Why and How to Design Your Aji Ambition, Notes Part 1 of 2 [55 pages]

To Earn a Living or Become Rich

Using Your Computer and the Internet

*The following notes accompany the videos with the same title.

“An Origin Story”

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Explain IR#4

3. Aji Ambitions: An Origin Story

4. Aji Ambitions “are” a Culture

5. Aji Ambitions are a Way of Being

6. You are an IR#4 Businessperson who needs to design an Aji Ambition IF …

Part One

In this talk I’m going to speak with you about Aji Ambitions,

… especially why and how to design and execute them

… to double your productivity, value and incomes

An Aji Ambition is:

… a set of COMMITMENTS to:

Take care of human (13), financial (6), marital (14), career (12) and business (22) concerns

Adapt to always changing situations

Acquire capabilities to fulfill intentions

Design and execute action plans

… and the SKILLS needed to fulfill those commitments

… to earn, save and invest enough money

… to survive, adapt to life’s always changing circumstances and live a good life in IR#4,

… including 25+ years of unemployment during old age.

I’ll speak their descriptions, meanings, relevance, value and purposes (DMRVP) in Part One.

I’ll show you how to design your own Aji Ambition in Part Two.

Designing an Aji Ambition so that it is:

Complete

Coherent with Reality’s Operations

Effective

Strategic

Competitive

… is Part One of The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy

(… also called “The Strategy” and “The ASFS”)

An Aji Ambition establishes the fundamental:

… IR#4 Businesspeople use

… to execute the next 11 parts of The Strategy

… to double their productivity, value and incomes.

In short,

… when businesspeople design their Aji Ambition

… and constitute their intentions and commitments to survive, adapt and live a good life,

… that includes 25+ years of unemployment with their spouse during their old age,

… they begin to execute The Strategy

… and to double their competitive capabilities and advantages.

Aji Ambitions are “IR#4” Ambitions

“IR#4” = The Fourth Industrial Revolution

There have been four industrial revolutions.

Industrial Revolutions make traditional business knowledge uncompetitive and obsolete. Really.

That’s why we keep hearing about businesspeople …

… failing to save enough money

… to avoid running out of it with their spouse in old age.

They are called “Revolutions” because the NEW financial and competitive pressures they trigger,

… force businesspeople and businesses

… to quit using traditional business knowledge

… in order to make “enough money”

… to take care of their families.

The Four Industrial Revolutions began 250 years ago.

I designed “Aji” to enable IR#3 Businesspeople …

… to quit using IR#3 business philosophy, knowledge and skills

… and to pivot to, or turn toward, using Aji,

… so they could fulfill their intentions to earn and save enough money

… including IR#4’s new challenge to save/invest enough money to afford 25+ years of unemployment during old age.

Aji Ambitions

An Origin Story

An “ambition” — any ambition — is an intention, aspiration or commitment to produce an outcome in the future.

For example …

Intending, or making commitments with your spouse,

… to earn and save enough money to live a good life together

… until you are at least 90 years old

… without running out of money

… or needing financial help from your children and in-laws that they cannot afford

… is an Ambition businesspeople MUST have in IR#4

… in order to live a good life.

I sometimes think of my talks about Aji Ambitions as an “origin story”.

These were my favorite stories when I was reading comic books.

I loved how regular people “became” super-heroes and discovered their new powers gradually …

… after something happened or changed

… such as getting bit by a radioactive spider or being bathed in gamma rays.

When businesspeople hear Why and How to Design an Aji Ambition for the first time,

… it transforms them into a new human being. Literally.

How they “be” human changes.

In an instant,

… they “become” the human being,

… dignified adult, honorable spouse who keeps their vows,

… and parent whose commitments to their children

… are admired, respected, appreciated and loved by them

… that they always wanted to be.

Gradually, as happens in Origin Stories,

… as businesspeople use Aji

… to execute The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy

… their “powers”, or competitive capabilities and advantages, grow,

… as do their productivity, value and incomes,

… until the capability to earn and save enough money to live a good life with their spouse

… becomes “normal”.

