. Loves

ability in

problems, reason things out, and think sequentially.

to solve

Com-

puter designers and technicians, engineers, and scientists draw on of intelligence.

this type

Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence

Has an innate grasp and appreciation of music. Loves tap, or

move

to music.

to sing,

hum,

Musicians, composers and songwriters, and

dancers show a heightened musical intelligence.

Visual-Spatial Intelligence

Has the

ability' to

perceive the visual world accurately and create

Designers, architects, and graphic

artists all

work from

this

art.

sphere of

intelligence.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

Uses one's body in a skilled way,

for self-expression, goal attainment,

or entertainment. Athletes, dancers, and actors arc skilled in tins intelligence.

THE ANSWER

55

Interpersonal Intelligence Perceives and understands other people, their moods, feelings, desires,

and motivations. Loves

negotiate. People richly

to

communicate,

endowed with

this

listen,

persuade, and

kind of intelligence

clude business leaders, politicians, salespeople,

facilitators,

and

in-

ther-

apists.

Intrapersonal Intelligence

Understands one's own emotions, values, and personal philosophy. Loves

be alone, thinking thoughts through and working with

to

and development. Counselors, inventors,

ternal processes leaders,

and introspective

writers are strong in this

in-

religious

form of

intelli-

gence.

Naturalistic Intelligence

Recognizes

and uses

flora

and fauna, makes

distinctions in the natural world,

this ability productively. Is especially

attuned to nature.

Perceives connections and patterns in the world, including in the

plant and animal kingdoms. Biologists, botanists, farmers, and explorers often place

By

an emphasis on

naturalistic intelligence.

identifying the unique emphasis of your intelligence

your unique mix of express yourself in reservoir of talents

ness of our unique

abilities

way

that

we can gifts

and is

passions,

you open up

extraordinary. Every

a

and finding pathway

one of us has

to

this

tap into, and developing a stronger aware-

and leanings

will

help us achieve our goals and

our dreams.

TAKING INVENTORY

One way to help you objectively

is

to

recognize your

own strengths and

capacities

more

do a thorough inventory of your past business accom-

plishments.

As you do

this exercise, don't

focus purely on your biggest achieve-

ments or only those that came with

a

title,

award, or other external

Your

form of recognition. In for a

past

Dream Business

fact, let's

S9

take this out of the realm of business

moment. Think of something you did, some moment when you experienced a moment of absolute triumph.

be something public that hundreds of people witnessed, or

moment

nobody knows about but you. The

that

first

in It

a private

time von rode

time you got over your shyness and asked a date

a bike; that

your

could

to the

dance; the paper for school that you struggled with but finallv completed; an athletic victory, mastering a musical instrument, throwing a

beautiful piece of potter}', the birth of your

courage

and

first

child, mustering the

you hated — triumphs come

to quit a job

in all shapes, si/es,

colors.

SAMPLE

LIST OF

ACHIEVEMENTS

•

Graduated from high school

•

Graduated from college

•

Was completely

•

Ran

•

Fathered and helped raise two wonderful children

•

Have been happily married

•

Grew mv annual income from $30,000

•

Made All-Conference team

•

Got my

driver's license

•

Helped

my aunt

•

I

marathon

Now down

through

for five years to the love of

in

to

$50,000

a

my

life

one vear

in

high school soccer

a critical illness

-earned to play the guitar (and sounded prcth good!

Became

•

\\;i\

a

debt free within three years of finishing college

I

a successful consultant

it's

your turn. Starting back

list

of

all

as early in

vour

life as

you can,

the achievements you can think of thai relate in

to business, or to

am

of the

skills

you want

to

jol

am

use in your business.

THE ANSWER

90

MY INVENTORY

Now let's add strengths for

to this picture.

we

of intelligence

OF ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR

just

and unique

looked

abilities.

Think back at,

A

to the

many different

types

and take an inventory of your core

core strength might be your capacity

deductive reasoning, or your intuition; your capacity for kindness,

or the fact that tell it like it

vou are a

straight shooter

people can always count on

is.

SAMPLE

LIST OF

•

Optimistic

•

Friendlv

•

Compassionate

•

Determined

•

Purpose-driven

•

Honest

PERSONAL STRENGTHS AND ABILITIES

to

1

Your

Dream Business

9

•

Loves

•

Adaptable

•

Genuine

•

Maintains a positive attitude no matter what

•

Excellent student

•

Can make people laugh

•

Great communicator

•

Patient with others

•

Terrific

•

Strong sense of the natural world

•

Expresses appreciation

Now

to learn

mediator

take a few

moments

to

list

some of your

greatest strengths

abilities.

