The Big Idea... In Mystery, The Body of Christ (2)

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The Big Idea by Donny Deutsch, the reality show host for business dreamers, says now is the best time to make your entrepreneur dream come true... to making your first million. Our business culture is going through the most radical transformation since the industrial revolution. And all the churning in the economy is showing signs that the unemployment line is really your soul getting you to move on your dream at this time.

The first advice from the Deutsch road to success is do what you love. Do what you are passionate about, and if you aren't passionate about what you are doing now, find it and pursue it. Trust that inner voice and don't let anyone talk you out of it. Your big idea starts with an observation, your awareness. What do you see that needs to be done or made and you can do it?

How do you get your dream to reality and then make millions? Deutsch has many big idea lessons throughout his book. Here's a few of them. Ignorance can be bliss and you can bring something totally new to the marketplace when you don't know everything. Starting out with a new idea, many will get excited with you and want to help you get there. Funding many times comes from family and friends first.

Discipline, teamwork, courage and building winning combinations will create a solid foundation for your business. Many services exist on the web that help people with the big idea to get it going. You can learn how to do it by devoting an hour a day to study on how to do it, and getting around business groups who are doing it. Keep a notebook with you at all times to collect ideas that come along where ever you go. Childhood dreams can be your incubator for adult success.

Your frustrations with "there's got to be a better way" can be the open door to your big idea. Fix it, and start toward your million: there's probably a lot out there who feel the same way you do. The five steps to a better way are acknowledge it, own it, make it, wear it, sell it.

What is humanity longing to respond to. Can you create a new twist on it? Sell it to your neighborhood.

Will your idea make millions? Every successful product answers these questions: Does it have a million-dollar name? packaging? price point? market?

Break out of the box and be an innovator. Innovators have 5 qualities. "How would I approach this business challenge if I had no preconceived notions of how it should be done? If it has never been done that way before it may need to be done that way now. If it has been done, it can be done with another unique twist. Embrace your individuality and let that be your distinction. Challenge every day assumptions and create disruptions. Your innovations may be in your living room, kitchen, staring at you every day... just waiting for your personal, ingenious touch to it.
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You have a right to make your dream a reality. So declare..."Why Not me!" You're personally entitled to do the work you love, live your life as you want to live it, and be all the things you want to be.

Do the process...
What is your mission statement?
What is your profile... uniquely appealing about you?
Who's the target market?
What's your media plan?
Who's on your board of directors?

Success is a democracy. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't join. If you got a revolutionary idea the chorus may clamor against you, but do it anyway. Someday they will be working for you.

If you want to succeed in life, write your own script. Don't be shackled to your failed scripts of the past. Build on your inner strengths like you build muscles, and draw on them during the inevitable crises of life and business. Tragedies show us what we are really made of, testing our will and resolve. Listen to your heart. If you feel a need, chances are others do too. Persistence always pays.

Dig beneath no's. Make a "no" a beginning not an ending, and no's are universal... they don't apply to everyone.

Prepare for the marathon, not the sprint. Prosper where planted, create value and results for others. Don't let big ego's fool you... many may have small bank accounts. Opportunity should not compromise your identity. The most important quality is attitude.

In parts 4 and 5 of the book Deutsch takes you down the road to your first million and shows you how to break down roadblocks.

Our attitudes in our relationships may be worth more than gold. Some say it takes money to make money to get the first million. Not necessarily so. The Internet and other avenues open up great doors we can begin opening when opening the business. Business tips to keep at the front are make people feel welcomed the first time you meet them. Be loyal to those loyal to you.

Showing gratitude goes a long way. Never display arrogance in your business and life. Make customers feel they are part of the family. All the money in the world won't make your idea work if it is a lousy idea. And all the poverty in the world won't stop your idea if it is great.

It is possible to shortcut the road to your first million.
1. Claim the spotlight. Put yourself out there. Be bold and make key contacts.
2. Put a stake in the ground. When the vision is hot, even before the plan is finished, claim the vision as yours. This initial energy you get from your vision is vital to maintaining momentum.
3. Use technology to leap ahead. Build a blogging audience first. The web has many services free, inexpensive and quickly accessible.
4. Team up, not down. Make key people partners. Keep your ego in check and get people better than you. Find others who love what they do too, to be along side you.

Having old fashioned family values is at the top good business that works. Your core values need to be unwavering and woven into all fabric of your business. Having a great story with a great product equal marketing success... a great idea, a passion people relate to, a news hook. Network success brings success. Network to help others as well as yourself. Target one key person. Make yourself prominent in the community. Tap into the virtual world. Ask for what you want.

