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We’ve got few weeks of celebrations, Passover, Easter, Buddha’s birthday… A Baha’i‘ friend was fasting a couple of weeks ago and … Spring is coming in the Northern Hemisphere and rain is coming to Western Australia – which makes many native plants bloom.

The good news is that we’ve got some rain in Perth, Japan is sorting its problems, and warm weather has started to arrive in the US, Canada and northern Europe. Knowing about Spring makes Winter more bearable.  In the Middle East things are getting better, or rather, we are getting used to those things.  Egypt is struggling because of the drastic drop in tourism – I was there weeks before the uprising and the situation was already hard, the economy keeps shrinking as tourists have vanished.

The better news is that we are more comfortable with less, and hopefully Americans got a reality check and are back on track. Not that they are winning the race, but they are training! And everybody knows that training beats complaining.  Start up rates are high and there are so many people relentlessly working to get back on track it is inspiring.

And the best news is that one of my papers got accepted at the Triple Helix Conference in Stanford so I’ll be there in July, presenting. The Triple Helix approach considers that Universities should engage with the private sector and use public sector’s support to create research that is useful not only to the consumers but to the economy. The topic is full of controversies, and I’ll cover more on that in the few weeks.

For now, one of the most critical lessons I’ve learned moving from academia to a corporation to a startup to an investor and back to academia is this:  Brainers DON’T add value to the economy. It is not what you think, it is not what you discovered, it is what you DO with it.

We need more jobs, we need more companies, we need more wealth… and in the basis of all of this, it is the parallel evolution that helps YOU, an individual, create value for OTHERS, like customers, suppliers, community, employee and shareholders so WE can all benefit.

Let’s rejoice about what is going well, and then, let’s reflect upon what we need to do to take this rejoice into prosperity for our communities.

You think about it, we’re here to help.

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With all the questions we received about what method we used… here it, pick one area that feels weak in your organization, family or life and start turning your wealth around.

Wealthing(R) is a comprehensive system to create wealth by shifting the following paradigms:

We win by competing >>> we win by collaborating

I win you lose >>> nobody has to lose for me to win

We leverage on our strengths >>> we leverage on our passion

We learn from our successes >>> we learn from our actions

We make money >>> we make meaning

Life is about being >>> life is about becoming

We get a job >>> we create job

We distribute wealth >>> we create wealth

The system is based on the following four steps:

First step: reinventing success.

The traditional view of management focuses on winning by competing. It assumes we cannot create wealth so we might as well take a larger piece of the action. In this sense, every single input to a process results in an output and that is the end of the story. We need more inputs to produce more outputs. It is a linear view.

The good side is that many productivity programs improve the process, so we produce more with less. Later, our analysis evolved from a single unit – the company, the project, the entrepreneur- to an industry: Porter’s five forces. All based on competitive advantages. Even countries. It was good, but it is not enough.

It all started with the resources mindset: we need to share a pie. Entrepreneurs think differently: we need to create a larger pie, or a new pie. So next time toss away the thought of competition, and substitute it for collaboration.

After all, you need to provide value not only for shareholders, but for clients, employees, suppliers, community, government, and many other stakeholders – think ozone layer too.

Second step: collectivizing individualism.

We made competition personal, and began to compete with others; we wanted to be better than them. Then came special programs, no child left behind, types of intelligence, and we mixed dignity and self esteem with success. And we forgot the basis for our personal growth: we need to be better than ourselves, not be better than anybody else.

We lost our locus on control when we started believing other’s praises. If we are our success, who are we when we fail? You see, failure and success are not opposites, they are outcomes of action. The opposite of failure and success is inaction. When we take action we learn, what works or doesn’t. Success doesn’t define us, learning does. And our learning is different for you, me, Joe, Maria, Abraham, Verena.. You get it.

To make the most of collaboration we need to leverage on a magical component of human life: our passion. We will always find ways to spend time learning and exploring whatever we are passionate about, and luckily we are not all passionate about the same things.

If you spend your adult life leveraging on the skills someone found you had when you were a teen, what time will you spend on developing skills based on your passion?  (Hint: Make the switch today, you are not getting younger).

When you are passionate about something, you thrive, you are inspiring and sooner than later you will be awesome. Reclaim your passion and work with others who are equally passionate about what they do. Not only will each individual thrive, their contribution will be synergistic.

Third step: transcend time.

Without purpose, success fades. We all know that you can fake success, but you can’t fake purpose. Just because there are many patterns of start-end, the days, the lives, the seasons, we tend to constrain our thinking to a limit.

There is no limit. We are not solo. We are made of cosmic stuff, the iron that runs in your veins was part of a planet, and that thing that you leave out daily if you are healthy is food for plants. Your thoughts are made of previous thoughts and your legacy transcends your life. We find inspiration in many people we have never met. And many pivotal decisions are affected by others.

