Chapter 9

The Attraction Myth

The sun was just peeking over the neighborhood as Josh pulled out of his driveway and headed for the office. He was on top of the world.

As he planned for the meeting with his big prospect that afternoon, he thought of his unexpected surprise for Kiera the day before. He had stopped on the way home and picked up her favorite flowers.

She'd been cautiously thrilled. She was still upset, but the flowers opened the door to conversation. And in the end, he'd apologized for not telling her everything sooner. And she'd apologized for not trusting his decision on how to move forward.

It's potluck math, Josh realized, as he turned toward the office. We both brought more to the evening than we needed to. And the leftovers are still in the fridge, so to speak.

Josh was also surprised to discover how good he'd felt to bring the flowers home. And not just because of her reaction. He was pretty sure it had something to do with creating value, and doing it by giving.

There's something….innate about giving, Josh thought. Something wired into us as humans. When we give, we feel good. In fact, Josh felt great. And if this new deal went through, he felt confident that he'd impress Carl, make a tidy commission, catch up on a few unpaid bills, and perhaps take Kiera away for a romantic weekend—unexpected of course—to boot. And even if he didn't, for the first time Josh had the feeling that things were going to be okay. I'm getting my mojo back, Josh thought.

As he pulled into the lot behind his building, he noticed Wendy's car already parked near the back entrance. Early again, he thought, and once more his mind flashed back to the sight of her dropping her daughter off at sunrise earlier that week.

Josh slipped quietly in the back door. He didn't want to take any chances with Wendy putting a damper on his good energy morning. Today was a big day. He padded silently down the hall to his office, thinking he'd close his door, get some work done, and avoid Wendy altogether.

He had just put his hand on the doorknob when he heard a sound from down the hall. He listened…there it was again. It came from the direction of the staff room. Curious, Josh headed a little further down the hall. He was surprised to discover that his heart was pounding a little in his chest. Slowly, he peeked his head around the doorway.

The first thing Josh saw was the whiteboard. Someone had updated the numbers the day before. Little had changed, at least for Josh, but he noticed Wendy was dropping, not rising. Some of the more experienced agents had deals go through, and it was pushing her out. She's falling out of the running, Josh thought.

The second thing he saw was the source of the strange noise: Wendy. The tough, surly, irascible rep was sitting slumped in a conference table chair, weeping.

Josh slowly backed from the room and headed back down the hall. He made some noise—banged his office door and coughed—to give her a chance to regain composure before returning to the staff room. When he got there, Wendy was up and turned toward the coffee maker.

“Hi,” she said, without turning around. “Coffee's almost on.”

“Thanks,” Josh said, as he sat down at the table.

The coffee machine gurgled. Wendy was still turned away. The room was silent.

“This really sucks,” Josh finally said.

For the first time ever, Josh heard Wendy laugh.

For the next fifteen minutes, Josh had a real conversation with Wendy; perhaps his first, if he thought about it. He found her to be someone far different than he thought: strong, capable, and smart, but softer than he'd realized.

“Let me ask you something,” Josh said, refilling his mug. “Why should we even care about this? We could both just go to another brokerage down the street, right?”

“You care for the same reason I do,” Wendy said.

“What's that?”

“This is a great place to work. Carl's blunt, but fair. The people are good. If we can't make it here, Josh, what makes you think we can make it anywhere?”

That was it in a nutshell, Josh realized. It's not just my job at stake. It's my whole way of looking at myself. At what I can do. What I can be. Josh looked up and realized that Wendy was smiling at him. He didn't think he'd ever seen her smile. “What?” he asked.

“I was just thinking that,” she paused, as if nervous, “that this was nice. To talk.”

Josh grinned. “It was. Thank you.”

“No. Thank you.” She stood up and carried their coffee cups to the sink. “This is a lonely job, isn't it?”

Josh was stunned. He'd never really thought of it that way.

“There must be hundreds of us in this city. All doing the same job. Day in, day out. And it's like we never even talk, never mind actually working together.” She smiled at Josh, but he could see the joy was already draining from her. Then she turned and left.

Twenty minutes later, Josh pulled into Cor's driveway, and could see the older man in the shop with his beloved Honda Cub.

Josh waved as he stepped from his car, and walked into the open bay. “I wouldn't have thought there was anything left to fix on this thing,” he joked.

“You can never wax too often, Josh.” Cor tossed him a rag. “Start buffing.”

Josh began to carefully rub the glazed wax residue, bringing up a deep, rich shine from the Cub's paint.

“I take it she loved the flowers,” Cor said, picking a tiny fleck of grease from the exhaust pipe.

“How'd you know?”

“It's all over you, Josh. You practically floated in here. That and the fact that you're about five hours early.”

Josh grinned. “It turns out the Value Myth is good for more than business. Yes. Kiera loved the gesture. We had a lovely evening together, and it lead to an open conversation about our finances, too. I felt…very relieved after.”

