Video Transcript: Creating the Future

Hello, and welcome to this second master class in this course of Success Factor Modeling: Next

Generation Entrepreneur . In this master class, we’re going to be going a little bit more

into depth in terms of what kinds of things we’re going to be doing throughout the program. The

basic title of this master class is “Creating the Future.” And, of course, this is what we want to do

as an entrepreneur of any type, but especially as a “Next Generation Entrepreneur.”

In fact, I’m going to sort of dive right into the slides that we’re going to be going through for this

particular master class and this whole notion of “Creating the Future.” In the previous master

class we were going over, well, what do we mean by a “Next Generation Entrepreneur?” And

we’d say that any entrepreneur is somebody who’s going to create a sustainable business or

project. But here, it’s all about living your own dream while delivering a product or service that

makes a positive difference in the world, and personally growing through it.

So a very interesting principle of Success Factor Modeling is that in order to take our business to

a next level, we have to take ourself to a next level. Meaning there is an intimate connection and

unbreakable connection between professional development and personal development - between

the development of our companies, our ventures, our projects, and the development of ourselves.

We cannot separate those two things.

So, as we said, being a “Next Generation Entrepreneur” involves living our dream, being

passionate about something other than money. Not that you’re not passionate about money - it

doesn't mean that you’re not, but it means that that’s not the only Passion that you have, that

there’s also this desire to make a positive difference in the world; that the business is

economically sustainable, if not also growing, and that we’re delivering something new and

innovative. So these are the kinds of things that we’re going to be exploring.

How exactly do we do that? What are some of the steps? What are some of the challenges? Last

time we talked about the “locks” and the “keys.” We could say, these are different kinds of locks.

They’re different kinds of goals. And we’re going to be providing these keys to Success Factor

Modeling. We said last time we’ll be looking at some of the various entrepreneurs, some who are

internationally known, who are even historical figures like Steve Jobs, and then others who are

successful entrepreneurs, even though they might not be known in different places, in different

cultures.

And to me, again, this is a quote from Steve Jobs that I think characterizes something about this

notion of “Next Generation Entrepreneur.” Now, we said last time that we’re not trying to

emulate Steve Jobs as a person. He had a lot of faults. There was a lot of drawbacks. In fact,

there’s a great personal development teacher named Ken Wilber who talks about this notion of

“lines of development.” And the idea of “lines of development” is that we don't all mature, grow

and evolve in the same areas of our life. At the same time, some people can be really advanced in

some ways - they can be advanced intellectually and not emotionally, for instance.

So again, we’re not holding this out as Steve Jobs is some sort of person to emulate. But there

are certain aspects of his Mindset. And we said this notion of Mindset is what we are wanting to

really emphasize. And to me, this quote really expresses a key Mindset relating to “Next

Generation Entrepreneurs.” And what he says here is: Being the richest man in the cemetery

doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying that we've done something wonderful, that's

what matters to me.

And I think this is something, again, that we’re saying, yes, the goal of a “Next Generation

Entrepreneur” is not to just amass as much personal wealth as possible. It’s about working

together with others to do something wonderful. And of course, you are going to also be making

money - that’s necessary to build a sustainable business and to have a good life.

Now, another one of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs - we’ll go over a couple of these here.

He said that one of his sort of daily practices - he said, Every day I get up and I ask myself this

question. I look in the mirror and ask myself this question: that if today was my last day, would I

still want to be doing what I’m about to do today? And if the answer is “No” for too many days

in a row, then you know, I know that something’s got to change. Something’s going to have to

have to adjust something.

And I like this kind of idea. If you sandwich your day by saying in the morning as I get up, “Am

I - do I want to do what I’m about to do today?” And at night I can look back and say, “I did

something wonderful with others - we've done something wonderful.” That’s a good day. And

that would be the kind of thing, the Mindset that we’re talking about that would be important for

a “Next Generation Entrepreneur.”

Now another example of this is a woman who was a person that my brother, John, and I knew

personally and we modeled. She’s a lovely person - had started off as the head of new business

for Nortel, but she was also what is known as a serial entrepreneur. She was the CEO of a

medical equipment company and raised $35 million for this company. And she did a lot of these

really great things. Her name was Cindana Turkette. And I really like - these are some of this

notion of the type of Mindset that we’re looking to develop.

So she says, here, You have to believe in what you're doing. And if you don’t believe in what

you’re doing, you should be doing something else. I mean, I think that is, that is certainly a

Mindset that has guided me all my life. If you don't believe in what you're doing, you probably

should be doing something else. She said, People who become entrepreneurs do it

because they want to. Nobody’s telling them to. And then again, it’s an interesting point.

