Ask Lee
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I read them all and try to answer as many as possible. If I think it's a wider question relevant to the community, I'll post it below.
I’d love to hear from you about your unique strategies for coping with life in general. For me, I remind myself to be grateful for the life I have and the world I live in. Gratitude is my secret weapon for trumping daily stress and gaining the perspective I need to continue to move forward with a positive state of mind. If you haven’t heard my Gratitude Rock story, I encourage you to go here and read about it. Then write to me and tell me your own take on achieving a life of balance and optimism. Ask yourself, how to you stay strong and grounded?
Due to high volume of questions we are unfortunately not able to respond to all your emails.
How to do see The Brower Quadrants impacting the world?
-J. Taylor, Manhattan, NY
Thank you for your question.
In today's world, we live in a time when more information is transmitted or available to us than there has ever been before. Yet we are finding that as a general rule, when you look across families in neighborhoods, cities, states and now even countries in spite of the demands and ability of his great communication age, that people are even more confused because they don't know exactly what to do with this information. The way our society is operating at this particular time, even though we have more communication devices, we are isolating ourselves. For instance, where do we are find our porches now, in the front yard or the back yard. We are finding them in the back yard. If you need sugar at night where would you get it? Would you go to your neighbor or would you go to your local 7-11? Most people would go to 7-11 because they do not know how to have that social involvement with others. And so with all this information, the opportunity to really grow and make a difference is going to involve interaction, it's going to involve building together our communities, our families. You need to have a fruit basket, a container to be able to hold all this information. So what the Brower Quadrant delivers is three things.
- It delivers the language with which we can communication quickly, metaphorically, so people can understand what we are saying and doing.
- Secondly, it provides us with that fruit basket with the content in order to capture the information as it comes to us, to sort through it and lets us know where to put it.
- And thirdly, it delivers with it a system that allows us to take that information and act upon it such that we can effectively get things done.
So if we are really looking how we as a society can accomplish more that is in alignment with our values, faster and how to do it with less effort, then this is really where I see the Brower Quadrant rule having an impact on the individual, the family, to the neighborhood, the community, to the state, country and the world.
When can we expect the release of your new book, The Brower Quadrant and where will it be available for purchase?
-M Savoy, Melbourne, Aus.
What I am being told is that the book will be available before the end of August. It's possible that it could be available sooner than that. This is a special pre-publication edition that will be available primarily through those who are affiliated with us, the Quadrant Living Architects, the Quadrant Living Specialists and directly through us via our website LeeBrower.com. We anticipate by the end of this year or the first part of next year that publishers will have it in major bookstores domestically and around the globe. We expect to have The Brower Quadrant published in Spanish approximately two months following and then translated and printed in other languages in the months thereafter.
What is your greatest wish in life?
-H. Hernandez, San Diego, CA
I believe the greatest wish in my life is to be at peace with myself. That can only be accomplished when I am always doing within my power and all I am capable of doing in terms of being aligned with what I feel is God's purpose with me. This may apply or be found through one's own spiritual practice and for me it is clear that this cannot be achieved without my own family by my side. So together with my family, I am in alignment with God's purpose to achieve the highest I am capable of achieving. And when I leave this earth, I leave it 'on stage'. I'm working with many balls up in the air and hopefully with lots of people around to catch them.
My Husband and I are interested in learning more about integrating 4-Q into our life. What do you recommend as the best approach to facilitate this?
-P. Boucher, Avignon, France
At this point, we do not have any Architects in France that can work with you. My recommendation would be that you begin by purchasing our Quadrant Livening Philosophy Questionnaire Booklet and you and your Husband fill that out. If you were willing to send that to us, we could then put that together in a format that will begin the construction of your true wealth philosophy, what we call the Quadrant Living philosophy. All genuine processes begin by telling the truth. That truth is to identify where exactly are we now and where do we want to go and what are our values, desires, passions and to achieve that. If you can get really clear on what are your real desires in your heart, your passions and your potential and ability, if you can visualize that and get it down in writing, it becomes the map that will prepare it for the journey for the rest of your life to make sure that you visit all the great and exciting opportunities that behold you in life.
How often do you recommend families schedule a retreat for the purpose of reinforcing family values, tradition and the quadrant principles?
-T. Young, Vienna, Virginia
It depends on the size of the family and who is invited. I believe a family with children in the home should meet at least weekly for family entertainment, family business and family education. Through family fun and education, you can discuss calendaring, you can discuss all that you are doing, and it gives you a sense of values. You have to make the meeting fun too, otherwise, family members won't do it. So usually when we do that, we have the meeting and then we will go through a few things keeping it short then we will have treats or we will go some place to do a fun activity. That usually happens once a week. We do an assessment with our family. We try to have some sort of retreat at least three times a year and then one major retreat once a year. So three times a year we get together where we go someplace and assess what our progress is. Once a year, we look at each Quadrant, we ask ourselves over the past year, how has my Core Assets improved, how has my Experience Assets improved, how has my Contribution Assets improved and how has my Financial Assets improved, again, over the last year. They can go up or down. Sometimes Financial Assets or Health for instance can fluctuate. Or Contribution- you may not be making as much contribution.
From our experiences, we always want our learning to be greater than our experience. Our Assets will always increase in value as long as we learn from them. By doing this, it allows us then to set a new vision, a horizon for the next twelve months where we can grow, how we can grow each Quadrant within our Family Bank to make this process more worthwhile. I believe frequency of meetings is extremely important, frequency of contact is extremely important. This builds a relationship of trust and competence that you need to have within a family.
I have a small business that’s a Notary Public and other services. My question is how can I receive a grant to get a better start?
Dear Elizabeth,
First, let me congratulate you for creating an entrepreneurial business. Opportunities abound for those who are willing to step out and then distinguish themselves from the competition.
In regards to grants or other financial assistance. I encourage you to go to the following sites. You will find valuable information and resources there.
www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/0001/sa000111.htm
This is a good article in Business Week about grants.www.womanowned.com/Growing/Funding/Opportunities.aspx
This is a great site especially for women owned businesses.www.womensnet.net/
This is another site that may be of help.
My advice is proceed cautiously. This area is fraught with fraud and as a rule of thumb, do not do business with anyone that you have not verified from multiple sources, their experience, reputation and reliability. Especially be cautious about advancing money to firms to go out and get you a grant or loan. Many of those firms make their money primarily from the upfront fees.
If you haven't clearly defined the vision of your company, may I offer some suggestions. Focus on your unique ability first and then focus on the benefit you provide. The reality is that you have a unique ability that feeds your passion and gives you energy. What is that? You are an entrepreneur that has chosen this particular business to utilize your unique ability and to provide a benefit for your customers. Do not think in terms of the services you provide- those are commodities that are available anywhere and usually are distinguished only by price. Think in terms of the experience and benefits you provide. For example: "I am the creator of - the "Elizabeth System for Transactional Optimization". "I expedite business services to accelerate your business". In other words, you provide fast, reliable services that allow your customers (members) to stay focused on those areas that make them successful and you do that through notary and other services and products. (These are just examples to get you thinking.)
Have a pro-forma. Make sure your business plan is 3-5 years in length and is well thought out. Your accountant should be able to help you or guide you to someone who knows how to complete that.
Always remember to celebrate. This is a wonderful form of gratitude. Gratitude is the soil from whence all great crops vigorously grow. Always ask yourself, "What did I learn today and how can I capture that and improve on it tomorrow?"
I wish you happiness and peace of mind wherever your energy takes you.
Lee Brower
Live Life Deliberately
