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The Four Agreements
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Quote of the Day
“The only way to get what you really want, is to know what you really want. And the only way to know what you really want, is to know yourself. And the only way to know yourself, is to be yourself. And the only way to be yourself is to listen to your heart.”
~ Mike Dooley
Quote of the Day
“There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching one’s maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.”
~ Philip Guedella
Quote of the Day
“To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action until the goal is reached. The key is action.”
~ Michael Hanson
Quote of the Day
There are four means by which we can bootstrap ourselves toward happiness through purposeful action. These include:
- Deep love and family commitment
- Meaningful work and career
- Social and political involvement
- Transcendency and spirituality
~ Alexander Green
Quote of the Day
“Without AMBITION one starts nothing. Without WORK one finishes nothing. The prize will NOT be sent to you. You have to WIN it. The man who knows HOW will always have a job. The man who also knows WHY will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but PRINCIPLES are few. The man who grasps PRINCIPLES can successfully select his own METHODS. The man who tries METHODS, ignoring PRINCIPLES, is sure to have trouble.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
How to Be a Generous Entrepreneur
The bottom line (no pun intended) is that being generous is a habit that can be developed – and if entrepreneurs take the time to invest in it, it can radically transform their own lives, and that of the people around them.
Developing a reputation as a generous entrepreneur is a product of purpose, vision, character and conviction. If an entrepreneur is simply after building personal reputation without being truly generous, the chances of failure are numerous.
Put simply, generosity must be based on good intentions aimed at promoting the common good within the community.
An entrepreneur needs to clearly understand why they are being generous otherwise they risk being accused of manipulation. Indeed, many entrepreneurs engage in generous acts so that they can attract media attention in order to increase the market value of their company.
However, an entrepreneur needs to understand generosity alone will not provide enough fuel to make the business, no matter how well intentioned it is.
1. It’s a Habit
Generosity is a habit that needs to be developed. An entrepreneur must have a clear vision about being generous, and they must work hard to achieve it. As part of this vision it must be clear to the entrepreneur that generosity is not some sort of a media stunt aimed at boosting the fortunes of the business. Generosity must be practiced in its own right and not as a hidden agenda.
2. Make Money
Business exists to make money. An entrepreneur’s generosity must be a natural extension of the success of the business. There is no point trying to be generous when the business is going broke. Besides operating a profitable business only allows the entrepreneur to be increase the opportunities to be generous with wealth.
3. It’s Not All About Money
Even though the business needs to be functional, its important for the entrepreneur to recognize that money is not always needed to enagage in generous acts. The entrepreneur can dedicate their time to social causes. They can give of their time and knowledge for free.
Take, for example, a business person can start a mentoring programme program for young high school students to learn more about how to start a business. That, in itself, will increase the reputation of the entrepreneur as someone willing to sacrifice their time to share knowledge and expand the cake of opportunity.
4. Make It a Part of the Business Plan
Being generous must not be left to chance. Rather, it should be incorporated into the business planning processes. An entrepreneur must from the outset know what they are able to be genereous with in the evolution of the business. As entrepreneurs get lost in the money-hunt, it can be easy for the ideal of generosity to get lost. Making generosity a part of the business plan will force the entrepreneur to be obligated to the process of generosity.
5. Have a Cause
Undoubtedly there are loads of humans needs in the world, and no-one entrepreneur can resolve the problems. It is important for an entrepreneur to be passionate about a cause so that they do not appear like a hoax. An entrepreneur must embrace the cause with vision and courage, and be able to contribute time and resources to make sure that it is realised.
Many entrepreneurial endeavours have a latent value, something that they add to society, and when an entrepreneur can identify it, they can use that as a starting point for generous activities.
6. Start Inside
This is perhaps the important tip on developing a reputation as a generous entrepreneur because everything that a business does reflects the character and content of his or her life. When a paradox exists between an entrepreneur’s generosity and their private life, it can spell doom. The entrepreneur must always make a conscious effort to ensure that they are generous with employees and family.
As the old adage goes, if it doesn’t begin in the home, it will not go far. Generosity must begin within the entrepreneur’s own organization.
In essence, generosity can open up new opportunities for the endeavors of the business person.
At the same time, generosity has a boomerang effect which can help to propel the fortunes of a business.
10.1 Ways of the 21st-Century Samurai
The Samurai has long intrigued the world’s imagination.
While much of the writing about the samurai has focused mainly on bloodletting, the samurai’s strict adherence to a code of conduct is packed with many lessons that help to map a path to success.
As Terukeni Uki, a samurai teacher at a martial arts near Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, summed it up, the modern significance of the tradition is to teach the art of winning.
“Here we teach the spirit of winning, but it’s not so much defeating an opponent as overcoming one’s self,” Uki said in an interview with National Geographic.
