How Change Happens on this Planet

October 3, 2008

Dow down – 157

How Change Happens on This Planet…

With things swinging wildly in our financial markets these days I thought it might be valuable to take a look at how change occurs in our species.

My 19-year-old daughter, Allie called me from school recently during her freshman year in college. Normally a very optimistic and positive person, she was really down, having spent most of a semester studying American foreign policy, race relations and environmental issues. Her bubbly demeanor was replaced with deep sighs as she listed America’s checkered relations with the rest of the world, our internal divisions and the litany of cruelties and atrocities that we humans have committed against one another and the environment over the past hundred years. “Why are we doing this to ourselves, to our planet,” she moaned, “and can it ever change?”

Everyone should have a daughter in college.

Why?

Because you get to enjoy (if only vicariously) a bit of the excitement and freedom of a time of pure inquiry (however short it may last); and second, because phone calls like this force you to re-examine your beliefs about the world and how it works. At least it did for me.

As our dialogue unfolded, it came into my mind that there are three main ways that change occurs on this planet for our species.

The first is through coercion.

Under pressure of financial loss or bodily harm, people will bend to the will of others. And clearly for much of the last century might has been used to reshape the globe. But coercion is a lousy change agent. No one who has been forced to do something against his or her will continues to do so once the threat is gone. So to create lasting change, coercion just doesn’t cut it.

The second way change occurs is through pain.

Pain is perhaps the most powerful change agent for our species. Whether it’s individual pain like burning your hand on the stove, relationship pain such as being dumped by a lover, or societal pain like theater fires, plane crashes or economic depressions, when the pain gets strong enough, we change. We change our habits, change spouses, change elected officials, make new laws and regulations, innovations and enhancements, all with the goal of avoiding future pain.

The $700 billion bailout of the financial industry is a good example of the combination of pain and coercion. Most don’t want it but the pain was so great (and the future potential pain so unpalatable) that we capitulated.

But there is a third and vastly underrated way that we as a species make change on this planet. And that is through hope. Hope is one of the defining aspects of the human character. As Victor Frankl pointed out in his landmark work Man’s Search For Meaning, even in of one of the worst of all human-created hells, the Nazi concentration camps, there was hope.

Hope is an expectation for improvement in one’s individual or collective condition. It can be completely unfounded. It can be both irrational and utterly realistic. Hope can be based on faith in something greater, wiser or more compassionate than us or it can be pulled up from the depths of an individual’s own heart and soul.

As a Buddhist [link to www.sgi-usa.org] , I believe in the limitless power of hope. The sun will rise again tomorrow. With each moment, each day, I can create a different future. The Buddha teaches in the Lotus Sutra that, if you want to know what happened in the past, look at the results you are receiving today. And if you want to know what will happen in the future, look at the causes you are making now. Through the engine of hope can come new actions, and through those hope-filled actions, a new future.

The dialogue with my daughter became lighter – which also is a function of hope. She told me that she and many of her fellow students feel a great sense of mission to bring positive change to people and to the planet. She and her youthful colleagues around the globe are realizing that coercion and pain are not the kinds change agents called for in this decisive moment in human history.

Maybe there’s still hope for hope.

At your service,

Marc

YOUR ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE

How to thrive in challenging times.

#2 Do More With Less

Among my many business responsibilities, I’ve been a professional negotiator for over 20 years. I’ve made deals with everyone from Hollywood studios to Major League Baseball. I’ve negotiated contracts and deals worth at least $50 million.

So I know how to help you get the best deal.

And nowadays, you need to know that retail is for suckers.

Ok, let’s get started. You want to buy something and you don’t want to pay the price at which that item is being offered to you. So you have some choices. You can:

a) walk away discouraged

b) pay the money and grumble

c) pay the price you want.

Getting what you want in any transaction is the science and art of negotiation. It means knowing what you want – the terms, the features, the extras, the service warrantee. And it means knowing what you’re willing to pay for it – before you open your mouth.

SECRET #1 — ASK, ASK, ASK!!!

If you learn only one thing from me today, this is it. If you don’t ask, you won’t get. And what’s the worst that can happen? They say “no.” But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So why don’t people ask?

Here’s the rub – we get embarrassed. We think – “Neiman Marcus is a big store. Their prices are fixed” – Baloney! “I don’t want to look like a cheapskate” – fine, pay full price and feel ripped off. “I’ll feel stupid if they don’t give me a break”—you’d be more stupid not to at least ask.

Ask, Ask, Ask!

What should you ask for?

SECRET #2 — Ask for A Discount. Tell them you’re a good customer and you want to know if you qualify for any discount or upgrade. This one works great with car rental companies and hotels.

SECRET #3 — Ask for A Freebie. If they won’t give you a discount, ask for a freebie. Will they throw is two pairs of sox with those expensive pants or a tie with that expensive jacket? You’d be surprised what you can get buy asking for a freebie. How about meal coupons with your hotel room? Or a free desert for your table at a pricey restaurant? How about free gutters with the big roof job?

What’s the worst thing that could happen – they could say “no.” Big farking deal. Don’t take it personally.

And remember when you get a bone, always, always, thank the salesperson, waiter, reservation clerk. And if you can leave a tip, tip like you mean it. Because when you come back, they’ll remember.

For dozens more great money saving and negotiating tips that could save you hundreds, even thousands of $$$, click here for my FREE report – Pay Less For Everything!