Organizations like this are the future of work. Please, before showering me with contempt, go to Google and enter the words: equity investment firms, Silicon Valley.

Thus far, Elon Musk has taken on the insurmountable task of paving the way for an urgent need to transform our world to electric mobility.

10 Years folks. The tipping point of the impossible is taking place right now. Every auto manufacturer is converting to electric, and in its wake, the petrochemical cartel is, shall we say, “acting out?”

The world doesn’t need more armchair critics.

The world needs new workers. Problem solvers. Artisans of their own lives. The roles are infinite. Solutions and beauty. Lest there be any doubt about the urgency at hand, consider the fact that one of the first applications of the technology revolution is cleaning up after the filthy industrial revolution before it.

This helplessness thing does not suit us. Nor does responding to someone’s success with cynicism and contempt.

As for Elon Musk, I study him. Here is a man who didn’t “buy” Twitter. His success as an innovator is so thorough that his name alone financed that purchase.

The post Study Him appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The way we unconsciously communicate to others determines how the world will engage with us.

When the late and great Toni Morrison accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, she said,

 “We die. Perhaps that is the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

I am fortunate to hear a close friend and colleague speak on a regular basis. When we first met, I had concerns about just how precise she is in how she communicates. Would that put anyone off? Then, I noticed just how freely she includes every emotion that lines up with the message she wants us to hear. And, you know what? People hang on to her every word.

As a musician, I have always felt a need to be so prepared that when I step in front of an audience, I can throw the music away and be fully present. As per music, I am a huge fan of Lady Gaga. Many of us believe her stunning performances are because of an innate gift. But it is far more than that. She cares so much for every audience that she spends superhuman hours and scripts every detail so that when she steps out, we, the people she loves, just might remember that performance forever. This is the sign of someone that respects us. Art Pop, the Sound of Music, Tony Bennet, or there Star-Spangled Banner. We remember.

We seem to produce a new batch of junk words with every generation. For some, we use the words to let the listener know, “You are not a member of my tribe.” For some, despite all of the preparations, we don’t quite make it to the finals because someone came in that cares more. Many hear the word charisma and we might think of the Kardashians. In the social media world, Kim is a star. She builds a $200M business out of thin air but that is not quite the truth. Kim builds a business with her tribe. As much research as I have recently poured into social media, she cares about them.

True charisma isn’t about the ego of the speaker. Real charisma is in our ability to focus on the person in front of us; to understand their lives and challenges so much that we connect with them.

The rest of us rely on junk language because we didn’t do the work. Or, we don’t really want to identify with baby boomers because our tribe is 40 years younger. Using junk language signals we don’t care that much or we haven’t done enough work to understand, silence is just as important as the words between that silence. The music was just so perfect until your anxiety pushed you to add more noise.

We hear that, and we also feel it.

Let’s review today’s most common junk words with the people who are listening:

Hope

“I hope that we can solve your problem.”

To clarify, the only time to use the word hope is when we are in a storm with lashing cold winds, our boat capsizes, and we hope someone will find us before hypothermia does the rest. But, when we use it in our everyday language we are telling the world of our reluctance to take action as well as results.

It was Nothing or worse: You Shouldn’t Have

The last time I handed an envelope filled with a trunkload of money in it, she responded: “You shouldn’t have,” I grabbed it out of her hands and said, “Well I’ve got big plans for this.!”

There is the shot across the bow of our kindest praise when they tell is, “Oh, it was nothing.”

Nothing? When we give someone praise like this and they respond, “It was nothing,” what are they actually telling us?

“Don’t look at me, don’t judge me, and do not do that again.”

I’ve met so many people with this kind of “flying below the radar” thinking right after they are laid off. Many of them were doing a great job but no one knew that.

On the other hand when someone gives us a gift and we come back with, “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” they will usually not do that again.

Do you know what I mean?

“Yeah.”

What is that? It’s coming up with a whatever comes after generation m or z. It shows up on the news.

“You have been telling all of us to stay out of the office to avoid the plague. What are your thoughts?”

“Yeah.” What is that? I’m depending on my readers to tell me why so many young people respond to every question or directive with, “Yeah.”

