Why is P2S4ME here?

Hi, my name is Dave Thorpe, and for 20 years my business and personal experiences have helped shape many lives. Now that I am a senior citizen it seemed an appropriate time to assemble all the pieces I have been fortunate to learn and place them into what we now call Path2Success4ME.

The age old question of “What is Purpose,” is one of the driving forces behind creating Path2Success4ME. As an entrepreneur turned business consultant, I saw many of the “off-the-shelf” fix-it programs for people in business were helpful, but lacked longevity. People would get motivated by learning a cool way to achieve something, but sooner or later it would be forgotten and unused. My observation led me to determine that these “programs’ of self-help, self-discovery or “do this and I promise these results” were productive and helpful, but flawed. Corporations spent millions of dollars each year on productivity tools, only to change tools when they failed or new management took over.

One of the major purposes was that management encouraged the use of programs that motivated employees to certain conclusions. This made good sense, as the business needed its mission to be served and, of course, the executives knew the best way to perform the work. So the executives hired the best minds to create programs that employees could learn to better do their job. This made sense.

The problem arises that employees are not all alike. They don’t look at things with the same view as another person in their department, team or division. As human beings, we look at them solely thru our own viewpoints. Management, in its wisdom, wanted to alter the formula and tell the employee what was best for them. Results were adequate, hence the system perpetuated.

But people are people. What satisfies my wife is not necessarily satisfactory to me. My wife may accommodate what I want to do. If she accommodates me in a reflex sort of way, her positive attitude may turn negative…whose fault is that? However, if my wife understands why I want to do something and it’s important to me and to those around me, she may develop a mindset of incredible support and acknowledgement of my desires. With our unbelievable divorce rate, it is difficult for me to believe that husbands and wives understand what is important to each other. Maybe they once did, but when they showed up in divorce court the bloom was off the rose…they no longer cared about the other person.

Now, please bring this same thought to the business world or to your kid’s football team…answer the question: Who am I, what am I going to do with my life, why am I not purposeful? Let’s first ask, “What is Purpose?” Wikipedia defines purpose as: “Purpose is a result, end, aim, or goal of an action intentionally undertaken.”

What I found was that “Purpose for the Person” was not in the business equation. The business wanted the employee to conform, rather than finding out where the employee could best perform. It is the same on the football team or in most families, social groups, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, etc. We don’t learn about it in school, nor in the business world. When we find our purpose it is because we stumble across it or accept something less because it “works for us.”

Please examine this issue: How do we develop expertise or leverage experience to move up the ladder. We lightly ask ourselves what should I do and then work off past experiences to continue to climb the ladder. Are we doing what we are best at doing?

What I have learned and what is at the very core of Path2Success4ME is that the element of self discovery has become unimportant. Our work, hobbies, soul-mate, friends, etc may not reflect what is really important to each of us. Furthermore, for those fortunate people that really have discovered their joys in life, they might not have an effective means to become aware of how to best employ their joys, gifts, strengths, etc.

But it gets worse. Let’s say you know what is inside you and you are aware of how to best use what is inside you. Do you have a “process” that is tried and true, that you use daily to MAKE GOOD DECISIONS? If you do have a process, do your family, workmates, friends, etc know the process and use it themselves? And if you do have that process down pat, do you have a very specific way to carry out your good decisions by following your tried and true way to insure that what you want you will get?

Assuming your answer is yes, then lets ask you the real true revealer…do you have a really bona fide accountability person in your life that is part of your every ambition and purpose?

I created Path2Succcess4ME to provide all this. A good friend and advisor to P2S4ME,Dr. John Martin, has his Doctorate in Psychology (you can read about him on this website). John told me that I did not invent anything, as this is the way people used to learn and work. But we slipped away from all this a hundred or so years ago, when electricity began distracting us. WE can’t get away from cell phones, text messages, twitters, TV, gossip, garbage, news, disasters, and crisis. We may go on vacation for a week or two, but even the Europeans know that it takes at least 6 weeks of vacation to clear our mind and become re-energized.