by John J. Murphy, author of The Miracle-Minded Manager: A Modern-Day Parable about How to Apply “A Course in Miracles” in Business“
Thirty-one years ago, I had an idea. Why not start a consulting practice? Why not be my own boss? I could travel the world and help thousands of people make improvements in their lives. I could teach and give seminars and do what I want to do.
Then “reality” kicked in – or, at least what I perceived to be reality at that time. I now refer to these challenges as the “yeah, buts.” Yeah, but you aren’t qualified. Yeah, but you don’t have any money to invest. Yeah, but you’re only 28 years old. Yeah, but you don’t have any secondary income. Yeah, but your wife is pregnant with your second child. Yeah, but you have never been a consultant before, and you don’t know what you’re doing? Yeah, but you don’t have a master’s degree or a PhD or a credible firm to back you up. Yeah, but isn’t it better to play it safe and wait until a better time?
No doubt about it, every entrepreneur faces a variety of “Yeah, buts.” There never seems to be the right time. There are always things that can go wrong – and will. With a name like Murphy, I know this law as well as anyone. There are always people questioning your sanity. There are always obstacles you will need to overcome. So, what is one to do? How does an aspiring entrepreneur get past these fears and doubts and limiting beliefs? How does a dreamer live the dream?
I believe the answer lies in what I now call miracle-minded management (MMM). Put another way, MMM is a thought-system based on inspiration, fearlessness, passion and faith. It is an alternative to the ego thought system which is based on fear, duality, division, and comparison. This is a major paradigm shift for many leaders, a “letting go” process rather than a fighting process. To the ego, letting go feels like surrender and weakness. Thus, when we are attached to the ego mindset, we cling, and we fight. We compete. We worry. We complain. We see ourselves as independent and separate, responsible for our own successes. We believe more is better and we continuously seek greener grass elsewhere. The ego’s mantra is “seek and ye shall not find” so we are never fully satisfied for long when we identify ourselves with this way of thinking.
When I now think back over the 31 years since my business was incorporated, I laugh at the arrogance of the ego and its thought system. How could I have possibly done this on my own, without a higher power guiding me in fascinating ways – through connections and synchronicities I could easily have missed? Take the first year alone. I lost both of my original partners, who gave up on the idea. I went further into debt and had to completely rewrite the business plan. Without a mindset of inspiration, fearlessness, passion and faith, I would have been doomed. I never would have pivoted in the way that I did. In retrospect, I was applying miracle-minded management without even knowing what it was. I was trusting a power greater than the ego, allowing divine guidance to speak to me through my intuition – and others.
For example, I was told to offer a workshop. If I couldn’t get business by knocking on doors, find a way to get business leaders to knock on my door. So, I developed a workshop and started getting clients. I was then told to write a book, something I had no idea how to do. So, I read a book about how to write a book and then self-published my first book “Pulling together: The power of teamwork” (long before Amazon and social media). That book has now been republished by several different publishers in multiple languages. It also led to my second book, “Agent of Change”, a parable about a business leader who learns to change his corporate culture. This book led to several other allegories (business novels) and it is now the prequel to Miracle Minded Manager, scheduled for publication on October 22, 2019, my 20th book.
Did I plan all of this? Did I know with any certainty that I would write books and my books would bring me an audience to teach and speak to and consult with? Did I have facts and data to analyze and prove my ideas would work? Not a chance! There was something else guiding me, pulling me along. And just when I felt cornered or at the end of my rope, the phone would ring. A sign of hope would show up. A shift in perception would take place. A light would go on. This is how A Course in Miracles defines a miracle. It is a shift in perception, a different way of seeing things.
I now recognize that my many failures and mistakes were anything but that. They were lessons. They were blessings in disguise. They were intended to challenge my warped ego perception and reveal to me my true purpose and passion in life. Aligning with this is all I really needed. I just had to get out of my own way. I had to let go to let flow. And, if you ask me, flow is what this life is all about.
John J. Murphy is a global business consultant, speaker, spiritual mystic, “zentrepreneur,” and award-winning author. He is Founder (1988) and CEO of Venture Management Consultants, Inc., a firm specializing in creating lean, high performance work environments. His new book is “The Miracle-Minded Manager: A Modern-Day Parable about How to Apply “A Course in Miracles” in Business“.
