I met Rob two years ago through a business acquaintance who told me; “You have to meet this guy Rob, he is a high energy business man and spiritual-guy type.” I was immediately skeptical. “Spiritual guy” hmmm… Not my type. I’m what you might call a hardened New Englander. An old Yankee who thinks spiritual thinking belongs on the ‘Left’ Coast. One who values self reliance, pragmatism and intellect. I thought ‘Spiritual’ was anathema to my East Coast upbringing. Well, after meeting Rob, I was surprised to see that we clicked. I found Rob’s philosophy to not only be pragmatic but in essence in line with my values. When Rob told me; “If it aint practical, it aint spiritual” I knew I was awakening to a new conversation. Rob has taught me a lot and has given me a platform to express what I have learned. I’m still a work in progress — but trust me; I’ve come a long way.

In Praise of Blissful Ignorance

Is it possible to be ignorant enough to succeed at business? Can a person actually not know that he can fail… and thus succeed? What if I spent all of my time imagining that I would succeed at my first business… instead of spending all of my time worrying about failing? I lost $15,000 in the pizza business because I was a worrywart.

Do you think that you have to get a business degree from a fancy school to be a rip roaring success? I just read a statistic that said most whopping successful businesses are still owned by people who have no business knowledge when they begin the business.

I think maybe there is an intelligence that we can tap into that guides us if we allow it to. What do you think about that? Have you ever done anything right just because you believed you would – no other reason? Lately, I do that a lot. I got a hunch and invested in my neighbor’s invention and got a twentyfold return in a year. Not bad! Any stories you can share?

I met Rob two years ago through a business acquaintance who told me; “You have to meet this guy Rob, he is a high energy business man and spiritual-guy type.” I was immediately skeptical. “Spiritual guy” hmmm… Not my type. I’m what you might call a hardened New Englander. An old Yankee who thinks spiritual thinking belongs on the ‘Left’ Coast. One who values self reliance, pragmatism and intellect. I thought ‘Spiritual’ was anathema to my East Coast upbringing. Well, after meeting Rob, I was surprised to see that we clicked. I found Rob’s philosophy to not only be pragmatic but in essence in line with my values. When Rob told me; “If it aint practical, it aint spiritual” I knew I was awakening to a new conversation. Rob has taught me a lot and has given me a platform to express what I have learned. I’m still a work in progress — but trust me; I’ve come a long way.

I can’t take it!

Do you know what I do if I can’t take it?

I turn to a higher power = my objective mind!

I let the light of objective reasoning take the place of my usual emotional reactions.

Regardless of how baffled I may feel about a problem, there is always an available answer, if I am willing to get my emotions out of the way.

Has that ever happened to you? You couldn’t come up with an answer and later on, the solution was so obvious that it blew you over?

Real answers are only found when we look where they truly exist – in our objective mind (not the subjective mind where we say ‘woe is me’ to everything). I stole this ‘woe is me’ phrase from rob’s book – thanks, for that, rob. It is a great reminder that I have more resources than I am can ever imagine when I get emotionally involved and upset. What has baffled you, that later became an easy fix?

I met Rob two years ago through a business acquaintance who told me; “You have to meet this guy Rob, he is a high energy business man and spiritual-guy type.” I was immediately skeptical. “Spiritual guy” hmmm… Not my type. I’m what you might call a hardened New Englander. An old Yankee who thinks spiritual thinking belongs on the ‘Left’ Coast. One who values self reliance, pragmatism and intellect. I thought ‘Spiritual’ was anathema to my East Coast upbringing. Well, after meeting Rob, I was surprised to see that we clicked. I found Rob’s philosophy to not only be pragmatic but in essence in line with my values. When Rob told me; “If it aint practical, it aint spiritual” I knew I was awakening to a new conversation. Rob has taught me a lot and has given me a platform to express what I have learned. I’m still a work in progress — but trust me; I’ve come a long way.

WHY DO PEOPLE SINK THEIR OWN SHIPS?

I have a friend (let’s call him Jim), who is always complaining. Jim’s favorite statement is, “I still don’t know what to do, can you help me?” He says this about almost every project that he gets involved in at work.

My advice to Jim is always the same: “try to see that it is you that is your biggest deterrent to succeeding.” Jim thinks he has a flighty mind, and he does. WHY? Because he thinks he does. Why does Jim do that to himself?

He will never come up with any valuable ideas at work as long as he is faithful to his flighty mind theory. For heavens sake, if you are going to be faithful to something, Jim, make it something that gives you confidence. His confidence is so fragile, that it is shaken with one frown from anyone. Again, I ask Why does Jim do that to himself?

You cannot win at the game of life by pouncing on yourself every time you make a mistake. Lighten up. Your mind isn’t supposed to be a jungle, it should be a flowery meadow (or something like that).

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