BALANCING ACT: BLENDING LIFE, WORK, AND RELATIONSHIPS® A free monthly newsletter about balancing life, work, and relationships based on the books and popular workshops conducted by Alan Weiss, Ph.D.

 
 

Balancing Act®: The Newsletter

(No. 291, November 2023)

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Balancing Act® is in four sections based on famous quotations:

  1. Essays
  2. Musings
  3. Developmental Stuff
  4. ORTIYKMWOYBNT-O Department

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Essays

Terrorism

Terrorism is often defined as illegal (as in not a declared war) violence and intimidation, usually against civilians for the express pursuit of geopolitical aims. It is also an attempt to cause as much disruption and expense as possible with a minimum of resources and people in support. Thus, the mere threat of violence is often sufficient to gain advantage without actually investing in the violence.

One of our modern problems is that we’ve become inured to terrorism. We’ve been experiencing it for so long in so many different forms in so many places—drug cartels, riots, corrupt military and politicians, religious fanaticism—that it’s become “merely” a fact of modern life. It’s reported on the morning talk shows which then feature a chef and recipes, and on the evening news followed by sitcoms and reality shows.

Football Season (Soccer, Too)

We’re seeing some great sporting events and competitions and there’s more parity than ever. In most cases, anyone can win, upsets are plentiful and the contest is more exciting. Very often, one player having a great day, or a key mistake made, or a brilliantly executed play, can mean the difference.

What should never mean the difference is an incorrect call by an official. As much as replays slow down the game, it’s critical not to allow a human error by a non-player to be the winning (and losing) factor.

We ought to have instant replay for management decisions that affect employees and customers and investors.

The Instability Areas

  • Technology: People don’t know what on earth “digital transformation” really means, whether AI is a threat or a huge opportunity, and whether ChatGPT will homogenize everything in writing. There’s also great fear about “imposter” images and recordings using people who never actually participated.
  • Demographics: We are not replacing ourselves, morbidity is exceeding fertility, and we are going to need an intelligent immigration policy (is there such a thing in Washington?), intelligent use of AI, and increasing access to the wisdom of people over 65 to compensate for the disappearance of actual domestic labor.
  • Social Justice Demands: People are starting to “glaze over” from real and imagined grievances, are balking at taking “loyalty oaths,” and objecting to the huge expenses of what has become a DEI industry and new levels of management and bureaucracy. The pendulum appears to be swinging back toward the middle.
  • Regionalization: The much touted “global economy” seems to be giving way to regionalization, which makes supply chains easier to manage and control, and can form powerful alliances. We can see this in Southeast Asian countries banding together to resist Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea, for example.
Musings

There was a time when women couldn’t vote, nor hold most jobs, nor even venture out unescorted. There was (and, too often, still is) a time when minorities couldn’t vote, not hold most jobs, nor be elected to office. The same has held true for gay people and those now included in the LGBTQ+ communities.

The biases have changed and are changing. But there is one that has yet to be clearly admitted and needs to be changed for the nation’s survival: Bias against the elderly.

About 20% of the US population is over 65 (the rather arbitrary “retirement age”). About 30% of the Japanese population is over that age. The typical lifespans of those populations are 76 and 84, respectively. When social security was introduced in the FDR administration, the average life span was 68 in the US, and there were about 42 workers contributing to retirement funding for every retired person. Today, that ratio is 3:1 and declining.

We need to honor and “employ” people who are capable of contributing at all ages. A clear, pragmatic example is of airline pilots, forced to retire at 65 although perfectly healthy and having vast experience in all conditions. Yet another would be financial advisors whom elderly people would prefer to deal with as contemporaries as IRA funds are cashed out by law. (When I wrote my book, Threescore and More, I found that Japanese firms were calling back advisors in their 80s and even 90s.)

Physically infirm people can serve as advisors, mentors, and sounding boards. Cognitive decline is hardly endemic. Research has shown that the brains of people in their 70s produced as many new neurons as young people.

As our morbidity outpaces our fertility, and that isn’t likely to change for generations, we need to replace scarcer and scarcer intellectual and physical labor. Some will come from AI, some will come from (one can only hope) an intelligent immigration policy. But a great deal of it can come from people we tend to dismiss and disregard because of biases against age.

I don’t see any “elderly rights” parades, or “elder lives matter” signs on lawns. The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) is really just a huge sales machine for products and services, and a failure at lobbying for elderly rights.

We need to use all the “smarts” we can. And, frankly, while a great many people have data, information, and even knowledge, I don’t think wisdom sets in at an early age, only much later in life.

Development Opportunities
Killing the Imposter Syndrome: What if You Really ARE That Good?

