Inspired Entrepreneurs

What is the value of your best work?

If you work hard, you can get an allowance

If you work hard, you can get into a good school

If you work hard, you can get a high paying job

  The “you can get” mentality acts as the primary clarifier in our personal and professional evaluative system. In grade school we work for a letter, as we grow older we work to get into a good school, and in college we work to get a high paying job. This psychology breeds a weighty addiction to extrinsic motivation, driving us to achieve to receive rather than to achieve because it makes us happy. This may seem trivial but it weighs in heavily on our perception of the value of our work as well as our self worth. We reassess the value of our work consistently throughout our lives whether it be negotiating a salary or contemplating the potential sacrifices associated with a decision. We incorporate extrinsic factors heavily in our definition of passion, and become unclear about what we truly want. The way we learn to identify the value of our work makes it complicated to differentiate between internal and external motivators. Almost always, when the product of our efforts results in something we can get it will rank higher than when the product of our efforts results in our happiness. As this mentality develops, we adopt the belief that seeking out passion resulting in happiness is not significant. Astonishingly enough, we live in a culture saturated with statements like follow your dreams and identify your passion; however, it breeds a dichotomy in our decision making process. The significant value we place on extrinsic motivation makes the process of identifying passion misleading. Due to our inclination to seek out extrinsic identifiers we often muddy our definition of passion by contaminating it with the ideas associated with external motivation. While this can produce results, it also it also causes a fundamental shift in the way we identify with the value of our happiness. Many people have this idea so deeply engrained in their evaluative process that it is almost impossible to identify passion without extrinsic motivation. It would be inaccurate to suggest that the key to achievement is the eradication of extrinsic motivation; however, true innovation spurs when we emphasize the importance of internally defined incentives.

Every day we fixate on how to break through the personal/professional limitations we observe in our surroundings. The question to consider is what role does the idea of sacrifice play in our definition of success, and is that definition objective and factual? Nine out of ten people do not believe it is possible to have everything they want.

  You can’t have your cake and eat it too

There’s no such thing as free lunch

The key to success is sacrifice

  Statements like these are driven by a complex psychology that dramatically affects the way in which we process achievement. Success, almost immediately, is met with thoughts of what was sacrificed to achieve it. A part of this mentality is genuine and reflective, but a less recognized and potentially greater portion of this behavior comes from the need to rationalize success in order to accept it. The desire to sacrifice as a means of security is instinctual and fundamental for humans. It is religious, it is historical, and even if we look at the nature of transaction it becomes clear that we favor the idea of “loss” in order to rationalize “gain” rather then observing an exchange of equal value. We love to glorify sacrifice. It is essential to recognize the difference between appreciating the value of an exchange vs. the glorification of loss. It may seem trivial, but this tiny shift in perspective dramatically affects the way in which we are willing to accept our success. Revisiting the concept of you can’t have everything you want, the question I ask is why? What drives this need to feel like we can’t posses all that makes us happy? The reality is that this mentality is validated and actualized by self-fulfilling prophecy and manifests as the fear of success. I cannot have this much success in my life so I will sabotage it as a means to reestablish balance. When this idea is exhibited this directly it becomes overtly dysfunctional. Sacrifice is not necessary for success, decisions are. Sacrifice is nothing more than a dysfunctional and suppressive mentality, and can be discredited by a gentle shift in perspective.

  The Fallacy of Sacrifice Part 2 will explore the concept of unrecognized sacrifice and how the instinctual decisions we make are often overlooked in our definition of sacrifice.

