The Tennis Player and the Shaman

In high school my two "primary" girl friends were both tennis players, Melanie (who played 1st and 2nd doubles) and Tari, who was the star of the team, daughter of the most famous athlete in the city, and ranked as one of the top Juniors in the Midwest. Back then, usually the only people who played tennis were people who were members of a country club and my father worked in a factory as a crane operator so no country club for me.

As a result, I had never really played tennis but, due to Tari and Mel, I was able to go to the country club as their guest and I started playing with them.

At first -- I just got killed, especially by Tari who found it oh so entertaining. After a while though, I started being pretty competitive and within a few months I was not only beating them, I was actually beating everyone else.

It was weird, but pretty cool and when I went to college I was playing, and beating, everyone . . . even guys who had played on their Tennis teams in high school. I was going to Ohio State so there was zero chance of me walking on as a tennis player but, year after year, I just kept getting better and better until I got to the point where I could play and hold my own against very high-level players.

But I could never beat them.

A few people suggested to me that I could play professionally. Of course, that was nonsense, as I was already in my twenties and would be going against players who had played since they were 5 -- but eventually I figured out, from talking to other college players and coaches, that my issue was not age or athletic ability . . . it was lack of fundamentals.

I was a converted basketball player and as long as it was about speed and hitting the ball back really hard, then for most people I was too good but when I ran in to players of equal natural ability who were grounded in basic fundamentals of the game, then it was all over. I couldn't compete.

The only way I had a chance to rise to the next level was to "unlearn" all the things that had gotten me as far as I had and, basically, start over. Of course, this would have been a slow and painful process and, with no guarantee of success and an absolute guarantee of lots and lots of frustration, I never bothered . . .

Fast forward 25 years to another area in which, seemingly out of nowhere, I found that I was able to perform at a very high level based strictly on natural talent without having any basic training in the "fundamentals" -- business. I was able to bluff my way through primarily because I was (a) a fast learner and (b) one HELL OF A TALKER :)

And since I was getting perks and rising quickly I never bothered to stop and "unlearn" my tricks and ground myself in the fundamentals. I was doing too well and I didn't need to play with the best; life was good just where I was.

Ironically, over the past 4 years I have had the opportunity to step away from business and during that time I went through what I call "the shamanic roto-rooter" -- i.e. a personal and professional "crisis". But the beauty of my time of "crisis" is that I stopped relying on some of my old "tricks" and started thinking, really thinking, about what REALLY worked . . . and why.

I wouldn't have willingly "stopped" and gone back to square one (just as I wouldn't have years ago to upgrade my skills as a tennis player) but over the past few years I have had the "luxury" of studying myself and what I did (and didn't do) that worked most effectively.

I have "unlearned" and so now have the "chance" to put things back together again "the right way" -- which maximizes the chances of me performing at an even higher level than ever before. Some sports, like basketball, I got really good at but it was work -- a lot of work and my natural skills weren't enough . . . I had to practice practice practice. But tennis was different. I could quit for a couple of years, never pick up a racket and then poof -- be playing at a very high level 15 minutes later.

Psychic ability was like basketball. I worked at it, for a long time; I got good at it but only after putting in years and years of work. Tennis wasn't like that. Same thing with business . . . for some reason, I just seemed "to be good at it".

The moral of the story is this -- if you expect to perform at a high-level at anything your chances are increased dramatically by being thoroughly grounded in the "fundamentals of the game". As an athlete, I think people understand that but -- as a psychic, people typically don't. Most people, it seems, think that you should be able to just skip the hard work and get "to the good stuff".

I see this attitude over and over. I try, in my own way, to say "hey, it's not like that" but my speech is not a popular one. But, popular or not, it's true.

Going forward, I only want to work with people who, like me, want to perform at the highest level possible and are willing to put in the sweat equity to make it happen. This is why I am shifting gears, and focus . . .

I see "how it works" and why and after all these years of study and reflection I have figured out that my most natural talent is in business, more than any other. Ironic in one sense but also, I think, absolutely . . . true.