A Story Takes on the Stigma of Entrepreneurial Failure

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When my daughter was in public school, she struggled with tests–which was a constant source of pain for her. I continually pointed out to her that she could not give her power away to a system that made up arbitrary rules about intelligence—and, that had, indeed, little intelligence itself. But this never penetrated. The stigma around failing is so effectively baked into our culture’s nervous system that it has not been rooted out of her.

I venture to say that goes for the rest of us, as well.

Last fall, I read multiple books by Silicon Valley stars. I wanted to see how, as I think of it, the “other continent of entrepreneurs” is raised. (Our continent being the one of internet marketing and coaching/consulting.)

The philosophy prevalent in Silicon Valley affected me. I’m sure you know their motto–which has been criticized, but that nevertheless has inarguable wisdom in it: Fail fast, fail often, fail forward.

They are—if not always succeeding, at the least attempting to create a culture where shame of failure is replaced by pride in failure. It is encouraged! Why? Because their position is that those who fail to do something bold will one day succeed at doing something bold.

At the end of this reading marathon, (The Lean StartUp by Eric Ries; Getting to Plan B by John Mullins and Randy Komisar; Bold by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler; Zero to One by Peter Thiel), I emerged from the waters that tech entrepreneurs swim in every day…healed in some way. They have constructed an alternative universe with new rules work that work for them (as far as I can know, as an outsider)—and that can work for us all.

It is not a Silicon Valley philosophy. It is universal wisdom. They have simply been bold enough to put it into practice.

If they can do it, we, too, can remove ourselves from the childish system in which we’ve been raised, which demonizes mistakes, and reach instead for a reality based on a truer paradigm that has space and enthusiasm for failure.

With those books metabolized within me, many tributaries began to converge. I thought of all of the clients who come to me, tattered and worn because the system told them what to do to succeed, but still, they struggle. And worse than any financial concerns they have, they carry shame over the failures because, according to the system, success is easy. They’re left with no other perception but that something is wrong with them that it has not been.

I was delighted to see Eric Ries put a name to this nefarious system, calling it the “mythmaking industry”—and I was surprised to find that Silicon Valley has it, too. But, oh, how pervasive it is in the coaching/ consulting/internet marketing industry! Every day the vulnerable become prey to their puffed-up claims.

And that’s when an idea for a fable-novella was born whose central theme would be about the stigma of failure and its twin, shame—and whose key solution to business struggle would be its banishment, tapping into some of what Silicon Valley teaches, as well as much that I do.

wolfleavesthepackOver the next six months, the story unfolded of a lone wolf named Wolf, who leaves The Pack and Status Quo County to make a dent in the universe. It is a classic hero’s journey of trials and tests, fear and second-guessing; wisdom and triumph over the enemy—and the final “return,” where transformation is realized and shared with others.

I wrote The Tale of Wolf, His Snake Oil and a Skunk specifically for our “continent of entrepreneurs,” who are prey to our particular mentoring industry and too often do not achieve its promises. Who have a great idea, but discover it doesn’t “just sell itself”; who have more passion than there are stars, but the money does not follow. Who work hard yet still struggle. And worst of all, who never give up. (The story explains why that is the worst myth of them all.)

I also wrote this for my daughter, whose world-view I seek to shatter every time I text her, “How did you fail today?” Then, congratulate her heartily for whatever her response.

And I wrote it for myself because I am much too hard on myself for even the slightest so-called failure. Among having other missions, I want to help create a new world where failure is exalted because it is the sign of daring heart and mind, and where shame is vanquished by a new strength of Self. This is when we will know we live in a society of true strength.

It begins with Wolf, His Snake Oil and a Skunk, which will be available soon—in a very unique form. Stay tuned for more details!

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Will I (And All Experts) Be Out of a Job in 10 Years?

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This summer, I went in search of my Next Big Thing. I’ve been feeling uninspired for a couple of years in my business and knew something needed to change. I began reading a lot of books by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and new ideas began to form.

Astro Teller, who heads up GoogleX, an internal think tank at Google, coined the phrase “moonshot thinking” to mean the ability to not merely think out of the box to arrive at innovation–but out of our known atmosphere.

I began posing questions to myself that stretched my imagination—not out of the atmosphere, perhaps, but certainly out of my normal thinking—and that necessarily required looking at the future of society. When I work with subject-matter experts to develop their thought leader brand and messaging, we cover the future because one must be a futurist to stand on a thought leader platform. However, I’ve never had them project societal changes ten years down the road; the questions I presented to myself did that.

