The Magic of Strategy: Manifesting Abundance

If you commit to the simple principles of strategy, you can find yourself effortlessly manifesting abundance in your life. I know that’s a bold statement - but time and time again, I have met and exceeded my personal, and professional, goals through the simple and powerful magic of strategy.

At it’s most basic, strategy is a decision to take deliberate actions to affect a desired outcome. This is the Holy Trinity of Strategy: Decision, Action and Outcome. 

Every single human-made thing in this world started out as a thought. The chair you’re sitting on, the computer in front of you, the words you’re reading – even the person writing them – started as a thought.

A thought, plus an action, equals an outcome. This is strategy - simple, elegant, magic. I have succeeded at almost everything I have put my attention to simply because failure doesn’t occur to me. I lock onto a goal, I visualize the outcome and I don’t quit until I succeed. Sometimes I adjust my goals along the way if something better presents itself, but I don’t give up.

This is the key to strategy and ultimately - success.

Long before I fully understood strategy, I was manifesting abundance. I first became aware of its magical powers working on business development with Indigenous communities in rural British Columbia. As a community planner, I was responsible for guiding the emerging economies in communities that had little business experience. 

After generations of poverty, as a result of the restrictive, and even punitive legislature, these communities had become accustomed to failure. Their governing bodies and businesses had learned to work in reactionary conditions. Understaffed, and underfunded, failure was embedded in their collective memory. 

However, without fail, when we took strategic control of our decisions, actions and outcomes, we were able to turn community aspirations into realities. We used this basic toolset to create new businesses, own source revenues and employment.

We transformed thoughts into things – like magic.

We don't merely overcome adversity, we find value in our obstacles. They became our greatest learning opportunities - important plot points in a story we author. Through the power of choice and action we influence outcomes. If we approach a bump in the road as an exciting learning opportunity it becomes fuel for success. We turn a deficit into an asset. If, on the other hand, we approach that same bump as a reason to quit - failure is inevitable.

The world is full of people who are quick to point out why something won’t work and we shouldn’t do something. These are toxic people. We pull them from our lives like weeds competing for our sunlight. We surround ourselves with positive people and thoughts of accomplishment. We visualize our goals and aspirations as reality and manifesting abundance becomes inevitable.

Strategy is about taking control of your own destiny. You are the author of your destiny. As the author you cannot fail. If you let circumstances beyond your control, or toxic people and negative thinking dictate your choices, actions and outcomes then success is all but impossible. 

Lock on to the outcomes that you want to create in your personal and business lives. Check yourself. Are the choices you make moving you towards or away from these outcomes? If they move you away – stop doing that. Make choices and take actions only when they advance you towards your goals.

If you look back at your successes you may find that you’ve been using these simple principles of strategy intuitively to realize your goals and manifest abundance in your life. With this awareness you can marshal choices, actions and outcomes at will and truly live your life on purpose. 

That’s the magic of strategy.

For more on strategy, strategic planning and manifesting abundance check out my website the Edge On Strategy or my eBooks series Strategies for Success.

Best Sam Edge

The Edge on Parenting: Advise for Fathers with Daughters

Of all my life's experiences, it is my family, and specifically my daughters, that have given me the most to write about. According to my family's mythology surrounding parenting, sons teach mothers and daughters teach fathers. So it follows that a father who has a lot to learn will be blessed with more daughters.

I'm on the fence as to how true this is; however, this family folklore has survived a few generations. The fact that I have three daughters clearly supports the notion that a father in need of learning will receive daughters. I can also confirm, without a doubt, that my girls are, by far, my greatest teachers.

Each of my daughters has their own specific talent that is clearly designed to drive me bat-crap-crazy. It is my oldest (thirteen going on thirty) that has taught me the most. She is the product of a previous relationship that fell apart shortly after she was born. The responsibility of parenting was too much for her mother at the time. As a result, I took on most of the parenting responsibility for the first ten years. She was my "starter child", teaching me to parent through trial by fire.

