Let’s try to find another way of illustrating what a wandering mind is.

Wandering mind is like child’s rail-road toy where there are many ring ways and several trains of worn out thoughts run, without clashing, over and over the same routes. Similarly, the same ideas that for years are cruising in our minds and our attention randomly jumps from one thought to another – and we believe that this is thinking.

We simply iterate through the usual set of thoughts alike a greasy pack of cards.

Another example – the mind is a worn out record label that has several dozen needles on it and an amplifier with speakers randomly connects to one or another stuck needle.

This label of repeating thoughts has to be thrown in the trash. It is a result of an incompetent author and is hopelessly and utterly flawed.

The quality of thinking for different individuals may differ just as a radio in the kitchen and a symphonic orchestra in a great concert hall. Weak thought that has been thought to the end, disappears (dies) and does not come back. If it does – it’s a defect in thinking. But since our mind is constantly busy, defective thoughts leave no chance for a good idea and draw all of the attention. We use half baked, random components and faulty thinking, operating with those thoughts as a compass and then rely on the usual “maybe”.

Once again, an example about professional players. What a horrible mixture of fragmentary considerations is the thinking of a novice – and how beautifully, professionally and effectively Master plays the game. How often beautifully and effectively are we thinking about our life’ situation and  aren’t acting under the influence of emotions, complexes, resentment or envy?

One more example. Assiduous employee worked ten years at the machine, and diligently, for 8 hours a day performed the same operation. All of the sudden his place was taken by a “lazy” fellow, who made a rationalizing proposal and this operation fell out of the process. How do we explain to the diligent employee that his mind’ laziness made meaningless all ten years of his work? At the factory he was getting a salary, but the fact that, in life, for such work we won’t be paid. In life we’re paid for the result leaving the assembly line, rather than an individual effort.

From employee’ point of view his work has made sense in the form of wages. But from the owner’s point of view it was an unproductive waste. So how do we think of our’ life – as an employee or boss? It can be both, but the income of an owner can be a hundred, a thousand times higher that of employee’ and never vice versa.

He who seeks millions rarely finds them, but those who don’t – find them not.

A worker will never earn more than the minimum paid for such work on labor market. A man who seeks how to get results while saving labor may get paid very well. A man, who can find a new, unique solution, is a potential millionaire.

It’s true that we must explain the difference between real and apparent solution. One often hears the complaint that, here I am, supposedly, came up with a strong solution, and subordinates stuffed it all because they did not have competence, desire or perseverance etc. But as such, if this solution does not take into account the situation, for which it was invented, and if the solution does not take into account the lack of competence of employees, it means that the solution is erroneous. A strong solution has such a quality as self-realization.

Karl Marx has a great example of strong solution. He didn’t lift a finger and yet changed the history of Russia, Eastern Europe and of the whole world.

A future millionaire does not work. He thinks and invents!  Strong solutions always exist in any, even the most neglected situations.

In order for people to work for you, you first need to stop working yourself.

But if a person does not believe that the solution exists, he does not start to look for it and therefore never finds it! And because of that he acts in a familiar way, that is, enjoying the hard work aplenty. However, if he begins to look for a solution and then quickly gets tired of such severely unusual work and, and, having no experience in searching for strong solutions, does not find it anyway.

It’s worth mentioning that under a strong solution I mean a solution which produces ten to a hundred fold when compared with the result of habitual activity – that is, an increase in the number of times of turnover, profit or reduction in cost or time.

Once again, such a solution always exists since such possibility is always there on the market, and thousands, millions of entrepreneurs have proved it.

A valuable idea has slipped in a little earlier that we should stop by. This idea is about the meaning of work. I think, for a workaholic the value is in the sheer volume of work done – the more, the merrier. And for an effective person the value is the result. The less labour expended to produce the result, the better. Saving labor of his own and others – that is the goal of an effective person. A large amount of labour – that’s an objective of the inefficient.

In business, it can be stated as following: do each step at the level of an invention. It costs less and the effect is far greater. An invention can be captured through a patent, there’s even a whole science about this approach – TRIZ – (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. In business, amidst the “flow”, the invention is usually not captured and the reasons for a success of particular company are very difficult to find, rather impossible – in the same way as in the final technical product it is almost impossible to find inventions that were implemented there. Entrepreneurial and inventive thinking share some similarities, and, since in both cases we need to look for strong solutions, these are just different areas of economy and technology.

Now, about the relationship between presence and the result. Pareto rule states that 20% of people drink 80% beer, 20% of dealers provides 80% of turnover and 20% of employees give 80% profit.

The application of this to an individual implies that 20% of actions and thoughts give 80% of the results. From this there’s an obvious need for prioritization. Separation of effective action and rejection of 80% of all the hustle and bustle that gives only 20% of the result (or, if you want 20% of money).

