The Trump

Life Purpose: High Achiever in Business
Life Lesson: A Life in Balance
School: Service + Inner Peace
Formula: On the road to success don't forget your own happiness

Right Thumb plus Right Jupiter plus Right Saturn can join forces to create the [Donald] Trump fingerprint combination you see above. For owners of this Soul Agenda Chart, the objective is to bring forth Worldly Manifestation plus The High Achiever plus Business Success all at the same time. With seven Arches, the Life Lesson is about not losing touch with one's inner world while being busy with outer world concerns. At its core, this life path asks the question: what does it mean to be A Winner?

There is more than one answer to this question, as we shall see.

Eisenstien and Hart

Eisenstein and Hart are two gin rummy players at the highest level of gin rummy skill.

Hart: "Some people think gin is a game of chance. Maybe it is for them. But for me, I make my income exclusively from gin rummy and there is no chance that I will lose. Oh I may lose a particular hand, but I have never met another player who has more of my money than I have of his."

Eisenstein: "Gin rummy is a miraculous microcosm of life and the Universe. When things are going right I can tell you all ten cards my opponent has and what the next three cards of the deck will be. When I have that groove, I am unbeatable and life is grand."

People would crowd around Eisenstein and Hart to watch two consummate masters compete, like watching grand chess champions in action. Eisenstein, the flamboyant genius would inevitably have the grandest, most satisfying victories over the course of a match: a thirty-point gin off - fantastic. The crowd would be talking about his brilliant maneuver for hours. However it was Hart, the quiet plodder, who came out on top in the money column. Why am I telling you this, Master of Manifestation Candidate? Am I suggesting that plodding beats flamboyance? No.

Here is the secret that hardly anyone noticed at the gin rummy championship. Hart always kept score. Hart didn't cheat. He couldn't even if he wanted to, which he didn't. Too many people were watching. It is just that Hart was more interested in the score than Eisenstein was. Hart's goal was to win money. Eisenstein goal was to play great gin. Each succeeded at what they were trying to do. But Eisenstein couldn't seem to get how Hart could actually wind up the money winner at the end.

I am not advocating either style of play or life. Be a Hart, be an Eisenstein. Be who you are. But at gin rummy, the money winners are usually the one's who keep score. Good to know.

McKinley Road

Fred and Mathilda moved from New York City to McKinley Road in Maine to start an organic farm. Fred had some inheritance money, just enough for the down payment on a beautiful piece of land with an old farmhouse. They were ecstatic as they packed up to leave the noisy city for a simpler life in the country. Two years later and life on McKinley Road hadn't changed much. Fred and Mathilda were still living in the old farmhouse but of the one hundred acres they had purchased less than half of one acre had been cleared for planting. Maine is rocky. Rock clearing is hard work. Fred and Mathilda liked the idea of owning an organic farm more than the reality of working one. Oh well, the land is still worth what they paid for it. "Made some good friends up there in Maine. Don't know what we'll do next. It was fun while it lasted."

Time to Build

April, 1974. I am hitchhiking through Arizona with no particular destination in mind. My restaurant business had gone belly up; I had a useless college degree; a four year relationship had just ended and I figured since I didn't have any idea what to do next I might as well see some of the world. So, mid-winter I got out my backpack and headed out to who knows where.

An old beat up pick-up truck (are there any other kind in rural Arizona) stopped and I hopped in next to a big dog. A fellow approximately my age smiled, shook my hand and we drove down a dirt road though some pretty mountain scenery. "Beautiful country." "Sure is," my ride replied. "See that farmhouse over there?" I could just make out a house and barn over yonder. "We lived in the barn for two years while I built the house. Just got it done. Putting in a coral over there. Gonna get some horses this summer. My wife is pregnant." "Congratulations." "Someday my kid will help me with the ranchin'." "Great. Thanks for the ride."

As headed off to the trailhead, I decided that I was going to build something myself someday. I was thinking restaurant thoughts as I hiked off through the Cottonwoods. It never occurred to me that what I would build would have nothing to do with my prior employment.

New Mexican Horizons

"Is that you, Kevin?"

"Richard Unger?"