My parenting philosophy was, and is, to ensure the child grows up feeling safe and loved at all times and above all else. As a result we now have a strong and healthy relationship that can weather life's obstacles. Also, despite the fractured family life she had growing up she is as well adjusted and happy a teen as you would hope to find.

In 2012, I lost a bitter custody dispute and she went to live with her mother. In a matter of hours my family was chopped by twenty-five percent. Working through this challenge has been the most difficult and most rewarding experience of my life. This confirms one of my core beliefs, that difficult times are opportunities to become better, stronger and faster than before.

As a direct result of this dispute, we have a co-parenting agreement where my daughter is able to rebuild the relationship with her mother while maintaining her connection to my wife, her sisters and me. Although, the role I will play in her teenage years is not what I had expected, or wanted, things have turned out just fine, if not even better, for her (don't tell my ex I said that).

It is a crushing blow to my male pride and ego to have to take a back seat to her mother in the parenting for the next few years; however, it is my daughters happiness, not mine, that matters. In the end, she will have a balanced upbringing with the benefit of a close tie to both parents.

It was the family mythology of daughters teaching fathers that helped me through the dark times of conflict and dispute. It gave me faith that everything would work out. I was able to looks for the hidden lessons and be grateful for them as they manifested.

I found that in times of crisis we lean on our stories, our family mythologies and traditions, to overcome the fear of the unknown. We are even willing to suspend logic for a justifiable diversion to help us make sense of our lives during times of crisis.

My daughter was just home for a visit. It's been a tough eighteen months for the poor kid. She's a little shell-shocked from it all. I have years, decades even, of practice working through the tough times - she doesn't. For the first few days of her visit she was stand-offish. The bitter conflict between me and her mother had taken its toll.

There's no instruction manual for this stuff (not that I'd read it anyways). So I sat her down and spoke to her from the heart. I explained that we were both grieving. Our relationship had been changed and it was going to take time getting used to the idea that life is going to unfold differently than we'd expected. I told her "different" could be hard and scary but it was up to us how it turned out. I assured her things could be better than ever if we worked together.

I told her I was just figuring things out as I went along and if something I did made her feel uncomfortable or sad she should speak up. I told her it was okay for her to grieve in her own way and if she had any questions she should ask. Most of all I told her we should take it easy on each other and remember deep down that we love each other and we're on the same side. I even found some words of praise for her mother to ease the tension around that rocky relationship.I ended our little caucus by sharing the family story about daughters teaching fathers. Then I thanked her for all she'd done for me and gave her a hug. The seed of the family mythology of fathers and daughters was planted in the unlimited pure potential of a new generation. It was now free to grow and flourish in the context of her life.

You could see her change physically from low to high frequency. The fear and anxiety melted away and that familiar feeling of love and safety flowed into place. From then on the tension was gone. Our connection became even stronger than before. And thanks to her I became a better man and a better father.

These are the lessons that stick. They are even better when we can share them. It is in moments like these when I know being a father is the hardest, best and most important thing I will ever do. The value of this experience is immeasurable as are lessons learned from it.

So, that's my advice for fathers with daughters. I hope you found something useful.

Best Sam Edge,

www.edgeonstrategy.com

The Edge of Compassion: A Manifesto

Humans are inherently connected to this system called Planet Earth. Every race and religion can trace their roots back to tribal cultures and economies based on the principles of interdependence and connectivity to their environment.  

Over the last two millennia, science and religion have disrupted this connection creating conflict and apathy that now threatens to collapse our Planet. More damage has been done to the in the last fifty years than the previous two thousand years combined. This is the ‘Echo’ we have inherited from the ‘Baby Boomers’ - the hollow echo of plastic, pavement and barren forests.

There is Hope!

