What an
enormous chang e now, huh? Now “Made in Japan” is the promise of an
excellent product. I myself wouldn’ t settle for anything less than a Sony
when I bought a TV. Japan is now again one of the great world economic
powers and pacesetters. Their corporate structure and busines s styles are
studied by experts worldwide. The Japanese have made one of the fastest
comebacks in all of history . As a community they are successful; as a nation
they are super successful. How did this come about for Japan? They were honest about it, weren’ t they? They publicly admitted, “We
were wrong.” They shared their suffering with the world. They didn’ t try to
fake it. We all knew they were learning a horribly painful but critical lesson. Their willingness to bite the bullet, to face it, to be honest, to fess up, and to
use the bitter lesson on behalf of learning that lesson forever and coming
back again—this time with a different alignment of integrity—was essential
to their comeback. This time they were committed to different principles. They were not devoted to vaingloriousness, but to excellence. The word Japanese  is now almost  the equivalent of excellence, the
commitment to the perfection of detail, which manifests in the
dependability of its products and in the demonstration of responsibility in
making replacement parts available. There is awareness that a change in the
design means it is coming about as a result of a true improvement in the
product and not as a marked manipulation to make what we already own
obsolete. Their genuineness and legitimacy are exhibited. No one would
ever want to go through it again, the Japanese least of all—and yet,
successful people learn from such a lesson. Japan is a stagg ering success. It is a nation that totally recovered its
power and now has more power than ever. Previously , it tried to achieve a
prominent place  in the world through force. Force fails becau se it is notpower . The military represents force. When Japan had the force of a huge
military , it was weak. As individual opponents, though, the Japanese were formidable. A
Japanese warrior in hand-to-han d combat in the jungle was not someone I
wanted to encounter . We had respect for their commitment as individuals. The fact that a kamikaze would fly his plane right into one of our
warships and blow it up, sacrificing his own life in doing so, scared a lot of
people. A person of average mentality who didn’ t understand commitment
presumed that they must be some kind of fanatics. The power of the
kamikaze was their commitment to a principle: for the glory of God and the
emperor . The kamikaze pilot gave his all for the glory of his country and the
honor of his emperor . Consequently , he was an unstoppab le warrior . Because the ultimate alignment at the top and the motives were wrong, it
went down the tubes. The warriors failed not because of the valor of the
individuals involved; rather , it was because of the misguidance of those
above them. We see the principles upon which Japan was rebuilt. We see the
consequences of what happens  to political leaders and businesspeople of
recent times who have veered from those tried and proven principles. They
pay the price. They take a public tumble. They don’t get beheaded by the
executioner ’s ax anymore—they get beheaded by the media. The way to
avoid those mistakes is to watch every mistake that happens in the world
and analyze the principles that were violated. When we see that, then we
have a totally dif ferent basis on which to make decisions. To sell out integrity for expediency is to lose our power . To be
unshakably committed to principle is to regain our power , even if it seems
to cause a temporary loss. We can blow a lot of business, but as long as we
didn’ t blow our credit the banks  will lend us more money . If we sell out our
credit for some cash, we’ll have some temporary fun. But when the chips
are down, we’re twisting in the wind. It’s not the fact that we went belly-up
on that one. It’ s the “why” of it. If the whole world was willing to forgive Japan for the ultimate  disaster ,
it will do the same thing with us—provided, that is, we follow the same
road to recovery . One of the Japanese’ s great gifts to all of us was that they
established for us the path back to recovery . They demonstrated for us all so
that we could share in their lesson.OceanofPDF .comINTEGRITY WINS THE DAY
“It’s a dog-eat- dog world out there, Doc. Everyone knows that,” the
patient, who was having all kinds of financial trouble, said to me. “If I
didn’ t comprom ise and cut corners and do a little shortchangi ng here and
there, I wouldn’ t be able to make it in the marketplace.”
Let’s examine these principles and see what’ s involved. This patient’ s
first illusion was that he had to compromise because he was close to
bankruptcy . The truth was he was close to bankruptcy because he had been
a compromiser of the principles of integrity all along. That’ s why his
business was in trouble. What about competition? That is what is inferred by the use of the
analogy of the business world as a jungle. The truth of the matter is that
success is relatively effortless. It is the simple expediency of overcoming
the illusion of what competition is in this world. In the first place, there isn’t
any real competition of which to speak. What do I mean by that? In the
world of those who are commi tted to excellence, the non-compromise of
integrity , and principle, there isn’t any competition. There are so few at the
top of this pyramid that those who are there write their own tickets. If we’re the best mechanics in town, do you think we’ll have any
problem with competition? No. The problem is going to be that of
overwork. Once our customers have experienced the quality of excellence,
they will never be satisfied with anything less. Now , by excellence, do I
mean expertise? Do I mean exceptional ability? No, I do not mean that at
all. Customers will make all kinds of compromises in their expectations if
they know that they’re getting honesty and integrity in return. They willforgive us all kinds of mistakes  if we work legally and are totally honest
about it. They may be a little disappointed, but they won’ t go elsewhere, so
long as they get the honesty of our intentions. For instance, if we bid on a contract, and after landing it find that we
can’t complete the project as we had hoped because we underes timated, the
customer will forgive us if we say, “Look, in order to stay with this bid
price, we’re going to have to compromise on the quality of a certain
material.” Allow  the customer to have the option of the decision here. That
way they cannot fault us later or undermine our reputations. On the
contrary , we will build a fine reputation; it’ s reputation that builds success. Ah, there’s that word: reputation. There’ s the secret right there. We don’t
have to knock our brains out to beat the competition. Our reputation
effortlessly does it for us. This doesn’ t mean that marketing  gimmicks,
publicity , and all the rest don’t have their place. But let’s remember that
those are only attention getters. Once we have the attention of the potential
customer , we have to follow it up with integrity , quality , and a feeling of
genuineness, which cannot be created unless that genuineness is actually
there. True success is so effortless, so easy, and such a snap, it’s sad to watch
people out there struggling away , exhausting themselves, selling themselves
out right and left, trying to “make it.” Their problem is that they think that
success is “out there.” Success is automatic to a person who has made it. “Has it made” is an inner attitu de. Once we have that attitude, success is
automatic. It’ s not a “so what?” It’ s an “of course.”
Isn’t success making a lot of money? Isn’t that the common
presumption? Success may or may not be accompanied by making a lot of
money . To those who are successful, it doesn’ t really matter that much. Have we ever realized that when we were completely and totally satisfied
and happy with our successes, how much money we made was almost
irrelevant? We need enough to pay our bills and provide for a reasonable
standard of living for ourselves , but there isn’t that need to make a lot of
money , which is actually compensation for lack of success. If making a lot of money is what motivates us, then we don’t have the
key to success. Money is in fact a substitute for the satisfaction that truly
successful peop le get out of every job or operation that has gone well for
them. Many of my greatest and happiest successes actually brought me nofinancial profit at all. When success is something within, it doesn’t require
anything “out there.”
