 I was talking with somebody and I asked her, what are your goals for your business? And she said, well, it's to have a business beyond my wildest dreams, doesn't everybody? And it gave me pause. What she's saying about her goals, having a business beyond her wildest dreams is not unusual. In fact, most of the people in my industry of business coaching, marketing experts, all want to be number one, want to be extraordinary, want to have the greatest success compared to their peers, want to have a seven figure income or a million follower of social media following, right? Million people following on social media, et cetera, et cetera. But I want to be, personally, I want to be average. I want to be average in the externals, but I want to lead from the inner qualities. That's what I'm going for. And I hope you'll consider this to see if it resonates with you as well. I am much happier today, now that I've prioritized these things differently, kind of like upside down versus when I first started my business, in the first couple of years of my business, I prioritized the externals, the money, the fame, right? How much prestige I had among my peers, et cetera. And I came to, well, I burned out, that was one. And I came to realize it was just, I was going through, I was living through a lot of stress with those kinds of priorities and goals. And then a couple of years into my business, I had a spiritual transformation. And I realized that if I were to die in six months, none of that mattered. What mattered a lot more was the internal qualities that I've developed or not developed. And so I made a shift in priorities that gratefully has resulted in a much happier life today. And at the same time, it happens to be that when we focus on the inner growth, it often, sometimes at least, it translates into outer growth, not that it will always make you more money, but it wins you more loyalty. And when you have more loyalty, you tend to have enough clients, enough help, support from others who wanna help you and spread the word about your business, et cetera. So let me tell you, instead of trying to be a seven figure business and to have a million followers, let me tell you the three things I am prioritizing in my business, the three most important things. One is to increasingly become more skillful in my craft. So my craft is teaching, as you well know, and coaching. So that's the sort of the, and writing. That's, I guess I've become a writer now as well. I'm about to publish my third book. So teaching, coaching, writing, I'm increasing. That's like my, one of the top priorities in my business is to keep getting better at these things. And also part of improving my craft means to continuing, to improve my knowledge in my subject matter expertise. So for me, that's how to do authentic marketing more effectively, how to do paid advertising more efficiently, how to create and market online courses and teaching others how to do that, how to optimize one's offerings so that it's a better match with the market. And these kinds of things, basically how to build an authentic business successfully. That's my subject matter expertise and I'm constantly learning and trying to get better at it and trying to get better at teaching it and coaching it and writing about it, right? So that's like, that's one of the three top priorities in my business, not money, not fame. Those are like, those are not even priorities in my business actually. I let those happen naturally. I do have goals obviously for financial sustainability and I tend to meet them. But beyond that, funny thing is with my money, I'm not trying to make more money. And I actually don't want more followers and more fans and everything like that. I'm actually pretty happy with both. I make about average, just slightly above average compared to the salaries in San Francisco which I have to admit are higher than pretty much everywhere else. So San Francisco salary wise, I'm pretty much average. So you can look that up, you're interested. No, I'm sure, I'm sorry. No, I looked up, I should say our household income is above average in terms of household incomes in San Francisco but my own personal salary is lower than the average San Francisco salary is like $127,000 a year. And I make just below, I make below that but I make enough combined with my wife's income. We live just fine here. And I don't want to make more money. I don't, it's, there's no, I don't, it doesn't make any difference for me to make more money. I'm good at managing my money. So I'm always saving money and we have a yearly vacation that's a long vacation and we also visit our parents a couple of times a year. So, I have a fine life. I don't need to make more money. And then in terms of fame, 5,000 Facebook fans, it's enough for me, honestly, why do I need more? You know, I've got those of you watching this live, Yule and Kareen, Michelle, I mean, what more do I need? So, seriously, right? Like, why are people, I just sometimes, I shouldn't say this, I remember when I used to chase. I used to chase money, chase fame, chase prestige. I want people to look up to me and now that I look back, it seems so foreign to me. I have to try to remember those times. Like, it was so much like, there was such a hole inside my heart. I realized that's what it was. It was just a big hole inside my heart. I wasn't fulfilled and I see some of my peers and I see them doing that. And I wonder, I mean, it's not for me to judge their path, but I wonder if they are truly feeling this deep sense of fulfillment and contentment that I'm so grateful to have today, you know? So, anyway, so first priority, to increase the