MY INVENTORY

OF STRENGTHS AND ABILITIES

and

THE ANSWER

92

WHY

CRITICAL TO IDENTIFY YOUR

IT'S

WEAKNESSES

When we were young, we were taught, "Identify your weaknesses, then go

work

to

We

son."

to strengthen

them

so you'll

become

"well-rounded person" cies there

is.

is

one of the most destructive educational

Please, don't give

up

moment of your precious life

a

Nevertheless,

it's

especially well suited to is

crucial.

strug-

very important to take yourself through this

self-inventory process to identify

This

falla-

where you are weak!

gling to strengthen yourself in those areas

self.

a well-rounded per-

think that's a colossal waste of time, and that the myth of the

which pieces of your business you

are

and which ones you should not take on your-

Most entrepreneurs and business owners never

take the time to think this through; they start out with a passion and

then turn that into a full-fledged business without

And

part of the picture.

For example,

happy

own

clients

let's

who

this

can be a

fatal

first

say you're a beautician.

You have

this

a full calendar of

and now you want

love your work,

completing

omission.

to

open up your

shop, where you can bring in a few other beauticians and build

your practice into something really substantial.

This sounds exciting. But

if

you

first sit

ventory of your core strengths and unique there are a few crucial

on

that

list.

skills

your business

Perhaps you have a great

how to do makeup and

hair so that

vidual client; and further,

let's

it

say

down and

abilities, is

take a careful in-

you may

realize that

going to need that are not

artistic sense, a

perfectly

natural feel for

complements each

you are very personable and love

people. Your clients love you, and they love your work. But you

have absolutely no

indi-

affinity for logical or

may

mathematical thinking. Ac-

may be a painful chore to you, and the more methodical, analytical aspects of solving logistic problems and managing a growing business may feel like a foreign language you've

counting and bookkeeping

never studied.

Being a successful beautician shop owner is

like

is

is

one

thing.

Being a successful beauty

another thing entirely! Going from the one to the other

going from being a surgeon to owning a hospital. You need some

very different strengths

skill sets to

you don't have

into the equation.

make

tells

that work. Identifying those traits

you where you need

to bring other

and

people

Your

FIND PEOPLE

Be

clear

on

need

and unique

sions,

WHOSE PLAY

A weakness

this:

strengths you'll

Dream Business

is

YOUR WORK

IS

not a negative,

Each one of us has

to

do

and

it

is

to lean on.

knowing how

to ask for

One

we

Do

is

skills

it

by ourselves.

tough way

a

to go,

We and

of the secrets to achieving your

offer

them

the

out to be just what they need

Complementary

do

can't

help from people

you don't possess. In return, you will often turn

those complementary

all

need one another. Being the Lone Ranger even he had Tonto

and the

you do not have.

abilities

alone, but

strengths, pasasset,

be your associations and work-

will

who embody

ing relationships with people strengths, passions, interests,

Your

most precious

are your

abilities

an indication of

just

it's

to look for in other people.

second-most precious asset you have

goals

93

who have

skills

to

those

skills

you have, which

achieve their goals.

serve everyone involved.

you have a passion

for

numbers? Could you spend contented

hours playing with columns of numbers and exploring the accounting

dimensions of your business? have a message

for you:

If

you

No, we're

numbers, and you're going

to

want

"Ha! Are you kidding?" we

say,

not!

There

to get to

There are people who love standing up speaking, and people

who would

— and

There are

who people who

people

feeling for numbers,

absolutely love the love to

crowd and

in front of a

who absolutely hate

thrill

to

of getting to a "Yes."

work with words but have absolutely no

and people who are the complete

reverse.

There

who seem to be able to hit it anyone— and who love their solitude and for whom having to pro-

are "people people"

there are people

love

of then i.

rather have a root canal without no-

vocaine than speak to a group. There are people sell

who

are people

know some

off with

vide hours of customer service every day

would be

a

punishment more

cruel than public flogging.

One

of the biggest secrets there

is

to

and one of the most commonly ignored, at

being successful is

this:

in business.

Find people

who

plux

those things that for vou are work. I

lie

gether reader, tion

two is

01 us are a

that

we

good example.

One

are very different. John

reason is

we work

so well to-

a voracious student duel

and has been learning about the Law of Attraction,

and affirmations, and the science of achieving

visualiza-

goals, tor years

THE ANSWER

94

Murray

the complete opposite.

is

He was

initially

very skeptical about

the personal development industry, and focused instead on honing his

We were so different, yet we complemented each

keen analytical

skills.

other like a

hand and

left

a right hand.

"Work on your weaknesses" makes absolutely no sense what does: Discover those areas where you are you have keen intelligence, and focus on are uniquely girted to be life in

to do,

maximum

ways that take

those. Discover

what

where

it is

you

then build your business and your

advantage of those aspects of yourself.

when goals come easily. Take the gifts you have and make those your pillars. Then, find other people who have other intelligences, other gifts, and help them become your allies. Make it your goal to share your gifts with the world. Your journey will be so much more enjoyable when you focus on what you love to do, when you focus on how spectacular you are rather than That's

when

and

to us. Here's

strong, those areas

life flows.

