Concept 1
Breakthrough The Ceiling of Complexity

The Insidious Growth of The Ceiling of Complexity 

Each experience in our life has a price for us to pay. Each solved problem, every transaction adds complexity to our life. 

At some point, this insidious growth of complexity prevents any further growth of capability, performance, or achievement. This becomes a new Ceiling of Complexity that needs to be broken through.

With this increased complexity of experience, the messes, the conflicts, and the contradictions come from doing things a certain way for so long. It becomes clear that just working harder in the current stage of complexity becomes counter productive; it in fact no longer works. 

A New State of Ownership Simplicity and Effectiveness is required

A new state of ownership connected concepts and strategies need to be implemented to transform into a new state of ownership effectiveness, and simplicity. It is this simplicity of ownership thinking, communicating, connecting, and performing that enables an entrepreneurial owner to breakthrough his own
Ceiling of Complexity.

Our past goals become part of the problem. Once they have been achieved, they can hobble and hinder any of us, and add to our Ceiling of Complexity. This is because these past goals reinforce, and entrench the same relationships, connections, structures, and habits.
Our ways of performing firmly entrenched, become our Ceiling of Complexity that prevents our next stage of personal and business growth. Individuals and especially owners become prisoners of their past success. They sometimes unfortunately become, in effect ‘bottlenecked’ for the rest of their life.

A New Set of Highly Compelling, Overarching Goals is Required

Adopting a new, much more challenging, and highly compelling set of well fitting, over arching goals is required. This is to comprehensively empower owners to breakthrough their Ceiling of Complexity. This is needed to develop new ownership relationships, connections, structures, personal ownership habits, and freely chosen, empowered disciplines.

New, right fit, complementary, connected ownership relationships provide entrepreneurial owners with larger opportunities, and much better, and more sustainable total results. These new connected relationships allow an owner to focus on his of her greater strengths/tendencies, and Unique Abilities.

New, more supportive organizational structures with collaborative Comprehensive-Support are necessary to reach and obtain ever larger opportunities, better results, and to breakthrough an entrepreneurial owners own Ceiling of Complexity.

Adopting new, much better personal ownership habits are foundational to connecting to Connected Ownership’s ever higher levels of performances.

Ceilings of Complexity – Just a Pervasive Fact of Life

All stages of human growth, every where, eventually coalesce into new Ceilings of Complexity. Learning to clearly see them, and breakthrough each of our Ceilings of Complexity, is perhaps the most important life skill that any individual, especially an entrepreneurial owner could develop.

We need to learn to become adept at breaking through into new states of highly focused ownership simplicity and clarity. This is the passionate purpose of Connected Ownership Inc.’s Connected Ownership Transformational Learning. 

Concept 2
Shift Your Personal Ownership Paradigm

A Belief System About How Things Work

A paradigm is a belief system about how things work. There is an overall paradigm in play that a vast majority of people believe. This is found in every field of human activity.

Paradigms are important because, for a while at least, they make sense of established relationships, or the connections between things, and make predictions possible. Every individual has a dominant belief system, conscious and, or sub-conscious, about his or her own life---either past, present, and future.

It is impossible to breakthrough our Ceiling of Complexity when our dominant belief system is not in sync with what we truly want and believe, both consciously and sub-consciously. There are simple techniques that COI utilizes to align conscious and sub-conscious beliefs of the entrepreneurial owner, and to finally get them in sync.

A Challenging Crises Causes Dominant Belief System Shifts

With any crises, comes new pain. Then comes a combination of new information; a new perspective is required. This new information/perspective may point to deficiencies in your dominant belief systems. 

At first this new information/perspective is strongly resisted and suppressed because it raises serious questions about what was invested in your old belief system.

Gradually new information/perspective overwhelms the old belief system. A new paradigm emerges replacing the old paradigm. A belief is now redirected, sometimes suddenly, to this new system. This is called a “Paradigm Shift.”

The Rugged, Non-Connected Individualism Paradigm

This paradigm is expressed by the phrase, “I can do it by myself,” or “I don’t need any support, or assistance.” This paradigm is crucial to early life development of individualism and self-reliance.

This Rugged, Non-Connected Individualism Paradigm eventually becomes disabling; it prevents the further development of a person’s Unique Abilities. This is because of a lack of focus on further developing and utilizing greater strengths. This is because of the energy draining feeling/perspective of doing everything, all on your own.

As we grow older, those who hold onto this paradigm are trapped, or consumed by the amount of extra time spent, trying to ‘correct their weaknesses.’ They increasingly focus on trying to improve on their lesser strengths, allowing their greater strengths to lie dormant, and stay relatively undeveloped. This paradigm drains a person’s hope/energy; and produces very limited results, if any results at all.

This Rugged Individualism Paradigm makes it difficult for an owner to face up to, and meet the challenges of new and better opportunities. It also prevents the owner from proactively recognizing, seeking, and connecting with the Unique Abilities of his or her connected others. As a result of this paradigm, relationship breakups, isolation, and personal frustration continually increase.

The Force Driven Control of Others Paradigm

This Force Driven Control of Others Paradigm uses position, force, and control over others to get others to nominally and immediately comply with the force being imposed. 

This compliance through force driven control of others produces very limited, non sustainable results. You get some initial compliance, with little energy, and very limited willing permission and commitment.

The kind of ownership and leadership, with an ingrained heavy amount of force driven control of others, becomes disabling for those around the entrepreneurial owner. This is with those who are forced, and eventually to the enforcer/owner.

A Connected Ownership, Teamwork Paradigm

Either Rugged Individualism, and/or Force Driven Control of Others prevent an owner and others around him or her, to ever meaningfully focus on developing their Unique Abilities. These paradigms block any ongoing state of extraordinary performances. 

