BOOK 2, LESSON 17

This week is going be a little different….. Judy and a fellow business colleague, The Chiwi, have co-written this week’s lesson. John will continue with SYMBOLS next week.

WORDS:

Entropy:   a measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder, that is a property of the system's state, and that varies directly with any reversible change in heat in the system and inversely with the temperature of the system; broadly :  the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system (3)

Trust: (Noun) Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

Perseverance: (Noun)

1.steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state,etc., especially in spite of 

difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

2.Theology . continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.

Grace: (Noun)

Elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action.

 

LESSON (From The Chiwi)

Zero Equilibrium

Last week I posted this diagram (1) on the page. After my special case experiences I have had over the past week, I have come to appreciate and make the relationship of the significance of zero equilibrium. It is the point the moment in life when you know that is the time to make a decision. Often it is called a turning point or a cross road. I like the zero equilibrium concept better because it is Omni dimensional.

How do we get to that point? Often it is through feedback, where the pressure has accumulated to the point where the space is compressed to create pressure. I call this involution. In the diagram above, the red shows the effect of this.

It is entropy. To me, entropy is the energy put in that is stored….. a form of latent heat like the energy put in to boil a kettle; you don’t see anything until the water molecules have created enough collisions to go from liquid to vapor.

In the diagram above, we see the arrows pushing inwards. Each one of them is a form of feedback. For a business, the feedback could be an upset customer or a broken agreement. The more compressing feedback you get, the more stressed you will probably feel.

**********************************

As an example….. I have been working with a company. For privacy reasons, we shall call it Struggle Corp. Struggle Corp is run by Ms. Adele Dorkette. It is an interior decorating company. Adele brought the company out 2 years ago. It was a successful operation with 5 staff turning over $500 k per annum. Adele is an artist and has an eye for design and has produced award-winning work. She is high energy and very creative. “I am a big picture person and a prima donna” is the message she puts out. She is not a business manager. Within 6 months of her taking over the business, it is in trouble, it has cash flow issues and money invested into setting up a café at the office, which has not produced a return. Staff get very disgruntled and eventually the landlord locks her out for not paying rent.

Ms. Dorkette has known John Struggledork for a long time and asks for help. He finds a new premises for her to invest in with an amazing deal  (including 8 months delayed settlement)  figuring she should be up and running by then. After all, the business was successful before.

So she takes possession of the property in August 2013 but does not move in as there is no phone, internet, air conditioning…………John and I visit her in October. We decide to give her a hand to sort out some issues. Get her to operate in the new premises, find a support assistant for her, collect outstanding debtors, close outstanding jobs……….The business starts to tick.

January 2014, Ms. Dorkette is frenetic. Why?

She is into the New Year and realizes that she has to settle the property in March. She is very stressed and has upset customers waiting for delivery. Finds that without staff to boss around, she has to do EVERYTHING, including cleaning the toilets. She owes lots of money, has many tasks unfinished…….. See a pattern?

We have a meeting and she says she needs to make more sales and throws a couple of big ‘’to be developed projects” which could bring in pot loads of $.

I tell her that adding more sales will only exasperate her problems and that she should service all existing customers, as each one is a red arrow sucking her energy. She EXPLODES and has a tantrum, goes right off yelling and screaming like a crazed person.

She calms down after half an hour and I ask John to come in as she says John is the only person that understands her. Enter John………….He assesses the situation and tells her this….. her business is mismanaged and more sales will not help. A thermonuclear exchange occurs and we leave saying we do know what you are going through and when you are ready to work to a plan, then we will support her.

A week passes and we get an email saying she has to meet the bank manager, as she is behind on payments…….We help her prepare for her meeting. More emails follow. We convene a meeting with her and tell her that in order to get her out of her current scenario and turn it into a thriving business then she must let go her stubbornness, belligerence and recalcitrance.

She agrees….. this is the point of zero equilibrium. We propose she does an Executive Boot Camp with us. This is where we go in and revamp the business in 2 weeks. Like Tabitha does for hairdressers and Gordon Ramsey for Kitchen nightmares.

 

So…..awareness of ME in relationship to circumstance is the first step towards brightness of future. You have to see the truth as it really is. If your arse is fat, then that is what it is. This is why personal integrity is so important, for it is what makes us who we are. Have you ever observed people going into denial and justification……..??????

“On personal integrity hangs humanity’s fate. You can deceive others, you can deceive your brain-self, but you can’t deceive mind-self- for mind deals only in the discovery of truth and the interrelationship of all truths. The cosmic laws with which mind deals are incorruptible”. (2)

Zero equilibrium is a moment in time. Like a pendulum swinging, it will pass through the centre in an instant and then move on. So too is life…. you are either moving towards or away from your desired, conscious arrangement. It is the point where you have the opportunity to break through. Often this can be people’s deepest and darkest moments. Or it could be a warning sign of things to come in the future.

We live in scenario, so an awareness of the episode is required. The better the comprehension of the situation, the more directive we can become, thus moving to a predictive outcome. We all have the opportunity every day to create our future.

 

1.       http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s10/p3230.html

2. Critical Path, Buckminster Fuller, Page xxxviii
3. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entropy

 

 

JUDY’S COMMENTS

I am so often asked, “Do you understand what John is saying?”

Here is my answer: “One would think that after hanging around with John and the concepts he is passionate about for nearly 25 years, I would understand what he is talking about. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes, I have NO idea what he is talking about. But here’s what I do know….. if I experience enough, if I wait long enough (LAG), if I have enough trust, patience and perseverance, I gradually come to understand what John is speaking about”.

So if people are confused or frustrated by the lessons and are not sure how to apply them but you still want things to improve…. Just try! Just do one small thing to apply something and then do another small thing. It may be as small as cleaning off a desk, paying a small bill or getting a delinquent account to pay. It may be something big, like getting a big contract. Whatever it is, JUST DO SOMETHING to improve things!! Enough small bits of improvement add up to big bits over time. (Funny thing is that degradation works the same way!)

Grace….. it is mentioned above in WORDS. I am not a formally religious person, but how much grace I have with what I do is important to me. Sometimes I am very graceful and things seem to flow much more smoothly….. sometimes I am plain clumsy and ugly…. Clumfing along heavily! But grace is what I strive for. Funnily enough, my Grandmother’s name was Grace…. And she was lovely.

 So despite the piles of tasks I have each day and the frequent exhaustion and overwhelm that I often feel, I just set out each day to do as much as I can to improve things. And I trust that as I do this, I will come to see and understand better “the gears of the universe”, and John!!!

*************

The Chiwi and Judy… over and out until John continues with SYMBOLS next week. Thanks for reading, thank you for contributing. Together, we can make a bigger difference.