“The Donald Trump pseudo-big way: How much do you make? What things do you own? Who have you conquered along the way? ” From The Think Big Manifesto by Michael Port.
The assumption that for me to win, someone else must lose, and that winning by at the expense of someone is somehow more valuable (and perhaps more “manly”). That there is never going to be enough to go around, or enough to satisfy my bottomless pit.
This kind of big is necessarily exploitative. For any one Trump, there is necessarily thousands or more chumps toiling away to feed nectar up the pyramid. Take away the chumps, the Trumps simply fall flat.
The Internet and globalisation can either exacerbate this, or ameliorate it. It is easier now for small businesses and individuals to access global markets. Services like PayPal enables just about anyone to take credit card payments. Open source CRM systems, collaboration platforms, etc provide cost effective and good “soft” infrastructure for knowledge-based businesses. The list goes on.
The last remaining hurdle is for the chumps to wake up and reclaim their lives, their courage, their passions. To seize the opportunities out there and make a change for their own sake. To look inside and really identify what each of us want to do - and not automatically buy into what "society" tells us we need to have or do. Now that’s thinking big.
Here’s to big lives. Lives built around true collaboration – working in flow with likeminded others in open, trusting relationships, on stuff that genuinely heart-wrenchingly matters to those involved. Where everyone gets an equal and fair share of the rewards as a matter of course – because abundance is a matter of course.
Scary? Won’t ever happen? Fantasy? Only if you choose to believe so.
I have experienced this first-hand. And so have many others I have had the privilege to work with.
