Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Business

The On-Purpose Person

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TOPP_3D_PrintedBook The On-Purpose Person
Making Your Life Make Sense

Let's skip the usual jacket cover hype here.  Instead, I'll post bits and pieces of the back story – how the book and message of Being On-Purpose came into being.

There isn't a week that goes by when I don't get asked by someone about becoming an author.  It seems everyone wants to write a book.  Few actually step up to the challenge – and it is a challenge.  Even fewer find the commercial success they expected.  So you better understand why you're writing a book in the first place.

Please post your comments or questions here about becoming an author or about my books or publishing experience in general.

Ask YOUR Questions here about publishing a book and I'll share one best selling author's perspective.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

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Wall Street and Big Business: Thanks, Dr. Spock

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"The Financial Bailouts" have me thinking and pondering, Why do I find them so, frankly, offensive to my senses?

I can argue this from the viewpoint of being a capitalist and free market
advocate.  The debate can be political in terms of government and
policy – conservative and liberal.   Certainly, there is an economy at
risk argument that is being made along with the loss of millions of jobs. 

I read, listen, and watch "the experts" debate the issue eloquently on both sides and I find myself caught in the middle of which way to go.  All of the above enter into my opinion.

In the end, I've decided that the Bailout is just plain wrong.  What Dr. Spock did for parenting with his no spanking approach, government is now doing to society.  The United States is a nation "By the people and for the people…." Unfortunately, we've become a nation afraid to spank our children.  What Dr. Spock did to parenting, government is now doing to our nation.  

Dr. Spock made valid points, but there is a larger context to parenting.  There's something important to a child's development to have an authority in their lives who sets and secures appropriate behavior boundaries.  It prepares the child to be a more responsible and contributing independent adult.  A parent like a government needs to carry a full arsenal of options including the power of a good whack on the bottom.

As we hear reporters and politicians speak in terms of "taking the military option off of the table" it is Dr. Spock in the Congress.  Now the generation of Dr. Spock is running the nation as if it were their household – Democrats and Republicans alike.

Consequences

The Concept of Consequences has been decimated.  Simply, this states that a person is responsible for the results of his or her actions.   If I stick my hand on wet paint that is clearly marked as wet paint, then the natural consequence is I get paint on my hand.  Cause and effect.

Unfairly and sadly, sometimes we suffer consequences that are not the direct result of our doing.  Two relatives' careers with Arthur Andersen ended because of the Enron scandal.   One worked in Boston, the other in California.  Neither had any business dealings with Enron or the Houston office of Andersen, yet they paid the price as the result of the actions of others.  Curve balls come at us in life.

Consequences are often thought to be negative (punishment), but there are also positive consequences.  Study hard, get good grades, enroll in college, graduate, and gain greater opportunities in life.  This typical cause and effect pattern is predictably preached by many a parent.  Consequences for our actions are something we are supposed to learn as children.  It helps us grow into mature and productive adults. 

As a nation, perhaps, it is a season of reflection and consequences.  Money is never the answer to a problem.  It is simply an easy salve to apply, a seemingly quick fix that fails to deal with the fundamentals.  The "Me Generation" – of which I'm a part – needs to suffer the consequences of our avoidance to deal with the hard truth of overindulgence for decades.  Abundance has lulled us into apathy and complacency.  We're masters at avoiding the consequences of our actions. 

Images-1Popeye the Sailor Man's fat friend J. Wellington Wimpy taught all too many of our generation the use of credit.  To anyone who would listen, Wimpy offered, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Like overindulged brats fattened by our parents, our due is coming.  Tuesday, dear Mr. Wimpy, has arrived and the bill is due.  Our character needs to be strengthened or our country will be lost.  I believe in the Spirit of America to face, survive, and improve.  We need a season of pruning and leaders who are willing to make the tough call.

From the ashes of Wall Street or Main Street, the U.S. economy will rise again because the character of its citizens will rise to the occasion.  Trust "We the people" to get it right, to pay the price, to be creative, and to make the most of a time such as this.  Given the challenges to freedom arising in the world today against them, the banner bearers of liberty may very well need this time of preparation if truly "Liberty and Justice for All" is to survive. 

Let Wall Street and the Automotive industry go into bankruptcy.  Let home borrowers who overextended themselves lose their homes. From out of pain and suffering, comes humility and wisdom which are more precious than gold.  We'll all be better people and a better nation for it.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Purpose or Purposes

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You have only one purpose in life.   Once you know that purpose, you are to align your life and make choices consistent with it so you are on your purpose, rather than off your purpose.  That’s the essential message of being on-purpose.

In business, and especially in the church community, many people write about their “purposes.”  Note the use of the plural form, a recent pop culture invention mostly due to Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life in which he tells people they have five purposes of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism.  These are missions of the church, not purposes.  For all the good Pastor Warren’s book is doing, it is ultimately confusing people at the core of their being, but it is getting them engaged in life more profoundly.