Honestly or To Be Honest

Most of us will let it go once. But if you continue to use the word, we can surmise telling the truth is a special event in your world. Is honesty that special? Are you sorting out whether to tell us the truth, will the easiest answer be, “Thank you for coming?”

No Problem

I saved this for last because the words give me life-threatening facial-ticks.

The first time I heard this was while a trauma team was pushing in a chest-tube after a serious accident. I asked them to stop for one second so I could imagine catching my breath, I gurgled out a ‘thank-you’ and the resident gave a vacant expression while responding, “No problem.”

What? I began looking for dead relatives beconing me to come forward.

Like the simple word “thank you,” there is still no substitute for, “I’m delighted to help,” or, “What else can I help you with?”

Years ago, a guru in the diversity movement gave me a bias test. She said I sailed through every possible shortcoming until they found that I am a geographic racist. I replied, “I live in Los Angeles, we change nations every five blocks.”

But, the real source of my wrath was found in Portugal. They practice Fado, which is the art of nonchalance. Please return to the first picture above. That is a face filled with Fado as a service person blows cigarette smoke while filling the bag with groceries.

I guess this is what happens when a country spends thousands of years fighting off Spain and eating fish.

If there are any words you use as junk, there is a solution. Ask two people that spend significant time with you to listen for the 1-3 junk words you use. Whenever they hear one of the words, their hands are to reach forward and you are going to put a $20 in the loved one’s hand.

There is one exception. Whenever you dare to use the words, “supposed to,” send $100.

When someone uses this word on you, there is one reason. It indicates that wherever you are, it’s the wrong place.

Love to all. Stay safe.

The post Words That Cut Our Power In Half appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Not long ago, our country celebrated a 3.8% unemployment rate. At the same time, about half of America’s workers characterized themselves as underemployed. Most of them were stuck because their world prepared them for the Industrial Revolution. Without intervention, the underemployed hold multiple jobs to barely cover the needs of their families. They hold onto obsolete jobs hoping they don’t get laid-off, but they do. The underemployed consistently hear that technology is taking away jobs. When so many people look to the future and cannot find a place for themselves, of course, we are going to have turmoil!

We will never learn anything of value by studying failure or mediocrity. Our time is far better invested in studying the people that are succeeding in the way we want to succeed. In this particular case, let’s take a look at some of our most revered workplace icons.

The world is facing the biggest restructuring of work in 300 years. Many complain that technology is taking away their jobs. This is true. But, it is equally true that advancing technology offers us the freedom to do far more with our lives. Millions of us are already “in” and using our time to forge unique careers, solve big problems, help and connect with others. Getting from the old to the new requires a new mindset, a new set of skills that require a bit of courage to learn, and the opening of one’s eyes in an era where we can learn anything that we want in just hours.

Helping our people move into the new world of work is critical for our country. We lay people off while other countries rebuild them. Many of America’s global competitors have developed talent strategies that educate workers to grow into new roles. Instead of passively standing by as change make a role obsolete, they are preparing their people to grow and move forward. We ought to study the success of these countries, which include: Germany, China, S. Korea, Canada, and Japan.

The single most important difference between the talent strategies of these countries is startling! The underemployed don’t need promises, they need guidance. America has the world’s most diverse talent pool in the world. Not only do we need to develop the talent that is already here, but we also need to attract the world’s best talent.

Mini-Guide for the New World of Work

Job Number One: Love Your Work

Retooling oneself can be a pain in the ass. Therefore, it is a good idea to not only take care of today’s needs but to also address past missteps. The most successful people in the world insist on finding the work we love.

From Steve Jobs:

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

When we forget to build a foundation, the house above will eventually crumble.

The Industrial Revolution didn’t tell us to love our work. We were told that if we took a job, even one that was monotonous and mind-numbing, we would be rewarded by security and predictability. When children began to dream about their future, they would often tell their parents what they wanted to do with their lives. One of the most common responses was,

“Go get a real job.”

Get this, loving one’s work was always the ideal way to unleash one’s soul. I know this because I have been around thousands of people identifying what they most wanted to do with their lives and how they were going to monetize that.

When we began our business, most of our participants wanted to define their ideal work because it felt spiritually right. Most people continued to do the work that gave them predictability and security. Then, technology rose up like a tsunami, and wash the old model away.