When we see someone accomplish something great, there is an immediate tendency to differentiate our perception of them from the way we perceive ourselves. This relates to the concept of storytelling discussed in the Fear To Take Action. We create a story in which these individuals have certain competencies or abilities that we do not. Through this we establish hero figures. This complex mentality relates directly to a deeper side of human nature: the need to establish self through narrative. The human mind is a multifaceted network of neurons and firing synapses creating perceived experiences in the present; however, this same concept is retroactive. As we perceive our present reality we adjust our historical narrative in order to make sense of it.  What is important to understand is that the need to make sense of reality is greater than the need to appreciate the facts. As a result events, people, places, and experiences are subject to dramatic alterations in the way in which we remember them. This concept of skewed recollection is not exclusive to our memories. We also have a tendency to apply this same concept to individuals with considerable accomplishments. We see a Steve Jobs, idolize him as a hero, and define him as a non-human entity. This is a means of supporting our narrative. This can be difficult to understand because we perceive our own range of successes as human, and anything outside of that range as non-human. This is the process of eternalizing the accomplishments of outliers.

  An interview with entrepreneur Brant Cooper really hit me when considering this concept of immortalizing visionaries. Appreciating the accomplishments of the wildly successful can be a powerful motivator to achieve more, but it can also be a key discouraging element in our personal narrative. By idolizing these accomplishments, we set them in a category that is unattainable. As a result we allow them to become part of our narrative. So how do we break free of this element? Awareness. Awareness of this human tendency reestablishes control to the individual. When we are unaware of our narrative we accept the information as factual and make decisions around is as if it were a science. When we allow awareness to shine light on what elements of a story are being falsified, we are able to create balance in our perception of the exceptional accomplishments of others. This mentality then becomes I can achieve the same amount he did, rather than I cannot achieve what he has achieved because he has abilities I do not have. In doing this we are able to develop a far less limited perception of our ability to attain greatness.  

  This article was inspired by an interview with Entrepreneur Brant Cooper. Listen to the interview here: http://bit.ly/1fuGpCJ

Watch the video here: http://bit.ly/1eBRRr2

As children we learn validation. We burp in a funny way or say something silly and our parents smile, we tantrum and our parents get upset. We begin the process of creating a self-concept that is partially defined internally, and partially defined by the people around us. More often than not, these subtle developments go unnoticed as we grow into adults. This need to receive validation is then reinforced in our education. Our professors take over the role of “validator” while our parents are at work, and then when we return home from school our parents reclaim the role.  Education doesn’t focus a lot on the “how do you benefit” angle in any meaningful way. We write a good paper, we get a gold star, we feel happy. We write a bad paper, we get a D we get embarrassed, some of us argue...but even the argumentative behavior usually comes from discomfort in the idea that we have failed and as a result are not good enough, and not because we want to figure out how to make the paper better. This mentality is carried out throughout our education until we graduate college and plop out into the world confused and groomed to never take action without a syllabus explaining exactly what to do. For most of my life I’ve been accused of not liking the “order of operations” model. I cant think of a better way to describe why it doesn’t resonate with me than a quote by Steve Jobs,

  "When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and  you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into  the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again."

  I love this quote because it calls to attention something very important. The order things are supposed to be model is subjective…it’s not an objective science, its not mathematics, its just a generally accepted concept. Breaking through the fear of action means accepting that turning in a paper and getting a D isn't failure, it's a result. I'm a big Tony Robins fan, and I couldn't agree more that their are no failures...only results. So what do you do with the D paper? You write it again, you figure out what went wrong and you ask how do I make this better. Doing this creates a sense of relentless in pursuing what you want. I had a professor tell me once that almost everything in the real wold you turn it at first is a D, and as soon as you can accept that, you can achieve success. It’s the dichotomy of education, it teaches you that if your doing things the right way you’ll get an A or a B on your first try and everything will work out, but if you get a D you did it wrong so move on to the next paper, the next idea, the next step and do it better next time. This is why many people spend most of their lives not really achieving the things they want to achieve. They wait until it is a perfectly developed concept, a perfectly created product, or a perfectly organized idea before taking the actions necessary to bring it to fruition. The fear of action can only dissipate when we can accept the innevitibility of failure and not attatch it to our self concept. Here are some great articles and interviews on breaking through the fear of failure: 

Steve Jobs                                           http://bit.ly/1dsSpkv

Peter Shallard                                      http://bit.ly/KvpHVi