With close analysis, it soon becomes apparent that a new, simple ownership paradigm is very badly needed. We feel that this is a “Connected Ownership Teamwork Paradigm.” This is the kind of ownership is freely practiced where the complementary Unique Abilities of people are connected, and developed in such a way that individual weaknesses are made irrelevant, or neutralized by the connected others greater strengths.

Instead of being trapped, and bottlenecked by their weaknesses, or lesser strengths, owners and their connected people in this paradigm are free to focus almost entirely on their passionate greater strengths, natural tendencies, and Unique Abilities.

A Connected Ownership Teamwork Paradigm continually grows, expands, and adjusts to the demands and opportunities of a complex, challenging, and ever changing world. Rugged Individualism and Force Driven Control are left well behind with the passionate adoption of the Connected Ownership Teamwork Paradigm.

This vastly superior Connected Ownership Teamwork Paradigm is based on freely embraced collaboration, and mutual support that is comprehensive. This paradigm over rides any of an owner’s self centered, standoffish ego, and traits. It prevents any tendency for the force driven control of others. 

Concept 3
Proactively Act as Your Future-Based-Self 

Past-Based Self

The past-based self is who an individual used to think he or she was. A person’s present that is dominated by his or her past-based-self finds life increasingly difficult, unsatisfying, dis-connected, and even threatening. 

These past-based individuals are influenced by their powerful memories. They find it difficult to adapt to new situations and the NOW needed change. They are stuck, and they will not listen to fresh, innovative, mutually beneficial ownership perspectives.

The future goal of these individuals is to return to the comfortable patterns of their past, even when their past results were not that good, or even very painful results. They therefore become resistant to new knowledge, new opportunities, new relationships, and new challenges because of their overwhelming desire to return to their past-based-self.

Future-Based-Self

The future-base-self is who an individual imagines he or she is going to become because of continual personal development, with their trusted, ongoing Comprehensive-support. This is being influenced by powerful, over arching compelling goals. This brings on positive affirmations and the reinforcing positive, trusted support from the Right-Fit others around him, or her.

The future-based-self is ‘real’ and authentic, and proactively utilizes his or her greater strengths/tendencies. They daily embrace the challenge of effectively acting, connecting, and performing to fully meet the NOW needed change.

Effectively Responding to New and Bigger Challenges

A person whose present is dominated by their future-based-self is attracted to, and effectively responds to new and bigger challenges. He or she is continually creating a more powerful and more effective future self image.

The many experiences of the past are not rejected; they serve as useful learning, or building blocks. The purpose of the present is to enjoy constant growth and improvement around our authentic self, while laying the foundation for even greater growth and improvement in the future.

Choosing to Proactively Live Intentionally

Most people live reactively. Past-based individuals fail to choose to proactively live intentionally. They build the meaning about their lives around the meaning of what has already happened to them. Much of this happened mostly by accident.

Future-based-individuals function much differently; they proactively live consciously, and intentionally. This future-based perspective is continually created over the course of a lifetime. 

Choosing to live intentionally is proactively done through the future-based-owners conscious imagination, risk-taking, and focused effort.

Achieving Freedom from the Past

The future-based-individual, or future-based connected owner achieves freedom from their past. They are empowered by imagination, innovation, and continual growth, both in their businesses, and in their personal life.

They consciously face up to, and breakthrough their own self-generated, Ceiling of Complexity. They also choose to breakthrough the many Ceilings of Complexity created by the combined resistance of all the past-based-individuals that are around them, and are in society at any given time.

A future-based-individual is continually creating a more powerful self image to dramatically change his or her position, and influence on society. The future-based individual consciously escapes from his or her past. They also escape form the control and influence of all past-based-individuals. 

Concept 4 
Making the Two Critical Connected Ownership Decisions

The Two Connected Ownership Decisions

The word entrepreneur means someone who undertakes a venture, someone who starts something new. Entrepreneurs freely choose to make both of two critical Connected Ownership decisions. The following two decisions need to be decided both consciously and sub-consciously.

The first Connected Ownership decision is to depend entirely on your own abilities and strengths for assuring your economic security. This decision needs to be made without vacillation, or with tentativeness or any compromise.

The second Connected Ownership decision is to expect opportunity in life only by first providing clear value for others. You gladly take the risk of demonstrating your unique value, without having any guarantee of pay.
These two decisions, both decisively taken together, automatically liberate the entrepreneurial owner from political, economic, social, or bureaucratic Ceilings of Complexity that dramatically limit the lives of bureaucratic individuals. These two decisions also harness entrepreneurial ownership growth, and into Connected Ownership success.

Achieving Freedom from Dependency

Any form of dependency limits an individual’s ability to create a powerful, future-based-self. This is someone who confidently and courageously deals with needed NOW change.

With the first Connected Ownership decision, the entrepreneurial owner is saying, “no one has to take care of me.” Having made this decision, he or she never has to comply with controlling, limiting, bureaucratic procedures.

Achieving Freedom from Entitlement

An attitude of entitlement says that “I am owed something---by government, by the company, by my family.” This entitlement attitude ultimately imprisons the individual into an insidious lifetime of unfulfilled expectations, grievances, and self pity.

The second Connected Ownership decision says, “I am not owed anything by anyone.” With any opportunity, I must provide something of distinct value to others. Because of the second decision, the entrepreneurial owner’s life becomes a never ending process of learning, creating, and growing.

Making Both of the Connected Ownership Decisions

The moment that the two Connected Ownership decisions are both made, the limitations of dependency and entitlement disappear. New abilities and opportunities begin to become apparent. 

