Why and How to Design Your Aji Ambition, Notes Part 2 of 2 [47 pages]

Design Your Life, Financial and Business Ambitions

so they are

Complete, Coherent, Effective, Strategic and Competitive

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

Overview

How to Design an Aji Ambition

Life Ambitions

To take care of Fundamental Human and Marital Concerns

Financial Ambitions

To afford the goods and services everyone needs to fulfill their Life Ambitions:

… to help them take care of their most fundamental concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies

… to survive, adapt to life’s always changing circumstances and live a good life

Business Ambitions

To make the OPNS, constitute the identities, hold the roles, build the organizations necessary and execute The Strategy:

… to earn and save enough money to

… to fulfill businesspeople’s financial, career and business intentions

Instructions

Begin working on your ambitions as if you are sketching an outline for a talk,

… rather than making and completing a final document.

Focus first on your intentions, rather than on details or specific actions.

If you are discussing “Family” with your spouse, for example,

… and are focused on your commitments to your children,

… talk about what you intend to produce with your parenting.

Do you intend, for example,

… to parent in a way that enables your children

… to survive, adapt and live a good life with his or her family in IR#4?

Do you intend to help them grow up …

… so they are able to learn autonomously and competitively

… using their computers and the internet to

… handle their finances,

… keep their marriage vows,

… make money strategically and competitively

… know what it means to live with integrity and to be valuable

… so they can live a good life?

Then, after you are settled into your intentions … for the moment …

… and write them down,

… you design actions to learn how to fulfill your intentions and act to fulfill them.

When you and your spouse first begin working on your ambitions,

… sketch your intentions.

Developing your Aji Ambitions can take a few months of “Honeymoons”.

Then, as your situations change, and they will forever,

… it’s important to revisit your intentions and practices regularly.

And, finally, ambitions are not private or individual skills.

They are social, historical and cultural.

They exist, or live, in communities of people who speak about them all the time.

So, build a community of people who share your fundamental ambitions.

Sure, their specific concerns will be different.

Their children will have different names.

They’ll like different desserts, vacations and clothing.

But, fundamentally,

… your bodies or your nervous systems,

… the situations in which you live

… and the concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies that drive your thoughts and actions

… are exactly the same,

… e.g. the concerns you are all working to take care of

… as well as the prices you pay for the goods and services you all buy

… are the same, i.e. shoes, milk, gasoline, taxes, etc.

Competitive capabilities and advantages …

… can only be produced and maintained in rapidly changing competitive situations,

… when businesspeople are centered in the fundamental concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies

… they need to take care of satisfactorily in any situation.

What does it mean to “design” anything?

To “design” anything people invent:

1. New Intentions to produce outcomes

2. New Actions to fulfill those intentions

For example, people design:

Driving to the store when the usual way is blocked

New offers, practices, narratives and strategies (goods and services)

New careers: identities of TVAL and Dignity

New leadership roles (offers)

How to make more money

How to invest money

Marriage

Parenting

A global marketplace organized around the ubiquitous use of computers and the internet,

… whose tools for (1) learning, (2) communication, (3) coordinating thought and action, and (4) producing new OPNS

… are always evolving and becoming more powerful,

… is full of fresh, new “opportunities” to design new OPNS to make money every day, all day.

When new tools, applications and knowledge are being designed, crafted, manufactured and released into the marketplace every day, all day,

… the businesspeople and businesses who know how to design,

… or create steady streams of fresh, new OPNS

… that they use strategically and competitively,

… have little problem doubling their productivity, value and incomes.

The papers and videos in Aji, an IR#4 Business Philosophy and aji.com,

… are a Source of Power

… to create steady streams of new intentions that are strategic, competitive, highly valued and scarce relative to demand.

They can be used to design “Aji Ambitions”,

… or to double productivity, value and incomes.

They are Part #1 of The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy.

Distinctions to Design Aji Ambitions

What is Work?

Work is any action we perform to fulfill our intentions.

What is Care?

Care is the action people take and the outcomes they produce …

… to help themselves or others

… take satisfactory care of their:

… to survive, adapt to life’s always changing circumstances and live a good life.

Care has nothing at all to do with how we feel about people.

How we feel doesn’t provide food, housing, medical care or transportation.

