(From the works of Buckminster Fuller & Dr W. Edwards Deming. The pictures of flipcharts are from a seminar Stephanie Relfe did called "Money & You") Have you ever set a goal and achieved it? And then felt flat afterwards? This has happened to most of us. If we feel flat after achieving a goal, then maybe the goal isn't what's important. So if it's not important, why do we set goals?
Buckminster Fuller taught many people about their life purpose. . Buckminster Fuller is one of the greatest inventors and thinkers of the twentieth century. There is a story that his life was once like most people's, full of going to parties, football etc. He was a bit of a ``wild lad" in the early days. Then something happened which changed his life forever. His daughter Alexandra who was only around 6 years old was very sick at that time. He left the house one day, promising to be back soon. Before he left, he promised Alexandra he would bring her back one of the small flags that they have at the football games, as it was her birthday.
Buckminster Fuller didn't return home after the football. He didn't return home for three days. Presumably, he was partying. When he finally arrived home, his wife told him to not waste time apologizing to her, but to go upstairs and see his daughter immediately. Alexandra had taken a turn for the worse. When Fuller picked up his daughter up in his arms, he said hello to her. Then she asked him if he had it. This disappointment was enough to end her slender hold on life. She died in his arms. After that Fuller felt so bad he went for a walk, and decided to end his life. But , the story goes that he heard a voice saying something along the lines -
``You do not have the right to end your life. It is not yours to end. Your life has a purpose. You have not yet done what you came here to do." After that he began to search for the purpose of life, God and the universe. He sought to discover what, if anything, could be done by a penniless, unknown man working on behalf of all humanity. First of all, he stopped talking for two years! He realized that words had tremendous power. Words had often got him into trouble. He vowed to not speak until he was sure exactly what was the effect and meaning of any word. He believed that there was a force which is intent upon making people so successful that they can all live at a standard of living much higher than that achieved by ANYONE else before. He wanted to know what rules God used in setting up this universe. He went onto to discover what he called "Generalized Principles" of the universe. These are principles that are true in all cases. Most of these principles are in the form of advanced mathematics. If you are interested, read his books Here is one of his books.
Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller, Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Adjuvant Here are some of the Generalized Principles that you can apply to your life. Using these principles will help you to:
The first Generalized Principle is called:
If the goal was your life purpose, and you achieved it, what would happen? You'd stop. But once you stop, there is no precession, no side-effects - and it's the side -effect, not the goal, that is your life purpose. Humans are MEANT to be IN MOTION. Fuller looked at the fact that NO ANIMAL HAD TO EARN A LIVING. They are just doing what they are supposed to do. If they do that, then nature & God looks after them.
So he hypothesized that perhaps that is the way that it is meant to run for us. Maybe we don't have to go after money. Maybe for each one of us, there is something that we are supposed to be doing. And if we do that, then God and the universe will look after us. The real fruit of what we would be doing would not be obvious to us, because it would be at right angles to the goal we set. It would happen as a side effect.
The trick is to set the right goals. How do we know if the goal we set is creating the right side effects? He said that we are not meant to go after money.
He suggested that instead we set a goal that 'adds value'. That is, that improves the quality of people's lives or of the earth. Maybe that's why people like to help each other. Subconsciously they know that through doing that they are achieving their life purpose.
Listen to the 'Taps on the Shoulder' One way of knowing whether or not we have set the right goals is by listening to the 'taps on the shoulder'. These can be positive taps (blessings) or negative taps. If something bad happens to us, we could take this as a 'learning experience'. We can also consider that it may be a negative tap on the shoulder. Perhaps there is something that we are doing (or not doing) that is different from what we are supposed to be doing. The trouble with most people, and a reason why their lives may be in a mess, is that they don't listen to the taps on the shoulder. They think that they are just `bad luck' - and don't stop to consider whether or not the fact that they themselves have anything to do with this `bad luck'.
Precession is a Generalized Principle that can make good come out of bad. For example, in the early days the king asked the men to make metal swords. What was the precession, the side-effect, from this? The metal plough, which meant that more people could be fed with less work. What was a side effect of the space program that put man on the moon? The transistor radio. Get into MOTION! With other people who are IN MOTION! Improve the QUALITY of life! What is the most important word in the definition of precession? In MOTION. Also note that part of the definition of precession is "the effect of bodies in motion on OTHER BODIES IN MOTION ". Don't waste time talking to people who don't want to hear what you have to say. Interact with others who are in motion.
