In 1971, Werner Erhard, who founded the EST training, was sitting in my
hairstyling chair. I asked him what business he was in. "The motivation
business," he said. (At that point, he was still motivating people to go out
and sell encyclopedias.)
A few months later, again while I was cutting his hair, he told me that
he had just attended a course called Mind Dynamics. He had found it so
exciting that he was learning how to teach it.
It sounded too good to be true...but I agreed to attend his first
seminar. His bottom-line message was so simple: "You are responsible for your
life."
I'd been raised to believe this, but he pushed the idea from the back of
my mind to the front so I would act on it. At the time, I had no idea that
one day I'd be speaking for a living, and that I'd be passing Werner's
message along to my own audiences in my own words.
What did Werner do that we can all learn from?
1. Werner was a showman.
When Werner Erhard as at the height of his fame, I was cutting the hair
of one of his life long friends, a man in show business. "Was Werner ever in
show business?" I asked. I've never forgotten his reply: "No, Werner never
was, and, yes, Werner always has been." Show business may be the answer to
getting your message across.
2. Werner made himself an object of interest to others.
He built his EST business success by getting many people to talk about
him and their experiences at his seminars.
3. He trained others to teach his message.
He created a mini-empire, teaching basic, simple truths that made a
difference in people's lives and that others could pass on. He staffed his
organization with excited, dedicated people who believe in what they were
doing. (Of course, he didn't pay them very much. I know, because I recruited
several of his former employees. Anyone who had worked for EST found it easy
to work for Fripp!)
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