Strategic Alliances - The True Key To Success
I received this comment about my last post, in which I spoke about several abundance principles:
"Good one Tali,
I'm reading your posts with interest.
I’m poor by most peoples' standards but happy in that I have found things I love doing.
They don’t generate vast sums, in fact nothing?...
Maybe I have an abundance block?
I just don’t want money for myself.
Just to work on my environmental projects.
Am I not self centered enough?....
Cheers, M.
P.S., I used to live in Kohukohu but now I am in Wanganui, but hoping to set up a beekeeping business on the west coast of Auckland, where my heart is."
This is what I wrote back to M.:
"Dear M,
Yes, of course I remember you.
I have often asked how you are doing and if there were any news about you, so I am delighted that you dropped me a note and that you are reading my posts.
I believe that there is no need to be poor.
You can shift the situation and embrace other reality-possibilities for yourself.
As a child of Life, of God, you are entitled to enjoy life abundantly, including doing what you love, living where you love being, meeting wonderful people and having all the money needed to pay your bills and to do all the things that you love doing.
It is your birthright!
We were meant to celebrate our lives here, not to play it small or to live apologetic lives.
You have used the words: "Am I not self centered enough?"
It is true that you will need to center some of the energy of money and abundance around yourself, if you wish to direct this energy towards you.
This does not mean that you have to become ego-centric, but that you recognize that your Self is an integral part of the Whole, and that it is your birthright to claim your share of the abundance that is all around us.
Of course, you also have to OPEN UP A CHANNEL for money to come to you.
Your beekeeping business sounds like it might be one.
Try to make the BEST product, and think of how to make it different and unique in some way.
Please DO NOT BE SHY ABOUT MARKETING it,
Do not allow any of the many difficulties that are sure to come, to crush you!
Look at them as mere setbacks.
And, perhaps my most important suggestion is: "MAKE STRATEGIC ALLIANCES!"
In other words: "Bring people in on your dream!"
They will help you and hold you up when you feel weak or lacking in ideas.
It is rare to succeed without the help of others.
It is THE secret of success that most people do not understand.
It is a HUGE abundance principle that should not be overlooked.
If it is money or success that you want, do not go at it alone, but share your dream with others.
The power of TWO is so MUCH greater than what you can do alone.
Three are even better.
The more people you bring in, the more ideas, brain power and connections you will enjoy.
When success comes, do not forget that it was the strategic alliance that got you there, not yourself alone.
Share the profits from your successful enterprise with those around you who helped you to get there.
If you forget that, you will lose the money that has come to you.
I would love to hear about your progress.
Love and blessings,
Tali "
Now... Allow me to elaborate on this subject by taking you first into my garden.
Wisteria is a climbing shrub with lilac-bluish flowers that hang in large clusters.
They look wonderful when they are tamed to grow on a pergola, but here in my garden in the Far North of New Zealand, they have grown so vigorously that they have become as thick as a tree, with vines that are as strong as marine ropes, completely unbreakable.
We had to cut it away from climbing on our house and my studio, but in a lower area of our garden, we still have a wisteria vine that has grown up and twisted itself all around the large trees.
Jules loves to do big garden projects.
Weeding is something that he does, but it is the bigger garden projects that delight his heart.
In that section of our garden, we have a fig tree growing, a pear tree, an apple tree, as well as a loquat tree, a cherry tree and a persimmon tree, but you wouldn't be able to see any of them, because the bush (forest) had claimed them whole.
Over the years, this area has become a jungle of vines and overgrown trees.
Privet trees, wisteria vines that have wrapped themselves around a giant Totara tree, old farm fences that once contained animals, and jungle-like overgrowth.
In other words, this part of our land needed both a lot of clearing and a lot of love.
We needed to clear the wisteria, cut out the privets, free the Totara tree from the vines, and prune back all of the fruit trees that in their desperate attempts to reach the light, have stretched their branches towards the sun and grown twisted and unhealthy.
It was hard work and we were at it for days, alternating between using our chainsaw, clippers, cutters and handsaws.
We hired our gardener who is an arborist for the bigger cuts, but for the most part, we did it ourselves.
