3 Life Transforming Vuja Daze Strategies

Vuja daze is a word I use, based on d?j? vu, to describe new, extremely valuable experences and ideas. In The Student Success Manifesto, which you can get for free as an ebook, I talk about it more in-depth.

This article will focus on three power strategies for incorporating vuja daze into your life:

1. Creative Destruction. Over the years, I've come realize an important distinction in openness, passive openness vs. active openness. Many people say they're open to new ideas, but never are exposed to them. How many people actually take accountability for exposure to new ideas by seeking them out and creatively destroying old ones? Tom Peters, a bestselling author whose every new book I read, delivers speeches quite a bit. Although he could reuse the same speeches from year-to-year, he makes it a point to creatively destroy and reinvent at least 10% of his presentation. What parts of your thinking are you creatively destroying and reinventing?

2. Full Spectrum Dialogue. It is a habit for many of us to seek out knowledge that simply reaffirms what we already know. After all, it feels good to be right. However, doing this cuts off entire bodies of knowledge from us and limits our growth. I remember sitting in on one of John Sexton's (president of NYU) classes when he made two points that have stuck with me:
   • "We live in a world where people can always find what they're looking for." - In other words, be careful what you look for, you may find it. Are you looking for truth or are you looking for something that simply fits in with your existing knowledge and beliefs?
     
   • Later in that same class, he warned of the potential dangers of the following quote from a member of the Bush campaign, "The problem with John Kerry is that he doesn't see things in black and white." In other words, be careful when you draw lines in your life when you say something is absolutely true and decide that its veracity cannot be challenged. Many topics of debate simply do not have an absolute right or wrong, true or false answer. Understanding different vantage points can help you understand where others are coming from. Realize the complexity of knowledge and the dangers of simple answers.
   
   
3. Paridigm Transformation and Extension. In my opinion, there are two different types of vuja daze that are very valuable:
   • Paradigm Transforming - Is the new experience or idea one you've never experienced or heard of with the potential to revolutionize your worldview! I always know I'm in this realm when I'm reading a book that introduces lots of new vocabulary. To me, each new word is amazing. At some point in history, an individual or group of individuals came to realize that they did not have a word to describe something meaningful they were experiencing or trying to understand. By coining the word, they improved the effectiveness of their thinking and communication. To reach the present day, culture had to find the word valuable enough to spread and ultimately accept.
     
   • Paradigm Extending - This is more of an evolution of your worldview, rather than a revolution. Take politics for example. Paradigm extension would be if a Republican decided to sincerely explore and understand Democratic Party points of view. In contrast, paradigm transformation might be a political leader exploring the world of business.
   In the end, both paradigm transformation and extension can be extremely valuable. What can you read or who could you talk to today that would transform or evolve your worldview?

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October 26, 2004

Benefits of Building Your Mentor Network

There are a number of ways to learn in the world. You can buy books, attend seminars/conferences/events, take classes, read articles, participate in on-the-job training, and much more. With all of these methods, one essentially learns from somebody who has more experience than you. One often under appreciated method is mentorship.

Benefits of Mentorship

1. Introductions. Build a relationship with an individual where you can not only get knowledge, but introductions to other people.

2. Customized Knowledge. As opposed to a book or school where the curriculum is controlled, you can ask specific questions that are of interest to you or get feedback on your goals and strategies.

3. Understand the Individual. Research shows that 7% of communication is what you say, and that the other percent is how you say it. Having phone and one-on-one contact with mentors can provide valuable contextual information that helps you determine that validity of their knowledge.

4. Letters of Recommendation. As you build a relationship with the individual, you can ask them for recommendations to scholarships, schools, and jobs. Sometimes this can even go farther to an actual call if the individual personally knows individuals in the organization you're applying to.

5. Free Food. Although you should always offer to pay when you take a mentor out to lunch, 95% of the time they will pay. This beats paying thousands of dollars for one class at a university.

6. It's Easy. You'd be extremely surprised at how easy it is to set up a mentor meeting with individuals, even when you're cold calling. Many people are extremely willing to help ambitious, hard-working young people. Read my article, "Use Your Youth To Your Advantage" for more information on this.

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October 19, 2004

Our Deepest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson, excerpt from "A Return to Love"

There are those moments when just by thinking a thought it becomes a reality. You may have thought the same thought many times before, but with no effect. But this time something else is different and 'if' turns into 'when'. Religious people call it a conversion. Secular people call it a moment of clarity.