New, empowering decisions and actions also become possible. One immediately begins to see things through more entrepreneurial and Connected Ownership eyes, ears, heart, and spirit. 

Periodically affirming, and reinforcing these two, highly empowering Connected Ownership decisions keeps an entrepreneurial owner from becoming bottled up with having any of an entitlement attitude.

Concept 5
Embracing a no Entitlement, Connected Ownership Attitude

Having Your Life and Prospects in Your Own Hands

Entrepreneurial, connected Ownership owners embrace having their life and prospects fully in their own hands. They constantly create new opportunities for themselves, rather than waiting for anyone else to provide it for them. This results in a steady progression of ever higher opportunities and performances.

While many others increasingly wait, and complain because of their entitlement attitude, this contrasting attitude of no entitlement, Connected Ownership empowers persistent achievement. The reason for rampant complaint and dissatisfaction often is the result of the pervasive entitlement system in our society.

Experiencing Dissatisfaction in This Age of Growing Entitlement 
The major message of the age of entitlement, with the insidious fear induced by many self serving politicians, is that individuals can no longer held accountable or responsible for themselves. 

Instead, a bureaucratic, ‘all knowing, powerful, and centralized entitlement society’ is believed to be increasingly responsible for everyone. This is where the multitude of problems of society is expected to be solved by various government programs, and/or employment in large bureaucracies.

As foolish and unrealistic bureaucratic promises come to be unrealized, people feel outraged and cheated. Incessant budget cutting and downsizings over the years have infuriated those mistakenly believing in the entitlement society.

Many individuals, and groups, despite the rampant entrepreneurial progress and achievement around them, have come to see themselves as permanent victims of society. These ‘entitlement’ people are trapped in a closed universe of dependency, disappointment, and highly angry grievance.

Embracing No-Entitlement, “What You Want, Has to be Created, and Earned”

Embracing a no- entitlement, Connected Ownership attitude is required to escape this world of pervasive dissatisfaction, with a low level of personal ownership, and Connected Ownership accountability. This instead is fully embracing that “what you want, has to be created and earned” by your own entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership, and collaborative, focused action.

No-entitlement means that you feel that no one owes you anything; you feel that what you want is created and earned through your individual initiative and well connected cooperation, and collaboration. This no entitlement, Connected Ownership attitude achieves a sense of personal freedom, a feeling of personal and Connected Ownership. This confident, connected attitude empowers an ever increasing capability in a world of increasing opportunity, and growth.

Rather than being trapped by unrealistic expectations, and bureaucratic dissatisfactions, a strong no-entitlement, Connected Ownership attitude enables entrepreneurial owners to transcend endless stagnation, and the unhappiness found rampant in the insidious entitlement society.

Concept 6
Recognizing the Two Opposite Economies

The Time and Effort Economy

This economy is based on the pervasive desire for job security, predictable activity, compliance, and guaranteed income. This Time and Effort Economy, accounts for 80% of all the people who work. This percentage is declining for various reasons.

In the Time and Effort Economy, a person is paid for their time and effort, with the level of performance not directly considered in the pay. You do only what is asked, with out any innovation or added performance ever being encouraged. People are managed, and closely controlled to do what they are told to do, with little self management encouraged.

Those trapped in this economy are faced with limited and diminishing prospects in an accelerating world of pervasive, ongoing, and accelerating change.

The Results Economy

This economy is based on the desire for greater opportunity, income, and freedom of action for all those fortunately connected. Pay includes various forms of freely negotiated Pay for Performance.

The results economy makes up 20% of the jobs, and this percentage is steadily growing. Those in this economy are experiencing expanded, highly energizing capabilities, with unlimited opportunities.

Connected Ownership is the compelling, empowering process that connects the Right-Fit combination of People, Strategies, and Resources, including financial. 

This is proactively done to optimize the total return for all the stakeholders, including the entrepreneurial owners, and their associates. This compelling, empowering total return includes return on connected Assets, Relationships, and Spirits.

Two Distinct Economies Are Separated by Taking on Willingness to Risk

These two distinct economies are separated by a willingness to take on willingness to risk, or having a willingness to over come the risk barrier. Risk can only be embraced by first making both of the two Connected Ownership decisions in Concept 4. 

The entrepreneurial owner willingly and purposely takes on his or her well selected, measured risks. These are the risks that naturally fit how he or she tends to act, think, and feel, along with their greater talents, strengths, and Unique Abilities. Their well selected, measured risk has to ‘fit,’ and be freely chosen by the entrepreneurial owner; it can not be forced on him or her. 

A combination of new technologies and bureaucratic downsizings around the world is causing an ever growing number of individuals to choose to cross over this risk barrier, and embrace the Results Economy, and also the process of Connected Ownership through supportive transformational learning like what is presented here.

This conscious transition to the Results Economy requires a person to give up any bureaucratic dependency, and any entitlement attitude. Also, required is an innate need to fully connect with their passionate Unique Abilities, and their well selected, comprehensive, and complementary support.

Experiencing a Loss of Control

By selling your time for guaranteed income, you do not create your own economic opportunity. In making this poor bargain, people lose control of their working time, their abilities, and their activities. They also lose control of their best, empowered future. They lose out on connecting with ever greater and greater ongoing opportunities when they allow their time is sold for a guaranteed income.

In the world of the Time and Effort Economy, more expensive labor is constantly being replaced by less expensive labor, and more productive, less labor intensive solutions are continually being found. 

Selling your time for a guaranteed income becomes an increasingly poor bargain as the world of change accelerates.

