Potential, opportunity, innovation lie everywhere, says a man who ought to know, Warren Buffett:

“Currently so many opportunities abound, I feel like a hungry mosquito in a nudist camp.”

Potential is defined as:

• the inherent capacity for coming into being
• existing in possibility
• anything that may be possible.

It’s also defined in this beautiful way:

“Potential is currently unfulfilled capacity to improve, develop, and achieve impressive feats.”

First, potential lies at the heart of change and innovation

Innovation is not just creating a new idea sourced from science, research, the market, our own brain, the collective mind-brain of our team. Innovation is ‘bankable creativity’ – an idea we ride all the way to market, an idea we commercialize.

Innovation starts with a human mind perceiving a potential!  Then follows four stages of invention, translation, commercialization and spreading of that actualized potential widely.

However innovation does not always equate with ‘success’.  As members of the venture capital industry often say,

“Only 1 in a 100 ideas ever get to market.  And only 1 in a 100 of these ever make money”

Innovation defined

A quick Google search reveals there are as many definitions of innovation as there are experts:

• The act of introducing something new, says the American Heritage Dictionary
• A new idea, method or device,  suggests Webster Online
• Change that creates a new dimension of performance, claims management guru, Peter Drucker.
• The ability to deliver new value to a customer, argues Jose Campos.
• Creating value out of new ideas, new products, new services or new ways of doing things, states the Scottish Enterprise web site.

Innovation very broad

Innovation includes creativity, but it’s broader. It goes far beyond seeing the potential in developing new products, technologies and services that is commonly seen as the guts of innovation.

In fact, there are least 14 quite different forms of innovation.  See Innovate by 14.

One of these 14 forms is to transform both the nature of the business organization itself, and its culture – and hence its branding in the market place. This is precisely what many businesses with soul are doing:

“The main innovative ‘products’ of a business with soul are its people and its organization.”

We see part of this broader view of innovation in these quotes:

“[Innovation is] the introduction of new goods …, new methods of production … the opening of new markets … the conquest of new sources of supply… and the carrying out of a new organization of any industry”  cries Joseph Schumpeter who also transformed the Marxian idea of ‘creative destruction’ and applied it to the whole process of innovation and progress.

“Innovation does not relate just to a new product that would come into the marketplace. Innovation can occur in processes and approaches to the marketplace,” says David Schmittlen.

Second, potential – in the form of ideas, creativity, opportunity creating and innovating lies at the heart of being an entrepreneur

And most entrepreneurs possess a keen nose for potential and a well-developed opportunity mind set.

The great management consultant, Peter Drucker got it right when he said:

“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.  The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.”

We back him with four Neville-isms:

“As entrepreneurs our task is to see, and see potential in, what does not yet exist, and to bring it into being.”

“Entrepreneurs see problems and change, as opportunities, not threats.”

“For any entrepreneur major business opportunities typically come clothed as major problems – waiting for us to re-dress. As problems increases, potentiality increases!”

“We make a difference when we free us, others, our community, even the world, from some limiting condition  – like ignorance, poor health, poverty, stinkin’ thinkin’, bad breath, ugliness, blindness, cars that require petrol, madness, declining memory, inability to travel, lack of options and choice, war, disease, famine, lack of opportunity, oppression, overloud TV commercials, ice that melts, politicians who…”

Thirdly, and most importantly for Businesses With Soul, the potential for innovating, changing, growing, developing us as people, lies within every one of us – waiting to get out!

This goes way beyond the obvious fact that it’s our people who do the innovating. Human beings are born physically perfect but in every other sense unformed, yet full of natural talent and potential.

This fact means all of us must go on a Hero’s Journey of birthing our potential, making actual what is latent, becoming what it is we have it in us to become. This is the journey of our psyche or soul.

“We’re all born, full of potential, but unfinished – with one of several key life purposes and tasks to ‘finish us off’.”

Or, as Jim Rohn puts it:

“Of all the things that can have an effect on your future, I believe personal growth is the greatest. We can talk about sales growth, profit growth, asset growth, but all of this probably will not happen without personal growth.”

Potential and soul

Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson, who struggled with T.B. until it killed him at 44 claimed:

“To be who we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.”