1. It could happen when someone sees injustice, the same type that others see, but for some reason it touches them at such a strong level that they devote their life to alleviating it.
   
2. It might be years of drunk driving, and then one serious accident where the individual knows they will never drink a drop of alcohol again.
   
3. In physically violent relationships that are held together by fear, it could be the strength to leave.
   
4. In a dead-end job one has had for years, it could be the decision to relocate and pursue one's passion.

I don't know what causes these moments exactly. Some people never have them, some people have them on a somewhat regular basis. I know for me, these moments have shaped my life. Living between these specks of time becomes the easy part when I remember the power of the commitment I made.

I believe that we all have the moments boiling up inside of us and that we probably are already aware of them on some level. Something that brings it out for me are when I fully visualize and experience the following questions:

1. If I pursued the path I'm on right now, what would my life look like in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? On my death bed?
   
2. What opportunities will I have missed because I did not plan, prioritize, and pursue my own vision today?
   
3. How will this effect the people close to me? my unborn children? the world?
   
4. What is my ideal life in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? On my death bed?
   
5. What do I need to change to reach that vision today? now? here?

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October 17, 2004

Young Entrepreneur Conference

Sheena and I are speaking next week at the Young Entrepreneurs Summit '04 near Washington, DC. Registration is free and there are some great speakers. If you're in the area, stop by.

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October 11, 2004

How People Perceive You Matters!

For example, today I spoke at the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship conference. People treated me nicely beforehand, but once I got up and spoke, people treated me much better and much more seriously. Teachers and administrators asked a lot more about the book/workbook and talked about including it in their curriculum. I was still the same person, but people's perception of me changed. This is exactly what happened with The Student Success Manifesto ebook when it was originally published. People thought it was interesting that I had written an ebook, but when people saw a professionally produced physical copy, we had 1,200 sales in two months.

I also think clothing is critically important. It really is true that dressing for success brings success. At the same time, I've seen people in business who are very successful dress down. By doing this, it seems like they're implying, "I'm so successful I don't need to dress up" or "I'm successful, but I'm still down-to-Earth." So, dressing down and carrying ones self in the right way might actually make people think you're more successful. I've seen this done well by some people, but it's generally hard to pull off. One person who comes to mind is John Sexton, the president of NYU. Most of the times I've seen him he's wearing hiking books, corduroy pants, a sweatshirt from his former high school, and a Yankees baseball cap. I don't think he dresses like this by mistake.

Unfortunately, people start off in different places economically, physically, and culturally. Some people have an accent that makes them sound less successful. Some people are born more attractive. Yes, it sucks, but I think people need to work with what they have. One's greatest differences or unique aspects can actually be turned into strengths. By doing this successfully, one actually changes the system for others. Rather than complaining about how things are unfair, one could change oneself to produce the results they want. At the time, it is important to do this without basing one's self-image or happiness on what other people think (I know, easier said than done) or the success might actually be counter-productive.

In the end, for the better or worse, people do seem to judge a book by its cover, whether it be a product or a person. Sure, some people are really good at seeing through the exterior to one's potential, but most people aren't or don't have enough time. The wait until someone "discovers" you might be a never-ending one.

Think about yourself as a product or as a brand and ask yourself the follow questions:

1. When people think about you, what do you want them to think?
   
2. How can you create your brand in a way that people will want to tell others about you?
   
3. How do you want to position your brand compared to other people?
   
4. How will you change what you dress? How you act? How you talk?
   
5. Who is your target market and how can you expose them to your brand? events? speaking? strategic volunteering?

I think answering these questions can not only help individuals in business, but can help anyone find and develop incredible friendships, acquaintances, contacts, and significant others.

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October 08, 2004

My Current Business/Life Philosophy

1. Decide what you want to accomplish.What's important to you? What are you passionate about pursuing? What benefits do you expect the accomplishments to bring?
2. Learn the best way to get there.
   • Learn from the past experiments (experiences) of yourself/others if the results are still valid, and/or
   • Methodically and rigorously choose and perform your own new experiments
3. Attract resources (money, people, etc.) through mutually-beneficial exchanges.
4. Build a measurement system that tells you the effectiveness of your actions.
5. Apply the resources in the way you planned (perhaps modified because of limited resources).
6. Observe feedback from measurement system.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 with lessons learned.

In short, the philosophy is, "plan, prioritize, and pursue your own evolving vision in every moment to create a life of passion, purpose, and prosperity."

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