Making a lot of money is by its very nature “out there.” It woul d, at best,
allow for some extra conveniences and pleasures in life, and perhaps
validation about the accuracy of one’s financial theory in a given matter . Satisfaction and a feeling of success can be complete and total without
anything at all happening “out there.” That’ s what I mean by transcending
the world, by no longer being dependent on the effect of it and the victim of
“out there.” Successful people have so many areas of satisfac tion in their
lives that they don’t have any areas of vulnerability . Thus, if the expected
result does not occur , they don’ t go into an emotional reaction about it. Let’s look at an example from my own personal and professional life, to
demonstrate the principles I’m talking about. This is one that’s actually a
matter of public record, so all will know I’m not just making it up for the
sake of the book. A terrible neurological disease  had arisen among patients who were
taking a certain class of tranqui lizers called phenothiazines. This crippling
disorder , called tardive dyskines ia, is irrev ersible in about 5 percent of
patients, very often progressive. It is accompanied by involuntary facial
grimacing, body movements, twitching, and rhythmic movements such as
“rabbit mouth.” This disorder has preoccupied the psychiatric profession
because it creates numerous dilemmas, not only for the patient, but for the
doctor , including malpractice suits and endless tragedy . If doctors failed to put seriously ill patients on the so-call ed major
tranquilizers, they could be faulted and sued for improper treatment and
failing to treat according to the prevailing community standard s. If doctors
put patients on these drugs as required by their condition and they
developed tardiv e dyskinesia (which occurs in 25 to 50 percen t of patients
on these drugs), they could then be sued because the patients developed a
crippling neurological side effect from the drug. So they’re condemned if
they do and condemned if they don’t, creating an endless ethical, moral,
procedural, and professional dilemma of being between a rock and a hard
place. Tardive dyskinesia also put the pharmaceutical industry at risk,damaged the image of the profession, was extremely costly , pushed up
malpractice insurance rates, jeopardized the patient/doctor relationship, and
in general created a professional disaster . The reason for describing this example is to provide the setting of the
importance of the problem. Thus far, the profession has been unable to
solve it completely . There are endless papers in the professional literature
speculating on the basic mechanisms and hypothetical biochemistry . I had been in clinical practice for 35 years at the time and had one of the
largest psychiatric practices in the United States. Back in the ’60s I had
heard that using  vitamins in treating patients and taking them off sugar and
sweets was very beneficial. So I did that. I did not do this in place of
traditional, proven treatments; I did it in addition to that. I told people who
ate a lot of sweets that the mammalian pancreas was never made to handle
refined sugar . It doesn’ t even exist in nature unless a bear gets into some
honey . Over the millions of years of biologic evolution of the mammalian
body , there was never any need for the pancreas to handle big inputs of
sugar; therefore, it seemed to me to be unnatural. I had heard that large doses of certain vitamins, such as B6, B3, C, and E
were beneficial to patients with disorders such as schizophrenia, and
various addictions including alcoholism, epilepsy , and depression; and I
passed this information on to my patients. I also learned that a lot of
psychiatric symptoms came from  allergies to various things that people ate. By experimentation, those items could be eliminated. Sure enough, that
turned out to be true. As a matter of fact, my own migraine headaches
diminished by 50 percent by eliminating milk; my colitis also disappeared. Fatigue and periodic depression vanished from my life by abandoning sugar
and sweets. I discovered, to personal as well as professional benefit, the
importance of nutrition with physical, psychosomatic, emotional, and
psychiatric disorders. This seems like common sense, doesn’ t it? The doctor ’s obliga tion is to
do the best they can for the patient. I’ve always had what I call a
“deathbed” philo sophy . What I mean by that is that in the last moments of
life, we’re all going to be confronted by the judgment of whether we did our
best or not. As such, my comm itment has unfailingly been to the patient. I’ve always felt that in my last moments I would be completely  and totally
accountable for what I’ve done for the sake of others.Curiously , my professional colle agues seemed to be upset by the fact that
I used a lot of vitamins and took people off various foods to which they
reacted adversely . This was surprisingly considered to be very controversial
and roundly denounced. In my own mind, I said, The heck with it. I don’t
care what they think. I wasn’ t going to be accountable for whether or not I
was popular or impressed anyo ne. I believed the evidence before my very
eyes. Patients who were trying to recover from alcoholism, for instance, were
having constant relapses. As soon as I took them off sugar and sweets and
put them  on high doses of vitamins, they stayed sober . I had patients who
periodically had to have electric shock treatments over the years for
depression; however , they promptly recovered when they eliminated sugar
and sweets from their diets. I had patients who were paranoid and
delusional; when I put them on vitamin B6 and took them off potatoes, the
paranoia disappeared. So what was I to believe? The critic ism of my
colleagues, or what was obvious from what my patients were telling me? I
stuck with the patients. Eventually , I became known around the world and had a staggering
practice. I treated patients from  all corners of the globe—they  used to be
lined up in the airports in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, waiting for a hospital
bed to open up for them. I ended up with 12 secretaries and 10 incoming
telephone lines. Yet I wasn’ t interested in success. I wasn’ t interested in
making a lot of money . Nobody was more surprised than I was when it all
started happening in spades. Doctors began to come in from all over the
world to ask me to teach them the methods that I used. Patien ts who had
been sick for many years would come in, and within 30 days would be well
and return home. That impressed the community; therefore, a whole slew of
patients poured in from one city after another . Organizations began to form
to support this kind of treatment. At this time, there was a group of us doctors doing this, and we were
getting so many inquiries that I was spending all my time writi ng letters. I
said to my colleagues, “You know , we should write a handbook to explain
to people what we’re doing so that we wouldn’ t have to keep writing letters
explaining and teaching them one by one, which consumes so much time. We would just have a book to give them and say , ‘Here it is.’”
They all agreed that this was a great idea. In fact, they appoint ed me, as
often happens in such situations, to write the book. I did and asked forcontributions for chapters from all my collaborators. One the most
celebrated scientists in the world—and the only person alive at that time to
have won the Nobel Prize twice—wrote me and asked if he could co-edit
the book and write a chapter . After our book was written, a wealthy man
whose family had benefited from this treatment spontaneously took out a
full-page ad in Science  magazine where he published a very positive review
to bring this treatment into the awareness of the scientific community . In this example we see the princ iple that non-compromise from  integrity
brings fame, fortune, unexpected profit, various honors, and endless
requests for interviews. I ended  up having articles about my work in major
publications in the United States. I appeared on many TV shows, including
The Barbara Walters Show  (twice) , The MacNeil/Lehr er News Hour , and
others. There were numerous appeals for articles, papers, books, lectures
and public appearances. Yet that isn’ t the end of the story . During the years when the profession was noting an increase in the
occurrence of tardive dyskines ia, none of my patients ever had it. The
literature was reporting an incidence of 50 percent of patients on major
tranquilizers developing this crippling disease, which frequently was
untreatable and irreversible. Because of the size of my practi ce, I may well have treated more patients
with major tranquilizers than most other psychiatrists in the United States. I
treated a thousa nd inpatients with very high doses of these drugs; none of
them ever got tardive dyskinesia. Nor did any of the patients in the clinic
that I ran ever get it. In a total of maybe 15,000 to 20,000 patients, not a
single case of tardive dyskinesia ever arose. I thought this was a rather amazing discovery and that the profession
would be very eager for this news. I did a study in which I published the
results of the prevention of tardive dyskinesia by the simple expedient of
adding vitamins to the treatment regimen. I published the paper in 1983,
presented it to a medical society in 1984 and 1985, and no one paid
attention. A support group of patients put together a fund and actually paid
for an ad in the Psychiatric Journal, and the drug company provide d free
reprints. Still, there was no interest. I redoubled my efforts and incre ased the size of the study . I also included
studies of the practices of 80 colleagues who were using the same high
doses of vitamins and sugar -free diets. We came up with a total of 58,000patients and published a paper in 1986, called “The Prevention  of Tardive
Dyskinesia.”
After that I expanded the study for another three years. In 1989, I
published a paper on the successful prevention of tardive dyskinesia in
61,000 patients over a 20-year period, treated by 80 differen t doctors. I
thought, consid ering the heavy-duty climate of the problem of tardive
dyskinesia, it would certainly be of interest. It wasn’ t. In fact, the paper was
turned down by all the tradit ional journals. The American Journal of
Psychiatry  was not interested. Archives of Psychiatry  was not interested. Why? Well, I used vitamins, didn’ t I? That seemed to be some kind of crime
in the scientific world. The scientific world, because of its reverse causality , is totally
glamorized and enamored by the double-blind study with fancy statistics
supported by a huge research grant and coming from an assista nt professor
at some universi ty someplace. While I couldn’ t get this paper published, the
journals were full of articles on tests with equivocal results, which cost
enormous amou nts of money . These papers came out of research grants,
which were sizable. In the meantim e, my study covered 20 years and 61,000 patients,
resulting in a series of three published papers that cost absolutely nothing. Here I had an answer to a staggering problem afflicting one million
Americans who were suffering from tardive dyskinesia. The profession was
under harassment by malpractic e suits, and no one was even interested in
the study ! I sent copies to everyo ne in the field that I thought would have an
interest, including all the pharmaceutical companies. In terms of worldly success, we would say that this enterprise of mine
was a total failure. I never made a nickel. It didn’ t bring me fame or fortune. It didn’ t even bring me any credit. I’m sure someday , somewhere, some
assistant profess or at some university will receive a huge research grant and
publish a paper on 18 patients for whom they show that some vitamin is
beneficial to curing or preventing tardive dyskinesia. That person will
become world famous and get the credit for having discovered the cure for
the disease. Now , does this bother me? The answer is no. That’ s because to
my own satisfaction, I made this discovery years ago. I carried it forward
and did all that I knew how to make my colleagues aware of it, to dischar ge
my mora l, professional, and ethical obligations to patients, to their families,
and to the world. My job was complete.So far, nothing at all has happened “out there.” There has been no
recognition, no credit, no money , no profit, no title, and no awards. As a
matter of fact, it cost me a coup le hundred dollars, and I was poorer rather
than richer. And how did I feel about it? I felt completely and totally
satisfied. Did I wish that the profession would pay attention? Did I wish
that all the patients would benefit from this? Did I wish that all of this
crippling could stop? Of course I did. Do I still hope it will? Yes. And if it
happens, of course I will be pleased; however , my own inner feeling does
not depend on that at all. The experience was already complete and total within myself. Anything
happening about  it “out there” would just be frosting on the cake. But it was
not the thing of which my cake was made. My cake was not going to fall. None of my patients had this disease; I was never sued by a patient because
they got it. I rested in peace, and I rested comfortably . The basic lesson that
