I’ve had people inquiry about what inspired me to write about the Biz of You.  As the end of the year is a good time to reflect on past connections, here some of the ideas and paradigms forming the basis of the biz of you.   Aside from relating my recent experience as a quality manager and engineer of various sorts these are the beacons of light in the darkness I relate to.  They are listed in the rough order I came across them:

Joseph Campbell: He related to us all about the Hero’s Journey.  I gobbled up all the lectures I could find recorded about the worlds mythologies and how they all have common roots.

Eva Wong: She introduced me to the Taoist Arts and Cultivating Stillness

Master Moy Lin Shin: He helped me along the path of the Taoist Arts, Stillness, Yin and Yang, finding the essence of movement, myself and others.

Dr. Rose: He was the Experimental Psychologist who helped me apply mathematics to understanding the self and the multitude of theories within psychology about the self.

Carl G. Jung: His Collected Works and the idea of unconscious elements in our lives.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes: Her book opened me up to understand we all have different myths guiding us and it’s important to let them run with us.

Richard Feynman: His lectures and books bring together science, passion for figuring things out and meaning.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: His idea of Flow Psychology and all it’s emanations in our lives has transformed how I think about daily activities and managing.

C.W. Metcalf: His book Lighten Up, Survival Skills for People Under Pressure was key in learning levity especially towards one’s self.

Robert T. Kiyosaki: His books about finance use business principles to manage individual financial resources

Joseph Juran: His idea that Quality is fitness for use and affects every aspect of business is foundational to the biz of you.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa: His approach to root cause analysis is a way of thinking.

Glenda Howard:  She is a lead auditor who helped me understand a quality system is a reflection of the philosophy of an organization.

Steve Curan: He is a lead auditor who helped me understand quality is a way of life.

Peter Senge: His ideas helped me understand systems thinking in a way I could relate to others.

There are many other threads of truth woven into the idea of the Biz of You including countless observations by friends, acquaintances and the myriad of books I’ve read from science fiction to calculus textbooks.  The people listed above are simply the thicker threads in the fabric of the Biz of You.  There are a couple of friends who have provided most excellent feedback or support through the years like Jessica Olson, Roger Naranjo, Jon Pabst and Mike Hacker to name a few.

The idea of the Biz of you has emerged from many, many people and is simply voiced in this blog and the manuscript I continue to court possible agents with.

Thank you to all who have helped get this idea going and refine it through the years.