A Global movement towards to ‘New Age’ beliefs that reflects our ancestral, tribal values of connection to the environment is growing up around us. This Global movement initiated independently in every corner of the world. It thrives on compassion and integrity. From the Maori and Aborigine to Tibetan Monks and Zen Masters. From the Cree and Inuit to the Celtic story tellers and Viking Gods. They’re all interconnected by the heartbeat of our planet and the law of pure potentiality.

These independent silos of connectivity to the environment are converging. They’re gathering mass and momentum in the Global Village emerging from the information revolution lead by the democracy of the World Wide Web. The culture of reconnection is becoming, and will once again be, the dominant belief worldwide. Ultimately this movement will be the force that saves us from consuming ourselves.

The time is now - the answer is yes.

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There is no easy way out of this complex situation - this impasse between those who are destroying our communities and those of us who continue to thrive and raise families in those same dying communities. There is no easy way - but there is a way.

This is the good news.

Living to our potential requires hard work and perseverance. There are drops of blood on the foundation of all great things. Blood stains the streets of our community. We are peaceful and powerful - sustained by walking upright with integrity. Protected from tyranny by action and good purpose we soldier on.

We bleed together. We bleed from circumstances beyond our control. We bleed for doing the next right thing regardless of its popularity and oblivious to the consequences. We bleed for those who have no blood to give. We are physically and emotionally weakened but spiritually we grow peaceful and more powerful. We have tasted the absence of suffering. We are grateful.

We have found a power so great, so overwhelming it overshadows suffering. This power begins with the pure potential of the individual and ends with the manifestation of our life’s purpose. This power cannot be procured or inherited. It must be earned through experience. It rejects the use of sacrificial lambs and throwaway people for individual pride and prestige.  It rejects those unable to find compassion. It demands accountability.

Our power is rooted in faith. Faith in our ability to overcome the tyrannical and oppressive minority that governs. Faith that fear, jealousy, and greed will never rise above love, honesty and compassion. Faith that the honest and hard working will always triumph over the weak and dishonest - those who claim power positions under the cloak of entitlement and secrecy and not by their virtue or ability. They who are neither virtuous nor able.

They are unremarkable and live in fear of the discovery. They do not possess the qualities of true greatness. They are a cancer that attacks the tissue of compassion. We are vigilant against their clever attacks. Our integrity is intact. Our struggle is long, our losses are great and our resolution is firm.  We pray for the safety of our oppressors. But we don’t waste our precious energy on those unable to listen. Those lost souls who have forgotten compassion.

We stand proudly against the tyranny of the weak.

Those of us who have bled for our beliefs see the Great Change coming. It is inevitable. We are empowered. We are no longer blinded by trickery or intimidated by those who see kindness as weakness, as we were when we were encumbered by the gift of innocence. We sacrificed our innocence for the greater good and in its place we gained wisdom and confidence.

We protect the innocent and bully the bullies.

Our silent movement has grown in living rooms, coffee shops, war rooms and chat rooms. Self-knowledge, ability and virtue sustain us. Connected by the ancient cardinal truths: love, compassion, honesty and integrity, we are powerful beyond the greatest fear of our oppressors. We stand with conviction against tyrants and bullies even when we are weak and bleeding. Our power is rooted in love and compassion and cannot be matched by fear and maliciousness no matter how underhanded and vicious their tactics are.

We do not waste our strength toppling corrupt corporate structures and outdated patriarchs that smother free will and creativity. They will topple themselves. We are unshakeable in our belief. We lead by example. We watch as they crumble under the weight of their own hypocrisy.

We show compassion that we have never been shown ourselves. This is integrity - the road to true greatness. We pray for, and give shelter to. peaceful warriors who have sacrificed for the greater good. We use our strength wisely - supporting the rehabilitation of our youth recovering from centuries of oppression and abuse.  As a collective, we do not punish abusers. We watch as they punish themselves.

We are the evolutionary bridge between the antiquated failing economy of combustion and self-interest to the new sustainable economy of compassion and connectivity. We make decisions based on manifesting perpetual abundance for all people. We do not expend energy when we can avoid it - but we do not hesitate to act for the greater good.