I’m sharing is that success does not come about by making compromises
for expediency . Success comes about by refusal to compromise integrity for
the sake of anything. In true success there is no time delay . The reward is instantaneous, so that
the entire process is a rewarding one. Success is feeling good about what
we do. We know those feelings  of peace and contentment when we go to
bed having completed a project where we know we did our best. Nothing
has actually even happened “out there.” The boss hasn’ t gotten the report
yet. The family hasn’ t seen what we’ve done. The neighbors haven’ t found
out. Yet, like having a garden well planted, when we go to bed at night, we
know it’s just a matter of time before the flowers and vegetables emer ge. The garden is automatic once it’s been suitably planted. Watchin g it grow is
merely in addition to the satisfaction; it is not its source. As I said at the beginning of the chapter , there isn’t any compe tition for
those who are at the top of the pyramid. The best restaurants in town don’t
have to compete  for customers, who know they have to have a reservation
well in advance. The best mechanics in town don’t have to look for
business; they have to fight off work. Integrity is the automatic open door.In fact, it is a literal  open door. I discovered this during the years when I
had endless jobs in the world to pay for medical school and college. After World War II there was massive unemployment due to the returning
veterans. Everyone went to the Fifty-T wo/T wenty Club and collected their
$20 a week of unemployment benefits for 52 weeks, because there were
ostensibly no jobs available. At the time when there were “no jobs
available,” I had three jobs simultaneously . One of them was canvassing
house-to-house for roofing and siding projects. If you know anything about roofing and siding on a door-to-door
canvassing basis, you’ll know that this is the roughest, the toughest, the
most overworked and abused profession where bad reputation, deception,
and customer resistance exist. At the time I did it, house-to- house sales
were at their peak due to unemployment. Everyone and his brother were
ringing doorbells for every kind of scheme one can imagine. Customer
resistance was enormous, especially in a town like Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
which was conservative by nature. Trying to make a sale this way was like pulling teeth. Guys tried it by the
droves and fell by the wayside after getting 50 doors slammed in their
faces. They just plain quit in discouragement. New sales crew s didn’ t last
much longer than a week. I would say that the turnover in the sales crews
was at least 95 percent. Canvassers walked their feet off covering block
after block and worked all morning, all afternoon, and all evening without
success. There was a jungle set up for us: Dog-eat-dog competition, slick sales
pitches, high-pressured closers, overworked areas, huge customer
resistance, with the certainty of success being dependent on what is “out
there.” No success was even remotely possible in this endeavor . Yet what
happened for me was exactly the opposite. As a matter of fact, I made more
money than anybody else in the whole organization. I had cover ed my draw
and was, therefore, finished by noon when I went to my next job, which
was managing a theater . After that, I went to my third job. What was the
secret here? I notice d that door-to-door salesmen all looked the same. They had a
jacket, a white shirt, and a tie, and very often a briefcase. They  would ring
the doorbell, and the homeowner spotted what was obviously a door-to-
door salesman. The prospective customers would stick their head s out of thewindow and say, “We don’t want any; we’re not interested today .” I learned
that the image of the door -to-door salesman lacked integrity . What I did was the exact oppo site. I wore slightly dirty overalls and a
blue workman’ s shirt. I had screwdrivers and hammers hanging off my belt. My face was a little dirty. My hair was a little rumpled. A six-inch ruler and
a pencil stuck out of my shirt pocket. I carried a toolbox or a lunch pail
instead of a briefcase. The image was that of a blue-collar worker . Blue-collar workers have integrity and a nonthreatening image in the
minds of conservative America. And wouldn’ t you know , the doors would
open automatically for me on blocks where other salesmen couldn’t get into
a single house. I got into every one. I told folks that I had some good stuff
left over from other jobs that I’d been doing in the neighborhood. I noticed
their roof was falling off, and I had this extra roofing material. If they
wanted, I would put it on for them. Obviously they did not need a whole new roof, and I was obviously not a
salesman. But their guard was down; consequently , we talked turkey . I’d tell
them that I would charge them for materials plus labor . Everyone agreed
with no argument. Nobody begrudges us honestly making a living. I never
used high-pressure sales techniq ues; I never promoted, distorted, twisted, or
made false promises; and I never presented or scared them with a contract
to sign. I told them the job was 50 percent due when it was half finished,
and the balance was due when the job was complete. No one ever
complained about that arrangement. In a few instances, I had to tell people that if they didn’ t make the final
payment I would have the workman tear the roof off. That changed their
minds about making their check s good. I would have torn it off too. Even if
it cost me money , I would have  torn all those shingles off again, because I
owed it to myself. It was not to get even. It was not for revenge. Rather , it
was because I would have owed it to myself. In business now, we would wonder, Unless we have that binding contract
or the power of potential lawsuit, how will we collect? The answer is: If
that’s the only way we can collect from those customers, we should not be
doing business with them. OceanofPDF .comGET RID OF BUSINESS
What? Get rid of business? You’re  probably thinking. I though t the
purpose of success was to get business. What I mean is to get rid of 5 percent of our business. If we want to make
money and share profits, then we need to make it a rule to get rid of 5
percent of the business. How do we choose that 5 percent? It’s based on the
principle I found over many years. Namely , 95 percent of our troubles and
headaches are coming from 5 percent of our customers. That greed for the
last dollar is costing us a fortune  in time, energy, image, lawsui ts, defenses,
insurance premi ums, employee turnover , headaches, marital discord, frayed
nerves, upset stomachs, and ulcers. What’ s killing us is the last nickel. The
first 95 cents is easy—it’ s the last nickel that’s costing us all this. What
happens if we let go of that troublesome 5 percent? Our income doubles. I found this out many years ago. This relates in the medical profession to
what’ s called Medicare and Medicaid. What I discovered about it over the
years is that it was a tremendo us hassle with its endless approval forms,
follow-up forms , and other periodic forms. Not only that, but we had to
compromise what to my mind was the confidentiality of the doctor/patient
relationship. We had to reveal diagnoses and all kinds of details about
patients’  personal lives to justify getting payment. Payment was then very
much delayed. There would be letters of protest questioning the wisdom, or
duration, or whatever , about a treatment method. Medicaid and Medicare
“investigators” appeared on the scene. Unfortunately , there were enough
fraud headlines to make this necessary; there’re always a couple of bad
apples in the barrel.Well, the point of it all was that the bureaucratic harassment we had to
put up with for some kind of nominal payment was ridiculous. The
difficulties in collecting from the government in itself created a major
project. Many clinics that depen ded on this source of income used to “factor
the pape r” and settle for a percentage of the payment. Some factoring
company was then left with the awesome project of trying to collect the
money from the government. As you can see, all the time, hassle, potential
hazards, overhead, paperwork, and putting up with endless bureaucratic red
tape was ener gy-depleting, discouraging, and frankly quite dif ficult. So what was the solution? The solution was to tell people that we’d
rather treat them  for free. I treated a lot of older patients for nothing; many
of them brought me knit sweaters, melons, tomatoes, paintings, rugs,
furnishings, blankets, afghans, homemade apple pies, and brownies. With a
lot of people, I told them to pay me what they could. We automatically
canceled what amounted to about 5 percent of charges. So what? Everyone
was happy. It opened up the time, energy, bookkeeping, and secretarial
space to concentrate on that which was more important. My reputation went
out as not being money hungry . To not be money hungry in this world alone
is a suf ficient reputation on which to build success. The most successful mechanic in the small town I once lived in was
always accused by his wife and others of “giving it away .” He charged too
little, they all complained. Very often I’d go to a garage and they’d tell me
that they had to replace the whole whatchamacallit, and it would cost $200. I would take the car to Fritz, and he would say in his heavy German accent,
“Well, we’ll bend them all the other way and tighten up the gap and it will
cost you $2.80.”
Obviously , I don’t know anything about cars. He could have sold me a
whole new set of injectors for $250. Yet a lot of times I would take the car
in for something, and he would fix it for nothing. He’d say, “Oh, it’s only a
loose wire.” One garage wante d to put in a new fuel pump and ejector
system. Fritz said, “You’ve got a lousy tank of diesel; it’s got water in it.”
He emptied out the tank, put in fresh fuel, and away I went. He went to bed
content and so did his customer s. People had to wait in line to get to him. He didn’ t have any competition. On the other hand, if any customers were troublesome, he’d soon let
them know that he had no time for the complainers, the demanders, people
who applied pressure, the canta nkerous, the argumentative, or the critical.He’d say, “Who  needs them? They’re just a headache.” I watch ed him turn
down many a “profitable” job. So, Fritz only had nice customers. Killing ourselve s for that last 5 percent is due to insecurity , lack of
success, plain greed, and shortsi ghtedness. We must get rid of all customers
who are paranoid, suspicious, and distrustful. Why? Not only are they
litigious and the cause of big trouble, but they are not going to get over it no
matter what we do. The reason is their own lack of integrity , which they
then project onto the world, and presumes that we are the same as they are. A person who suspects us of dishonesty is by nature disho nest. It’s
obvious that the innocent don’t even suspect. If we don’t think we can trust
a customer on practically the basis of just a verbal agreement and a
handshake, then we won’ t do business with them. Who needs collection
problems? I built a million-doll ar estate on 30 acres on the north shore of
Long Island over a ten-year period and never signed a single contract. I’d
get bids and say, “Yours is the best offer I got and I’m gonna take it.” The
guy would say, “I’ll send you a contract,” and I’d say, “Forget it.” I’d say,
“You put it in and I’ll pay you.” Then he’d ask me, “What if you don’t pay
me?” I’d say, “Well, so you rip it back out again.” If that didn’ t satisfy him,
I found someone who bought that. Honestly , I never had a problem. Every contractor fulfilled their
obligation. In fact, they went to the other extreme and came through with
such expert craftsmanship and workmanship that the house became a
showplace. Thou sands of people came to see it, having heard of it because
of the integrity with which it was built. The doors were two inches thick,
solid oak, and handmade. The floor was hand-inlaid quarter -inch oak. The
hinges on the doors were solid brass ball bearing. The ceiling beams were
hand hewn from hundred-year -old insect-proof hemlock. The foundation
was steel. It was built to last for 500 years. Is there any competi tion when it
comes to selling a house like that? Of course not. It’ s in a class by itself. This brings us to the next princ iple of being successful: Be in a class by
oneself. For example, there was a business in town named Orion Chim ney
Sweep. When someone called, Mickey , the owner himself, called back. He
got the story of what was needed. He set up a convenient time and waspunctual. If he said he was going to be there at 11:00 A.M., he didn’ t show
up at 11:15. If he got delayed, he called and said that he was not going to be
there at 11:00; he was going to be a little late. Then he called the customer
and verified his arrival. In his truck all of the brushes were neatly arranged and hung from the
ceiling, accordi ng to labeled sizes. He then proceeded to do the most
thorough job one could imagine . I could have practically eaten out of the
woodstove after he left. He explained everything that was wron g, why and
how to prevent it, and how to cut down the bill in the future. On his last
visit he told me, “No, your fireplace doesn’ t need to be cleaned this year .”
