This 
Sky
Where we live
Is no place to lose your wings
So love, love,
Love.
Archive for the 'Business Brilliance' Category
16
Mar
12
This Sky ~ Hafiz
Through this blood veil, the lover sees a beautiful walk
Reason says, There are only six directions: north, east, south, west, up, and down.
There is no way out of those limits.
Love says, But I have many times escaped.
Reason comes to a marketplace and begins haggling prices.
Love wanders away with other business to transact, something to do with incomparable beauty.
There are secret things happening.
Hallaj listens to whispers and walks off the speaker’s platform onto a scaffold.
Dreg-drinkers have love perceptions that reasonable men fiercely deny.
They say, we cannot go barefooted in that courtyard. There is nothing but thorns through there.
Love answers, The thorns are inside you.
Be silent, and pull what hurts out of your loving’s foot.
Then you will see gardens with secluded rose bowers, and they will all be inside you.
Shams is the sun obscured by this cloud of words.
Maybe he will burn the overcast off and let love clear and brighten.
Related Posts:
07
Sep
11
Core Ideology : It’s a Big Deal
Originally posted Strategy Stream 8/25/11
Within each of us is the ability to influence and make the world a better place.
Core Ideology typically means the Mission, Vision, & Values of a business entity. The ideology then acts as a communication to stakeholders, from employees to investors, about what the company will always hold to –the guideposts from which to act.
The Mission, Vision & Values of an entity can be created by a solo-prenuer and then shared with others as his / her empire grows, or the ideology can be created by partners, board of directors and / or a mixture of who the business entity representatives are at this crucial setting down of the declaration of who the company is.
An influential study by Collins & Porras resulting in the book Built to Last written in 1994, makes the case that companies that go on beyond the founders have done so by standing by the initial core ideology.
It is noteworthy that in the majority of these company’s statements about ideology, there is a common thread of inspirational loftiness and intentional well-meaning.
There is a fundamental ideal or “knowing” of an ability to influence, adjust and make the world a better place.
At the core or essence of each of us is this knowing. There is that center, that divine spark that has access to the infinite and the ability to master the material.
It is this essence, coupled with a business core ideology, that not only will drive your business to wild, fulfilling success,
the combo contains the unique ability to be a powerful Source of Good; championing a philosophy that positively influences.
Here’s Strategy Stream’s Core Ideology
Here’s Whole Foods’ Core Values
Here’s an example of someone who has taken her philosophy and shared it in a simple, compelling, marketable way
Read more about creating a core ideology that makes a difference in the world in the eBook Becoming a Source of Good
Related Posts
14
May
11
Be the Guiding Light
Though pretty much everyone wants to be a force for good, few have seriously questioned themselves on what exactly that means. It’s not surprising; figuring out who you are at your core in relation to your business can seem a difficult task.
But, formalizing your core values and beliefs is an essential part of creating a business that is a force for good. When things start moving quickly and decisions need to be made, your core values and vision are your guiding light.
The guiding light you hold consistently presents to the world who you are at your core and that you love this core. It is essential that you lovingly present the core of yourself; otherwise, it will be impossible to ask others to love you and what you are doing.
Take a moment to ask yourself some leading questions about the guiding light of your business. If you’re not in a reflective space right now, you may want to come back to this exercise later when you have some time to put real thought into it. So consider…
- What/who is most important to you in the world?
- Why did you choose to get into this particular business?
- What values (e.g., trust, honor, love, and hospitality) are most important to you?
- When was the last time you were a powerful influence for good? What elements were involved in that situation?
- In your wildest dreams, what legacy would you like to leave behind?
Use your answers to these questions to establish a brilliant and inspiring core business ideology. It may shift and change, and that’s okay. You will probably rewrite your business ideology multiple times before you settle on a version that seems right to you. Be sure to include what influence you would like your business to have and what values you would like your business to personify…
and Shine On.
Related Posts
Make Love to the World with Your Strategy
26
Apr
11
Mighty-Ocean-in-the-Drop
The great poet Rumi said, “You are the mighty ocean in the drop”. A reverse from the usual phrasing of this imagery – often we’re told we’re “only a single drop in a mighty ocean”. What does it mean to be the ocean in the drop?
