The Power of UP Series – Individual Upward Movement “We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves” – Brian Tracy As we know, UP is a direction. More importantly, it is a direction that we want to go. The first step in moving UP is to set our sights beyond our current circumstances. Inherent in the definition of UP is that it never stops. There is always one more rung on the ladder, one more battle to fight, one more person to help, and one more analogy to make. So, wherever we are today, we have room to improve. What’s holding us back? One of the main things keeping us from achieving more is that our expectations are set too low. When an expectation is set, our minds are so powerful and complex that our actions immediately begin to line up with that expectation. Robert K. Merton coined the phrase “self-fulfilling prophecy” to describe this phenomenon in his 1957 book Social Theory and Social Structure. Wikipedia defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as “a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true”. In George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle is transformed from a Cockney flower girl to a lady. What made the difference? The image that she had of herself changed when others treated her differently. Colonel Pickering called her “Miss Doolittle,” which Liza says began to teach her self-respect. She explained to Colonel Pickering, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treated me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” Most of us have observed the power of expectations with a familiar example. A co-worker mentions to us late in the day that they think that they’re coming down with a cold. We may respond with something like, “I’ve heard there’s something going around”. We could even say, “You look all right to me”. It really doesn’t matter what we say at that point as the person really expects to get sick. Sure enough, the next day, they call into work sounding just awful announcing that there is no possible way they could work today. By now, it's clear to me that we get what we expect. In the next part, we’ll look into who sets our expectations and how we can change them. "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them." – Michael Jordan On the flight home last night from Boston, I sat beside a very nice IT salesman. He was charming, engaging, and quite polished. Though he was an Executive Platinum member with American, he willingly gave up his aisle seat for a young grad student that needed to walk around occasionally due to a medical condition. He and I had a great conversation in which I showed him the Bubble Planner. He was impressed and offered some great insight for marketing on the internet. In addition to this, he offered such sage advice to the new Grad student beside him. It was so simple, yet, so profound that I thought that you would want to hear it as well. What did he say? He said that when she graduated she should consider a less popular industry for people with their MBA. Apparently, the majority of new MBA's choose industries such as Banking, Venture Capitalism, and Consulting. However, he asserted that there was greater promotion potential for people with their MBA in less popular industries. He said that if she selected an industry that has fewer MBA's that she could rise very quickly in the organization. Why Would He Say That? Since the herd is chasing the top companies for MBA's, the top companies are now taking advantage of this. Like the large public accounting firms in the 1980's, these companies are able to work these new graduates for 2-3 years 80-100 hours per week. Once this crop of graduates is burned out, they bring in the new crop. The best of the group move on to the next job as soon as a better opportunity presents itself. Eventually, the average of the group are let go as the company hires upper positions from the outside. In the less popular industries, there would be less competition. It's simply a matter of applying the Law of Supply and Demand. Since there is less competition, it is easier to get hired. Additionally, promotion opportunities will come more quickly since she will have an edge over the other internal candidates. Furthermore, since the company values her talents, she will be treated much better, which will cause her to stay with the company. Her loyalty will pay huge dividends over time and propel her to the Executive Suite. She was grateful for his advice and seemed to be genuinely interested in using his approach. This conversation made me wonder how I could apply the Law of Supply and Demand to the Bubble Planner. It reminded me of an illustration that my Macro-Economics professor used. The Toll Booth Example Have you ever noticed that when you are approaching a toll booth that some lines are longer than others? In fact, there are times when you can simply switch lanes and have no wait at all while the cars stuck in the longer lines. When a car approaches the toll booth, the driver is often attracted to the line with more cars. There are many reasons for this, i.e. they think there must be something wrong with the empty line, they were going too fast and couldn't change, or they weren't paying attention. In essence, this is the Law of the Herd. People are comfortable following other people because they think they know what they are doing. The opportunity lies in doing something different. That's how this law applies to the Bubble Planner. There are dozens of planner companies that have essentially copied Franklin Covey. Did you know that our minds think in pictures? Of course, you know it and we know it. Why don't the planner companies know it? Bubble UP! decided to leave the herd and develop a planner that is based on the latest research. Finally, a planner that Thinks Like We Do!

