Along with Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", Dale Carnegie's "Winning Friends and Influencing People" and Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the other must-have book in everyone's business library is "Thick Face, Black Heart" by Chin-Ning Chu.

For more than 1,000 years the Samurai in Japan carried a tradition. While our Western ideas of the Samurai conjure up a fierce fighter wielding a massive sword in battle, the real tradition of the Samurai is much more nuanced and appropriate in our coaching environment.

The core of the Samurai is one of ethics and service. In fact, the meaning of Samurai is "men of service." And service is at the core of our work, too. The code of the Samurai involved total devotion to a set of moral principles. The goal was to perform their duty and exhibit spiritual power. While the Samurai were warriors, they were also poets, artists and philosophers.

The 7 principles comprising the code of the Samurai are as follow:

1. Gi: the right decision, taken with equanimity, the right attitude, the truth.

2. Yu: bravery tinged with heroism.

3. Jin: universal love, benevolence toward mankind; compassion.

4. Rei: right action--a most essential quality, courtesy.

5. Makoto: utter sincerity; truthfulness.

ó. Melyo: honour and glory.

7. Chugo: devotion, loyalty.

Chin also adds the principles of the "Thick Face, Black Heart." Thick face being your shield that protects your self esteem from the negative influences of others. The thick face person has the ability to put self doubt aside. They refuse to accept the limitations that others have tried to impose, and more importantly, they do not question their own ability or worthiness. In their own eyes, they are perfect. The Black Heart is your spear that provides the ability to take swift action. The black hearted person is above short-sighted compassion. They focus their attention on the goals and ignore the sacrifices. A black hearted person has the courage to fail. It is not possible to practice Thick Face without Black Heart; however you can draw freely more power from one than the other, given the circumstance.

These well tested principles are just as relevant today as they were some 1500 years ago. The Samurai functions as an excellent metaphor for us, as business owners and leaders. 

The reason to be in business is to be able to generate an excess of profits that yields dividends to the shareholders in the form of capital for them to invest in other forms of income stream to create compounding wealth, so that you can live your dream. I choose to work with committed business owners, leaders, and executives who want to double their income, progress their careers and start living the lifestyle of their dreams in 3 years or less.