Book Club with The Saint | The Gold Mine Effect | Take Home | Part Four.

#bookclubwiththesaint #thegoldmineeffect #highperformance 

Welcome to our Book Club. So glad to have you join us. 

We finish with the wrap up of our Eighth Featured Book, "The Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance," by Rasmus Ankersen. We are finishing the summary of the Book's Eight Chapters, and rehearsing the lessons learned in the Course of our Journey through the Book. Come roll with us.

Get yourself a seat, tighten your belt, and let us take flight. 

The Saint.

Book Club with The Saint | The Gold Mine Effect | Take Home | Part Three.

#bookclubwiththesaint #thegoldmineeffect #highperformance 

Welcome to our Book Club. So glad to have you join us. 

We continue with the wrap up of our Eighth Featured Book, "The Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance," by Rasmus Ankersen. We are doing a summary of the Books Eight Chapters, and rehearsing the lessons learned in the Course of our Journey through the Book. Come roll with us.

Get yourself a seat, tighten your belt, and let us take flight. 

The Saint.

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: The 3rd Law | Part Two.

The 3rd Law of Power states that you "Conceal Your Intentions." 

When I was innocent, I thought I could win in life without being political. I thought love was all there was to finding a life-partner. If she loves me, she'll come along. Why toast and spin someone? If it is meant to be, it will be. How so wrong I was? I spent eleven (11) solid years chasing one in vain. I was young, stupid, and a nerd. I did not come with the sweet talks, flowers, dinners, etc. I was a church boy chasing a church girl, but church girls are made of flesh and blood also. Niceness was not enough.

I did not find it from the pulpit either. It seemed we were alone when it came to our individual struggles, but were pulled, pushed, and beaten with words when it came to the seeming communal issues. There was the a disparity between the hot fire messages from the pulpit and the realities we hear on the corridors and car parks. There was something amiss, something missing, or so I thought, or I was the one playing the fool.

Then at work, what was the value of friendship? Good until one has power over the other, then the demons, which have been dormant all along become awoken. People are not satisfied with the reason they came to work - their take home.  They want more. They suddenly realize their middle name is Joseph and had been promised a throne. They want to be kings and queens, and dominate others even their former colleagues, mates, friends, etc. Their joy becomes making life uncomfortable and miserable for others. The lack of peace and congruency in their own lives get the better of them. 

They kill their friends in secret rooms, but laugh and smile with them in public. Once I had an expatriate friend tell me what my fellow Nigerian friends were saying about me in meetings. Everyone had agreed to move forward on an issue, but it was my own supposed friends holding on to the guns. The same ones pretending to be friends. For them, they were managing their emotions in public, while making an impression in secret as one who could be trusted to execute "evil" orchestrations.

I could continue with many more war stories, but I'll be at the risk of boring you. Let me suffice to say, "wisdom came to me from all these." Ancient wisdom teaches us to "be as wise as the devil, but never lose our good nature." This is the beauty in the genius of the AND, as against the tyranny of the OR. We can execute extreme ownership, emotional intelligence and maturity, psychological safety and warfare, and the art of supreme warfare without losing our good nature, without being soiled by evilness, without selling our souls to the devil.

The Saint.

Book Club with The Saint | The Gold Mine Effect | Take Home | Part Two.

#bookclubwiththesaint #thegoldmineeffect #highperformance #grit #passion #rolemodels #perseverance

Welcome to our Book Club. So glad to have you join us. 

We begin the wrap up of our Eighth Featured Book, "The Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance," by Rasmus Ankersen. We are doing a summary of the Books Eight Chapters rehearse the lessons learned in the Course of our Journey through the Book. Come roll with us.

Get yourself a seat, tighten your belt, and let us take flight. 

The Saint.

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: The 3rd Law | Part One.

The 3rd Law of Power states that you "Conceal Your Intentions."

This is probably the most difficult law for me. It goes against my very nature and who I pride myself to be. I hold myself to the high ideal and standard of being an open book. One who is readable, single eyed, whole, and perfect in being the same everywhere that you find me. That's got to have some comma to it, though. That is, if you are going to win in this life. You cannot afford to show how you feel to everyone, in every place, all the time. It goes against the basic tenets of emotional maturity and intelligence.