Others are not solo either. You are needed in the world, not just any you, your best you. And sometimes your worst you. Don’t look for validation, nobody like you can turn you into your best product. Life ends in a graduation party, and along the way, you keep leaving imprints.

This balance makes competition irrelevant. It is not who you are, it is who you are becoming, and you can’t be the best or the worst, because life is not a dot.

Fourth step: measure results.

Up until now, the steps seemed wishy-washy, and last step is where it all ties together with our goals. Without a goal, there is no process. If you don’t know where you are going, your actions have no meaning.

The hardest measure of the wealthing® system is on the number of real jobs created. If you focus on making money, you will fend for yourself, good and fast, but limiting. You are stuck with your biggest constraint: the use of your time. Successful corporations create wealth for their clients and for their employees as well as for their shareholders. You do it for a group, you are part of the group, and are rewarded for thinking wisely and taking actions, but others participate.

The last magical word is growth. Each result is a milestone. The wealthing ® system considers where do you want to grow and builds upon that. It does not consider the past because the past does not dictate your future; your present does and that is exactly where we come in.

Related articles

• Wealth and the Pursuit of Happiness (psychologytoday.com)
• Self Made Wealth (searchenginemarketingtoronto.wordpress.com)

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’ve been watching the Japanese disaster with great sadness. This tragedy brings back sad memories of an earthquake when I was a child, and two large mudslide decades apart. In both cases, I was close to the devastation and grief of family and friends.

Too many of us have been captured by the horror stories in the media. For those who already know about the mechanisms of pain and joy, we cling on any image of pain, because biologically, pain and the fear of pain was critical to our survival.  Nowadays, however those images can lock in a feeling of despair that has no scape.

One of the key messages of our program is to learn to deal with sadness and despair. Watching the news might make us share it with others – tweet – blog – resend – call. I’ve gotten emails from all over the world. We can’t but feel compassion for those directly affected.

But those neurons are palpitating with pain in one way or the other, and we tend to either feel depressed or frustrated, or get numb. Neither is a healthy alternative. The problem becomes more complicated because we get used to see tragedy without doing anything.

To keep a healthy pain mechanism we need to put pain to use. We don’t need to learn to be immune to other’s tragedies, nor feel the tragedy ourselves. It is healthier to feel that we can do something about it… not only for the victims but to feel that we too are important.

So, here are the things we can do to help:

• Pray. Religious or not, praying is a spiritual state of mind, and you can ask something larger than yourself – nature, God, Allah, Buda, life – to protect victims. Find a way to say a prayer, invent one, share one.  Don’t ask for reasons, ask for solutions. Japanese people are in a lot of trouble, economic meltdown, immense recovery cost and efforts, paramount pain, nuclear contamination. To know that someone somewhere is praying for you, is better than to know that nobody cares. You can make a difference. Send your spiritual blessings. It counts.

Here is Emperor Akihito in a tv. Give feedback, share and let them know. Here is the link to the video of Emperor Akihito:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8xL2yNmZAg

Give thumbs up for the leaders who are facing incredible pressure. It must be so hard for them!http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-16/japan-s-government-bonds-may-advance-as-record-yen-dims-recovery-prospects.html

• Buy yens. WAIT! watch before you buy* The Japanese currency is collapsing. Here you have a real opportunity to show you care. The Japanese central bank is buying back currency and notes to manage the economic collapse, they should be using that money to recover the damages. Japanese will recover, you will be able to sell your yens back in the future. And here is the real power of many people. If two million people buy $10 in yens, there is 20 million of dollars that the Central Bank does not have to buy back. The easiest way? Go to your bank.

 

• Invest in Japanese companies. The stock market is slowly recuperating. Japan has been in recession for some decades now, but with the low currency value and the devastation of some areas, it will take them time to recover. Talk to your financial planner and hedge –insure- your investment. Again, this is the power of small in large quantities. (see more info herehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-16/japan-s-government-bonds-may-advance-as-record-yen-dims-recovery-prospects.html )

 

• Direct help. Contact your local Japanese Chamber of Commerce and ask how you could help. In some areas, they will be able to channel donations. They might also be able to put you in touch with companies that will welcome a respite.

 

• Donate. There are MANY organizations that are receiving donations. It makes sense to ask how they use those funds (sometimes, 50% or more goes to the marketing organization that receives the donations). Paypal has set up a page to accept donations that goes directly to the organizations. You can also ask your chamber of commerce. https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12

 

• Share. Put your comments on our blog www.aliciacastilloholley.com/helping-japan

 

Japan will recuperate,I hope we can have a social experiment where we, as a global community, can help accelerate it. We could do this with so many disasters…  Let me know what do you think and let’s start sharing it.