And just like comic book superheroes,

… businesspeople who learn how to use The Strategy,

… beginning with designing their Aji Ambition,

… gradually discover the completely new power

… to produce highly valued, much higher financial outcomes,

… and incredibly powerful and global Networks of Capabilities

… that help them to design steady streams of fresh, new offers, practices, narratives and strategies (OPNS)

… it enables them to produce.

They stop being cynical, naïve, timid, guilty and/or dissatisfied with how they are being …

… AND transform into being unapologetically competitive and the dignified IR#4 Businesspeople, spouses, parents and citizens

… they really always wanted be,

… and double their productivity, value and incomes.

What actually changes when businesspeople learn Aji?

Their (1) Ambitions, (2) Moods, (3) Language/explanations, (4) Distinctions, (5) Interpretations, (6) Intentions, (7) Commitments, (8) Practices and (9) Outcomes (financial) change.

And, businesspeople who design Aji Ambitions with their spouse,

… are very happy to “quit” listening to The Carnies’ disingenuous advice and sales pitches,

… and to start acting freely and without apology

… as responsible, dignified adults and parents

… who know how to accept a carnie’s offers appropriately (for fun and distraction)

… without betraying those they care about most.

Simply put, the businesspeople who use Aji and Aji Ambitions,

… are very serious about keeping their marriage vows

… and their commitments to parent their children,

… and live with dignity (integrity).

They “do” what they see is “right” and “best” for family,

… and find it deeply satisfying,

… instead of selling them out

… by doing what is easy, immature, fun in the moment, distracting.

They are equally serious about doing whatever they can …

… to earn and save enough money

… to qualify as earning an “IR#4 Income” (2 x an IR#3 Income)

… to afford the goods and services they and their spouse are certain to need available every day of their lives,

… including 25+ years of unemployment during their old age together.

Ambitions are not “things”.

They exist linguistically in situations and cultures

When Businesspeople

Speak about them recurrently with one another

Over long periods of time.

Before 1980 when computers were first sold,

… businesspeople lived in financial and competitive situations,

… and a marketplace culture, which is a set of stable narratives and practices,

… that did not use (or need) well-designed, strategic and competitive ambitions

… to earn a living.

IR#3 Businesspeople before 1980,

… put in their time, got their job done

… and then collected a pension that included lifetime healthcare when they retired.

Businesspeople who had “ambitions” were considered greedy, pushy, overly aggressive and driven …

… because ambitions were not “needed.

That’s why the moods, narratives and business skills needed to design and execute a financial, career or business strategy,

… don’t exist in IR#3 business philosophy, knowledge or practices.

That’s also why many businesspeople hesitate to think of themselves as “ambitious”.

I designed Aji to replace IR#3 business philosophy, knowledge and skills …

… because they are task oriented, labor-based and commonsensical,

… which is not competitive when using computers

… AND does not enable businesspeople, or businesses,

… to exploit the new strategic and competitive capabilities made possible by computers and the internet

… to double productivity, value and incomes.

I designed Aji Ambition to enable businesspeople to fulfill the financial, career and business intentions …

… they MUST fulfill satisfactorily in IR#4 to:

… earn a living or become rich,

… and live a good and dignified life with their family

… in the most rapidly changing, competitive, complex and technologically advanced global marketplace in history

… including 25+ years of retirement.

When businesspeople act thoughtfully, strategically, competitively and with dignity,

… to fulfill their Aji Ambition,

… so that they are focused squarely on fulfilling their financial, career and business intentions.

… they transform their computers and the internet

… into the most powerful money-making machines ever invented

… by developing their:

Aji Ambition’s Accomplishments

Trust, Value, Authority, Leadership and Dignity

Businesspeople who have learned how to Design their Aji Ambition

… and who have graduated from what is now called The Aji Course during the past five years:

Increased their incomes on average 149%:

$100k -> $249k

$200k -> $498k

$500k -> $1.245k

Their average return on investment, or on their tuitions, was 976%.