Today, loving one’s work is job number one. Love is the single most effective fuel to retool one’s life. Every time the world speeds up yet again, the need to find the right people to help us grows as well. The need to become visible has grown as quickly as the fact that today’s college graduates will change careers 4-6 times.

Loving our work gives us the juice to include discomfort and develop skills we never had to use before.

From Oprah Winfrey:

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you. ”

Defining and finding the work we love brings positive energy to all of our relationships and a form of enthusiasm that cannot be manufactured.

Job Number Two: Develop Connectivity

Connectivity is a series of skillsets that help us quickly and graciously connect with the right people.

Connectivity allows us to build a customized community that supports our mission, vision, and purpose.

Connectivity gives us the means to be visible and when people see us, they also see our unique value.

Connectivity skills make it effortless for people to tell us what they need and want.

We tend to be hard on ourselves when we are frightened. When we cannot connect, we often turn the outcome into a shortcoming. It is actually a learning solution and one that requires practice. For those of us with deep fears about getting attention, the alternative ought to be more frightening. Don’t wait to be fearless. Use courage to take action now.

From Warren Buffett:

“Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.”

Warren Buffett

Job Number Three: Become an Active Learner

My office window looks direct to Sony Music, a five-story upscale office building that has been empty for almost nine months. Countless employers and business owners are having to find information to not only respond to the health crisis but to understand how to build a strong culture with remote work. Every day, accelerating change impacts all of us.

As a result, active learners have quickly taken ownership of the modern workplace. Today, savvy employers ask a few questions to determine if someone pursues knowledge or not. If the candidate doesn’t have that characteristic, the interview is usually over. Oh, they might look as if they are in their body but they are making grocery lists and reviewing unfinished work.

In a world that moves so quickly, traditional degrees are usually obsolete when the ink drys on the diploma!

Like so many previous outlooks, many families treat education like another chore.

Active learners don’t get laid off, they don’t become obsolete, they grow in ways that are profoundly surprising and moving.

How do I know this? I consume information every single day. I listen to successful people. I’m also comfortable with not having a clue on how to approach a problem. As a result, I’ve learned there is always a solution.

Always.

How do we turn people into active learners?

Love your work and you will learn what you love.

The post Loving One’s Work Used to be Nice. Today, it is Essential. appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

For years, many of our participants have become one-on-one clients. And then close friends. They come through our programs to define in deep detail what they want to do with their lives. Many take that and move forward without my direct involvement. It doesn’t matter how my one-on-one clients practice their spirituality, but I always tell them mine.

There are no guarantees in life. It is far better than waiting for success; we center our energy on improving the probability of success. True optimism is the mindset of believing our actions will lead to good outcomes. Action is almost always the beginning of success. But, when we turn the results over to God, I’m always surprised.

Many of my clients have become dear friends. I’m always surprised at what happens when each takes action, trusts the outcome, and doesn’t over-manage the results. The author came for my help to move from corporate communications to a fully successful author. He gets better deals than me and is writing a new book on an island that I hope to one day in the future, spell correctly.

I think of another dear friend. You know who you are. She left a big studio job. Her imagination is wildly productive, and she uses it like magic. In our time together she never once responded to change with cynicism or contempt. I often say that when someone gets on the right path, we can’t decide whether they are playing or working. Her outcome included moving to work for one of the biggest entertainment icons in Europe. The last time we visited, her new life is filled with so much joy, that she skips through London.

I’m so ready for this year to be over. It is also the year in which we changed how we reach people by working harder than ever and turning the results over to God.

What do I want for you?

• Full employment.
• Work that matters.
• Work that is an extension of your real purpose.
• I want you to skip down the street.
• Remember there is always a solution, especially when we look.

The post 2021 – The Year to Transform Work appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

“Save the Planet?” he yelled. He brought up that our planet is so much bigger than us. “If humans become any more irritating, the earth will shake us off like fleas. Every time that I heard George, I was moved by his brilliant intellect fused to rich irony. That gift changed people’s minds on a variety of subjects.

George Carlin’s wife died early in 2008 and he followed her, dying in July 2008. During that difficult time, he wrote these words to all of us. Clearly, the man was paying attention:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more but learn less. We plan more but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight or to just hit delete.

Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ‘I love you’ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin

The post Some of the Most Beautiful Words You Will Ever Hear from the Late Great George Carlin appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The most important piece of information is that human beings are able to think about something other than themselves for a maximum of 15-seconds.

