Not only are they disconnected from the reader and the language, but also, and more importantly I would suggest, from the world we live in, the world of communication.  The world of the other.  Most are living in their own space.  A space conjured up out of a need to be a poet, a contrived space, the idea of which he (The Poet) has become hopelessly identified.

Bloggers of course are simply poets of another kind, and most also suffer from what I’ll call here, the poet’s disease.  As, unfortunately, are we all.  So, then, it might be said that The Poet’s Disease is endemic to all of us, no matter what our choice of profession, work, career, et al.

And if we all suffer from some degree of the Poet’s Disease, what can we possibly do about it?  Where does it come from?  Why is it so widespread, so viral, so epidemic?  I think it goes back to something else I’ve been writing about lately, the condition I call Ordinary Mind, which is the state of our consciousness as we move into the world as very young infants, and than children, and then adolescents, and then where you and I are.

We’re born, my mind says, with Original Mind, pure as the driven snow other than for our dna which has created the original software of which we’re comprised, which shapes the way we respond to first influences. our parents’ behavior. beliefs, attitudes, opinions.  And then our experiences, and then, well you know.

And as all that occurs, as we are formed with a personality, all surrounding us, we take on a form which could be called by your name,  a form called who you are, a form called your own illustrious personality, which is where the Poet’s Disease arises, with the thought that you need to be someone.  Someone who owns a place in the world.  Someone who matters, who is loved, who is…someone.

It’s a disease I suggest, because in our need to become someone, we miss seeing that we already are.  Just say this to yourself, dear reader…I Am.  Just say it again, I Am.  Just say it, and then say it, and then say it. And as you do, you will fully understand the deep sins of the world.  With love, I Am What I Am, said The Lord.

And I am sure some writers do. But, for the life of me, I have never been able to do that very well.

And the reason I suppose I haven’t (and why, therefore – and perhaps – my writing of this kind is so often misjudged unfavorably I think by others) is that my life has been hopelessly consumed by doing necessary things, and, therefore, writing in a way that bows to the necessary is offensive to me. It’s the demand (I’m observing) to do the necessary, or to make whatever I do serve the necessary, that upsets me.

The demand that everything I do must serve a practical purpose, a financially practical purpose, a purpose that can be monetized to the degree that, I suppose, justifies the time I spend doing it.

Well, what would I do with the time instead? 

That’s the question I’m raising here, in this Particle, in this Bloglet, without realizing at the outset that I was going to raise it.  Which is: what value do you place on doing something for no reason whatsoever, other than that you chose to do it?

Let me know.  Because I just did it.

And so, dear reader, if you got to this point in our tiny conversation, did you do it too.

I’m Michael E. Gerber, speaking to you from Carlsbad, California, The place I make my home.

Deficient?  Yes, absolutely deficient.  Which means a big hole growing even bigger, as we stand by and watch with very little interest, if interest could be described as what the Greeks have been doing this past week, burning down buildings (40 to date, I believe), enraged that their teething ring has been swiped while nobody’s been looking.

Yes, I know, I shouldn’t be speaking of such things, as here in America our own sordid version of such things has grown encyclopedic in its variety, as our young, very inexperienced, wholly narcissistic Obama, tears an even bigger hole out of the whole thing called America, claiming his innocence, daring us to do anything about it, standing astride the colossus of his ignorance, grinning from mischievous ear to mischievous ear at the wonder of it all.

Which is really what I’m talking about when I talk about working on it – taking the transcendent view, which is seeing the entirety of what you do from above it, not from the middle of it, as you might believe I am doing right now.

I am not.

Above it is where the action is, dear readers, above it is where the entrepreneur lives.  Above it is the only place to be if it’s air you’re looking for.  If it’s knuckles and dust and tumbling down buildings, if it’s pillage and what rhymes with grape you think to be meaningful, it is only that because you can feel it all around you, you can see it face to face, you can truly appreciate what devastation really means, because it’s happening to you as you walk down the street, but the street is only of value, when you can see it truly from above.  At least that’s what the high spaces do for us all.  They give us relief.  And without relief from the absurdity of what I talked about in the opening paragraphs of this brief, there is no ability to change it.

The problem with each of the places I’ve spoken about above, and the countless more that mimic them, is that there is no air, there’s only grief.

And grief is what happens when the earth reminds you in its oh so unsubtle ways that it’s here.

Wake up people of Greece.  Wake up people of small business.  Wake up people everywhere. There never was something for nothing.  And because it was never meant to be, you can’t spend it.  It isn’t legal tender, and it’s tough, tough, tough to chew.