Ironically, those who are most concerned with security, end up being in the greatest danger of losing their economic security. This is another reason to learn about and get connected to a Connected Ownership owner, and his or her companies.

Learn How to Create Impressive Value and Opportunity

Entrepreneurial owners learn to create unique, impressive value and opportunity in the Results Opportunity. They give up any form of guarantees, especially of regular, guaranteed income. By willingly taking on and fully embracing this risk, they experience a lifetime of ever growing opportunities, and ultimately much more, and growing income, and personal fulfillment.

Entrepreneurial owners must constantly seek new methods, markets, and niches. They embrace and thrive on ongoing change. They live by their connected creativity and growing capabilities. The least secure environment is found in the Time and Security Economy.

Entrepreneurial, connected Ownership owners learn to create unique value and opportunity more effectively when they reach out and engage selective Comprehensive-Support, C-S. This is competent, complementary, trusted support that is committed to the direction and overarching goals of the entrepreneurial owner.

Concept 7
Empowering Connected Ownership with Collaborative Comprehensive-Support

What is Comprehensive-Support?

Comprehensive-Support is trusted, proven, caring support that is comprehensive. It needs to come from two or more sources so as to not dominate. It rounds out, better utilizes, and grows the Unique Abilities and greater strengths/natural tendencies of the entrepreneurial owner, and his or her connected people.

A Comprehensive-Supporter is a broad-based future-oriented, wise, generalist who helps the entrepreneurial owner to grow and grow; much better connect, and more effectively perform. This is without taking away any of his or her personal ownership accountability and responsibility. 

A Comprehensive-Supporter is direct, and honest with no hidden agenda other than proactively facilitating the open ended, ongoing success of the entrepreneurial owner.

Unlike coaching in business and life, Comprehensive-Support is much more of a partnering process that can often prove to be ongoing, no matter how successful that the entrepreneurial owner may become. 

The Comprehensive-Supporters around a successful entrepreneurial owner have a passion to further learn to grow and grow. This is in order to better respond to fresh challenges of the entrepreneurial owner.
Comprehensive-Support, C-S, is a holistic, visionary, breakthrough performance generating process that is continually transforming and empowering the best owners to get better. 

C-S is fun, energizing, and sustainable because of its ongoing focus to optimize, grow, and connect many complementary Unique Abilities, Concepts, Strategies, and resources that really do fit with a well connected, passionate cause. 

Why is This Highest Order Process So Powerful, and So Transforming

We at COI feel that Comprehensive-Support is the highest order, most compellingly powerful personal, organizational, and ownership development process ever practiced because inspiring C-S is so holistic, so committed and trustworthy, so growth oriented, and so future-based.

The level 5, or the highest level of leadership that the best CEO’s in Jim Collin’s land mark book, “Good to Great” were in effect, acting as “Chief Comprehensive-Supporters,” in companies practicing a form of COI’s Connected Ownership Philosophy, Concepts, and Strategies.

These uniquely high performing CEO’s placed their ego’s, and any forced control of others aside to instead fully commit to nurture and support comprehensively the accelerated, profitable growth of their company for 20 or more years. Their company’s performance far surpassed any of their competition because of the ongoing, inspired Comprehensive-Support, and Connected Ownership that these CEO’s generated.

The Best Entrepreneurial Owners Need Comprehensive-Support

The best entrepreneurs are ‘oblong’ in their talents, with some very high, and others very low. They are often very challenging to connect with. 

They naturally and diligently avoid being managed, or led by others. They also can only handle a limited amount of coaching. Being oblong, or not well rounded in their strengths, means that they can learn to do some activities extraordinarily well, and many others they will always do poorly, despite any focused training.

The best entrepreneurs get better when they do freely choose to select, and retain their best fitting C-S. Because a Comprehensive-Supporter does not try to dominate or compete with the successful entrepreneurial owner, the successful, confident entrepreneurial owner will normally allow the Comprehensive-Supporter to ‘come along side’ to prove their strong ability to significantly contribute and connect to and around the entrepreneurial owner, and help round them out.

To understand the Comprehensive-Support that best fits him or her, the entrepreneurial owner must fully discover their greater and lesser talents/strengths, and their natural tendencies. 

This is best discovered by taking COI’s four complementary assessments that make up a person’s Personal Essence DNA. This proprietary tool connects a person’s top talents with their greater strengths/tendencies in how they tend to act, feel and think.

There needs to be a complementary fit in the Personal Essence DNA between the entrepreneurial owner and his or her Comprehensive-Supporters. The PE DNA is in effect the never changing internal hard wiring in a person that precipitates a person’s natural action tendencies, greater strengths, and Unique Abilities.

Comprehensive-Support Makes Collaborative Partnering Work

Freely shared collaborative partnering is facilitated by proactive Comprehensive-Support being freely shared. Nothing is forced in true collaborative partnering. 

No one attempts to ‘out lead, or out manage, or out control’ a true, collaborative partner who is committed to the same clear direction, core values, and a Unifying Purpose. You are always looking for connected respect, and synergy with collaborative partnering. You seek many ongoing, mutual wins in both collaborative partnering and Comprehensive-Support.

With the best collaborative partnering, the partners freely trade, and practice their Comprehensive-Support for each others individual and mutual benefit.

Strategy 1
Leveraging the Connected Ownership Time System

The Bureaucratic Time System

This is the traditional time system of the Time and Effort Economy with limiting bureaucratic strategies and organizing. How you may look, doing it in a highly controlled way is much more important than productivity. There is limited freedom to exercise greater strengths, and optimize sustainable productivity improvements in this limiting time system. 

