Case Study: Dominic

In my whole philosophy of getting independent from the corporate world, I think that Dominic is someone that stands out.

Dominic works in my enterprise.  He works in the telecoms department.  He is the sole specialist of some switches lists of translations for calls to get through... or something like that.  I won't get into any details here but understand that he is a guru in his field of expertise that is in high demand in any large company.

So right there Dominic has been able to ensure his employability to the company.  He has the knowledge that no other has in the company.  So he is indispensable in his department.  He is not un-expendable.  Working for corporation we learn to know that no one is.  But at least he knows that if the company wants to get rid of him, it will have to train someone else for a few weeks before he barely get to speed (not even get to Dominic's level).

This brings a second advantage.  Since no one else can do Dominic's work and that his work is in high demand in the industry, Dominic has an edge in his wage negotiation.

But Dominic was not happy with only that.

In his spare time he decided to start a home business.  He decided to rent portable hot tubs for people who wants to throw parties in their backyard.  He was not able to start that over night.  In the beginning he had a hard time.  He had to deal with the providers, get a place to store the tubs.  At one point in peak periods, he had to hire an employee.  He learned the hard way: his costs went sky rocketing.  So he managed to downsize and finds ways to cut cost, fine tune his processes and do some of the work himself.

It took him two years of trials and errors to get to the current business model he is at now.  And his business is so fine tuned that he can devote to it only a few hours a week and rake in the money.

He told me that at this rate, if revenues continue to grow, he will repay his house loan in about four years!  Not bad at all.

So if I summarize, Dominic has been able in two years to:

1. Become a valuable asset for the company so he is hard to fire
2. Has developed and launched a business that generates a revenue (that he don't need since he has a job)
3. The over and above revenue generated by his business is used to repay his house loan (which means by having no debt he will be even less vulnerable to the corporate world)

Dominic is an example to follow on the road of total freedom.

Acta Non Verba

Philosophers and theologists devises the world in two orders : the actives and the contemplatives.

When I was younger, I was on the active side.  And this is the part of my life in which I remember most victories.  I was athletic, outgoing, extrovert, life was just there for me to take.

But at one point back then I stopped to reflect.  I thought about all those books that lies out there.  All those people who wrote all those brilliant books and shared brilliant ideas.  All things that, back then, I had no clue they existed.  And I wondered if I would live my life and pass by all those wonders.  All those things that I will never know.  Literature, philosophy, science, theology, strategy, economics, politics and everything else.  I had a thirst for knowledge.

So I set to start reading all those books.  Before that I never had time to.  Now, I took the time.  And I read, and read, and read.  At some point I got caught in a behaviour in which I would rather sit down and read than going out and doing things or meeting people.

To strike a balance is the key. Read and learn, but apply! Do, create, move, shake, build, improve.  Do something.  Do it for yourself and not for others or for a mere company that doesn’t give the slightest peace of crap about you.

Go out there and do your stuff.  Plan and make projects.  And make them happen.  Use your knowledge at best of your capacity.  Don’t hide behind a book.

Because we live in a material world.  Either you want it or not.  And in such world, actions rules!

Do you want to make money?

I don't know for you but I sure do.

And there is only one thing to do to make it.  Build value.

Just whatever you do.  Either you create a new product, refurbish an old one or you plainly want to keep your job.  Just build something that has value for the buyer.

Put yourself in the shoes of your eventual customer.  And then ask yourself "what's in there for me?" But not for you the seller.  Not for what YOU think they are getting out of it.  But rather what is it that they are really getting.

Create value.  It sounds so simple isn't it? But it’s not. It is just lately while I was observing a tramp in my neighborhood that it dawned on me.

See this tramp is there every morning.  He stands at the door in the subway.  When ever someone comes, he opens the door for them.  He has a can in his hand and hopes that people will drop a few pennies in the can for the service he provided.

Most people don’t.  In fact I can see in their eyes that they are a bit annoyed he actually tried to help.

Why is that?

See in his mind he thinks he’s performing a service to people that passes by.  But what he misses is that this service is of no value to people. It’s something that they can do themselves in no time.  There is no value in that. 

As a comparison.  I was in Boston a few years ago for business and after the meetings I decided to go for a walk and visit the city.  There is a historic cemetery there where famous people were buried like the original people from the Tea Party.  There is a lot of tourist in the cemetery wondering around the tombs.  At the entrance of the cemetery there is a tramp.  The guy gives to the passing by tourists a map of the cemetery and a short description of who is buried where and what did they do in history.