“Value does that, Josh. It opens doors, and creates opportunities. In this case, it was a chance to speak openly, but it can just as easily be a chance to further your business, too.”

They buffed in silence for a few minutes.

“Can I ask you something?” Josh finally said.

“Of course.”

“I understand the Abundance Myth. That you need to further the abundance of others in order to further your own, but…there's always more to give. More people to give to. How do you know when to stop?”

“Why would you want to?” Cor asked. “Why stop anything that makes you feel so good?”

“What if what you know you should give is something you don't want to?”

Cor stopped polishing for a moment. Josh could see he was deep in thought.

“Josh. These principles may seem simplistic to you. But they're profoundly important and very powerful. My experience has been that for them to work, you need to use all of them, and you need to trust them. If you know you should give something, well, then you need to decide really whether to trust yourself and the principles or not.”

Josh continued rubbing the shining chrome of the Cub, digesting what Cor had said.

“Is there something specific you felt you needed to give, Josh,” Cor asked?

“No…I mean…I don't really have it to give, so I guess it's kind of a hypothetical situation.” Josh stepped back to admire the shine of the Honda. “You've really done some amazing work with these bikes, Cor. I guess you could say you've really added some value.”

“I like to think so,” Cor said. “But restoration is also how I remember the value trap.”

“How so?”

Cor pointed to some wax residue on the bike, and Josh buffed it vigorously.

“I might find a bike like this in a barn, or a storage container, or at an auction or garage sale. And if I'm lucky, I buy it for peanuts. Or sometimes for nothing. And if I'm lucky again, I restore it to the point that it's worth many times its original value. I add quite a bit of value through my labor—which I really do out of love—and my knowledge of the brand, and access to parts and suppliers.

“But in the end, Josh, I always remember this: I'm only polishing Honda's idea. He created far more value by seeing what people didn't know was missing and bringing it to life. You and I can only shine up his true value. That is indeed value, but not of the kind that Honda created.”

Josh looked at his reflection in the Cub's shiny gas tank and hoped what he was bringing to the table that afternoon was enough. What value can I give to my business? he thought. What's my Cub?

“Well,” Cor interrupted Josh's musings. “Ready to roll?”

“Let me guess,” Josh said. “You're driving?”

Cor grinned.

“I was afraid of that.”

Cor stopped the Honda Cub at an open, treeless crossroads. They'd been driving for what seemed like hours on the tiny machine, and Josh's uncomfortable embarrassment had shifted to a more physical discomfort. Cor shut the engine off, and Josh stepped off, stretching his legs and back.

Cor lifted his goggles up, but stayed on the bike. “Your appointment's at noon,” he said.

Josh looked around. “Here?”

Cor pointed down the intersecting road. “There.”

Josh looked in the direction he pointed and saw a low, grey building in the distance. He recognized it immediately. “Are you serious?”

“Don't be late. You'll only get fifteen minutes.”

Josh looked at him, but the old man's face showed nothing. “Okay. Any particular reason you dropped me here?”

Cor pointed at the stretch of gravel where the road was being resurfaced. Josh smiled. “Don't want to get your baby dirty?”

Cor smiled, pulled down his goggles. “Fifteen minutes,” he said. “Make them count.” And he pulled away, leaving Josh in the silence of the crossroads.

Josh began to walk in the direction of the complex in the distance. With each minute, the place began to look more foreboding. From the shimmering heat, he could see the shapes of towers emerging from the corners of the low building.

What could possess him to send me here? Josh wondered. And then wondered yet again whether the crazy old man might just be crazy.

Maybe this is all a myth, he thought. Perhaps none of it's true. I've been wandering around in some fairytale.

Concrete. Fence. Gates. Buzzers. Cameras. Everywhere Josh looked he was reminded that, even though this was a minimum security institution, it was still nothing like the outside world.

He stood waiting while yet another guard looked at his driver's license. He pressed a button, and the steel door in front of him buzzed. “Go ahead,” the guard said, and Josh pulled the door open.

He walked down a short hall, then into an open cafeteria like setting. A few inmates dressed in coveralls sat at tables speaking with family or friends, or perhaps lawyers—Josh couldn't tell. He scanned the room, unsure what to do next, and saw a handsomely rugged man sitting alone at a table. The man raised his arm in greeting, and Josh walked toward the table. As he got closer, Josh realized the man was probably older than he looked. He was clearly in excellent shape, but as Josh reached the table he could see the grey in his hair, and the wrinkles around his eyes.

“You must be Josh. I'm Travis.” His voice was deep and gravelly, with a hint of southern drawl.

Josh shook the man's hand, and looked around the room again. He wasn't sure what to do.

“Welcome to Galliston, son. Don't worry—you'll get used to the place. I did long ago, unfortunately.”