Stevenson knew about potential and soul.

The eminent US psychologist, Erich Fromm who lived from 1900-1980 claimed

“The aim of life is to be fully born, though its tragedy is most of us die before we are born. To live is to be born every moment”

“Death – for an individual, a partnership, a business, a group, a team, a relationship, a family, a society – occurs when birth – ongoing birthing, growing, changing, learning – stops…”

Fromm knew about potential and soul.

Humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow, who wrote about self-actualization says

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be”.

Maslow knew about potential and soul.

Incubators of the human spirit

It’s developed human talent that grows businesses and defines personal and business purposes. That harms or cares for the planet.  That makes profits. That engages in philanthropy and giving back to the wider community.

In his fascinating book, The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell piles on lots of evidence that while success is a potential available evenly to everyone, its reality is dependent on many external factors, including our birthdate!

Success also requires many favourable environmental conditions and mastery of any skill required 10,000 hours of practice.

For these and other reason, businesses with soul consciously act as incubators of the human spirit, developers of human potential, actualizers of human possibility.

Which is why I say:

“Businesses with soul are some of the greatest human institutions ever invented, businesses without soul, are some of the worst.”

Many businesses claim, “People are our greatest assets!” But accounting conventions include people as a cost on the profit and loss, and has no way of accounting for people in the balance sheet.

Equally, “Intellectual Property is the real estate of the C21st” And much of a firm’s IP resides in the minds and experience of its people.

Concrete intangibles

Businesses with soul take this issue of ‘concrete intangibles’ seriously.

A widely-acknowledged world leader is Australian researcher, author, and Chairman of the Intangible Management Standards Institute, Dr Ken Standfield.

His family tree evidences a long family history of innovation and invention. His ancestors, invented the first garden rakes, mousetraps, artificial heart pumps, and many other useful things.

The web site of the Standards Institute outlines some of his own extraordinary conceptual innovations.

Dr Standfield’s work clearly points out fundamental differences between ‘old’ manufacturing-style businesses and ‘new’ businesses that create value through knowledge, know-how, intellectual property, relationships, and time.

And he outlines the ways in which intangible values can be identified, measured and managed.

Work with soul

In his book ‘The Management Myth,’ Richard D Hames suggests,

“For the first time in human experience, we have an opportunity to shape our work to suit the way we want to live, rather than our lives to fit our work.”  

We agree!

Soul-full work is work we individually tailor to our needs, interests, talents, life circumstances, ongoing learning and growth. It is the direct opposite of ‘soul-less’, cog-in-a-machine, fitting-a-square-peg-in-a-round-hole type of work.

Its fundamental premise is we turn our back on the notion of ‘fabulous job – no life’.  Instead, we embrace not one salaried income but multiple streams of income – where income is both financial and psychological.

Old definition of success

Those prophets of business excellence, Tom Peters and Nancy Austin capture well the old definition of business success:

“The cost of excellence is the giving up of family vacations, Little League games, birthday dinners, evenings, weekends, lunch hours, gardening, reading, movies, and most other pastimes.  We have a number of friends whose marriages or partnerships crumbled under the weight of their devotion to a dream.”

“We are frequently asked if it is possible to ‘have it all’ – a fully satisfying personal life and a fully-satisfying hard-working one.  Our answer is No.”

Business With Soul definition of success

John R O’Neil has written a fascinating book for leaders, business owners, managers and entrepreneurs.   It’s called, The Paradox of Success. Its sub-title is, “When winning at work means losing at life”

In it he suggests success is being redefined.

“Today there is a growing trend towards defining success in terms of a balanced life, in which worldly pursuits share space with ‘intangibles’: rich and mutually supportive relationships and family roles, a healthy body that can cope well with stress, participation in community life, and opportunities to fulfill creative and altruistic urges.”

People growing – becoming a professional “Expand”!

For many years my professional mentoring offices were next door to those of a psychiatrist – or “Shrink”.

At the close of each session I’d watch as his clients leave with shoulders stooped, eyes wet, and their focus on the ground.