What is the life expectancy of most people after they retire? ONLY THREE YEARS! Once they are not in motion, they are no longer achieving their life purpose - and so there is no more point in them being alive. But people don't need to stop being in motion just because they don't have a job. On the contrary, once they retire there are plenty of things to do. Here are just a few ideas of how you can cause precession and make a positive difference to your life and the people of earth, no matter what your current situation:
I heard that the American revolution was not won by the people. It was won by about 10% of the people. Presumably the people who were IN MOTION. Don't Give up your Job (yet) One should not become a rescuer. In some ways, a job is adding value. One secret of happiness is not doing what you love, but loving what you do. Instead, for now, start to see how you can add value FROM your job. You are there for a reason. And while you're doing that, you may want to start thinking of a new type of job or career, one that adds more value than your present one does. Buckminster Fuller's theory that your job was not to make money. It was to add value to others. He believed that 70% of the jobs on earth were not directly contributing to the life-support of the people. Many are making money from money, or moving paper from one desk to another.
The key is balance. It is unbalanced to work only for money, and only for yourself and your family. It is also unbalanced to NOT work for yourself and your family, to work only for others. While you are in your present job, work out how you can add value in your spare time. You are there for a reason. I started doing things in the evenings and on the weekend. Eventually enough positive taps came into my life where I got a much better and higher paying job. And year's later was able to work full time at what I loved to do. Find a Goal that Adds Value to others or to the earth, that you can commit to for at least 20 years if possible. At least for a given period of time. Have you ever known (or been) someone who just couldn't stick to one line of work for long? Precession explains why this happens. What happens when we get in motion? The waves go out. Suddenly, off to the left and right new opportunities appear.
The answer? Find a goal that ADDS VALUE and that you REALLY LOVE. That you REALLY CARE about, and CLEARLY CHOOSE to commit to stick with that for a long period of time, say at least 20 years. You may find that changes occur along the way. You may end up achieving your goal in a way that you would never have thought possible. For example, if your goal is to improve health, you may end up not being a doctor. You may work in health food stores, write books and work with natural health instead. If your goal is to improve education, you may end up running for office rather than becoming a teacher. Work out what you want to ACHIEVE. Work out what the final end result will look like. Don't work out how you are going to do it, or what your are going to be to do it. For example, make a goal "To have cancer no more on the face of the earth" rather than to "Be a doctor". For more information on this, see ``How to have what you want". (coming Soon) As well as work which provides money for you, you may do things that earn you no monetary reward directly. The blessings (positive taps) will flow to you in other ways (and sometimes in the form of money as well). If other goals occur to you along your journey, you may want to do them as well. Just so long as your main eye is still on your main goal which adds value. The other goals will probably end up helping your main goal.
Knowing Your True Life Purpose So the joke is - you will probably never fully know your true life purpose. But know that if you are in motion and adding value (improving the quality of life), you are achieving it. Especially if you are getting positive taps on the shoulder. Some people sit around meditating to "find out what their life purpose is". Guess what, this is not how to do it. Meditation is good if that helps people to work out what goals to set. And to be more effective and aware. But if there's no motion, there's no precession. People don't start achieving their purpose until they get into motion. Imagine if the honey bees decided to start meditating and stopped collecting nectar!
What goal should you set? It is suggested that if you know of something which needs doing, and nobody's doing it, THEN THAT'S YOUR JOB.
PRECESSION BY ARTIFACT An artifact is "an object produced or shaped by human workmanship". It could be a book, song, invention, webpage, movie, building or magazine article that adds value. Once it is made, and 'out there', it will be producing it's own precession. This is a very powerful way to make a difference. If you want to learn more about Precession, read ``Critical Path" by Buckminster Fuller.
MAKE MISTAKES AND LEARN FROM THEM It is possible that a major reason why more people don't get into motion is the fear of making mistakes. This is unfortunate because one of the MAIN ways we learn is by making mistakes. When a baby makes its first efforts to walk - what happens? He stands up - then falls down. Does the baby then think - "I'm so embarrassed. I'll never do that again". No. He stands up - falls down - stands up - falls down - and keeps on going until he makes it. We can all walk, so we have probably all been through this. But somewhere along the line the ego and fear of other's opinions seems to get in the way. People start wanting to never make mistakes. The only way to do that is to do nothing. So they do nothing. But once we do nothing, there is no precession. The magic dies. Our purpose in life is no longer being fulfilled. We are MEANT to make mistakes! The only thing wrong with making mistakes is when we don't admit them, or don't learn from them. Luckily, we can speed up this process by learning from the mistakes of others.
