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Wouldn’t it be great if…

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Random Hope is a lousy business strategy.

Chapter Six in my next book, Bad Plans Carried Out Violently, is about Conation, the most important business word you’ve never heard. Its antonym is just as obscure and just as critical for you to know – velleity.

Our whole community of business owners use this phrase all the time:

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

Nothing could describe the above better than two of the 1,000 most obscure words in the English language – conation and velleity (vel-lee-ity).

Conation is “Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction”. The dictionary says its the desire plus the volition at the same time. I know I want to do it because I already am. I don’t need to desire it and get all motivated. I just do it because I want it.

Velleity is the desire with no intention of ever doing anything about it. It’s the exact opposite of conation. Wouldn’t it be nice if things worked out better next year? Wouldn’t it be nice if I only worked half as much as I do now? Would it be nice if… that’s velleity.

What’s the difference between a visionary and a dreamer? A visionary is already doing it (conation) and a dreamer is talking about how nice it would if… (velleity).

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.
CONATION < – – – – – – – – – > VELLEITY

Conate.

More – Business Is Like Surfing

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Don’t surf with sharks.

  • Take lessons, learn how. – Who’s your business advisor?
  • Never surf alone – Where’s your business community?
  • Don’t surf with sharks – Make your own business rules, don’t play by others’.
  • Stay out of unfamiliar waters – stick to your knitting.
  • Ride one wave at a time – do one thing good first.
  • Watch the weather – pay attention to your market.
  • Balance well – it could all come crashing down quickly.
  • Know where you’re going – plan the next few “steps”.
  • Don’t get distracted waving for the cameras – don’t relax too early.
  • Ride the small waves first – grow into the big ones. Grow into business.
  • Let somebody else make the board – outsource everything.
  • Get advice – Just because you’re wet doesn’t mean there is surf – where is your target market?
  • Know when to jump in – time kills deals.
  • Know when to stay on the beach – big opportunities aren’t always good.
  • Change technique before you decide to quit (it’s not surfing, it’s the way YOU are surfing).
  • Never think you’ve learned it all.
  • Don’t fight a rip tide. – Roll w/ the punches.
  • Know when to go home. – Don’t bet on the come.
  • Paddling is everything – Conation – committed movement in a purposeful direction. – commitment is more important than anything else
  • MOST IMPORTANT – Paddle harder AFTER you get momentum! It’s the only way to catch the wave so you can stop paddling altogether! (see last week’s Business is Like Surfing)

Business is like Surfing

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Don’t Float. Paddle Hard. Catch the Wave. Enjoy the Ride.

A long time ago I lived on the ocean and while describing the cycles of business to somebody last week it dawned on me it’s a lot like surfing –

The first thing you have to do is jump in and start struggling against crashing breakers and strong currents. You’re swimming against the tide, diving under the breakers, getting knocked around endlessly, holding your breath too often, and not seeming to make much progress. And you’re dog tired as a reward. Starting a business or any new initiative in an existing business gets you pretty much the same response, doesn’t it?

Once you get past the breakers you are still paddling like crazy against the tide and up the swells and rollers. Most of the time you can’t see much farther than the next wave coming at you and even though you’re paddling endlessly, there are almost no reference points for whether you’re making any progress. Business is the same – once you’re past the initial struggle, the long slog to success doesn’t seem to have any context – is this getting me anywhere? Oh, and you’re tired.

Once you’re finally out where the big ones are forming, you turn around, point yourself at the beach, and after all the paddling against the waves, now you have to paddle even harder WITH THE WAVES in order to catch one going in.

This is where most businesses miss the wave. We paddle so hard against the momentum that when we finally catch some good times and the current is with us, we relax, turn over on our backs and catch some rays. It’s an instinctive reaction and after all we deserve to goof off – we’ve worked really hard to get there. But you’ll never catch the wave that way.

The reason most business owners don’t ever get off the treadmill isn’t because they don’t have the opportunity, it’s because every time they catch some momentum they start floating. When we get momentum, we should be paddling harder then we’ve ever paddled before. When we do, we can catch the wave and at that point you don’t have to paddle anymore, just ride the wave, pose for the cameras and enjoy the ride.

If you’ve got some momentum, don’t float, paddle harder. There is nothing more rewarding or exciting than finally catching the wave. Do you want a business that has enough momentum to regularly make money while you’re on vacation? Wouldn’t it be great to have a business that prints both time and money for you?

The don’t call it “catching” the wave for nothing. It doesn’t just happen. You get out in front of it and paddle like crazy. We create our momentum, THEN we enjoy it when the business gets a life of its own.

Don’t float. Paddle Hard. Catch the wave. Enjoy the ride.

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

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Conation

We’ve all heard that extraordinary people are just ordinary people who have made extraordinary decisions. It think it’s even more simple than that. Extraordinary people are those who understand that Movement is the Master, and planning is just its humble servant with a small “s”.

