FREE SAMPLE
1
SKILLISM.COM
CONTENTS “The all providing Tao is empty yet inexhaustable.” Lau Tzu
PREFACE CHAPTER 1: CREATOR OR COLLECTOR? CHAPTER 2: THE PRODUCT OF YOUR TALENT CHAPTER 3: SATISFACTION CHAPTER 4: DEFENCE CHAPTER 5: MORALITY CHAPTER 6: EMOTION CHAPTER 7: VALUE CHAPTER 8: NUMBERS CHAPTER 9: POWER CHAPTER 10: STRATEGY APPENDIX: VISUAL LANGUAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY
2
FREE SAMPLE
PREFACE “Good fortune is what bad fortune hides in. Bad fortune is what good fortune hides in.� Lau Tzu
In Taoism, opposites give birth to one another. In fractals, chaos gives birth to order. In quantum mechanics, the void gives birth to particles. In the cosmos, space gives birth to stars. If nothingness gave rise to reality, then is it so preposterous to believe that poverty can give rise to wealth? I am grateful for the chance to have gained a degree in Graphic Design, which I believe is a skill that can contribute to the success of every business but long ago I learnt that design pays badly. It pays badly because it demands too much time for too little money. You do not produce a product (like a book) and sell it to a million people through an infrastructure nor is it possible to charge a healthy amount for your services (like a doctor). As a graphic designer you must consistently produce one off designs and charge minute sums of money for your hard work. On top of that there just seems to be too much competition. These days anyone can become a graphic 3
SKILLISM.COM designer without much effort, including your own clients! Of course, a degree helps. My scenario was this... I never really understood strategy even though I tried to use it and money has never motivated me. I do not consider myself a businessman and my blood does not contain much business, my Spanish grandfather was an artist and my English grandfather was a military man. In fact nobody in my family has been fantastically successful except for my Spanish uncle, a lawyer based in Madrid. It is the general consensus that most artists are terrible at business. Some however do make it big, such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, despite being generous and creative. Successful dreamers must therefore do something right, something that the rest of the world’s dreamers do not do. It seems that the public believe, to be successful you must fit a certain profile and yet these artists did not. They were not organised, they were not greedy, they were not good at finance and they liked to take risks. So how were they able to harness their ‘non-business’ minds to become good at business? I did not see a few more clients making much difference to my miniscule fortune. What would be more useful was a manual that would show the way to success. You are reading that book and at its core is a philosophy I have named Skillism. Skillism refers to the highest form of skill, which is produced when TKS (talent, knowledge and strategy) is combined with DSP (desire, self-belief and 4
PREFACE persistence). If success is your destination, TKS is your ship and DSP is your fuel. The common self help book tells you that you must act in a particular way to attract success. In Skillism however, to be successful you must do it your way, be yourself! The clichÊ penniless artist, Vincent van Gogh, although abundant in creative talent lacked knowledge and strategy. His paintings only started to sell after his death and are now amongst the most expensive in the world. The greatest inventor of the 19th and 20th century, Nikola Tesla, died with significant debts due to a lack of strategy despite laying the foundation for the electric grid, electric motor, dynamo, transistor, loudspeaker, wireless communication, wireless power, x-ray machine, the vertical takeoff aircraft and the particle beam weapon (a favourite of science fiction). Every successful businessman is the embodiment of Skillism. Sometimes they are remembered for their talent like Bruce Lee (martial arts) or Pablo Picasso (painting) and sometimes they are remembered for their strategy like John D. Rockefeller (first oil tycoon) or Andrew Carnegie (first steel tycoon). What they all managed to do incredibly well (some better than others), was to develop their talent, knowledge and strategy (TKS) in perfect harmony. John D. Rockefeller’s natural talent was in accounting. Combined with an unsurpassed knowledge of the oil industry / salesmanship and a flawless strategy to gain a complete monopoly and it is not difficult to see how he became the richest man of all time. 5
SKILLISM.COM This book examines talent, knowledge and strategy (TKS) from a new perspective. To develop your talent you must identify your greatest natural talent, you must find a great teacher that can help train your talent and you must take advantage of every opportunity to practice your talent. To develop your knowledge you must know your exact personality, you must know the exact personality of your rivals and you must know the exact personality of your audience. You must understand the meaning behind imagery and you must understand the meaning behind numbers. You must know the four main components that shape a brand, the four main components that create value and the six main components that lead to fame. You must gain an expertise in defence, morality and emotion. You must know how to behave in order to increase your power and influence and you must know how to behave in order to gain and protect your reputation. To develop your strategy you must learn the techniques of Sun Tzu and apply them to zero investment marketing. You must understand that financial brute force will never guarantee victory and you must understand that a plan dependent on financial brute force is a plan not worth having. Your brand must have one clear goal and every path you take in your career must be in the pursuit of that one goal. And finally you must learn how to combine great talent, great knowledge and great strategy in harmony if you are to achieve great things. 6
PREFACE These are the topics explored and these are the topics you must be aware of. After reading this book, continue to explore your understanding of talent, knowledge and strategy (TKS). For desire, self-belief and persistence (DSP) it would not hurt to read ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. Develop your TKS, fuel it with DSP and your ship will have enough fuel to get to any destination. Before you start your journey, make sure you know where you are going and that the destination you are heading in is where you have always wanted to go. And do not let the distance put you off. As the captain, you are the one in charge of how fast your ship goes. If you are an outsider with no money you might ask, yeah but what chance do I have? To answer that question consider this, there are no facts in life only opinions. Opinions change. Your talent, knowledge and strategy can change people’s opinions. Money does not give you power, people give you power. Your thoughts create reality, not your money! This is what Buddhism teaches, self help books preach and common sense fathoms.