This is 122 times the average 8% returns produced by the stock market.

Learning Aji is almost always the best investment businesspeople have ever made in their life,

… or are ever likely to make again,

… which is why so many businesspeople study and use Aji for decades.

At our last LEIP Conference before the pandemic, for example, the businesspeople who attended,

… had average incomes of $821k

… and an average net worth of $5.1m.

* In other words,

… when you look at how consistently businesspeople are able to double their productivity, value and incomes when using Aji,

… using Aji is TWICE AS COMPETITIVE as using IR#3 business skills to “make money”,

… or to fulfill financial, career and business intentions

… in IR#4 when using computers and the internet to earn a living, or become rich.

Designing your Aji Ambition is one way to quit being an IR#3 Businessperson who earns a “normal”, but too-low, IR#3 Income …

… making it impossible to save enough money for their old age.

It’s a way to “pivot” towards becoming an IR#4 Businessperson …

… whose can earn an income roughly two times what they earned

… when using IR#3 business philosophy, knowledge and practices.

Ambition is a Way of Being

Called “Being Ambitious”

Aji is a new business philosophy. Really.

It includes being unapologetically ambitious and competitive for the sake of earning and saving “enough money” …

… to live a good life with your spouse and children,

… for your entire life

… including 25+ years of unemployment during your old age.

This what a mature, dignified spouse and parent “does” to take practical care of their family.

Aji is a new way of thinking and acting, or orienting, with people in the marketplace,

… to make money and live a good life in IR#4

… that exploits the new strategic and competitive capabilities

… computers and the internet make possible.

A Way of Being is an orientation, explanation or assessment about life, or a situation.

The way businesspeople “be” in the marketplace predetermines what is and is not possible for them to think.

It predetermines how they “act”,

… which predetermines the “outcomes” they are able to produce

… including their identities, leadership roles, career,

… incomes, and savings for old age with their spouse.

For example …

When people are being angry,

… their orientation reflects their upset about being victimized,

… their actions are those of an angry victim,

… and the outcomes they produce with their actions are manifestations of their anger.

When people are being humble,

… their orientation is to make careful well-grounded assessments about their capabilities to fulfill their intentions in a given set of circumstances,

… their actions are those of a serious and powerful actor,

… and the outcomes they produce with their actions are manifestations of their humility and the power they gain from it.

The opposite is also true.

When businesspeople are not humble or ambitious,

… because they are arrogant, prideful, pretentious and decline to seek or accept help such as Aji to take care of their family,

… their “orientation” is from IR#3

… and produces mediocre, weak and uncompetitive thought and action

… and incomes that are too low to earn and save enough money to fulfill their vows and commitments.

When people are being serious about their marriage vows:

Their orientation is to make thoughtful interpretations about how they can fulfill their commitments every day, all day.

Their actions are those of a spouse who is serious about producing the outcomes that fulfill their vows and commitments to their children.

The outcomes they produce with their actions are dignified, virtuous, lovable, honorable and appreciated …

… even if they don’t succeed 100% in fulfilling their intentions.

Once again,

… when businesspeople are not serious about their commitments,

… the opposite is also true.

When people are being IR#3 Businesspeople (40 years after computers were first introduced),

… they are denying the practical, competitive and financial situations in which they find themselves.

Their denial of the practical operations of reality,

… and the financial requirements for care of their spouse and children,

… as if decades of unemployment without enough money is of no consequence to their spouse, children and in-laws,

… is immature, irresponsible and undignified for an adult, spouse or parent.

Their seemingly casual and nonchalant assurances that they are “fine”,

… rather than being worried, serious, thoughtful and committed to their family,

… enables them to avoid accepting the marital, parenting, financial and career challenges of IR#4 for a while

… but they, their spouse and their children, in-laws and grandchildren

… never escape consequences.