skills in my craft. That's what I love the most. The second, and these are not in any particular order. I think the all three are equally important. The second priority is to grow in the inner qualities through my work. I see work, I see every activity that I do in my work every single day, not as I just got to get it done, but as a stage for my personal evolution, a stage for the inner qualities to grow. How can I grow more today in diligence as I'm doing this? No matter how boring the action is, I don't have an assistant right now. I chose not to this year so that I can further streamline my business and not just streamline my business, but also it was also a purposeful act to start doing all the admin stuff myself so that, well, yes, one, I wanted to learn how to streamline it more because when I'm the one doing it now, I've got streamline, I eliminate tasks, automate as much as I can, and then whatever I can't automate and when I can't streamline, even if it's boring, I'm gonna do it myself because it is a stage for inner quality growth, right? It's a stage for like learning mindfulness and doing, entering the data, okay? Or whatever it is I'm doing, that should be admin work. No, I'm doing it now and I do it, I breathe joy into it and I breathe diligence into it, I breathe humility also. I am not better than my administrative assistant. Well, you know, I'm not better than him or her, you know? And yes, it's not the best use of my time, quote unquote, oh, I'm such a, you know, the best use of my time is to be a, you know, on the pedestal teacher and coach and speaker, best-selling author, you know, it's okay to do the admin work sometimes because I think it fosters our humility, right? For me, anyway, that's why I appreciate that kind of work sometimes. It's good for me to stay on the ground and do that. So I think growing the inner qualities is what I aim to do every day and that's one of the top priorities in my business. And then the third top priority of my business is to continually seek and improve my balance. The balance between work and rest and hobbies. Now, I don't have kids and I currently don't, I'm not caretaking for elderly parents. Eventually that will happen, but so I think if you have a family or if you're caretaking, obviously it's work, rest, hobbies and caretaking, right? But I don't have that right now, so just work, rest and hobbies. And that is something that's ongoing, you know? My business keeps evolving and so does, therefore does my schedule, my work schedule. And it's like every couple of months I have to rebalance between work, rest and hobbies. It's like every month, really. And, you know, work gets, sometimes work gets really engrossing and I have to remember the balance again. Work, rest and hobbies, work, rest and hobbies. So that's a top priority for me. And if I get that right, I keep improving that. If I keep improving my inner qualities and if I keep improving my skills and my craft, then I am so happy, you know? And I'm so fulfilled. And it's just so happens that if I keep on these things, right? And I think that's why I'm asking you to consider that for yourself as your top priorities, not the money and not the fame, not the six-figure, seven-figure, the million followers or whatever you, you know, maybe were influenced by other celebrities that that's supposed to be what we're after. Because let me tell you this. Now I was, let me complete my thought first to say, if I keep improving on these three priorities, it happens that organic word of mouth keeps growing. People trust me more because I come through, I know what I'm talking about in my field and I model a good work-life balance. So they feel like, well, that's something I can work towards as well. What happens when we pursue the externals? Here's what happens. We create envy in other people and we tend to become arrogant, right? Or at least, or some people tend to feel the imposter syndrome, right? So the external success, this is why I dress so plainly, you know, I don't, my background never changes. I'm not trying to wow you externally. I think I'm probably, I probably err on the side of being too humble externally, maybe, like I don't care if I'm wearing this and I don't look great, you know. It's like I'm purposely trying to be the lowest common denominator in the externals so that any, all of you feel like, well, if George can do it like that, then I can do it, right? I'm not polished, my speaking is not polished, although that is something I'm trying to improve. Fewer arms, fewer, you know, just for the sake of, you know, being a better communicator, but not to impress. So when we pursue the externals, we create envy in others and here's why. Now you might say, well, it's their fault. They shouldn't be envious. They should aim to be like me if I'm so great, right? It's because people who flaunt their externals are oftentimes lacking in the internals. And so as human beings, we naturally, we naturally want to praise the internals. We lift up people who lead with love, who lead with courage, with wisdom, but we are suspicious of people who flaunt their wealth and their fame and their power without demonstrating a higher level of wisdom than the average. Like it's almost like your external success, the success that you flaunt externally, that you display externally needs to be at least met with the same level of internal qualities. And if you at, well, hopefully higher, hopefully your internals, you know, like a Gandhi, right? Right here on, sorry, right here on my wall. Gandhi had demonstrated so much internal qualities, inspiring others that people didn't mind his power, right? He's like, please