It has everything to do with how we act practically to produce outcomes to take care of Human and Marriage Concerns.

We don’t take care of our spouse and children with our feelings.

We take care of them with the practical outcomes we produce with our thoughts and actions.

Just ask them …

Feelings can’t “buy” food, housing, medical care or transportation.

Only effective action to fulfill that intention “works”.

What is Satisfactory Care?

Action that produces outcomes that end stress, present pain and suffering about the future …

… that are always triggered when people are unable to take care of their Human Concerns.

What is the MEANING of … anything?

Aji Ambitions need to be deeply meaningful for businesspeople and their spouses,

… or they will not be able to tolerate the decades of discomfort, challenges, failures and difficulties

… that fulfilling those intentions often requires.

Aji Ambitions, Marriage, Parenting, Money, Careers, Business, etc.,

… are meaningless.

The fact that they are meaningless,

… is also meaningless.

This is because “meaning” is produced, or created, by human beings …

… when they make one of two assessments about anything.

Assessments that produce MEANING:

#1 – The SITUATION it produces: the threats, obligations and opportunities

#2 – The ACTIONS that are required

This means it is up to individuals and spouses to constitute the meanings of their marriage …

… because if they do not,

… the marriage will remain meaningless.

The way to produce a MeaningFULL Marriage, or Aji Ambition,

… is to produce shared interpretations with your spouse

… about the SITUATIONS that will be produced

The threats you’ll have to avoid

The obligations to keep your opportunities, produce new opportunities and avoid avoidable costs and threats

The opportunities you will have, or lose

… and the ACTIONS that will be required

That you will be forced to take

That you will be unable to perform

The you will be able to avoid

The way to make your Marriage, or Aji Ambition,

… DEEPLY meaningful

… is to make your Marriage and Aji Ambition very, very IMPORTANT to both of you.

“Importance” to human beings is a matter of consequences they do, or do not, care about.

When people care about avoiding or producing a consequence,

… it is important to them,

… which drives and sustains intentions and actions even when people are uncomfortable and stressed.

Or, more explicitly,

… to make your Marriage, or Aji Ambition deeply meaningful,

… create a story about the CONSEQUENCES

… of your actions, or failed actions,

… that you and your spouse will “experience”

… that you both care about enough

… to enable you to sustain acting for the sake of fulfilling your intentions.

What will be the CONSEQUENCES to your spouse, your children and yourself:

If you FAIL to fulfill your Life, Financial and Business Ambitions?

If you SUCCEED in fulfilling them?

What Situations will you produce either way?

What new threats will you have to deal with?

What obligations will you have to fulfill?

What opportunities will you have or lose?

What Actions will be required or forced upon you, avoided, or will you be unable to perform,

… e.g. buying medicine, visits with your children, moving out of your home, etc.?

To produce “background” you will both need to think and design together:

Please read:

Chapter One of the book, Aji, an IR#4 Business Philosophy,

… especially the first 7 pages.

*You can purchase the book on Amazon.

Fundamental Human Concerns

Fundamental Marriage Concerns

* You can read these in the Aji Fundamental Knowledge section of aji.com.

Please watch:

A Conversation about Marriage

* You can also view this in the Aji Fundamental Knowledge section of aji.com.

How to Design your Life Ambition

Meet with your spouse, or partner, to begin a conversation about your future together.

Invite your spouse, or partner, to join you to design your Life, Financial and Business Ambitions.

Coaching:

Design your Life, Financial and Business Ambitions …

… because you want to,

… or because they are deeply meaningful to you and your spouse.

Design your ambitions so they are an expression of and include fulfilling the vows you made to your spouse, to your mutual satisfaction.

Your purpose is to produce a Life Ambition,

… which is a set of shared commitments with your spouse

… to produce situations in the future that take care of your Human and Marriage Concerns together

… and create a good, satisfying and dignified marriage

… now

… until age 60

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

Have a conversation with your spouse about each Human (13) and Marriage (14) Concerns.

Discuss how you want to take care of each one at different times in the future,

… e.g. when your children are young, college age or adults,

… or when your parents are young and when they become old and need your help

… or when you don’t (yet) have enough saved for your old age AND when you do have enough.