Fear cannot survive in us - it is a cancer that diverts us from our purpose. We transcend the lower frequency emotions driven by fear - revenge, resentment and self-pity. We show love and compassion for those who are stuck in the past. We live on purpose, at high frequencies where fear withers and dies of starvation. Love always conquers fear.

The end of the morbid addiction to fossils fuels is near. The antiquated and benign systems created in the last millennium serve as life-support – sustaining bloated CEOs and corrupt warlords. Powered by fear, greed and cowardice, these systems are resuscitated past their natural life span. Their time is over but they have not yet lied down to die. They do not accept the end of their hollow, empty existence. We will watch them implode from the pressure of their own dishonesty and callousness. We will be there to pick up the pieces after The Fall.

The time is now.

It is time for the just and hard working - the righteous and compassionate who support innocence - to stand tall. Good people can no longer bury their heads in the sand and hope for miracles. We are the miracle – the miracle of hard work, common sense and appropriate action. We are committed to leaving more than a legacy of famine and overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. We acknowledge they deserve more than an empty fridge and a bankrupt planet. We are making the world a better place.

You are the answer and the time is now.

Best Sam Edge

http://www.edgeonstrategy.com

The Edge on Passive Income: Success Physics

There are a lot of articles out there on how to build passive incomes. These articles seem to bounce between two extremes:

1. Passive incomes are easy to build and anyone can do it in a short period of time with little or no work.
2. Passive incomes are a lie told by Internet Guru’s selling magic beans and snake-oil.

The truth usually lies somewhere between the extremes. 

I’ve worked most of my life as a wage earner and contractor. Over the last few years I’ve been trying to build some passive income streams by writing and publishing eBooks and various eCommerce strategies. I’ve had varied success. So far, I can only report that it is a slow process and, unless you are already rich, it takes hard work, passion and dedication.  

In 2013 I published a short eBook titled “7 Simple Success Principles”. The 6^th principle is “Success Physics”. I have found this principle to be particularly useful in developing Passive Incomes so I adapted this article from the eBook

The laws of physics apply to our efforts to build passive income as they do to everything else in the universe. If we understand these basic principles and apply them to our professional and personal lives we cease fighting the universe and start working with it. I’ve taken five basic principles of physics and adapted them to building passive income streams

INERTIA

Inertia is a physics term that describes movement and matter. It is well defined by Sir Isaac Newton’s two laws of physics.

     1. That which is at rest tends to stay at rest

     2. That which is in motion tends to stay in motion.

When we start a new business or project it is at rest and it wants to stay at rest. We are going to expend more energy in the beginning than once it is in motion. This is why most businesses fail in the first two to five years – they cannot overcome the forces of inertia.  If we are going to be successful we have to be prepared to work hard and be persistent until we are able to set our project in motion. If we let up before momentum takes over it will return to its natural state - rest.

When a project is in motion it tends to stay in motion. This is good news if we have done thorough planning and preparation. If we have flaws in our planning, however, inertia can work against us. It will want to stay in motion even if it is in the wrong direction. The good news is changing direction is much less energy than starting from a state of rest. Getting our projects moving is the hardest and most important element of success. The more diligent we are in our planning and preparation the less energy we are going to have to expend in implementation and administration.

We have a finite amount of physical, emotional and financial resources. We cannot afford to waste them. When we use the principle of inertia to work for us, we conserve energy and become more effective. Before we make the decision to put the energy into moving a project from a state of rest to a state of motion we think long and hard, exploring all the options. We remember that “failing to plan s planning fail”. When we do commit the energy we understand the investment we have in motion. We are sure that when we set a project in motion we include strategies to keep it from returning to a resting state. Every project we set in motion has value and we must always be looking for opportunities to build from it.

