| |
George W. Bush is president of the United States. Is he a success?
Julia Roberts won an Academy Award as Best Actress. Is she a success?
Bill Gates has billions of dollars and is the Chairman of Microsoft, one of the most powerful companies in the world. Is he a success?
YOU - are you a success?
I believe that you can answer only the last question. None of the others. Success is not an objective thing. It is subjective and within grasp of every person. The thesis of this book is that you can design your success: the type of future you have been dreaming about.
Furthermore, high technology is so transforming our society that now you can dream bigger more fanciful dreams! The more wonderful your dreams, the more brilliant your success.
|
ONLY YOU CAN DEFINE SUCCESS
|
|
The vast majority of books about success push you to be as competitive as possible. They push you to beat your opponents, reach the top, become the best, number one. They push you to be an entrepreneur, a winner. They push you to seek power, fame, money and achievement.
None of these things defines success. You are not a success if you win according to criteria promulgated by others. Becoming the best at some activity does not make you a success. Life is not a contest between you and everyone else. If you win, make money, or become famous, you are not necessarily a success. Trying to be number one will drive you frantic with frustration. It will not make you a success.
Christopher Morley said it wisely:
- "There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way."
The way YOU want it. Not other people. Forget about what other people think. What they think is unimportant. Only what YOU think counts.
Success is a matter of excellence. But the whole subject of excellence has been distorted. Excellence is not knowing how to compete, how to become a champion, how to set goals, how to spend a lifetime striving to reach ever-bigger goals. Big TO-DO lists do not encourage excellence. If you think in terms of goals you limit yourself. Do what you enjoy and what excites you and you will do it excellently.
Excellence is
- Not being better than anyone else, but being the best YOU can be
- Not being good at what others decide is important, but at what YOU consider important
- Not besting anyone else, but doing what YOU enjoy.
Success is not an achievement, but a way of life. Not an objective thing, but a subjective idea. Not a result, but a process.
Success is living your personal vision!
|
|
PAINT A VISION
|
|
What is a vision? A vision is your purpose for living. A vision is what you want to be and do. It gives zest and meaning to each day. It springs you out of bed each morning eager to go. A vision guides you through your life. It is a script of your life's drama. A way of life.
A vision is a dream. We all have dreams. We dream at night. We dream in the daytime. We dream of all the wonderful things we will accomplish or that will happen to us. Dreams give us a chance to shake off our routine activities. Dreams enable us to stretch our imaginations. They enable us to forget our troubles and heartbreaks. They enable us to boast, puff out our chests and feel good about ourselves.
And then they fade away. If they do, obviously these dreams can not be visions. To become a vision, a dream must excite you to action. If you have a dream -and who doesn't? - regardless of how extravagant and far-fetched it may appear to be you can convert it into a vision. As the famous Napoleon Hill said:
- "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve."
It is entirely up to you. Paint a vision of what you most desire. Don't look at where you are now, the so-called reality. Visualize the future through your mind and your eyes. Your aspirations can be as high as you want them to be. The vision you paint can be your reality. You can make it grand. You can achieve it. You can design your future.
DESIGN - DON'T PLAN
|
| |
Designing is different from planning. When you plan, you start by defining where you are and make changes to bring yourself closer to what you forecast for the future. When you design, you start by defining what you want your future to be and then proceed to work your way towards it. When you plan, you adapt yourself to uncertain external forces. When you design, you adapt known external forces to what you desire. When you plan, you are trying to achieve set goals. When you design, you are looking for yourself to live according to your vision of the future.
You don't need to plan for an uncertain future.
You can DESIGN it as you desire it!
I am often asked in my workshops on future design to list the major steps to follow. There aren't any. There are no cookbooks, six steps or ten steps to follow to design your future. Nobody knows as well as YOU what you desire and how to get it. This book explains the elements of future design and offers suggestions for designing your future around a vision. It includes ways in which you may use technology to magnify your vision. Choose your own vision and in your own way make it grand. |
TECHNOLOGY IS AT YOUR SERVICE
|
|
Technology will definitely affect your vision.
The media bombards us with bugaboos about technology. The problems presented by the detractors are not as bad as they have made them out to be. Let's look at two big bugaboos:
Bugaboo #1:
Change Induces Stress
Change, change, change.
Change is what everyone is talking about. Change is what everyone is writing about. Change is what we hear about on radio and on TV. Change is what we see in the garage, the shopping center, the supermarket, the roads, the airways, the kitchen, the newspaper. We are being smothered with messages about change in technology, in organizations, in our working conditions, in our leisure activities, in our life styles, in our values, in our lives.
We hear it said that what we know becomes obsolete after eighteen months. We hear that this constant change keeps hitting us at an ever-increasing rate. At one time we were told that we needed to change careers every five years. The new message is that we must change careers every three years. What does this portend for the future? Knowledge will eventually be good for a month and a career change will be good for a season?
