On the Building of Land Surveyors Coop of the World [Part One]
I have been trying off and on since 1990 to get a group called Surveyors Coop of Oklahoma (OK) (SCO) then we expanded it to Surveyors Coop of the World. Thanks to LSU I see it happening. Unfortunately, OK has been slow to understand the importance of joining the team and work together to improve communications and resources among fellow surveyors.
Sharing resources to help us find and use good survey data, especially Survey Accurate Graphically Enhanced records on platforms like Google Earth on Section Corner Records including SAGE State Plane Coordinates (SPC). (see more about this at www.gbreisch.com and search for gbreisch for blogs on the subject and more)
LSU has already made it easier to get information on systems, equipment, and programs to improve communications, quality, reliability, and many other aspects of our profession.
Their map shows the members and I want to see OK filled up and LSU reach 2000 members with at least 500 from OK within the next year.
Surveyor Coop Power
(“The Way” by Gary Breisch chapter 20 excerpt)
“Men take on the nature, the habits, and the power of thought of those with
whom the associate.”
NAPOLEON HILL
If your have watched the movie, “The Secret”, or read the book, “Science of Success”, then you are already in a position to understand the great value of developing a coop with your fellow surveyors. This world is moving so fast with information overloads that we, as surveyors, have to pick and choose what is priority in our business and personal lives so we will not get overwhelmed or, at least, recognize when we are approaching meltdown. We produce more exhibits and do more surveys in less time than ever and technology keeps
pushing us to learn more about things like GPS and all the related computer programs and hardware to keep up and stay on the growth side of our profession. We do not dare fall behind or we might as well get out of the business with old equipment, file systems, methods, and systems that fail to serve us compared to the new and faster innovations that keep us on our toes. To break even, let alone succeed, we must organize and learn to share our resources.
We must find ways of eliminating waste, multiplying our efforts, sharing and accessing our common resources, maximizing, and synergizing the energy available to us. I have done this on a small scale and found it very rewarding and with more potential that any effort that I have made to change things for the better since my first survey job in 1965. The key to thriving in this business and in our personal lives is cooperation. Not in a legal way but in an organized sharing way, we must form powerful coops with our fellow surveyors to promote what is good for all of us. Build this coop and they will come. “They” are the clients and others to join in the increased prosperity and creativity. Too many times we see our professional organizations pouring way too many resources in rules and regulations, legalistically destroying the opportunity to be creative and develop resources to benefit us all in a positive fun way.
Any surveyor who tells you that they are succeeding by themselves today is not being honest. Even surveyors who work very smart and very hard sometimes find it difficult to keep up if they work by themselves. Cooperatives are vital to our growth and prosperity. After rehearsing a this new way of thinking and substituting the competitive spirit with the creative spirit toward fellow surveyors, the next step is to make this a priority taking time to use your talents and communicating with your fellow professionals as if they were
partners instead of competitors. You will soon discover a more positive reaction from almost all your fellow professionals. You will want to spend more time with them and less with those hard core competitive types. You will free up more time that is betterspent with others that will stimulate your creative spirit to find ways to have more time doing what you enjoy most in your profession and less stress. I have almost eliminated all the stress in my live in this area using this way of thinking toward my fellow survey professionals.
The spirit of cooperation and discovery will bring you the kind of joy and happiness that many never find in life.
Some people only happen on to those moments in your life and do not know that you can make them an every day, every hour and every minute experience with a little practice. It will get the creative juices flowing and you will have more time to be creative and enjoy the results of your efforts along the way, continuously. You will eat better, sleep better, feel better and be able to help more people with this way of thinking
BUILDING THE COOP: SMALL STEPS ADD UP
We have heard about networking for many years now and some of us have learned to use the principles well in our business and personal lives. The more we free up our time for
creating networks, the more we see how valuable every line of communication adds up and helps us and the others in our networks.
It has been written and often said that in five years we will be the sum total of who we are today plus four other elements; the books we read, the tapes we listen to, the seminars we attend, and the people with whom we spend our time. It has been said by those reaching high degrees of success that this figure is even higher. Cooperatives, a form of
networking organizations are the best for creating new business opportunities and put the fun back in business development and progress.
When the opportunity reveals itself, I now make a point of meeting the person next to me and learning something about him or her while traveling, waiting or attending meetings. Taking time to send a hand-written note or email thanking them for their time and conversation will open up opportunities beyond your imagination and is a big part of building a coop with a variety of resources.
I have a friend that promotes the coop way of doing business that sat next to a Vice President of Sales for a Fortune 500 company. He talked about sales in general
and about his business, and wrote him his usual note. Two weeks later, he called and talked more about his business. After a few conversations, he signed a contract for multiple speaking engagements with his company. Over dinner at the first of these events, he told him that he had called because he was intrigued by his ideas, but mostly because he was impressed that he had written him the note.
Most of us have heard that the “little things mean a lot.” I have discovered that they can mean the difference between failure and success and you might say they mean everything. In many cases, a follow-up from a genuine interest in a person and his business resulted in a pleasant and profitable coop.
CREATION OR COMPETITION?
Why don’t more people build powerful coops today? I see coops that were created a century ago, still thriving with farmer to market coops. The principle has been applied to
the internet to change our lives more than any form of communication these days and now we have the opportunity and awareness and means to bring it into our
profession for great benefits. Doesn’t it make sense that you prioritize your efforts when you build coops with supportive and powerful people? If you can eliminate waste, duplication of effort, and get more done in less time, you will have more time to enjoy and be more creative with your life and work. Is it time to turn away from the way we were conditioned to compete with one another and start enjoying the vast benefits of a coop?
It is a scientific fact that most successful people never compete. The ones that do not live extraordinary and influential lives spend a bunch of time competing or keeping
up with competition orientated brainwashing activities. They find very little meaning in life, suffer depression more often and do not spend much time being creative or enjoying
being. A friend of mine said it well; “The reason successful people avoid competition is that when you compete, you limit yourself and restrict your ability to create. Consider the kinds of thoughts that must be created for competition.
You must compare yourself to you “adversary,” and think that someone will win and the other must lose. Believe that there is a limited supply of goodness and success.
Both of these thoughts are in error, and completely out of alignment with the “Super Laws.”
He goes on to show what happens with the mindset of competition. Our thoughts control our success in everything and it is important to understand that we start out
having no external adversaries. We have been conditioned in error to create adversaries and believe that we have no control of our emotions and thoughts to the contrary and can blame others for our failures. Other people have no power to keep you from your good. So the only real competition you will ever have in life is the competition between the positive thoughts of you disciplined mind and the negative thoughts of your undisciplined mind. You are only in competition with you. If you must have an adversary, let that adversary be lack of understanding. That is the only thing that will slow your success.
If you want to win against that undisciplined part of you, the part that doesn’t understand the laws, then read this book over and over. Do the exercises again and again until you lock them into your spiritual power center. Make the magnetic attraction between your thoughts and your good absolutely clear, unshakable, and irresistible.
More to come……
Replies