MOMENTUM

Inertia is the tendency of matter to remain in the state of rest or motion. Momentum is the “quality of motion”. In other words, the harder something is to stop moving the greater the quality of motion, or momentum. This is another useful term for success. Once we have set our project in motion and have inertia working for us our objective is to maintain motion. We achieve this by creating a high quality of motion in our projects. 

We bring as many elements as we can into our project that will support and increase momentum. We want to create enough momentum that the project sustains movement independently or “passively”. It becomes self-sustaining. If it is a business that generates income we build passive income or revenue that continues to self generate under it’s own power after an initial investment of time and / or capital.

FRICTION

Friction is the resistance between objects. It impedes momentum. We want to reduce friction wherever possible. Frictions can be caused by: access to capital, decision-making support, external market conditions, customer behaviour and any other element that makes reaching our goals more difficult. The S.W.O.T. analysis is a good way to identify and mitigate or reduce frictions.

By reducing frictions we increase momentum. With better quality of motion we realize our goal of self-sufficiency and project sustainability that much quicker, spending less energy on building our passive incomes. We reduce friction with strategies such as: creating partnerships, loyal customers, team building, delegating tasks, decision-making, and increasing product visibility.

CRITICAL MASS & TIPPING POINT

Inertia, momentum and friction deal with quality of movement. The higher the quality of the movement, the more efficient our projects become and the more we are able to build passive income streams. Critical Mass and Tipping Point deal with quantity of users, groups, or consumers. Critical Mass is the amount of users / participants required to create initial project viability and ongoing project sustainability. The tipping point is the threshold at which sustainability occurs. The ultimate goal is the same - to get to a point where the project moves forward under its own momentum so we can enjoy passive incomes and use our energy on the next great project.

For instance, if you are trying to build passive income streams through an online business, or eBusiness, you need to cross a threshold of visitors to support our market.  Until you reach critical mass you will be unable to sustain momentum. You have to support the project by investing energy in the form of capital or time. Understanding the critical mass required to reach project sustainability is a critical component to building your project to the point of sustainability where you can realize passive incomes.

Success Physics helps us identify our goals and develop options as we build passive incomes. Armed with this information we can make informed decisions based on universal principles of inertia, momentum, friction, critical mass and tipping point.

Best, Sam Edge 

Check out my new site The Edge on Strategy

The Edge on Muddling Through: Incremental Planning

Happy Easter weekend folks. 

I am doing some housecleaning on this site and I had to delete some old posts from when I started in 2012. If you've been following since then you may see some familiar writing coming back into the fold as I reintroduce some of my key themes and principles to this Blog and my new Strategy Website. 

I have written about the "Science of Muddling Through" before; however, it plays such an important role in my ongoing strategies and successes that I feel it is worth revisiting. Muddling through is also the second principle in my eBook "7 Simple Success Principles" - the post below is adapted from that chapter. 

The first principle is "Have a Plan", the Science of Muddling Through builds off that momentum. My free eBook "5 Steps to Planning Success" is a detailed look a the Rational Comprehensive Planning Model. 

I will provide a link at the end of this post.

Since writing this chapter, I discovered a new favourite word that I now use way too much - "iterate or iterative". It is not a common word but it is the root word or reiterate which means to repeat for emphasis. It is a perfect word for the point am making here because it means to "perform or utter repeatedly". 

Planning is an iterative process. 

Throughout the planning process we constantly repeat our previous steps as new information is uncovered. This allows us to remain open to the infinite potential and opportunity of life. 

The reason I am writing this today is I have been working on a new website: "The Edge on Strategy." I started off with a general idea of sharing my strategic planning experience. This takes a leap of faith and it is when to "boo birds" and "toxic people" usually smell blood and swarm, trying to shake your confidence - it takes a strong stomach to hold the course. Starting a new business is hard work and it takes sacrifices to succeed. 

That's why most businesses fail. 