The findings made pitch-selling obsolete. But, how does this impact our day-to-day living?

For several years many of us have been proving that being concerned with our own needs and expectations rather than helping others has not helped any of us.

If you are the exception, please speak up.

Over 12,000,000 spam e-mails are sent out for every sale that is made. By not having the respectfulness to find out what we need, continual pitching only shuts us down.

If you have achieved terrific results from continual pitching, please speak up.

We have been yelling at each other for a number of years and all that has accomplished is to make our country an ugly place. When I was a little kid, Lady Bird Johnson (One of the First Lady’s) was on a kick to beautify and clean-up America.

My grade school teacher screeched at us, “When you see trash by the side of the road, what do you think of?”

A kid in the back of the room responded, “Home.”

There is the rub. When trash becomes a way of life, all of us suffer.

My redemption has emerged from being of service. I don’t do it because it is right. I do it because service is the one thing that makes me feel great.

There were times in my life where friends referred to me as the “king of one-liners and put-downs.” It didn’t make me feel better. For one moment, I believed I was better, only to discover that what I had said made me far worse.

Do we want our lives to improve?

Go ask people what they want and need.

If you want our lives to improve,

Give it to them.

The post If You Can Only Think About Me For 15-Seconds, How Will All of Us Move Forward? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

I’m not big on offering unsolicited advice but 2020 will most likely go down as the most difficult year in our collective history. Yogi Barra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” The famed baseball pitcher and philosopher was making a point in how important it is for us to take rather than think about action. This time, it is just as important to take the right action. So, I will do my best to give a few suggestions such as, “If I were in your shoes.”

Today’s Notes Include:

• What happened last weekend?
• Where are 2021s big opportunities?
• Why can December be so very important?

What Happened Last Weekend?

The unprecedented challenges impacting those of us who work pushed us to offer the November Inspired Work Program for $100 rather than $800.

Our participants came from all over the world. They blew away our fears that by making such a crazy reduction our participants would treat the program far too casually. But, they didn’t. They rolled up their sleeves and worked. They produced life-changing results. We were hit with so much goodwill and gratitude that we are completing 2020 with one more $100 program. Up to 100 participants can join us in December for the same fee.

We did this one out of love and my suggestion is to treat the opportunity in the same way. Take yourself into the new year with a new life. Give your friends and loved ones a gift unlike any other.

Where Are 2021s Growth Opportunities?

Let’s start with the obvious. if you work in an industry or organization that is shrinking, leave. Start by exploring the industries that are growing. Explore the ones that capture your imagination and interest. Rather than inundate our readers or turn my primary role into soothsayer, we will ongoingly provide news about “what’s next.”

A few of our hottest markets:

Technology 

Duh! But technology is rapidly growing in areas that might not come to mind. Bio-science is at an accelerative turning point. Incurable diseases are being cured. Health improvements are more widely available and cheaper. New talent hubs are emerging in areas like Southern California but also throughout the world. Investment capital is committed and rich. This is an area ripe for growth with new business and employment. Plus, the dynamics are to be part of something that saves and improves our lives.

We were headed towards a tipping point with communications technology, now we are on fire. As the world became used to Zoom and Skype, business travel as we knew it is over. Consumers have always been the biggest drivers of change. As I write this, I’m looking at Sony Music and Universal Music. Both buildings have been empty for about six months. As commercial real estate undergoes its biggest shake-out ever, look to the organizations that make telecommuting easier, more gratifying, and productive.

Over the last few years, billions have been invested in virtual work technology. This isn’t Zoom or Skype. The drivers offer meetings that we can step into, travel experiences that feel as if we are there. Occulus comes to mind but most every huge technology company is taking high-quality virtual immersion seriously.

Social Entrepreneurism

Social entrepreneurs solve world problems by making the solution wildly profitable.

The category is growing more quickly than other forms of start-ups.

Virtually everyone is in the midst of a direct confrontation with mortality. Often, that leads to an urgency to develop meaning within our own lives. Work is one of the key platforms for such an opportunity. For many, making money is no longer enough. The trend is there for fresh graduates as well. Many no longer go to just any employer website. They look for organizations and leaders that cure disease, offer high-quality and cost-free education, clean-up oceans, and bring greater safety to our communities.