The Bureaucratic Time System is geared to producing a standardized level of modest performance. This is a kind of performance where creativity is suppressed, and extraordinary achievement is discouraged. This bureaucratic organizing time system focuses on controlling time, style, and performance that does not produce, or inspire ever greater results.

This time system strives to maximize uniformity, repetition, control, and predictability. It includes rigid work hours and rules, and mundane days based on the sale of a person’s time for some degree of security. 

This Bureaucratic Time System strives for sameness, and brings on boredom. During times of challenge and great change, this rigid way of organizing time leads to more and larger crises, high levels of stress, and exhaustion with ever diminishing results.

This time system does not come close to optimizing a person’s inherent need for sufficient rejuvenation, focused preparation, and ever increasing productivity. This traditional time system tends to be forced, non-connected, and it consistently de-energizes people.

The Highly Productive, Connected Ownership Time System

The entrepreneurial owner needs a new, life and work time system, based on what really has been proven to work by the best entrepreneurs getting better. What is needed is a radically new strategy for organizing, and connecting time segments for sustainable, focused productivity and abundance.

The highly productive, Connected Ownership Time System is radically different. It results in variety, personal ownership freedom, and creativity. It also results in ever higher productivity and abundance for the successful entrepreneurial owner in every aspect of his or her life.

The highly productive, Connected Ownership Time System is segmented into three distinct kinds of five to six hour time segments. We call these five to six hour segments ‘Days.’

Rejuvenation Days

The purpose of these one or more connected five or six hour Rejuvenation Days is for total relaxation, and rejuvenation from doing any work at all. This includes the individualized Right-Fit rejuvenation of a person’s mind, body, and spirit. A person’s Rejuvenation must come first, and sufficiently often, to effectively leverage the coming Right-Fit Preparation, and Productivity Days.

Rejuvenation requires complete separation and freedom from all work related activities and obligations. Rejuvenation is free of any stress. It is the total enjoyment of the entrepreneurial owner’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual capabilities in various playful, restful, non-work activities.

Preparation Days

The purpose of these five to six hour segments, or one or more ‘Days’ is focused preparation for future productivity, and future rejuvenation. These days require complete freedom from the activities required, or made up in future Productivity Days, or Rejuvenation Days.

Preparation Days include planning, brainstorming, organizing, and reviewing past Productivity Day performances. Preparation Days make future Productivity and Rejuvenation Days much more productive.

Productivity Days

The purpose of organizing six hour, one or more connected Productivity Days is to maximize the entrepreneurial owner’s greater strengths/natural tendencies, and Unique Abilities. This is one through a total focus on his or her most important activities, relationships, and opportunities.

Productivity Days must have complete freedom from any non-productive tasks, and supporting details. This in the time fir total, well prepared, focused productivity.

Ongoing Optimal Mix of Rejuvenation, Preparation, and Productivity Days

Those entrepreneurial owners who organize their time around their ‘right fit,’ optimal connected mix of Rejuvenation, Preparation, and Productivity Days get a sense that they have enough time to focus, and do their passionate, Unique Ability thing correctly. They greatly enjoy everything that they do as a result.

This Connected Ownership Time System optimizes the ongoing mix and connection of these three separate and distinct Days. They achieve an accelerating momentum for Ongoing Breakthrough performances. This is a result from each cycle of Rejuvenation, Preparation, and Productivity.

Rejuvenation Days reinforce, and lead to more focused personal ownership energy, creativity, courage, and optimism.

Preparation Days lead to increased focus, clarity, simplicity, and effectiveness. It provides the entrepreneurial owner the needed confident ability to effectively better plan and program their future.

Productivity Days focus on ones intelligence, strengths, and Unique Ability energy. They are planned. Prepared for, and designed well. They lead to more than twice the results in half the previous time.

This radically improved Connected Ownership Time System continually increases an owner’s confidence, energy, and performance capabilities. It swerves as the rock hard foundation for the other Connected Ownership Strategies that follow.

This radically improved Connected Ownership Time System sets the entrepreneurial owner up to start striving for ever larger checks.

Strategy 2
Striving for Ever Larger Checks

Avoiding the Trap of Past Performance Bottlenecks

It is common for owners to become trapped by a certain kind, or level of results. Often, after reaching a given level of performance, no further progress is made. 

This lack of progress is often a result of past performance success becoming bottlenecks, or limitations on further performance improvement. This ownership tendency is seen in all fields of activity.

Maintenance of the Past Largest Check

Often entrepreneurial owners get trapped by a given level of ‘check,’ or the total amount earned per year from a given client. Everything that they think about, and do is geared to, or organized to maintain their past largest check with the client.

Although they want to perform at a higher level, their present level of performance represents the “Largest Check” they can achieve. The following shows the three main reasons for this rigidity.

Trapped by Market Relationships 

Existing market relationships, client relationships, centers of influence, and suppliers often are geared to a certain size of check. The entire network of market relationships can be static, fixed at a certain performance level, with further progress difficult.

Trapped by Organizational Structure

Often, the entrepreneurial owner’s existing support structure is not geared for growth. There is the tendency to not further invest in greater and better support because the entrepreneurial owner wants to ‘save’ money.

Instead, the existing support structure is geared to maintenance of the past Largest Check. The support staff, technology, and work processes, and the procedures are all geared to preserving a certain level of past results, and nothing more.

Trapped by Personal Work, Preparation, and Planning Habits

Often, the entrepreneurial owner’s work preparation, and planning habits are stagnant, and geared to a current level of Largest Check. The problem is that no one challenges the independent entrepreneurial owner to improve on his or her personal work preparation and planning habits. 