That's

on what you're not good

Know

this:

at and what you're not here to do. You have within you, right now, everything you need

achieve your goals. To unleash those resources, you

some changes

in

who

may need to effect may need

your beliefs and habits of thought, and you

to collaborate with

people

to

people

who

are strong in areas

where you are weak,

play at what to you seems like work. But just as an acorn

pulls in the sunlight, water, nitrogen,

and minerals

environment, you have within you the capacity every one of the

traits,

it

needs from

to attract

its

and secure

people, resources, and elements you need to

create your fully realized

dream business and

a happy, purposeful, ful-

filling life.

WHY EXTRAORDINARY Is

IS

MANDATORY

your business a purple cow? In his amazing book Purple Cow, mar-

keting master Seth

Cows,

Godin

after you've

be perfect cows,

cows

lit

seen them for a while, are boring. They

attractive cows,

by beautiful

A Purple Cow,

writes:

light,

though.

cows with great

but they're

still

boring.

Now that would

may

personalities,

be interesting.

Dream Business

Your

He

95

goes on to explain that to be a truly successful business,

longer enough to be good: You must be extraordinary.

mon; good Great) If

is

boring.

is

the

Good

author Jim Collins says

(as

in

no com-

it's

is

Good

to

enemy of great.

you want

to

put yourself into the millionaire category and create

key role for yourself in a business that to strive for

Good

excellence in what you do.

a

massively successful, you have

is

And

when

today,

there

is

such

a

range and diversity of businesses in the world and the Internet has

made

information about

lence

is

no longer

all

of

sufficient.

have to be extraordinary. This

them

available to everyone, even excel-

Today, to be massively successful, you is

not an option;

it's

a necessity.

Later on, in chapter 12, we're going to introduce you to a methodical process for finding innovations that will take

good at

to great to extraordinary.

For now,

let's just

your dream business from the outside

in

— that

ers'

point of view. Because while your business

it is

also

your business from

take a

is

is,

moment to

look

from your custom-

an expression of you,

an expression of your customers.

What does your dream business provide for your customers? What kinds of experiences do you see your customers having as interact with your business?

When

they

they do business with you, use your

products or your services, what kinds of feelings does that

elicit in

them?

How does

it

change

In chapters 11, 12,

their lives?

and

13,

we

will define

your ideal customer and

explore what your business offers from the customer's point of view. lor

now, we

just

want

to

introduce the idea that

your dream business, you want to look yours,

and everyone

else's.

As you saw

at

it

when you

are defining

from both points

in the

ot view:

example of Merola

Tile,

that includes not only your customers' experience of your business, but also your employees' experience. vestors, partners,

and anyone

else

It

also includes the experience of in-

who

in

any way comes into contact

with vour business.

You want your dream business extraordinary impact that

nobody

to

make

a

will forget.

memorable

footprint

— an

%

THE ANSWER

CASE STUDY: YOUR ENTITY SOLUTION

Wench Bvford and her husband. Gary Bauer, launched

In early 2005.

a consulting business helping other small businesses to incorporate. .After its first

year of business. Your Entity Solution had a small staff and

a solid foundation but lacked profitability.

~We were meeting our day-to-day expenses, but any capital expendistill had to come out of our pockets. There was no room to expand our business— and we weren't paying ourselves. We thought that we knew the answer: increase the number of clients coming through tures

our doors and

start

generating a profit through sheer volume."

Wend) and Gary sought us out for marketing help to bring in more we took them through a careful process of examining their business and asked them: "What is extraordinary about your business? What unique value do you bring to the table?" really didn't know how to answer those questions." says Wench we took "So a long look at what was really at the heart of our business." They had planned to create a back-office system for CPAs and atclients. Instead,

-

.

torneys

who didn't want to do

incorporations themselves.

Bv automat-

ing certain aspects of their work and selling that as a system, they could increase

volume and reach

gan defining

their

clear that this

"Our

own

profitability

— theoretically. But as they be-

core strengths and unique

abilities, it

was soon

was not the answer.

strength

is

that

we re

coaches." explains Wench.

"We

under-

stand the fears and frustration people face in putting together a

pany— we've been

there ourselves.

our arms around the client and this,

and

we'll

But there

is

show you how.' a limit to

thorough, personal way.

Our

value

say. "Take

is

com-

in being able to put

a deep breath. You can do

"

how many If they

clients

had gone

one can work with in that volume, they would have

for

to stop doing w hat they do best Their proposed growth w ould have eliminated their unique value. ~Once we realized this." says Wench", "we looked closely at our fee structure— and we realized that we weren't charging enough for our services. We had inherited a price from a partner wiien we started the

been forced strategy

business.