You do not have to move to Silicon Valley to become part of this movement. We find innovation centers throughout the world. There is a growing need for solutions and after we get through this year, I predict we will witness explosive growth.

How can you learn more? Open Google and enter social entrepreneurs, the world’s top social entrepreneurs, etc. Look to authors such as Peter Diamandis, Kevin Kelly, and, of course, Daniel Pink.

Media Content

We are in the midst of the greatest explosion of media content since having three Television networks. 2020 has been tough on media organizations and while quite painful, much change will be positive. Entertainment options have grown explosively for the last ten years. The pandemic became a big pothole for new development and production. As it comes back, we will find large volumes of employment and business opportunities.

Really, reruns of Charlie’s Angels can only go so far.

What is the Big Deal About December?

If you regularly ask people, “Where do you winter?” There is no need to continue.

Employers and larger clients are in the midst of finishing up their 2020 budget. That means many leaders want to spend what’s left of their existing budget, which will be gone in just a few short weeks.

When I was in the staffing industry, I offered people bonuses to stay in town. We routinely produced our largest billings.

Of all the times we have secured business, here’s my favorite story: We were in New York on a variety of business development calls. One was to meet the entire human capital team of a global media company. We were grilled for about an hour and felt the conversation had gone well. About five minutes after leaving the building, my phone rang. It was the leader of the meeting.

She said, “Would you please send us, immediately, a retainer invoice for $185K?”

Our administrator had just left for the holidays. So, I asked, “When do you need it?”

“We need it for a 2’clock payment run.”

We raced back to the hotel, sent an invoice, and two days later, received the funds. The project was delivered the following summer.

I live by a spiritual philosophy that has served me quite well. It is to raise our probability of success. But, the results are up to God. What I have noticed is that those of us who work hard, with open hearts, and a smile whenever possible, often turn out to be quite lucky.

Folks, we welcome your comments and participation.

The post What Everyone Ought to Know About December appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Before the pandemic, about half of America’s workers characterized themselves as under-employed. Most are hard-working and conscientious but with each passing year, their work becomes more difficult and less valuable. As an election year sweeps past us, we have yet to find one member of either dominant party providing true leadership on the challenge of underemployment. They make promises when the nation’s workers need guidance, understanding, and encouragement. On that front, Germany, China, Japan, South Korea, and Canada are way ahead of us in making sure their citizens have the current skills necessary to continue building their lives as well as their country’s economy.

Over here, we dismiss their best practices as socialism.

That brings up the need for all of us to take deep responsibility in having a relationship with our work that works. Without that, times will be tougher than before.

Many business owners have even greater difficulty with change because to do so requires a stack of additional challenges. I gave a keynote to a group of petroleum entrepreneurs in Canada. At the time, the global energy market was under siege and the Q & A centered around their challenges. I brought up the fact that petroleum will come back in fits but overall, it will decline as consumers will lose interest. I added that if they didn’t change the world, their children would.

Ouch!

I have promised good news.

We spend an enormous amount of time in our culture studying dysfunction, bad news, and pain. But, there is an entirely new tribe of business leaders that is reshaping how we view work. Today’s social entrepreneur insists on growing businesses by making a solution to a world problem profitable.

That day in Canada, I posed a question:

“What is Al Gore up to these days?”

For one, he is making tons of money. In 2019 his net worth doubled from $200Million to $400Million. This happened because several venture capitalists from Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley’s legendary Kleiner Perkins that have been working with Vice President Gore in making green energy more profitable than petroleum, natural gas, and fracking.

All of this began by realizing the only way to create vast and sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest problems, we have to make the solution itself wildly profitable. Today, the start-ups that Gore and his partners invested in had to get through one of the most vigorous vetting processes that require pristine business plans, fully competent management teams, and strongly engaged oversite.

Peter Diamandis, the pied piper of social entrepreneurs, says, “If you want to become a billionaire, help a billion people.” Peter’s brilliance as well as the smarts that are common to our new board insists that it is no longer enough to just make money. The new icons change the world by helping others. In Los Angeles, Diamandis is the co-founder of X-Prize. The organization began when Richard Branson made an announcement offering a truckload of money to the first engineering team that could come up with a feasible way to provide access to commercial space travel.

