Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Actual for You - How Selfish Are You?
When you got started in your business, did you envision yourself getting trapped in the overwhelm of it all? OR did you get into business to make things easier for you?If your business pays you by the hour (meaning if you don't work you don't get paid), then you're just a glorified employee, and it's time you got more mileage out of the business without compromising the quality of life you desire.On my wall I've pasted a statement that says 'Less work, Less effort, More impact, More money'. That is the principle that guides my business efforts. And because that principle is on my mind at all times, I continue to get ideas of how to bring it about.I would like to share some ideas with you. It doesn't matter what your business is. You can create various sources of income from it, that bring you passive income and give you more time to enjoy the fruits of your labour.The underlying question that I ask myself is 'how can I create passive income streams that *serve* even more clients than I could possibly reach on a one-to-one basis?' As long as I keep my thought process outbound (focusing on how I can 'serve' as opposed to how I can 'get'), the answers come flooding back.Ideas For Creating Multiple Streams of Passive Income. ====================================================- Write a book and sell it online or offline. No, this is not as hard as it sounds. You are an expert at what you do. So why not tell the world about it? I've always said that 'if you can talk, you can write'. You don't have to be a literary genius to write a book that people will enjoy and benefit from.Another easy way to 'write a book' - assemble a collection of articles you've written over time and pa
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn
While music to a lawyer’s ears, at least to his wallet, this phrase should make every business person cringe. Litigation absorbs time and money, often astonishing amounts of both. Worse, it signals a major breach in what is presumably a valuable relationship. Worst of all, it means the business problem the contract was meant to address has not been solved. Instead of one problem and a plan to resolve it, you now have two, neither of which will add to your bottom line. Avoiding such a situation requires time, thought and some effort, but all are a worthwhile investment if they produce a transaction that moves forward smoothly and efficiently.Let’s explore some of the common causes of deal failure:• The vendor is dishonest. (Customers may also be dishonest, but that raises issues outside the scope of this essay.)In some ways, this situation is the easiest to deal with. The more blatant the vendor’s misconduct, the easier it is to “pull the plug” and look for an alternative vendor. Time and money will still be lost, but the customer who acts promptly will at least limit his or her losses. If the vendor is dishonest, but conceals it well, is incompetent yet earnest, customer may attempt to nurse the project along, allowing losses to mount. (Of course, a vendor who is honest but in over his head may eventually admit the fact and negotiate a buy out, thereby avoiding the need for either side to proclaim “So Sue Me.”)• Happily, genuine vendor dishonesty is relatively rare. More frequently the parties have almost complete power to avoid contractual disputes simply by negotiating and documenting their agreements thoroughly. That requires time and effort, and it requires each side to leave their comfort zone and ask “Wha
There are abundant belief systems which set STS and STO in conflict with each other, usually favoring one over the other.
First there’s the STO-favoring side. Serving others requires the “death of the self.” The ego is seen as something which must be transcended. In order to become enlightened, one must sacrifice one’s own needs to serve the greater good. Many societies hold people who seem to fit this model in high esteem.
On the other hand, we have the STS side. People are inherently selfish and cannot be expected to act against their own self interest. Selfishness is rooted in our biology, even encoded into our genes. We’re ultimately Pavlovian stimulus-response machines driven by pleasure and pain. Those who seem to serve the greater good only do so because on some level it gives them pleasure, or they’d feel pain if they didn’t.
I think both viewpoints are dysfunctional. They assume STS and STO are in conflict. But are they really?
Where does STS ultimately lead?
What would happen if you were to fully embrace the STS path and take it as far as you possibly could? What would be the most selfish life you could possible imagine? What’s the greatest pleasure you can think of?
Would you become like Hitler and want to conquer the world and put everyone and everything under your control? Ok, so imagine you’ve just become the supreme leader of the planet. Then what? What would you do with all that power? If you didn’t have to keep struggling to maintain it, you’d probably get bored after a while.
For many people the STS path is rooted in fear. The more money, control, and power you achieve, the more fearful you become of losing it. The pursuit of greater power is endless. Your situation is never totally secure.
But what if you could somehow master this path and achieve total, absolute security? What would you do then? What would you do if you had no fear?
Perhaps you’d want to contribute something… make some kind of difference… leave a legacy. If fear and security ceased to motivate you, then what would step in to take its place?
