In Newtonian physics, this is static friction.

In chemistry, it is activation energy.

In memes it is tipping point.

As is so for visions – there is a certain amount of focus and energy that must manifest before a vision can be realized.  The greater the vision, the greater the energy of activation.  This is why it always takes more than one person to make massive things happen, and teamwork is so valuable.

The phrase “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” is absolutely true in regard to imperfect action.  As long as your action does not kill you (literally), you can execute the action, asses the results, modify behavior, and take another action to continue on the NOW path to success.  Information is gained by creating change and assessing the results.  If no change occurs, no new information will be garnered.  By continually taking action, assessing the results, and taking another action, the city of NOWHERE turns into NOW HERE.

This is your life, and it is ending one minute at a time.

Every minute that passes without an action taking place, you have lost FOREVER the potential to invest that minute and reap the dividends.  In a competitive environment, the competitor that is taking action is learning, growing, and transforming that minute into a minute ahead of you.  We have a maximum cap on the amount of time we can invest – those who invest NOW will reap more than those who invest LATER (given the same principal).

It is valuable to gather information, but experience is the best databank of information because it can be recalled instantly, at a moment’s notice.  And the only way to earn experience is to DO SOMETHING.  There is also a synergistic effect with experience – as you gain more of it, you will build interconnections between the various experiences to extrapolate out a third piece of new information.  Information breeds more information and allows for better decisions.  So even if you have ZERO information and take some action, you will create some information which can breed more data for success.

So what action are you going to take now?

Following a very disappointing scheme of world organization by an INFP on some website, I have decided to make a real plan. A plan that will ensure world cohesion. His plan was also intended as a joke. Mine isn’t. Mine is very serious. Everybody should know ENTJs hate joking!

THE LEADER, THE PRESIDENT, HIS MAJESTY:

First and foremost: I – The ENTJ. This is not even worth discussing. Everybody knows an ENTJ’s place is at the top. The ultimate strategist, the leader with vision -The one to give direction to the rest of the world.

CONSULTANTS:

Right-Arm: INTJ. The mastermind – The perfect friend and consultant to rule the world. The analyzer of plans. The most logic of all types. A definite must-have for any leader. He also ensure endless intellectual stimulation by arguing until early in the morning the meaning of any word, taken randomly, in the ENTJ’s speech.

Image Advisor: ENFP. The ENTJ always wants to better himself and improve. ENFPs are image-conscious and will advise the ENTJ on how to behave in public and stop crushing people like ants. ENFPs are also fun to have around and are good sex partners. They always want to please their boss. A couple of color crayons for kids will be available at the Palace so the ENFPs can relax doing drawings.

Clothes Advisor: ISFP. Clothes are trivial to the ENTJ. Unfortunately, the ENTJ cannot walk around naked outside his palace. The ISFP will choose clothes for the ENTJ. The ISFP’s masochistic tendencies will also come in handy for sex. They are willing to acceptanything. In fact, the ENTJ could have the ENFP in bed first and the ISFP wouldn’t mind joining in later.

DEPARTMENTS:

R&D: In fundamental research, the smart INTPs. They will provide the basis of scientific progress and research the most theoretical aspects. They will make brilliant breakthroughs in physics. When the ENTJ is bored he can also invite a couple of INTPs just to argue. The unlimited power and richness of the ENTJ will ensure that, in his palace, any broken glass, vase, window, pen, fork or door handle by an INTP will be immediately replaced.

In applied research, the genial ENTPs. They will come up with the inventions that will make everybody elses life easier. They’ll come up with new technologies: Like an anti-”SJ” mind control device that will temporarily change those worthless animals personalities to “NP” whenever they start obsessing about details too much. They can also come to the palace whenever Lord ENTJ needs intellectual stimulation – but smoking weed is not allowed in the vicinity.