And, it means that while they are posturing AS IF they are dignified adults …

… who are doing a satisfactory job taking care of their family,

… what they are actually doing is trying to get away with something

… and setting up financial situations in the future in which their spouse and children will suffer

… that they will never escape.

They are shifting financial burdens of practical/financial care

… that only “adults” have the ability and privilege to accept and deal with,

… on behalf of their spouse, children, in-laws, grandchildren and society

… which is “wrong” or immoral.

* Just ask their spouse and (adult) children.

Aji Ambitions

And Being Human

Aji Ambitions are based in a new interpretation about what it means to be a human being …

… and how to live a good life in IR#4

… using computers and the internet to make money.

The new interpretations are radically different than those used in IR#3.

This is a very big deal.

This changes “everything” about business,

… when businesspeople and businesses

… are working to make money

… using computers and the internet.

In IR#3, human beings were thought of in terms of their psychologies and as “thinking things” we could perceive with our senses.

Reality, such as goods and services, money, value, leadership, computers and competitive advantages,

… were thought to be perceived with one’s senses,

… or as things we could see, hear, feel, smell or taste,

… and using common sense.

Practical Reality was considered obvious, objective, permanent and perceivable.

People thought if they reduced “things” such as rocks, horses or procedures down to their smallest components, they could understand them.

People thought they could “figure things out”, such as competitive situations,

… by using their senses, tools, mathematics and thinking,

… like Rene Descartes says, “I think. Therefore, I am”.

It doesn’t work.

IR#4’s competitive situations and financial pressures cannot be perceived, or seen, heard, tasted, felt or smelled,

… nor can computers and the internet.

People thought words, sentences and explanations were also things.

They thought communication was like a tube.

They thought when people spoke, words came out of their mouth and flew into their listener’s ears, as if through a tube,

… where their obvious meanings would be understood

… if their grammar and enunciation were “correct”.

None of this is true.

EVERY one of these conclusions is completely false. 100%.

Background Claims about Aji

1. The most important, practical and dignified purpose of work for an adult,

… is to earn a living or become rich

… to fulfill their marriage vows

… and their commitments to their children

… so they can:

Survive: Food, Housing, Transportation, Medical Care

Adapt to life’s always changing circumstances

Live a good life: in the present and at peace about the future

If you work in a culture with IR#3 Businesspeople,

… you will couple, and remain coupled, to that culture

… and fail to fulfill your financial, career and business intentions

… to earn and save enough money to take “satisfactory” care of your spouse and children.

If you work with IR#4 Businesspeople who use Aji,

… you will couple to a new business philosophy

… that is twice as powerful and competitive

… as the Cartesian one used in IR#3

… and produce opportunities to double your productivity, value and incomes

… that did not exist in IR#3, or before computers and the internet,

… and that cannot be produced and exploited until you learn how to use Aji.

The “Booby Prize” that comes with declining to adapt to IR#4,

… is a “normal” and too-low IR#3 income that leads to

… 25+ years of old age with one’s spouse

… without enough money to afford the goods and services you’ll both need to help you take care of your most fundamental human concerns

… e.g. housing, food, transportation, medical care, family, play, dignity, etc.

When businesspeople are quietly, and sometimes charmingly,

… arrogant, prideful and unconcerned about earning and saving “enough money”,

… and lack dignity and “financial integrity”

… because they are not serious about keeping their commitments at home (vows, children and savings) or in the marketplace,

… they cannot act strategically or competitively.

So, they eventually find themselves living and working with others who are equally uncompetitive and unsuccessful …

… where they have no hope of earning and saving “enough money” to live a good life.

Identities of superior trustworthiness, value, authority, leadership (TVAL) and Dignity are significantly more important strategically and competitively than they were in IR#3.