A close friend of Branson, Peter saw an opportunity to bring this funding model into solving problems where sustainability has proven elusive. After launching X-Prize, Diamandis and his team have been bringing in billionaires and companies to fund solutions to our biggest problems. Just a few examples include the 4ocean, the machines that are now cleaning plastic from our oceans. They recently funded portable CatScan and MRI devices, that are saving thousands of lives in third world countries by being able to get a diagnosis rather than taking a critically ill patient through hours of difficult travel.

Why am I so excited about this segment?

For one, they are my new tribe and most of them have jobs.

We launched Inspired Work in 1990. Over the years thousands of people have used our program to launch new careers, start their first business or go back to work with a solution to a big problem. Of the thousands of changes that have occurred with our participants, the most common thread is meaning. One of the truths about life is the only meaning we can use is the meaning we define for ourselves, which is beautiful and unique each and every time.

Our new company workskunk will help solve underemployment by making the best possible programs available without charge. Inspired Work will still be here, but that audience has differing needs and expectations. But there is urgency and meaning to solving the problem of underemployment. When people look ahead and cannot find a place where they will make a good living, of course, we will find turmoil.

My office is in the center of Silicon Beach. I am looking at organizations like HBO, Cornerstone on Demand, Interscope, and Sony Music. While editing this article, we also watched a family walk through the neighborhood. One parent was pushing a shopping cart filled with two kids. The other was pushing a shopping cart with their belongings. This is what I mean by urgency.

I hope that America is still the most abundant country in the world. But, it feels like our country is going through one of the most untoward periods of adolescence in the world. The movement of social entrepreneurism is based on the recognition that running a business to just make money, that’s for people who still don’t care. But, we also insist on making the kind of money that pushes innovation past the old decaying formulas.

We are in the midst of a huge restructuring and task-based jobs are going the way of the mainframe computer. If you are one of the many millions of people impacted by this change, stop waiting. Learn how to change as quickly and as humanly as possible. Then, go do it.

We might have to become more skilled in drawing attention to ourselves. Many of us run from the possibility of getting hurt feelings, but the alternative is starvation. In many cases, the prospect of staying in jobs that are in decline is spiritual starvation.

I get to work with social entrepreneurs. Some of them are devoting their lives to curing cancer and other horrific diseases. One of my clients pulled me into his lab and turned back to say, “Welcome to my temple of hope.” I don’t know about you, but that is far more compelling than being in an environment that is there solely for shareholder value. Other clients are engaged in bringing cost-free higher education to everyone that has a computer or tablet. Others are focused on net-zero reality. What I find time and time again, is that finding the work that matters to us is the first and most important into this new future.

What I hope to convey here is that it is time for many of you to find your way in from the cold and to come up with a solution for work that has greater value than simply paying the bills. It isn’t enough.

I used to be nice about this subject called work. But, when the pandemic hit, many of those jobs that slid down the rabbit hole and will not be coming back. If that is impacting you then this is the time to change, to find your way into a new life, and to develop the faith as well as the courage to take action.

To summarize:

If it is time to change, look for a target that provides for your family, that nourishes your soul, and that brings meaning and purpose to your life.

Do that and one day you will look in the mirror and see redemption.

The post The Best News About Work – Ever appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

As I listen to their kindness, commitment, empathy, care, watchfulness, and contribution, I realize this is what most of us need to move forward.

Calling each other stupid isn’t cutting it. Always believing in scarcity is what it is:

Not enough for all of us.

A couple of years ago, I met my birth father for the very first time. I spent the day with him and his lovely wife. Then, I flew home. After settling in, one of my partner’s first words were, “What are their political views?”

I looked at him just a little surprised and said, “I don’t know.”

We talked about the values that exist above politics. At that moment, I realized how much I craved that kind of world. It is one where we respect each other’s beliefs, values, and outlooks. Of course, some of you are already feeling cynicism and contempt over this message. But, the real purpose of cynicism and contempt is to kill off change.

At the very least, I had to let go of cynicism and contempt and replace those filters with humility. It isn’t the brand of humility that requires falling to the ground and berating myself; it is the commitment of openness and receptivity to growth.

Much of my adult life was spent getting rid of the white-male-pissed-off God of my childhood. Today, when someone prays, I know he or she is praying to my entity.

