Archive | December, 2009

Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret" revisited.

By on December 17, 2009 in Business, business planning, Perspectives, strategic planning, strategy, Values

This is the most important message we could hope to take into ourselves right now, given the despair that is so easy to soak up around us, seeping into our attempts at holiday merriment.  This message puts the authority for our futures back into our own hands.  (It does have a Christian quote or two, but they don’t have to be Christian thoughts.  Every religion brings this message in its own verbiage.  Listen from that universal place).

There isn’t really anything to say about this gift from Earl Nightingale, except it is worth the half-hour required to soak up the encouragement and the guidance.  I’ll stop now, so you can do just that!


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What is trust, and how do we relate to it?

By on December 14, 2009 in Perspectives, Trust, Values

Screen shot 2009-12-14 at 9.08.24 AMI’ve been dialoging on the topic of trust and integrity on a LinkedIn group called the Executive Reform Movement, hosted by Phillip Tanzilo.  In response to a suggestion that  we have the talent in this country to innovate and strengthen sustainable solutions, I said the following.

I don’t think it’s talent that’s missing. It’s good old fashioned values — for example, putting the good of ALL (including self, of course) as the forefront of considerations, asking, “How will this decision/product/financial strategy impact others? The world?”

To answer your original question, for me integrity and trust are not the same things. Integrity is how you go through the world, as I said before, reliably or not. And none of us is perfect! What we could be trusted to do, when we fail ourselves or someone else, is clean it up and make a new promise.

I believe that trust is generally granted to those who have integrity (to tell the truth, clean it up, take responsibility, be on time if humanly possible…), among other values.

In the broader realm, then, trust is earned, through consistent, continual behavior where evidence exists that my well-being (as a consumer, for instance, or a citizen of the world who has to breathe this air and depend on these oceans for food and eco-balance) has been considered when making that business decision, producing that product, creating that strategy.

For example, a garbage patch of plastics floats in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas, killing fish and destroying our oceans. Yet we all purchase plastic bottles and throw them away. CUT IT OUT. Lots of talented people produce those bottles, which are damaging our eco-system.

At an event recently, someone brought 2 plastic-wrapped boxes of many small water bottles, and I succumbed… it’s easier… rather than say, “These pollute. Take them back. Write to the manufacturer. Buy a water filter for your sink, use glass bottles they recycle.” Shame on me, and shame on all of us, for doing what is easy rather than what is right. It puts a tiny ding in my integrity, and I trust myself less the next time… why should others trust me?… if I don’t trust myself to do the right thing…  well, I did, and do, recycle.

Taking a stand for the greater good takes something. It is so utterly human to fail ourselves and others, and so incredibly courageous to take ourselves on, to tell the truth, to make a new stand and then live from it. Not unlike dieting… we know how to honor our bodies, do we do it? If we don’t honor ourselves, why would others honor us? And the human condition beat goes on…. but we’re seriously paying for it.


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Your GPS – Guiding Power of Spirit, according to Leonard Szymczak

By on December 9, 2009 in Perspectives, Trust, Values
Leonard's Book "The Roadmap Home"

Leonard's Book "The Roadmap Home"

I’ve agreed to help an amazing man get his story out to the public. Today he launches his new book, called “The Roadmap Home.” Having written two books and launched them myself, I have a certain amount of enthusiasm with Leonard about what he has accomplished.

What is even more important to me is his story.  He is a psychotherapist with a story to tell about himself, which is well-written and worth reading.

I met Leonard at a publishing conference, and he impressed me as someone whose story you would want to know.  So, as we are deep into the holiday season, I think this is a perfect time to pick up a copy of Leonard’s book for someone you love, who might value a GPS to Inner Peace.  It is a map for a route to conscious living.  There are many reasons why I think that is extremely important, and one of them is the lack of trust in the world.  If you can’t trust yourself, and know your way home, you likely won’t trust anyone else, either.

Leonard, you have a winner!  My hat is off to you for the discipline and the courage it takes to produce a book of this quality and substance.


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