Success is not something you make alone, it is something you make with others.

That’s so obvious and banal, you may wonder why I bother to state it?

Because I didn't get that, not for a long time. My ego was too noisy to let me really hear it.

The statistics are arresting: half of all small businesses will fail within 5 years. Consider that. It’s like throwing a dice. For Alexander discovery teachers, when starting out to build a business, that is not a comforting statistic.

50% or more of small businesses fail within 5 years. Wow!

What did you feel when you woke up today?

How did you make sense of it?

You don’t need to make sense of your positive experiences – they are wonderful! It is the negative experiences you want to examine. When you experience a strong negative emotion, what do you do?

My guess is that you give this negative experience a name.

You call it “tired” or “worried” or “depressed” or “sad” – whatever. Words are called forth to give your experience a name.

What could you say if I commanded you:

“Go and look for it NOW!”

An obvious rejoinder is:

“Look for WHAT?!”

To which I’d say:

“Exactly; you’ll know when you find it.”

People who seek, seek to find the unknowable.

Truth starts out in the dark. It shines once you find it, which is how you know you found it.

Self-growth is like that. Your dark is where you have no awareness of how you are generating the problems you are experiencing.

One of my mentors, Brendan Nicholls, was incredibly circuitous in the way he assessed a new business partner. He was driven by a fractal idea that goes like this:

“How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything”

FM said it in a different way:

“If you apply the principle to the carrying out of one evolution, you have learned the lot.”

What does this mean?

Funny how the mind works...

For years, when I hit 85kg I’d think:

“Opps. You’re getting fat Jerry. Pay more attention to that.”

And the inevitable discipline would be initiated until I was down to a decent 83kg.

Now my trigger is 79kg. That’s my new fat.

It’s taken a loooooong time to get there. Along the way I discovered it’s most NOT about what I eat – I haven’t actually changed much of that. I still have two eggs on toast. By one toast now, not two.

I am elite Platinum member of my Qantas Frequent Flyer club.

I’d like to think it is because I fly business class all the time and rake in the miles – but sitting here in Economy, cramped up against the seat in front of me, while I peck out my blog, puts that delusion to rest.

So why am I here?

I am off to Florida to be coached by a bunch of fellow biz entrepreneurs in USA. I start my own coaching in a week – at ATSuccess London Symposium on How To Build A Successful Practise – but first I need to limber up and eat some humble pie.

Keiko Isomura passed away in 2013.

She was one of the first trainees to graduate from BodyChance in 2003 – when it was still called ATA (Alexander Technique Associates) in honour of Don Burton.

I encouraged Keiko-san to explore the world of alternative trainings, so a year after she qualified, she travelled to London and spent 3 months studying with Walter Carrington at the Constructive Teaching Centre in Lansdowne Road.

Keiko became a trainee again.

Ramachandran is the neuro-anatomist who successfully amputated a non-existent arm by using nothing more than a $2 cardboard box and a vertical mirror. I’ve written about him previously here. Not only is he wonderfully inventive, he is a harbinger for a new breed of scientist which gives me hope of a path forward to validate Alexander's discovery.

Mastery Emerges From the Details

Do you know what a CTA is?

How about a USP? or the why biz consultants say “The riches are in the niches”? Have you heard the Prince of Print’s story about the hungry crowd?

I’d wager that 80% of those biz owners – whose businesses have lasted longer than 5 years, have seen growth of 20% or greater, and are heading for another stellar year – could easily answer my questions.

Can you?

In January 2016 I am coming to London with a team of teachers to answer the question this blog is posing. We've even set up a free online course at this link to warm you up! I also endeavour to answer this question below...

Alexander’s discoveries are my passion; they have been my life and work since the age of 20, and I intend to be living and teaching them up to my last breath.