I think the pursuit of STS, if you think it through far enough and imagine yourself succeeding at every step, will eventually lead you to some form of STO.
Where does STO ultimately lead?
But what if you start from STO? What if you put others entirely above yourself? What if you aspire to make the greatest possible contribution you can, whatever the cost to you personally? Where will that lead you?
Imagine you succeed massively at serving others. You’ve cured every known disease, rebalanced the ecosystem, ended poverty and suffering, and maxed out everyone’s self-esteem. You’ve solved all the problems of humanity. No one even needs your help anymore.
What will you do then? Enjoy it? Work on yourself for a while? Won’t this eventually lead you back to STS?
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn’
There are many telecommuting jobs available in the area of telephone customer service. Compared to many positions, they are easier to get, because many of them provide on-the-job-training and require little experience. Most of theses companies offer flexible hours, and usually require between a twelve and forty hour workweek. Some even offer benefits. Other companies consider you an independent business owner or contractor.When considering a telephone customer service job, you should have a separate phone line for business purposes, a headset phone and possibly a high-speed internet connection (depending on the company, some require this).There are two basic types of phone customer service positions: inbound and outbound. If you have an inbound position, you are waiting for calls to be transferred to you by the company that are initiated by the customer. In outbound service, you are given a list of customers to call. These are pre-existing customers, instead of cold calling.Alpine Access is one company that hires inbound customer service employees. They provide customer service via phone, e-mail and chats. They require any prospective employees to have high speed internet, a landline and a phone with a headset. They do pay every two weeks (average of $9 an hour) by direct deposit and offer benefits after three months. They are only hiring in a few states, despite being a telecommuting position, so be sure to check if the opportunity is available in your state.Customer Loyalty Concepts hires outbound phone customer service employees. They focus on two main types of business: newspaper subscriptions (renewals) and business-to-business sales, with the goal of increasing the client base. They require employees to have unlimite
On the other hand, we have the STS side. People are inherently selfish and cannot be expected to act against their own self interest. Selfishness is rooted in our biology, even encoded into our genes. We’re ultimately Pavlovian stimulus-response machines driven by pleasure and pain. Those who seem to serve the greater good only do so because on some level it gives them pleasure, or they’d feel pain if they didn’t.
I think both viewpoints are dysfunctional. They assume STS and STO are in conflict. But are they really?
Where does STS ultimately lead?
What would happen if you were to fully embrace the STS path and take it as far as you possibly could? What would be the most selfish life you could possible imagine? What’s the greatest pleasure you can think of?
Would you become like Hitler and want to conquer the world and put everyone and everything under your control? Ok, so imagine you’ve just become the supreme leader of the planet. Then what? What would you do with all that power? If you didn’t have to keep struggling to maintain it, you’d probably get bored after a while.
For many people the STS path is rooted in fear. The more money, control, and power you achieve, the more fearful you become of losing it. The pursuit of greater power is endless. Your situation is never totally secure.
But what if you could somehow master this path and achieve total, absolute security? What would you do then? What would you do if you had no fear?
Perhaps you’d want to contribute something… make some kind of difference… leave a legacy. If fear and security ceased to motivate you, then what would step in to take its place?
I think the pursuit of STS, if you think it through far enough and imagine yourself succeeding at every step, will eventually lead you to some form of STO.
Where does STO ultimately lead?
But what if you start from STO? What if you put others entirely above yourself? What if you aspire to make the greatest possible contribution you can, whatever the cost to you personally? Where will that lead you?
Imagine you succeed massively at serving others. You’ve cured every known disease, rebalanced the ecosystem, ended poverty and suffering, and maxed out everyone’s self-esteem. You’ve solved all the problems of humanity. No one even needs your help anymore.
What will you do then? Enjoy it? Work on yourself for a while? Won’t this eventually lead you back to STS?