At its core, this line of poetry means that you, yourself, are a magnificent and powerful force. You have everything you need contained within you.
This is hard for some of us to believe.
To become a powerful force for good, many people believe they need outside influences to make them better. They need to learn from a great teacher, for instance, or they need to pile up the accolades and accomplishments so that others take them seriously.
Not so. The ocean within you inherently swells with immense power.
You have everything you need and are capable of achieving everything you have hoped. The key is acknowledging and loving this simple truth: then you are authentically loving yourself and can project this love out into the world.
You are the center of a powerful creation, and as such you have a responsibility to honor the ocean within you and bring it to the forefront of everything you do – especially your business. Your business may be the best tool you have to influence the world – and yet, if you do not acknowledge that you have that source within you, that tool could go to waste.
You owe it to yourself and all you will influence to honor the ocean within you – and learn what it is you are truly capable of accomplishing.
Related Posts:
Gathering testimonials and case histories from happy customers is an easy way to show prospective customers exactly what you can do for them.
If you’ve ever watched the Home Shopping Network or seen an infomercial—and been tempted to buy—then you understand the power of testimonials. Typically there’s an instantaneous increase in the number of sales when real customers are seen or heard testifying as to how beneficial a product or service has been for them. Truth sells—and you can’t get closer to the truth than when it comes from someone who’s had a real-life experience with you, your service and your company. If you’ve got happy customers, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting them to talk about how pleased they are with you.
Case Histories vs. Testimonials So what’s the difference? In a nutshell, testimonials are simply positive statements from your customers. They can range from brief kudos—”These guys saved my job!”—to longer recountings of how the product or company has performed impressively. Remember, the more well-known or networked the testimonial-giver, the more powerful the words and the impact.
In a case history, you tell a story, demonstrating the problem faced by your customers and how your product or service solved the problem. Good case histories are rich in detail, including explanatory photos, charts and graphs when applicable. They use the real names of the players, and, of course, they end happily.
Gathering Testimonials One of the best ways to get prospective clients to buy from you is to introduce them to other satisfied customers. Ask your most satisfied clients whether you can interview them about the positive experiences they’ve had with your product and company, and record it with a video or digital camera. You can then load the videos onto your site and, with just the click of a mouse, prospective customers can play them back. If you’re ever talking with a client and they give you a great compliment, ask them to put it in writing so you can use it on your site. Received a nice e-mail from a satisfied customer? Ask them if you can put it in the “testimonials” section on your website, or have them add an update status on your Facebook business page.
Drumming Up Case Histories For case histories, keep your eyes and ears open for an interesting, amusing or revealing use of your product or service. When writing them up, remember that each case history should be brief and focused on just one or two of your product or service’s benefits. And don’t make each one sound like all the others. Give them enough character and personality to make them readable, without sounding like a prepared advertisement. Consider collecting case histories as an ongoing project. Every three months, compile a list of client projects that may make interesting case histories.
Finally, remember that the process of collecting testimonials and case histories is also a good way to do on-the-spot market research. You’ll learn a lot by asking for feedback. This also affords you a way of keeping in touch with your existing customers. Just calling for a “testimonial update” is a sure way of staying connected to your clients—and helping them remember just what a great service you have.
Compiled from an article written by Barry Farber Entrepreneur and from Knock-Out Marketing by Jack Ferrari
Related Posts
Deliver Happiness with your Social Media
Deliver Transformative Services
Following are three easy ways you can let the universe know you are ready to receive:
1) Make it as easy as possible for the universe to deliver
The universe will try to find a way to get you what you want even if you sit at home with your wish. Someone might just knock on your door and that’s the person or client of your dreams. But that may happen after a while, say, ten years time.
So it is better to really open up to all the possibilities of getting your desires manifested. You should truly show to the universe that you are ready: brighten up, create a business a plan, go out to meet your future partner & clients.
2) Have the right mindset
Make sure you have no limiting beliefs left in you that might prevent you from getting your desires.
Deep down, for example, you may feel that money is actually bad, or that it makes people worse off or that you are not ready to be wealthy.
