The Ninety Ten Rule: Your Future is in Your Hands

I recently had the pleasure of listening to Lou Tice from The Pacific Institute speak about achieving one’s full potential. The Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) event, held in Seattle, included members from the Vancouver BC, Seattle and Portland chapters. While I’m always impressed with EO presenters at educational events, I was particularly struck by the serendipitous timing of the presentation.

Over the past few months, I, like so many other business owners, have scrambled to deal with the impact of the economic downturn on my search engine marketing agency. One unexpected outcome of the recession has been an opportunity for the team to spend newly-free time reflecting on what we can do to thrive, let alone survive, as a company. While some of the feedback has been difficult to hear, it’s all been terribly insightful and may be the key to our future success.

The timing of Lou’s presentation couldn’t have been more karmic in that regard. He started out by explaining how our brain works, outlining the importance of RAS and schemata (filters). Essentially, filters can help us assess massive amounts of information, but that can also prevent us from identifying critical clues to our future.  He talked about the power of visualization as a tool for achieving your goals. The thesis of his presentation was essentially: in order to change your reality, you must first change your mind.

Ever since I was a young kid coming up in the world, I’ve dreamed about my ideal future. I rarely knew how I’d achieve my goals, but I started writing them down shortly after graduating college, and have been checking them off ever since. Back then, I was armed with a simple premise: if I write down my goals, and look at the regularly, the likelihood of achieving those goals would increase exponentially. With Lou’s help, I now understand why.

I’ve always been a big believer in Karma; that one can control and shape one’s future. This fact probably explains why I’m better at being an entrepreneur than an employee. My philosophy in business is to set the goal first, then figure out the “how.” While I have historic proof and complete faith in the methodology, it’s not always easy for employees to follow a vision without the “how” clearly defined.

What I didn’t realize until listening to Lou Tice speak, was that my fundamental approach to business and life was not only appropriate, it is essential for success in business and life. One of the lessons imparted by Lou was the concept of opening up your “filters” to look for new opportunities. One corollary is that new opportunities typically push people out of their comfort zone, which releases critical energy and creativity.

Reflecting back on Anvil’s past success, I was able to validate the theorem that change can resulting in your best work. The team’s best client work came out of challenging projects that pushed everyone’s knowledge, skills and talents to the edge. Each challenge raised our game and led us to the next opportunity. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s difficult to see the progress if you don’t look back and reflect on the journey. As such, I believe it’s essential to regularly reflect back on the journey to better understand how to replicate success or learn from failure.

Early on in Lou’s presentation, my wife leaned over and whispered that the theme of the presentation was consistent with a book she was reading: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, an International best seller. While she admitted initially struggling to get into the highly-acclaimed book, Lou’s presentation brought it all together for us both; helping us understand how and why we behave and achieve.

After the EO event, I decided it would be smart to read the Alchemist. As soon as we returned home, I cracked the book open, and was immediately struck by the consistency of message between Tice and Coelho.  Both talked of realizing your true potential by paying attention to “omens” or filters. This helped me understand why I created a search engine marketing agency for small business, during the current recession.

The next day, I picked up the current issue of Newsweek, and an article caught my eye. Perhaps it was an omen or my filters working their magic. Regardless, it was a fascinating article about the “survivor mentality” and how, in a time of crisis, 10 percent lead, 80 percent follow and 10 percent just freeze up completely or go plumb crazy.  A powerful variant of the 80/20 rule indeed, but in this case, 10 percent tend to unnecessarily endanger their life and the lives of others.

The Newsweek article went on to detail research regarding how people’s behavior in stressful situations relates to our feelings about luck. Specifically, recent research has proven that 90 percent of your life is in your complete control, leaving a mere 10 percent to complete chance or “luck.” I’ve never been a big believer in Lady Luck, and now I have a better understanding as to why. I’ve never waited around for luck to play in my favor.

I also recently finished up The Alchemist, and have enjoyed it immensely. The timing is good, as the main character’s journey to find his “Personal Legend” or treasure is inspiring and helping to guide me through these tumultuous economic times. I’ve learned I have to open up my filters and pay attention to the omens. I believe my team has sent me clear messages and it’s time to act upon the feedback to move the company forward and help us all get closer to achieving our Personal Legends.