Of course, this argument is always made by someone who either has never built a substantial company, or who has never learned how to delegate accountability to someone other than himself.

Anyone who has ever thought to grow a world class company knows that systems are not only essential, they are a prerequisite for consistency, for compatibility, for creating a highly differentiated brand.

It’s always astonishing to me that this understanding comes with such difficulty to so many critics.  In short, they almost always miss the point completely.  And, they seem to want to miss the point. Because if they didn’t miss the point, they couldn’t persist in doing what they do; which is NOT designing a stunningly brilliant company, but building a stunningly (or usually not so stunningly) personal brand.

And of course, a personal brand is just that…personal.

It’s the sublime narcissist’s refuge.  It speaks to the ego of its listeners, through the voice of its ego, to say, “Look at me….look at you!”

My interest has never been to say look at me, look at you.

My interest has always been to say, if you want to create a successful company you must stop being so consumed by yourself, and begin to think of the only one of interest…your customer, your employees (of which you will have many, many, many as you grow), your suppliers and your lenders.

To the true entrepreneur, or should I say, The New Entrepreneur, everyone in the world is of more interest than you.  Be well.  And be creative.  Be well and think systemically.

It’s the only brilliant thing to do.

Article: Take Wall Street Please

To the contrary.  I have worked with more small businesses over the past fifty years of my life than anyone I know.  Tens of thousands of them.  My problem is that I am simply shocked again and again at how little most small business owners seem to understand what it truly takes to invent, design, build, grow and maintain a thriving company.

Even those who consider themselves to be information junkies seem to miss the point by a wide margin.

In short, entrepreneurship is not about information, it’s about perspective.

Some call it “mind-set.”

What is a truly entrepreneurial mindset?

What does it take to develop a truly entrepreneurial perspective?

That’s what The Book, The Brand, and The Business™ is all about.

It says that when you start your company – yes, I’m saying that no matter how long you’ve been in business, it’s important that you take on the perspective that you’re starting it anew today – you must think of it as though you were about to write a book.

What would that book of yours say?

What would you, as the author of your book, wish to impart to your reader that would hopefully transform the way they think about their life, about their success, about their future?

That’s the point of your business, isn’t it?

That your business is a product of how you, its author, think about it: what it sells, what it does, how it does it, who your people are and how you help them to grow, and so forth.

It’s why Starbucks is such a wonderful exemplar for an entrepreneurially designed company.  Look at how the founder of Starbucks has made its mission – to expand the economic viability of small family growers throughout the world – as a part of everything Starbucks does.

It’s why causes are important to entrepreneurs in this Age of the New Entrepreneur.  Because causes add dimensionality to your business, to your brand, to your book. It’s because causes add meaning to your business, beyond simply making money.  Which is not a cause in itself, but a necessity.  A necessity doesn’t need to be stressed every day.  But, a cause must.

It says that, as you go to work ON your business, you think beyond what the day to day reality of your business calls you to do.  It says that as an entrepreneur you must rise above the stuff of doing it, doing it, doing it.  It means you must ask meaningful questions about your role in the world, your community, and how you can institutionalize your new-found perspective into the genes of your company, so that it lives it, speaks it, demonstrates it in every action your company takes.

Which means that every single entrepreneur on the face of this earth, in the creation of their company in this Age of the New Entrepreneur, is actually writing a book.  If he or she is truly determined to create a great company, that is.

And the nature of that book must begin right now. Where you are. With the question: What do I wish to say?

And as you ask the question, What do I wish to say? please take it as the most serious question you can possibly ask, here, where we are, at the very beginning of your new company.  Your great company.  The most successful small business in the world.

Be well.  Be Great. Be Invincible.

Order The Book, The Brand, The Business.

The first absolute truth about business is that they are all broken.  They don’t work perfectly.  Nor do you.  That is absolutely true, but only the first of the absolutes.

The second absolute truth is that all broken businesses can be improved.  Not absolutely, no.  But improved to perform better than they do.

The third absolute truth about business is that no one working in the business is perfect at what he or she does.  There are no perfect performers.

But, the fourth absolute truth about business is that every single person can be improved.  Not absolutely, no.  But, improved to point where they are performing more perfectly than before.

The fifth absolute truth about business is that it is a composite of systems.  Good systems and bad systems, but a composite of systems absolutely, and that none of those systems are perfect.

The sixth absolute truth about business is that each of those systems can be improved, as can the composite of those systems.  Not absolutely, no.  But better at fulfilling their objective than they were before.  There are many more absolute truths about business.  But, I’ll leave you for a moment to consider the first six until we share more.

-Michael E. Gerber 

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