We say that this notion of becoming an entrepreneur - I was mentioning I’m a serial

entrepreneur, for example. And I can remember when I was first getting started in what I, what

was doing in my first companies and my first work with this NLP and the NLP trainer and then

the software developer. I remember my parents, who were very supportive. They were great

parents. But every once in a while, my father, who was a - he was a lawyer in San Francisco, my

mother was a nurse. Every once in a while they’d say, “Well, oh this is great what you're doing,

but you know, when are you going to get a real job?” And of course, once I started making more

money than my father, who was a an attorney in San Francisco, then they became really

interested. “What is it that you're doing again?”

But my point is that as she says, nobody’s telling you to do it, it’s - remember we said in that last

master class, it’s risky. So, and she said, People who are entrepreneurs live to make a

contribution. And we wouldn't do it unless we enjoyed it. And I think those two things are also a

powerful part of this Mindset. You want to make a contribution, but you also enjoy it. That’s that

idea of “live your dream and make a better world.”

And she says, The real satisfaction comes when somebody else uses your product to their benefit

for achieving something that they didn’t even know was possible. But they could because of the

tools you provided them. I know Cindana was part of the team that was developing some of the

first optical fiber networks and things now. And again, this allows us to do things that we didn't

even know were possible.

So again, this is kind of a Mindset I’d really like to invite you to be taking on. And we’ll be

going on in this particular master class - I’m going to be inviting you to start thinking about what

is the future that you want to create? What is that possible dream that you have? We don’t - we're

going to get more specific about that through the future master classes. This is kind of that

beginning what’s the contribution you would like to make? What’s the dream that you have for

yourself?

Now again, as we said, it’s risky. You’re not going to necessarily be supported in doing it. And

this is another quote from Steve Jobs. There’s - he had this, this famous address that he made at

the commencement of Sanford University in, I think, in 2002. And he said, Your time is limited,

so don't waste it living somebody else's life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the

results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own

inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They

somehow already know what you truly want to become, and everything else is secondary.

So here's another interesting aspect of Mindset. This is not about some sort of logical analytical

progression. In fact, most of the entrepreneurs, especially the successful ones that I know, and

that we've - John, my brother, John, and I interviewed the hundreds and hundreds that we also

coached. Many of them would say “If I thought about this logically, I would’ve never done it.”

So it’s something - it’s about connecting to something more than simply logic or what Steve Jobs

here is calling the dogma, what other people say you should do, and the way you should be.

And in fact he goes on, he went on to say, You’ve got to find what you love. And the only way to

be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to

love what you do. And he says, If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all

matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets

better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking till you find it.

So here’s another key here, right? We're saying, great, we’ve got to find what I love. And then

I’ve got to then use that, that thing that I’m finding - what I love - use that to somehow make a

contribution, to make a difference. So, this again is something that we want to begin to invite you

to be thinking about. What is it that you love? What is your dream? What contribution might you

want to make?

And, in fact, we sort of like to say that a “Next Generation Entrepreneur,” you could characterize

a bit as what you might call a “Zen Entrepreneur.” Zen is a Buddhist practice. And in fact, they

talk about in Zen the three “jewels of Zen," which are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

And of course, these are sort of symbolic things, these jewels.

And the jewel of the Buddha of course, we all know the the great teacher, religious leader,

Buddha, who, whether or not you have any religious inclination or whatever, what Buddha

symbolizes in this is the commitment to the full development of one’s highest potential. So I

want to be the best version of myself that I can be, and that’s going to be our one of our first

goals, one of our first intentions here.

The second is what they call the “Dharma.” The Dharma means it’s kind of your life purpose. So

authentically living your life path, fulfilling your purpose that’s about contribution. So that first

one is about that whole notion of what I love, my Passion, my satisfaction. The second one is

about my contribution.

And then this notion of “Sangha.” And Sangha is the community of peers, mentors, sponsors,

collaborators who support you to fulfill your purpose and to achieve your potential - that support

you to be that best version of yourself.

And these are things that I think are actually very good guides for us in this notion of “Next

Generation Entrepreneur.” I know in my life, certainly the journey that I’ve been on in these last

50 years, and my professional life has been to continually try to grow - to to become more of my

potential. And by doing that, to contribute more, to make a difference, to be a difference that

makes a difference. And, of course, that has also involved gathering and working with -

partnering with so many incredible people that share that sense of purpose, that sense of Vision.