Most people are driven by stereotypes, habits and patterns, and are constantly running in circles at great speeds, leaving no time or energy to improve their own efficiency. Individual is capable of reproducing the same pattern for years or even decades, and also – for decades – complain about life. As Hegel said, what man does – that he is, suggests that most people are nothing else than a walking pattern. To take a look at own’ life with an excitement of an experimenter is almost impossible, even for people whose profession is research and experimentation in any field. The persistence with which the person starts work in the morning, gets worked up to exhaustion and collapses on the couch is truly astounding. Not being satisfied with the results for decades, yet a thought that maybe he’s doing something wrong never comes into mind? Or perhaps not?

You can quite confidently say to every reader (it’s also true for the author) that everything that we do is wrong and incorrect. And it happens because of our mental laziness and unwillingness to renounce the standard, ineffective patterns and attitudes. In fact, we are very lazy. It is very easy to make repetitive, heavy physical or intellectual work, and it is very difficult to look at oneself through a researcher’ perspective.

Quite often you can see a workaholic who makes calls, conducts business meetings, prepares and sends documents, does not get decent results for years, yet never manages to have a moment for a review: why is this or that does not work?

Hard work is a dangerous myth. Hard work falsely justifies a person before himself, family and colleagues. Accusing a man of insufficient results means to unfairly hurt him – after all, he works so hard!

I think that one should have a negative attitude toward people who work hard. They are lazy and do not want to do a small amount of truly difficult and rewarding, meaningful work, and prefer to do a lot of dull and familiar work.

A second justification of a workaholic is vanity – I work more, therefore I’m better than you.

Third reason is the desire to get rid of disturbing thoughts. An alcoholic drinks until they fall of intoxication and workaholic works until they fall from the exhaustion.

. As at all times, so now too, men are divided into the slaves and the free; for he who does not have two-thirds of his day to himself is a slave, let him be what he may otherwise: statesman, businessman, official, scholar.

Friedrich Nietzsche

And Pareto’ rule says that whatever you do, 80% of your work is a senseless waste of effort, time and money. Moreover, because your actions are connected with others, you’re spending other people’s energy, time and money.

Let me give an analogy with chess. Two novice chess players play with each other and spend a huge amount of mental effort, time and energy to win. But if you replace one of them with a Master, you will see how quickly, easily and beautifully, with jokes and rhymes Master will win one game after another. In this case he may also comment on novice’ errors and let him return a step back in case of gross error, etc.

That’s the question – is it worth all your life to puff like a rookie, in the simplest positions, or to begin to improve skills and to enjoy the game – and win!

It is worth noting that Masters are described as lucky, lazy (they don’t work like a horse), and their success is explained as anything but excellence.

There are schools that teach chess, but what about the real life? Surely it can be argued that the school of life’ mastery are not middle and high school or various paid courses. For a simple reason – you can learn to play well only from the Master, and one can hardly attract them to such places that have so little creativity. A typical university teacher has been tormented by life and is incapable of teaching anything simply because all they do is read lectures.

These statements of mine are, on one end are not new and are quite obvious, and on the other are hardly represented in the society. There is a large gap between the well-known and its implementation.

People live on by other, “usual” ideas and those different from society – not in words but in deeds – immediately receive a violent response in his/her address.

Those who do not have personal opinion always contradict someone elses’

Apparently, people subconsciously feel they were wrong (or inefficient) and an example of a person who demonstrates that with their life is extremely annoying.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Agressiveness perhaps can be a measure of foolishness.

V.V. Nalimov

The second reason is poor understanding of practice for such an approach – the difference (gap) between the knowledge and skills. Someone who has studied psychology may eloquently talk about it, lecture or consult others, yet never apply his or her knowledge about it in their own lives. And in the domestic conflict he or she is often no different in behavior when compared to someone who’s an amateur in psychology. And this is the norm.

Knowledge does not affect human behavior. In their actions people reflect their skills, habits, stereotypes, templates, but not knowledge and that is why books that aim to change a person are so measly effective.

Humans change during the situation in which he or she are deeply experiencing and absorbing that what is happening, where they are not an observer or a reader but an active participant who’s forced to change their stereotypes in order to resolve the situation. To change or create a new pattern it is often necessary that a man himself has discovered the truth for himself – and survived through, but not read about it.

But to voluntarily enter into a difficult situation for which there is no pattern is just as hard as jumping from a boat in the middle of a river for those who cannot swim – they will need help.

It requires a humane person who will give a good, strong kick which will put those who cannot swim in the water. Then he will get the necessary skills (e.g., learn to swim).

Speaking of being humane – not so long ago, I realized that to be humane you’ve got to treat a man not worse but, most importantly, none the better than he deserves. You should not give a man a fish – he will come back for it again and become a burden. Give him a pole and let him starve until he learns to fish.

