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Long-Term Chaos
Readers who have experienced tough times will “get” this book. Those in their early
years, who have so far cruised along unscathed, may not. The tough times to which
I refer include prolonged physical and/or mental crisis where one stands alone against
the blackness: A nightmarish childhood, war, disabling injury or sickness,
crime/incarceration, addiction, untenable yet inescapable personal relationships,
divorce with attending child custody battle, personal or public betrayal, fi nancial
calamity, mental breakdown, or endless work that drains and demoralizes.
Twenty year olds might not get it. Forty year olds probably will.
Two Viewpoints
In the broad sense, two viewpoints exist of how one can bring full, positive
functionality to life. The first holds that the events of the past, and the resulting
mindset, are determining factors in today’s happiness; that we have been victims of unpleasant circumstance and we might have a chance at peace
if we could face and then disarm the psychic monsters planted in our minds long
ago. That’s the Freudian stance.
The other viewpoint is the cognitive. It maintains that the thoughts we feed ourselves
today are what matter most, and the events of the past are just that—in the past—and
gone forever unless we insist on giving them new life by swirling them back into
the only reality there is, the reality of this moment.
The cognitive approach is more practical than the Freudian, with the individual
seizing control of the immediate thought process rather than wallowing in negativity
from years gone by. So, call me a cognitive guy who believes what we do today will
determine tomorrow, and blaming the past, or the world, or someone else is a debilitating
way to travel through this precious one-time event called life.
Without question, blue-blood, old-school psychologists who see endless dour
complexity in the human condition, will deride the simplicity of the Work the SystemThings
are more complicated than that, they’ll say. I thank them in advance for their oblique
compliment. This is an elementary, dispassionate, drop-the-load-dispatch that describes
lives as they really are: cause-and-effect mechanisms that can be logical, predictable,
and satisfying.
No PhD necessary.
So, take the title of this book at exact literal face value, understanding you will
be working yourIn these pages, I challenge you to improve and manage them,
to dissect and refine them one by one until each is perfect. (We’ll call this process
“system-improvement.”) You will create new systems too, while discarding the ones
holding you back, the ones that have been invisibly sabotaging your best efforts.
Manage the systems of your life and move toward inner serenity, prosperity, and
the best for those around you.
Leader and High Earner
Not too long ago I participated in Cycle Oregon, a weeklong bicycle tour. Seventeen
hundred riders pedaled an average of 75 miles each day through remote eastern Oregon.
At night we camped in ad hoc tent cities planted at various locations along the route: rural high school football fi elds, small
town parks, or wheat fields. Seldom did we have cellular telephone coverage. That
was just fine as we, en masse, divorced ourselves from the damn things for this
seven-day break from the regular world.
At dusk on the last night of the tour, as my friend Steve and I were casually walking
through the surrounding sea of tents, we encountered a group of thirtyish guys sitting
around, drinking beer, being boisterous. As we passed, we overheard them laughing,
waging bets about how many voice mail messages one of their group members would
have the next day when he was back in cell phone range and able to check his messages.
Clearly, back in the real world these guys worked together in an office.
One predicted the total messages would be 250; another, 150. The young man on the
receiving end of the jest was robust, clean-cut, and confident. He smiled at the
fawning. That’s all we took in as we walked past, but it was obvious this man was
important in his work. He was well respected, a leader and a high earner—a success.
People depended on him.
For 24 years I have been general manager and CEO of a small business. Centratel
is profitable, has 30 employees, and a solid, loyal client base. It is certain the
part I play is important: In my world, I’m also a “leader and high earner.”
Many depend on me, too.
The next day, at the beginning of the long drive home with my bike ensconced on
my car’s roof-top rack, I checked my voice mail box. There was one message. Left
earlier in the day, it was a general and benign update from my chief operations
officer who knew I would be interested in getting caught up on things when I was
able to pick up my messages again.
Andi told me all was well in the office and she hoped I had a fun week away from
things. “Drive home safely,” she said. That was it. She didn’t need to address the
obvious: During the week, without a hitch and without an ounce of input from me,
the business had functioned perfectly while it continued to churn out thousands
of dollars in profits. It didn’t matter I was absent.
Who knows what that voice mail-inundated young man does for a living but I
tell you this: He is mismanaging things if his world can’t proceed for a single
week without his direct influence; if the myriad of systems in which he is involved all come to a halt when he is not available. Yes, all those
voice mail messages attest to his status and importance, but in the bigger picture
he is a slave to his job. And the people who depend on him are slaves to his presence.
They wait for his next call and can’t move ahead until he provides input. Because
he fails to set up business systems, in his absence things come to a standstill
in the same way a dam causes a river to back up into a lake.
I’d say he was about 30 years of age. I’m 58. People and circumstances change with
time. Eight years ago, my life was just like his.
Hooked Up
Here’s another, more general observation: In the past 20 years, the lure of instant
gratification has gripped the youngest half of our population. For the hooked-up
generation—those born after 1970 who are wedded to iPods and the immediacy/pervasiveness
of the entertainment industry—it’s a stretch to go backwards to consider the root
of things. The gratifi cation of the moment is a distraction from thoughtful contemplation
of the reasons why events happen as they do. Today, unlike 30 years ago, a good
“now” is available by just turning off and plugging in. For the young, slowing down
to examine things is not entertaining, and that’s too bad because it is mandatory
we understand the machinery of our lives if we are to modify that machinery to produce
the results we want.
Yes, Work the System is a throwback of sorts, back to an age when there was
thoughtful preparation with no expectation of immediate payback. But having said
that, know that an investment in the Work the System strategy will show
quick tangible benefits. Maybe not tomorrow, but certainly within a few weeks….
Closed System Laboratory
Centratel is a high-tech telephone answering service. For 15 years it foundered,
my personal life a reflection of its chaos. However, over the last few years, as
I applied the protocols that are described here, my workweek has become a fraction
of what it was, as my income has increased ten-fold.
Moreover, my life away from work is smooth and easy now, with plenty of extra time
to do the things I have always wanted to do. In the moring I awake serene,
looking forward to yet another day of quiet, steady improvement on all fronts. In
the course of a week, I spend far more time reading, writing, going to the movies,
climbing mountains, and riding bicycles than working.
My life is in control.
The nature of the telephone-answering service business, with its myriad of interacting
systems, both human and otherwise, made Centratel the perfect closed-system laboratory
for developing the Work the System. It’s logical and convenient to use my business
as the explanatory platform for these chaos-to-order processes. And things can get
too dry and theoretical without real-life examples, so describing the method within
the framework of Centratel adds some life to the party.
The strategies described here are not just for the small business owner, but also
for those who work in a management capacity for a business owned by someone else.
There are lessons for the silver-spoon and selfmade wealthy, too. We will be
dealing with reality and reality works in the same way for everyone, everywhere,
all the time, so when I offer a personal business illustration, read between the
lines and find your own personal application.
And when I refer to my business and use the word “manager,” understand the
label also applies to personal life. We are the managers of our lives, and the foundational
protocols described here are universal.
A qualifier: I don’t adhere to the Work the System principles and guidelines
every minute, falling down on the job now and then. Nonetheless, because I have
structured my life around the methodology, the details of the day continue to take
care of themselves despite any temporary distraction or physical/mental slump. My
hyper-efficient systems keep things moving forward no matter what.
The same will hold for you too, should you buy into the method and choose to take
firm control of your life.
Sam Carpenter
August 2008
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