Josh opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Travis simply looked at him. “I'm not quite sure why I'm here,” Josh finally said.

Travis looked at him, saying nothing, and it occurred to Josh that the man was in no rush. Can you blame him? He thought. But Cor had said he'd only get fifteen minutes.

Travis finally spoke. “The old man bring you?”

“He dropped me up the road. Didn't want to get the bike dirty. You know how he is about that bike.”

Travis was quiet for a moment, as if deciding how to reply. “Oh, I know him quite well,” he said at last. “I was once you, you know.”

“You were?”

“Oh yeah. The trips on that damn bike. The meetings. I did all that.” Travis looked around the bleak room and chuckled. “You might say I'm a cautionary tale of sorts.”

Josh was taken aback. “I've had a pretty amazing week. Everyone I've met, everything I've seen and done…it's hard to imagine those things leading me anywhere close to…here. If your job is to scare me, I'm not sure it's necessary.”

Travis eyed him silently. “That's exactly why it is my job,” he said after a long pause. “Because you don't think it's necessary.”

“I'm not sure I understand.”

“Let's take a walk,” Travis said.

Josh wondered where the hell they were going to walk to—weren't they in a prison? But he stood up and followed Travis as he strolled up to the guard. “We're going to take a walk, Mike,” he said.

“Sure thing,” Mike said. “Enjoy. Beautiful day out there.”

Josh looked at the guard in surprise, but followed Travis as Mike unlocked first one door, then a second. The guard stepped aside to let them pass, and Josh found himself in a grassy area outside the prison. A chain link fence in the distance stood as a reminder that they weren't quite outside in the full sense of the word.

Travis began to walk toward the distant fence line. “What the old man is giving you,” Travis began, “is some powerful stuff. As you might expect, I'm here to talk to you about another myth—about something you believe that you shouldn't. But I'm also here to impress upon you that power can work both ways. It can do great things for you and others. Or it can cause great hardship.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

Travis stopped at the fence line, and looked toward the distant trees. “I met Cor through a friend. Much like you, I imagine. At the time, I was struggling to build an investment firm, but clients—especially clients with money to invest—were hard to come by.”

“I know that feeling,” Josh said.

“Sure you do. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing you have some big material goals. Nice cars? A boat? Big house? Private jet, even?”

Josh smiled. “Guilty.”

“Josh,” Travis said, “I had—and still have—the most audacious financial goals. I wanted it all. Private islands, yachts, jets—the works.

“Like you, I spent a week with Cor. And to say my eyes were opened is an understatement. I felt like I'd discovered a whole new world. Everything I heard, everyone I met, seemed to speak to me. Eloise and her goal setting? That was me. I'd set these big financial goals all the time. But I never turned them into behaviors, so I never got anywhere.”

Josh nodded. Just like me, he thought.

“And the Knowledge Myth? I was a poster boy for falling for that. Always looking for the magic bullet—the next big marketing thing or secret—until I met Anna, and I learned to do more of what I already knew.

“Hell, when I first heard the Failure Myth, I thought Nathan had written it just for me. I was paralyzed by the idea that I'd get something wrong and never reach my big goals, instead of realizing that failure might just bring me closer. And the Abundance Myth?”

Josh grinned, realizing what Travis would say.

“I'm not kidding. I was all about the getting, not the giving. I couldn't see past my own wallet to realize that abundance was about what I could give.”

“And the Value Myth? They could have called that the Travis Myth, I fell for it so badly. I had been constantly trying to under deliver so that my share was bigger. Melody taught me the truth about delivering the unexpected.”

While Josh was sure Travis was exaggerating his own failures, the man's deprecating humor was somehow working. Still, Josh thought, he's in prison!

As if reading his mind, Travis spoke up. “It's okay, Josh. Everyone wants to know how I got here. You can ask.”

“I admit I'm curious. Did you not understand what they were teaching?”

“I did better than understand what Cor and his friends were teaching, Josh. I lived it. It was like it climbed inside my DNA. I restructured my day, my business, my life. I lived those principles 24–7.”

“Didn't they work?” Josh began to feel a knot forming in his stomach again. What if this is all a waste?

Travis let out another gravelly chuckle. “Stop worrying, son. Of course everything worked. I changed my life, my business, everything. I did everything I needed to, everything Cor's teachers told me to. I did it all. I set my behaviors. I started doing more instead of trying to know more. I began to take action without fear of failure. I started to give, and deliver huge amounts of unexpected value. The clients rolled in. People couldn't believe what I did for them. I literally did it all.”

Josh shook his head. “But that doesn't make sense. You did everything right.”

Travis stopped as they reached the door they'd started from.

“That's why you're here, Josh. You're right. I did do everything I was supposed to. I'm not here because of what I did. I'm here for a different reason.”

Josh stared at him blankly. “Travis,” he finally said, “I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.”