Security: ISTJs. Mostly obsessive compulsive, the ISTJs lack of any real intuition makes them worthless.Their vision of the future is always unclear and clouded. They don’t have many insights, and when they do they are paranoid and delusional. For that matter, those pesky ISTJ robots will be best placed in Security. They will scan the environment by radar for threats, ensure each door in the ENTJ palace has 7 locks, operates also by card, requires eye, voice and DNA ID – They will keep detailed files of every servant in the kingdom and assign each citizen a number. They will also act as the police.

Since the ideal world is a totalitarian one, legal and executive functions are unified in the hands of the ENTJ – He will ensure that dissidents to the regime receive the treatment deserved. Knowing the overwhelming percent of ISTJs in the world, security will not be a problem in the kingdom. ISTJs will be continuously brainwashed by subliminal messages emitted by the ENTJ on TV.

Recruitment: INFJs. The best people have to be chosen accordingly. INFJs will ensure in-depth knowledge of all personality tests around and will be masters in psychology. They will excell in understanding the MBTI and administer it to all new recruits.Whenever they find a wannabe ENTJ, they will send him to the real ENTJ immediately so he can throw him to the alligators beneath the palace. There is only one! All other so-called ENTJs are impostors.However, the ISTJs will ensure administration of the test will be only possible to recruits, NOT to INFJs – This is in order to stop them passing and repassing the test 50 times.

Medical: Psychologists: INFPs. Psychologists have to listen, be non-directive, self-effacing and gentle.The INFPs inner calm and non-directness will ensure real psychological counselling, ?aRogers. They will take care of all the citizenstraumatized by the ENTJ’s power and directness, and past ENTJ partners still in love with him. INFPs will also be invited to the palace as an audience for the ENTJs argumentation with other NTs. Indeed, the INFP hates arguments and always agrees with the strongest person in a debate, regardless if he is right or wrong. This will ensure a good audience against the NT.

Doctors: INTJs. While the best INTJ will be my right arm, the others will be top doctors. Neurologists, Rhumatologists, Cardiologists, you name it. They will be the experts. They will also ensure research in this domain and will come up with a way to make the ENTJ live longer and be more powerful.

Nurses: ISFJs. What can I say about these people? I love them. They are the best. Most ISFJs will be placed in nursing. Since they are so benevolent, pure and obedient to the regime, they will be invited in masses to the kingdom. At least you can count on the ISFJs to rally behind the ENTJ. While the ISFPs, ENFPs and ESFPs will be sexual partners of the ENTJ, the ISFJ will be the ENTJ’s real significant other. The ISFJ will ensure harmony in the household and education of the ENTJ’s warrio…erm…children. Why the ISFJ and not the ISFP as a wife? Because ISFJs are so much more NEAT and ORDERLY, plus they have a strong respect for authority and tradition. Brilliant.

Hygiene and Cleaning Services: Who will clean up the palace and the citizens homes? The ESFJs of course! Due to the overwhelming number of them, no more citizen will have to clean up, cook, organize weddings, plan parties, etc. since the ENTJ is a powerful but also generous leader, he will place one ESFJ in each household.

Wait, don’t panic! The ENTPs will have invented the mind control device necessary to turn the e-S-f-J to e-N-f-Ps when they get too compulsive. Then they could act as a babysitter for kids, or if you don’t have any kid, you’ll have a temporary one at your disposition with the ENFP!

The benefits of having an ESFJ are apparent: You won’t have to spend time baking cookies, bringing the kids to school, organizing and cooking for friends and waking the kids up. The EFSJ is also an efficient nagger to remind your significant other of any task he/she’s not done yet.

The ENTJ ARMY:

Charismatic Leader: Ok, so at this point on the hierarchy, we need somebody with hi ideals that can mobilize alot of people. Since most SJs are a pain to boss around, somebody has to do it. That person will be an ENFJ. ENFJs learn by role modelling, so they will just role model their beloved ENTJ leader and integrate all his values. They will be able to tame the ESTJ lions in the ENTJ army thanks to their good people skills.