Inasmuch as I don’t know any better, he could have sold me another job
as long as he was there to do the woodstove. Yet he was polite, courteous,
prompt, efficien t, and friendly . He took great care not to mess up the house
—when he left, it looked cleane r than before he got there. His bill was fair
and prom ptly presented with no pressure. Between the times he made the
appointment to clean the chimney and the appointment itself, he sent
literature that explained his service so the customer knew what to expect. He answered any questions that arose. A few days after he did the job, a
very courteous note arrived in the mail. He thanked people for their
patronage, made  suggestions for the coming year, and told them that he
would remind them the next time a cleaning was due by sending a note and
calling them. Did Mickey have any “competition”? He did not. I mean, there was
nobody else in this guy’s class. There was neither a delay in the response to
the initia l phone  call, nor an abrupt secretary to put someone on hold. There
was no failure to show up at the prearranged time without notification of
delay if one should occur . His integrity established goodwill and his
reputation. Consequently , he had customer loyalty . I would never have
thought of using another chimn ey sweep unless I was forced  to because
Mickey went out of town or was no longer in business. I was so impres sed by his integ rity that I told others about him and got
him other customers. That is just what we want. If only one customer tells
one other person, our business has doubled, right? In Mickey’ s relationship
with me he doubled his business. Without doing a thing, without spending
an advertising dollar , no marketing gimmicks, no sales pitches, no worry
about “market saturation,” his business increased. It didn’ t matter how
many chimney sweeps were in town, because I was never going to switch.Even if they offered to do it for $5 less, who cares? I want ed to sleep
content and secure knowing that no chimney fire was possib le, because
Mickey had cleaned it so thoroughly . I’ve seen other chimney sweeps take brushes up and down and stir up a
big, dirty  mess. When I looked inside the truck I could tell what  their minds
must be like because it looked like a rat’s nest. Just like the cleanliness of a
restroom in a restaurant is probably a pretty good indic ator of the
cleanliness of the kitchen, the disorder in a workman’ s truck is indicative of
the confusion in his mind. Another customer to get rid of is the one who is “doing us a favor .” We
don’t want these people around us at all because they are grandiose. Grandiose people are always paranoid, troublesome, arduous, and critical. Even after we do a good job for them, they will ruin our reputa tions. They
seem to be motiv ated by unlovingness and a chronic mental nastiness. Their
mental attitude is contemptuous. We can run ourselves ragged for them. They’ll never be satisfied. Being  dissatisfied is where they live in their own
minds; therefore, they constantl y see imperfection in the world. No matter
what we do, it will not be good enough. Get rid of them. I remember a patient walking  into my office once with the same
challenging, chip-on-the-shoulder attitude. She wanted proof of my
qualifications and demanded to see all of my diplomas. Her attitude seemed
to be that I was some kind of a fake or a crook until proven otherwise. I told
her I was booke d solid and didn’t have any time to handle her kind of case,
nor did I charge her for the interview . Who needs it? This lady was going to
harass and bedevil people. Even if they did a good job, she was going to
give them headaches. My basic dictum has always been, Don’ t trust the untrusting,  because
they themselves are untrustable;  they don’t have any integrity . We also have
to watch out for the tricks of these manipulative people. They will try to
bait us into engaging with them by trying to get us into an argument so that
we’re in a position of defending ourselves. The minute we find that
happening, we should let it be a warning signal to us. Why would we have
to defen d ourse lves to a norma l and decent person? We’ll find that we’llonly have to defend ourselves against people who within themse lves are not
“decent.” Their challenge is coming from their own inner negati ve view and
experience of the world, against which they now arrogantly demand that we
defend ourselves. Never do that. This brings us to the next chapter . OceanofPDF .comHEART-HEARTED VERSUS HARD-HEARTED
In investigating the matter , we see that success comes out of the heart,
whereas profit comes out of the head. There’ s a big difference. There are
those male traditions of selling out love for profit, compromising integrity
for expe diency , and violating life for the sake of that which is antilife. It
comes with a very elaborate defense system, which every man knows by
heart: Win at any cost. Winner takes all. Buyer bewar e. Take the profit and
let the credit go. The perversion of true mascu linity by developing the
capacity to be cold, calculating, unfeeling, merciless, heartless, and able to
kill without blinking an eye—a long with the whole idea of toughness and
masculinity—are the crimes of the world, for which the world pays an
endless and ongoing penalty . The persistent ideas that antilif e is what is good for life, that poison is
beneficial for people, or that hate is strength are all profound distortions and
fatal. While we may give such people lip service of admiration,  deep in our
hearts we hold them truthfully as monstrosities and grotesque
disfigurements of the human potential. They are the dark ones in science-
fiction movies. Yet in our own private business lives, we feel that antilife is
justified by all the elaborate rationalizations with which we can back it. Let’s look at some of the convincers throughout time. The idea that
coming from the heart is being soft, weak, unmasculine, vulnerable, a sap, a
sucker , a wimp, a pushover , or an easy mark is one of these convincers. This indicates a confusion of not knowing the difference between weakness
and strength. When we examine  that, we’ll see that heart-hearte d is strength
and hardhearted is weakness.We forget that the heart is the home of all courage. To be stouthearted is
to have the heart of the lion. When Winston Churchill came from principle
in World War II, no one accuse d him of being soft or weak. He exhibited
the heart of the lion to stand by principle at any cost—not to choose
expediency at any cost. Many businessp eople pride themselves on being hard-headed . They’ll
smugly say, “I’m a hard-headed businessman.” To me it means just the
opposite—when they say that, what they mean is that they’re hardhearted
and soft-headed. Being hard-h earted is very costly in business. It’s a
disaster . Nothing will ruin a business faster . It may get us some temporary
admiration from  those who are like-minded, but that is all we’ll ever get out
of it. The world will forget us. We will not be part of people’ s cherished
memories. People will fear us, but they will not respect us. There’ s a big
difference. People will defer to us, but they will not honor us. The fate of
ignobility is ignobility itself. One has to be careful to differentiate between profit and success. It is
presumed by the unsophisticated mind that they are one and the same, or
that making a lot of money , profit, and success are all identical. The endless
parade of movie  stars and celeb rities who commit suicide is evidence that
this is not true. All the money and fame in the world doesn’ t seem to do
much for them, does it? The secret is that success can only be experienced in the heart. It cannot
be exper ienced in the head. The best that the head can do is the temporary
satisfaction of pleasure. As we know well, however , pleasure is not the
same thing as happiness at all. Many people’ s lives are full of pleasures—rich food, wonderful
surroundings, expensive cars, furs, jewels, and media coverage—yet the
flame of light goes out in them. Obviously , their success brought them
nothing. This is what I mean by hollow victory . One, by devious means,
manipulates one’s opponent into a defeat. The sense of victory is absent; it’s
dead. The taste of victory turns  to ashes in one’s mouth. Success can’t be
had “out there.”  No amount of effort will accomplish it, becaus e it doesn’ t
exist “out there.” True strength and power comes from the ability to stick by
one’s principles no matter what. Once I knew someone who was a very successful member of Alcoholics
Anonymous, with many years of sobriety . She used to tell people, “We
don’t drink in this group even if our butts drop off.” What she meant by thatstatement was the inviolable law she had drawn in her life. Her life
depended on her not selling out or compromising her integr ity for any
reason whatsoever , under any circumstances. This gave her great strength
and power , while others who violated this principle ended up in state
hospitals, had convulsions, and died. Her recovery was a permanent
success. If we love the whole book of our lives and don’t get enamored  with one
sole chapter , our lives will be equally successful. The rule is: no
compromise with that which benefits and supports the lives of everyone,
that which inspires, that which uplifts, that which validates, and that which
honors life. Success comes from understanding the nature of life. Once it is
comprehended, nothing but success is possible. This doesn’ t mean that
struggle may not ensue; in overcoming old ways of being and adopting new
ones, there may indeed be a period of struggle. A major cause of the world’ s
failures and the misery and unhappiness in the lives of so many  is because
the world does not understand causality . Because it is crucial to success to understand the nature of life, we need
to look at causality. A different comprehension will create a different
context for our lives. That flash of understanding can accompli sh more for
our lives than years of ef fort and hard work. As has been written elsewhere, the way the world understands causality
is typically in the linear , left-brain style. It sees A → B → C. It then imputes
and projects onto the observat ion a concept—an idea called “causality .”
Because one thing follows anoth er, it implies that A causes B causes C in an
endless series and chain of events. This progression is simultaneously a
trap, a constricted box, and a limited paradigm reality , which severely
curtails options. It thinks the only thing that can happen is what is scientific
or logical. Closely allied with this is another different-sounding but equally
fallacious idea based on the same lack of understanding: the idea of things
being accidental or luck. Whether it’s bad luck or good luck, the implication
is still the same: that this is a chaotic universe without order . What appearsto be chaos is merely that one is coming from a limited perspect ive, and that
one is too close to it to be able to see the overall or ganization and design. The law of the universe, which  is true on all levels—physical,  material,
emotional, psychic, moral, spiritual—is that everything is connected with
everything else. There is no way anything can be outside the universe. The
best we can say about what appears to be chaos is that its intrinsic order has
not been defined yet. Computers  have come up with the discovery of certain
rhythmicity and an internal order in what appears to be random. This has
been demonstrated in weather cycles and other things in which, without the
aid of computers, we were heretofore unable to see the intrinsic order . Causality does not happen on the same level. Only consequences happen
on the same level; therefore, the way causality actually happe ns is in the
following simple diagram:
From this diagram we see that causality is on the level of ABC , and its
result is the phenomenon seque nce A → B → C. ABC is what is “in here”
and A → B → C is what is “out there.” We can now see how useless it is to
try to pursue “out there” when the cause is “in here.”