Naturally he was dealing with deeper and more health-threatening issues than I was. Though, by contrast, my clients walked out with their heads held high, their eyes twinkling, and their focus straight ahead, or on the sky.

That’s when, for a while, I half-jokingly called myself ”a professional Expand”.

A bit wet, yes, but you get the idea. And don’t you truly love the idea of being an Expand – of both you and others?

This notion is core to Businesses With Soul:

• expanding us and others
• growing our brains out
• incubating the human spirit
• growing talent
• growing our business by mentoring and growing our people, and
• giving our people the tools to grow our customers and clients.

Which for some inexplicable reason reminds me of the two shrinks who met in the corridors of a well-know mental hospital. After talking for a few minutes, one of them indicated, “You’re fine! How am I?”

Which, in turn, leads us to a Neville-ism:  “Just because you’re well doesn’t mean you can’t get better!”

In 24  nations surveyed this year, some 75% of all consumers and employees no longer trust the behaviour or ‘ignoble’ purposes of business.

US statistics revealing

The US statistics are representative and revealing:

• Only 13% of all Americans trust big business – and it’s not much higher for other mature consumer societies. That’s 87% of Americans who DON’T trust big business.
• Only 39% of employees say they trust senior leadership.
• Some three-quarters of US consumers feel companies don’t tell the truth in advertising.
• Three-quarters of employees in big companies observed violations of the law or company standards in a 12-month period.
• Only 20% of employers are fully engaged, heart and soul, in their work.

Given trust is the foundation stone of any society, the above research, conducted by one of the world’s most competent trend companies, trendwatching.com, is of enormous significance.

It indicates globally businesses must reassess their Purpose, their behaviour, and their role in the sun.

Partial antidote

As a partial antidote, new generous entrepreneurs, and businesses with soul are blossoming at the smaller end of town. Corporate observers are calling for new leaders with a new brief:

“A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless … someone’s got to make a wake up call,”

Says Warren Bennis, one of the world’s leading researchers on business leadership.

Ending the great divide

Australian entrepreneur, Peter Terrill, the CEO of Micro to IPO, suggests,

“For far too long we’ve divided off how we earn our crust, from who we are, from what we’re here to be and do, and from our family and broader life”

“Creating a business with soul – that is a business based on worthwhile purpose, and which provides meaning – ends these great divides”

Stew Leonard, Jr, who is the president and chief executive officer of Stew Leonard’s, one of the most unique food and wine retailers in the world sums it up:

“Don’t go into business to get rich. Do it to enrich people. It will come back to you”

Stew Leonard’s has 2,400 Team Members, annual sales of nearly $400 million, and has been named for the past seven consecutive years as one of FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”  Stew Leonard runs a Business With Soul.

Start with “why?”

As Simon Sinek evidences in his book, Start with Why, many businesses tend to stress the “what and how” of business. Forgetting or downplaying the “why”. For example:

• We make great computers
• They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
• Wanna buy one?

By contrast, one reason why Apple has many true fans is they turn this on its head.  They start with a very clear WHY:

• WHY:  Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.  We believe in thinking differently.
• HOW:  The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly.
• WHAT:  And we happen to make great computers.
• Wanna buy one?

Confusion of purpose, mission and vision

Roy Spence Jr, US C.E.O. and ad man writes:

“People get confused between purpose, mission statements, and vision. Purpose is the deepest river: You start with ‘What difference are you trying to make?’  Your tactics will change, your ads will change, your mission might too, but your purpose never will.

“‘Mission’ is basically how you execute your purpose. And vision is a statement of how you see the world after you’ve done your purpose and mission,”

Passion beyond profit

Spence also insists,

“True company greatness comes in direct proportion to passionate pursuit of a purpose beyond money.”

Making a difference

Business Purpose is a definitive statement of the difference we’re aiming to make in the marketplace and the world. Purpose trumps everything else.

• Google’s Purpose is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

“There are many within Google who believe their company is in the wisdom business, who talk about raising the world’s IQ, democratizing knowledge and empowering people with information,”

Suggests Gary Hamel.

• Disney is in the joy businesses. It’s purpose is “Keeping alive the magic of childhood.”

• Twitter is built on three tenets:  “Minimize thinking around communication, expose trends in local and global circles, and spark interaction.”