ENFJ are really the best when it comes to duping people into thinking they have benevolent intentions, something the ENTJ can’t do because he’s too straightforward. ENFJs are the only ones able to make SJs understand anything. Thank god they exist. Supervisors and small team leaders: Beneath the ENFJ, there will be a series of ESTJ Majors to lead those mindless ESTPs and ISTPs around. ESTJ are also good to have on the field amidst a battle. They are good leaders but they are also quite disposable. There are so many of them that it really doesn’t matter if any one of them gets killed in the process. ESTJs can use their football skills to throw grenades at the right places in enemy territory.

Disposable soldiers: At the bottom of the hierarchy, we need people who can’t think for themselves, who are conformists, who are unconscious about risk, who are willing to fight unarmed against a squad of infrantry with machine guns – We need people who don’t think- but ACT. We also have to make sure there are plenty of them so we can replace their (un?)fortunate deaths.

In a nutshell: WE NEED STPs! The ISTPs are the perfect soldiers: Fearless, think they’re invincible, don’t like talking, cold and sadistic, influenced by Rambo movies. They can also act as mechanics when vehicules have any problems.

On the other hand, ESTPs. They are great to throw upfront in a battle. You can tell them the enemy has beer in his camp and they’ll go running to him like bulldozers screaming “WAZZZZAAAAAAAAA!!!”. They can invent all sorts of stories if they are captured, and still not be busted on a lie detector.

They also are great salesmen. This ensures that if, regrettably, the war in place is only of an economic nature, they can go along selling junk to the enemy. For example, they can sell cars that will stop functionning after exactly 8000 miles, paralyzing all of the enemy’s transports.

THE AMUSERS:

Entertainers: Last, we need to place those disobedient ESFPs somewhere. These people are really scum and are best left as disposable sex objects. They are good entertainers and ensure the whole society is [sexually] active.

They will be performers for the ENTJ’s vision. They will participate in TV shows like “ENTJ Idol”, a reality show where participants have to do all sorts of things to please the ENTJ. They will be given courses by qualified instructors and receive grades each week.

They will learn to be more organized, less changing, more logical, less impulsive and more argumentative. Aaaahh….Wouldn’t the world be such a better place?

Find out where you fit: http://www.humannetrics.com

Now if time is a currency, it must be able to be traded, bought, and sold.  The question is, how does one buy time?  If Walmart, Ebay, or Amazon don’t sell it .. how does one acquire more time?

For a business, a first stage of financial management is to asses the situation and identify where debts or cash outflows occur.  One can never acquire more cash if one constantly has the cash being sucked out through expenses and liabilities (unless you have a very high inflow of cash, but this is a non-efficient state).  Similarly, if time is constantly being drained, one can never become ‘time-wealthy’.  Thus comes the first step of acquiring more time:

1. Identify and Eliminate Time Drainage

Time drainage is classified as anything that takes your hours away each day/week/month/year.  But of course, first the definition must be made of what is “your time” so that you know what you are losing.  “Your time” is classifed as time that you have free will and control over.  For example, using the toilet would not really be considered “your time”, because when you gotta go, you gotta go.  However, reading while you’re on the toilet after you’re done, would be considered “your time”.  Sleeping to replenish the body would not be considered “your time”, because if you don’t sleep, you will go mad and die.  However, sleeping in, long after the body has had it’s required delta sleep, would be considered “your time”.  The time spent working at a job is not considered “your time”, because during that time your free-will and control is limited by somebody else (your employer).  However, your employer is compensating you for your time, and of course, the old adage of “Time = Money” comes into play.  This adage then begs to question “How much is my time worth?”  That is for you to determine.  Let me say this – there are 27,000 average days in a human life.  You have one life to live, and you are spending your time currency every single day until you run out.