From all we hear, change is bad for us. It makes our jobs obsolete, fractures families, disturbs our relationships with other people, increases stress, ruins our health. Some people, such as Robert Fulghum, in All I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten, recommends that you go back to the simple life. In other words, he advises you to withdraw from society for the sake of your health.
But who wants to go back to the horse-and-buggy days? There is a better way to handle change: learn about it. The best protection against change is not to escape to some quiet place or drop out of active involvement, but to arm yourself with understanding. Lack of understanding of what is happening is the main reason for stress. Once you do understand, you can come up with answers to questions like these:
- How did it happen?
- What is the principle behind the new idea?
- Is this just a new version of the same old gadget?
- What are the drawbacks to its use?
- How is it related to other forces in our society?
- How will it affect my future?
If you can answer such questions your dread of change will fade, disappear and be obliterated. You will begin to see that much of what is called change is merely cosmetic, repetitious, or of little consequence. You will begin to see that real change is healthy, good and a positive source of joy.
Bugaboo #2:
Robots Replace Blue-Collars
Robots, robots, robots.
Robots are getting smarter. Robots are getting more skillful. Robots are doing more in the factory. Robots are used to find products on the Internet. Robots are replacing people. Automated factories are being built that use only a handful of people.
Robots indeed are shrinking employment in the manufacturing sector. When modern automated factories rise, the need for the type of labor that feeds or tends the machine disappears. In its place, rises the need for people with the knowledge to work with these systems.
The problem is not one of robots replacing people, but of people who don't know how to use their minds. They don't know how because they never exercise their minds. For those who are ready to learn how to be better thinkers, problem solvers and innovative creators, the possibilities are endless.
And you don't have to be a genius to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. You need only reorient your thinking.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN LEARNING SOCIETY
|
| |
Technology always seems to be discussed in terms of whether it is bad or good. This is too simplistic, because there has recently been a radical change in the nature of technology. Whereas technology previously dealt primarily with the world of things, it is now concentrating on the world of ideas.
In previous ages, most people worked with their hands. They learned certain skills and crafts. They were nimble with their fingers, fast with their feet and strong with their muscles. Their technology amplified these physical capabilities.
In today's society we emphasize the mind. Today's technology enhances our mental capabilities.
Some say we live in the Information Society. But I disagree. It's not information that we seek, but knowledge. I do not like to call it the Knowledge Society, either, since this implies that there is an objective thing out there called knowledge. This is not so. Knowledge is the product of the mind, the result of learning. I call the new society THE LEARNING SOCIETY.
In THE LEARNING SOCIETY there will be many new opportunities for intellectual achievement. Here are but glimpses of possibilities:
- ARTIST - The computer promises to become the ultimate artistic medium, available to almost everyone.
- BANKER - Global information networks will make money a matter of information and reduce paper work
- ENTREPRENEUR - Instead of building big organizations, entrepreneurs will develop flexible networks for solving urgent problems.
- ENGINEER - She will enter a concept into a machine, which will then produce a finished product.
- HANDICAPPED - An intelligent robot will help a blind person in household tasks, reading, running a computer, and in guiding him across streets.
- PHYSICIAN - She may be a wellness consultant that advises clients about what they can do to preserve their own health.
- PROFESSOR - He may be a learning consultant, advising clients about learning programs to follow in order to realize their visions.
- SALESMAN - She will be a problem solver, tackling an urgent problem for the prospect.
- WRITER - Information will be distributed primarily electronically.
THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF FUTURE DESIGN
|
| |
It's a new world of technology. Technology is bound to affect your vision. But the nature of your vision is entirely yours. And the clearer the picture you paint of your vision the easier it will be for you to design your future. Vision is the first and most important of four elements. It is the element around which the other three elements revolve.
Having a vision alone is not enough. You need a means for realizing your vision. The way to do this is to embark upon a lifetime of learning. You need to learn about yourself, your environment and everything related to your vision.
To help us learn, we have depended on learning tools such as books. But now we have the most powerful learning system ever invented - the computer. An infinite variety of software is available to be used as learning tools. Learning tools are the third element of future design.
The last element is leadership, the ability to get other people to help you in what you want to do. Very few people in earlier times were concerned with leadership. But today it is important for each of us, regardless of what our vision is like.
Today's corporation is structured differently from yesterday's corporation. Early corporations were rigid hierarchies with a big chief on top and lots of little peons on bottom. The quality movement, the human development movement, and especially the powerful computer and the Internet have diminished the hierarchy.
To summarize, the four elements of future design are:
- VISION - to guide your future
- LEARNING - to realize your vision
- LEARNING TOOLS - to enhance your Learning
- LEADERSHIP - to enlist others in your vision and Learning.
Each element is discussed in a separate section of the ebook.
|