While the rest of us are building a perfect plan in an ivory tower, the successful person has already pulled up anchor, hoisted the sails and left the harbor for their rendezvous with destiny. They understand it isn’t about the plan, but about the destination, and that the plan will unfold as they go. They just need to know two things: where they are and where they want to go, and their plan is to do whatever they need to do in the middle to get there.

The rest of us just get nervous at this whole approach. In fact we’re much more comfortable with knowing exactly what the dayto-day activity is and what each day holds going forward. We’re so committed to safety, stability and a perfect map for daily life that we really don’t care what the destination is as long the journey along the way to nowhere holds no surprises.

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I know exactly how I’m going to get there.”

We need to stop worshiping the planning servant and start focusing on the Master – movement.

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Just because you’re going flat out doesn’t mean you’re going the right direction.

If you don’t have your hand constantly on the steering wheel to control the helm and make ongoing corrections, all the movement in the world isn’t going to help you. It will likely just create chaos as you crash into things and bounce off of them. We need Purposeful Direction – a clear understanding of the end game (not the plan, but the end game – there is a big difference!).

Successful people get moving fast but have a very strong understanding of where they are going. They aren’t just committed to movement, but to movement in a purposeful direction. They have a clear view of the destination. But successful people focus on the end game, not on planning. They didn’t become successful by planning the whole journey out, but by simply having clarity about where they are, where they want to end up, and a complete commitment to get there at any cost.

Do you have Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction?

Conation – The Most Important Business Word You’ve Never Heard

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I have somewhere I have to be.

The only motivation book I will recommend to others is Self-made in America, by John McCormack. John introduced me to an obscure English word that I now use as a cornerstone of my daily activity – conation.

I’ve truncated John’s working definition: Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal. – to:

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Social scientists have long talked about the Three Aspects of the Mind. Cognition (doing), Affection (feeling) and Activation (doing) are the three legs. Conation is when we take all three of these and figure out where we want to go, then start going there. Conation isn’t thinking, it isn’t feeling and it isn’t doing. It’s having crystal clarity on where you want to end up, and doing anything you have to in order to get there.

I find it fascinating that almost everyone I know has a good handle on what cognition, affection and activation are, but virtually no one I know is familiar with the word that puts them all together – conation. The most important of the four words, the one that creates action as well as results, is nearly unknown. Why?

Our educational system has promoted thinking and feeling almost to the exclusion of even activation – doing. Conation is most closely related to doing. If you don’t do, there is no conation.

We are all taught that if we just get enough information into our heads and feel good about it, that we’ll eventually do something about it. I believe the reason this valuable word hasn’t gotten much attention is because we’ve all bought into that idea handed down from the ancient Greeks on through that

We think our way to a new way of acting.

We see cognition – thinking – as the all important fundamental on which the other two swing. And of course we all like to feel stuff. So affection gets plenty of attention, too.

But we do not think our way to a new way of acting.

We act our way to a new way of thinking.

Even Einstein supported this when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Want to grow a Mature Business? Add “conate” to your daily verb count. The will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal, or

Committed Movement in a Purpoesful Direction

Clarity – I know my goal. Hope – the will to succeed, that comes from knowing my goal. Risk – singleminded pursuit.

How do I know I’m conating? I’m already moving in a purposeful direction, with complete commitment to getting there.

Get out of my way, I have somewhere I need to be.

Visionaries Make Money, Dreamers Don’t. Which are you?

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Dreamer – Someone who can describe some future hoped for situation, but has no clear date for when they want to be there, and isn’t actively right now pursuing that vision. A dreamer loves to think about the future and what it could be like, but there is no concrete connection between that future situation and the work that needs to be done today to get there. And a dreamer never puts a date on when they intend to get there. Intentionality is not part of the dreamer’s tool set.

The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a visionary has already taken the three steps required to create real and lasting change:

  1. Make a decision (stop talking about it, stop dreaming, commit)
  2. Put a date on it.
  3. Go public

Visionary – A person who does this has burned their bridges; they’ve put themselves in a position where that future reality is the focus of everything they do. They are actively, right now, every day, doing the things that will get them there. Until you take the three steps that create real and lasting change, and get moving toward that clear objective and date, you’re just dreaming, and playing office.

Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal. Conation is one of the 1,000 most obscure words in the English language, but it is central to becoming a visionary.

If you have a clear picture of where you want to go, and WHEN you want to be there, and you’ve let everyone know, you’re much more likely to conate (start acting on that picture and date) and actually get there.

Are you a dreamer or a visionary? Do you know clearly where you’re business is going and exactly when you intend for it to be there? If not, you’re just dreaming about something nice that could happen at some future time, if you only committed to what that was and when you expected to be there.