During my first book tour, an evangelical radio station kept bringing me back for more interviews. One morning, one of them asked me to describe my spiritual philosophy. I respond, “My outlook is that I cannot differentiate my ass from a hole in the ground.”

Einstein used to stand in the front of a classroom, and he drew a circle on the chalkboard. Inside it, he wrote the word “known.” Outside the circle, he wrote the word “unknown.” Then, he drew a much larger circle with the same terms and pointed out that every time our circle grows, we become more aware of all that we don’t know.

When we protect our circle of “known” no matter how small it might beT, we will never know just how big we are.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2020, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post The World Above Politics appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Alvin Toffler – Futurist

Love & hate cannot occupy the same space.

Trying to hold onto erroneous beliefs and truth is temporary. One will crowd out the other.

The United States has fallen into a wormhole in our collective ability to differentiate truth from the corruption of ego. I will stick to my wheelhouse, which is the importance and life-changing opportunity from transforming our relationship towards work.

First, this is my truth.

When we believe that forces beyond our control are the reason we are under or unemployed, we will not succeed. Time and time again, I have witnessed that the lives we want to have are within reach. When we take the initiative, perhaps even the seemingly psychic risk of finding that life, we help the pursuit become more attainable for everyone around us.

When we believe that our children will have fewer opportunities than we did and we dare to voice that without qualifying if it is true, we could be crippling their future. I’m reminded of Mrs. Barone on MadTV, who was on her 70th cigarette of the day, saying, “Three husbands dead from lung cancer, and none of them smoked!”

A few years ago, research for my last book uncovered truths that quickly led to a conviction that the most significant source of our country’s turmoil is that far too many people have little confidence in their livelihoods.

Before the pandemic, we touted a 3.8% unemployment rate while about half of our country’s workers suffered from underemployment. Many of them were holding onto task-based work that becomes cheaper every day. What is striking is that coming out of our nation’s deep-seated malaise about work is that the new world of work offers greater meaning, freedom, creativity, and financial abundance.

Sadly, none of our political leaders are teaching and inspiring the underemployed to become far more contributive to what used to be the most stable economy in this world.

Lest anyone feel getting everyone into the future of work is impossible, I have sobering news. China, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and Canada have highly developed strategies to keep their workers up-to-date with accelerating change. Our leaders characterize the partnership between education, government, employers, and workers as “socialism,” they simply view their success as “good business.”

Many of us view Alvin Toffler as the most celebrated futurist from the last century. In 1971, his book, Future Shock predicted that advancing technology would accelerate change and that by the turn of the century, most people would be in a state of “future shock,” a trance brought on by trying to absorb too much change in too short a period. He made a case for what we call today as active learning. It is the practice of staying abreast of the best aspects of change. In other words, rather than wrestling with the change, we use change to our benefit and the world around us.

He added that tomorrow’s successful workers would be adept at learning, unlearning, and relearning.

How on earth do we unlearn? Why is that so important today?

When we tell our children their future will be more bleak, far too many will listen. The smartest and rebellious kids will usually leave, often in a huff.

We begin to let go of obsolete thinking when we become aware of it. This is why self-inquiry is so very important. Most of us have been trained, since birth, to use cynicism and contempt to avoid the fears that accompany actual change.

I was fortunate to have a learning experience, unlike any other.

When I was 18, I was blessed to study piano performance at USC with Daniel Pollack. He had just returned to California from The Juilliard School of Music. A combination of study, practice, harsh criticism and love for the music forged a new me. One day, I purchased a copy of Herbie Hancock’s concert album at the Lincoln Center in New York. I stayed up all night listening and studying every note. I was blown away with the notion of playing music that came from a deep place within my soul rather than replicating someone else’s music from a different time. The next morning, morning, I walked into Pollack’s studio at Adam’s House. Half of the music school was housed in a mansion from the turn of the century. He closed the big roller doors. I sat down behind the Steinway concert grand and he asked what I wanted to play.

Silently, I opened my backpack and handed Hancock’s album to him.

Then, I quietly announced, “I want his job.”

His response made it immediately clear never to bring up that topic again.

My love for original music continued to grow, but I was having enormous difficulty getting past the programming that came out of years of repetition and the unwavering pursuit of perfection.