• Wikipedia’s Purpose is “To encourage the growth and development of open content globally, free of charge and without advertising.”

Purpose versus Mission Statements.

Every new C.E.O. says, ‘Let’s do a new mission statement,’ and no one remembers them. You know, ‘improve shareholder value and whatever’. That’s why people are cynical: mission statements don’t help you in tough times. They don’t keep you on track.

By contrast, Purpose anchors you

 For example, the purpose of:

• Southwest Airlines is to democratize the skies
• Wal-Mart is to save money so people can live better
• Disney, restated, is to use imagination to bring happiness to millions
• United States Air Force is to keep the USA safe from air and space and cyberspace attacks

Other examples of business purpose

The Purpose of one of the world’s richest men, Investor Warren Buffett, is being an artist, with investment as his canvas. He has never created an organization.  His firm, Berkshire Hathaway, retains a tiny head office, for that is all that an artist needs.

For 25 years Microsoft’s Purpose was:  “A personal computer on every desk and in every home”  Now it’s:  “Empowering people through great software anytime, anyplace, and on any device.”

Profit is inadequate as a core purpose

Profit is more part of the execution of a business core purpose than it is a core purpose:

“Business must be run at a profit, else it will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit… then the business must die as well, for it no longer has a reason for existence”

maintained Henry Ford, US industrialist and billionaire who founded the Ford Motor Company.

“Most companies strive to maximize shareholder wealth — a goal that is inadequate in many respects. As an emotional catalyst, wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies. It’s an insufficient defence when people question the legitimacy of corporate power. And it’s not specific or compelling enough to spur renewal,”

claims the influential Gary Hamel.

“Saying that a company’s purpose is to maximize profits is like saying that man exists in order to breathe. The fact that a man cannot live without breathing is one thing, but the ultimate purpose to which all man’s energies must be directed is quite another. Similarly, it is one thing to say that a company cannot survive without a certain minimum of profits, and quite another to say that the purpose of any company is to maximize profits”

writes Professor Miguel Ángel Ariño.

Moral purpose versus expediency

The purpose of Businesses With Soul is a noble or moral purpose.  The opposite is true for businesses without soul.

“When no clear moral purpose is articulated, a company acquires a de facto amoral purpose: expediency. It becomes the kind of company that professes, ‘We are here only to make money.’ This can be very successful in the short run, but companies without a clear moral purpose cannot endure; they do not survive the changes they will face in their markets or business environments.”

“Even so, this type of company is preferable to the company that pretends to follow a moral purpose, such as excellence or altruism, but actually practices expediency. This gap between real and professed moral purpose breeds cynicism among employees. Companies that profess moral purpose but do not display it become crisis-ridden and paralysed, precisely because employees have inconsistent, even contradictory, guidance for their decisions and cannot set priorities”

Argues UK consultant, Nikos Mourkogiannis.

Purpose keeps us on track – making us a better us

US ad man, Roy M Spence, Jr makes his feelings clear:

“Here’s the thing: In every corporation and every politician, in every university, in every country, sooner or later, you get envy. You’re struggling, and you see another organization in your space. And the tendency—if you don’t have a purpose that you can articulate—is to strike out on a mission to become a worse them.

“Purpose says: “Wait a minute; stop it; if we try to be like them, the best we’ll ever be is a worse them. It’s the best we’ll ever be. So instead of being a worse them, let’s become a better us.” Well, you can’t become a better us unless you know what us is”

And that same huge idea can be one foundation stone of your Business With Soul.

So here we suggest 12 possible purposes that might underpin your life, and guide your business.

Meaning?  Purpose?

Both seem fleeting and illusionary.  One New Yorker cartoon shows an office worker slumped against the wall, clutching his chest. As worried colleagues rush to aid him, he mumbles: “Don’t worry, it was just a fleeting sense of purpose.”

