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The Entrepreneur’s Deadly Diet: High in Copy Cat Fats
February 4, 2013 by Lizabeth Phelps
We know that things in our diet make us sluggish: white flour, sugar, saturated fats. But what makes our thinking and creativity sluggish?
Let’s take a look at why we eat what is bad for us: it’s comfortable. It serves us in some way–and because we don’t want the pain of losing it, we justify maintaining the status quo. We look around at the immediate feedback we’re getting from our bodies and our environment and conclude that we’re still safe. No diseases cropped up in the annual check-up, so Big-Macs and Marlboros clearly are not so bad. We give ourselves permission to do what we know kills us slowly because right now, we’re doing okay. We tell ourselves that the experts are overreacting. And best of all, that we are special, carrying immunity against all of the predicted dire outcomes. Cancer schmancer. No signs of it here. Puff. Puff. Chomp. Chomp.
All in service to feeling good with the status quo now.
The fact is, we’re doing this with our business diets, too: stubbornly ignoring how sluggish we’ve become in our thinking and creativity. We look around and say, “Hey, business is still pretty good,” or—far more common, whether business is good or dismal: “Everybody’s doing it, so I’ll do it, too.” The immediate feedback from our businesses and surrounding environment tells us, phew, we’re still safe.
But we’re not. The business landscape such as it is is not safe anymore, and yet too many are still lulling themselves to sleep, thinking they can continue to do what has always been done and be okay.
First and foremost, owning a business is not about “being okay,”—it’s about being outrageously innovative. Why be in business if you’re not going to leave a legacy?? If you’re in business for the money, go get a job. Entrepreneurship is for thinking and creating unlike everyone else. But far too many—especially in service businesses and online—have forgotten this and are giving themselves permission to conform, to do what kills them slowly, because they’re serving how they feel right now and believe they have a special immunity against predicted dire outcomes. Failure, shmailure. I’m not dead yet. Copy. Copy. Wait. Wait.
Here’s the deal: every single organized industry in our society is imploding. And within ten years, will collapse entirely. I’m referring to educati
on, banking, government, publishing, corporate/business, media, religion, healthcare. The reason they’re collapsing is because the way they’ve always worked, no longer works. They’ve been oligarchies, and with the emergence of the internet, power is slipping like sand through the hands of the few, directly into the hands of the people. Whether or not it is stated in our nation’s constitution, we are becoming a land of “we the people.” Everything is changing. What the man on the street could not do in the Oligarchy Paradigm, because the Powers That Be made the rules, he can now do because “rules” are disappearing.
If you want to heal, you now have a chance to do it better than any industrialized, mechanized prescription your doctor would give you—because the internet has removed the rules. If you want to be a best-selling author, Amazon and Kindle can get you there. iTunes and YouTube can kickstart your rockstar career. Because of Etsy, you can make a living as an artist.
There is a changing of the guard happening right now of such magnitude, and at such speed, it is understandable that most might be stunned into blindness about its implications. But it is time to wake up.
This is not a post about the virtues of the web, or even about our growing empowerment. I am writing it to make a single, emphatic point: nothing is the same as it was three years ago. And as entrepreneurs, especially my tribe of Inspired Leaders, there can be NO mirroring ANYTHING of the past! Nothing of the past is relevant. Everything is changing over—and everything you conceive must be born out of “nothing.” From a blank slate, as an artist would. Seth Godin is right when he says in his (fantastic) and latest book, the Icarus Deception, that those in business in this economy must “make art.”
Artists create from blank canvases. But few in the world of business are doing that. They’re taking pre-fab canvases from others, or canvases from their own past endeavors, thinking that adding a few sprays of new color to them will attract a new crowd.
This is the wake-up call: very soon, nothing of the past is going to be in our future. As a species, it is as if we are systematically wiping the slate clean, washing our civilization of everything that is ineffectual. If, as an entrepreneur, you still think, create and act from within that Oligarchy (Old) Paradigm, everything of yours will collapse, too.
It is time to change your diet completely, no excuses.
