Harvey Brody thinking, sans parables and metaphors...

[GordonJ]

But on the day before I posted it for sale, I went over the sales offer, the paypal button, the read this first page, the no refund page, and the download. It was on my checklist, but again, I took a shortcut and as a result screwed things up.


By April 8, I need to have an edited and ready to go report.
April 7, get feedback, last minute from readers, editors.
April 6, 5, 4. Send report to readers.
April 3 have completed rough draft ready.
April 2, add any graphics or additional pics.
April 1, have completed manuscript.



SEE? All the way back to March 21, revise and update and sell the report.



My view from the ground on March 21, was the same as April 10, to ‘SEE’ email from PayPal saying I had sold some product. The view from the start is the same as the view from the rooftop minus the ACTIVITY of climbing each rung.



Along with Harvey’s “pre flight checklist” before you can kick out the chocks and go down the runway, you have to have the plane fueled, ready and a filed FLIGHT PAN. He said many times if you are flying to NYC from Chicago, and you insist on flying West, be prepared for a very long flight. Around the world.


Shortest route, fly east from Chi town to the big apple.


Heck, you could probably fly above I -90 the whole way (in theory). The reason you file a flight plan, is to let the traffic controllers add you to the air space. You don’t want to be flying in restricted or heavily traveled air space.


Again, a GOAL. A DESTINATION. A place you want to get to. The time it takes to get there.

A plan of activity. Adjustment.


Pretty much all of his so called parables and metaphors are about the planning or the adjustments you make.


So you want to fly your little plane to NYC from Chicago. You have a flight plan, all fueled up, plane checked out, weather OK. You’re ready to taxi down the runway, BUT YOU FORGET TO KICK OUT THE CHOCKS.



The little pieces of wood if not removed first prevent you from taking off. It is akin to those of you that have written reports, have web sites, all set up, but never release, never take the step off rung, and your plane is idling on the ground being held back by the smallest of forces, and only you can kick out your chocks.



Harvey was in the Air Force. So it is no wonder he has so many plane metaphors, but his safe harbor thinking uses a ship, and that works for me, being an old salt and all.



Most of us are going to experience or have, rough seas. It is just the nature of life. Like a plane, a ship requires a destination too, otherwise you’re just being tossed about capriciously by the winds. Going nowhere, in circles, or getting slammed into the rocks of life.


A safe harbor gives you shelter from the storm (like a girl of the north, in a Bob Dylan song).


Often Harvey thinks this in financial terms, but a bigger play is out there. He had an experience when he was 10 which made him believe in a higher power, and lives his life in accord to his beliefs. So many guys have gotten into hot water or trouble with their marketing or businesses by being less than 100% honest.


A safe harbor, savings, other income streams. Ownership. All should be planned for because there are rough times. George Costanza should not have put all his money from his I-toilet app in with Bernie Madoff. George’s wife met Bernie, didn’t like what he was wearing, and pulled her share out, before Madoff got caught. She created a safe harbor while poor George got beached on the rocks.


People of faith and belief have a spiritual safe harbor which they can always count on.


So, knowing what you want. A goal. A destination. A plan. A view from the rooftop, a flight plan, a preflight checklist…all concepts involving THINKING first, thinking through the plan, enumerating the rungs, the steps, looking for barking dogs before you encounter them…all this before you take off.



Far too many people can’t or won’t do this type of “heavy” thinking and would rather just do it. They do. But Harvey has had very few if any, failures from a clearly thought out plan.



Whereas, many IMers take years, and barely get to freedom, and if they do, will oft fall off the roof and break their legs and get eaten by the dogs.

THINK and grow rich.


OK. Bald men, iron filings. A kids game is the bald man, and there are iron filings and the kids take a magnet and give the bald guy hair. Harvey teaches that interaction and negotiation can be of a similar nature. Unlike the art of the deal from Trump (how’s his skills working out for the world?)…



Harvey likens the actions between people to be like iron filings on a big table, and he holds a powerful magnet under the table, out of sight, to move and control the iron to get the picture he has seen in his mind.


BEFORE he goes to the meeting, the negotiation, the deal making session, he has a clear idea of how the other part should act, he creates the hair on the bald man, then manipulates the magnet below the table to get the results.
Now, most people want to get to the end result too, so it is more like arranging the filings in a way the other party can clearly see it is in his/her best interest.


Everything Harvey taught me, was on the Square One Workshops a decade before he put his spin on it. And his concepts aren’t difficult nor in most cases nothing new, but the emphasis on thinking before he acts, is probably the key difference between him and most Entrepreneurs.


On the Square One Workshops you have a lifeline.

To the left is your past, to the right your future.