27-June-02
From Dan Peña – Executive Coach and Mentor to the High Performer.
Dear Friend and Subscriber,
THIS STUFF WORKS AND WE HAVE BUILT A 13 MILLION COMPANY
BULLETIN BOARD OPEN
Firstly I am glad to announce a "Bulletin Board" has been added to my website "www.danpena.com". It is quite simple to use. Visitors can post questions, which can then be answered by myself or indeed others who may be able to help. Both questions and answers will be on view to all, so you may find that the answer to a query you have is already available to you on the site.
COMMENTS ON VIDEO / AUDIO TAPES & BOOKS
"The Pena seminars and tapes have taken us from zero to a 13.5 million a year company. The stuff works." (DSP: "Of course I know this and couldn’t agree more!")
Rod
The statement above was recently received from a subscriber who in the past purchased a lot of "product" as a re-affirmation of his belief in the QLA Methodology. He followed the QLA Methodology with a great result! The same product is still available. New versions can be found on my website – there are a few copies of the original material which is currently being sold at reduced prices. For more information contact p.morris@danpena.com
READER COMMENTS ON NEWSLETTERS
DSP: This letter is almost as I would write it. You have to live, breath, eat, sleep and dream it to succeed quantumly.
Dear Mr Peña
I read your last newsletter (#33) to the end, (DSP: "Thank God – and in the USA I’m taking a risk in saying this now vis-à-vis a recent court decision.") had a great laugh throughout, and appreciated your sense of humour. It’s much like that of my own father, a successful businessman and quite unlike my own hiccups of success.
Hearing that you had only two responses to requests for topics surprised me. (DSP: "There have been more since then.") I assumed you would have many, and that my suggestion would be one of many. So much for stupid assumptions! I broke my own rule (never make assumptions) by making that assumption.
Here is my suggestion. How about the topic of working at what you love? When younger, it was one of my assumptions that people would love their work or, at the very least, make the absolute best of it. Only after reading Ayn Rand many years ago (DSP: "I recommend this book. The best CFO/FD I ever had considered it his personal bible for life.") did I understand what the Monday and Friday syndromes were about. After all, I loved my work, and when I didn’t, I deliberately took on extra responsibility to make the work became fun. What’s work without responsibility? That was another early assumption that proved false: I thought that people wanted responsibility for their own lives and progress. Hah!
Last year, I worked hard at moving out of my current career, because that’s all it was – a career. A career that had responsibility for important stuff, sure, but it wasn’t MY important stuff. (DSP: "When it’s not yours it’s always less important! Think of life and death – yours!") And I realised that I no longer LOVED my work any more, probably because I saw the writing on the wall.
So, I worked for a year, working weekends, early mornings and late evenings, to break out of what I was doing. Goodness, did my wife complain! Tough, I had to do what I had to do. Or so I thought.
But, I didn’t manage to break out, even a little. I figured that if I could at least make a tiny profit, I could work on that and grow, slowly at first but exponentially later. Well, I didn’t even make a tiny profit. At least, not worth talking about.
This year I had a serendipitous insight that completely changed my direction. I realised what I did wrong. I hadn’t evaluated what I loved to do. Instead, I had evaluated what I could do. (DSP: "Common fault that leads to being sucked in to the WRONG vortex.") That was a limiting assumption! So I had done what I knew I could.
This year, everything has changed. I evaluated what I loved to do. And I took action. I am now officially unemployed, obviously very short of money, but working and learning like crazy and loving EVERY MOMENT of my packed week (yes, seven days a week, early morning ’til bedtime). And I’m doing work I thought I couldn’t, but of course have now proven I can do well. (DSP: "It’s how to maintain this Every Moment feeling over a career that can be difficult.")
Therein lies the difference. I am now doing what I love. Ability comes automatically. Soon, I shall be making a small profit. Then I can work on the moneymaking ideas and grow exponentially.
I am even moving towards a vision that I’ve had for years, but didn’t know how to go about getting it going.
So what’s my point? It’s that when you work at what you know you’re good at, but don’t love, your heart isn’t in it. My brain didn’t bring to bear its full awesome power to bear on the problems, so my solutions were, well, ordinary and commonplace. Now that I work at what I love, I find I breathe, dream and live my new life with an extraordinary passion. My brain works on this all the time, and it’s fun. Although my energy levels are no higher than last year (albeit always high indeed), my brainpower is fired up. My solutions are creative, unusual, unexpected and effective. (DSP: "Random and effective.")
Hence my suggestion about working for love – that is, love at what you do. You once mentioned that if an existing business is not expandable, you might as well close the door. You could add that if you replace it with a similar (but expandable) business for which you lack the passion, you might as well not open the door.
If you want to break out of what you do, ask yourself three questions.
What do I love doing (even if I believe I’m no good at it)? (E.g. Dan Peña loves to do deals.)
- When in the past have I done well at that? (If you love it, you must have done it well at least once in your life.) (DSP: "Or you wouldn’t know you loved it.")
- What opportunities are there for me to take advantage of that love and passion? (You have to be creative here!)
Then, of course, take action.
Thank you for your newsletters.
Best regards
Pat DSP: Thanks for this letter and all your comments.
To Your Quantum Leap
Daniel S. Peña, Sr.
P.S. Remember what I have said so many times before, "When you really love what you do – it’s not really work! When was the last time you needed a vocation from fun and play?"
P.P.S. "FEAR IS NEVER SO FRIGHTENING AS LIFE LONG REGRET."