What situations, capabilities and strategies do you need to design and execute together in order to fulfill your Life Ambitions?

Don’t rush. Take your time.

Don’t “decide” anything. Speculate.

Begin with a “rough sketch” and agree to meet in a week to deepen what you sketch out.

Then, do that again until you are satisfied … for the moment.

You will need to do this every 3-4 months for a while.

Enjoy inventing your life together!

* You can view the entire set of essays about Marriage on aji.com.

How to Design your Financial Ambition

Meet with your spouse, or partner, weekly for as long as you need.

Discuss how much it will cost in today’s dollars to fulfill your Life Ambitions.

How much do the goods and services you will need to fulfill your Life Ambitions during your old age cost today?

No inflation adjustment for now.

You’ll do that when you make your Back of the Envelope Calculations.

How much will it cost you to buy the goods and services …

… you and your spouse are certain to need

… in order to take care of each Human and Marriage Concern to your satisfaction?

To deepen the meanings of what you are discussing and designing,

… discuss the consequences to each of you and your children

… if you fail.

Where will you live?

Where will you buy food?

How will you live without “satisfactory” medical care?

How will you get around without a car?

How will you visit with family?

How will you deal with becoming a “parent tax” on your children, in-laws and grandchildren?

How will you “feel” when you lose your dignity relative to others who did take care of themselves and their families?

How will you deal with assessments your grown children and their spouses will make about your trustworthiness, value, authority, leadership and dignity as parents?

Then discuss the opposite to deepen the meaning of your ambitions even farther.

What will your life look like …

… when you have gotten your “adult job” done

… by making sure the practical/financial concerns of life are cared for and you are satisfied?

What will it look like when you “earn” — it can’t be deserved or entitled …

… your family’s admiration, respect and love,

… your society’s respect (dignity)?

How will the two of you celebrate your accomplishment …

… for the rest of your life?

And, finally, how will you and your spouse react to or judge the people around you right now,

… who are pretending they are “fine” when you know they’re really being jerky,

… when the truth about their situation is revealed and the consequences are triggered?

What will you talk about with them?

What accomplishments will you reflect about and celebrate together?

Will you be able to pretend that you respect or admire them?

How will you speak with their children about them when they complain about having to support them?

* We recommend passive investing, which has NO FEES, generates average 8% returns and allows a maximum 4% withdrawal to produce income during old age.

Every $1m = $40k of annual income in old age.

Passive investing is recommended by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger.

You can learn more about this online.

Back of the Envelope Calculations

To Determine …

How Much Annual Income and Savings

You and Your Spouse Really Need

To Fulfill YOUR Intentions

To Survive, Adapt and Live a Good Life

An ambition is a commitment to produce a situation in the future.

To produce a Financial Ambition in IR#4,

… which must include saving enough money to afford 25+ years of unemployment with one’s spouse during old age,

… businesspeople need to know

… how much money they really need to save and invest.

To accomplish this,

… businesspeople and their spouses

… need to learn how to calculate the amount themselves

… and fully understand the consequences of failing.

It’s not difficult.

The Back of the Envelope Calculation below is simple, practical and works.

Back of the Envelope Exercise

If you are married or have a partner, do this exercise with them.

Purpose:

To determine the approximate amount of Annual Income businesspeople need to earn and save annually that is deeply meaningful to them and their spouse

The amount needs to fulfill their most serious intentions to be able to afford the goods and services everyone needs to have available 24/7 in order to:

Survive

Adapt to life’s always changing circumstances

Our bodies, which age and change throughout the day

Changing Concerns, Situations, Capabilities and Strategies

Live a good life

#1 – Write down your annual income and subtract your annual savings.

If you do not save regularly, use your annual income without subtracting anything.

For example:

With an Annual Income of $240k, before taxes, and regular Annual Savings of $20k, after taxes,

… the pre-tax income you and your spouse need will be approximately $200k.

This is your Current Standard of Living.

#2 – Multiply the annual pre-tax income you and your spouse need to afford the goods and services you are certain to need available every day of your life (#1) …

… by 25.

For example:

If the Annual Income you need is $200k, $200k x 25 = $5m.

$5m is the Capital-at-Work you would need today (or without accounting for inflation) if you were 60 years old

… to generate $200k of pretax income annually

… with maximum annual withdrawals of 4% (passive investing).