Who invented the light bulb? Thomas Edison. How many mistakes did he make before he it worked? I have heard 10,000. I have heard a story that someone said to him – "How do you feel making 10,000 mistakes?". He replied "I didn't make any mistakes. I found out 10,000 ways that it wouldn't work". Colonel Sanders (founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken), when he was 65 years old, was broke and living in his car. The only thing he had of any value was a recipe. He had to knock on 1,009 doors before someone agreed to his deal - to give him a royalty from every piece of chicken cooked with his recipe. His wife kept the statistics.
Another story: About Tom Watson (Not the golfer, the founder of IBM). A worker lost his division $10M. in 3 months. The worker got a memo from Tom Watson – "Please see me Monday at 3pm." That weekend was the worst weekend of the worker's life. He told his wife he was going to be fired. At the meeting on Monday he walked into Tom's office. Tom was at the board saying, "I want you to run this new division." The worker couldn't work out what was going on. He said "Aren't you going to fire me?" Tom replied "Fire you! Fire you! Why would I fire you when I just spent $10M. educating you!" Tom understood the value of making mistakes and learning from them.
What the difference between a racing car driver and the best racing car driver in the world? Not much - just a few distinctions. Professionals get paid to practice. That is, professionals get paid to make mistakes!
We have only one word for love. But the ancient Greeks had a dozen or so words for love. They made a distinction, for example, between the love for children, the love for parents and the love for a spouse. Maybe that's why some people have a problem saying ``I love you".
So, as long as you correct after each mistake, and keep in motion, you will achieve what you set out to achieve. And even if you don't, as long as you are aiming to add value, you will still be achieving your purpose in life - and blessings will be coming to you from all kinds of directions.
What were the first computers like? Big, expensive, difficult to run and they didn't hold much information.
What are computers like today? Small, cheap, easy to run, with lots of information. Computers do more with less. The Japanese did as well as they did (before the current economic collapse) because they focused on adding value, by doing more with less. Prices are meant to go down, not up. Just like with computers. (It is likely that the main reason why some prices go up is because of the game that some bankers are playing. This is explained in "I want the Earth plus 5%.") - More on this on another page. Don't focus on working for money. Instead, focus on adding value. Leverage is one of the Generalized Principles of the Universe. It has helped us get to where we are today. Here's leverage: The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words, the Gettysburg address 266, the Ten Commandments 297, the Declaration of Independence 300. Here's negative leverage: a U.S. government order setting the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words!!! At the state level, over 250,000 bills are introduced each year. 25,000 are passed, to disappear into the mazes of the law (Reference: "Positioning" by Ries and Trout). Some more examples of leverage:
One of the highest forms of leverage is EDUCATION. I am not talking here about the kind of things that are taught in school or university. Schools are at least 70 years out of date. And many universities teach only the one-sided views of the peers running the university. Educate yourself. For example, read the books recommended by this website. Read about new ways of alternative, natural health care, energy production (books on Nikola Tesla and Viktor Schauberger) and farming ("Secrets of the Soil" by Peter Tomkins). Learn about Accelerated Learning. Learn about the powers of the mind (Read "The Holographic Universe"). These things are not taught in universities - possibly because it is not profitable to the multinationals that directly or indirectly influence what is taught in universities. Leverage is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to know if you want to get wealthy. Unconsciously, or consciously, all wealthy people know this. By the way, borrowing money may not be the best type of leverage to use. Because while it can go up, but it can also go down. Use leverage that can only benefit you in a positive way. Live on 80%-50% your income and don't pay interest. Start thinking about how you can do more with less - in your own life and in your goal to add value. The more you focus on doing more with less, the bigger difference you will make.
SYSTEMS: Dr W. Edwards Deming This next part will be especially interesting for anyone who is interested in business. Most of this information comes from the work of Dr W. Edwards Deming. What were Japanese products known for before WW2? Being shoddy, cheap and copy cats. What are Japanese products known for today? Being good quality, still cheap and innovators. What changed Japan? A man called Dr W. Edwards Deming.
After the Second World War, what was the demand for cars like? Great. Do you think the USA was interested in hearing about quality and adding value? No. So American Dr W. Edwards Deming went to Japan. The Japanese had just been beaten in the war. They listened. Deming taught a number of things, which are very different to standard American management principles. Normal management blames the worker for lack of quality. Instead Deming taught that in most business situations -
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