Fleeting, yet…

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission-purpose in life”

Maintains holocaust survivor and renown psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, in his iconic book Man’s Search for Meaning

“Everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment… For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue.  And it only does so as the unintended consequence of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”

Ayn Rand writes in her monumental Atlas Shrugged:

“To me, there is only one form of human depravity – the man or woman without a purpose,”

And brilliant English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking has hus life and work purpose absolutely clear:

“My goal/purpose is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is, and why it exists at all”

So, how would we explain to our mentor, life partner, or meaningful other what the purpose of our life, business, and work is?…What’s our job on the planet?

Humans are meaning-seeking beings. As such, it is vital we create and follow, a vivid and precise overriding, BIG purpose – and hopefully, a noble purpose for our life.

When we commit to such a Purpose, it makes sense of our life, our business, and everything we do. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson we ask:

“What is my job on the planet?  What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?”

Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist, called this simply:

“Following our bliss”

And Sam Keen, the contemporary US author reminds us:

“The  most  central  source of man’s alienation  [is] the  absence  of  abiding  meaning, or as I prefer to say ‘vocation’ in our lives.”

A warm invitation

Unless we are deeply religious – in which case our Purpose might be ‘to love God and enjoy her-him-it-they forever’ – Life Purpose is not given to us,  nor is it ‘out there’ waiting for us to find it.

We have to create it.

So…. I respectfully invite us to conceive, design, create, build, evolve and sustain a basic noble, personal, purpose.  [If you need help with this contact your personal mentor.  Or contact me].

And, to then go on and build a business based on that personal purpose.

Please be warned

Please, be warned, this idea of turning our Personal Life Purpose into a core Business Purpose is a radical idea – with many amazing consequences and outcomes.

To kick-start you, here are 12 Personal Purposes for us/you to build on:

1. To manifest our in-born potential, and to grow in knowledge, experience and wisdom
2. To live out a high set of ideals or values such as compassion, love, kindness, goodwill
3. To promote human flourishing by…
4. To live, love, and create, abundantly and make our creativity bankable
5. To gain significant wealth and power for us, our family, our tribe…
6. To fulfill this specific big dream, vision, or destiny…
7. To make a difference and create a worthwhile legacy by…
8. To follow our passion or bliss of…
9. To live in peace with each other, and in harmony with our natural environment
10. To attain inner enlightenment, and/or meld with the divine
11. To find meaning in the everyday
12. To live with vital awareness

______________________________________________________________________________________________

1.  Manifest, or make actual, our in-born potential

Fritz Perls:

“Every individual, every plant, every animal has only one inborn goal or purpose – to actualize itself as it is.”

Abraham Maslow defined ‘actualize’ more poetically:

“A musician must write music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, [an entrepreneur must entrepreneur] if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.  What a man [or woman] can be, he must be.”

The Spanish author,  Michael de Cervantes, who penned the first modern novel, Don Quixote says:

“Love not what you are, but who you may become.”

University professor, author and motivational speaker, Leo Buscaglia, known as ‘Dr Love’:

 ”The easiest thing in the world is to be you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position”

2.   Live out our high ideals

Scientist Albert Einstein:

“The ideals which have lighted me on my way, and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour – property, outward success, luxury – have always seemed to me contemptible.”

Actor Johnny Depp:

“There are four questions of value in life… What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.”

University professor, author and motivational speaker, Leo Buscaglia who was often called ‘a cheerleader for life’:

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost, and love to the lonely.”

3.  Promote human flourishing – ours and others

French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

4.  Live and do business abundantly

Wayne Dyer:

“Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.”

Neville Christie:

“We’re brain-washed to believe success is having, doing, being – in that order.   In fact, true abundance is being, doing, having – in that order.”

Victor Hugo:

“I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love.   His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes – and the stars through his soul.”

5.  Gain great wealth and power – for us and our family

Brian Tracy:

“Today the greatest single source of wealth is between your ears.”

Oscar Wilde:

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.  In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”

Seneca:

“Most powerful is he who has power over himself.”

Neville Christie:

“Many of life’s greatest riches are to be found in us and in our home, hearth, family and friends.”

6.  Dream big dreams

Like Steve Jobs we may want to “make a dent in the Universe”.   His vehicle:  His highly innovative company, Apple.

Or maybe like Martin Luther King, Jr, we seek to right a universal wrong:

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”

Hear King’s full speech

US President, Woodrow Wilson:

“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.  They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.”