This is the money you must have invested passively (or some other way that equals or beats average 8% returns) outside of your home or business,

… to maintain, or produce, $200k Annual Income for 25+ years of unemployment during old age.

#3 – Because of average 3% inflation,

… if your age is closer to:

#4 – Subtract your current Capital-at-Work, or savings outside your home and business,

… from the total amount of Capital-at-Work you will need by age 60 (#3).

For example:

If you are 46 years old and require $200k of Annual Income, the $5m of CAW that would make that possible today becomes $7.5m when you are 60 years old because of inflation.

If you have $500k saved (and invested passively, or better), subtract that amount from the $7.5m you and your spouse will need.

The $7m you and your spouse need to save and invest by age 60 is your Capital-at-Work Gap.

If you are 36 years old with the same amount of savings invested, and also need $200k annual income,

… you and your spouse will need $10m when you are 60 years old because of inflation.

Your Capital-at-Work Gap is $9.5m.

#5 – Subtract your age from 60.

If you are 36 years old, you have 24 years to bridge your CAW Gap.

If you are 46 years old, you have 14 years to bridge your CAW Gap.

#6 – Divide your CAW Gap (#4) …

… by the number of years you have to bridge it (#5).

If you are 36 years old and your CAW Gap is $9.5m,

… divide it by 24 years to find your Annual CAW Gap is $263,888.

If you are 46 years old and your CAW Gap is $7m,

… divide it by 14 years to find your Annual CAW Gap is $500,000.

* Passive investing reduces the amount you need to save/invest considerably.

The sooner you begin saving/investing passively, the more the stock market reduces the amount you need to earn and save without compounding interest.

#7 – Multiply your Annual CAW Gap by 2 (to add taxes).

Add that to the amount of Annual Income you need now to live a good life.

If you are 36 years old,

… live on $200k pretax income

… have a $9.5m CAW Gap

… an Annual CAW Gap of $263,888, which requires $527,776 to “bridge” when taxes are included

… your Annual Income needs to be $200k + $527,776 = $727,776.

If you are 46 years old,

… live on $200k pretax income

… have a $7m CAW Gap

… an Annual CAW Gap of $500,000, which requires $1m to “bridge” when taxes are included

… your Annual Income needs to be $200k + $1m = $1,200,000.

How to Design your Business Ambition

First, and most importantly, resolve that you will no longer make commitments, fulfill requests or hold roles in a business,

… unless they enable you to fulfill your Financial Ambitions

… so that you can fulfill your Life Ambitions.

If you find yourself forced by circumstances to accept a commitment, request or role that will not fulfill your ambitions,

… because you must make money and lack the “power” to decline

… use the role to execute The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy.

That will have you think and act strategically and competitively …

… to advance action, or make progress, all day, every day,

… to increase your competitive capabilities and advantages, productivity, value and income.

Read The Fundamental Business Concerns,

… and focus on learning The Spine of Fundamental Business concerns in aji.com first.

They are explained in the paper, Fundamental Business Concerns, in Aji Fundamental Knowledge.

For your convenience, here is The Spine of Fundamental Business Concerns:

1. Constitute your Fundamental Offer(s) for your Career or Business.

2. Design your Strategy, by using and executing The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy.

* Read the Fundamental Business Concerns paper

3. Build the Productivity and Value of your Capital Structures,

… especially your ability to design and execute steady streams of fresh, new offers, practices, narratives and strategies (OPNS)

… that you can use strategically and competitively.

4. Sell your fresh, new OPNS to employers, employees, customers, vendors and colleagues.

5. Design steady streams of fresh, new OPNS that are highly valued and scarce relative to demand that you can use strategically and competitively with your Networks of Capabilities.

6. Create profits and much higher incomes by making sure the costs to produce your OPNS are much lower than the purchase prices, or compensation, you request.

And, finally, REFLECT with your spouse:

What fresh, new OPNS do you need to design at Home and at Work,

… in order to fulfill your:

Life Ambitions

Financial Ambitions

Business Ambitions

… as an Aji Ambition

… to fulfill your intentions to:

Survive

Adapt to life’s always changing circumstances

Life a good life together

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