Related articles

• Donate to Japan Flickr Group (6 pics) (mymodernmet.com)
• Heartbreaker for Japan, relief project. (laurante.wordpress.com)
• Please Think about Japan and Donate (mudroast.wordpress.com)
• We Need Japan. Let’s Help Them (11mar11.wordpress.com)
• Praying for Japan (mattsurber.wordpress.com)
• Recovery for Japan  http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/be-optimistic-about-a-quick-recovery-in-japan/10635
• Harvard  on Japan Crisis http://www.hbs.edu/news/releases/japancrisis031511.html

*Watch before you buy. Japanese are pouring fund back into the country… as a result the yen has reached record highs! Smart and good move for them!

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I went to an open concert last night … it was at the Sandalford Winery, a bit North East of Perth, in an area called the Swan River. Besides the good wine and the interesting food – being a vegetarian I get a lot of surprises.

The gem of the night was to be Michael Buble which I enjoyed very much. Not only MB can sing well, he is a good entertainer and we had many good laughs – including the part where, after asking people to show their enthusiasm and dance, he had to tell them people that did, to go back to their sits so we could all enjoy the show: “You guys, these people here in the front row paid a ton of money, I know I told you to come and dance but they can’t watch the show so forget what I told you and get back to your sits, com’on…” hahaha (I was sitting in the front row.

But to me, the real AHA was this group: Naturally Seven. You know, I’ve always said that we need to work on what we are passionate about, not what we are good at (little twist, great results)… because when we are passionate about what we do it shows, we spend a ton of time working at what we like and we developed an expertise. So, passion has to come first, and drive the skills, not the other way around.

Naturally Seven creates music a capella, the instrument is their voice… and gosh they are from heaven.

I can imagine if I were the mother of one of these kids telling them: are you telling me you want to be a voice drummer? or can you get serious? I don’t know if they received many: get real, or get a job, or study… but I’m surely glad they do what they do.

They amazed us, made us laugh, sing, clap and jump… not only one, twice, thrice but many times… they rocked, we rocked. What a fantastic experience. Unique, authentic and connecting.

… and one more thing… I also admire these guys because they are black men and they don’t get it easy… wonderful entertainment, and inspiration.

They ended their show with a phrase: God Bless…

Blessings back, guys…

PD: their site is here: naturally seven

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I’ve spent the last 10 days evaluating Silicon Valley‘s operations.

What makes this a special place? A Scale of 0-100.

I thought climate might have something to do with it. If San Francisco has a reputation for mist -not to be confused with mystical- and wind, the Southern Part of the bay area enjoys a much warmer climate in the winter and the summer. Just for you to know, there is no such thing as summer in San Francisco, I learnt that the hard way in 2004 when I participated in an international gift fair in July, a jacket and sweater were indispensable, and hats, gloves and boots were recommended. The South Bay does not have the wind that sweeps through the streets of San Fran either. but no, it is not the climate.

I thought it might be related to technology, there are tons of fascinating companies. I had the privilege to visit a start up: interabangnet.com right in the heart of a video games incubator. the headquarters of HP, Apple, and Google are fascinating, but there are many other companies around, and it is a bubbling place… but no, there are many other technology hubs around the world.

I thought it might be the flow of cash, here and there angel investors and venture capitalists exists, you might bump into one. I was told that one of my favorite spots – Coupa Cafe, in Palo Alto- is a must for engaging the interest of investors, the other place seems to be Il Fornaio, close by. I had meetings in both places and still Coupa Cafe continues to be a favorite spot for me, as it shows a Venezuelan flavor. But no, it is not the cash, there are many other places were cash is abundant…

It is not tax advantages… or legal advantages… It is expensive to hire employees in California, and to run a company, not because salaries are high but on the contrary, because company costs are high. The environment is NOT easy on businesses.

What makes a difference in Silicon Valley is the people. From all sorts of life, people are engaging into their own personal development and in parallel into the economic development. A virtuous circle springs out of this. A person does not expect the state or the company or the family to be responsible for his or her life. From a cleaner to a welder to a consultant to a scientist, everyone is driven by a healthy sense of responsibility which I call ACCOUNTABILITY. As a result people have the perception that what happens to them is a result of their actions.

It reminded me of a conversation with an academic colleague about grading. If I grade according to the scale of 0 to 100, and another professor grades by his/her own standards of 40-80, we notice two very interesting behaviors: low-grade students will move to the class of 40-80, and high-grade students will move to the class of 0-100. BUT, the class of the wider range will encourage students to study more and seek better grades, not only because it is possible to get a 100, but because getting a 0 (zero) is also a possibility.

Silicon Valley is a place of a larger scale… those who want to make it big, feel that they can do it, and are thus motivated to do it. Those who can’t move out or keep up…  Instead of winning about it, people feel excited about it, and it is contagious! It is the same enthusiasm that emerged in Packard’s garage (a co-founder of HP) – see picture- and has kept the area vibrant for decades.