“These days it seems everyone is looking for someone to blame rather than focusing on himself. We’re told to believe that unless you graduate from the best university and are somehow elite, you’re a loser. Our message is that if you try hard, you will enjoy your life,” he added.
Indeed, in modern times there is lot that can be learned from the ancient spirit of the samurai to cope with the demands of an increasingly harsh and fast-paced world.
1. Know what you want.
Famous for their exploits in battle, the samurai always knew what they wanted, and they went to all the lengths to get it. The samurai knew the danger of dilly-dallying, and that’s why they gave their all to a chosen goal. Like the samurai, you define and refine what exactly you want out of your life. Your purpose must be crystal clear in your mind that you turn neither to the left nor to the right in your quest.
2. Get the right tools.
Before going into battle the samurai always checked his tools, that is, the weapons that he would use to conduct the fight. In the same vein, you must fashion yourself properly in your chosen field. You must do a check on the tools that are required in the battlefield of your chosen contribution to humanity. Without the right tools, you will not be able to get what you want. That is why the samurai always took an inventory of the weapons that were required so that he would not be found wanting at the battlefront.
In addition, you must enhance your skills and competencies before you head out to the playing ground. Preparation is a key ingredient in your quest for achieving your deeply cherished goals.
3. Give it your all.
On the battlefield, the samurai sacrificed everything, including his life. Not to say you have to commit suicide as the samurai did but you must give your all to your chosen path. You have to put in the time and energy to be able to reach your goal. The way of the warrior demands that you stay fully committed and determined to undergo the arduous journey that will lead to success. You absolutely have to give all your mind, heart and soul. Like the samurai, you must refuse to allow obstacles to deter you from following your dream.
4. Stay true to the code.
Values are the lifeblood of success. They help you to determine and even predict the choices that you make especially in times of crisis. You need to define a code that will guide you like a compass on the journey. You must never, never compromise your principles.
5. Be at your best.
The samurai teaches that you cannot do battle when your spirit is half into it, otherwise you expose yourself to the wiles of the enemy. Excellence is not a given, it’s a function of the decisions and choices that you make.
6. Conquer your fear.
When the samurai went to the battlefield, they threw fear to the side, and jumped into battle like a fish into water. Fear is like a virus. It slowly infects, then ravages your whole system, and stops you from going after what you want. But why did samurai throw themselves so wholeheartedly into battle? It is because they were crystal clear about the path they had chosen.
The first thing to know is that we are never born with fear. Rather, our life experiences inject fear into our spirits, little by little, until we become immobilized to take action.
But fear is also a product of having no cause in your life, not dedicating yourself wholly to that which you really want. Hesitation becomes the order of your being.
7. Get out of your way.
Habit is the greatest cancer in the world. It is very to atrophy and yet still get an impression that you are alive. You can be “dead alive,” so to speak. Thinking that you are enjoying your life but in reality you are simply slipping into a cesspit. The way of the warrior is to get out of your own way. Self-sabotage reduces your chances at advancement. In everything that you do, you must strive to choose what really matters.
8. Improve your soul.
The soul is the key to all the world has to offer. There is something in life bigger than the reality of being. Being in itself is a small, non-significant speck of the whole that defines existence. In the beginless, wherein it is begotten, being makes no real choice. Something other than being is responsible for defining factors of the beginless that eventually gives birth to being. The samurai knew that sojourning in the dark valley of being yields no results. That’s why he dedicated to consistently improving the state of the soul.
The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching due to it offering a process to calm one’s mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realizing how fruitless their killings were
9. Dedicate yourself to the arts and nature.
Take a cue from the samurai, and put a spark in your imagination by dedicating yourself to the arts. The arts and nature teach us that there is an endless world outside the miniscule reality of being.
10. A sword never rules.
The best of the samurai knew that real power lies outside the sword but in the spirit — the spirit to conquer self. Nothing can ever be achieved without conquering self. Self is perhaps humankind’s greatest enemy in today’s world. Everyone looks outside self to attach blame for failure in his or her life. They do not realize that they are equally played in contributing to the position that they find themselves in their life.
Conquering self is a life mission. It is something that has to be practiced all the time. The best of the samurai knew that to be able to really and truly master the sword they had to go deeper onto their spirits to master the energy of controlling the sword.
10.1. Be a servant.
The word “samurai” is derived from the archaic Japanese verb “samurai,” changed to “saburau,” meaning “to serve”; thus, a samurai is a servant, that is, the servant of a lord. You must absolutely change the way you think about making a contribution to whatever cause stirs your heart. Being a leader means zero if you have nothing to offer. It’s not about position. The samurai were content to serve their master to achieve a cause, using their skills and competencies. The applied what they knew to the mission that they had identified.
Chief K.Masimba Biriwasha