Since September 2012 I have written and self-published four eBooks and produced over a million words of original content for three new websites. I have refined my strategic focus to where I am now starting to focus on eCommerce and commodity trading strategies. I will be coming out with new eBook this summer - a greatest hits of sorts. I am gathering momentum and building my new exciting life working from my home and doing what I love. 

I never would have guessed at the beginning that I would end up here. I find myself in a much better and much different position by following my own advice and ignoring the haters. Time and time again I have employed my Principles of Success and I come out far beyond my dreams. This is because I don't know how to dream properly - I will always sell my self short unless I let go of my old ideas and trust the power of attraction and manifestation.

This stuff really works!! 

So, enjoy this exert from my eBook "7 Simple Success Principles".

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“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean  

A [Rational Comprehensive] Plan sets a solid foundation for success; however, it does have limitations. It is rigid, inflexible and not well equipped to deal with constantly moving project targets. To compensate for this, an ongoing system for monitoring is required. One system is the feedback loop I have added to the model graphic shown above. A feedback loop allows us to return to our project options or visioning when we run into unforeseen challenges or opportunities.

INCREMENTAL PLANNING

Incremental Planning, also known as the Science of Muddling Through gives us flexibility to adapt to changing project conditions. Next to Rational Comprehensive Planning, Incremental Planning is the most widely accepted approach in the planning profession. Rational Comprehensive Planning combined with Incremental Planning creates a solid planning foundation with both structure and flexibility.

The path to success is riddled with forks, speed bumps and hazardous conditions that require flexibility and adaptation.  Incremental Planning allows for adjustment and adaptation to the ever-changing project landscape. We muddle through by moving forward with bite-sized ”increments”. As we hit certain decision points, or milestones, we review our project direction and adapt based on changing conditions.

When we combine Incremental Planning and Rational Comprehensive Planning, we make the impossible possible.

We begin a project by determining what we want. We set our vision and goals in place for decision-making. We set up a workable process with clear direction and support. By starting our project off in this way we have set a foundation for success.

The problem is it is limited and inflexible. We risk missing benefits that present themselves along the way. When we Muddle Through we are alert and nimble. It also takes the pressure off – we don’t have to be perfect the first time. It is a work in progress. When new information arises, we stop, review, adapt and move on. By implementing our plans in increments we have created a dynamic and intuitive process - a plan that morphs and evolves with ever changing project opportunities. 

We have created our Plan. Now, we make minor adjustments and realize incredible rewards with little risk. Often we end up with a better outcome‚”Project 2.0‚” Other times we end up with spin-off projects that we were able to accomplish by putting the data already created to work on another related set of goals ”Project A, B, C”

Incremental Planning purists claim that we should not have any predetermined outcomes at all and that the very use of Rational Comprehensive Planning at all corrupts the process. Poppycock!!! (Pardon my Irish) We always need to focus our sights on a target so we know where we are going. Muddling without Rational Comprehensive Planning is chaos. Rational Comprehensive Planning without Incremental Planning is stiff and limited.

Without a structural base we lack focus and direction. We cannot be successful if we don’t have defined outcomes. However, we have to be sure to remain open minded and let go of old ideas when new and better ones come into play. This is precisely why the two methods complement each other so well.

Some people struggle with flexibility and change. For them working in increments is challenging. However, successful people identify their shortcomings and take steps to overcome them. If you know you have an extreme personality that would interfere - it is your responsibility to find creative ways to make it work in your favor. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Successful people don’t waste time on things they don’t do well. They delegate, or subcontract, these tasks and concentrate on their strengths.

Surround yourself with people who have strengths that complement your weaknesses.

Implementing plans using Incremental Planning is like steering a boat. When navigating a boat, you choose a prominent geographical feature in the distance and point the bow in that direction.  If you simply locked the wheel to go straight ahead you will drift off course. In order to stay on course, you have to adjust slightly from time to time to account for wind, current and other variables. 

Incremental Planning is just like that.

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Please check my new site and links to my Free eBook and Author Page!!

Best Sam Edge
Edge on Strategy