So, the lesson is this: if you want to make the most of your life… get into a 0-100 scale, or force yourself to think in 0-100 scale.

I know that life doesn’t have to be perfect but has to be worth it… so I prefer the wider scales, always!

Alicia

Related books:

The Silicon Valley Way, Second Edition: Discover 45 Secrets for Successful Start-Ups

Geek Silicon Valley: The Inside Guide to Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, San Jose, San Francisco

Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure

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• Silicon Valley Posers And The Inevitable Bust (cloudave.com)

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It is now 2:40 am in Silicon Valley, and I have to thank both the jetlag and the excitement of yesterday for this early rising.

 

I wanted to write something about performance and achievement for various reasons: it is critical for entrepreneurs and practitioners to grow their businesses but it is also an interesting way of keeping up the spirits whilst evaluating results.

 

From a conversation with my 10 yrs old niece to a meeting with an entrepreneur who is asking for an investment to an evaluation with a stock broker, yesterday was filled with examples of the importance of separating and understading performance and achievement.

 

Performance is within our reach, it is the result of our actions, our intentions and our capacity to get things done, not only because ‘we just have to try our best’ as my niece said, but rather because we need to follow a series of steps with focus:

1. Have an intention -in many cases, we wouldn’t even know what our intention is.
2. Believe in ourselves to take action – in research on social sciences, this is called self-efficacy. I happen to disagree with this concept as if we always thought we would believe in ourselves to take action, we would probably would not try to do impossible or ridiculous things that we have managed to accomplish. In my case I would change this for: have the courage to test.  And here comes another interesting quirky realization: I did not write TRY, why? Because the minute we think we are going to try something, our mind starts finding out the reasons why it is not going to work. Wanna try?  Try standing up. See? You didn’t, you just tried. So, from now on, it is just exploring or testing.
3. Take action. O’boy, that is the hardest one.  In physics they even have a name for it: inertia. It is easier to move a moving object than to get it rolling. That is why the previous step of courage is required. It builds up the energy to start.
4. Evaluate results. This is where it starts to get complicated…  and this was the lesson for my niece: it is not enough to “just try our best,” we need to evaluate our results, feel good and rejoice when it went well, and reflect about how to fix it when it did not go well.

 

And we start all over again. That is performance.  That is was Justin and his team are doing at Interabang, that is what the real state agent was doing at our meeting, and so forth.

 

NOW, achievement is a slightly different animal. Unlike performance, we do not control our achievements. For someone who grew up thinking that she could do anything she would put her mind to, including jumping of roofs, trying to get our cat to talk, moving countries with boxes, and building up a seed capital fund, achievement was just a natural consequence of performance. But there is life and experience… and somehow not all depends on what we do. That is the magic. That is also the drama. It only depends on our interpretation.  Achievement is out of our control, simply as that. We might come up with the greatest technology, train to be on the next Olympic Games, organize a trip to a remote country, but there will always be an element of surprise over which we would have not control.

 

Why is so important to know the difference between performance and achievement? Because if we confuse them, there is no room for acceptance that things can fail and still feel accountable for the results. We still can do our best, simply because that is better than just doing or even not doing anything at all (try complaining, ha!)  yet wisdom comes from understanding that, although we still have 100% control over out attitude, and we can explore influencing the outcomes, there is an element over which we will never have full control, and there is no sense in putting that kind of pressure on us.

 

So, I’m doing my part, writing this blog, giving a class, writing my books, promoting my work, studying and presenting my research,  but the magic comes when you are reading this, making sense of it, and giving meaning to it in your own space, over which I have absolutely no control.

 

And by the way, thanks for the many compliments about the blog, it helps keep the momentum and builds my sense of achievement J.

 

Sleepless in Silicon Valley,

 

Alicia

 

PD: don’t forget the conference on Feb 10, From Brain to Gain, directly from Santa Clara University, broadcasted live, and the teleconference on Feb 16th: the ten unwealthy habits. If you are not on our list, join at http://www.wealthing.com

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Thinking is one of the most wonderful gifts we have. But not thinking on the surface, but diving deep into what matters to us. The real issue is that we hardly have time to think deep enough. We are preoccupied, we are worrying, we are solving, but that is not thinking deep. People who have left an amazing legacy behind, have been able to spend some time alone, thinking and reflecting… not about what is NOW but about what their purpose is, what are they here for.

Now that we have a fresh year ahead, take time to think… I particularly like Viktor Frankl‘s book Man’s Search for Meaning summarizing his POSITIVE thoughts whilst living in a concentration camp and doing something USEFUL out of it.

With many distractions – oh, yes, I know.. stop reading this and start thinking – when do we find time to think?

Here is to your thinking, Alicia

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