Time spent on hobbies is “your time”.  Time spent watching TV is “your time”.  The minimum time spent on eating is not “your time”, but any extra time outside of that is.  So when you consider all this, the average day of a working adult is something like this:

a) Not my time, but must/should be done and I can’t do anything about  (eg, hygiene, eating, sleeping) – minimal
b) My time that I am selling (eg work, selling 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year for $75,000.) – majority
c) My time that I am spending/investing (eg watching TV, travelling, exercising) – secondary

[pie chart]

What most people do is they sell their time for 50 years of their life, put the cash into an account to gain interest, then buy time back again with their accumulated wealth.  What most people don’t realize, is that this comes out to almost a net zero equation, since the time you buy back with the accumulated wealth is not worth as much due to age, ailments, inflation etc.  For most people, time to cash investment only sustains their standard of living, not improve it.  So we have billions of people, trading their time for cash, using that cash to occupy time slice (C) in various ways.

The more optimal arrangement would be to spend less time in (B), and more in (C).  But as we know from financial wealth, the poor spend, and the rich invest.  So consider this, are you spending or investing your time when you: watch tv, exercise, read magazines, get drunk?  Consider eliminating “spending” time, and turn it into “time investments”.  Other areas of possible time savings:

* commute – drive during off-peak hours, or live closer to work
* showering – get in, get out.  You’ll even save water!  Although for some, showering may be a spiritual element of their lives, and as such, would be an investment.
* typing – learn to touch type.  At the end of your life, how much time would you want to have spent on pushing buttons?

2. Buying More Time

Now we come to the crux of the article.  Buying more time.  By assessing your own situation, you now realize you are selling your time for a dollar amount.  The person you are selling your time to, now owns your time and is putting your time to their uses.  Similarly, you can also buy time from other people.  This is a key switch from the “employee” to “employer” mindset.

Here is a unique thing about capitalism: each person’s time is individually valued.  There will be greater and less demands for it, depending on the current state of the society.   A key then is to sell your own time at a premium, and buy other people’s time (to add to your own time) at a lower rate.  This is a key element in outsourcing.  At this point, I recommend reading Tim Ferris’ book of the 4 Hour Work Week.  It will introduce solid concepts in outsourcing.

Some ideas and suggestions for buying time:

* Have food cooked and delivered for you.  If cooking is not a passion or hobby, then your time is probably more valuable spent on something that brings you great pleasure.
* Have somebody organize files and documents for you.  This could be considered an investment for the disorganized.

Bonus Concept: Parallel time
The more things you can do at once, the more you multiply that time-chunk.  For example, if it took me one hour to wash clothes, and one hour to read a book, if I did them in serial, it would take two hours.  If I did it in parallel, I now have a savings of one hour of time that I can spend elsewhere.  Question: “How can I create more parallel time?”  Note that buying somebody else’s time also counts as parallel time. 

n.

1. 1. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
   2. The condition of being so stimulated.
2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.
4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration.
5. Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.
6. The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.

Ever hear “that is an inspiring picture”, or “that is an inspiring story”, or”that was an inspiring speech”? Note that “inspiring” is used as an adjective, but in the sense that the noun is doing something to the subject. Inspiration often comes from an external cue. When the stimulus from the external cue hits us a certain way, we are considered “inspired”. If the magnitude of the stimulus is strong enough, the thought or feeling of inspiration will lead to an action of some sort. For example, a muse may trigger / ['inspire'] an artist to begin on a work of art. However, this work of art may never be completed .. depending on the motivation of the Artist.

[Motivation]

As human beings, we need to sleep, eat, etc. Mundane things that take us away from our inspired work. What brings us back to our original inspired work, lest we be tempted away to a new inspiration? Motivation is the tumbler for the key of inspiration to turn and unlock. Motivation applied to inspiration will allow one to complete their original inspired vision.

Motivation may come from external sources (easiest), or internal sources (most powerful), and sometimes both for a greater effect.

