Showdown Day 1: Fred Gratzon
March 21, 2005 by admin
Filed under best of, creativity, tips and tricks, weblogs, what the...
Welcome to Day 1 of a 3-day "Productivity Blog Showdown." If you’re
just joining us, here’s the quick background of what’s going on. A few
days ago, I noted that I’d like to see a "showdown" between two upcoming gurus of personal productivity, Fred Gratzon and Steve Pavlina. Both guys agreed to do the showdown, we collected some questions from readers, and here we are.
We’ll start off by laying some groundwork, which will help provide a
little bit of context for the next couple of days. I’ve collected some
key words that are thrown around in conversations about productivity
and I’ve asked both Steve and Fred to define them for us. The following
words are what I’ve asked them to define: success, hard work/working,
passion, happiness, laziness/lazy, productivity, work ethic,
efficiency, motivation. I received Fred’s response first, so we’ll
begin with him.
Fred Gratzon is the author of The Lazy Way to Success, and also keeps a blog over here.
He has also founded two very different companies, an ice cream
manufacturing company and a long distance company–more info about that
in this interview.
His unique point of view is delivered from a comfortable perch within a
hammock–ostensibly somewhere near palm trees, but I think it’s
actually nearer to Iowa, USA. So, without further commentary, here is Fred’s response…
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I warned you guys from the get-go that I’m lazy.
So with regard to the list of terms you want me to define, I’m going
to let Steve Pavlina do it. Let’s make that his punishment for
promoting the fraudulent concept of hard work in the first place.
It is high time that this be said - hard work is a hoax. Hard
work has nothing to do with success. As my proof, I offer the entire
human race. In my 59 orbits around the sun, I have heard ad nauseum
that to be successful you had to work hard. I have two simple
questions. If working hard is so good, how come all these people
preaching it aren’t fabulously successful? And why aren’t most
hard-working people in the upper class?
From my vantage point of refusing to do any work whatsoever, most
people in the world appear to be working hard. But instead of
widespread success, there is widespread stress-related disease, broken
homes, financial hardships, and a pandemic lack of personal fulfillment
- all of it caused by hard work.
Hard work is bogus concept. Anyone claiming that hard work has value
should be ignored. That person is misleading people who sincerely want
to be successful.
Herein lies the Truth-if you want success, then anything resembling work has to be completely purged from your life. Period.
Let me explain.
Once we strip away all the cheap perfume that hard work advocates
spray on that putrid concept, there are two ways of looking at work.
Both are nasty visions.
The first way to look at work is in terms of joy or its lack
thereof. As activity gets less joyful, it becomes more like work. Hard
work, which resides on the far end of the joy spectrum, is painfully
vile stuff because it is devoid of any joy. On the other hand, as joy
increases, the activity becomes more and more like play. If you want to
be successful, the joy that comes from your activity must first be
maximized. That way you become doubly successful. Not only will this
type of activity bear abundant fruit, the process of getting to that
fruit will be so much fun it will feel like fruit too. And joyful play,
unlike miserable work, won’t kill you.
The second way of looking at work is in terms of effort. As effort
increases, work becomes harder and harder. So in this model the
opposite of hard work is effortlessness or no effort at all. To be
successful, you must find ways where doing less accomplishes more.
Ultimately you will achieve the exalted state where doing nothing
accomplishes everything.
A lazy person avoids work because he does not want to suffer and he does not want to waste energy.
A smart lazy person (or, if you are a Jimi Hendrix fan, a foxy lazy
person), goes one step further. He uses his God-given laziness to great
advantage. Having resisted society’s brainwashing, a smart lazy person
knows that success is inversely proportional to work. He knows that as joy increases, so does success. And he knows that exerting less effort properly increases power exponentially.
Now for the coolest part: Joy and effortlessness are connected. If
what you are doing makes you jump for joy externally and/or internally,
then Mother Nature rewards you even more by revealing to you
progressively easier, more powerful ways of accomplishing what you want
to achieve.
And here’s why. Mother Nature is lazy to the core and she just happens to adore kindred spirits.
How do I know that Mother Nature is lazy? I know this from Physics.
