In part for reasons explained here, we’re changing the name of our popular online course that a few thousand people have been beta testing.  Instead of emailing out Power To Stand distinctions, we’re going to be emailing “Visionary Mind Shifts.”  This integrates with one of our key themes or memes here at VisionForce.com: the shift humanity is making from the Positionary Mind of the Past to the Visionary Mind of the Future.  So, if you’ve been signed up for Power To Stand, you’re already signed up for Visionary Mind Shifts.  It’s the same thing.

Watch >> this video << about a stand that American youth are taking. They're saying, "Sir! No Sir!" to the army recruiters. For what are they standing? Whether you support the war in Iraq or not, can you see what this group is standing for?

One of the things we tend to do in taking a stand that requires great courage is make the other side inhumane. We humiliate the other side and our stand becomes a position that keeps the other side from listening to what you have to say. What are your thoughts on this?

Part of the video is from the Sir No Sir documentary about the largely forgotten military personnel who organized against the Vietnam War. Bush and Clinton found ways to dodge the draft. My father entered dental school. Were these men cowards? What about those who went AWOL? Were their actions dishonorable? Or was there something for which they were standing that was very honorable?

And those who enlisted and fought–were they too not standing for something worthwhile? Whether you agree with the Iraq War and the Vietnam War… don’t you agree that it’s time we find new ways to communicate and resolve our differences at home and abroad? Watch the video(s), then leave your comments. Thanks!

Power To Stand: A Course In Greatness – many of you reading this have signed up to be beta-testers of this on-line course we’re creating here at VisionForce.com.  But as you may have noticed by now, it’s not really a course, per se.  It has no real beginning or ending.  There is no way to complete it.  There’s not even a way to tell where you are in the course!

The name, course, itself implies that it will take you from point A to point B. There are some problems we see in calling it a course.  Here are of the problems we see,

a) many people take a course, learn some new ideas and then move on–as if they really understand the concepts presented.  Courses you may have taken in school aim to teach you a set of ideas.  The course is generally considered complete when the student has learned the concepts, meaning he/she either 1) knows the concepts or 2) understands the concepts (or both).

1) we generally say we “know” a concept as soon as we are able to recall it from memory.  A friend starts telling you about somethiing you already read in a book, and you say, “Yeah, I know that.”  He stops explaining and you stop questioning.
2) we generally say we “understand” a concept as soon as we have gained a little familiarity with it.  A friend explains a new concept from a book, and we relate it to a similar concept we’ve already learned.  “I understand,” you say.  He stops explaining and you stop questioning

There is a grave error or blind spot in this approach, especially if our objective is to affect the student’s character, decision-making process or behavior.  If we’re learning math, science or history, that’s one thing.  If we’re learning concepts to change our behavior and habits in life, then maybe it would be helpful to have a new definition of what it is to “learn” something.

Just because you can recall a concept from memory and talk intelligently about it–or even use it in your everyday language–it does not mean you’ve integrated the concept into your mind in a way that affects your behavior.  The Power To Stand “course” is not intended to just put forward some interesting concepts.  No, the concepts themselves can change your life and change the world.

In a Positionary world, it’s enough to teach the “right” or “true” ideas and make the student follow and obey.  In a world of visionaries that approach is quite obviously backwards. What we’re up to here at VisionForce is building a world of visionaries, and creating the tools that make that world possible.

Soon, we’ll share more about the new way we are thinking about our on-line “courses.”

Comments?

I’ve mentioned recently that there were several boot camp grads, who after attending, cashed in big time. They started businesses, wrote books, etc., and it was their boot camp experience and technology they learned that made the difference.

One grad just emailed me about some outstanding success he’s had over the past few years after boot camp. He’s built several very successful businesses, and wants to help us here at VisionForce (and you, if you’re interested).

(Immediately after boot camp his income increased by 10K per month, and he went on to start several businesses that still, 3 years later, bring him in 4-5 figures per month.  He soon paid off his $145,000 personal debt and then built another business that is now valued at 1.5 – 3 Million, and he’s selling it right now.)

So what’s the difference between him and VisionForce? Why has he experienced incredible business success, while we’re still figuring things out? It comes down to the business model. We at VisionForce are building a very non-traditional model and have not been content to do “business as usual.”

He, on the other hand has zeroed in on a very simple, powerful business model and has replicated it over and over again. It’s a business model that works well with the internet and he is creating a plan to train us at VisionForce in the advanced concepts behind his model.

If you want in, or at least want a peek at his business concepts, go to this special page I created exclusively for VisionForce friends.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment about pricing!

We have been contacted by a very successful on-line businessman, who is going to help us build VisionForce like dynamite.  When we talked, I asked if he could help the people on my list too.  He said, “Yes!”  Interested?  Click here.

We need your advice.

If you’ve been following VisionForce for long, you know we’re asking some pretty radical questions that are throwing all previous “common sense” out the window. One big question we asked is how can we get the most powerful tools in the hands of those most ready for it–for as close to free as possible–and now!? In other words, we don’t want money to be a barrier to change agents and visionaries around the world having access to everything we can offer them.