7.   Make a difference

Leo Rosten:

“The purpose of life is not to be happy – but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.”

Edward Everett Hale:

“I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”

Neville Christie:

“We make a difference when we free us, others, our community, even the world, from some limiting condition  – like ignorance, poor health, poverty, stinkin’ thinkin’, bad breath, ugliness, blindness, cars that require petrol, madness, declining memory, inability to travel, lack of options and choice, war, disease, famine, lack of opportunity, oppression, overloud TV commercials, ice that melts, politicians who…”

8.  Follow our passion or bliss

David Borchard:

“Neither fun nor passion was afforded much credibility as a career [or business] planning orientation in the past.  Passion, in this context, refers to a very personal and energizing interest in some kind of activity or cause… Pursuing a uniquely personal passion may well be the best antidote of our chaotic times.”

Joseph Campbell:

“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.”

Bertrand Russell:

“Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]. This has been my life; I found it worth living.”

9.  Live in harmony with man and nature

Nelson Henderson:

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

10.  Gain enlightenment

Morihei Ueshiba, the Japanese founder of the martial art and spiritual practice of Aikodo:

“You are here to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.”

Lao Tzu:

“He who knows others, is wise. He who knows himself, is enlightened.”

11.  Find meaning in the everyday

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Swiss-born US psychiatrist:

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within you and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”

US theologian, Thomas Moore, writes

“It’s odd that after thousands of years of great spiritual example and literature we have to remind ourself that spirituality is to be found in everyday life…You, mortal person, have divinity in you.”

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussatt claim,

“From ancient times to today, spiritually literate people have been able to locate within their daily life points of connection with the sacred.”

12. Live with vital awareness

According to Latim American liberation theologian, Leonardo Boff, meaningful living is:

“that attitude which puts life at the centre, and defends and promotes life against all the mechanisms of death, dessication, or stagnation.”

Benedictine monk, Brother David Steindl-Rast develops the same theme:

“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality [or purposeful living] is a separate development of life, the penthouse of our existence”

“But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, ‘I come alive when I listen to music..when I garden…when I play golf.’ Whenever we come come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual.  And then we can say, ‘I know at least how one is spiritual in that area’”

“To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives, is the task that is never accomplished, but it remains the goal!”

So, Welcome to the Purposeful Life!

Neville Christie is the author of this article and holds the copyright as at April, 2011. However, you are free to use, copy and pass it on providing you acknowledge Neville’s authorship and include this link: www.nevillechristie.com

Michael Woods of Media Saints

“After nearly two years of mentoring by Neville Christie,  life & business could not be more prosperous. Neville digs beneath the surface to tap into your true motivation & desires. He gives me the knowledge and know-how to unleash my full potential.  I’m sure he can do the same for you!”  

says Alex Pantea, Development Director of the CEO Institute.

“As someone who has inspired and assisted many hundreds of businesses during his 55 years [plus] as an entrepreneur in over 40 industries, he brings a continually expanding holistic range of business skills and life-experience to whoever he works with – especially brilliant around entrepreneurial, corporate and personal renewal.

“For anyone who wants to break through the constraints of existing mindsets and business models or industry paradigms that no longer deliver the same results, Neville is able to creatively facilitate rapid and meaningful change that enables his clients to effect tangible and radical growth.

“For example, in 2009 Neville enabled us to create 2  ‘Frontier’ Syndicates of 15 Business Leaders, which he still chairs.

“These groups have proven to be some of our most dynamic groups, comprised as they are of some of the most forward-thinking people in their industries, working together to help each other breakthrough and fast-track their growth at all levels.”

Alex concludes:

“If you’re especially looking for exceptional transformation and sustainable growth, I can only highly recommend him”

by Elliot Epstein, CEO, Salient Communication

Elliot Epstein, CEO Salient Communication

Neville Christie is one of Australia’s leading corporate entrepreneurs, company director-chairmen, and CEO mentors.

After 36 years as a professional non-executive director and chairman, his unparalleled insights, business acumen, and passion for developing people are more highly sought after than ever before.

