Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

I’m going to answer that in a way that connects it to what we’ve been talking about. And also points to what Jen and I are developing with our team for the future. And I’m not answering it like you know, do yoga, or clean up your diet or that kind of thing.

I want to connect it back to that idea of listening. If you’re a leader and you want to do better in the future, then you’re going to need to create more value than you already are now. What people value is dramatically shifted by the financial changes in the world, the medical changes in the world, the educational online changes that are happening in the world, the political changes in the world. There’s a lot of stuff to care about. Remember, care is concerned for future well-being. So as a practice, what I would propose is to start, as you say, with “yourself”. Take a moment, and actually pause, and reflect on it. Maybe even write down, “What do I care about?” What do I care about my body, for example, What do I get? Maybe it’s more sleep. Maybe it’s more physical life. Maybe it’s nutrition. Maybe it’s stress. What do I care about my family? Okay, write it down. Is it the ones you haven’t talked to, or who are in another city? Is it the older ones that you may not even be able to get to in the final years of your life? Is it your relationship with your brother-in-law, or your wife? Whatever it may be. Look at it in terms of your community like your neighbourhood, or your work community, or your sports club, or your musical group, or your Facebook, gathering. You know the community. What do you care about in terms of society? What’s going on in the world today, what do you care about in terms of the future of humanity? Which means like there’s been a history wherein a  very unusual moment, “What do you care about? What do you care about ecology? What do you care about life?” 

Okay, if you take a moment and actually take seriously reflecting through those different categories, that I just referred to even if you imagine writing some of those things down. It’s going to deliver for you a very robust sense of Whoa! I’m actually concerned about a lot in the world. Now all of that is preparation for then, being with it, respecting yourself, sitting with it, giving it enough time to go, Boy, that’s a big life! And then go ask somebody else, “What do you care about?” And listen. They’ll tell you something and then you might go, “Tell me more about that.” Listen. And then, if they stay only within one area like my kids, my family.”You know, that’s great, thank you so much! Tell me what do you care about in terms of the way the neighbourhood is. And then listen. “What do you notice that you’re caring about more just in terms of your own vitality”? And then listen. 

The human being that opens up, that kind of curious ears to the concerns of another human being. It’s rare Gil, it doesn’t happen very often. Ask spouses and I’m talking to myself here right. I can spend a lot more time asking my wife a question like that, and then just shutting up and listening, rather than being the typical guy that I am that takes whatever she says and goes, “Well let me help you solve that problem.”

There’s value in the listening and I’m willing to spend this time talking about it because if you’re an entrepreneur, the value-creating offer that you might come up with needs to find a niche, needs to find a space where there are more people than that one, who may have the same concern. And it may be a concern that the person is talking about because it’s not currently being well addressed by the offers and the other service providers or maybe even in the past by me and my company. And that can give me a cue, a clue into, “Hmm, what might we offer here that would be listened to as a valuable contribution of their lives?” Before you know it, your business is reconfigured. You’re going in a new direction, you’re inventing new possibilities, new offers with them, and your business can start to thrive again. What’s the starting point of that? Not what you think you should become. It’s what somebody else would appreciate if you become that.