AN EARLY SUCCESS STORY
I discovered that I was a "natural" in business one summer when I decided to help my father build a new practice as an investment advisor. For my assistance, the deal we struck included a modest wage and my Dad's promise to play tennis with me daily -- I was pregnant with my daughter. Within a month, my father's practice became the fastest growing in the company. Within two months, he was a top producer. Not long after--with my belly steadily growing in my tennis outfit -- I began receiving senior executives from the corporate home office wanting to know what we were doing to accomplish such rapid success
It seemed obvious to me. My father had a natural eye for making investments perform well; he was fascinated by the puzzle. What was natural to me was how to leverage that wisdom to build his practice. I could see how to show prospective investors what was possible if they worked with him. I hadn't begun to realize that my training as an anthropologist and my particular way of thinking about value and service was pointing to a future where I would lead many more professionals to dance in the marketplace. The value that both my father and I were creating in this incident was natural and effortless for both of us. We had a great time, and so did our clientele. I thought nothing of it at the time, and hardly noticed how disappointed people in the investment firm were when I went back to school.
I soon became a single mother and graduate student. Over the next few years I worked in various businesses and taught in various settings, as grad students often do. Ultimately, I realized that I didn't want an academic life. It was a number of years before I saw a compelling career path for myself. But I was always in my inquiry: "What makes people do what they do, and what stops them from doing other things?" And because I continued to work in businesses, by the early 1970s I added the question, "What allows people to be more effective?"
In 1978, I took a break from working. I was a tired single mother. During the next eighteen months that I spent gardening, riding my bike, and volunteering in the local food cooperative, I noticed that many of the smartest, most educated, and innovative professional and business people I knew were suffering. They were frustrated and unhappy because they couldn't bring the best of themselves--their creativity, their curiosity, their deepest values, and their innovative drive--into their work. I could see what was possible for them just as clearly as I saw how to grow my father's practice. In 1980 I decided to do something about this waste of human resources.
Thus I began my consulting practice. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had become a practicing business anthropologist, bringing what I knew about the nature of being human to professionals who could benefit from it in modern commerce. In a short while, I started to produce substantial results. In a few years my practice expanded from a handful of sole proprietors to leaders in some of the largest and most powerful companies in America, along with innovative smaller businesses, and more professionals.
The Master MovesTM
I had accurately assessed that what people most wanted was the ability to bring more value to the human community--meaningful value--and enjoy the rewards of doing so. And they had no idea how to use commerce to make that happen. They operated much like I did on skis: not knowing how to work with gravity, I fought against it, with predictable results.
My task was to simplify and make concrete the simple principles I understood about commerce, so that I could make them accessible to others. My objective was simple: I wanted them to produce the desired results without me. I developed what I called The BestWork¨ Course and The Six Basic Moves of Commerce, which later evolved to The Master MovesTM. Like those diagrams that show people how to assemble toys and furniture, or guided earlier generations to the steps of the cha cha, the tango and the waltz, the Master MovesTM will show you and your friends and colleagues how to greatly increase the value you create and deliver.
I want everyone up and dancing. To build your skill and enjoy the dance, and get into shape to share it with others, you must practice the Moves. My partners and I will help you. We'll enjoy providing guidance and encouragement by phone, email, and website. (We're good at it; that's how we work). We intend to set off an explosion of competence as people claim their birthright to the benefits of commerce. We hope you'll join us.
