This Week's Insight...

"Simply believe and you’ll receive – you can sit back and watch the magic happen"

Over the many years I’ve been doing my two day workshop, quite a number of my clients have been confused by the idea that you can live your ideal life without really trying – or, to put it another way, that success should be effortless.

Having read a number of “authorities” on how to get what you want out of life, they could be forgiven for thinking that all you have to do to get your “perfect life” is to visualise it, believe it and then sit back, do nothing and watch it happen.    That’s not how it works – that’s not what’s meant by effortless success and happiness.    

You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!   For example, there’s no point in believing that you’ve won the lottery, seeing yourself winning it – and not buying a ticket!   You’ve got to do the important things – action is always required.   But, what action – and surely action requires effort.

First of all, you’ve got to know the difference between what’s important and what’s not.   Most people don’t understand this fundamental point and consequently fill their days doing a lot of things that do not require their attention, whilst feeling good about how important they are having so many important things to do!   Whether it’s reading all my emails (even though most of them are crap and should be ignored); or seeing if someone else is doing what I’ve already asked them to do; or doing things myself that others are paid to do.   And then, of course, we end up being stressed because we’ve so much to do.

In the end, we don’t have enough time to do the really important things – like spending time with our kids, doing the things that really turn us on, take all the holidays we’re entitled to – the list can be a really long one!

Warren Buffet, one of the world’s richest men, was recently quoted as saying: “When everyone is greedy, you should be fearful.   And, when everyone is fearful, you should be greedy.”   Most people will have heard of Warren Buffet – in the same way that everyone immediately recognises names like Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson, Bill Clinton or Nelson Mandela.

Willie Horton www.Gurdy.Net

Why?   Because none of them is normal – they stand apart from normal people.   Their exploits in their chosen field or fields puts them head and shoulders above the average person.   They use their minds differently from normal people who, research tells us, really don’t use their minds at all.  

Buffet’s quote hints at how you and I can become abnormally successful – he suggests that we should do the opposite to what everyone else is doing. By definition, all the sheep, doing the same thing, are ‘normal people’.   And, remember, decades of research estimate that the normal person uses about 1% of their mental capability.   As a result, normal people’s minds control them – not the other way around - they are stark raving mad, out of control.

Buffet’s was quoted in the context of what's variously been described as the ‘credit crunch’, ‘the collapse of the global financial system’, ‘global financial meltdown’ – the end of life as we know it!   Here are a few more quotes related to this "crisis".   The BBC, for four days in a row, told us that “investors are fearful the financial crisis will prompt a global recession”.   Does anyone out there think that statement is bizarre?   Surely their own fear, if not causing, is fuelling a global recession.   According to a senior US investment strategist, “This is pure panic – that’s all it is”. And a leading Japanese stockbrokers, Shinko Securities said that “investors are gripped by fear”.

But "fear" is simply a useless thought.   In the context of the ‘global financial meltdown’, people are fearful that they will lose money – so they off-load their investments, to prove themselves right – the exact opposite to what one of the world’s richest men suggests!   Many years ago, the author, Susan Jeffers suggested that you ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.   But, what only a small number of exceptionally successful people realise is that there is no fear.   Just like lack of self-confidence, worry, doubt, nervousness – the list is endless – fear is a trick of the mind.

Don’t get me wrong.   I am not for one moment suggesting that we don’t have to deal with issues – small, large and global – regularly.   But the issues are not the challenge – the challenge is ‘how will we act in the face of those challenges?’ If you’re normal, you’re in no position to act – you’re not all there.   You will react – you’ll be fearful along with all the other normal morons.   And, when they’re greedy, you’ll go along with that as well.   You’ll follow the crowd, like sheep, thinking that it’s the right thing to do – everyone’s doing it!

That’s what started the global financial crisis in the first place.   All the normal idiots were greedy at the same time.   Bankers saw other bankers buying so-called securitised sub-prime debt.   Bankers all over the world started doing it – so, using normal logic, it must be the right thing to do.

Anyone who’s read my CV will know that I was a banker.   In those days, when my bank considered buying another bank’s book of mortgages, we did what we called ‘due diligence’ – in other words we examined what we were buying from every angle to make sure that we knew what, in fact, we were getting. But with sub-prime securities – the banks who were selling the securities weren’t even sure what they were selling – the buyers hadn’t got a clue.  But it promised a good return and everyone was doing it – everyone got greedy together.   In discussing this with a few of my banker clients recently, I compared the manner in which banks bought sub-prime debt to a Mercedes Main Dealer buying a container load of second-hand cars – without knowing what make they were, whether they worked or not – without even knowing if they’d an engine and four wheels!   But, when the Mercedes dealer bought one – the BMW dealer wanted one to – everyone wanted one. Is this madness or what?   Well paid, intelligent sheep – or, as it turns out, lemmings – all running together over the cliff.

In rounding this article off, let me quote the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet.   His advice to world markets is “Calm down”.   Now, this is not the same as the way you say ‘calm down’ to a hyperactive child.   This sounds to me as a piece of genuine, timely and, perhaps, abnormal advice.   If you stop to reflect on this for a moment, you might realise the value of a calm mind. Which is the best form of action?   Action based on fear and panic or action driven by a calm, clear mind.  

In today’s world, where the reactions of panicked, fearful, mad, normal people, set off global chain reactions – from Wall Street, to Tokyo, to Frankfurt, to London and back to Wall Street again – a little calm would go a long way.   The Federal Government in the US has proof in its possession since 1999 that if enough people are calm it markedly decreases the rate of violent crime. Why not calm down – to borrow from Warren Buffet, when everyone else is panicking, you should be calm.   You should be Gurdy.

Back to Top