As I said in an earlier chapter , success is something that occu rs at the
very time of the original conception. Its appearance in the world is simply
the automatic consequence of what is already on the level of cause. To intervene in the sequence of A → B → C is coming from force. As we
can see, any force exerted in that sequence will create an equal and opposite
counterforce. We also notice that if we change ABC—that is, our inner
intention, conv iction, motive, principle, goal, purpose, meaning, or
alignment—the whole sequence in the world A → B → C will
automatically be changed as a consequence without our having to doanything about it. It is like A → B → C is the whole movie that appears on
the screen and ABC is what is projecting it. We cannot change what is going on in a movie by running up to the
screen, trying to push the chara cters around. Even a child would laugh at
that. Yet that’s what the whole world is doing all the time, isn’t it? With one
little shift of the heart, the entire  movie changes. The best the head can do is
change the scenario or improve the quality of the production. But no real
change takes place until one changes the heart of the matter . That is where
the power exists. Once we understand the principle of causality , we understand the source
of power and where it resides. The problem of success in the world
disappears. There is no problem of success in the world. Once we have the
formula for gold, we don’t have to collect or hoard it anymore. We could
have it or not, as the whim strikes us. It may please us to make a million or
it may not. It all depends on whether it’s worth the bother and whether there
are other things involved. Neve rtheless, what we do will then be coming
from choice. It will not be because of need, or drive, or compuls ion, or lack
of freedom. Let’s go back to the example of Mahatma Gandhi and the British Empire
and reexamine it from this viewpoint of causality . The British Empire,
which was coming from force, was addressing itself to the sequence of A →
B → C. It thought that by interv ening in the sequence, it would succeed in
obtaining that which was advan tageous to British interests. The only effect
all that had, paradoxically , was to reinforce the power of Mahatma Gandhi’ s
stance. That power resided in Gandhi’ s alignment of the principal ABC,
which existed solely in his mind . Gandhi’ s mind had no “out there” at all. It
had no army , militia, or guns. It had no tanks or money . It had no titles,
trappings, or edifices. It had no music or bands or flags. It had no worldly
power whatsoever . Yet the power of ABC in the mind of Maha tma Gandhi
brought the A → B → C of the entire British Empire to its knees. The
British Empire had to capitulate. How could the British Empire have won? Obviously , it could only have
done so had it been able to address itself to the ABC in Gandhi’ s mind and
somehow displace it with another program, such as a more appealing or
higher principle. That, in fact, is exactly how true masters deal with each
other . They fence by challenging whether the ABC in the other person’ s
mind is the highest principle possible.What was the principle that gave Gandhi such power? It was the
universal princip le of the rights of the “equality of all men” based upon the
Divinity of their creation (the same principle that established  the United
States as a great world power). Additionally , the only power the government
has is by the consent of those it governs. Those who govern are then
servants of those governed. The power resides within the people, who
govern by the power of the acknowledgment of their equality no matter
what their appearance was “out there.”
The British Empire could only have defeated Gandhi if it had appealed to
the consciousness of the world saying that it was coming from a higher
principle than Gandhi’ s, and thereby capturing the support and backing of
the populace. There is no way that the British Empire could have won any
more than the American South  could have won the Civil War, where the
self-interest of the principles of the right to own slaves ran against and
smack into more powerful unive rsal principles as stated in the Constitution
and as backed by Abraham Lincoln: the equality of all men. The heart-heartedness of Gandhi defeated the hardheartedness of the
British. By understanding these  examples we clear up any confusion as to
whether being heart-hearted is soft or weak. What passes for strength under
the guise of hard-heartedness in society is nothing but childlike selfishness. One infant hits another infant over the head and takes his toy. What a lot of
people think of as strength is nothing but callous indifference or ignorance,
which is not strength. There is nothing admirable about it. We can see that the gross perversion and misunderstanding of strength
occur in adolescence. The adolescent who is insecure and uncertain about
their own inadequacy now starts to get brainwashed by those who also
failed to make it. They have to work hard to remain convinced that by
persuading others, what they believe in has some truth in it. That a biker
gang can sadistically rape and then beat to death an old woman without
having any feelings about it or regrets does not inspire us with admiration
for their strength or their mascu linity . It’s just plain dreadful; it’s horrible. All the whips, chains, guns, knives, loud noise, roaring motorcycles, and
pompous display of skulls and leather jackets are symbolic of gross
weakness. It is tragically weak adolescence. The translation of the same attitudes into the marketplace is still weak
adolescence. The weaker one is inside, the more one needs and has to have
symbols of strength on the outside. The poor corporate raiders just can’tovercome it. They take over one corporation after another yet stay as pitiful
as ever. When we see them for what they are, we stop hating them. Instead,
we feel compassion. We feel sorry for them. Despite all that, they still don’t
feel adequate as men and women. They don’t know that success is being a
whole person. Does that mean we shouldn’ t make money? Of course it doesn’ t. There’ s
nothing more fun than making money . It’s a sport. It’s a game. It brings lots
of rewards, legitimate ones too. Why shouldn’ t we make all the money we
want to make? But the differences are: want  to make money , not have  to;
choose  to do it, not need  to. One of the most rewarding and thrilling experiences in my life came
from working with a man whose  life was a disaster . He was going down the
tubes financiall y. He was unable to get out of debt and was entering
bankruptcy . His family was falling apart. He was drinking hims elf to death
and making a fool of himself. He was understandably depressed. He’d once
been a very successful broker . Now he was full of self-pity , resentment,
grudges, hate . . . a very unhappy man indeed. All of those consequences were  merely the A→ B→ C of what was out
within him. His ABC was screw ed up badly . It’s a waste of time to try to
help people on the level of A→ B→ C, although the whole world spends
most of its time doing that. I saw clearly that this man was going  to die if he
continued the way he was. So I worked on his ABC nonverb ally. One’ s
ABC is not always definable, expressible, or describable; it’s more like a
way of being in the world. What I tried to transmit to him was that whole
feeling of a dif ferent way “to be.” This is not a linear process. One day he came to see me. I could tell instantly he was a changed man. He was a totall y different person! He had become employab le. He had
gotten out of debt, moved away from any risk of bankruptcy , and become
sober . He had given up resen tment, hatred, and self-pity . His life had
become a success. In his own words, the exact moment that this happened to him occurred
like this:I was brought up to go deer hunting. All of the men in the family went hunting, and this year I
went with them again . We sat in this blind on the last day of the season; none of us had bagged
anything. And then, in the clearing in front  of me stood three deer. One of them was a huge stag. I looked down my telescopic sight and had the center of his chest dead-on in the middle of the
crosshairs. At that point I was suddenly overwhelmed by the incredible beauty and magnificence
of that anim al standin g there in its grace and grandeur , with its dignity and stature. I decided not
to pull the trigger . I decided to save its life. In that moment he moved from  being an adolescent to a man and truly
owned his powe r. The men in his family criticized him, but within himself
he knew  that it had been a great victory . They were still stuck in
adolescence, and he had moved beyond them. They still had to prove
something. He’d  passed the test and didn’ t need to prove it anym ore. When
he decided to use his power to protect life and become its cham pion instead
of destroying it for personal self-interest, he became a powerful being. His
power transformed his whole life and those who were touched by his life. How could he transmit the power of life to others when he himself had not
committed and aligned with it? Power is something we only have if we give it away . We can’t give away
what we don’t have. True power  grows: The more we give it away, the more
we have it. It is self-reinforcing and self-augmenting. It’ s like creativity . People worry , for instance, that they won’ t get as much money as
possible out of a certain invention. Why worry about it? Where that
invention came from, there is an endless supply . The deeds of this world are
so overwhelming that all we have to do is examine them and the answers
present themselv es to us. We don’t even have to strain for them. It doesn’ t
bother me at all if someone steals an idea and runs off and profits from it. There are plenty  more ideas where that one came from. Owning  power and
creativity means  unlimited abundance. That doesn’ t mean to be indifferent. That simply means to live from a place that is unthreatened. No one can threaten our ABC; they can only threaten our A→ B→ C.
