In these days of Googling and You Tubing, it’s easier than ever to find the answers. The speed of the internet certainly panders to our penchant for impatience. We want instant answers – and we get them fast. So, what could be wrong with that?

No longer do we have to stumble and bumble until we finally have the answer. No longer do we have to go through trial and error, research, or any reasoning process. We just get it on line. But did we miss something important by shortcutting the discovery process? Did we miss the principles behind the answer? Did we miss an opportunity to challenge our brains to learn a new principle?

Apparently, we have gotten to a point where we actually don’t want to learn the very principles that can equip us to discover the answers in our own way. In the name of efficiency, we become more dependent on these instant answer resources, and we are losing our ability to solve problems on our own. The internet – the source of all answers – has made us lazy.

Before these resources, folks had to use principles, experience, and trial and error to discover the answers and solutions. In that process of discovery, they learned how to apply principles in a variety of ways. One of those ways might solve the problem and yield the answer. But the process didn’t end there. Now the individual understood the principle behind the answer and could apply that principle to other challenges. They didn’t need an example for everything.

The temptation today for many students is to drop out of formal education and just try to learn everything they need on line. It may be everything they think they need, but is that really everything? We think not. We think they need to learn principles and apply those principles to discover answers and solutions for themselves. This is called problem solving, and it stimulates our brains to be more creative and question the results we find. This is a wider framework which can help solve problems as they occur. If this sounds like an ad for a classical education, it is!

Learning and applying principles to discover solutions gives us appreciation for this invaluable process. It also gives us a fundamental understanding that behind every answer, solution, or process there is a set of principles. We can then look for those principles, and add them to our problem-solving tool box to apply to the next applicable situation.

Sure, you can Google the answer and You Tube the process, but if you don’t look for and understand the underlying principles, you are destined to develop a “copy-and-paste” mentality. Your critical thinking facilities will atrophy and you will become dependent on technology for all your answers.

When you discover solutions on your own, you learn from your mistakes and successes.  You force your brain to look at the situation from differ perspectives. You stimulate your intellect! So, students, stay in school, and learn the principles that will enable you to discover solutions for yourself! Don’t be a copycat. Be an independent thinker and come up with new ideas!  Discover for yourself the joys of noodling out a solution to your challenge using creative thinking instead of limiting your ideas to what others have already said and done. Be resourceful, and realize that your greatest resource is the power of your own brain.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Is Discovery Becoming a Lost Art? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The media capitalizes on our natural self- preservation instincts and the bad news can become down right addicting. But in the process something else is happening. We are getting conditioned to expecting bad news. And that conditioning can easily make us less likely to look for and celebrate what’s going on that is right.

We actually play a game with the news every day. It’s called “Find the good news!” We each take a section of the paper or news site over breakfast and hunt for the good news. First one to find it wins! We have to really dig because it’s usually hidden in the back somewhere. Yes, it’s quite challenging and some days we have to settle for a department store ad as the only “good” news.

But we often find 2 or 3 great uplifting pieces of information. It’s not only better for digestion but it gives us some hope and a positive attitude to start our day. If the bad news will really affect our personal security, you can bet we will hear about it from our friends, family, neighbors or colleagues. So we don’t worry about missing something important to our survival.

Today was especially challenging, but Bonnie won the ”Good News” game with an article she found on the back pages where a team at the University of California in Irvine may have discovered a way to eliminate malaria. Malaria! The mosquito born disease responsible for half the deaths in the history of man! Last month Michael won with “Flowing Water Discovered on Mars!” Also in the back pages.

We also face daily personal and professional frustrations that can affect our outlook. To keep ourselves pumped up, we keep a log of all the milestones we have achieved toward each goal. When we get a little depressed, we go back and read the litany of our progress. Never mind if there was no progress one week. Taking the larger view of history, we regain our positive perspective that we are in fact making progress.

We use these and other techniques to prevent us from getting into the victim mindset where we view ourselves as helpless and powerless to make a difference or a change.

We are convinced from our own personal experience, that when you acknowledge what you want when you see or hear it, you get more of it! Why? Because you are conditioning yourself to expect solutions and you are looking for them. That expectation can keep you going through the difficulties and challenges. You keep a sharp eye out for solutions.

You are less likely to overlook a solution just because it wasn’t a shining diamond presented in a velvet box. In fact it’s often a mud-covered rock that conceals an uncut diamond that requires you to work with it. Maybe you catch a glimpse of a tiny spark of light out of the muddy rock. But you are tuned in. You see it because you are looking for it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! More of what you are grateful for is coming your way!

Probably the greatest way to condition yourself to expect solutions and to tune in to opportunities is to acknowledge what you already have and give thanks. You can’t give thanks without recognition, appreciation, and a wish for whatever good news you find to endure.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Here’s to getting more of what we are thankful for!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Gratitude Gets You More of What You are Thankful For appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.