Merry Christmas 2012
Here we are once again, it’s Christmas. This year I don’t plan on setting any resolutions, but will think about desired goals for 2013, I’ll share them with you after the holidays. This year we are doing the minimalist thing, no big expenditures, just Lisa & our two boys, and we have a student from Mexico with us. Hoping for snow in the morning, and then it can go away : ) Until then….
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Future Of Business – Two Camps
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I recently heard an interview that challenged me, in fact, I would say it changed my life. It changed my attitude towards my work and how I go about doing it. What is my work you ask? I’m a Futurist, a Thought-leader, I help you understand a new business model that forces all of us to leave the Industrial Age way of doing work & business behind. I teach & preach the Open & Free Business Model, where the 90/10 rule is the new equation, you give away 90%, and charge for 10%, it in effect, turns business upside down. More importantly, my work is a freedom message, it’s a mindset, and mindset trumps skill set everytime.
It’s possible you haven’t heard about it, you probably don’t know what it means, and what it stands for, but that alone makes it interesting. How can it possibly help you, how can it generate revenues, and how do you implement the model. Each and everyone of us knows something isn’t working, we’re just to resistant to change it. We must change it, in fact we don’t have a choice anymore. The Open & Free Business Model is a new way to disrupt your industrial age thinking. What’s interesting is, the level of resistance to it, resistance to accepting the truth about business, resistance to admitting the industrial age way of organizing and delivering work is dead, it just doesn’t work anymore!
The Heart Of The Open & Free Business Model
– Do something
– Make something
– Give it away
– Do work that matters
– Connect with people
– Lead people
– Deliver
– Make a difference in the world
Answer the question, how many people are better off because you lived?
The list above doesn’t work by itself, you truly have to change the way you think, unlearn, and learn new ways of getting things done, to disrupt your default patterns. It takes work. The how to(s) are the easy part, changing the way you think is more difficult. The biggest hurdle, the fear of loss, this fear is at the very core of the open & free business model. It’s to become a minimalist to delivering products & services, to simply do something, and you will find your place in a community. These communities are made up of two camps, they decide whether it happens and if it’s useful.
CAMPS
1. You
2. Your Fans
You must learn to embrace and trust both camps.
For the first time in history, you get to decide, you get to do the work you’ve dreamed about, all we need is for you to do it, to do something. The cost of doing nothing, is far greater than the cost of failing, it’s a paradigm shift, only you can “Flick The Switch”!
Your Fans decide whether what you do is useful, whether it’s valuable, they will tell you who they are, and if they will be a true fan.
If any of this resonates with you, then you’ve been convicted, you can no longer ignore the voice inside of you, you have to do something about it. Flick The Switch!
This is the first in a series, to help you understand a new way of thinking, and the Open & Free Business Model, feel free to leave questions in the comments, and lets change the world together.
Success – The Heart Of The Matter
It’s 12 days from Christmas, most are hanging tough, waiting for the Christmas break to come, and some can’t wait for it to pass already. This time of year can be stressful, it’s the desire for more, and not having the means to acquire the more. The push and pull of wanting more, but it doesn’t just happen at Christmas, we always want more, all year long. It’s human nature.
Contentment is seriously misunderstood, it’s measured mostly by how we feel rather than reason. This year the Greaves household is holding fast, we don’t want more, we actually need to purge! The cars are parked in the driveway instead of the garage, the garage is full of the more. To clarify, most of it belongs to other family members, because we have the space to store it, no…because there is a place to put it. I’m not complaining about family, I wish they were here to take what’s theirs, but they have passed away to leave what they had behind, and we had to store the belongings somewhere.
The aspect of Christmas I miss the most, is being a kid. My Mother & Father made Christmas a very special time, they spoiled us, and we liked it, we got more stuff! I actually miss how I felt, and being around my family more than getting more stuff, but that was fun too. I think we all feel this way as Christmas approaches, we tend to reflect rather than look ahead. It’s not right or wrong to look back, but we spend far too much time there, we should “do more” instead of reliving the past. We should practice foresight.
My Father used to say success was having more stuff, he who has the most toys wins thinking, I didn’t buy that for second, success is different for each one of us, but we don’t tend to understand success when we have it. I’m generalizing of course, but we often think success is a destination, when most of the time it’s the results of an endeavor, a journey. We forget to enjoy the process, we think we have to wait to until we get to success before we can stop and enjoy what’s happened and what has been done to get there.