In the corporate world there is a plethora of consultants. coaches and non-executive directors who purport to add value to businesses as they face key challenges in managing growth,

As I see it, Neville Christie is unique

He holds all the usual accreditations we expect from trusted advisors – an MBA, Post Graduate diplomas, and even founding fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

However, Neville Christie is unique because he doesn’t merely direct, consult, coach or mentor – he owns the result with you in the following ways:

• guiding you financially and emotionally through to a high growth path, then trade sale, private equity injection, management buy out or buy in, or successful public float
• creating greater stakeholder value than you first imagined
• creating merger, acquisition and alliance strategies that previously didn’t exist
• attracting the right capital and resources to drive your business
• providing boards and executive teams with foresight and insight on strategy, pitfalls and governance issues.

“Neville Christie grows businesses, protects them from failure, and transfers his knowledge to the executive in the process so that the results become sustainable.”

His diverse and rich history includes:

• Director, Destra Corporation (ASX: DES) – one of Australia’s fastest growing companies in digital entertainment.
• Director, Maunsell Engineers  – International Consulting Engineering company
• Managing Director, Bristol Paints – which Neville helped build to a chain of 86 retail outlets with 32% share of the domestic paint market.

Whatever it takes – Neville Christie makes it happen. End of story!

Elliot Epstein – CEO, Salient Communication

www.elliotepstein.speakerdirect.com.au

The board consists of two other senior advisors plus the executive management team of the company.

Neville is the board chair and as such has been instrumental in establishing the board, setting the strategic direction of the board and leading the regular board meetings.

Neville has proven his value to the board as a very professional chair leading a very able and professional group. He mentors the CEO other board members and the executive team.

I find Neville brings a light touch and new thinking to the board, he facilitates us working together co-operatively and with a clear outcome.

The result

The result of Neville’s leadership has seen a significant growth in the business, development of significant new business strategies, far more planning and controls, and a real lift in the skills of the operating team.

The two owner-directors suggest they find this regular ‘bringing of them to account’ while still leaving them to make all key decisions of the board (with guidance), a really important added value to their business.

Recommendation

I believe Neville’s skills, attitudes and experience means that companies of many sizes, styles, technologies and industries would strongly benefit from having Neville as chair of their company board or advisory board.

The value of a good chair and competent board focussed on all aspects of the business is critical to business success.

As a fellow member of the board, I have no doubt in recommending Neville to other companies.

Your sincerley

Adrian Cropley

Managing Director Cropley Communication www.cropleycomms.com.au

Director International Executive Board (International Association of Business Communicators) IABC

Director Evolve Executive Advisory Board

I have been working with Neville for over 10 years now and he has made a significant contribution to the success of my business.

Neville is one of the best listeners I know and has always provided valuable advice;  advice in the form of “business tools” and “speaking from experience” – rather than the advice you would get from a school principal telling you what to do.

He has added value both on an individual level and also in the board room. He asks many questions, many of them so simply obvious that most people forget to ask them.

Neville’s core competencies include developing strategy, psychology in business, and always thinking with an “opportunity hat” on.

He would be best suited to fast growing companies that have “big hairy audacious goals” and that are innovation focused; public company boards which are looking for vitality, building, creation and entrepreneurial experience.

The one-on-one mentoring Neville has provided me has been invaluable.

Communicator

Carosa also nominates his mentor and board member Neville Christie as an outstanding communicator with young staff.

“Neville never tells you want to do, he provides you with the tools to be able to make decisions yourself. Young people love that

says Carosa.

“They love to learn about new tools, but they want to implement and do it themselves.”

If I only had three words to describe Neville, it would be “Business with Soul”

I would be happy to discuss any part of this reference, please phone me anytime on 0411 19 69 79.

Regards,

Domenic Carosa

Chief Executive Officer
destra Corporation   Limited – at the time, Australia’s largest independent digital media and entertainment company.

“…not just because he works with you to fast-track tangible results – which he does.  Not just because he tailor-makes everything he does to suit the needs and situation of you and your company – which he does.

“But because within his two-hour mentoring sessions, you gain lots of ten second Ah-Ha!s that ripple through your mind and brain, and make significant changes to your attitudes, skills and know-how.”