Emotional intelligence and maturity entails being extremely responsible for not only your own emotions, but that of those you relate with. Meaning, you need to be able to attune your emotions for the response you desire. You refuse to allow someone else, thing, circumstance, or situation to control your emotions. Rather, you reign your emotions in, under your control to achieve a predetermined aim or goal. This is an essential attribute of one who is not neurotic in nature.

This also falls under the tenets of psychological and the supreme art of warfare, where the intent is to work on the mindset (psyche) of the opposition in a bid to conquer from within, rather than from without. It is doing without doing, passive without being passive. It is winning without lifting a finger, yet lifting a finger. It is a contention for the mind of the opposition, rather than a physical offense or defense. You win the war from the inside out, rather than the outside in.

In its crudest form, it is sheer witchcraft or manipulation. Now, I dare to distinguish between good and bad witchcraft here. Or, rub off witchcraft entirely from one side. 'Tis an act and art of life and living. It is a norm in life, which can be used for both good and evil, just like every other thing in life. It is not the thing, it is the way it is used that might make it good or bad. As you might observe, each one of the laws of power can be used for evil or good, offensive or defensive.

The evilness or goodness is not in the laws themselves, but in how a person chooses to apply them. We are political beings. We need to massage one another in one form or the other. None of us can stand the brutal truth all the time, in everything, and everywhere. We manage each circumstance by using the right words and demeanor, not necessarily to tell lies, but to keep the sanity and sanctity of the moment.

I have learned this more from it being used against me, than from using it on others. I used to pride myself otherwise, but the years of my pilgrimage have taught me this one important law. It saves lives, not only yours, but that of your opposition also, depending on the specific circumstances and or situation.

The Saint.

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: The 2nd Law.

The 2nd Law of Power states that you "Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies"

Hahahaha...been there, done that, and been burned, all right where I called home. 2016 had me returning to work locally. It was a different thing working internationally. You expect somethings and have your antenna up. Yet, relatively, it was much safer than working locally, where the culture enable certain atrocities that get covered under the blanket and not challenged, as it seems acceptable to those entrusted with protecting you.

The local leadership were people known to me for years, I was suppose to consider as friends, and so I thought, but was so mistaken. People were juxtaposing for positions and felt a need to use what they already had to oppress others. I had assumptions of friendship. They had assumptions of competition and looked for ways to clip my wings. We had HR Partners who were suppose to protect the corporate culture, but were consumed with protecting themselves from the hawks that they were useless in function.

Well I got a rude awakening from the whole experience. Wish I knew the second Law of Power before then. Now I do. Now I understand that a supposed friend is only a friend to the extent of their own security and safety in themselves, their present, and their future. Insecurity eats friendship for lunch, or should I say breakfast. And, it does not matter the gap in grade levels. The wider the gap the worse the threat to the supposed higher grade. Their inferiority complex has a better hold of them, they are unable to think straight.

I'll save you more of the war tales. I'll sum it up by saying, "Don't take ANYTHING for granted." Don't be mesmerized by the false smiles and laughters. Know yourself, the things that are important to you and guard them zealously, carefully and diligently. Like the ancient wisdom teaches us, "Be well collected and aware, you have enemies (some are visible, others are masqueraded as friends)." You owe it to yourself, your present, and your future to always take "Extreme Ownership" of your world.

Extreme Ownership means you don't assume any friend has your back. Sometimes the enemies do a better job of that than friends do. No wishing, no "expecting the cavalry" to come take care of things. If there is anything you want, you sow for it. You do the things that will make it come to pass. There are no permanent enemies, just as there are no permanent friends. Enjoy the seasons, and when they are gone, enjoy the new one, without any ounce of regret.

All things are yours - friends and enemies alike. It is up to you to engage them aright in a way the lifts you up and builds the life you are here for.

The Saint.

Book Club with The Saint | The Gold Mine Effect | Take Home | Part One.

#bookclubwiththesaint #thegoldmineeffect #highperformance #grit #passion #rolemodels #perseverance

Welcome to our Book Club. So glad to have you join us. 

We begin the wrap up of our Eighth Featured Book, "The Gold Mine Effect: Crack the Secrets of High Performance," by Rasmus Ankersen. We are doing a summary of the Books Eight Chapters rehearse the lessons learned in the Course of our Journey through the Book. Come roll with us.

Get yourself a seat, tighten your belt, and let us take flight. 

The Saint.