Inasmuch as A→ B→ C is only the consequence of ABC that we hold
within ourselves, it can never be threatened. If we own ourselves as the
projector , and life itself is the light source within us, we realize  that we can
create movies all day long. If someone runs off with one we may get
annoyed, but our lives haven’ t really changed. We don’t have to demonstrate anything “out there” when we already have
it “in here.” The karate master never gets into fights. If he did he wouldn’ t
be a master , would he? I knew a friend who held a black belt in karate. Hewas held up on the street in New York City by couple of muggers
threatening him with knives. What do you suppose he did? Did he flash into
his plast ic hero act and beat them all up like in the movies? I’ll tell you
exactly what he did. He laughed  and gave them his money , his watch, and
his rings  withou t being asked. He then bowed to them. They walked off
with their trophies, and he walked away laughing about it. I had a similar experience right in Times Square. I was walking alone late
at night, and a huge hulk of a man who had also had a few drinks started
following me, accosting me for money or some other excuse for an
unpleasant encounter of some  kind. He kept getting closer and closer
behind me, getting nastier and nastier , and more and more threatening as we
walked. Finally he said, “Think  you’re better than I am, huh?” I saw that I
wasn’ t going to escape the situation by just walking away . So I
spontaneously spun about, threw my arms and legs out in the air, and
shouted, “Ha!” Well, that took him by surprise, and he fell back in disarray . In that split second, I had him. I gave a light tap on his shoulder and said,
“Better luck next time.” And again, in that telltale amusement, that feeling-
good laughter arises within one’s self. To win brings its pleasure. The true
victory brings laughter and satisfaction that can’ t be matched. The world confuses heart-he arted with softness, with sympathy . Sympathy means to see and side with the other person’ s weakness instead
of having the courage to inspire their strength. In the world of the treatment
of addictions, dependency , codependency , and the like, this is called being
an enabler . It means we feed into the other person’ s weakness. That is truly
being hard-hearted and not coming from the courage of heart- heartedness. Heart-hearted means to protect the other person’ s integrity even though they
are unable to see it at the present time. True strength is always accompanied
by kindn ess, gentleness, and softness of expression. That position is one of
choice and not one of compulsion. Heart-hearted is in a position of freedom, power , and invuln erability . Once we own it within ourselves, we know henceforth that we are
bulletproof. The world can anno y us. It can knock over our sand castles. But
it can no longer get to us where we live. Flexibility is power . We see the
power to survive in the animal with its fur and loose skin. If I grab the skin
of my cat, I can pull it up several inches without causing any discomfort. What that means is that an opponent in attacking a cat gets a mouthful of
fur and skin. The vital organs are not endangered. The cats have theirendless fights and both survive. This is to make clear that align ing with the
principle doesn’ t mean to be inflexible or rigid. We’re free to move in any
direction because we’re not anchored “out there.”
The sumo wrest ler may appear to belie that principle. He seems to have
mastered the whole principle of being rooted and anchored. He squats there
like a rhinoceros  or a Mack truck, looking like he’s pulled down by double
gravity; indeed he is. So what’ s the secret of the sumo wrestler? It’s the
solidness of his anchoring and the fulcrum of his balance when he throws
his opponent. It is flexibility that throws the opponent. The solidity of the
wrestler ’s anchoring merely increases the power effect of his flexibility . It’s
like the power return of a hard surface is greater than the powe r return of a
soft surface. Do-gooders, Goody Two-shoes, and Pollyannas are all positioned in
weakness becau se they are coming from “out there.” They’re trying to
influence the A→ B→ C. They’ re not moving to the level of cause. This is
why the pen is mightier than the sword. When we align with, identify with, or defend the A → B→ C, it becomes
obvious that we are exposed. We are vulnerable. We have taken a position;
therefore, we invited opposition from the polarized or opposi ng position. What looks like winning could only be a temporary phenomen on with no
reality behind it. We read of the merchants who were shot to death by a
robber when trying to defend their paltry $56 in their cash register . We feel
sorry for them because they clearly did not know what was called for in the
situation. They were being foolish rather than brave or courageous. Courage is a more than exhibi ting strength. It’s knowing what to lend
your strength to. OceanofPDF .comTHE SUCCESS EXPRESS
Now that we know something about the terrain over which we will be
traveling, the rules of the road, and something about our destination, which
is actual ly our starting point, we’re ready to acid-test this model. Namely ,
does it work? Well, I’ll tell you, we don’t need an MBA  from Harvard to
make it work. We just need to follow these nine steps. Step 1: Examine our ABC befor e we do anything at all about the A→
B→ C. Does the origin al founding principle from which we are operating
have universal appeal? Could everyone wholeheartedly subscribe if it were
known to them? If not, our success is automatically limited from the start. Let’s look at the example of Nazi Germany on an international level,
which for a while certainly seem ed to have all the earmarks of a winner . It
had assembled the most impressive and powerful military force ever
gathered on the planet at the time. Yet it went down the tubes. What was its
rallying cry? “Deutschland über alles.” “Germany above all” does not
exactly have a universal appeal, does it? We could hardly capture the hearts
of Belgians, the French, the English, or anyone else, for that matter . If our start-of f motive is to win a prize, or sell more cars than the other
auto dealer in town, or get rich and famous, we can’t even get off the
starting line to real success. That we should become rich, famous, and
powerful may appeal to us. But what is of interest to other people is what
makes them  rich, famous, and powerful. If we have a service that will helpothers achieve those goals, then we have one that will have universal
appeal. I often wonder why people who come from that position don’t question
why the universe would have any particular interest in supporting their
winning over someone else’s. The universe has no reason to do that and so
it doesn’t. If our goals are egoce ntric, for the good of us only, even with the
rationalization that it’s for the wife and kids, we’re on our own. Ambition
alone won’ t do it. Everyone wants to be rich and famous; such people are a
dime a dozen. If our purpose is to make this a better world to live in for
everyone or to increase the safety , joy, and beauty of life, then everyone can
subscribe to that. Coming from a universal principle is coming from power . Coming from self-interest is coming from force. We could try to force success, but don’t forget the rule of the universe:
Force meets with counterforce. We’re trying to wag the dog from its tail. It’s putting the cart before the horse. It’s confusing cause and effect. We
may make considerable money at it for a while, but success is something
else altogether . And what we are talking about here is success.
_OceanofPDF.com_Success_Is_for_You_-_David_R_Hawkins.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        What an
enormous chang e now, huh. Now “Made in Japan” is the promise of an
excellent product. I myself wouldn’ t settle for anything less than a Sony
when I bought a TV. Japan is now again one of the great world economic
powers and pacesetters. Their corporate structure and busines s styles are
studied by experts worldwide. The Japanese have made one of the fastest
comebacks in all of history. As a community they are successful; as a nation
they are super successful. How did this come about for Japan. They were honest about it, weren’ t they. They publicly admitted, “We
were wrong. ” They shared their suffering with the world. They didn’ t try to
fake it. We all knew they were learning a horribly painful but critical lesson. Their willingness to bite the bullet, to face it, to be honest, to fess up, and to
use the bitter lesson on behalf of learning that lesson forever and coming
back again—this time with a different alignment of integrity—was essential
to their comeback. This time they were committed to different principles. They were not devoted to vaingloriousness, but to excellence. The word Japanese  is now almost  the equivalent of excellence, the
commitment to the perfection of detail, which manifests in the
dependability of its products and in the demonstration of responsibility in
making replacement parts available. There is awareness that a change in the
design means it is coming about as a result of a true improvement in the
product and not as a marked manipulation to make what we already own
obsolete. Their genuineness and legitimacy are exhibited. No one would
ever want to go through it again, the Japanese least of all—and yet,
successful people learn from such a lesson. Japan is a stagg ering success. It is a nation that totally recovered its
power and now has more power than ever. Previously, it tried to achieve a
prominent place  in the world through force. Force fails becau se it is notpower. The military represents force. When Japan had the force of a huge
military, it was weak. As individual opponents, though, the Japanese were formidable. A
Japanese warrior in hand-to-han d combat in the jungle was not someone I
wanted to encounter. We had respect for their commitment as individuals. The fact that a kamikaze would fly his plane right into one of our
warships and blow it up, sacrificing his own life in doing so, scared a lot of
people. A person of average mentality who didn’ t understand commitment
presumed that they must be some kind of fanatics. The power of the
kamikaze was their commitment to a principle: for the glory of God and the
emperor. The kamikaze pilot gave his all for the glory of his country and the
honor of his emperor. Consequently, he was an unstoppab le warrior. Because the ultimate alignment at the top and the motives were wrong, it
went down the tubes. The warriors failed not because of the valor of the
individuals involved; rather, it was because of the misguidance of those
above them. We see the principles upon which Japan was rebuilt. We see the
consequences of what happens  to political leaders and businesspeople of
recent times who have veered from those tried and proven principles. They
pay the price. They take a public tumble. They don’t get beheaded by the
executioner ’s ax anymore—they get beheaded by the media. The way to
avoid those mistakes is to watch every mistake that happens in the world
and analyze the principles that were violated. When we see that, then we
have a totally dif ferent basis on which to make decisions. To sell out integrity for expediency is to lose our power. To be
unshakably committed to principle is to regain our power, even if it seems
to cause a temporary loss. We can blow a lot of business, but as long as we
didn’ t blow our credit the banks  will lend us more money. If we sell out our
credit for some cash, we’ll have some temporary fun. But when the chips
are down, we’re twisting in the wind. It’s not the fact that we went belly-up
on that one. It’ s the “why” of it. If the whole world was willing to forgive Japan for the ultimate  disaster,
it will do the same thing with us—provided, that is, we follow the same
road to recovery. One of the Japanese’ s great gifts to all of us was that they
established for us the path back to recovery. They demonstrated for us all so
that we could share in their lesson. OceanofPDF. comINTEGRITY WINS THE DAY
“It’s a dog-eat- dog world out there, Doc. Everyone knows that,” the
patient, who was having all kinds of financial trouble, said to me. “If I
didn’ t comprom ise and cut corners and do a little shortchangi ng here and
there, I wouldn’ t be able to make it in the marketplace. ”