So, again, these, I think, are going to be some important guidelines for us. And as we kind of

think about that, if we start to think about it, we kind of take this idea of the entrepreneur, the

Zen person, and we kind of get this little - we’re going to start - this is something that actually is

going to start to suggest what we will be working with in one of our very near future master

classes. This notion of a “Circle of Success.”

But here we see there’s these five keys for what we would call a sustainable success. One is to be

able to continue to grow personally and spiritually. One is to make a contribution to society in

our environment. Another is, of course, to build a successful and sustainable venture or career.

Another would be to support the emotional and physical wellbeing of ourselves and others. And

another is to share Visions with a group of peers, igniting new possibilities.

So these would be the types of things that we want to do to really be satisfied. And it’s

interesting because any one of these things, if you leave it out, begins to create this sense of

something is missing, right? If I’m not growing, even if I have a successful company and I’m

contributing and I’m physically healthy, there’s something that’s missing. A lot of times, of

course, what we’ll see is that people will really focus on one of these - I’m focusing on the

successful business, and that’s all. I’m not growing, I’m not sharing and even though I’m

succeeding business-wise, I feel - they say you’re lonely at the top, et cetera. I’m not physically

well. So these are the kinds of things that we say, these are going to be important parts of this

kind of this circle of things that we want to be able to focus on.

And now, here, we talked in our previous master class about these goals of personal satisfaction,

meaningful contribution. That’s a little bit like sort of the Zen side, the Buddha the Dharma. But

then there’s also we want to be financially robust. We want to be able to grow, and to do that,

we’re going to need to have innovation and resilience. So these are all the things that we’re going

to be working with.

And I think what’s important to say at this - in this particular master class, and at this point, is

that it’s really important to be able to include all of these. And that when we talk about success

and Success Factor Modeling, we don’t just mean the financial robustness. Of course, that's got

to be part of it. That is a key part of it, but it’s more than that. So this is kind of our Vision of

success.

Now, this - now we talked about this idea of creating the future. So if we look at this slide, we’re

sort of saying, this is a kind of a map showing an indicator of the type of future we want to

create. We want to create a future where we are growing, where we are contributing, where we

are building something sustainable, but where we are emotionally and physically - we have

emotional and physical wellbeing. Where we are - we have this sense of community where we

can share with others. So this idea of a community of peers - but we’re also, again we’re

satisfied, we’re contributing, we’re innovative, we’re financially robust and we’re growing our

venture, we’re growing ourselves, but we’re also growing our venture.

So when we talk about creating the future, this is giving us a kind of a, you might say, it’s a kind

of a compass, a kind of a guidance for that future. Now, how do we do that? Another thing is - so

these are the keys, but we are going to do that with these, what we call these seven strategies.

And again, these strategies are things that we’ll be going over. They’re - they are not always

simply separate things. Some of them are, of course, going to all be connected to each other, and

they all build upon each other.

And so the first, as we've already said, is about mastering optimal Mindset. What is it - what kind

of Mindset am I going to need in order to truly be able to create this future that I want to create?

This, which is, as you can see, not simplistic. There’s a lot of things that are going to need to be

juggled there. And as Steve Jobs said you’re going to meet the dogma. You’re going to - there's

going to be risks. It’s going to be challenging.

So there’s that next notion of, once we get to that optimal Mindset, we want to create a clear and

compelling future. So what is that future that I do want to create? I’ve got to focus on that. I’ve

got to define that, and then establish the critical path to that desired state. What’s going to be the

path to reach that future? That’s all part of creating the future.

And then this notion of achieving internal alignment. So the idea here of alignment is that there’s

going to be multiple Mindsets, if you will, and multiple levels. We’ll get into this in the next -

one of our next master classes - multiple levels of change, multiple levels of resources that we’re

going to need to be bringing into focus. And those start with our internal resources. Again, we’ll

be looking at that very, very soon.

And this, then, this notion, this idea of Sangha - building powerful partnerships, where we are in

this place of being able to support each other, to reach those dreams. And then a big part of this,

which is going to be extremely important, is transforming obstacles. So effectively transforming

obstacles. There’s going to be many obstacles - inner obstacles, outer obstacles, financial

obstacles, human obstacles, all kinds of things. And that requires too, then that we’re going to be

making dynamic course corrections.

So these are the kinds of things that we’re going to be doing when we start to go into some of the

specific master classes. We will be working with these seven strategies. And then kind of finally,

I want to just - kind of in this program what kind of things we’re going to be doing in general.

These are sort of the big chunks as we kind of follow those - put those seven strategies into

action and into practice.

