The Personal Business Plan: A Blueprint for Running Your Life

5

Where am I on My Personal Journey?

“Leading from the future as it emerges”

Claus Otto Scharmer

For many years I have had the privilege of working with both excellent business professionals and excellent business psychologists. The quality of the solutions provided in the field of tension between these two competencies can be breathtaking. My wife once pointed out that my learning about the “soft” side of human capital is the best thing that ever happened in our marriage.

Psychologists have the huge advantage of knowing the generalized life pattern of an individual in advance. They can therefore work deductively by comparing to a norm or an expected typical behavior. Others have to generalize from their own experiences and, by trial and error, reach their own conclusions through an inductive process. There can be no doubt that the former process is the more effective for understanding human behavior.

To be in the cross field between psychology and business – the combination of the soft and the hard – is exciting. We all consider ourselves unique. However, as the psychologist Carl Rogers has found, what is most personal is also most general.⁵¹ Deep down we share the same fears and the same doubts. We all want to be loved; we all fear solitude. During different periods of our life we suffer similar concerns. All of us pass the same milestones on our safari through life (safari means journey in Swahili). The most extraordinary experience awaits you just around the bend if you are ...