F
O U R T H G E N E R A T I O N T H I N K I N G The really exciting thing is that you can secure this kind of freedom within a year or two, providing you can find and retain the right perspectives on the most advanced, sophisticated, different system of business ever to evolve.
Strange as it may seem, in view of the disastrous pattern we’ve just observed, the Path to Freedom is based on the exact same context. But, as we examine it from another perspective, be careful not to miss the essential differences because you’re distracted by superficial similarities! There’s a world of difference in the approach – and the outcomes.
The same four stages of the Path apply:
The real difference lies in our perspective. This gives us a better understanding of the processes involved, and the keys needed to “unlock” each stage. Understanding of this point is critical to our success: while we cannot always control the outcome, we can almost always control the processes.
Examine the diagram and you’ll begin to see some of the differences. Whether you recognise them for what they really are is quite another matter, as we’ll soon discover.
The processes are focused on solutions and results, instead of problems and activity. They deal with leverage in very effective ways, to achieve those solutions and results.
They’re based on co-operation (sharing) rather than competition (selfishness), so they produce more positive attitudes and exponentially greater accomplishments.
(I’ve highlighted all these terms because they have relationships and meanings you may not yet recognise – no matter what you may understand them to mean at present.)
Like the Career Path, we start from the same point: dependence. Dependent people have very little to offer in the way of resources. They haven’t yet acquired or developed them. This brings us to another critical perspective – and another common mistake.
We confuse value and usefulness.
If we only value things for their usefulness, the human race is doomed to extinction, for the simple reason that dependent people have no useful qualities (strengths) to offer us. For a start, that includes children – especially babies.
Think about it.
Of what real use is a newborn baby? (Remember… we’re talking about usefulness, not value.) They keep us up at night. They make noise. They make mess. They make work. They’re endless trouble.
Yet we value them, sometimes above life itself.
Why?
Because, mostly, we get our priorities right when it comes to babies. We value them for themselves, not for what they can do for us. It’s enough that they simply exist. It’s just a pity that this attitude is due more to instinct than reason in most people, otherwise child abuse and neglect would rarely occur.
Even older children have little real usefulness when you think about it. Yet we still value them. Sadly, we tend to value our own children more than other peoples’ children. And they soon reach the stage – usually the teenage years – where we begin to value them less and less.
Why?
Because they grow up. They become independent. That means they’re less dependent on us. We have less control over them, and most of us find that threatening. So we begin to value people only when they are useful to us.
What we lose sight of is the correct perspective…
To become truly free, we must learn to value others regardless of their usefulness to us. We need to invest the time and effort to help them become independent, too. Freely!
There’s an old saying “No man is an island.” It’s absolutely accurate, because none of us is entirely independent. We each have weaknesses of one kind or another, so we need the resources of others to offset them. Unless we value people for who they are – not what they can offer us – they’re unlikely to trust us enough to offer us the use of their personal resources.
The concept of total self-sufficiency is nothing more than a myth. True independence is just the first landing on the stairway to freedom.
©1998 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 1 October 2005.
