A couple of days ago, I had a great reminder of why we should never limit our vision of a bigger future to what seems doable or “realistic” in our own heads. The venue was the Berrett-Koehler 2020 Future Search, at which 70+ authors, employees, shareholders, publishing industry representatives and other stakeholders got together to imagine the future of Berrett-Koehler Publishers (BK). BK’s ambitious tag line is “A community dedicated to creating a world that works for all.” This is no small mission for a relatively tiny publisher, even a profitable one with some very passionate, accomplished, and talented people behind it.

By the end of the 3-day event, the expansive visions put forth had generated many supporters, and not surprisingly, a few skeptics. When one intern commented that none of this seemed possible until the current staff could get out from under their massive workload, BK author Roberto Vargas stood up to “respectfully disagree.” With considerable passion, he responded, “You don’t know how much energy I have, and you don’t know my community.”

He was not alone in his sentiments. At other tables more authors and other stakeholders had expressed a willingness to contribute their creative energies and resources to help realize the future we had envisioned together.

How often do we limit our vision to what we think we can accomplish with our current capabilities, not realizing that there are countless others out there willing to jump onboard? It’s an easy trap to fall into, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the effort it takes to keep everything going on a daily basis. I know I’ve often overlooked the helping hands that are right there, just waiting to be asked. Roberto’s words can serve as a kind of mantra for those moments, reminding me not to discount the energy, capability, and willingness of people who believe in me and what I’m trying to accomplish. Gracias, Dr. Vargas.

Berrett-Koehler is the publisher of The Laws of Lifetime Growth, and many other quality books dedicated to helping people improve their own lives and the world around them.

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A big thank you to bestselling author and leadership expert, John Maxwell, for sharing the first four laws in the latest issue of his online newsletter, Leadership Wired.

We're very happy to see the laws getting around.

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This week we have a guest entry from Hamish MacDonald, a writer who works for The Strategic Coach, who has managed to find an interesting way to make his enjoyment greater than his effort even in the often challenging and rejection-filled world of fiction writing.

I finished my third novel two years ago -- a quirky, alternative, magical realist tale about Scotland. I was pleased with what I'd done: I told the kind of story I like to read. But writing was the easy part. Now came the hard part: submission.

For two years, I sent the manuscript around to various publishers. One editor loved it -- but then the company sacked him and shut down their fiction imprint. Several others were bought out or underwent significant changes after receiving the book; I never knew who I was dealing with. Most presses simply weren't interested in unknown work or this kind of story.

While visiting Catherine last summer, I saw she had a bookbinding guide on her shelf. Fascinated, I flipped through it. Later that day, she and I had a long talk about The Laws of Lifetime Growth. I looked back over this period of rejection letters and frustration and saw that I didn't have a future bigger than my past. In fact, I had no future at all, because I was refusing to look forward: I didn't want more of the same.

During my stay in Toronto, I went to a paper store and bought all sorts of colored papers, glue, thread, and a manual on bookbinding. When I got back to Edinburgh, I started teaching myself to make books by hand, and wound up making all my Christmas presents that year -- journals, photo albums, and other books.

At New Year's, I sat down with a pen and a book I'd made and I plotted out the year ahead. "I'm going to have a future," I figured, "so why not invent one full of activities I enjoy? Then, no matter how it turns out, at least I'll have had fun."

In the time since, I've managed to expand my bookbinding efforts to the point that I'm now running a "micropress" from home, publishing my own work, start to finish.

When I was in Toronto this summer, I had a book launch for my third novel. I got to read sections from the book for a packed room full of friends and strangers, and to share all these characters, events, and images from my imagination with them. I even sold enough books to give me pocket money for the rest of my trip. The biggest payoff, though, was knowing that the story was out there, not wasting away as a Word file on my computer or in some editor's in-tray.

That was one of the best nights of my life, and it happened because I'd determined that this year I would make progress by having fun -- always making my enjoyment greater than my effort.

~

Hamish MacDonald is the author of three novels: doubleZero, The Willies, and Idea in Stone. You can buy his hand-bound books or download free e-books of his novels from hamishmacdonald.com

Hamish lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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In the course of speaking to radio interviewers about The Laws of Lifetime Growth, a particular question has repeatedly been asked: "What is the role of integrity in lifetime growth?" I wanted to share some of this discussion here because it gets right to the heart of the role of values in growth. It’s very difficult to keep growing without integrity, and many of us face this issue more often than we realize, even as honest, morally upstanding individuals.