You do not have many purposes in life.   You may have multiple visions and missions, but only one purpose.  You may have many reasons for doing something, but only one will to do it. (Read more about the subtle differences between purpose, vision, mission, and values by clicking on this sentence.)

Need further proof of the singular nature of purpose?   The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary doesn’t provide a plural for purpose.  Purpose is inherently singular.

For example, here is an excerpt from a devotional I read today, “God
will provide the necessary circumstances to accomplish His purposes in
your life.” This is incorrect because of the plural use of the word.  God has one purpose for your life, and, yes, he will arrange the circumstances.  To push the point just a bit further, let’s replace purposes with the word will.  This is a more accurate description of the usage.  God has one will, not a plurality of wills.

Reason and purpose are frequently interchanged.  Life purpose is a person’s one reason for being or raison d’etre.  Purpose in lieu of reason is an appropriate, but a less effective word choice.  Purpose is deeply about one’s intention or will.   I appreciate that one can have many reasons for doing something, but there is one intention.  To be otherwise is to be double-minded or confused.  That is the very challenge purpose clarifies for you.  You can’t have purposes or be on-purposes. The logic and semantics don’t support the concept of purpose – plural.

Avoid getting caught up in this sloppiness of use.  Strike the non-word purposes from your vocabulary. Purpose is a truly special and remarkably powerful word as applied to one’s life purpose.  Seek the singleness of strength of being of one mind, body, and spirit and you will be on-purpose.

Your comments are always invited.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

USA: The Off-Purpose Country

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Like many of my fellow US Citizens, I am very frustrated with the state of our "union."  Never before can I remember a President and a Congress having (and deserving) such low confidence ratings. 

Allow me to dip into the political realm for a moment not as a pundit, but as a strategist with an eye for personal and organizational development. 

The US is unraveling from within.  Political party polarization has made sport of our government.  Red and Blue are more like team colors with fan bases than a thoughtful citizenry with a sacred duty and honor to vigorously debate the issues and cast our votes.  The shrillness and empty talk on both sides have taken on an ugliness and unintelligible tone catering more to cheering crowds instead of elevating the electorate to be engaged in making a difference for the cause of freedom with responsibility.   We've entered a season of win-lose politics where power takes precedence over purpose.

We're off-purpose.  Let me tell you why.   

[Read more…] about USA: The Off-Purpose Country

On-Purpose® Radio Interview

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Listen for free to a 23 minute radio interview (MP3) with Kevin W. McCarthy by James Burkhardt on radio station WORL in Orlando.  James asks great questions regarding business matters for small and medium sized companies.  Join James and Kevin on Focus Orlando Radio Show as they talk about marketing, people, financing, target audiences, and business growth.  Learn how to do business on-purpose.

Recorded on May 10, 2008

Your Work View

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Today is Labor Day in the USA.  Ironically, it is a day when many of us have the day off from work and the kids are out of school.  According to Wikipedia, Labor Day began as "a street parade to exhibit to the public ‘the strength and esprit de
corps of the trade and labor organizations,’ followed by a festival for
the workers and their families."

Let’s take the occasion, however, to look at the very nature of our labor and its meaning.  The concept of work is vitally misunderstood in many corners of the economy and culture.

For those of us who view work as an expression of one’s calling and difference making, work conjures positive feelings and robust expression of who we are.  For many others the concept of work elicits harsh bondage and dependence on the whim of their boss.  Still, there are some who would wash away all work and settle for a life of recreation and parties.  So what view of work works?

[Read more…] about Your Work View

Business Purpose – Noble or Not?

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Ask the average person why a business exists (purpose) and the typical response is, "To make money or a profit."  That is a truthful, but incomplete and narrow view based solely on the economist’s perspective.  Economics is but one science or discipline of study touching business and touched by business.  Unfortunately, this popular viewpoint often casts business in a negative manner – seeing the glass half empty.  In fact, business is so much more.

Business is also an institution of society and plays a specific role of service, continuity, scale, and sustainability.  It is through the profit motive that prices actually fall, not rise, and standards of products and services rise.  Business people seek competitive advantage most often on these two fronts.  Who wins?  It is the buyer in the marketplace who wins.

Business is also a free enterprise phenomenon so one must also see it in context of government.  Absent a free market economy supported by a government, the role of business is owned by the ruling power, be it communism or monarchy.   I’m proud to be a capitalist because I understand that capitalism and a free society are interdependent. 

Very simply, a business is an integration of economic, social, and political realities to name but three of the core disciplines at work.

As a huge advocate of the nobility and
creativity of business, let’s embrace a robust understanding of
business rather than a one dimensional economic view only.  The On-Purpose Business perspective says a business exists to serve in both a social and economic role within the context of a government freeing individual pursuits with a system of checks and balances.

Here is a rather heady discussion from a You Tube video on the "nobility of business"
from the World Economic Forum. It is nearly an hour long and has a rich panel discussion.  Enjoy! 

Please feel free to comment.