So this idea of creating the future, that’s kind of where we’re starting here. Know yourself. Find

your Passion, define your Vision and your strategy. That’s part of what we’ll be doing over a

number of master classes. We also like to say that being a “Next Generation Entrepreneur”

requires sometimes that you do the impossible or what seems to be impossible. So you're joining

the energy of what we call Generative Collaboration and sharing Visions getting ideas to grow

your Vision.

And then another key to “Next Generation Entrepreneurship” we sometimes call “making

something from nothing.” You’ve got to make something out of nothing.You go in, you're armed

with your dream, and that's it. And I’ve got to create something.So this is about bringing that

energy into the world and the Vision into reality, inspiring others and beginning your success

story - becoming your success story.

And so this is often a certification, depending upon what next steps you take. We’ll be going

over that more in future master classes. But it’s for trainers, coaches, consultants - becoming a

member of a generative venture community. Obviously, this is for more than just - it's clearly for

entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs, but also for others.

So these are the kind of things that we want to be doing. And I would like to just wrap up this

master class - we usually, I usually like to wrap up with some kind of activity that reflects what

we’ve been exploring. And I want to just have us do a little bit of, kind of beginning to plant

some of the seeds of the future that you want to create.

We’re going to be doing this in much more specific, step by step ways in our future master

classes. But I’d like to get some of those seeds planted now. So maybe, if you join me, like last

time, we are standing up and kind of getting the sense of preparing ourselves for a journey ahead.

And because, and truly, I mean, one of the big metaphors as we’ll see, is that this whole path to

creating the future is a journey. It’s not just this or that technique. It’s a journey. And that

journey’s going to require, of course, as we said, that we grow in order to grow our business.

So it’s a journey of our own development as we develop our venture, our project our business.

So maybe just take a moment and kind of, as you think about the last time we were thinking

about where are those places where you feel grateful, where are those places that you feel

generous?

And now we kind of want to start to add this other bit here that is that this notion of a future

focus. We will be working in future master classes with the notion of what we call a “timeline.”

Here we are in this - right in this moment. We’re in the present moment, right here and now. And

to create the future, it’s about somewhere in the future. And usually on the kind of timelines

we’ll be working with, our future is somewhere in front of us. We’re sort of walking into that

future, and I’d like to just kind of invite you to sort of take these, some of these key things that

we’ve been talking about to create a sustainable future, this idea of your own personal

satisfaction.

So in addition to that sense of generosity, of gratitude, sense of satisfaction, but also that sense of

contribution. What is it that you want to contribute. As Cindana Turkette was saying

entrepreneurs live to make a contribution, and you enjoy doing it. And then this notion of

growing - growing through that. We like to say, “as you grow more, you can give more; as you

give more, that helps you to grow more.”

And then this notion of - I think the key to this is also emotional and physical wellbeing. It’s not

like there’s kind of, there tends to be this attitude about entrepreneurs that it’s all business,

business, business, push, push, push.You forget your family, you forget your health. That’s not

what we want. That’s not a “Next Generation Entrepreneur.” And that’s why there’s this whole -

why we keep saying - this whole circle here. All of those things are important.

And of course, the notion of having a community of peers, people that support us, who we

support, who share our Passion, who share our Vision. And then of course, that idea of

something that is financially robust where we - and innovative. So maybe, let’s kind of take a

moment as you think of those things.

And again, you can’t hold them all cognitively. And as we said, as Steve Jobs was even saying

“Hey, this is not something that is simply a rational, logical thing that you figure out.” He says,

“Follow your heart and your intuition.” That's another part of this sort of inner compass that

we've been talking about. He says and he - and it’s very interesting - he said, “You have the

courage to follow your heart and your intuition.” And that’s often because, again, you’re not

going to necessarily - people are not telling you to do it. They’re actually probably telling you

not to do it. So you’ve got to find that place where you get that support.

So anyway, maybe just take that moment, and if we were to step together into the future, like we

said what is the future? This idea of creating a world to which we want to belong. What is this

thing that you would want to create? What is - what would be some of the key attributes of that

that just come to you? If you were following your heart and your intuition, what direction would

they point you? If you could really begin to develop that inner compass, how would you know it?

So if you could wake up every morning and go, “Do I really want to be doing what I’m going to

do today?” And say, “Yes,” and look back at the end of the day and say, “Hey, we did something

wonderful today.”

I think that’s - that’s going to be the benefit. That’s what I would like for each of you to have as

a result of this program. So let’s start planting those seeds now, and be looking forward to

beginning to take the next steps with you as we get those seeds in the ground water them,

fertilize them, get them to grow and then, then again, and take that journey.

So I look forward to seeing you in that next master class. And until then this idea of tune in, have

that courage to follow your heart and intuition.

See you in our next master class.