The Client Letter
August 22, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 80 Degrees
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“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein
What happens when your clients come up to you and call you a genius? Or when they offer you a compliment that you know is true?
What happens when you do that to others?
It’s rare that a person will look you back in the eye and simply say, “Thank you…”
Most people will break eye contact immediately, glance to the left or the right, or down, and deflect the comment.
Have you ever thought about why?
I used to do that all the time. I’ve talked about it before in previous issues of this letter.
Long story short, I couldn’t stand having my power acknowledged publicly. Made me self conscious. Made me nervous, actually.
It was a bit like looking straight at the sun. You just can’t do it for long.
When I started studying with the teacher I mention here, she always talked about how people are ultimately scared of their own power.
It took me a LONG time to begin to understand that.
Why would you be scared of being powerful?
I think there are a lot of reasons.
I’ll give you one.
For me, going out into the world under my own power, after my own goals means I am the one accountable for the consequences.
In other words, it means I am on the hook. I am (for once) actually trying to do something as well as I can. There is no net. There’s no one to blame anything on.
Just me.
If it fails, what does that say about me? What will I do then?
It’s that shadowy future and that great uncertainty that keeps people small.
In the client business, that small you just ruins everything. Plus, it makes you feel like garbage. Because you KNOW there’s more to you, you just aren’t letting it out.
Over the past few years, I’ve been working on “letting it out.” And tonight I’m going to walk you through my process.
Whether or not you join me this evening, please remember this: (I’m speaking for me, but I imagine you might agree.) At the end of my life, I can’t imagine that my accomplishments will mean too much to me. Those will all be water under the bridge as they say.
What I imagine WILL matter is the number of people I served and the extent to which I served them.
If service is why you are here, then it doesn’t help anyone for you to play small. You can stop it right now.