It

was time to look at

it

fresh."

Dream Business

Your

They knew

their client base

was very happy with

took the plunge and raised their prices.

and $795 to

(for

9

From

their work, so they

a fee structure of

two different groups of clients), they increased

$695

their rates

$983 and $1,350.

someone had flipped a switch," says Wendy. "Suddenly we started making money. We made enough to pay ourselves back for our capital investment, to pay Gary a salary, to make distributions to "It

was

like

our partners, and pay a larger

staff."

They began working with us in Julv change effective November 15, and by

of 2006.

Thev made

the price

the end of the year, they were

profitable.

CREATING A VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Now

let's

wrap together

all

the elements we've looked

including

at,

your purpose, your numeric goals and what they provide you, your

unique strengths and

abilities

and how they express themselves through

your dream business, and combine

ment

What

does

want

to have,

want

it

it

information into a

state-

business

is

in place that

you

bringing you eventhing that you

drawing on your greatest passions and strengths, and

right kind of contribution to the world?

Again, this revise

when you have eventhing

look like

when your

to, fully

making the and

all this

that expresses your vision for your business.

it

is

not about getting

later. Start

of this picture. Just

your soul, and

sets

by

make

just

this perfect;

you can always refine

observing and recording some glimpses

sure that what you're seeing excites you,

your imagination on

stirs

fire.

A few guidelines: 1.

Put

it

in

the present tense.

Your nonconscious brain perceives eventhing

"now."

as

operate with a concept of future turning into present

ent Therefore,

if

you

millions of people

"going

to."

Make

tell ."

.

.

yourself,

to

"M\

business

your nonconscious.

it

is

—

It

doesn't

it's

all pres-

going

to serve

will

always be

sure von put \our statements of visualization in

the present tense: "\lv business

is

serving millions of people

98

ANSWER

THE

Make

2.

it

vivid

and emotional.

The more vivid this picture will attract

what you need

means "placed

Aim

more

the

it

real

it

feels,

for the

the faster

as a phv^ical realitv

by the way, comes from the Latin manus,

ifest,

3.

is,

to manifest

.

for "hand":

It

bleachers!

the limit"

sibilities.

ou

in your hand.**

Don't skimp on your dream. You've heard the expression sky's

v

Man-

Even

that

The universe

is

The

not big enough to describe the pos-

the limit

is

As vou start describing this picture, ask yourself these questions:

my core strengths, unique abilities, and interests?" "Does it honor my values and fulfill my purpose?** "Is it the most exciting expression of me that I can imagine?"* "Does

"Is

it

it

express

unique?

Is it

a purple

cow? Will people

talk

about

to others

it

because of the unique and satisfying experience they've had with mv business?**

Once

you've gotten

some of your thoughts and

work with them. Read them out loud exactly

what you want

to say?

paragraph that you can thrills

down on

Do

thev

paper,

reallv sav

these pieces together into

one

hang your hat on, a description

that

Put

reallv

ideas

to yourself:

all

you.

Before you go on to the next chapter, take a

what v our dream business looks

MY BUSINESS Use the space below

(or your

write out your vision for vour

moment

to describe

like.

VISION

own personal "My Answers'* notebook) dream

business.

to

Your

It's

You

what

fascinating to consider

put words together to draw

Dream Business

99

you're actually doing here as you

it is

this verbal picture

of your dream business.

are using the magnifying glass of your brain's frontal lobe, like fo-

cusing those sun's rays to burn an oak

quantum

of

field

leaf.

You've pulled ideas from the

and focused them

possible thoughts

all

with the conscious powers of your imagination. As you

them and

get

them onto paper

in a

way

that

is

are using every other conscious faculty as well

reasoning,

memory, perception, and

By bringing these to paper,

you are

of the universe. field,

which

is

meaningful

like a laser sift

through

to

you, you

— your intuition, logical

will.

and committing them some of the most powerful laws

ideas into crystal clear focus

also directly invoking

You

are declaring your intentions to the zero-point

tantamount

to

hurling a stone into a

still

pond — vou

arc-

creating ripples with far-reaching consequences.

making

In addition to

a declaration to the universe at large, clarify-

ing your goals by writing

By doing

so,

them down makes

you are creating

can then give

a declaration to yourself.

a set of very specific instructions that

to your nonconscious brain, which

be considering

is

exactly what

you

we'll

in the next chapter.

BUT WHAT ABOUT "HOW"? Most people, when aspirations, don't can't sec

first

tackling the process of writing out £;oals and

come up

with what they really want, because the)

how they would be able

from childhood Something, or

to think

else, forget

to get

it.

They've been conditioned

you've got to know it.

As kids,

when we

how

you're

l;oiu