Manufactured vs. Organic

There's an amusing discussion taking place amongst my family at the moment. My wife is an evangelist of organic, whole foods that have not been processed or tainted by chemicals. She believes food in it's natural state is best for consumption. This explains why our refrigerator looks like a garden minus the dirt...

On the other side of this lively debate is my cousin who is a chemical engineer. His point of view is that processing is only done to provide an improvement of some kind. Chemicals aren't bad, rather they are the necessary components to making something better. He's not defending the over-consumption of Twinkies, but he also doesn't believe that processing equals bad.

Organic vs. Manufactured 

Now consider the same topic, but in a different context...

• Enthusiasm
• Sales
• Communication
• Motivation

If you really pay attention to the world around you, it quickly becomes apparent that we don't know how to grow anything. Ultimately we don't know how to be real so we're forced to manufacture - which is hard work.

Go pick up any sales book and you'll find the following commands:

• Be enthusiastic about your product or service
• Sell more by using these closing methods
• Communicate carefully so you can build rapport and create results
• Get motivated by talking to yourself in the mirror, verbalizing your goals, and jumping up and down 26 times!

And yet the question remains...How do you be or express what you're not??

Several years ago, when I was looking for a job, I interviewed at a lot of different places. I walked in with a suit on, resume in hand, and pre-programmed answers to the questions I thought would be asked. For the most part I believe I interviewed well. But I got very few offers.

Why?

I didn't want it. I guarantee it didn't show on the outside because I was saying all the right things, but I lacked convincability. I was communicating extremely well on a subconscious level to the interviewer that I didn't have belief in the company or the product. I didn't really want to work there. I was there because I needed a job and a paycheck - not because I believed in the company or the product.

Manufactured vs. Organic

I tried to manufacture belief but I couldn't and so ultimately I was ineffective. I was trying to produce something that hadn't actually been grown organically. So at the age of 33 I'm focusing on developing myself and designing a life and a business from an organic perspective. It's a longer road, it's frustrating, and I lose patience very easily with this process. But it's better. Much, much better.