How an entrepreneurial owner looks, thinks, feels, interacts, plans, and performs is often geared to the current level of Largest Check. This Largest Check is based on hundreds of various personal work and preparation habits. These personal work and preparation habits are translated into given level of performances.

The personal work habits geared to a $10,000, $100,000, and a $1,000,000 check are dramatically different. So, when entrepreneurial owners dramatically improve their personal work, preparation, and planning habits, they dramatically change their Largest Check!

Breakthrough with a New BASE to the Past Performance Ceiling

To breakthrough the past performance ceiling, it is necessary to continually aim for the next much larger check, one that calls for a new and much more powerful future-based-self.

This future-based-self needs to include a new BASE over arching goal or a new critical foundation for the entrepreneurial owner’s future. It is really Bold, and challenging. It is truly Authentic, it fits how the owner tends to act, feel, think, and it fully utilizes his or her greater strengths. It is Systematic, and it is well connected to the owner’s right support. It is Energizing, and really empowering to the entrepreneurial owners innate self, and his or her closest supporters.

For example, your breakthrough BASE goal may become $100,000 for your next Larger Check when your past Largest Check was $35,000. This is in contrast to a more typical goal of say $40,000, if there was any goal at all.

With your new BASE breakthrough, over arching goal, you need to substantially improve your Return on Ongoing Relationships, ROR, your organizational capabilities including support, and your consistent personal habits. At the end of each year, a new BASE goal is established to generate each year many Larger Checks.

Every year, the entrepreneurial owner, steps back and seriously reflects on his past, and planned future performances. He or she optimizes his or her ROR, organizational capabilities, and personal work, preparation, and planning habits.

Strategy 3
Getting Rid of Your Personal Office
Offices are Where Bureaucratic Activity Takes Place

The word bureaucracy comes from the French language, and it means “rule of the desk, or the office. Offices are insidious in their negative impact on an entrepreneurial owner, especially if he or she is not aware of the insights about an office that follow.

Offices are where bureaucratic work activity takes place, where bureaucratic attitudes take place, and are reinforced. Offices are where bureaucratic complexity is increased, and where bureaucratic stagnation is the most likely outcome.

Offices are where non-entrepreneurial activities take place. For most entrepreneurial owners, the office is their least productive place. Their office is where bureaucratic stress, messes, and “stuff” accumulate. 

The office for an entrepreneurial owner represents distractions, interruptions, incompletions, wasted time, wasted effort, and the potential for a loss in their entrepreneurial confidence.

Offices are where focused Productivity Days or focused projects, like various writing projects, become impossible to implement effectively. When entrepreneurial owners are in their offices, the insidious environment makes it difficult for them to plan to accomplish their Ever Larger Checks.

Offices and Desks are For Routine Work, Not for Entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership Work

Offices and desks are for doing routine work. This is not what an entrepreneurial; growth oriented, Connected Ownership owner should do, or is great at doing. An entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner naturally gravitates to doing routine work when he or she is in the office.

Offices are where entrepreneurial owners go to “hide” from their most important activities, relationships, and opportunities. Offices therefore undermine their entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner purpose, confidence, concentration, performance, and results.

Learn to Operate Without Having a Personal Office, and a Regular Desk

The best entrepreneurial owners have learned to operate without having a personal office, and a regular desk. They have found that without an office, there is no alternative but to focus all of their time and attention on their most productive, greater strength activities.

Without an office, they have discovered that there is little possibility to be surrounded by bureaucratic stuff and mess. Without an office, the best entrepreneurial owners find that they are increasingly focused on their best abilities, relationships, and opportunities.

Cell phones, ipods, laptops, and the increasing amount of wireless access locations make it easier for the entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner to give up his or her personal office, and having a regular desk.

Find Many Great Places to Meet for Business

An entrepreneurial owner needs to find many great paces to meet for business. For example, a good business club is a great place to meet for business. Their business is to provide all of the support needed to effectively meet for business. 

The entrepreneurial owner well uses their business club facilities as needed. We at COI, find that most of our business contacts would prefer to meet in our business club versus in our office.

Up scale hotels have many good meeting places, including providing separate meeting rooms to meet for business.

Many meetings could be effectively held in a ‘Starbucks’ like, non-restaurant meeting place.

Sharing an unhurried meal at a good restaurant is a great way to meet for business. Good food, in a congenial restaurant, facilitates business communications.

Have Regular Access to a Superb Meeting Room

An alternative to the entrepreneurial owner having a personal office, is instead creating, or having regular access to a superb meeting room, without having any of the stuff, distractions, and messes that undermine their BASE, ever growing entrepreneurial performances.

The meeting room could also be used by the entrepreneurial owner for limited administrative, paperwork, as long as at the end of the day related materials are properly put away by a support person.

On a particular day with no meetings scheduled, or if there is no paper work to do, the entrepreneurial owner should not come to the office/meeting room.

Implementing the decision to get rid of the bureaucratic personal office, with having external meetings and other means, the entrepreneurial, Connected 

Ownership owner should then be totally focused on developing better and bigger money making opportunities.

By combining the No-Office Solution, with the two previous strategies, the focused Rejuvenation, Preparation, and Productivity Days, and the Largest Check, entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owners could double his or her results, in 50% less time. This amazing breakthrough performance transformation could be done in a relatively short period of time.

Strategy 4
Testing for Future-Based ROR

Return on Ongoing Relationships, ROR

Rather than having a focus on limited return on short term relationships, an entrepreneurial Connected Ownership owner needs to work on developing, and growing a bigger Return on Ongoing Relationships, or ROR. This is with Right-Fit, highly energizing relationships, especially with employees, and clients.