Travis let out a deep, gravelly laugh. “I like you, son. Let's go see if we can get Mike to give us a few more minutes and I'll explain.”

They entered the building again, and Mike returned them to the same room they started in. “Your time's up,” he said. “But I guess we don't need to count the outside time, right?” Again, Josh found himself surprised by the guard's demeanor.

“Thanks, Mike,” Travis said.

They walked back to their table, and took a seat.

“What did you mean,” Josh began, “when you said you weren't here because of what you did?”

“You get a lot of time to think in here, Josh. It's part curse, part blessing. I've learned that what I did isn't the most important thing.”

Josh felt a wave of confusion wash over him. “But don't actions determine our results? I feel like I've spent this whole week trying to take better action.” Josh's voice began to rise and he was dimly aware that the guard was watching him. “The myths are all about doing. It's all action.” He slumped back in his chair and laid his hands on the table in frustration. “And now you're telling me that it's not doing, it's something else. And that the doing can land me prison?”

Travis smiled. “I know it seems confusing. Don't be disheartened. Action is critical, but it's not everything.”

He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out several small pieces of paper and a pencil.

“You'll probably recognize this,” he said. Travis took two slips of paper, and wrote one word on each:

DO HAVE

“That's what Eloise taught me on my first day with Cor,” Josh said.

“And what does it mean?” Travis prodded gently.

“It means that in order to have—to reach our goals of material things, or accomplishments—we need to do. We have to work the goals back into behaviors. Into to do's, literally. Most people get caught up in the future state of what they want—the goal—but neglect to turn it into present action.”

“Exactly,” said Travis. “My job today is to add to that model.”

Travis took a third slip of paper and added to the front of the sequence. Josh could see the sheet contained a single word: Be.

BE DO HAVE

Josh looked at the paper, then up at Travis. Then blinked. “I don't get it.”

Travis smiled. “Neither did I. And that's why we're both here.”

For the next few minutes, Travis told Josh the story of how his business had been transformed after he met Cor. “I look back now and I'm still amazed. It was a wonderful period in my life.” Travis paused. “The problem was that it wasn't enough. I wanted more. More money. More stuff. And I wanted it a lot faster than it was coming.”

“That doesn't sound so different from most people,” Josh ventured.

“Maybe,” Travis mused. “But the difference is that most people don't commit fraud to make it happen. One day I did a small business favor for a friend. I bent the rules a little. He needed the help, and I did it out of friendship. But that was the first step on a slippery slope. I got away with it, made some quick money, started spending more money, doing more crooked deals to keep up the image and lifestyle. Within six months, I was doing far more crooked deals than straight ones. And then I moved on to the big money. Full fledged scams. Ponzi schemes and huge financial cons. They were a lot easier, surprisingly. And even more lucrative.” He paused, then smiled ruefully. “Until you get caught, of course. After that, it was like dominoes falling,” he continued. “I was arrested. Released on bail, but the next six months were hell. I lost my assets, my business. And one day I came home—late as always—and my family was gone.” Travis looked down at the blank scraps of paper in his hands. “My wife left. Took the kids. In hindsight, that was a smart move on her part, but at the time, I couldn't understand it. A few months later I was here. I had nothing. Nothing at all.”

The last sentence hung in the air. Josh was the first to break the silence. He reached out and tapped the scrap of paper between them, pointing at the word Be. “How did this lead you here?”

“There's a natural flow to life, Josh. It can be hard to see at times, but it's there. Like the current in a very wide, slow river, it can be subtle. Most people, if they see it at all, see the flow like this.” Travis rearranged the cards:

Have—Do—Be

Josh looked at the words then up at Travis.

“Most people want to have before they do and then finally be,” Travis explained. “It's against the natural flow. It's like swimming upstream everyday fighting the current of life. And it's exactly what I was doing. I was swimming upstream. I was trying to have first and foremost. It didn't feel like I was swimming upstream at first. But I sure felt it when I landed here.”

Josh moved the papers back into the Be Do Have sequence.

“Okay. So this is the correct sequence. I've certainly learned a lot about doing. But what do you mean by Be? I'm not sure I understand.”

“Be refers to your state of being. I call it your intention.”

Josh pursed his lips. “I don't know. I've heard that term before. It sounds like…mumbo jumbo, or something.”

“I had the same impression. But let me ask you this: Why is it that two people can do the same things, and yet get different results?”

Josh's mind flashed to Amy's sign on the Haltons' lawn. He and Amy offered the same service, same price. They probably gave the same presentation to prospects. “I don't know,” he finally said. “But I can't argue the point. I see it happen all the time.”

“I'll tell you why. The reason they get different results is because of their intention. It's not just what they do. It's who they are being when they're doing it.”

Travis flipped over the Be piece of paper and slid it to Josh. It contained the Attraction Myth.