We recently published an article on this subject as it relates to entrepreneurs on The Strategic Coach website. Here are a few key thoughts that apply to anyone, entrepreneur or not:

• To understand what a lack of integrity looks like, it helps to start with a definition of what integrity is. "Integrity" means "wholeness" or "coherence." Things that have integrity gain strength from being consistent and unified in their make-up.
• At the deepest level, maintaining personal integrity involves aligning our thoughts, habits, and unconscious beliefs with our core values. This provides a strong foundation on which a bigger future can securely be built.
• Loss of personal integrity often happens a bit at a time, while we're not paying attention.
• Broken commitments, postponed or abandoned dreams, and uncomfortable trade-offs are all signs that our lives are out of alignment with our own deeply-held values.
• It takes a lot of effort to keep moving ahead when you're not doing what's meaningful or important to you, even if everything looks okay on the surface. You may be the only one who knows that something is wrong and think you have to hold it all together for the sake of others. It takes a lot of energy and personal resources to maintain a facade like this.
• People whose lives lack integrity in this very basic sense are nagged by the deep realization that real growth may only be possible once it all falls apart and they start over again. They fear the disruption to their lives that seems to be the only way out.
• Many very successful, morally upstanding people find themselves in this situation at some point in life.
• Often it happens because we accept a growth path that is provided for us by a company, community, family, tradition, or some other external influence, rather than determining our own path.
• The Laws of Lifetime Growth help people identify where their actions are out of alignment with their values. For instance, you may believe in principle that your future should always be bigger than your past, but not always act as if this were true. We all do this at times. However, by being more aware in the moment, we can change our behavior as it happens. Over time, these many small course corrections add up to big change in our habits, the results we create, and how we view life.
• The choice of how you apply the laws goes straight to the core of your values. Your bigger future is different from anyone else's, as are the way you will choose to contribute, what you will choose to learn about, and the questions you'll choose to ask. You get the idea.
• If you find yourself in a situation where you're starting again in some area of life, paying attention to the laws and to your core values as you grow can help you maintain integrity through the process so you can stay on the same growth path for a lifetime.

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Dan McGinn at New Persuasion posted this insightful commentary on the connection between law eight, "always make your confidence greater than your comfort", and maintaining "creative confidence" in business.

He says, "It isn't easy easy to expand to broader marketing bases while keeping your creativity and the admiration of the loyal, but it is possible." This point is driven home with a couple of interesting examples, including Marlboro, which responded to restrictive regulations by creating a unique community around its brand. We've seen the most innovative financial advisors we work with respond in similarly creative ways to regulations that crippled their ability to market and grow their revenues through conventional channels.

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The interview posted here is additional reading material to accompany The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business, a PDF supplement available to readers of The Laws of Lifetime Growth who are entrepreneurs.

Dan Taylor is a dynamic Industry Transformer who has created an innovative and much needed process that helps aging parents discuss their future economic, medical, psychological, emotional, and lifestyle requirements with their adult children.

The interview tells how Dan came to create this process out of the challenging and deeply emotional experience he had with his own father, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease – making his learning greater than his experience. We've posted it to provide you with a real example of several of the laws in action in a business context.

You'll see how Dan created opportunity by facilitating greater cooperation where it was sorely needed. You'll also see how he made his questions bigger than his answers and how that led to innovation. By packaging the wisdom embodied in a particular kind of conversation into a product, he has managed to create an Industry Bypass, which is beginning to evolve into an emerging industry that provides significant growth opportunities for himself and many others.

Click here to download this interview in PDF format.

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We've posted this profile of the recorded music industry as a supplement to The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business. It is provided to offer more insight into The Industry LifeCycle model and how it applies in various industries. It's also just an interesting and entertaining read. Click here to download this file as a PDF document.

You may also want to see the profile posted here on the global wine industry.

If you've purchased The Laws of Lifetime Growth and are a business owner, but haven't yet received The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business, click here to find out how you can request your free copy.

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