And the answers I arrived at set in motion a very new direction for my work and I couldn’t be happier…though they also revealed a possibility that I will be out of a job in a decade or less. And maybe you, too.

One of the questions that brought me this insight is on page 12 of a new workbook I developed, which you can have at no cost by clicking her: Unleash The Brilliance of Your Next Big Thing!

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The question was, What major changes are likely to happen over the next ten years in key societal areas?” So, I considered the areas of “education,” “religion” “politics,” to name a few, and concluded with–“my field.”

I’d already considered the current zeitgeist (spirit of the times) and when I looked ahead, I could see one phenomenon in particular exploding. I call it “crowd connection” –and I think you know just what it is because it’s everywhere: strangers connecting, both online and in wildly popular in–person Meetups.

If “crowd connection” is this strong just ten years after the birth of social media, which is wholly responsible for this exploding event–how powerful will it be ten years from now?

But there’s more to “crowd connection” than just connection–and it is in this that I see untold potential. Today, crowds are coming together to solve problems that were once only the domain of government, churches or big business. They’re educating the poor in developing countries (instead of the educational system), as well as making entrepreneurial ventures possible there. The crowd is paying medical bills for those who can’t afford to; putting successful pressure on dictators and college administrators. Open-source niche crowds are together materializing world-changing innovations—Wikipedia being just one small example.

There’s been a lot written (pro and con) on the “wisdom of crowds”—how accurate a crowd can be versus an individual—but what’s happening now isn’t about the wisdom/accuracy of crowds, its about the ingenuity of crowds. I call what we are witnessing now “crowd genius,” and we haven’t even begun to tap its potential. Think about it: “crowd connection” is in its infancy. Can you imagine what we’ll be doing together when we’ve had a few more years of experimentation under our belts? A few more decades?

When I take to imagining it, I experience a profound joy because I am an anti-establishment kind of gal; “buck the system”; “leave the pack”—“power to the people not the few” and all of that. In time, “crowd genius” has the power to crowd out the establishment and bring us a far more equitable world; it has already begun to do so.

So, as I was working out the idea for my Next Big Thing, I took what is happening now with “crowd genius” and projected out ten years to answer the question: What major changes will be happening in my field (advisory/education roles) over ten years–and my response surprised me.

I had to confront the possibility that there won’t be a need for subject-matter experts to advise or educate others—because collective genius will be more powerful, more creative, more inventive than one advisor or teacher. If the (more progressive) branches of our educational system are already shifting teachers into “guides on the side” rather than “sages on the stage,” it stands to reason that within ten years, that expert businesses everywhere will either be obsolete or in “on the side” roles, facilitating the brilliance of the collective.

But we’re not all out of jobs yet. (Smile) The truth is that today there still exists a need for “sages on stages”–for your knowledge and expertise—and for mine, in helping subject matter experts construct their ideas, strategies and thought leadership narrative. As likely as I believe the future scenario is, another truth will also likely prevail: no matter how ingenious the creative group mind can be, the blind leading the blind will always be trouble. We can always learn from those who’ve gone before.

Yet, in response to the zeitgeist of our times and the future I foresee, I find myself compelled to design a new way to do my work, to blend my “sage from the stage” role with “collective genius,” so that solo proprietorships build the most extraordinary businesses and Next Big Things.

In this new model, represented in my 10X series, I will bring the encyclopedic knowledge I’ve amassed from being in business for fifteen years and use it to focus a group on only the most important business projects. Focus has been proved to precede “flow”—a phenomenological state where performance goes through the roof; it is high-speed problem-solving.

Imagine the possibilities for an already “genius crowd” when it is guided into flow through focused attention on certain business tasks–to build 10X (10 times) better businesses? This is my new calling.

And it brings to mind one of my favorite movies of all times, Witness with Harrison Ford, and one of my all-time favorite scenes, when all of the men in town gather to build a neighbor’s house. It gets me every time I think about it.

We are in a time when “barnraising” one another’s dreams is our now and it is absolutely our future. Building businesses as lone wolves will very soon be as old a practice as sparking fire with sticks.

Join me on the front lines of this future: where together we will go farther than we could ever go alone.

And be sure to register for the first-ever free online collaborative “idea lab” January 5!

What do YOU think. Will you be out of job as an expert in 10 years?

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