I do not know how we mustered the energy.....
We took breaks for Matcha tea or to drink fresh juices.
During one such break, feeling exhausted and looking like two bushmen covered in dirt, with twigs sticking in my hair, we looked at one another and started laughing like hyenas.
We laughed so hard that our laughs developed into a fit of uncontrollable pee-laughter.
We just could not stop laughing, holding our bellies and rolling on the ground.
Between laughs, gasping for air, we mumbled:
Jules: "I used to dress up in nicely tailored suits, always clean shaven with well ironed shirts and shiny shoes... Look at me now..."
Tali: "I used to be a city girl.....I wore nice dresses...perfect hair..... Look at ME now...
I used to be afraid of spiders, hornets, bees.... Look at me fixing chainsaws... Opening up the chainsaw to put the thrown chain back on........ Me?
How did I ever learn to do this?... And who could have ever imagined or even DREAMT that we would end up here doing this....."
When we stopped laughing, we admitted that even with all of the hard tasks that we have chosen to embark upon, living in the countryside is where our heart is.
It feels good to play with dirt, live on the land, plant trees, grow fruits and flowers, listen to the birds and the waves in the harbor, talk to the butterflies and bumblebees, and listen to the wind.
Each day we grow in understanding and delight in the peace and quiet.
Jules cut the wisteria away from the giant Totara tree, but some of the vines had wrapped themselves so tightly around the top, that even when he grabbed the vine and hung on it with all his weight, the vine did not budge.
I was cutting small privets and pulling weeds in that area, and saw him swinging on the vine that would not budge.
Later, I tried myself to pull out the vine by swinging like Tarzan from it, but still, it did not budge, nothing... Not the slightest of movements.
Later, I suggested that both of us pull the vine TOGETHER and see if we can convince it to release.
To my absolute amazement, the minute we pulled together, the vine gave up and we pulled it out so easily....
It almost felt too easy to be true.... It felt Surreal...magical...
How can it be?, I marveled.
An immediate answer came to my mind in the form of a biblical quote:
"When two or more gather in my name, there I AM..."
Or in other words:
When two or more of the children of Life gather together for a cause, they make an alliance that is far greater than the physical power of two individuals...
They have called upon the power of Spirit to work for them... And thus ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is possible.
When you make a strategic alliance via a marriage, or a business partnership, or by asking a friend to help you, by bringing in people to help manifest a dream or to fight for a good cause, you call upon a tremendously powerful force.
Every person in the world, regardless of how powerless or helpless they might feel, actually has tremendous powers and influence.
The theory of "Six degrees of separation" says that everyone is only six (or fewer) steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.
It is true, we are all connected via a chain of "a friend of a friend" or "somebody that I used to work with," or "he used to be my neighbor."
Each person can help you in more ways than you can even imagine.
Even if you are at a point in your life when you realize that money has its limitations, and your aim is not to make more money, but to help change environmental or social issues for the better, you will HAVE to make Strategic Alliances in order to succeed.
You CANNOT do it alone!
You will have to bring people in on your vision and work together towards that goal.
If a person believes that he or she has gotten to where they are without the help of others, they are merely being delusional.
They are ignoring all the people who contributed to their success by helping them along the way.
Even if their egos prevent them from realizing all the help they have received, nobody can deny that without the participation of clients who believed in what they were doing enough to buy their products, they would not have been able to sell anything.
Musicians without fans will not sell any records, actors or writers without an agent on their side, cannot reach far, nor will politicians get any votes if no one believes what they are saying.
You can ONLY succeed if you make alliances with GOOD PEOPLE, listen to them and are grateful for their help.
They know people who know people, and by the power of God that is inside each and every one of us, they will brainstorm, come up with ideas that you had not thought about, point to a new direction, or make a much needed connection.
This is the true secret to success.
You cannot do it alone.
Even on the path of enlightenment and Self Realization, you have alliances in the form of enlightened masters and teachers who give you ideas, offer directions, set examples and offer you their wisdom.
You are going to have to make alliances to be successful in business, and you must share the profits with those who have helped you, and with those who come onboard along the way as you grow.