Success is more about failing, more about doing, and the willingness to lose what you have, otherwise we couldn’t measure success. For every equal good, there is an equal bad. The same is true of the decisions we make, the goal of course is to make more good decision than bad, more right decisions than wrong. All these decisions happen along the way, the journey, that lead to what you would define as success. I recommend you stop and enjoy the journey, that in itself is success, in that you are on a journey.
The journey you are on was meant for you and only you, those around you are spectators, and in some cases we are players in and on your journey. We all have a roll to play, a voice to be shared, and more importantly, gifts to be used to make the world a better place, and that’s why Christmas makes us reflect, we have a deep need to cherish family, and the things that make us unique. Everyone can bring something to the table, you have to choose to, if you don’t bring it, there most likely is no success. Success rarely happens by itself, it almost always happens because people are involved, you will never really be successful without the love and help of other people. Even Snoopy need help to decorate his tree. (above)
Websters Dictionary defines success in this manner:
– That which comes after; hence, consequence, issue, or result, of an endeavor or undertaking, whether good or bad; the outcome of effort.
Funny how there is no mention of people, but you and I know most things in life that define success, tend to be based in relationship, the people in our lives, not stuff. It’s really a matter of perspective. However, success is the heart of the matter, we all strive to be in the moment of that word.
On that note, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for a fabulous 2012, you made it awesome, and I’m grateful that you even take the time to come here and read what I have to share. Most of us think it, but rarely actually show it, but we do say it often, we always say we care. I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I love to help people, and I can only hope what I share here helps you some how.
I pray you have an awesome Christmas, that you get to reflect and look ahead with hope, but mostly you should cherish those in your life, because we all will shall pass and become a memory. You are valued here, I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak into your heart, it’s where we all life.
Merry Christmas my friends.
The Future Of Business – Office Sharing With SwitchCube
There’s a new business in my community, a first of it’s kind, it’s motto, “working alone sucks…”. I paid them a visit this past week and was pleasantly surprised, it’s a very clean environment, brand new in fact, with great foresight on how and where we will work in the future.
Matt Farley is one of the principles, co-founder, and he loves to tell the story of how they came to be, but more importantly, he is excited about where this company is going.
In the past I have considered opening an office, you know a bricks & mortar location, but could never bring myself to do it, the overhead was too much. With SwitchCube, it not only saves me money, I don’t have to own it or build it. I can have an office when I want, a board room, a small office, or I can do a class room environment, great for workshops. On top of that, I can serve coffee if I need it, that’s right, they even have a small kitchen facility should you need it.
Private Office with a door
Coffee Station
Board Room
Class Room
Matt says, this is just the beginning, we will offer bigger and better office space should the need present itself. Who would use this great facility, Real Estate Agents, Financial Advisers, Independent Contractors of all sorts, pretty much any self-employed individual who has a need for an office, whether it be for just a few hours, all day, and or longer. It’s a great place to have an off-site meeting with staff, no distractions. Telecommuting has been around a while, but office sharing is a new concept for this community.
I suggest you drop in and have a chat with Matt and his crew to discover how you might use this great new service.
I highly recommend them, here is their contact information:
Switchcube
1B – 33820 S. Fraser Way,
Abbotsford, B.C.
Ph: 778 – 809 – 4577
Website: http://switchcube.ca
Matt’s E-Mail: matt@switchcube.ca
Related articles
- The Future Of Business – Flick The Switch! (owengreaves.com)
- Flicking The Switch – People Don’t Want To Hear The Truth! (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – Everyone Will Be An Afilliate Of Something Pt. 2 (owengreaves.com)
The Future Of Business – Jonathan Fields – The Good Life Project
Seth Godin
It’s no secret I’m a Seth Godin Fan, I admit it, but how could you not be? So many try to be like him, but he doesn’t want you to be like him, he wants you to be you, to tell your story, to pick yourself. He wants you to win! His message strikes fear in each and everyone of us, because he calls you on your fear, he reveals it in a kind and loving way, he cares, and that’s how he builds trust in my humble opinion. He claims in this video, that’s all he is trying to scale.
Much of what you read here and almost everything Seth Godin talks about is, a paradigm shift. Listen carefully to what Seth explains how almost all of us worked with our hands, or on a farm, we didn’t work for someone else as an employee.
Take the time to watch Seth Godin in this interview and change your life, the Good Life Project with Jonathan Fields.