Let’s examine these principles and see what’ s involved. This patient’ s
first illusion was that he had to compromise because he was close to
bankruptcy. The truth was he was close to bankruptcy because he had been
a compromiser of the principles of integrity all along. That’ s why his
business was in trouble. What about competition. That is what is inferred by the use of the
analogy of the business world as a jungle. The truth of the matter is that
success is relatively effortless. It is the simple expediency of overcoming
the illusion of what competition is in this world. In the first place, there isn’t
any real competition of which to speak. What do I mean by that. In the
world of those who are commi tted to excellence, the non-compromise of
integrity, and principle, there isn’t any competition. There are so few at the
top of this pyramid that those who are there write their own tickets. If we’re the best mechanics in town, do you think we’ll have any
problem with competition. No. The problem is going to be that of
overwork. Once our customers have experienced the quality of excellence,
they will never be satisfied with anything less. Now, by excellence, do I
mean expertise. Do I mean exceptional ability. No, I do not mean that at
all. Customers will make all kinds of compromises in their expectations if
they know that they’re getting honesty and integrity in return. They willforgive us all kinds of mistakes  if we work legally and are totally honest
about it. They may be a little disappointed, but they won’ t go elsewhere, so
long as they get the honesty of our intentions. For instance, if we bid on a contract, and after landing it find that we
can’t complete the project as we had hoped because we underes timated, the
customer will forgive us if we say, “Look, in order to stay with this bid
price, we’re going to have to compromise on the quality of a certain
material. ” Allow  the customer to have the option of the decision here. That
way they cannot fault us later or undermine our reputations. On the
contrary, we will build a fine reputation; it’ s reputation that builds success. Ah, there’s that word: reputation. There’ s the secret right there. We don’t
have to knock our brains out to beat the competition. Our reputation
effortlessly does it for us. This doesn’ t mean that marketing  gimmicks,
publicity, and all the rest don’t have their place. But let’s remember that
those are only attention getters. Once we have the attention of the potential
customer, we have to follow it up with integrity, quality, and a feeling of
genuineness, which cannot be created unless that genuineness is actually
there. True success is so effortless, so easy, and such a snap, it’s sad to watch
people out there struggling away, exhausting themselves, selling themselves
out right and left, trying to “make it. ” Their problem is that they think that
success is “out there. ” Success is automatic to a person who has made it. “Has it made” is an inner attitu de. Once we have that attitude, success is
automatic. It’ s not a “so what. ” It’ s an “of course. ”
Isn’t success making a lot of money. Isn’t that the common
presumption. Success may or may not be accompanied by making a lot of
money. To those who are successful, it doesn’ t really matter that much. Have we ever realized that when we were completely and totally satisfied
and happy with our successes, how much money we made was almost
irrelevant. We need enough to pay our bills and provide for a reasonable
standard of living for ourselves, but there isn’t that need to make a lot of
money, which is actually compensation for lack of success. If making a lot of money is what motivates us, then we don’t have the
key to success. Money is in fact a substitute for the satisfaction that truly
successful peop le get out of every job or operation that has gone well for
them. Many of my greatest and happiest successes actually brought me nofinancial profit at all. When success is something within, it doesn’t require
anything “out there. ”
Making a lot of money is by its very nature “out there. ” It woul d, at best,
allow for some extra conveniences and pleasures in life, and perhaps
validation about the accuracy of one’s financial theory in a given matter. Satisfaction and a feeling of success can be complete and total without
anything at all happening “out there. ” That’ s what I mean by transcending
the world, by no longer being dependent on the effect of it and the victim of
“out there. ” Successful people have so many areas of satisfac tion in their
lives that they don’t have any areas of vulnerability. Thus, if the expected
result does not occur, they don’ t go into an emotional reaction about it. Let’s look at an example from my own personal and professional life, to
demonstrate the principles I’m talking about. This is one that’s actually a
matter of public record, so all will know I’m not just making it up for the
sake of the book. A terrible neurological disease  had arisen among patients who were
taking a certain class of tranqui lizers called phenothiazines. This crippling
disorder, called tardive dyskines ia, is irrev ersible in about 5 percent of
patients, very often progressive. It is accompanied by involuntary facial
grimacing, body movements, twitching, and rhythmic movements such as
“rabbit mouth. ” This disorder has preoccupied the psychiatric profession
because it creates numerous dilemmas, not only for the patient, but for the
doctor, including malpractice suits and endless tragedy. If doctors failed to put seriously ill patients on the so-call ed major
tranquilizers, they could be faulted and sued for improper treatment and
failing to treat according to the prevailing community standard s. If doctors
put patients on these drugs as required by their condition and they
developed tardiv e dyskinesia (which occurs in 25 to 50 percen t of patients
on these drugs), they could then be sued because the patients developed a
crippling neurological side effect from the drug. So they’re condemned if
they do and condemned if they don’t, creating an endless ethical, moral,
procedural, and professional dilemma of being between a rock and a hard
place. Tardive dyskinesia also put the pharmaceutical industry at risk,damaged the image of the profession, was extremely costly, pushed up
malpractice insurance rates, jeopardized the patient/doctor relationship, and
in general created a professional disaster. The reason for describing this example is to provide the setting of the
importance of the problem. Thus far, the profession has been unable to
solve it completely. There are endless papers in the professional literature
speculating on the basic mechanisms and hypothetical biochemistry. I had been in clinical practice for 35 years at the time and had one of the
largest psychiatric practices in the United States. Back in the ’60s I had
heard that using  vitamins in treating patients and taking them off sugar and
sweets was very beneficial. So I did that. I did not do this in place of
traditional, proven treatments; I did it in addition to that. I told people who
ate a lot of sweets that the mammalian pancreas was never made to handle
refined sugar. It doesn’ t even exist in nature unless a bear gets into some
honey. Over the millions of years of biologic evolution of the mammalian
body, there was never any need for the pancreas to handle big inputs of
sugar; therefore, it seemed to me to be unnatural. I had heard that large doses of certain vitamins, such as B6, B3, C, and E
were beneficial to patients with disorders such as schizophrenia, and
various addictions including alcoholism, epilepsy, and depression; and I
passed this information on to my patients. I also learned that a lot of
psychiatric symptoms came from  allergies to various things that people ate. By experimentation, those items could be eliminated. Sure enough, that
turned out to be true. As a matter of fact, my own migraine headaches
diminished by 50 percent by eliminating milk; my colitis also disappeared. Fatigue and periodic depression vanished from my life by abandoning sugar
and sweets. I discovered, to personal as well as professional benefit, the
importance of nutrition with physical, psychosomatic, emotional, and
psychiatric disorders. This seems like common sense, doesn’ t it. The doctor ’s obliga tion is to
do the best they can for the patient. I’ve always had what I call a
“deathbed” philo sophy. What I mean by that is that in the last moments of
life, we’re all going to be confronted by the judgment of whether we did our
best or not. As such, my comm itment has unfailingly been to the patient. I’ve always felt that in my last moments I would be completely  and totally
accountable for what I’ve done for the sake of others. Curiously, my professional colle agues seemed to be upset by the fact that
I used a lot of vitamins and took people off various foods to which they
reacted adversely. This was surprisingly considered to be very controversial
and roundly denounced. In my own mind, I said, The heck with it. I don’t
care what they think. I wasn’ t going to be accountable for whether or not I
was popular or impressed anyo ne. I believed the evidence before my very
eyes. Patients who were trying to recover from alcoholism, for instance, were
having constant relapses. As soon as I took them off sugar and sweets and
put them  on high doses of vitamins, they stayed sober. I had patients who
periodically had to have electric shock treatments over the years for
depression; however, they promptly recovered when they eliminated sugar
and sweets from their diets. I had patients who were paranoid and
delusional; when I put them on vitamin B6 and took them off potatoes, the
paranoia disappeared. So what was I to believe. The critic ism of my
colleagues, or what was obvious from what my patients were telling me. I
stuck with the patients. Eventually, I became known around the world and had a staggering
practice. I treated patients from  all corners of the globe—they  used to be
lined up in the airports in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, waiting for a hospital
bed to open up for them. I ended up with 12 secretaries and 10 incoming
telephone lines. Yet I wasn’ t interested in success. I wasn’ t interested in
making a lot of money. Nobody was more surprised than I was when it all
started happening in spades. Doctors began to come in from all over the
world to ask me to teach them the methods that I used. Patien ts who had
been sick for many years would come in, and within 30 days would be well
and return home. That impressed the community; therefore, a whole slew of
patients poured in from one city after another. Organizations began to form
to support this kind of treatment. At this time, there was a group of us doctors doing this, and we were
getting so many inquiries that I was spending all my time writi ng letters. I
said to my colleagues, “You know, we should write a handbook to explain
to people what we’re doing so that we wouldn’ t have to keep writing letters
explaining and teaching them one by one, which consumes so much time. We would just have a book to give them and say, ‘Here it is. ’”
They all agreed that this was a great idea. In fact, they appoint ed me, as
often happens in such situations, to write the book. I did and asked forcontributions for chapters from all my collaborators. One the most
celebrated scientists in the world—and the only person alive at that time to
have won the Nobel Prize twice—wrote me and asked if he could co-edit
the book and write a chapter. After our book was written, a wealthy man
whose family had benefited from this treatment spontaneously took out a
full-page ad in Science  magazine where he published a very positive review
to bring this treatment into the awareness of the scientific community. In this example we see the princ iple that non-compromise from  integrity
brings fame, fortune, unexpected profit, various honors, and endless
requests for interviews. I ended  up having articles about my work in major
publications in the United States. I appeared on many TV shows, including
The Barbara Walters Show  (twice), The MacNeil/Lehr er News Hour, and
others. There were numerous appeals for articles, papers, books, lectures
and public appearances. Yet that isn’ t the end of the story. During the years when the profession was noting an increase in the
