June 26, 2010

What do you need to invest in order to accomplish the things that are important to you? As a generalization in America, I would say we turned to money, first, as the way to accomplish most things between the years of 1950 to 2000.  We bought it. Plain and simple.

Money is scarce today. For most, it will be scarce for quite a while. So how do we get things done now? Even if you are millions of dollars in debt you have exactly the same amount of one resource as the richest person on Earth. No matter who you are or what your condition, you get exactly 24 hours in a day.  You have time. And, I believe, time has always been the most important source of wealth – even in the years Americans bought most of what they wanted. Because when you die (sorry for the morbid thought) your time on Earth is done along with everything you accumulated.

So today, even if you have no money or are severely in debt, you have tremendous wealth in the 24 hours of this day. Ordinarily I would have said that time is enough to accomplish whatever you need. But I no longer believe that.

Among the many ways technology has changed our lives perhaps the most powerful is the exponential increase in the speed with which we produce larger quantities, varieties, and new iterations of literally everything. It is impossible to fully experience anything anymore because there are so many options.  As a result, the biggest challenge, the largest obstacle to accomplishing any goal beyond yourself is getting the attention of other people you need to engage to make it work. You need to get their attention to get their time. You need their time to get money.

As long as your goals are personal – having nothing to do with the time of others – attention can be managed. That said, have you noticed how hard it is to keep focused on anything you do? There are so many other things bumping into your thought process to divert your attention – even when it’s JUST YOU doing whatever you are doing. It’s hard to pay attention.

Then extend that to doing things with others. How do you get their attention? I think the key to success is getting and sustaining the attention of others.

Many would say this post is too long, that I lost the attention of most after 25 words. Ironically, I continue to write even though I know that is true.  Of the hundreds of millions of blogs and websites that exist, a handful of people come here. Of that handful, maybe ten percent read the whole thing.

Simple Community is really two short books in one – each 70 pages. That’s really short. Though thousands have been sold, I don’t know ten people who have read the whole thing!  By the way, people are buying the book, they just aren’t reading it all. My next book will be no more than 50 pages.

If you are doing anything that requires others, the two questions you must answer are: how do I get their attention, and how do I keep it?  Good luck with that.