The only way to survive now, (let alone thrive) is to slap yourself out of your sluggishness; stop feeding (and slowly killing) yourself on the fat of what others are doing, or on what once worked.
What “is now” will NOT “be so” in the future. Everything that once was is dying. Everything that “will be” is being born now from nothing.
You may be “doing okay” right now, but you are not safe.
Not until you destroy your rear view mirrors.
Burn every bridge back to the Old (Oligarchy) Paradigm.
Trust your intuition and create from it.
Not until you pull out a canvas that has never been used and
…Copy. Absolutely. No. One.
Steve says: “There is a changing of the guard happening right now of such magnitude, and at such speed, it is understandable that most might be stunned into blindness about its implications. But it is time to wake up.”
Exactly Lizabeth, Exactly!
Time is off the essence…
Robert Gough says: This sure makes one think… will the powers that be let go so easily of that power? Will the people gaining this new power exercise it wisely? I must admit that there have been times I was glad we have a Republic form of government rather than a true Democracy (people, especially en masse, don’t always make the best decisions). AND I’ve been thinking about Location, Location, Location lately…. if “nothing of the past is going to be in our future”, how will this change for businesses that rely on this mantra for selecting a store location? I suspect that some physicality will trump the new order of things, but the smart entrepreneur will find a way to marry the two. Thanks, Lizabeth, for boost of creative thinking.
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Lizabeth Phelps says:
Very intriguing question, Robert: will the new order of things change the future of physical locations. I think you know the answer…and I bet you have a creative solution, too!
Peter O'Donnell says: Lizabeth This article displays fully Your genius for making the complex, simple.
The notion of nothing from the past will work in the future is startlingly obvious, when You look at it, or it is pointed out . Going forward I feel that trust, be authentic, and genuinely being of service will be the selection criteria of doing business with anyone.
That the “Oligarchy Paradigm ” will fall by the wayside is a great thing for humanity. Good for genuine people with a heart and soul to be in business. Good for the general population. The ” Oligarchy ” is really about cartels . It is all that is ugly in business. When You think cartel You think of it being all that is the opposite of service, contribution and genuine value. It is about greed, and corruption. The energy makes a school yard bully look a saint in comparison. The energy is very dark and repugnant. It repels. It has the feeling of plague and pestilence. Monsanto is the poster company for the results , of this greed and corruption. Although the banks are giving them competition in the corruption stakes.
Humans are tied of the lies and deceit . People being real, honest and of genuine service opens up new energies to humanity. These energies are light, inviting and attract the good.
This also creates tremendous opportunities.
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“Going forward I feel that trust, be authentic, and genuinely being of service will be the selection criteria of doing business with anyone.” Amen, Peter. The new way of things will be taking us back to the old way, really…before the Industrialist, as Seth Godin calls it.
Chris Weigl says: Lizabeth,
Excellent post. I am hoping to be one of the smart ones who will make the best use of my skills as an artist to create a new life and business for myself. As long as you are working for someone else or exchanging your time for money as a freelancer, I don’t think you can ever truely reach your potenial greatness. You are just the hamster on the wheel of life – get up- go to work- come home- eat dinner, watch tv- repeat. This is no way to live, yet millions of people just settle for this existence, never reaching or striving to really live an authentic passionate life.
Passive income is the way to go, of course, but for most is a very difficult task.
But as you point out, everything is changing and the world is our oyster. We can do whatever we what, we have the power to control our future and our destiny.
I see the future of business shifting and changing to that of social enterprise and social entrepreneurs, and that is the direction I am heading.
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I’m glad to hear you’re going in the direction of social enterprise, Chris, and getting out of the Cog-machine!!!!! We’re here cheering you on!
Leesa Renee Hall says: This should become a manifesto and shared with everyone. Just yesterday I visited a colleague’s blog and while the design looked awesome, it was dead-stamp copy of one of my former mentors. Only the colours and the words were different. Copying sucks and we should all aim to be an original.
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I know exactly what you mean, Leesa, about websites…and about sales letters…and worst of all, about business models!! ALL the same out there. Manifesto…good idea! 🙂
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