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn
Guilt is a killer, a killer of our joy, our peace, and our enjoyment of intimacy with God. If Satan can use guilt (which our Lord has already taken away) to use as a wedge to separate us from God, his strategy to take us as a captive in the battle is secure. It makes no difference to him that the guilt, separation, and captivity are imagined and not real. This is vividly described by the popular Christian author Hal Lindsey."One of the most successful tactics the demons use in neutralizing their enemies (the Christians) is to get them to dwell on all of their failures. Once they begin feeling guilty about their performance in the Christian life, they are no longer any threat to Satan's program."Things haven't changed much in Satan's tactics. Why should they?He's got a winner."There's nothing Satan likes better than to get a believer started on a guilt trip."As I look back over my own life, I realize that guilt is a handle that the Devil constantly tries to grab to steer me. One classic illustration that comes to mind happened to me my third year in seminary. One fellow was a real close buddy of mine. We had had three years of great times together. Then I borrowed some money from him. I told him I would be able to pay him back in about two weeks. "After a week went by, I began to be concerned a little about where the money was going to come from to pay him. But I had another week to work on it, so I wasn't too worried."The second week went by, and I just couldn't raise the money anywhere. I felt kind of strained around my friend, but I didn't bring the subject up because I'd hoped he'd forgotten what the date
Would you become like Hitler and want to conquer the world and put everyone and everything under your control? Ok, so imagine you’ve just become the supreme leader of the planet. Then what? What would you do with all that power? If you didn’t have to keep struggling to maintain it, you’d probably get bored after a while.
For many people the STS path is rooted in fear. The more money, control, and power you achieve, the more fearful you become of losing it. The pursuit of greater power is endless. Your situation is never totally secure.
But what if you could somehow master this path and achieve total, absolute security? What would you do then? What would you do if you had no fear?
Perhaps you’d want to contribute something… make some kind of difference… leave a legacy. If fear and security ceased to motivate you, then what would step in to take its place?
I think the pursuit of STS, if you think it through far enough and imagine yourself succeeding at every step, will eventually lead you to some form of STO.
Where does STO ultimately lead?
But what if you start from STO? What if you put others entirely above yourself? What if you aspire to make the greatest possible contribution you can, whatever the cost to you personally? Where will that lead you?
Imagine you succeed massively at serving others. You’ve cured every known disease, rebalanced the ecosystem, ended poverty and suffering, and maxed out everyone’s self-esteem. You’ve solved all the problems of humanity. No one even needs your help anymore.
What will you do then? Enjoy it? Work on yourself for a while? Won’t this eventually lead you back to STS?
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn
LLC is an abbreviation for Limited Liability Company, which describes one way in which a business owner can choose to register his or her organization. The specific rules that govern the founding and maintenance of an LLC vary from state to state, but in general an LLC is a company that exists for the duration of a partnership between two or more businesspeople, whereas a full corporation is an independent entity that can have a rotating leadership. Although an LLC is not as permanent as a corporation, it can help simplify the process of doing business, and can offer some financial protection to the partners involved. An LLC is relatively simple to set up, and in most states requires much less legal paperwork and registration fees than the founding of an S or C type corporation.In some cases, a single person may serve as the entire board of an LLC. Many self-employed people decide to spearhead their own LLC for tax purposes. In addition, an LLC can help you separate your personal debts and assets from those of your business. Doing business as an LLC rather than as an individual can make quite a lot of financial sense, so if you are currently working as a freelancer or as an independent contractor, you may find it well worth your while to look into how your state regulates LLCs.As an employee, working for an LLC is in most ways the same as working for any kind of company, so unless you are founding a business you probably have no cause to worry about the intricacies of how an LLC is different from a full corporation. However, the laws governing the distribution and sale of stock options for an LLC are different than the rules a corporation must abide by on these fronts, so it is a good idea to become as educated as you can about these is
I think the pursuit of STS, if you think it through far enough and imagine yourself succeeding at every step, will eventually lead you to some form of STO.
Where does STO ultimately lead?
But what if you start from STO? What if you put others entirely above yourself? What if you aspire to make the greatest possible contribution you can, whatever the cost to you personally? Where will that lead you?
Imagine you succeed massively at serving others. You’ve cured every known disease, rebalanced the ecosystem, ended poverty and suffering, and maxed out everyone’s self-esteem. You’ve solved all the problems of humanity. No one even needs your help anymore.
What will you do then? Enjoy it? Work on yourself for a while? Won’t this eventually lead you back to STS?