It turns out that laziness was hardwired into the entire Universe at
the Big Bang. Everything in the Universe has been built around (and is
currently being administered by) laziness. Physicists have described this laziness in perfect mathematical terms and have named it the Principle of Least Action. The Principle of Least Action is not just any old law of nature; it is THE
Law of Nature. All known physical laws of motion follow the Principle
of Least Action. That includes the movement of celestial bodies,
electromagnetism, the propagation of light, and quantum theory. In
layman’s terms, the Principle of Least Action means that Nature will
always take the easiest, shortest, straightest path. Nature will always
choose the least amount of doing
Hard work obviously violates Nature’s perfect design. My advice is
simple - understand how the Universe is structured in laziness and go
with Nature’s flow. Avoid the unpleasantness of work. Avoid the effort
of work. Embrace joy. Embrace effortless performance. Align yourself
with Nature’s innate laziness and let her show you the lazy way to
success.
With that said, let the games (i.e. the play, fun, joy, love, laughter, squeals of delight, songs, and dance) begin!
I’ll let Steve defend the grunts, snorts, strain, ulcers, heart attacks, strokes, headaches, grouchy bosses, and traffic jams.
Great post, Fred! I’m almost convinced…
Good premise. But not everyone can be a CEO, by definition there is only one in an organization. Someone has to clean the toilets, for example.
My response:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/03/the-productivity-debate-begins/
Steve Pavlina preaches to the choir. Blog comments are ‘moderated’ and those unfavourable to his viewpoint are not posted at all. Hope that doesnt happen here.
Having said that, I think what you say is more or less true. The universe not only seems to take the path of least resistance but its also merciful enough to let live anyone who chooses to take the path of least resistance. Not always in luxury but at least lets him live. However, each person draws a line as to how he wants to live and if his requirements require him to work he must work or get someone to work for him.
I for 1 have lived off my wife for 5 years in England without she leaving me yet! I like computer programming and develop software that produces art but I dont want to sell my work (nowadays not even present it). Luckily my wife understands me and supports me and I have to do only 1 thing: work (yeah buy groceries, wash dishes once a while
My requirements are meagre and with my wife’s stipend I am able to fulfill it. Yeah I cant buy that fancy IPod or the latest graphics card but what I get in return is: complete freedom. I dont have to answer to anything. Anything. I dont have to ‘improve’ myself or get ‘productive’. I just wait for the idea to arrive and when it does I code. I amuse myself with the result maybe show to my wife and maybe put it up on a website and move on to next thing. I dont care about documentation or which language to code or platform or whatever. I just do what I am capable of and move on. I am living the do nothing dream. Am I happy? I should say more or less. I am not happy only when I think of things I dont have or cant get and family taking jibes at my idler way. But when I remind myself that to get all this I would have to get up at 7am each morning 5 days a week smelling armpits all the way to work, ah freedom is priceless. Many times I dont even know what day of the week it is or even what date it is. Ever had that happen to you? It will when you are truly lazy/idle.
Steve Pavlina (SP) will come around and say dont become an employee, become an entrepreneur (jeez that was a hard word to spell
as if that is a solution. At least as an employee you can switch off at 5 hopefully and let your boss think about the shit called ‘company’. As an entrepreneur one has to worry about that too. Yeah one can fool oneself thinking one is following life’s purpose yada yada but when I look in that mirror I cant for the life of me think my purpose can be making money selling my work and fooling other people to help me do it. What sort of a purpose is that? It isnt even logical when the universe is so big and has existed since who knows when. Basically what SP is offering is a drug to prevent you from facing yourself. When you face yourself completely and honestly your face will tell you what to do. Its probably better to do that rather than chase some imposed dreams and feeling exploited and angry at the end of it.
And when you face yourself completely, you loose all desire to pursue something. You just live. You accept. You automatically are following the path of least resistance! For many that is a problem. They maybe totally bored by it. They will want to do something. And they slowly fall into the cycle again and out pops another Steve Pavlina
Interesting, I think the path of least resistance works, but only in the greater context of a hard working society. I’ve worked enough jobs at huge corporations to observe that the best way to get promoted is to not make yourself critical to any of the teams or projects that actually produce anything. If you can, isolate yourself, create your own projects that have good visibilty but very little practical use. Show up to all the meetings and talk a lot about what you are doing. Follow these easy steps and you will be promoted in 6-10 months. Once you are promoted you will have the opportunity to do even LESS work.
But like I say, it only works in the context of having others around you who are doing work. The life of the lazy is also the life of the uninspireable and the apathetic. Would we have the freedoms we have today if it were not sought after to the point of broken homes, persecution and even death? The reason there is even room for the lazy in society is because of the relentless persuit of dreams and ideals by those who have gone before.