7
SKILLISM.COM You are the captain Life is a journey through the ocean. The clearer your destination, the easier it is to reach. The better your timing, the calmer the seas. The better your planning, the smaller the waves. The more organised your crew, the greater your momentum. The better your ship, the faster you will arrive. The ocean is your freedom. The land is your opportunity. You are the captain of your ship. The smaller the challenge, the smaller the reward. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward.
8
CHAPTER 1 CREATOR OR COLLECTOR? “I take the path of least resistance.� Lau Tzu
When you desire material success you must deal with two important variables, the brand and the product. TKS helps you discover the brand and product and points you in the right direction. Before deciding on your brand however you must first learn about yourself. So here is the first question. Is your talent in creating or collecting? Before we continue, it is important to note that being a creator or being a collector describes your mind, not your body. Both creators and collectors are potential athletes and many are. But please consider this, athletic creators and athletic collectors while they may share similar physical ability, could not be more different in mental ability.
9
SKILLISM.COM The creator Creators put their energy into creativity. They have a natural ability to generate ideas, see patterns, set the trend, have good memory, are sensitive, think outside the box, see the whole picture, are decisive and are generous by nature. The collector Collectors put their energy into collecting. They are very technical, organised, check detail, are conventional, very realistic, patient, good with deadlines, never take big risks and very good at making lists. The comparison Creators and collectors are two exact opposites. One cannot exist without the other. The capitalist society favours collectors over creators. The system was after all created by collectors. To survive you are expected to collect money, whether it is from your boss, your clients, your customers, investors or from your own assets. The more money you collect the more comfortably you can live. This is the world we live in. Almost every piece of advice about how to become rich and successful describes how to become a better collector. The problem is that creators are not natural collectors. Imagine using a fork as a knife, it might work but not very well. A business plan for example is a great aid for a collector (for somebody who is organised, analytical, realistic, etc) but for a creator something more creatively friendly is required. Something based more on estimation than specific deadlines, something more theoretical than statistical. 10
CREATOR OR COLLECTOR? Why do the majority of collectors succeed and the majority of creators fail at business? Consider the four components of value (see chapter 7 for greater detail on the subject). The 4 components of value Security Status Skill Presentation Security is the most important component of value. Without it you can lose everything. The aim of every person should be to achieve security as fast as possible. The most obvious symbol for security is a home. The most obvious symbol for status is money. Value: symbol Security: home Status: money Security is like the solidification of status, just like how a house is the solidification of money. Security is the result of status and status is the result of skill and presentation. The collectors 4 step method Collection: status Status: money Money: home Home: security
11
SKILLISM.COM The process of converting status into security is the act of exchanging money for timeless assets. Timeless assets are things that hold value. Examples of timeless assets are gold, property and land. Collectors use their status to solidify security. From the time a collector is born, they are collecting. Their collection determines their status. At a time of their choosing they will cash in their status for security. The next step for a collector is to add value to their security, either by making jewellery with gold, refurbishing their property or cultivating their land. The act of adding value to their security will boost their status, which they can then solidify back into even more security. Creators on the other hand usually aim to display their skill instead of producing something that will achieve instant status. A painting for example will never achieve instant status because by nature art is subjective. Status is determined by consensus. Money forms instant status as everybody agrees money has value. A painting must persuade people before it can achieve status and so takes much longer to achieve status than money. Art can be very subjective, to such an extent, that people often find it difficult to agree on what is art and what is not. Therefore art or a display of skill can never achieve instant status by mass consensus. The barrier that art (and many other displays of skill) must pass through before it can achieve status can be labelled the ‘consensus barrier’.
12
CREATOR OR COLLECTOR? The creators flawed 5 step method Creation: skill Consensus barrier Skill: status Status: money Money: house House: security The way the creator can achieve instant status is by producing something of instant value, e.g. something that the masses will find useful and want. In other words ‘invent instead of display’ and you will pass through the ‘Consensus Barrier’ as if it was not even there! The creators 4 step method Creation: status Status: money Money: home Home: security Inflation does however gradually reduce the status of money, which is why it is important to solidify status (e.g. money) into security (e.g. property) as quickly as possible. If a creator wishes to rival a collector in the business world, they must invent instead of display. But just as a collector must choose wisely in how to solidify their collection, a creator too must choose carefully in how to solidify their invention. Business is the transformation of status into security for deliberate gain.
13
SKILLISM.COM Another difference between collectors and creators is how they approach problems. The great collectors tend to depend on great teams unlike the great creators who usually depend only on themselves. Picasso may have achieved a lot for one person but Rockefeller, with the workforce of Standard Oil, managed to catapult himself into extreme wealth. Not only do creators need to start inventing commercial products for the masses, they need to form great teams that they can depend on. Self indulgent artists will rarely become rich and if they do, they will never amass anything near that of the great collectors. No matter how talented a person is, a one soldier army will never conquer the world. That is not to say creators should try to become collectors, instead consider the following. The collector’s greatest advantage is the ability to collect. The creator’s greatest advantage is the ability to create. The better you use your advantage the better you are likely to do. To be a successful creator you should invent instead of display. You should also lead a great team, instead of just yourself. If you are a collector you must gain a secret monopoly (obvious monopolies encourage resentment) in a sector by acquiring assets with your collection. And like every successful collector before you, you must also put together a great team. Ask yourself this... Are you a collector or a creator? To know which one you are will help you choose the right career. To choose the right career will help you achieve greater success. 14