lead us, right? Another hero of mine, Pete Pilgrim. She had nothing externally. She had no possessions, but she had a lot of attention. She had a lot of attention. People are always doing articles about her. People are always inviting her to speak. And nobody was envious of her power and her attention because she had so much wisdom and she demonstrated the true wisdom and sustainability of her life. And there are also rich people whom we admire because they demonstrate leadership with love and wisdom. They have done more good. They demonstrate their internals, basically. And so we don't envy their externals. And yet there are also lots of lots of rich people and powerful people who flaunt their external. And we can tell based on the way that they work in politics and the way they work in business and how stingy they are. We can tell their internals are, it's like a child walking around in adults body with adult powers. So I think that's why envy emerges. It's like if you're gonna flaunt your externals, how rich you are, how powerful you are, how famous you are, how prestigious you are, the car you have, the house you have, how pretty you are. Nowadays it's really attractiveness on social media, Instagram. Like, oh, look how pretty I am. Look how good looking I am. You're gonna flaunt those things. You better have at least matching internal qualities that allow people to say, wow, lead with love, lead with courage, lead with wisdom, lead with virtue. So I, that's, and so you could say I kind of have, I'm trying to, I have an advantage here because I'm trying to get the lowest common denominator. I'm trying to lower my externals, what I display, and so that I can keep raising my internals and probably the actual result of that is creating more trust and loyalty, et cetera. But I'm not trying to create that. I'm just letting that emerge as I try to work on myself. And I just, because that's unlimited. That's the other thing. The externals are limited. The externals are limited. When, honestly, when you buy something from me, you have less money for other coaches, which is why I try to limit my fees and my, you know, the price of my offerings. Like, whereas other people are trying to maximize how much they charge you, so they take more money from you. I'm trying to take less money from you so I can earn enough and so that you have more money to give to other coaches and to other companies and other nonprofits and to whatever interest you have in your life. So money is limited. Now, someone say, George, you're having limited thinking, limited beliefs about money. Money is abundant. It's unlimited. No, you're not grounded if you say that money is unlimited. The money that's available in any person's month is obviously limited. Excuse me, money is unlimited. No, you've only have a certain amount of money per month that you can spend. Obviously, your money is limited. And so I have to be careful to take money from you because that means another coach has less. Right? So the externals are limited. We can only, you know, and of course, as we, as companies keep making more money and extracting more resources from the environment, that is limited as well. Now, fame and attention is also limited. If you're watching this video, you are not therefore giving your attention, paying your attention to some other coach worthy coach or worthy video maker. It's limited. Your attention is limited. So I have to be very careful not to go on too long here. That's why I'm always a little bit embarrassed how long these videos go because I know I'm taking your time away from somebody else that you can be giving it to or to giving it to yourself to be creating your own content. When you're watching me, you're not creating. So money and attention are both limited. And so when we're pursuing these things, we have to realize that we're pursuing something that's a limited pot, the comments, right? It's limited among everybody that we're all have to share money and attention. But if you pursue the inner qualities, that is unlimited. You growing encouraged does not take away from someone else's courage. In fact, it inspires somebody else's courage. You growing in kindness does not take away from anybody else's kindness. It inspires more kindness. That's not the same with money. You making more money takes away from other people's money. You getting more attention takes away from other people's attention. But you growing in kindness and courage and humility and diligence only inspires everybody else. So that's why I'm trying to model and hope that I can share this upside down priority of let's focus on the internals, let the externals emerge on their own. Victor Frankel, the famous survivor of Nazi prison camps and psychologist, he had a quote and I don't have the quote with me right now. Maybe somebody does. He's talking about how success should not be pursued. You should let success ensue. Success should ensue as a result of your pursuit of something greater than yourself. So anytime we focus on the externals, we're focused on ourselves, on ourselves not in a good, not in a self care good way, but we're focused on our self with a small s and our ego. When we're focused on the internals, we're focused on our self with a big s, the higher self. So I think I've said enough. Like I said, I'm trying to, I don't want to spend too long talking to you here. Thanks to those of you who were able to join me here. Yule and Kareen, Michelle, Lisa, Sharon, Lolo, Laura, thank you all. So I wish you courage and fulfillment as you pursue the internals in your life. And may you also see as a result the sustainability of your externals. Be well.