Examples of external sources of motivation are a drill instructor making an athlete do 50 more push-ups, a boss incentivising an employee with compensation, or a mother threatening her child with no dessert. The motivation often dies when the motivation-producing stimulus is removed.

Internal sources of motivation are psychologically driven and come from within. An example may be a traumatic childhood that causes a child certain aversions in life, or an action for a loved one.

Inspiration will create Thought.

if the magnitude is strong enough, the Thought will generate Action.

Motivation will repeat Action.

if the motivation is strong enough, Action will form Habit.

P.S. Why do they call it “Inspiration Point”?

“It’s not about where you are, it’s where you’re going.”

Others have said:

“It’s not where you’ve been, it’s where you are.”

In business, I like to say:

“Where you are – Where you’ve been = Where you’re going”

(in addition to the above two.)

Business is all about creation. At the end of the day, every business must create something in order to survive. It then follows, that to check the health (survival level) of a business, one must measure it’s rate of creation. The more healthy a business, the more it is creating. One measurement of creation is cash. The more healthy a business, the more cash it is creating.

This is one of the things I love about business – the fact that it creates; brings something from non-existence into existence. And hey, cash isn’t too bad a by-product to bring into existence. Why? Because cash is a common ground for most things. Of course, one should intend to use the cash for good and positive purposes. But that, is a topic for another discussion (check metaphysics category – soon to manifest).

For now, let us use cash as a measurement for level of creation. So we are now able to measure rate of creation growth by rate of cash growth. Using the introductory equation:

“Where you are – Where you’ve been = Where you’re going”

We can correspond the following:

• “Where you are” = current cash in the bank
• “Where you’ve been” = cash in the bank at time period x before now
• “Where you’re going” will be positive if your position has improved, and negative if it has worsened.

note: there may be some predictive purists out there that state that nothing is predictable, but business is built upon predictions (whether it be scientific method or ‘intuition’).

What if you haven’t been anywhere?

To calculate where you’re going, you must measure the current time period (now) and some period x before now. If you haven’t been anywhere, where you’re going will be 0. Positive means you’re growing. Negative means you’re dying. Zero means you won’t be going anywhere (and thus, relatively dying, since the rest of the world is growing with or without you). So you have the option of growing, accelerated de-growing (ie, dying), or dying by relativity.

If you haven’t been anywhere, you won’t be going anywhere.

This may sound rather harsh, and defenders of the underachieved may champion that “they’ll get around to it” .. but the reality is that an energy of activation must be overcome for some momentum to be built in one direction or another. Once that energy of activation to be overcome, the first and most important step will have been taken. You will have created a predictive factor for a next step. The more momentum you can build in a particular direction, the further you will go in that direction.

In a business, you want growth. Lots of it. How you measure that growth, is up to you. Ideally it would be measured by how well it serves its vision.

Questions for today:

1. Are you growing, or dying?
2. How much momentum to you have in either direction?
3. How do you measure your growth?

(Business Tip: KPIs are a great way to have each business segment measure its own growth.)

Sow an act, reap a habit.

Sow a habit, reap a character.

Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Yoda once phrased this as a foreboding warning to young Vader:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Fear is a thought, which if focused upon, leads to anger, which is an expression of the fear.

Repeated or constant anger results in hate, a habit that results in suffering since it imposes a negative toll on the body.

In Star Wars, young Vader’s hateful character eventually lead him to the dark side – all which stemmed from fear.

While in life, our destinies may not be as dramatic as Vader’s, it may still be as grand, especially to us who are the protagonist of our own life’s story. So how do we take this lesson and develop a desirable destiny?

For me, I have always desired a destiny of freedom, exploration, and experience. So I worked backwards.

1. What Destiny do I want?

To answer this takes much introspection that is built from experience. The greater the experience, and the greater the time spent introspecting on the experience, the clearer your destiny will be to you.  Note that by a “greater” experience, I mean both the quantity and quality (quality * quantity = level of experience value/greatness).  If you do not know your current destiny (I say current, because your destiny may change at any time), then you may need to:

1. Stop reading this.
   
2. Go have great experiences.
3. Reflect upon them and their meaning in your life.

One day you will fall into destiny’s path.

