Those of you who attend our new Affiliated Women face 2 face neighborhoods know that we talk about the “3 C’s”. 

“Collaborate; Cooperate; and Coordinate!” 

You also know that I’m fond of saying “we leave the 4th “C” at the door when we arrive!  The 4th “C” is “competition”.

Why do we stress collaboration, cooperation and coordination?  It should be obvious, however our mind says one thing and our emotions say another!

When one of the things we’ve done that moves us onto the 2nd half of the journey path, is to start our own business; we want to grow it as quickly as possible.  Particularly if it’s a direct sales business.  Whether we do it part-time for a little extra spending money or full time to achieve the highest recognition (and money) as possible; we need customers.  We need folks who will buy into what we offer. 

Thus when someone crosses our path who offers a similar ‘widget’; our guts growl and the fangs may seek to appear (my metaphor for the natural inclination to compete).

Whatever it is that we decide to pursue in life; we want to achieve our ultimate goal!  The quicker we want to have that happen, the more likely we are to pack competition into our bags.

However, what the market place is slowly discovering is that competing rarely works over the long haul.  What does work, however, is adopting a cooperative attitude that permits us to collaborate with others - even those in our own industry from different companies - and coordinate our efforts.  This scenario has more opportunity for mutual success than “biting the hands that might feed us” or maintaining our natural inclination to compete!

Now, I’m not speaking as the resident expert!  I’m as inclined to want to “compete” as the next woman.  But I hate the feelings that well up inside me and the haughty attitude I adopt as I attempt to get one up.   Mentally, I’ve learned that applying the 3 “C’s” is far more beneficial (mutually) in the long run!

You’ll find me talking more about the 3 “C’s” as we move along at AWP and our face 2 face neighborhoods AWItm. 

Why?  Because women in general have adopted the masculine predominate motivation of “conquering” rather than applying the native feminine motivation of “nurturing”.  Partly due to the feminine revolution in its worst aspects; and partly because we’ve felt we had to fight for every advance we’ve made in the market place.

Problem is - we fought each other as well!  And in that scenario; none of us are in an enviable position.  Males in general view us as the enemy and other women view us as someone to be conquered.

So, let’s agree to begin now to change the landscape!  Let’s agree that through AWP and AWItm, we’ll operate more out of the 3 “C’s” and leave the 4th one at the door!  Let’s show the world we can win by shaping and forming what comes naturally to us - nurturance!

Let’s decide that we will collaborate, coordinate and cooperate with each other.  Nurturing the gifts and abilities each of us bring to the table while promoting each other to others - so that all eventually win a piece of the big pie!

Have an awesome day with much love and little to no competition with anyone or anything!

Linda, a fellow journeyer