The path of laziness is one that does not better us or the people around us. The lazy experience joy but it is a lower form of joy, one that comes from self indulgence. I’ve seen more relationships fail to “laziness”, the inability of one or both parties to work at and make personal sacrifices for the other.
I don’t read anymore then the titles of Steve Pavlina’s blogs as they come through my RSS Aggregator, his stuff tends to be a little too touchy feely for me. I do realize however, my opinion may be a little self selecting. I quit a job at Boeing where I was making 6 figures web enabling access applications, working 30-35hrs a week. I could have stayed there forever, but it was absolutely mind numbing, devoid of sense of purpous or meaning. So I quit.
I think laziness is the option for those who feel they have no other options. The pursuit of laziness is a replacement for the pursuit of goals and ambitions that the individual no longer feels they can achieve. The motto of the lazy should be this “When you can’t compete, just check out of the race and laugh at everyone who is.”
Too bad going with the flow of Nature was not one of the concepts defined by Steve and Fred. Because Steve puts going with the flow in a very narrow context, when success from going with the flow of Nature is cosmic. All the prolific productivity of the cosmos is from the laws of Nature. A tsunami is caused from a shift in the structure of the ocean floor. That shift makes the ocean rise high with tremendous power that can produce a lot of change. But all the while Nature is resting in Its cosmic status. A tsunami is a very small detail from Nature’s cosmic perspective. So going with the flow of Nature requires one to be cosmic in stature instead of worrying about small details. Going with the flow of Nature one enjoys all the small details in the context of the whole big picture. Or in other words one does less and accomplishes more because they are simultaneously engaged with all aspects of project instead of being caught up with a few small details of it. Who or what organizes the small details? Nature.
I think Fred’s definition of “laziness” may be being misinterpreted (possibly because of his emphasis on it). I don’t think he really means doing nothing as in not having any goals, or not growing. He means enjoying what you do. When you enjoy what you are doing, you are no longer fighting it, but rather growing as you do it. It stops being a struggle and starts being a natural thing. On the outside when you say that you spend X number of hours doing something, it sounds like tough work and maybe on some level it is. But when you’re enjoying it, it truly stops being work in the back-breaking Puritan Ethic sense.
However, most people’s equate laziness with doing absolutely nothing, with possibly the occasional Cheetoes run thrown in. I don’t think Fred (and most definitely not Steve) advocates this particular form of laziness as a lifestyle choice. But if I’m wrong, I’m willing to be corrected…and if you know of a way to make this lifestyle a livable option, PLEASE correct me.
Doing absolutely nothing is impossible anyway. Even if you sit in meditation, when you come out of it, you are doing something. What is possible to do is nothing of what someone wants you to do. Ofcourse, as Dan says, one’s lazy lifestyle is built out of the hardwork of others. Especially if the lazy man is enjoying the fruits of the toilers but the lazy man is not bothered by it. He goes on living. And when he cant, he dies.
What bothers me in this showdown is the participants are concerned with ’success’ in life. Success here seems to mean how much you can get away with whilst also making a wad of cash. It seems to me Fred is only peddling a different set of tools than Steve Pavlina to achieve this success. Like his EOM email trick, laziness is a trick. A tip. A tool to achieve success. First drop your idea of success. Inaction (Laziness is what a toiler would call anyway) is automatic. Thats what the masters say that the kingdom of God is within you. Just stop going after things and it will flower.
At the end of day one, Fred has a leg up - make that two legs up - in the hammock.
Fred’s real secret is in chapter 14 and appendix A of his book. But I doubt if the hard workers will read that far. They’re too busy setting goals and defining their purpose - no time for laziness!
There is wisdom to what Fred is preaching and “enjoying what you do” as a philosophy is very powerful. Steve’s mental model of hard work and success is soo cliche already. I think both are saying the same thing that our success is relative to each one’s personality, goals and source of Joy. But I think this debate is about what philosophy or mental models works best. I like Fred’s look of the world since it is out of the box and provocative.
I would give the first round to Fred (10pts) and Steve (9pts) similar to boxing points system.
Anton
Fred, I was tracking with ya until the wheels off comment about the big bang theory.
However, I will not hold that against you… I like the concept, but I really don’t think of this as being lazy. I truly think of it as doing what you are designed to do!