Deep down you know that with wealth comes much bigger responsibility and you might not be ready for that. Yet you are not willing to bring this fact out of your unconscious mind. So you get all kinds of problems and situations preventing you from the free flow of abundance.
If this is the situation you are in, you should remember that these limiting beliefs are all created by you and they can be overcome. However, you will need to really question yourself about what kind of limiting beliefs may be holding you back.
Or you can use another method for eliminating limiting beliefs, which are positive affirmations. Affirmations should be repeated daily and you should select a completely opposite statement to that of your current limiting belief.
3) Be specific
When you know exactly what you want, the universe can create definite plans as to how the thing that you want will manifest in your life. So if, for example, you want to manifest a house, then you should know where the house will be located, how many rooms it has to have, how the garden will look like and so on. You should see it as clearly as you can in your mind so that it would look real to you already.
When you are specific about what you want, you clear up your vibration and therefore you emanate the vibration to attract that specific thing in your life.
Examples of how you can use the law of receiving
To manifest money be ready and expecting all kinds of income sources, people giving you money and finding money on the street. You should say to the universe: ‘I am completely ready to receive plenty of money into my life’ and be happy and truly ready to receive it.
To be happy – say to the universe that you are completely ready to receive happiness and be aware that it can come at any time. Look out for clues and signs of happiness so that you would know that you are on the right track.
To become focused/goal oriented – every day write in a notebook (or a separate gratitude journal)how grateful you are for the universe for your ability to become better and better at focusing and accomplishing goals. This acts as an affirmation and starts a change in you.
Final observations and advice on the law of receiving
When you do not notice the results of your intention, do not get frustrated. Sometimes it takes time for your desire to manifest, and that is absolutely normal. You should keep being ready no matter what you do because your desire can reach you at any moment.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. The same applies to the law of receiving. As soon as you are completely ready to receive your desire, it will come in no time. As if it was always there, just waiting for you to be ready.
Sourced from: Simona Rich http://www.personal-development-coach.net/law-of-receiving.html
Image of “Metatron, Receive”
Acrylic and gold gesso on canvas, 5 x 5′
© 2010 James F. Jereb
All Rights Reserved.
Top Ten Reasons to Embark on a Planning Journey
Related Posts:
Allow Business Basics to Work for You
Make Love to the World with Your Strategy
I recently had the opportunity to facilitate an Energy Patch Ceremony (EPC) with a client (an hour-long ceremony based on James Endredy’s work, found in his book Beyond 2012).
Fundamentally, the EPC is about creating an energy patch for everything that drains you and/or takes away your attention. The energy patch allows you to focus on the business at hand, while at the same time organizes you towards eliminating energy drains in perfect timing on the physical plane.
The New Year represents not only a time to embrace our ideals and aspirations for the future, it is a time to let go of old energies which may be lingering to make way for the new. The start of a New Year presents an opportunity to turn our attention to the energetic remnants lingering from the past for a fresh start of the new year.
The following 3 tips (excerpted from Christan Hummel’s best-selling book, the Do It Yourself Space Clearing Kit) will empower you to sweep out the old and make way for the new:
1. Ceremony : Ceremony is a time when we honor life, the seasons, and those aspects of living beyond the physical. It brings us in touch with the worlds beyond our everyday, and reminds us of a vastness of Life beyond our immediate attention. Make time for ceremony in your life and you will open a doorway into another dimension beyond this one allowing fresh new ideas, inspiration and energies to flow into your business.
It could be a simple ceremony like a ribbon-cutting ceremony to initiate new energies, or popping of the champagne cork to signify the bringing in of the New Year. Whatever the ceremony, when you do it with intention and awareness that ceremony heralds in the energies of your intention in a much more profound manner than when we simply and perfunctorily perform the same act.
2. Consciousness : Where we put our consciousness, we put our life energy. Find the aspects of your business where you have vacated your consciousness; those “dead zones” that you pretend are not there, or wish weren’t. For some people it could be tax returns that are not completed, old business relationships that went sour and have remaining bitterness, or simply letting go of worrying. Put your consciousness into that energy, with intention, and yes, even ceremony, and notice the MAGIC that happens when you do! Energy flows where attention goes!