A Past Based Client/Employee is Opposed to Growth

A past-based individual is opposed to growth because growth challenges, and threatens to change their past-based-self. Past-based individuals are activity based, versus results based. They also have lives filled with many non-productive activities, and relationships.

The Return on Ongoing Relationships, ROR, with past-based, resistant to change individuals, employees, and clients is poor and very limited. The entrepreneurial owner learns to avoid, and eliminates these low ROR, past-based relationships.

The Return on Ongoing Relationship Question, the RORq

The question below rather quickly and effectively clarifies if an individual is past-based or future-based in his or her thinking:

“If we were meeting three years from today, what has to have happened during that three year period, for you to feel happy about your progress?”

This Return on Ongoing Relationship question, or RORq, immediately reveals how a person looks at the future, and how willing he or she is to objectively change for the better. It also is a good indicator for the potential for a high return on ongoing relationship with that person.

There are only two reasons why a person will not want to respond to this highly revealing, and insightful question:

1. He or she does not want a relationship with you, in which case there is no opportunity for ROR.
2. He or she does not have a better future, and, or is unwilling to change for the better, in which case there is no opportunity for a useful relationship, or ROR.

Opportunity for the Growth of Future-Based, High ROR Relationships

If a person effectively and openly answers the Ongoing Relationship Question, the RORq, an opportunity for an ongoing relationship is created. Answering well indicates both trust and potential for a ROR relationship, along with a desire for a bigger and better future.

A favorable answer to the RORq, will freely stress goals and objectives, planned changes, improvements, and solutions. The kind of answer indicates and defines the degree of a future-based-self. The entrepreneurial, connected Ownership owner’s knowledge of the answer to the RORq enables him or her to begin to create value from energizing Right-Fit relationships.

By knowing where a future-based person desires to go in life and work, an entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner can begin to support comprehensively his or her progress by contributing, and orchestrating focused abilities and resources. This enhances the growth of an ongoing future-based, high ROR relationship. 

Strategy 5
Becoming Compellingly Referable

The best marketing strategy in the world is to become compellingly referable. Becoming compellingly referable, means that your clients are so pleased with you personally, and your service that they willingly go out of their way to openly promote you to others.

They feel that your success is just as important as their success. Referability means that your very best clients help clone you to other best clients. They willingly and continually introduce you to those like themselves, or to those who may even become much better clients for you.

Referability Depends on Four Simple, Basic Habits

Despite a wide divergence in the kinds of businesses involved, the best entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owners all consistently practice the following four simple, basic, and crucial habits. They are:

*always show up on time

*consistently does what they say

*finish what they start

*repeatedly say please, and thank you

If you ignore the consistent practice of all four of the above habits, you are not compellingly referable. This is despite an abundance of brains, talent, charm, and experience. 

Those entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owners who practice these four simple, basic habits consistently and thoroughly always get referred into bigger and better opportunities.

These four ‘compellingly referable habits’ are so critical to practice consistently and thoroughly that entrepreneurial owners must find ways to be reminded to score themselves on the practice of them daily.

Persistently Show Your Clients Great Respect and Appreciation

To get more clients, first really learn to take care of your current clients. Persistently show your clients great respect and great appreciation. A good job for a client is not enough; it has to be a great job.

It takes like ten times more time and effort to land a new client from scratch without being effectively referred, than to turn a good client into a great client. So make the extra, consistent effort with current clients. It really does pay off.

The four compellingly referable habits convey a sincere habit of showing great respect and appreciation. They proactively demonstrate great respect for your client’s schedules, goals, and values. They proactively demonstrate that none of your clients will ever be taken for granted.

Showing clients great respect and appreciation permanently safeguards an entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner from any indifference, arrogance, overconfidence, negligence, or sloppiness. These are the fundamental reasons why entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owners lose business, and are not referred onto larger opportunities by clients.

Make ‘Great Referabiliy,’ the Core of Your Philosophy and Performance 

Many charming, intelligent people are not compellingly referable because their main attitude that they convey is that of arrogance, and not curiosity, respect, and appreciation. Even people with years of specialized experience are not referable when they don’t demonstrate the kind of respect, and appreciation that prompts clients to freely talk about them favorably.

The rewards from practicing these four habits are immediate. In any organization, they need to be at the core of all training and coaching to assure no breakdowns in this total service attitude.

Every thing that your Connected Ownership organization consistently does and communicates needs to convey respect, and appreciation for every one who encounters it. This kind of persistent, caring, great referability operating philosophy will result in a flood of referrals, and unlimited, ongoing success.

Strategy 6
Focusing on Your Unique Ability

Many Zones of Human Competence

There are many zones of human competence in regard to any activity. You can go from Incompetence to Competence, to Excellence, to Unique Ability. Success in life depends on how much time is spent on the one or two activities that are clearly a big part of your zone of Unique Ability.

Unsuccessful people spend too much of their time in their zone of incompetence, and competence. Individuals and entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owners, who generate Ongoing Breakthrough Performances in their lives, spend most of their time in their zone of Unique Ability.

There are many Different Kinds of Unique Brilliance 

There are many different kinds of brilliance that can not be measured by IQ. These can be interpersonal, perceptual, special, and musical, and many other forms of unique brilliance.

One of the most powerful forms of genius, or brilliance, is entrepreneurial owner genius, or the brilliant ability to create value in new products, or services that are well received by the marketplace. Brilliance here connects, and effectively empowers a number of critical abilities.

All forms of unique brilliance depend on a total focus on an activity zone of Unique Ability. The critical factor is to fully, and consciously identify the entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner’s Unique Ability. Then to have the personal discipline by the entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner to focus years of development on this Unique Ability. 

