Risky is the New Safe (12 page)

Because you would probably grab what you needed and get out of there as fast as possible. It would just feel creepy. You would wonder
why
no one else was there and whether you should be there. Did something happen? Is there news you don't know about? If someone asked you about the mall later, you'd tell them not to go there, because no one goes there anymore. You need the
social proof
of other people shopping there to make you feel comfortable to shop there yourself.

People go to stores and malls because those are the places that people go to. So the challenge for online retailers will be creating vortal sites (virtual online portals), and even more so, apps that people want to spend time on, because that's where everyone hangs out.

It's still going to be about the three Cs: content, commerce, and community. But the definitions of these are changing. Here's the question you'll want to ask: How do I create the Mall of America in cyberspace?

Like many situations, the real winners may be the entrepreneurs who come from outside the space, because people in the status quo can't see beyond it
.

In the book
Flash Foresight
, author Dan Burrus relates a fascinating story of speaking to the National Booksellers Association in 1993. He predicted that within two to three years, a huge, successful virtual bookstore would open that would transform the way people shopped for books. He suggested it could be one of the members present, but likely would not be, because they were already invested in the brick-and-mortar store model.

No one in the room took him seriously because most of them hardly knew the web existed. But it was only two years later when an outsider named Jeff Bezos launched
Amazon.com
.

When is the last time you looked at your business and your industry as an outsider would? What decisions would you make if you weren't biased by investments or processes you already had in place?

Eighty-eight million baby boomers are entering their retirement years. People are living longer and retiring later. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

The hectic pace of work and life will continue to accelerate. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

That hectic pace means that fake foods, fast foods, frozen foods, and microwaved foods will continue to increase as a percentage of our diets, which in turn means high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes will continue to increase. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

Those health challenges and the explosion of pharmaceuticals and medical care will likely cause a backlash and drive a renaissance toward natural foods and healthy living at some point. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

At some point, all this technology and 24-hour-a-day electronic connection and stimulation will get old, and people will hunger for an unplugged lifestyle. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

We will continue to mix marriages and blend races, eventually getting to a standardized brownish race across the globe. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

Someday soon, another planet that supports human life will be within distance through space travel and people will start migrating there. What challenges will that create and what opportunities will it present?

How can you move fast and what can you break?

There is a fascinating section in
The Master Key to Riches
where Napoleon Hill lists the items required from the periodic table of elements to construct the human body and estimates what it would cost to buy them. Even with today's inflated prices, you can probably still replace yourself for less than 20 bucks. Or at least you can replace that housing that you're walking around in. So what really separates you from that $20 worth of ingredients you can purchase from the science supply website?

I would suggest
consciousness
, which leads us to an even more fascinating question: What makes us conscious of consciousness?

The ego
.

Your ego is really what separates you from the elements that comprise your physical body. It is your sense of judgment, defense, and memory. It helps you organize your thoughts and make sense of the world around you. Yet conventional wisdom says the ego is bad. It has been characterized as everything from
e
dging
G
od
o
ut, to running amok, to actually being the devil.

Yet when you look at Hill's magnum opus,
Think and Grow Rich
, a mesmerizing realization jumps out at you: The people on whom he did his powerful 20-year study—a cross section of the most successful people in the world—all had strong egos.

From Ford to Firestone, Wrigley to Wannamaker, Bell to Edison, Schwab to Carnegie, Woolworth to Rockefeller—they were powerful, strong-willed, confident people. People with healthy egos.

Fast forward to some of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Meg Whitman, Michael Dell, Ross Perot, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Oprah Winfrey.

Have you ever heard any of them accused of being egoless?

If we leave the world of entrepreneurs and look at politics, sports, or even the arts, we see the same pattern: High-level achievers have a strong ego. You can make a pretty convincing argument that a powerful ego is required for powerful success.

Yes, we all know people with an inflated sense of self, but that's not what the ego really is. An easy way to discern egomania is by the desire to control others. When you're trying to control others, that's a sure sign of an
unhealthy
ego. Likewise, when you see someone always talking about how great and amazing they are, that's an ego running out of control. And it's not because they're cocky or confident. In reality it's just the opposite.

Narcissism and self-absorption come from insecurity. People who are always boasting about themselves to convey confidence are actually insecure. They don't have a healthy ego, and are acting that way to hide their fears.

People with a strong, well-balanced ego want to be great. They don't have to brag about it or look for validation from others. That's because people with strong egos are usually their own strongest critics. Their drive is internal and intense. They see stepping into their greatness as the natural progression of their path in life. For them, it's about getting to that next level of development, and they're comfortable with being recognized for that. They don't make it all about them, and certainly they get involved in service and contribution, as we'll discuss in a moment. But a strong ego is necessary for high levels of success and prosperity.

To really step into your true potential and do something epic, you must lose the perception that ego is about vanity or self-love. Instead, understand the real ego is simply the part of your mind that controls consciousness.