Breaking through roadblocks. Put all your money, or in absence of money your time, all your energy, all you got behind your business idea. The path to money starts with your own money, then money from friends and family, then peer to peer lending, or next a small business loan, or partnering up, and finally find an angel. In most cases the new idea is launched with the help of those you know... yourself, family, peers. Get in the right trade shows. Be ready to expand your vision, find new applications that will attract new customers.

The blueprint to launching your business has 12 steps, (including 50 questions to answer).
1. Write your mission statement. 2. Describe your product or service.
3. Conduct market research. 4. Create your business plan.
5. Build your network. 6. Formalize your ideas.
7. Create a prototype. 8. Hold focus groups.
9. Find manufacturing and distribution. 10. Launch your website.
11. Publicize your idea. 12. Pitch potential suppliers/customers.

Deutsch identifies many websites per chapter to help you make it work. He's created a resource guide to traject your idea connecting you to many valuable tributaries of other specialized resources. Truly a work of great value to make it happen.The Big Idea website is part of Cnbc.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838512

In Mystery, Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft in the Body of Christ takes us down the road to Emmaus. It is a lonely road thinking the most important person in our lives is gone. As they communed together on this road these two followers of Jesus didn't even recognize it was Jesus with them. (Note Luke 24:13-18)

They were intense in their conversation. They were so intense that the one they loved appeared and they didn't even recognize Him. The point here is Jesus pays particular attention to believers in Harmony and meeting in His name. They were so in the natural, that the Supernatural was apparent but not obvious to them. We fail to identify the presence of Christ in our daily lives and activities. We have not suffered the cross, thus we are not able to fully appreciate the Spirit and identify it at work in our lives. So, the presence of the Lord escapes us as it normally would seem present.

What the cross means for us is death to the self-life.
As we are able to disconnect the sovereignty of self, we are able to enthrone the sovereignty of the Spirit. The New Testament and the Body of Christ helps us to become sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

On the road to Emmaus, the two were preoccupied with their thoughts... of the temporal, the natural, and were blinded to the presence of Jesus, the Spirit of God. In so many instances, the Lord is with us and we don't even know it.

Can anything separate us from the Lord? We are promised of His presence when two or more meet and Jesus is the center of our interests. We can be blinded by grief like these two and fail to see Jesus being with us in our human circumstances.

If Christ came to them in the midst of their doubt, he will come to us in our time of anxiety. Understanding the powers of Spiritual relationship among believers should calm our anxieties in the face of loss.

Jesus after His death, resurrection and even appearance to the disciples stood on the shores and they again didn't recognize Him. (John 21:1)

This Spiritual blindness that afflicts us from time to time is caused by inattention, panic, grief, even ecstasy. It keeps us from seeing Jesus who is with us. We must allow Him to teach us to "see" Him in all the ways He may manifest himself to us. We can become so self-absorbed we are indeed blind to Him being beside us.

The point is that Jesus was with them. He has promised to be with those who meet in His Spirit and in His name. He keeps His promises even though we don't recognize it. When we don't recognize Him we become people of despair and a sad countenance. Like us, they were trying so hard to figure things out, in their own human thoughts, they totally missed Him.

We cannot see God when we limit seeing Him to our own intelligence. Our own intelligence, in absence of Spiritual intelligence, makes us sluggish, and dull-witted simpletons. God said His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8)

We have one solution: the Holy Spirit must totally over take our lives so we can be responsive to each occasion of His Presence with us. We must turn our eyes from the temporal, natural, and be fixed on the Heavenly, the Supernatural. "I will teach you all things," Jesus. (John 14:26)

Our part is to desire Him, seek Him diligently with all of our hearts. He has told us that in the day we seek him diligently with our hearts we will be found by Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Once you have felt the presence of the Lord you hunger for more, continually. Once you have recognized Him you long for His communication. It is in the time of the evening shadows when we may feel that Jesus is not with us. We want His presence in the dark times of our lives... times of uncertainty...times of loneliness...times that are threatening.

His promise: "where two or three are gathered in My Name.... there I am." (Matthew 18:20) If we desire Him, He will not disappoint us. It is comforting to know that if we call on another believer friend, meet in Jesus' Name, the promise of the Holy Spirit, creative power of everything, is guaranteed.

When does He meet us? He meets us in the common activities of our lives. He is the center of our focus. He blesses our bread. It is in our sharing that He is revealed to us. When did they recognize Him... during the breaking and sharing of bread. When we are broken, and then share, His power erupts.

Additional emphasis should be placed on that it is in the sharing that He becomes known to us. We cannot keep Jesus to ourselves as our own little treasure. Jesus must be shared to be ours.

Just remember. Jesus' appearance may be a mystery. He appears in ways we least expect. He will come to us, but not as we may naturally think. He delights to surprise us, so be attentive to Him as He appears in surprising ways.

Live expectantly and Jesus will appear in the most unexpected ways...He truly delights to surprise you.