I know, therefore I aim

Descartes, the philosopher, famously wrote: "I think, therefore I am."

What he meant is that you can doubt all you want, but you cannot doubt that there is a doubter -- that is, you cannot doubt that you exist.

Here's my humble contribution: "I know, therefore I aim." More specifically: "I know that I am thinking, therefore I aim."

"I am" is about existence. "I aim" is about essence.

What do you want the essence of your life to be? Then AIM for THAT.

In other words, to AIM for something means to THINK about it. As Brian Tracy, the well-known motivational author and speaker often said, "What you think about, you bring about."

The important thing to remember is that every time you think about your goal or aim, you should have something written down on paper as a RESULT of your thinking.

Here's a concrete example of good thinking: Take a blank sheet of paper and write, at the top, a specific goal you would like to achieve.

Then, underneath, write 20 ideas rapidly. Do not take more than 15 minutes to do this. I call it "subconscious brainstorming," and the purpose of this exercise is to bypass your cultural-rational inhibitions so that you can access the power of your subconscious, which is like a Super Cosmic Computer which knows much, much more than you consciously know.

Let's get back to "I know, therefore I aim."

This is a breathtaking revelation that I could write a whole book about, but for now, consider this simple analogy: the personal computer or PC. It doesn't think much, yet it knows a lot.

Consider Deep Blue, IBM's supercomputer which beat the world chess champion Kasparov years ago. No matter how fast or how intuitively Kasparov is "thinking", he could not beat the computer because it "knows."

Indeed, the purpose of thinking is to get to knowing. This is why I wrote earlier that the best competition is computation. It is also why Jeff Hawkins, the creator of the Palm pilot, equates memory with intelligence.

What does all this have to do with "success"?

Well, the more you KNOW, the more easily you will succeed. If you're working hard right now to make money, then there's something you don't know.

If you're an employee working for somebody else, then there's something you don't know about capitalism, business, entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing, selling, production, intellectual capital, procedures, quality control, systems thinking, process design and engineering, knowledge productivity, etc.

To make the transition from "employee" to "entrepreneur", you need to fill that knowledge gap (which is the difference between what you currently know and what you MUST know if you are to succeed in business). Most entrepreneurs make the common mistake of jumping into action mode without knowing much, so it's not surprising that they fail.

The knowledge gap MUST be filled before the competence gap can be filled, and before the execution gap can be filled. (The competence gap is the difference between what you are currently capable of doing/performing vs what you MUST be capable of doing/performing; the execution gap is the difference between what you are currently and recurringly doing vs what you MUST currently and recurringly be doing if you are to succeed).

So our opening statement, "I know, therefore I aim" now becomes "I know my gaps, therefore I aim at reducing them so I can succeed."

Often, people need a coach to tell them the truth -- that is, to tell them specifically about the size of the gaps (the knowledge gap, the competence gap and the execution gap).

If you want to succeed, get a teacher to bluntly and honestly tell you about your knowledge gap; get a trainer to help you bridge your competence gap; and get a coach to help you reduce your execution gap.

In other words, the teacher must come into your life BEFORE the trainer, who in turn must come into your life BEFORE the coach.

The teacher is the most important person because, as you know, "Knowledge is power."

Even ignorance is power, if you are aware of what it is that you are ignorant about and you are aware that you can learn ANYTHING that you want to learn.

The powerful statement "I know, therefore I aim" also applies to goal-setting. If you know your goals, it is then easy to take aim. If you don't, you can't.

I will write more on this important topic of goal-setting.