3. Cycles : There is a rhythm to Life, a time for growth, and a time for death. Cycles are important to observe: moon cycles are often used for planting, cutting hair, beginning new projects. Similarly, observing the cycles of the sun of day and night, being more active during the daylight hours, and winding down in the evening when there is less energy available. As well there are the larger seasonal cycles, solstices, equinoxes, and the times in between them (what the Celts called the cross quarter days.) When we are in tune with and align consciously with these cycles of nature, the rhythm of Life, we find more harmony and balance in our lives.
The season of Winter is a natural time to go inside–hibernate in the cave like the bear–reflect, pull our energies inwards, a kind of death to the old, so that we can go forward in the Spring with new energy and enthusiasm unencumbered by the past. Then, beginning on Feb. 1st (Ground Hog’s Day) we enter the cycle between the Winter Equinox and the Spring Equinox, a time traditionally honored by the Celts as the time to plant the seed of the new idea so that it may sprout in the Spring. When we follow these cycles, we harness the Life energy of the planet begin to dance to the same beat of Life. So by paying attention to the cycles of Life, we begin to work with them to receive the gift of their energy.
As these tips demonstrate, we can dramatically clear and shift our energies; providing sanctuary to reflect our highest intentions and dreams (read all 6 Feng Shui Space Clearing Tips).
Christan Hummel travels internationally lecturing and teaching people how to access nature in a co-creative spirit. For more information see www.earthtransitions.com
Related Posts
I discovered Men with Pens several years ago and have been on-goingly impressed. I am truly excited to now be working with them (look for my new web-design in 2011!) Their renegade style coupled with substance resonates with me.
A recent post on the MWP blog hits the mark regarding the importance of doing your business, your way. Following is a excerpt:
If you want to build and grow and succeed in business….you need to stretch your thoughts and think beyond what you’re being told to do.
Get those textbooks from all the experts, sure – but use them as a springboard, a starting point.
Muse, ponder, ask questions, explore. Contemplate what’s being done and what could be done differently, or better. Think about what works for other businesses and compare that to what might work (or won’t fit) for yours.
Don’t assume the experts have all the perfect answers and template instructions to success – they only have the perfect answer of what’s worked for their business. You can replicate some of what they’ve done, sure, and you’ll achieve a certain measure of success, yes.
But imagine what might happen if you went beyond what they did.
Find your answers – not the “right” answers.
Poke at the “what ifs” and explore calculated risks. Try out new ways of pulling in clients or getting raves that no one has done before. Be untrendy and reject what’s cool. Look instead for what’s smart or efficient or effective. Chase money and results, and leave extra work and expenses in the dust.
If you want to succeed, you have to question the “rules” and the “musts” that other people tell you. You need to improve on textbook methods and rote strategies to reach even better results. MWP Post “Are You Barely Passing with Your Business Philosophy?“
Remember the basics, look deep within and design your own strategies for success!
Related Posts:
Allow Business Basics to Work for You
March of this year I posted the following with a favorite Rumi poem:
Find the real world, give it endlessly away
Grow rich, fling gold to all who ask
Live at the empty heart of Paradox
I’ll dance there with you, cheek to cheek
Your Dawn in me I’m drunk, stammering
A thousand thousand words go dark
Lightnings are dark to us to this:
Identity’s boundless worlds-wide blaze. Why Rumi?
The pic is a photograph of a sculpture made from circuit boards, glue, and paint titled “Lofty” by Bexar Oliver. My husband and I have commissioned Bexar to do a small sculpture for us –we choose what old electronics to give him and he creates an integrated piece –cool!
!! UPDATE !!
Bexar’s work, “Lofty” pictured here, has been selected as one of three Houston Arts Month Finalists!! The winner of the Houston Arts Month contest will be featured on the cover of the Official Houston Visitors Guide and a regional newspaper insert distributed to 1 million households.
You can vote for Bexar to win by clicking the link below. Be sure and hit the submit button!!
<http://www.visithoustontexas.com/houston_arts_month_contest_voting>
(You can see the sculpture Bexar did for my husband and I in my Facebook page notes –it really is amazing)
Related Posts:
