lifeoutside the lines

Imagine Pop Idol for entrepreneurs…
That’s where I just spent the last week. It’s pretty wild. Its called Entrepreneurs Business School (EBS) and basically 150 entrepreneurs from 25 countries descend on Bali to battle ‘it’ out, because in the words of Highlander “There can be only ONE!”. 5 mentors judge the submitted business plans and guide their evolution as all hell breaks loose. The judging criteria is based on a businesses commercial value, as well as its social value. If you have a product, service or idea that has the potential to change the world, this is the place to be.

I got 2 major insights out of it all, although they had nothing to do with business.

1. Get lost.
I was chatting with Mike Southon who is well known in the UK as a business guru and best selling author. Basically, he sold his company for a truck load of cash and realised it was the worst day of this life. From then he began searching for what came next and his advice to me over breakfast was ‘go where your ego can’t follow’. What he meant was, don’t go somewhere where you don’t matter. Where there is nothing to hang your ego on. For example, go to the Sudan. No one speaks your language and no one cares who you are or what you have accomplished or who you have been. You can say “yes, well I built this great company and sold it for a lot of money and I am very special and important…” and they will look at you and say “ke?”

It’s when you are in a space where your past doesn’t matter that the real you can shine through.

I intend to follow that advice.

2. Give it up.

For the last 4 weeks I have been going through a process or re-creation. I have been telling people I am designing a lifestyle for myself that allows me to travel the world and get into all sorts of weird and wonderful adventures. I have been saying that I am creating a business that promotes products that can be marketed from and delivered to anywhere in the world, thus freeing me to create value (and revenue) from anywhere on the planet. I have been sharing my dreams of riding a motorcycle through the Himalayas, diving on wrecks in Vanuatu and learning Spanish in Peru. I have been expressing how committed I am to leading by example and documenting my journey using social media in such a way that inspires others to be unreasonable in their pursuit of living the life they love.

‘Wonderful’, says Martin, one of the worlds leading executive businesses coaches (who I have known for years and who was conveniently staying in the same resort as me). ‘You have just gone and made life all about you. Congratulations on doing that. You must be very proud’.

Crap. He was right. Of course Martin was gently reminding me of something I knew but had somehow forgotten.

If I wanted to truly make a difference I would need to apply my mind to how I could best give to life rather than what I could get from it. That’s what I love about great mentors. In just one sentence they can use my own words to shatter the bullshit and reconnect me to what’s truly important.

For the last few days I stopped talking about me and started simply asking people I met how I could best serve them. The shift was instantaneous as I connected with people at an entirely different level, and so it flowed. From invitations to become part of a film crew in New Zealand to mountain biking in Kenya to working with one of the founders of Quicksilver in New Mexico. How cool is that?

In a matter of just days life began to offer me so much more… and all I did was give.

Rock on.