occurrence of tardive dyskines ia, none of my patients ever had it. The
literature was reporting an incidence of 50 percent of patients on major
tranquilizers developing this crippling disease, which frequently was
untreatable and irreversible. Because of the size of my practi ce, I may well have treated more patients
with major tranquilizers than most other psychiatrists in the United States. I
treated a thousa nd inpatients with very high doses of these drugs; none of
them ever got tardive dyskinesia. Nor did any of the patients in the clinic
that I ran ever get it. In a total of maybe 15,000 to 20,000 patients, not a
single case of tardive dyskinesia ever arose. I thought this was a rather amazing discovery and that the profession
would be very eager for this news. I did a study in which I published the
results of the prevention of tardive dyskinesia by the simple expedient of
adding vitamins to the treatment regimen. I published the paper in 1983,
presented it to a medical society in 1984 and 1985, and no one paid
attention. A support group of patients put together a fund and actually paid
for an ad in the Psychiatric Journal, and the drug company provide d free
reprints. Still, there was no interest. I redoubled my efforts and incre ased the size of the study. I also included
studies of the practices of 80 colleagues who were using the same high
doses of vitamins and sugar -free diets. We came up with a total of 58,000patients and published a paper in 1986, called “The Prevention  of Tardive
Dyskinesia. ”
After that I expanded the study for another three years. In 1989, I
published a paper on the successful prevention of tardive dyskinesia in
61,000 patients over a 20-year period, treated by 80 differen t doctors. I
thought, consid ering the heavy-duty climate of the problem of tardive
dyskinesia, it would certainly be of interest. It wasn’ t. In fact, the paper was
turned down by all the tradit ional journals. The American Journal of
Psychiatry  was not interested. Archives of Psychiatry  was not interested. Why. Well, I used vitamins, didn’ t I. That seemed to be some kind of crime
in the scientific world. The scientific world, because of its reverse causality, is totally
glamorized and enamored by the double-blind study with fancy statistics
supported by a huge research grant and coming from an assista nt professor
at some universi ty someplace. While I couldn’ t get this paper published, the
journals were full of articles on tests with equivocal results, which cost
enormous amou nts of money. These papers came out of research grants,
which were sizable. In the meantim e, my study covered 20 years and 61,000 patients,
resulting in a series of three published papers that cost absolutely nothing. Here I had an answer to a staggering problem afflicting one million
Americans who were suffering from tardive dyskinesia. The profession was
under harassment by malpractic e suits, and no one was even interested in
the study. I sent copies to everyo ne in the field that I thought would have an
interest, including all the pharmaceutical companies. In terms of worldly success, we would say that this enterprise of mine
was a total failure. I never made a nickel. It didn’ t bring me fame or fortune. It didn’ t even bring me any credit. I’m sure someday, somewhere, some
assistant profess or at some university will receive a huge research grant and
publish a paper on 18 patients for whom they show that some vitamin is
beneficial to curing or preventing tardive dyskinesia. That person will
become world famous and get the credit for having discovered the cure for
the disease. Now, does this bother me. The answer is no. That’ s because to
my own satisfaction, I made this discovery years ago. I carried it forward
and did all that I knew how to make my colleagues aware of it, to dischar ge
my mora l, professional, and ethical obligations to patients, to their families,
and to the world. My job was complete. So far, nothing at all has happened “out there. ” There has been no
recognition, no credit, no money, no profit, no title, and no awards. As a
matter of fact, it cost me a coup le hundred dollars, and I was poorer rather
than richer. And how did I feel about it. I felt completely and totally
satisfied. Did I wish that the profession would pay attention. Did I wish
that all the patients would benefit from this. Did I wish that all of this
crippling could stop. Of course I did. Do I still hope it will. Yes. And if it
happens, of course I will be pleased; however, my own inner feeling does
not depend on that at all. The experience was already complete and total within myself. Anything
happening about  it “out there” would just be frosting on the cake. But it was
not the thing of which my cake was made. My cake was not going to fall. None of my patients had this disease; I was never sued by a patient because
they got it. I rested in peace, and I rested comfortably. The basic lesson that
I’m sharing is that success does not come about by making compromises
for expediency. Success comes about by refusal to compromise integrity for
the sake of anything. In true success there is no time delay. The reward is instantaneous, so that
the entire process is a rewarding one. Success is feeling good about what
we do. We know those feelings  of peace and contentment when we go to
bed having completed a project where we know we did our best. Nothing
has actually even happened “out there. ” The boss hasn’ t gotten the report
yet. The family hasn’ t seen what we’ve done. The neighbors haven’ t found
out. Yet, like having a garden well planted, when we go to bed at night, we
know it’s just a matter of time before the flowers and vegetables emer ge. The garden is automatic once it’s been suitably planted. Watchin g it grow is
merely in addition to the satisfaction; it is not its source. As I said at the beginning of the chapter, there isn’t any compe tition for
those who are at the top of the pyramid. The best restaurants in town don’t
have to compete  for customers, who know they have to have a reservation
well in advance. The best mechanics in town don’t have to look for
business; they have to fight off work. Integrity is the automatic open door. In fact, it is a literal  open door. I discovered this during the years when I
had endless jobs in the world to pay for medical school and college. After World War II there was massive unemployment due to the returning
veterans. Everyone went to the Fifty-T wo/T wenty Club and collected their
$20 a week of unemployment benefits for 52 weeks, because there were
ostensibly no jobs available. At the time when there were “no jobs
available,” I had three jobs simultaneously. One of them was canvassing
house-to-house for roofing and siding projects. If you know anything about roofing and siding on a door-to-door
canvassing basis, you’ll know that this is the roughest, the toughest, the
most overworked and abused profession where bad reputation, deception,
and customer resistance exist. At the time I did it, house-to- house sales
were at their peak due to unemployment. Everyone and his brother were
ringing doorbells for every kind of scheme one can imagine. Customer
resistance was enormous, especially in a town like Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
which was conservative by nature. Trying to make a sale this way was like pulling teeth. Guys tried it by the
droves and fell by the wayside after getting 50 doors slammed in their
faces. They just plain quit in discouragement. New sales crew s didn’ t last
much longer than a week. I would say that the turnover in the sales crews
was at least 95 percent. Canvassers walked their feet off covering block
after block and worked all morning, all afternoon, and all evening without
success. There was a jungle set up for us: Dog-eat-dog competition, slick sales
pitches, high-pressured closers, overworked areas, huge customer
resistance, with the certainty of success being dependent on what is “out
there. ” No success was even remotely possible in this endeavor. Yet what
happened for me was exactly the opposite. As a matter of fact, I made more
money than anybody else in the whole organization. I had cover ed my draw
and was, therefore, finished by noon when I went to my next job, which
was managing a theater. After that, I went to my third job. What was the
secret here. I notice d that door-to-door salesmen all looked the same. They had a
jacket, a white shirt, and a tie, and very often a briefcase. They  would ring
the doorbell, and the homeowner spotted what was obviously a door-to-
door salesman. The prospective customers would stick their head s out of thewindow and say, “We don’t want any; we’re not interested today. ” I learned
that the image of the door -to-door salesman lacked integrity. What I did was the exact oppo site. I wore slightly dirty overalls and a
blue workman’ s shirt. I had screwdrivers and hammers hanging off my belt. My face was a little dirty. My hair was a little rumpled. A six-inch ruler and
a pencil stuck out of my shirt pocket. I carried a toolbox or a lunch pail
instead of a briefcase. The image was that of a blue-collar worker. Blue-collar workers have integrity and a nonthreatening image in the
minds of conservative America. And wouldn’ t you know, the doors would
open automatically for me on blocks where other salesmen couldn’t get into
a single house. I got into every one. I told folks that I had some good stuff
left over from other jobs that I’d been doing in the neighborhood. I noticed
their roof was falling off, and I had this extra roofing material. If they
wanted, I would put it on for them. Obviously they did not need a whole new roof, and I was obviously not a
salesman. But their guard was down; consequently, we talked turkey. I’d tell
them that I would charge them for materials plus labor. Everyone agreed
with no argument. Nobody begrudges us honestly making a living. I never
used high-pressure sales techniq ues; I never promoted, distorted, twisted, or
made false promises; and I never presented or scared them with a contract
to sign. I told them the job was 50 percent due when it was half finished,
and the balance was due when the job was complete. No one ever
complained about that arrangement. In a few instances, I had to tell people that if they didn’ t make the final
payment I would have the workman tear the roof off. That changed their
minds about making their check s good. I would have torn it off too. Even if
it cost me money, I would have  torn all those shingles off again, because I
owed it to myself. It was not to get even. It was not for revenge. Rather, it
was because I would have owed it to myself. In business now, we would wonder, Unless we have that binding contract
or the power of potential lawsuit, how will we collect. The answer is: If
that’s the only way we can collect from those customers, we should not be
doing business with them.
The author does not believe that making a lot of money is the ultimate goal of success. In fact, he emphasizes that true success comes from within and is not dependent on external factors.
What is the author's perspective on the idea of making a lot of money?
The author attributes Japan's success to their willingness to admit their mistakes, learn from them, and commit to new principles, rather than trying to force their way to success through force.
What is the key to the Japanese people's success, according to the author?
The author believes that struggling to make a living is a result of compromising one's integrity and principles. He emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's values and principles, even if it means temporary loss.
What is the author's stance on the idea of struggling to make a living?
The author argues that true competition does not exist in the business world, as those who are committed to excellence, integrity, and principle are not in competition with each other. Instead, they focus on delivering high-quality products and services, which leads to effortless success.
What is the author's view on the concept of "competition" in business?
The author believes that success is not about winning or achieving external validation, but rather about living in alignment with one's principles and values. He emphasizes that true strength and power come from within and cannot be threatened or taken away by external factors.
What is the author's perspective on the idea of "winning" and "success"?