If you make an equal partnership agreement, even if you just shook hands on it or simply implied it, your alliance partner deserves an equal share, and the rest of the people in the alliance also deserve to benefit by what they have brought to the table.
If you forget that it was the strategic alliance that got you there and instead try to retain all or most of the profits for yourself, you will surely lose the success you have achieved, over time.
Every company, every corporation, every organization, has to benefit those who conceived it, developed it, work for it, as well as all those who have serviced it along the way.
The other day, we drove to the town of Kerikeri, and I was thinking about this subject.
After lunch and after completing our errands, we saw the movie "Joy."
It is based on the true story of an entrepreneurial woman named Joy Mangano, who invented the world's first self-wringing mop, and went on to sell it herself on TV's QVC and on the Home Shopping Channel .
Over 50 million units sold, at $19.95 each!
The movie is laced with many abundance principles, but since I was tuned into the concept of 'strategic alliances,' I paid close attention to all the strategic alliances that brought Joy her phenomenal financial success.
It was there in the help that she got from her best childhood friend when she froze in front of the TV cameras and could not speak...
It was there in the supportive words of her grandmother, who encouraged her to dream and told her that she was meant to be a glorious star and so much more than a poor housewife...
It was there in the bond that she had with her unemployed ex-husband, who once worked with someone who knew the person who finally flung the doors of opportunities open for Joy, giving her the opportunity to sell her mop on TV.
She made many mistakes along the way, tying herself up in a family vine full of envy and greed which threatened to destroy her, but she persevered, and all those difficulties finally faded away.
Instead of listening to the cruel voices all around her telling her she would never amount to much, and that there just wasn't enough money to go around, she listened to her wise inner child who wanted to make things and play in this life.
That inner child is not foolish, dumb or "unrealistic," it is a powerful Spiritual being who is your true self.
It wants to play, to make things, to be free, to have fun and to dream.
You owe it to the child within you to stop worrying,.... To stop obsessing.... To start living your dreams in your physical reality!
If you are not wealthy now, it is likely that you will also encounter many difficulties when you first venture away from the shackles of poverty into claiming your abundance.
You will lose "friends" and alienate family members, because you are breaking the mould, the unspoken taboos that keep all of you tied together and depressed by limited ideas.
Still, It is worth it.
When you are free, you will be able to teach those who are ready, that their fears are not justified and that they do not have to live small lives and play it small.
Even if nobody in your family listens to you or gets it, still you OWE IT TO YOURSELF.
Now... Just to be clear, this is NOT a two way street.
Not all wealthy people understand abundance principles by default.
Many of them have no clue and hold erroneous ideas.
I have met many wealthy people in my life.
Some of them believe that money is "serious business."
That it is OK to betray people for money, to do shady things in order to earn it, or to do unethical things in order to "protect" it.
These are wrong-headed, old world modality ideas that bring nothing but misery to those who believe them.
Those who believe that business is hard, that money is heartless, that you have to be opportunistic and overly tough, never realize the spiritual nature of the energy of money.
Even if they manage to amass large sums of money, they will still live miserable lives.
Hardness, toughness, opportunistically stepping over others, thievery and cruelty are NOT part of the game.
Those old world ideas are fading into the past even as we speak.
The new modality of money is all about alliances, sharing, helping others, being selfless having fun and being kind.
The more you are able to do so, the more blessings will come your way.
At the end of the movie, Joy sets up her own way of helping struggling people with enterprising ideas, since she remembers her own tough start.
Hey, I do not want to spoil the movie for you.
Please do not judge it as a "good" or "bad" movie, but as a true and interesting story.
If you live in NZ, the movie is playing now in theaters.
Go see it.
I would like to conclude with something super important.
Please do not miss this very last part as it will make all the difference between vanity and real success:
When you finally understand the atomic power of strategic alliances, Do NOT go out into the world evaluating people and forming friendships based on how you imagine that those people might benefit you or your cause.
Do not use people.... EVER.
In fact, the exact opposite of this way of thinking will benefit you the most.
Simply remove yourself COMPLETELY from the process.
Forget about your own mistaken individual ego identity, and you will see a miraculous divine plan unfold before your very eyes......