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn
In the real estate business, you need to take steps to make your home stand out from those around you. Here are some thoughts on perks that get buyers interested.From the perspective of the average buyer, hunting for that perfect home is both exciting and excruciating. Even with the advent of real estate sites on the Internet, buyers spend an inordinate amount of time looking at homes that simply do not fit their vision. Once they find a good area, they face the task of deciding between homes. In our modern society, developments tend to have one, two or maybe three styles of homes. These styles are repeated over and over with the only real difference possibly being landscaping.In such a situation, you need some advantage over comparable homes in the area. There is a reason they are called “comps”, and it can be difficult for buyers to make a decision. Given similar homes and prices, they may decide on the interior d?cor even though it will go with the seller! To make you home stand out just a bit, which could be critical, consider offering the following perks when possible.Overall, you want to offer flexibility. If you are up front with it, buyers tend to view you in a better light. Offer to go with a fast or slow closing depending on their particular needs. If they have not lined up financing, offer to put them in touch with your mortgage representative. Heck, offer to let them store stuff in the garage while closing occurs since they are probably stressed about moving at the same time as wrapping up the purchase.An area where you can really stand out from the crowd is an allowance. A buyer is committing to a large amount of debt to purchase your home. Inevitably, they will nitpick over various aspects they are not crazy
Synergy between STS and STO
Now I’m well aware that you’re not going to be able to max out the STS or the STO path within the span of a human lifetime. There will always be more to do on either side. But this line of thinking got me curious — if maxing out one side leads you back around to the other side, then what does that mean?
To me this indicated that STS and STO both lie on the same path. When you travel to the end of one, you hit the beginning of the other. Perhaps STS and STO are far more twisted together, like a giant Mobius strip.
Biologically this made sense to me. In order for humans to survive, STS and STO must be in balance. If we became totally STS but not STO, we wouldn’t care for our young (among other problems), and we’d eventually die off. If we became totally STO but not STS, we’d fail to take care of our basic needs and would probably die from neglecting our health.
In order to be optimally STS, you must be at least partially STO. And in order to be optimally STO, you must be at least partially STS. Sometimes being selfish is the most selfless thing you can do, and vice versa.
If you want to serve the greater good, you have to serve your own needs. You have to take care of your health, your financial needs, your education, etc.
If you want to serve your own interests, you need to support the community around you which will help you succeed. At the very least you may do this financially, by buying products and services from other people.
Diagnosing congruency problems
STS and STO must remain in balance. It isn’t a matter of choosing one path over the other. You need both.
But what about situations when they’re in conflict? Certainly I don’t deny such situations exist. But rather than spending lots of time trying to figure out when to choose STS and when to choose STO, I suggest trying to work on your life path itself to bring STS and STO into greater harmony.
For example, suppose you’re in a situation where your job is almost entirely STS. You do it for the money or for other perks or for a feeling of security, but your work doesn’t serve the greater good in any meaningful way. Suppose your company manufactures junk food, the kinds of products that are only going to harm people’s health in the long run. But your company (and you) get paid to do it.
Then in your off time, you do volunteer work, spend lots of time with your family, and so on. In your personal life you try to be a lot more STO.
STS and STO are in conflict. They’re not in balance.
How many companies do you know like this? The work they do is almost entirely STS, serving the needs of the company and its investors, but then they also dabble in community service projects and slap a cutesy mission statement over the whole thing. Internally they’re driven by one set of values (mostly greed), while externally they project a different set of values (mostly service).
This is pure schizophrenia.
If you find yourself in a situation like this, you can start by getting clear about where you’re overly STS and where you’re overly STO. Where are you being driven too much by self-interest and damaging others in the process? And where are you sacrificing too much and hurting yourself?
No cheating
When many people find themselves in an unbalanced situation, they try to cheat.
They attempt to redefine STS or STO to fit their current situation. For example, a greed-driven corporation may try to come up with a cutesy mission statement that casts an STO light on its business goals. But no one buys it. It’s nothing but a whitewash and has no real power to motivate people. Most of the corporate mission statements I’ve seen from Fortune 500 companies fall into this pattern. They’re written with such fuzzy, imprecise language so as to say nothing of substance. I’d give them more credit if their missio
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.actual4u.com/article/282956/actual4u-How-Selfish-Are-You.html">How Selfish Are You?</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.actual4u.com/article/282956/actual4u-How-Selfish-Are-You.html]How Selfish Are You?[/url]
Related Articles:
You Will Love The Greatest Vitamin In The World
Heartburn Remedies - The Top 5 Heartburn Remedies
Bookmark it:
|