Computers and the internet …

… have created new financial and competitive pressures, and new competitive situations,

… or constantly changing competitive threats, obligations and opportunities,

… that make businesspeople’s character, or dignity,

… a competitive capability and advantage.

Businesspeople are working in the most rapidly changing, competitive, complex and technologically advanced global marketplace in history.

IR#3’s task orientation, reliance on common sense and labor-based work ethics …

… can’t compete to produce very high incomes

… against the strategic and competitive orientation

… used by global competitors

… and those using Aji.

Normal incomes earned using IR#3 business skills are obsolete.

They are too low to enable businesspeople and their spouses …

… to live a good life while raising their children

… and also save enough to afford the goods and services they will need in old age.

In IR#4,

… businesspeople and their spouses are responsible for funding their own retirement of 25+ years of old age (9,000+ days),

… beginning at age 60

… when the infirmities of old age begin to appear, according to doctors (not politicians).

This financial challenge is completely new,

… and requires an equally new philosophy

… with completely new moods, narratives and practices

… to meet it.

Nothing about earning and saving “enough money” to afford 25+ years of old age with one’s spouse …

… is obvious or commonsensical.

To succeed, IR#4 Businesspeople design an Aji Ambition.

The consequences of failing to earn and save enough money to include:

Running out of money with one’s spouse before dying

Being unable to afford the goods and services everyone needs to help them take care of their most fundamental human concerns, e.g. housing, food, medical care and transportation

Chronic (or unrelenting) Financial Stress that makes people ill and shortens lifespans by as much as 20 years

CFS begins when people realize they are certain to run out of money,

… even if the actual moment it will happen is years in the future

Resentment of and lost dignity with one’s children and in-laws, rather than respect, admiration, appreciation and love

Existential despair during the last half of one’s life, or feeling as if one’s life was and is meaningless

The primary tools businesspeople have to earn a living or become rich are computers, computer-driven tools and the internet.

The way to adapt to IR#4’s new competitive situations …

… and fund old age with one’s spouse for 25+ years

… is to double your productivity, value and income

… by exploiting the new strategic and competitive capabilities computers and the internet make possible.

Aji is a new “business philosophy” that exists as a “culture” in the marketplace, a business or a Network of Capabilities.

A “culture” is a set of interpretations and practices people invent …

… to fulfill their intentions when coping with concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies

… that remain “stable” as they are passed linguistically to different people and generations,

… e.g task-oriented business skills, reliance on common sense, keeping busy, thinking outside the box or being determined to produce the result.

When IR#3 Businesspeople work in a business organization,

… they keep an uncompetitive and obsolete business philosophy and set of practices

… stuck in existence, culturally,

… thwarting serious businesspeople from

… fulfilling their financial, career and business intentions.

When IR#4 Businesspeople who use Aji work inside, or with, business organizations,

… they open up everyone’s opportunities to make money strategically and competitively

… and fulfill their financial, career and business intentions

… so they can all take care of their families.

Business owners, executives and managers can double the productivity, revenues and enterprise value of their businesses …

… by having their employees, colleagues, employers, vendors and customers use Aji.

Using Aji produces a new “operational coherence” in a business.

Instead of businesspeople organizing around completing task-oriented processes and procedures,

… and relying on common sense to make incremental improvements,

… Aji enables the entire organization to work together strategically and competitively.

You are an IR#4 Businessperson

Who Needs to Design an Aji Ambition if …

Sometimes serious businesspeople are more naïve,

… and deeply confused

… than the businesspeople who are not serious.

Businesspeople who are dignified and serious about their marriage and children share with me,

… that they have “private thoughts” about what is really going on around them,

… and how it makes no sense to them.

Before businesspeople begin to design their Aji Ambitions,

… it is important and helpful

… to clear up their naivete and freeing them up from political correctness.