The Power of UP Series – Individual Upward Movement

“We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves” – Brian Tracy

As we know, UP is a direction. More importantly, it is a direction that we want to go. The first step in moving UP is to set our sights beyond our current circumstances. Inherent in the definition of UP is that it never stops. There is always one more rung on the ladder, one more battle to fight, one more person to help, and one more analogy to make. So, wherever we are today, we have room to improve.

What’s holding us back? One of the main things keeping us from achieving more is that our expectations are set too low. When an expectation is set, our minds are so powerful and complex that our actions immediately begin to line up with that expectation. Robert K. Merton coined the phrase “self-fulfilling prophecy” to describe this phenomenon in his 1957 book Social Theory and Social Structure. Wikipedia defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as “a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true”.

In George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle is transformed from a Cockney flower girl to a lady. What made the difference? The image that she had of herself changed when others treated her differently. Colonel Pickering called her “Miss Doolittle,” which Liza says began to teach her self-respect. She explained to Colonel Pickering, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treated me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.”

Most of us have observed the power of expectations with a familiar example. A co-worker mentions to us late in the day that they think that they’re coming down with a cold. We may respond with something like, “I’ve heard there’s something going around”. We could even say, “You look all right to me”. It really doesn’t matter what we say at that point as the person really expects to get sick. Sure enough, the next day, they call into work sounding just awful announcing that there is no possible way they could work today.

By now, it's clear to me that we get what we expect. In the next part, we’ll look into who sets our expectations and how we can change them.

"You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them." – Michael Jordan

On the flight home last night from Boston, I sat beside a very nice IT salesman. He was charming, engaging, and quite polished. Though he was an Executive Platinum member with American, he willingly gave up his aisle seat for a young grad student that needed to walk around occasionally due to a medical condition.

He and I had a great conversation in which I showed him the Bubble Planner. He was impressed and offered some great insight for marketing on the internet. In addition to this, he offered such sage advice to the new Grad student beside him. It was so simple, yet, so profound that I thought that you would want to hear it as well.

What did he say?
He said that when she graduated she should consider a less popular industry for people with their MBA. Apparently, the majority of new MBA's choose industries such as Banking, Venture Capitalism, and Consulting. However, he asserted that there was greater promotion potential for people with their MBA in less popular industries. He said that if she selected an industry that has fewer MBA's that she could rise very quickly in the organization.

Why Would He Say That?
Since the herd is chasing the top companies for MBA's, the top companies are now taking advantage of this. Like the large public accounting firms in the 1980's, these companies are able to work these new graduates for 2-3 years 80-100 hours per week. Once this crop of graduates is burned out, they bring in the new crop. The best of the group move on to the next job as soon as a better opportunity presents itself. Eventually, the average of the group are let go as the company hires upper positions from the outside.

In the less popular industries, there would be less competition. It's simply a matter of applying the Law of Supply and Demand. Since there is less competition, it is easier to get hired. Additionally, promotion opportunities will come more quickly since she will have an edge over the other internal candidates. Furthermore, since the company values her talents, she will be treated much better, which will cause her to stay with the company. Her loyalty will pay huge dividends over time and propel her to the Executive Suite.

She was grateful for his advice and seemed to be genuinely interested in using his approach. This conversation made me wonder how I could apply the Law of Supply and Demand to the Bubble Planner. It reminded me of an illustration that my Macro-Economics professor used.

The Toll Booth Example
Have you ever noticed that when you are approaching a toll booth that some lines are longer than others? In fact, there are times when you can simply switch lanes and have no wait at all while the cars stuck in the longer lines. When a car approaches the toll booth, the driver is often attracted to the line with more cars. There are many reasons for this, i.e. they think there must be something wrong with the empty line, they were going too fast and couldn't change, or they weren't paying attention. In essence, this is the Law of the Herd. People are comfortable following other people because they think they know what they are doing.

The opportunity lies in doing something different. That's how this law applies to the Bubble Planner. There are dozens of planner companies that have essentially copied Franklin Covey. Did you know that our minds think in pictures? Of course, you know it and we know it. Why don't the planner companies know it? Bubble UP! decided to leave the herd and develop a planner that is based on the latest research. Finally, a planner that Thinks Like We Do!