Have you reached it yet? That line in the sand when you stop owning your vision and your vision owns you? That impossible-to-define line where you become ‘public property’? 

As you grow your enterprise, be aware of the thin green line. Green stands for nature and growth. It stands for ‘go’ and ‘power on’. It also stands for money and envy and sickness! As your green grows, your attraction grows. Customers and partners become stakeholders. A community is created around the enterprise’s vision and values. Everyone feels like they belong. 

So far, so good! Until you cross the thin green line. Suddenly, the very same stakeholders who believed in your vision, now believe it is their vision. Suddenly, in their perception, your enterprise becomes their enterprise, not yours. It is their community, their products. In their eyes, they have a right – an entitlement – to everything you worked so hard to create. You are now a servant to their demands. You have crossed the line. 

This weekend I will be at the APEC Summit in Bali, with the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Tony Abbott, Xi Jinping, Shinzo Abe and another dozen world leaders. Presidents and Prime Ministers all walk the thin green line. Obama has been battling against a shut down of the US government this week. Each has their own internal challenges to handle by being a public person. 

By starting an enterprise, you too become a public person. You start to create public trust, with the aim that with this trust comes a sense of belonging. As you reach the line, things are at their best – you have customers, partners and team members who have a sense of belonging with gratitude! When you cross the line, everything changes. This belonging and gratitude turns to ownership and entitlement. The result is that great entrepreneurs, like Apple’s Steve Jobs and Starbucks’ Howard Schulz, become fair game for anyone to criticise or take down. 

I began the month at the Trust Conference in London, hosted by Michelle Clarke and Talent Dynamics. As the keynote speaker, Stephen MR Covey (who wrote “The Speed of Trust”) says, “Fish discover water last”. Humans take trust for granted just as fish take water for granted. It is only when the water gets polluted or disappears that the fish notices. How then, do you get everyone to remain collaborative and working together to keep the water clean? How do you stop short of the line? 

If the line is crossed, do you step back, or step away? Howard Schulz stepped out of running Starbucks for 8 years, and today Starbucks is stronger than ever. Steve Jobs was out of Apple for 13 years and Apple’s story is Legend. Others have stepped away with new leaders coming in to redraw the line. Jack Welch did it with General Electric. Marissa Mayer is doing it right now with Yahoo. 

How about you? How do you spot the line as you approach it? 

Here’s a line that’s easier to see. It’s called the thin blue line. This is the name given to our police force, the line that enforces our ‘social contract’. The idea of the ‘social contract’ was started by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the age of enlightenment. It is the idea that as a society we all have rights and entitlements, and there is a thin blue line that protects us from those who abuse those rights. It is the foundation of our modern democracies today. 

What is different between your thin green line and the thin blue line? The thin blue line is there to protect your sense of safety. It is the basis for the Declaration of Independence. The thin green line, on the other hand, it there to project your sense of adventure. It needs a Declaration of Interdependence. As you grow, what can your customers, partners and team expect from you? What do you expect from them? What will things look if this interdependence is broken? 

The blue line is a social contract. The green line is a spiritual contract. It is the fine line at which we can remain at our best. It is the point at which we let go instead of holding on. Be prepared to let go of everything you are building, to stay true to your own vision and values. 

Define the water for what it is, and always go to where it is flowing. 

Green School and Entrepreneurs Institute

As many of you know I have been involved with the Green School in Bali for the last three years, in the last two as Board Chairman. Last week I resigned as Chairman and our family have left the school. I was inspired by John Hardy’s Green School Dream, and wish him and Cynthia Hardy as the founders of the school all the very best with the future of Green School. As last week’s IPCC Report showed, the world is now in more need than ever for environmental education. 

In the coming months I will be putting more time into the growth of Entrepreneurs Institute, the growth of our entrepreneur resorts and our US launch. We also have our upcoming events in the coming months – including our Wealth Dynamics Masters and our first Women’s iLab (below) so if you’re ready for a trip to Bali, I look forward to connecting soon! 

Wealth Dynamics Masters