Though nothing could be farther from the truth, often IR#3 Businesspeople act AS IF …

… they are happy,

… their careers are terrific,

… they are earning enough money,

… they are producing all sorts of impressive results,

… their spouse is happy with their financial situation and equally unconcerned about their savings for old age,

… and that there’s no reason to bear the cost to increase their productivity, value or incomes

Because only they can see how little is really in their savings account and how much they owe on their credit cards,

… they are the only ones who really know they are bullshitters, frauds and pretentious jerks.

* Eventually, spouses and adult children always discover the truth.

There just isn’t a way to hide the suffering and despair triggered when human beings run out of money,

… or can’t get the help (goods and services) they need,

… to take satisfactory care of their most fundamental human concerns,

… e.g. housing, food, medical care, transportation, family, sociability, adapting, dignity, spirituality, etc.

This is happening now with the baby boomers and their spouse and children.

It’s no surprise that their divorce rate is sky high and that they are the most disliked and resented generation in history by their children.

The reason IR#3 Business Bullshitters don’t announce the truth about their financial situations …

… proudly and loudly,

… as they do so many of their other “accomplishments”

… is because they are ashamed and embarrassed for others to know the truth.

The truth is …

… the future situations they are producing every day

… in which their spouse and children will find themselves suffering the consequences

… means they lack “financial integrity” and are undignified.

Businesspeople who are “serious” about their marriage,

… often can’t imagine this isn’t the truth for everyone

… and are puzzled by the immaturity, and casual and overly-confident moods with which others around them speak and act.

Nevertheless, the truth is right in front of them…

Many businesspeople are not serious about their marriage.

They pretend to be serious.

* Remembering and fulfilling their vows to their spouse,

… is not worth their attention, time, energy, money or lost opportunities.

They have made no parenting commitments to their children about how they will help them live, marry and work successfully in IR#4,

… and do all they can to avoid being a financial burden on them during their old age.

* It’s not politically correct to say …

… that people who had a wedding,

… have a marriage license and are not divorced,

… but who do not remember or intend to fulfill their vows

… are not married.

(They’re not.)

When people argue that they do care,

… they’re stating how they “feel”

… which has absolutely nothing to do with how they are acting,

… fulfilling their vows and commitments,

… or the financial outcomes and future situations they are actually producing.

Marriage is constituted by one’s vows to a spouse,

… and the eager intentions to fulfill them to a spouse’s satisfaction,

When businesspeople don’t remember their vows,

… and are not working eagerly, enthusiastically and passionately to fulfill them,

… they have broken their vows

… and are only pretending to be married.

In fact, if you check,

… businesspeople who are not serious about their marriage,

… who pretend they are earning and saving enough money,

… and who continue to use IR#3 business skills

… don’t remember their marriage vows

… and are not serious about any commitments they have made to their children

You’ll find they haven’t the slightest clue what their vows are,

… what their vows mean (love, honor and cherish)

… what commitments they’ve made to their children

… or how to fulfill any of them!

And, if you think they’re really “OK”,

… or that their spouse is “fine” with their financial situation,

… just ask them about their savings and credit card debts.

The embarrassment and shame you might see is about their lack of integrity and value … from their point of view.

This concludes Part One of

Why and How to Design an Aji Ambition.

In Part Two,

… I will show you how to Design an Aji Ambition,

… your Life, Financial and Business Ambitions,

… so that it is deeply meaningful to you and your spouse

… and helps you earn and save enough money to live a good life

… including 25+ years of unemployment during your old age.

Recommendations

In Part Two when I explain how to Design an Aji Ambition,

… I’ll make the following recommendations to build the necessary background.

It’s best, but not required, to read and watch the following before you watch Part Two. They are in the book or on aji.com.

Read:

Aji, an IR#4 Business Philosophy

1. Chapters One and Two (pgs. 1-74)

2. Chapter Six: Part #1 of The Strategy: Ambition (pgs. 249-276)

Fundamental Human Concerns (63 pgs.)

Fundamental Marriage Concerns (95 pgs.)

* You can purchase the book on Amazon.

Watch:

A Conversation About Marriage