F O U R T H G E N E R A T I O N T H I N K I N G
Independence is limited and conditional. We’re only ever truly independent in a few aspects of life. Yes, we can learn to become independent in almost any sphere, but who has the time or resources? Would you want to live in a society where everyone operated in isolation? Where there was absolutely no co-operation, even within families? Would you want to fill your own teeth? Remove your own tonsils or appendix? Build your own car? Find, drill and refine your own petroleum (after making all the tools by yourself — including mining and refining the ore to make them)? At the same time as all this is going on, you’re growing your own food, preparing and cooking it (with implements you’ve made entirely by yourself with no help from others), making your own clothes (from fabrics you’ve grown and prepared yourself)… it’s an absurd notion. It even takes two people to get us here!
To acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills to become truly independent (in a particular part of life), we go through a process of learning. Look at the Freedom Continuum again. As we progress upward from dependence to independence, there are four kinds of learning activities available to us (A1, A2, A3 and A4), each one offering higher leverage than the one before.
It’s important to realise, from the start, that we need to use all of these activities. We can’t just focus on the highest leverage alone. It tends to be a natural outcome of the preceding three. We need balance.
Let’s look at these learning activities in more detail.
A1. Personal Experience
This is the hardest, slowest, most painful way to learn. That makes it the dumbest as well! If we all had to learn only by personal experience, progress would be excruciatingly slow. We’d be barely out of the Stone Age by now. Mind you, when it comes to human behaviour — like war, for instance (and some prospecting behaviour!) — we haven’t learned much.
We’d each have to learn that putting one’s hand in the fire will burn us, quite badly. Human beings seem to be able to learn intelligently from the experience of others in all areas of life except how to get along together. This is one lesson we seem unable to learn from history.
A2. Observation
This is a much higher-leverage learning activity than personal experience — and much smarter! It’s really just learning from other people’s personal experiences.
We see someone do something harmful or foolish and we determine that we’ll avoid that behaviour. We see them do something intelligent or useful — such as how to apply knowledge, attitudes and skills effectively — and we decide to do the same.
A3. Formal Tuition
This is higher leverage still. It’s the accumulated experience and observations of history, plus those of our own generation. If you think about it, that’s all schools, colleges and universities actually teach.
So we seek out independent people who can teach us, quickly and effectively, the knowledge, attitudes and skills we need to master to become independent, too. When we’ve proven our mastery of these things, we receive recognition in the form of diplomas, degrees, certificates and titles. All they do is declare our mastery of some fundamental leverage so that others know what our strengths are.
Let me assure you, as a qualified teacher and former academic, this is not an oversimplification of the truth, any more than saying that your driver’s licence is nothing more than a public declaration that you’ve met certain minimum standards in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills applicable to driving a vehicle safely.
That driver’s licence does not make you a Nigel Mansell or Michael Schumacher, any more than a Bachelor of Science degree makes you an Albert Einstein. Tragically, many young lives are lost every year through failure to comprehend this fact. Equally, many graduates believe that completion of a degree or diploma endows them with special status that demands our awe when, in reality, it says that they’re reasonably house-trained in their chosen field and are less likely to be a major embarrassment to their teachers! Like the newly licensed driver, they’re now ready to begin their real learning, because they now know how to ask the right questions.
Vanity and foolishness are just opposite sides of the same coin.
A4. Emulation
This is the highest-leverage learning activity of all. It involves finding reliable role models and emulating their examples. But beware… don’t fall into another common trap (especially prevalent in Multi-Level Marketing!).
We mistake imitation for emulation.
In other words, we imitate the effects of success, instead of emulating its causes. Because our chosen role-model drives a certain type of car, or wears a certain brand of clothes, or does his or her hair in a particular style (or any of a thousand-and-one other aspects of their appearance) we mistakenly believe that, by imitating these effects, we can duplicate their achievements.
We fail to grasp the fact that it was their behaviour that made them successful, not their looks. If we want to achieve the same results, we need to emulate their successful behaviour — not slavishly imitate their appearance.
We live in the age of the clone — the lifeless, cardboard cut-out that mimics real achievement with hollow style. If you want to see this phenomenon in action, there are two sure-fire places to look…
- Nightclubs — where the behaviour is totally conformist and the results devastatingly damaging.
- Too many MLM rallies and “motivational” meetings — where the behaviour is equally conformist, and just as damaging, as you can see here.
The motive behind emulation is emotional independence — a desire to be free of limitations like ignorance and incompetence.
The motive behind imitation is emotional dependence — a desire to be accepted and approved. The chilling truth is that the person whose approval or acceptance is sought can never trust or respect an imitator, because they prove their untrustworthiness and unreliability by their willingness to betray their personal values and standards in order to gain that approval. The inevitable result is contempt, not approval, no matter how big the smile or how approving the words of the person being imitated. For the imitator, self-contempt goes with the package.
Emulation is based on personal integrity. Imitation is a form of personal compromise.
When we’ve successfully emulated our independent role-model’s achievement, we are as independent as they are. We’ve mastered the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to accomplish our own independence in that particular sphere.
The Key to Independence
In order to become independent, however, we must be able to unlock the door to that condition. The key is mastery.
We must master the knowledge, attitudes and skills required — or we’re not completely reliable. We’re still, to some extent, dependent.
Note that the emphasis here is on the acquired forms of leverage, not the bestowed forms (gifts, talents and abilities). That’s because Network Marketing is based on duplication. Things that can be acquired, learned and taught. If we were talking about opera, art or sport, then knowledge, attitudes and skills are not enough to scale the heights… we need those special, non-duplicable gifts, talents and abilities that set the true “stars” apart.
This is one of the most attractive features of Network Marketing. Literally anyone can reach the top, regardless of their gifts, talents and abilities, providing they acquire the correct knowledge, attitudes and skills. But far too many Network Marketers seize on “quick fix” counterfeits that can never deliver permanent success. Many of these fakes are exposed in our MLM Booby Traps section. Study them well, so that you can recognise them, even when they bob up under different guises. They regularly do.
If you decide that Network Marketing is for you, no matter which business opportunity you choose, Fourth Generation Thinking has the answers to help you build consolidated performance with outstanding security and stability. See the Bookshop for information about our high-leverage training programs, books, tapes, seminars and workshops.
©1998 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 1 October 2005.