That has led us to start creating free on-line courses, removing the fee from our membership area (and a ton of things we’ve not revealed yet. Now, if we’re going to do so much for free, how are we going to continue to exist? Money is the blood of the VisionForce organism. We need it to not just survive, but to grow massively.

So, we’ve been thinking, “Well, we’ll train people for free in as many ways as we can, and those who want to pay for a physical product or attend a high-level live training can pay us.” So, recently we removed the discount from our new physical home study program, Visionary Mind, and listed it at the regular price of $297. And we feel good about this, because it is such an extensive, valuable program. But, we’re left with this question:

Does this create a barrier for many people? Yes. It does. In the future we’ll have other physical products that we can let go for a lot less–books, for example. But right now, we think we need to just get it in the hands of as many people as possible. How can we do that? Well, maybe lowering the price–radically–could be a way. That’s just a hypothesis, though. Lower prices don’t always translate to more sales.

One business approach to pricing would be to tally the costs and add enough for a profit. Another approach would be to charge as much as the market will bear–based on the products’ perceived value and how much we can increase that perception of value. We’re asking a different question. What does the price need to be to have you “own” VisionForce as something you eagerly share with others and something you also invest in financially with your pocket book?

If the price were a lot lower, would you buy (if you haven’t already)? What would that price have to be? Would you buy for your friends or family? For your teenage son or daughter (oh, watch out if you do this though)?

We need cash to spread VisionForce throughout the world. Will lowering the price impact *your* decisions to help us–to spread the word, to buy, etc.? And what should the price be?

Please post your comments below. Thank you.

The Vision Force forums have just been released (shhhh… it’s kinda private, even though it’s the headline on our home page). We’re not doing much advertising yet as we’re still in “stealth mode!”

As smart as you are, you’ve probably guessed we’re up to something really big behind the scenes. Can’t fool you, can we? So, check it out, VisionForce is ramping up to facilitate what we see as the greatest shift in conscious thinking in history. Sounds a bit far out, I know. Still, that’s what we’re up to. The world needs drastic changes, and it starts with our thinking. With the shift in thinking that is already underway, tremors will soon be felt  through the fabric of society. Life as we know it is about to look radically different.

Our new forum area can handle mass quantities of people.  We’re starting fresh with no members and no posts–so there is a clean slate for us all. We’re nowhere near even done building the forum area, but in line with our new thinking here at VisionForce, we want YOU to help up us build it. We want the best and brightest, we want the visionary few (that’s you, right?).

For the time being, the boards are primary to be used as study rooms for our various courses. These are not the kind of forums you’ll find everywhere else on the internet. We’re asking every single person who plays here to have as their foremost focus in the forums to be their own personal evolution.

In other words, we are asking you to make “the shift” as you learn and help us create the shift. So, you should be conscious to make certain sub-shifts in your behavior. Here’s one such shift:

away from positionary posting >> towards visionary posting - from relating to new concepts as a threat to my paradigm >> towards new concepts as opportunities to upgrade my paradigm (or build a new one).

It’s characteristic of the Positionary Mind of the Past to filter new concepts and distinctions through what one already believes and then to show others (on forums) what’s incorrect about or missing from the new ideas. We see the usefulness of this in on-line forums that display little more than positionary arguments which do nothing but entrench people in the positions they already held (insert big sighing, eye rolling emoticon here).

Yes, you and I have a lot to share. Afterall, learning and self-development are a few of our highest values. And of course, we want people to see us in all our brilliance. Perhaps how we can best do that here is by being more willing than most to question our existing thinking and behaviours. The greater mark of wisdom will be how much we’re willing to question even the conclusions at which we’ve already arrived.

from displaying knowledge >> towards exercising wisdom

Socrates was considered wise, not primarily because of his ability to deconstruct others’ beliefs with his questioning, but because he never used that ability to assume or claim that he was right. He continually held his own understandings up for scrutiny and questioning.

In view of such inadequacies, Socrates himself professed his ignorance, but others still claimed to have knowledge. Socrates believed that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. Although this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, it in fact allowed Socrates to discover his own errors where others might assume they were correct. This claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men. Wikipedia

We encourage questioning of the new concepts and distinctions–that is part of the socratic method and a hallmark of any wise person. However, rather than focus being on protecting what we already know, showing others how smart we are our how well we can pick apart new concepts and distinctions–rather than by applying the socratic method outward on others–let’s focus first on what we can learn from the new concepts and distinctions–and apply the socratic method on ourselves!

This shift in thinking is part of our overall shift in consciousness from the Positionary Mind of the Past to the Visionary Mind of the Future.

(If, by slim chance, you happen to be reading this and you’d rather tell everyone how much you already know, well then, there are hundreds of thousands of on-line forum boards that would welcome you! For the rest of us, we’re up to leading the way to a whole new world in thinking and human behavior.)

With that in mind, enter the forums of self-inquiry–a haven for those of us who know that change happens first inside our own mind and heart.