KILLING THE IMPOSTER SYNDROME

Shed your doubts and fears.

I’ll be providing criteria to honestly evaluate your effectiveness, get over thinking you don’t deserve things, become totally comfortable with any buyer, and place the proper value on your improving others’ businesses and well-being. You are masking your talents and value when you fear you’ll be “found out.” You’re not assertively promoting and marketing yourself if you think you’re really a fraud.

And you’ll never be a peer of the buyer while you’re wondering why the hell the buyer invited you to meet. Maybe you need to come to grips with the fact that you are just that terrific. I can help you do that in 90 minutes.

Or are you afraid you don’t belong in this program because you’re not good enough?

November 20 at 10:30 Eastern for 90 minutes. $1,400.

LEARN MORE
Business As A Second Language

Thought Leadership 2023

In Thought Leadership 2023 we will: Create dramatic new IP around your expertise. Commercialize IP so as to immediately trademark it. Create a social proof journal which impressively supports your positions and provides instant credibility. Project immediate value so that no one will ever “ghost” you again. Create an “in the buyer’s office” role play which utilizes contemporary events. Use the Wall Street Journal for rich sources of material, which I will demonstrate for each of you. Create a 25-page ebook outline that you can complete with little effort within the following week as a marketing lever.

The fee is $9,500 which includes a light breakfast both mornings and lunch on the first day, along with favorable room rates. You will get a $1,000 rebate after the program if you:

  1. Stay through the compete session and don’t leave early for the airport.
  2. Submit to me your completed ebook content within 10 days.

You may attend virtually for $8,500, no rebates.* November 29-30, Washington, DC.

LEARN MORE
The Remote Millionaire®

NEW: The Remote Millionaire®

Yes, I’m going to provide the secrets (and puncture the myths) of making a million dollars or more a year without leaving your home.

And, ironically, I’m going to do it in person, because I’m scheduled to be in San Diego and LA for other reasons and I generate so much money remotely that I like to be with people on occasion (in good weather)! Here’s what you’ll create or improve without leaving home, except for this day with me:

  • Developing unsolicited referrals.
  • Creating client evangelism with prospects.
  • Delivering powerful marketing discussions.
  • Creating contemporary passive income.
  • Establishing client “banks” that are used and replenished.
  • Moving to and enlarging a trusted advisor network.

We’ll be using role plays, actual participant services (from prep work), and exercises to develop the skills to market, deliver, and expand business through dramatic and tangible value from a distance. We’ll master how to do this with individuals, small groups, and/or large audiences.

LEARN MORE
The Advisory Suite

NEW! Alan’s Advisory Suite

Nine options for groups or individuals to receive “real time” coaching to build their practices and lives on a continuing basis. The strongest, best people in business, entertainment, sports, the media—all use coaches.

For individuals and/or groups.

LEARN MORE
Million Dollar Consulting® Global Online Program

Million Dollar Consulting® for the World

I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 47 countries.

LEARN MORE
Million Dollar Consulting® Global Online Program ADVANCED

New: Million Dollar Consulting® for the World ADVANCED

The new program contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more.

LEARN MORE
Sentient Strategy Certification

Sentient Strategy Certification

My new book on the topic released in March so this is an ideal time to market Sentient Strategy. Write me to apply, join over 70 people certified in six countries. One-time fee of $12,000, includes 90 days of my support, free admission to all future certifications, and admission to a private web board with other Sentient facilitators. In a recent program a particpant sold a $100,000 strategy program within 48 hours.

EMAIL ALAN

SAC Annual Meeting – San Diego/Hybrid

Join me for the upcoming Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC) annual meeting in San Diego and hybrid on Nov. 14th. I’ll be speaking in the morning, followed with additional content from colleagues. Click to learn more and registerStay over and join me at The Remote Millionaire® on the following day. You do not have to be a SAC member.

LEARN MORE
I'm an Old Cowhand...

We’re driving on the small, country roads in Nantucket, and my wife suddenly says, “You just went through a stop sign!”

“I did not,” I replied somewhat testily. She turned back to the road and said in another minute, “You just went through another one!!”

“There was no stop sign!” I pointed out, somewhat aggressively. “Look, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you point out the next stop sign before I come to it if you’re so concerned!” (To me, this was like dropping the red “challenge flag” in professional football.)

Sure enough in another half-mile she yelled, “There! Over there, just like the last two!”

And there was a stop sign—on the adjoining bike path, for the cyclists. They were posted every time the bike path met a side road.

“So?” I said.

“It wouldn’t hurt if you stopped, as well,” she said, and I decided that was as close to an apology as I would get.

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