Now talk about value creation!  When people gets out of the cemetery they give the map back to the tramp… with a tip.  And I can assure you it is not only a penny.  I myself gave a 5$ bill because this is what I felt it was worth to me.  

So this guy understood one thing.  He understood that there is a lot of people not from the town wanting to know who were lying there and he managed to create maps and description for people to follow.

He did the process.  He put himself in his target market’s mind and asks what himself what they want.  Its either something that the customer cannot do, cannot create, or don’t have time to create or needs it for other purpose that will bring him even more value.

On Abraham Maslow's Theory of self-actualization

Are you aware of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Of course you are.  Who isn’t?  It’s been the most used  - or I should say over used – concept of man actualisation and human motivation theory.  Every time some, so called, expert consultant wants to look intelligent in his/her presentation, he/she serves us this theory once again.  So I won’t waste time explaining it to you.

What I am interested in and what has taken up some of my brain CPU lately is the tiny upper part of Maslow pyramid: the self-actualization.

What is it?

Well I guess there must be one answer to that question for every human being on the planet.  So seek your own.

The true question is.  How do we tap on it?  How do we access it?

Now I see that several ones would raise their hands and gladly say in front of the class that in order to get to that higher stage, one must fulfil the underlying needs right?

Beeeeeep!

WRONG!

There are many examples of people who had nothing, they could barely eat and yet they devoted their lives to others, defended causes and felt a strong feeling of fulfilment.  Insert the name of your choice here.

Maslow studied the characteristics of people that arrived at a state of self-actualization.  Those are the people who have been able to exploit their potentials to the maximum.  No need to become Buddhist or holistic here.  If you want to you can. But self-actualization does not require it as a must have.  Just seek to use your potential at the maximum.

How do you know if you use your potential to the maximum?  Do it.  If you do it well then seek higher challenges.  The idea is to test you limits.  When you get to your limits, you’ll know it.  You are either going to feel that this is becoming too big a task for you.  Or you’ll screw up.  Or you’ll have this feeling that you just and plainly want to shit your pants right now.  But fear not!  This is all part of the process.  Indulge yourself. Learn from it.  And adapt.  Try different angles, other approached.  Know the difference between a setback and an actual limitation of yourself.  The more you’ll do, the more you’ll know what you can and cannot do.  In short, thrive to get to your level of incompetency in what you choose to do.  Yes!  You’ve guested it, it’s the Peter Principle that you can apply to every aspect of your life and not only as en employee.

And when you’ve reached the end of that road does it means that everything must come to a stop?  No. Its not because you are not good at something that you cannot associate with someone who is good at it… an continue on your path by the same way.

Back to Maslow.

Maslow started his research originally.  He chooses historical eminent people that he considered people who achieved self-actualization.   Those were men and women that made an exceptional use of their potentiality.  Among them were Spinoza, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, WilliamJames, Jane Addams, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt.

After scrutinizing their lives, Maslow developed a “robot portrait” of an individual that realizes his/her potentialities which brings to self-actualization.  He also developed a list of behaviors that, as per Maslow, can bring one on to the road of self-actualization.  Here they are as per Maslow:

Characteristics of those that reach self-actualization

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•         They have an adequate perception of reality and they are capable to support uncertainty.
•          They accept themselves as they are and they accept other as they are too.
•     They show spontaneity in their actions and their thoughts.
•     They are focus on problems instead of being focus on themselves.
•     They have a good sense of humor.
•     They are very creative people.
•     They resist social pressures of standardization and conformity.  But they are not overtly rebels.
•     They engage into the wellbeing of humanity.
•     They are able to profoundly appreciate the essential experiences of life.
•     They entertain profound and fulfilling relationships with few people instead of amassing tons of friends
•     They are capable of appreciating life with an objective view point

Conduct, behaviours leading to self-actualization

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•     Discover life like children are.  With total concentration and awe.
•     Try something new instead of resting in the security of what is known
•     Listen to your feeling for what they are and what they mean in the evaluation of experiences instead of surrendering to tradition, religion, authority or the majority
•     Be honest.  With yourself and others.  Don’t play games.
•     Accept being unpopular when your point of view does not coincide with the vie of others
•     Take responsibilities
•     Work hard at what YOU chose to do.
•     Try to identify the schemes and mechanisms behind which we take shelter and once aware of them, have the courage to let them go

To me, I see some similarities between Maslow’s theory of self-actualization and the concept of the Übermensch from Friedrich Nietzsche.

More on that in another post J

As a ending note.  I will leave you with this interesting link of Philosopher’s Notes that will tell you a little more about the philosophy of Maslow.

Enjoy.