For me, I have found that my destiny lies in transcending.  What does this mean?  It means breaking barriers, leaving limits, exceeding existence.  But I am constantly looking for the greater challenge to transcend (reminiscent of Street Fighter Ryu’s devotion to spiritual perfection).  What is the current challenge to overcome?  That which currently binds me most.

The only thing that truly binds us in life is time. Happiness is abundant. Money is abundant (especially if you are fortunate enough to be reading this article). Things to do are abundant. Time is the one thing every human has a limited amount of, and in no way can increase. The only thing that we can improve on is how that time is spent. To spend time more effectively, we need to spend time doing the things that really matter most to us.

For the first 10 years of life as a child, we spend it acquiring basic skills. Math, English, walking, running, et cetera. One has very little control over how we spend our time at this stage, since it is mostly dictated by our parents. The fortunate ones will have their time well-managed by their parents, and develop a strong basic skill set at this stage. The unfortunate ones will have to struggle harder to attain a same basic level as their more fortunate counterparts.

For the next 10 years of life as a teenager, we spend it acquiring social skills, self-esteem, and so forth. Here we start to gain more control over our time, but are probably too young to know where to spend it effectively.

The next 10 years of life are spent making that leap to a fully-fledged responsibility of managing one’s own time. For some, this is delayed by college, which eases the transition.

So what happens when the responsibility lies in us to manage our own lives? Well, the first problem that arises is putting food on the table so we can survive and eat. For most, this means jobs, which consumes the next 40, 50 years of life until retirement. Isn’t it ironic that when we are most in control of our time, we typically spend it in an area that does not tie in with our destiny?

Now I know and understand the destiny I wish to achieve, I must understand the character that is needed to achieve that.

2. What Character do I need to achieve my Destiny?

When I was younger, I used to play RPGs (role-playing-games), where you would pick a character such as a warrior, thief, or wizard, and then develop your character to become the strongest warrior, most cunning thief, or powerful wizard in the land.  However, my goal is not to rule over lands, defeat robber-barons, or conjure spells. I wish to be free, and I ascertained that financial freedom is critical to time-freedom. To be financially free, I have found the following basic equation needs to be satisfied:

Money In >= Money Out

Money out can be categorized into two main areas:

a) Essentials
Needed to survive. Food, water, shelter, health care, etc.

b) Luxuries
Comes in two categories: entertainment and upgrades. Entertainment is anything for one’s own personal pleasure but is not essential to surviving. This includes movies, sports, clubbing, etc. Upgrades are upgrades on the essential category. For example, upgrading from McDonald’s to Mastro’s.

Money in typically comes in one of two sources:

a) Active
This is money you work for. You trade hours for dollars. If you are highly skilled, and your skill is in high demand, your hours will be worth a lot of dollars (eg. Lawyer). If you are working in a lower skill-set, your hours will be worth less. For true financial freedom, your active money in can be zero at any time, and you can still maintain your current lifestyle.

b) Passive
This is money that you don’t trade hours for dollars, but still comes in. Sources of this type of income are investments, dividends, and businesses.

Investments and dividends require money to create money, and usually create it at a 5-10%, maybe 20% annual growth rate based off the principal capital.

Businesses also need money to create money, but are often able to create a 20-100% annual growth rate based off the principal capital. This is the beauty of business.

It should be apparent that passive money in is preferable to active money in, since your time is the most-freed up in this case. The lower one can keep their “Money Out”, the faster that “Money In” can push the equation to a state of financial freedom. However, the caveat is that one must have Active Money In = Zero to be financially free, so one must either invest, or have a business generating money in.

Since I am Business Bruce and not Investor Bruce, we have chosen our player character – a business owner.

3.  What habits does a business owner have?