Let me suggest something that will cause consternation with some, but I absolutely know to be true:

The desire to be great and to be recognized for being great is healthy
.

Anything less is living a life of mediocrity, and to accept mediocrity is simply not an option for people with a healthy ego.

Just doing enough to get by or taking up permanent residence on a plateau of comfort would be turning their back on their potential. And that would be an affront to everything meaningful to them, from their self-esteem to their creator.

Doing something great requires having a strong ego. The key is controlling your ego instead of it controlling you. When you take charge and direct your ego, it can play an important role in achieving your purpose in life and helping you reach great accomplishments. This necessitates becoming “the thinker of the thought” and consciously developing and controlling your ego to create the kind of life and success and prosperity you want.

I saw a fascinating interview with Mike Krzyzewski, who is coaching the latest version of the Dream Team, the USA Olympic basketball squad. He was asked how he gets these superstar athletes to check their egos at the door. His answer was quite illuminating . . . He said he didn't expect or want his players to check their egos at the door. In fact he desires his players to have ego, but he wants them to channel that personal ego into the team ego. That holds a powerful lesson for us all.

There is much to be learned from how genius entrepreneurs channel and harness their ego to attain results. Here's an excerpt of what Napoleon Hill says on the subject in
The Master Key to Riches
:

An Edison develops and guides his ego in the field of creative investigation and the world finds a genius whose worth cannot be estimated in dollars alone.

A Henry Ford guides his ego in the field of automotive transportation and gives it such a stupendous value that it changes the trend of civilization by removing frontiers and converting mountain trails into public highways.

A Marconi magnetizes his ego with a keen desire to harness the ether and lives to see his wireless communication system evolve into the discovery of the radio through which the world becomes akin, through instantaneous exchange of thought.

These men, and all others who have contributed to the march of progress, have given the world a demonstration of the power of a well-developed and carefully controlled ego.

One of the major differences between men who make valuable contributions to mankind and those who merely take up space in the world is mainly a difference in egos because the ego is the driving force behind all forms of human action.

Liberty and freedom of body and mind, the two major desires of all people, are available in exact proportion to the development and use one makes of the ego. Every person who is properly related himself to his own ego has both liberty and freedom in whatever proportions he desires.

A couple things jump out about that excerpt. The first thing you might have noticed is he is speaking exclusively about men. That's simply a reflection of the bias of the times. Today we find both men and women at every level of the workforce, so the point he makes applies to both genders. Were he writing that book today, you'd certainly have no problem envisioning Oprah in that discussion.

The other important thing about Hill's insights is the focus upon the positive results produced. In each case he is referring to the “valuable contributions to mankind” that resulted. Even more interesting is to hear Hill, one of the most positive people of his generation, use the language “taking up space” to describe a certain type of person. He's using the term to illustrate the contrast between people with an unhealthy ego versus driven people with a healthy one.

A critical element of a healthy ego is making a conscious decision to do good. If your ego is just about being recognized, getting on TV or the big screen at Times Square, that's not what we're talking about.

It is a sign of the disease of our society today that there are so many people who are famous simply for being famous. That leads to notoriety, and a savvy manipulator can milk that attention for a certain degree of money. But it will never bring the lasting success we're concerned with here. This kind of superficial pursuit of attention isn't based on anything of value. And all true prosperity is based on providing value; each interaction is a value-for-value exchange.

Lasting success can also never come from exploiting people or plundering resources. It's about creating win/win scenarios that benefit both parties. To be in congruence with these universal laws of success, as you develop your ego you must be mindful about contributing, not just receiving.

So what constitutes a healthy ego? And how do you actually take charge of the process and develop your ego to drive you to success?

There are six steps in the process. Here's the list. We'll look at each one in turn:

When you work toward a higher purpose, you elevate your own consciousness and that of everyone around you. You attract people to your vision, and they help keep you grounded and moving forward.

My friend Ian Percy is a seminal critical thinker on the subject of purpose, and consults with companies seeking to perform better. One of the things he says in his book
The Profitable Power of Purpose
is “the national epidemic is that people look for ‘jobs' not for ‘purpose.' We should stop measuring the ‘jobless rate' and start measuring the ‘purposeless rate.'” Not very practical, perhaps, but this statement does give us much food for thought.

Think about it. Chasing a paycheck or a stock price doesn't really inspire anyone long-term. Following your life's purpose not only inspires you to daily action, but it gets you out of yourself. As you move along your path, your purpose naturally moves toward the higher realms.

You still want to make money, get a promotion, or create a profitable venture, but you view those desires through the lens of creating true value, which inherently leads to more enlightened pursuits.

When you have the right purpose, you're going to become passionate about that purpose. You're going to want to see it achieved and make it happen. Your subconscious mind pulls you toward it.