One day, a rock star friend told me of Phil Cohen. He was the head of The Leonardo Project at Concordia University. Phil worked with some of the world’s most famous jazz and pop musicians. She said, “He has this gift of finding whatever it is inside of you that is getting in the way of your freedom and helping you let go of that forever.” Several times each year, Phil traveled to Europe, Asia, and the United States. He would spend a few weeks taking his clients into these in-depth sessions.

One day, the call came in. He was in Los Angeles and had one opening. The next afternoon, I was sitting in a recording studio with a guy who looked a bit like a Jewish stand-up comic. He had an eye condition and wore sunglasses indoors. On his head was a small Fedora hat. Phil waved his hand towards the piano and said, “Play something.” I gave him a little ballad I had written, sad, filled with angst, and surprising substitute chords.

When finished, Phil peppered me with questions.

“You studied with Daniel Pollack at USC?”

“Yes.” You spent hours every day in practice rooms.”

“Yes, until my hands were bleeding.”

“You even did the Russian Exercises sitting on the floor.” Once again, I nodded.

At that, Phil leaned forward and pronounced,

“You need an emotional enema. If you hope ever to play one note of living music, you are going to have to forget everything you have learned.”

I was probably ashen white when I said,

“I don’t know how to do that.”

He looked over the top of his sunglasses and added,

“Then, there’s hope.”

Over the next few years, Phil invited me to play anything that I was working on or that came to mind. He had this inner radar that zeroed in when an obstacle got in the way of full expression.

He would ask questions like, “Why did you play that passage with such strange phrasing?”

“I felt that more complicated phrasing would be more interesting.”

“What does that thinking have to do with music?”

Sometimes, he would tap me on the shoulders and asked me to point where I was holding a block in my body.

“Try it again. But, this time, play it from here.”

During the next few years, I learned how to unlearn, and the result was performing in the best jazz clubs in town and the courage to be spontaneous because the obstacles were gone.

Today, I find that most everyone has challenges moving forward into new work territory with confidence and freedom.

When we are afraid of a suggestion or a new reality, one of the best ways to recognize what’s happening at the moment, for example, if the new idea, no matter how true, brings up cynicism, we might talk ourselves out of taking any action at all.

If we respond with contempt, then instead of merely being afraid of that change, we might be terrified. It is in that millisecond to kill the idea with contempt.

The more familiar we become with this mechanism, the less power it holds over us. But, familiarity also requires self-inquiry. The mere idea that some of us have become so afraid that we prefer to adopt a delusion is a measurement of how desperately our country leads leadership about work.

I have had many compartments in my life, partially because I feel that when we are here to help other people to have breakthroughs in their lives, all that we share about ourselves ought to be there to move that person forward. One of my friends and strategic partners is Cynthia Loy-Darst. Cynthia is a pioneer in training and developing members of the coaching industry. One day, she dropped by my home. At the time, my concert grand took up most of the living room. She asked if I would play something for her, and when I finished, Cynthia looked me in the eye and said, “I have always wondered about the source for Inspired Work. Now, I get it.” I smiled and replied, “I hope I haven’t lost all sense of mystery.”

At the rate the change takes place today, I believe that we need all of the help that we can get. As per Phil Cohen, his gift was of universal value. For years, he gave lessons at our home because it had the most excellent piano. Often, I would hide in the hallway looking through the slats of the door watching music legends play that piano. But, he gave all of them what he gave me. He gave us the dignity of finding what was in the way of our best creativity without implying there was anything wrong with us.

Just a few years ago, Phil passed away. He was one of those rare individuals who was so clear of his purpose that he never apologized for his idiosyncrasies. Phil only took the work that interested him. In his later years, he built UCLA’S projected music program in Florence, Italy. He reorganized the music conservatory system in France. And yet, it is his work in founding the Leonardo Project that will impact the world. In it, he brought together some of the world’s greatest minds to study and articulate the physical, psychological and spiritual organization in high-level performance.

Almost all of Phil’s relationships began with that simple nod,

“Play something for me.”

Today, when someone comes to me for a breakthrough in their professional life, I say,

“What do you want to accomplish?”

And, I think of him.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2020, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post The Man Who Taught Me Unlearning appeared first on Inspired Work Services.