Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Guest Talk

Sonoma County, California, USA

August 31, 2015



"If you don't take it out into the world, you didn't get it in the first place."  ... 
This essay, Guest Talk, was conceived at the same time as

I've enrolled over a thousand people in this work - at least. That's just the number I kept track of from my guest events. The truth is I've lost track of the total number of people I've enrolled all time worldwide.

There's never been any doubt, hesitation, holding back, or uncertainty for me in this area. Once I experienced for the first time what this work makes available ie once I experienced for the first time what it has to offer, sharing it came very easily and naturally for me. It also came with the similar kind of enthusiasm which comes with sharing a great movie I've seen, saying to my friends "You must  go and see it. I won't tell you how it ends because that will spoil it. But I know  you'll love it. You gotta  go see it. Trust me!". We've all experienced that kind of excitement about a movie we've seen - at least once or twice, yes? Sharing transformation is like that.

In touting enrolling over a thousand people, it's important that I emphasize I've never held enrollment as a "numbers" game. I wasn't trying to win a toaster (and none were ever on offer, by the way) or some other prize successful enrollers can select from. What I was doing (which is to say all  I was doing) was being irrepressibly open and excited, and unabashedly sharing something awesome. It's even possible it was the alacrity  of this excitement which people were enrolled in, more than in what I actually spoke about (of course in transformation they're intimately connected). To sell that excitement out to a numbers game, would not only have demeaned my sharing: it would have demeaned my guests, it would have demeaned me, and most of all it would have demeaned this work.

Enrollment is one of the litmus tests of transformation ie it's transformation's evidence, manifestation, proof, demonstration  even. It could be said with regard to transformation, enrollment is where the rubber meets the road. To have an enrollment conversation is to bring mastery to the difference between cheap talk, and authentically sharing the experience of transformation. You could also say in addition  to sharing the experience of transformation, an enrollment conversation is an opportunity to master the distinction between cheap talk and speaking authentically.

So in our seminars we dedicate a small percentage of the available time to having a conversation about inviting people and about bringing guests. And I want to be really  clear about the context  in which we speak about inviting people and bringing guests. A woman in one of my guest events suggested we just (quote unquote) "do  the seminar and cut out all the guest talk". That's actually a perfectly valid suggestion. I said "Yes we could certainly do that. But here's the thing: if we did that, it wouldn't be our work. Without giving you the opportunity to bring guests, this would be some other  work ie it would be some other work we don't  do. It wouldn't be Werner's work. It wouldn't be the work of transformation. In this  work, we do create the opportunity for you to share transformation, for your guests to be introduced to transformation, and for all of us to bring mastery to the difference between cheap talk and speaking authentically. There's one more thing: it's also an incredibly valuable opportunity to confront the barriers stopping transformation being freely available in our world.".

But listen: it's even more than that actually. It's way, waaay  more. It's this: if you don't share your transformation, you didn't get it in the first place. Really. I don't know why it's like this (I could hazard a few intelligent guesses I suppose as to why it's like this but the truth is I really don't know) suffice to say it's what you get when you really get transformation.



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