This ongoing focus can result in the kind of Ongoing Breakthrough Performances that can be considered unique brilliance, or even genius.

Overcoming the Traditional Tendency to Correct Weaknesses

Many people never identify and develop their Unique Ability because of the traditional flawed tendency that tends to be practiced from childhood on. This is the tendency to focus on correcting their lesser strengths, or weaknesses.

This focus on correcting weakness leads to a preoccupation on mediocre behavior, and performance. This absolutely counter productive perspective leads to constant personal struggle, failure, and guilt.

With this wrong headed, forced perspective on correcting their weakness, most individuals completely neglect their zone of Unique Ability. As a result, their lives are filled with frustration, wasted high potential, and many missed opportunities.

Focus on Unique Abilities, and Greater Strengths 

The best entrepreneurial owners intent on getting better focus on and constantly develop their Unique Abilities, and greater strengths. They also increasingly delegate all the activities that they are incompetent, competent, and even excellent at doing.

Unique Ability activities are those that you really love to do, and do, and do again. These are activities that generate more energy within us than what we consume while doing, and produce greater levels of both skill improvement, and ever greater results in relation to the time, and energy that is invested.

When we are in our zone of Unique Ability, we experience constant growth, increasing confidence, and ongoing innovative solutions. The more time invested in our zone of Unique Ability, the more we feel a deeper sense of simplicity, clarity, and serenity. 

Leveraging Unique Abilities Leads to Genius Teamwork

Concept 2 takes you from Rugged, Non-Connected Individualism and/or Forced Control of Others to Connected Ownership Teamwork. The main strategy here is to recognize, and focus on each others Unique Ability, while trading, or delegating the rest to others on the team that have greater strengths where we have lesser strengths.

In this Connected Ownership Teamwork Paradigm, the entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner, and his or her Right-Fit team both accelerate their strength development. What develops is not just unique teamwork but Genius Connected Ownership Teamwork. This is where each member of the team concentrates on exercising and developing their Unique Ability to that of a level considered genius.

When striving for this level of Genius Connected Ownership Teamwork, all the other concepts, and strategies of Connected Ownership take place, and are continually connected, enhanced, and expanded. This facilitates the effective programming momentum for Ongoing Breakthrough Performances.

Strategy 7
Programming Connected Ownership’s Momentum for Ongoing Breakthrough Performances

Why Settle for Hard Fought Incremental, Short Term Performance Improvements?

With the right kind of transformational learning about Connected Ownership, a successful entrepreneurial owner can achieve Ongoing Breakthrough Performances with much less time and energy than a competitor would struggle with to achieve a much lesser, incremental performance improvement.

Never Lose Sight, or Your Connected Ownership of Your Strategic, Ongoing, Bigger Picture

Without the right connected understanding, and a much bigger picture in their minds of their much better future, the best entrepreneurial owners do not get better. They stay trapped by their Ceiling of Complexity.

By taking ownership of their authentic talents, strengths, tendencies, and taking the time to strategically see the much bigger picture, much better choices are made by the entrepreneurial owner. 

This strategic, bigger picture can include developing the Connected Ownership focus that includes Ongoing Breakthrough Performances in all aspects of their life. This is what the Bill Gates and Warren Buffets have done as Connected Ownership owners!

It Has to be Fun and Energizing for All Who Stay Connected

There is no room for force, or pressure of any kind in the practice of Connected Ownership. It has to be fun and energizing for all who really do fit, and who stay committed/connected.

This kind of highly energized, well connected, fun organization develops the kind of momentum that increasingly develops Ongoing Breakthrough Performances. This is because you increasingly have the Right-Fit Connection of People, Strategy, and Resources, including Capital Funding.

People Have to Really Fit and Connect; Connected Ownership Definitely is Not for Everyone 

Connected Ownership must become a conscious, freely permitted, choice made by the entrepreneurial owner, and stakeholders connected. It is not for everyone! 

Only those with a passionate commitment, and understanding for the empowering process of Connected Ownership should stay connected to an entrepreneurial, Connected Ownership owner and company. Transformational learning of the well proven, highly engaging philosophy, concepts, and strategies of Connected Ownership must consistently be under taken.

Concluding Summary

Having a proven, simple model for successful entrepreneurial owners to grow into the sustainable abundance, and personal significance with the Connected Ownership Process is the best way to break through the worlds insidious, Bureaucratic Ceilings of Complexity. 

The following are the three major aspects of these Ceilings of Complexity:

• Too much is happening without taking enough time to really think through, reflect,
   and to enjoy Transformational Connected Ownership Learning.
• Not enough vision and innovation that provides real, sustainable Right-Fit, well
   connected, empowered  opportunity.
• Too few of the right trusted Right-Fit resources at the right time, and not enough
   well connected leverage.

There can never be an old economy, bureaucratic solution to the above Ceilings of Complexity. Bureaucracy is the cause of this complexity; it consistently leads to greater complexity, and still greater crises.

Connected Ownership is a big part of the solution. It initiates the kind of highly energized organizations that willingly go on to learn to practice highly engaging, and empowering Ongoing Breakthrough Performances. 

Successful entrepreneurial ownership serves as the foundation for growing beyond the entrepreneurial phase of growth. This is into the development of Connected Ownership cultures that freely shares Comprehensive-Support, and the resulting accelerating abundance, and personal significance that is created. 

The ongoing, effective connection, and proactive facilitation of Connected Ownership and Comprehensive-Support by third party professionals like Connected Ownership Inc. creates the accelerating momentum for ownership Ongoing Breakthrough Performances, both personal, and organizational.