And if he suddenly gets lucky and catches a fish by accident, though not yet knowing how to fish, it must be taken away and cast back into the river. You want to him to have confidence in himself rather than luck, isn’t it right? As such, it will be truly humane to take away the fish, only this way you will really care about him and others.

The realization that no one will help you (and there will be no luck) increases one’ strength tenfold. In contrast, weak-minded, inhuman parents who decide for a 20-30-year-old dunce take away his opportunity to become independent, free. That is far worse than if said dunce goes a couple of days or weeks without much food or sleeps on a park bench.

Herein it starts to portray the limitations of the text not being capable enough to transfer knowledge and understanding. Where are those who have read the text above and even agree with these theses that will do so in real life? That’s right – nobody.

A realization of having a wandering, chaotic mind and the fact that we’re novices in this game of life will aid to improve personal effectiveness. But we have a chance to get to a second level or perhaps higher – become an international master-class.

School and parents taught us the moves of bishop and knight, but there are plenty of figures the existence of which we are unaware of. Moreover, we know nothing except a few moves in the beginning. Kindergarten, school, college, professional work – and that’s it – and then what? Then you need to think for yourself, find strong moves, stop wandering and move forward.

 

This is a translation of a book written by Yuri Moroz, a retired businessman who’s purpose in life is inspiring young  entrepreneurs. He doesn’t teach the rules of management, cash flow, marketing or investments – those things are taught by the universities. Instead he focuses on expanding one’s mind and awareness, utterly destroying limiting beliefs and misconceptions about starting a business. He concentrates on variety of topics such as strategy and tactics, negotiation and a variety of personal development aspects through seminars, or rather “do-inars”, that let you experience business life for real.

So, without further adieu, I proudly give you his master creation – “Business – A muse behind every genius”.

“There is no great genius without some touch of madness”

Seneka

“Dementia/Feeble-mindedness is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging. It may be static, the result of a unique global brain injury, or progressive, resulting in long-term decline due to damage or disease in the body. Although dementia is far more common in the geriatric population, it can occur before the age of 65, in which case it is termed as early onset dementia”

Wikipedia

Throughout the years of doing business, I’ve acquired some understanding of it which I think is interesting to people. This understanding cannot be passed briefly in a few sentences. So that reader understood and felt that what I was trying to convey, a few hours of continuous communication are often necessary. After that the reader notices that there is something there, yet he cannot explain it to someone else.

And explaining it over and over again to different people becomes less fun, just as explaining something deeper is impossible without describing the basics.

My first attempt was a publication in two volumes (edition of 100 copies), of a collection of 10 books by various authors who have written about success in business, which seemed to me to be very useful. This was done as part of an education program within my company. I carefully chose from hundreds of existing business books, each of which had great power of persuasion.

I expected an increase in efficiency in the work of my employees and friends in business who have had the opportunity to read this book. That did not happen.

First and foremost, almost no one read more than two or three books from this collection. Secondly, it has changed nothing in the way of their thinking and actions. I have no illusions that these articles will change reader’s mindset. Now that I know it is impossible to change someone through books or articles – and all the experience of the world literature proves it.

Only a person can change him or herself.

And where have the thought about the necessity to change someone had come from? Watching people as their actions, thoughts, emotions/moods change, the concept of Brownian motion comes into mind – imagine a tube with molecules that are in Brownian motion, constantly moving and colliding with each other. If we start to watch one of the molecules, we can see that being in constant motion, this molecule is, in fact, does not move anywhere. Now imagine that an electric field is imposed on the tube and some particles become charged. Now, when faced with larger molecules, flying back and pushing into smaller ones, charged molecules will, in spite of everything, move in one direction. And it will be a movement that has a beginning and an end. Transferring this analogy to the human world, I would say that most people look like uncharged particles and possess a wandering mind.

Based on the statement of Mr. Gurdjieff’s ” success in work is always proportional to the valuation and understanding of it”, it can be argued that an average awareness in work is close to zero, and so is the result. Hardly anyone of us can accurately and convincingly answer the question why today we are doing what we do and why we do it this way.

And if people in the late twentieth century are considering an achievement that they have a place to live, something to ride and they do not starve but almost no one is confident in the future, it appears that something is wrong. At least because that 1000 years ago people lived somewhere, rode on something (or rather, on someone), didn’t often felt hungry but also were not so sure in the future. And do not rejoice in the fact that the amount of square meters per person has increased, movement speed is higher and the food is better packaged. What we had to pay for it is much more expensive than these dubious benefits. Even more so that we’re troubled with the thoughts about the future and someone who is in a stable and joyful mood is as rare as ever.

I am specifically not talking about some of the spiritual aspects since this book is about business, not the soul, although these two are linked together much stronger than it seems.