Here I was in the middle of nowhere New Mexico and there was Kevin from college. We found a spot to have lunch, reminisce and catch up with all the changes life had brought. Kevin was a psychiatrist, in charge of an alcohol abuse program. He had been the Program Director for four years now and had this large computer printout with him listing all the job openings in his field. Program Director wanted, Ph.D plus three years experience required. Residency alcohol abuse clinic, Albuquerque. Six figure income plus bennies. There were scores of opportunities for Kevin. I was impressed.

"I am impressed with you," Kevin told me. "You've got to be kidding," I replied. The IIHA was only a little over one year old and its future was far from guaranteed. "If I decide to teach a class, I have to create my own training manual, go out and drum up interest, handle the enrollment, etc. And then I only get paid if I get enough people to attend. You, you've got a list of opportunities a mile long, all come with a secretary and probably a staff, you show up and there are all the people who need your services already there, plus you get a four week paid vacation every year. It seems like you have created a pretty good life for yourself, Kevin."

"I'm not complaining, things are good for me and my family. But all those things you mention - that is exactly my point. For you to do what you have done you had to create something completely from scratch - and you just went right ahead and did it. I would love to be able to live out my own dream. But every program I go to work at already has a history and a staff of people who have been there for years. I certainly leave my own stamp on things but I would love to have the confidence to just go out and build something from the ground up - to invent my own thing and see it through to fruition."

"Hmm, I see what you mean. I never thought of it that way before. Thanks."

Reverse Trump

Life Purpose: Innovative Healer (left chart), Love and Closeness (right chart)
Life Lesson: Worldly Responsibilities and Integrity, Reverse Trump (The Loser)
School: Inner Peace
Formula: Root out that part of you convinced you cannot and should not win and find your Life Purpose waiting for you

Let's turn things around, moving the low ranking prints to the very spot we had high ranking prints before. Thumbs plus Right Saturn and Right Jupiter (Mr. Not Enough to be Successful, Reverse Trump) represents a particularly interesting road in life. The Exalted possibility here is finding your I Am a Winner Consciousness.

Not all with these prints triumph, but those I have known personally are doing quite well. Each has worked hard to unlock his or her Winner-ship, battling successfully against one of the tougher Demons that the Paradox Principle has spawned, a fellow that at the IIHA we have nicknamed The Loser.

The Loser is that part of anyone's consciousness that is convinced it is impossible to win in this cold uncaring Godless Universe - or worse, it would be possible to win if only I weren't…(fill in your own blank). "I never do anything right" (Right Thumb fears) plus "What value am I anyway?" (Right Saturn fears) combine forces to give this Life Lesson its fearsome teeth. Most persons have bumped into thought streams initiated by The Loser numerous times without going down the existential drain. As a matter of fact, asking "Does my life matter?" questions and listening for answers is good existential exercise. Thanking you I am, Mr. Loser, for bringing such questions to my attention. However, petulant defiance at rules and regulations, ducking legitimate responsibilities, sabotaging one's success and other less optimal Loser reactions can be more problematic. Yet who amongst us can say they have never felt or behaved in such a way?

Mostly, The Loser has a hard time gaining life-scale traction in a person's life. Usually he drops in for a visit, says "Hi" and takes off on his planetary rounds. But with some, The Loser stays put. Years later, Eisenstein still likes to tell people about the time Hart beat him at poker four Aces to four Kings. "Four Kings and I lost, can you believe it?"

Mary Ann and Stuart

When Mary Ann got her first credit card she ran up a pile of purchases and then ignored the bills until her card eventually got scissored in half while shopping for school supplies for her six-year old. Mary Ann wrote a bad check to cover the costs and eventually had to pay seventy-five dollars in charges for a twenty-three dollar purchase. No health insurance, no auto insurance, no proper tags on her car; late for work, behind on her rent Mary Ann just hopes she can get through today without running into her ex-roommate whose calls she has been ducking.

Stuart is a CPA in private practice. He works twelve hours a day, six days a week; doesn't drink, smoke or curse; will not gamble and never throws money heedlessly away. Yet he is up to his elbows in debt. Slow motion video-tape replays of his life reveals that Stuart often doesn't do what Stuart says he will do. That could have something to do with his divorce, do you think? Stuart agrees to get Mathilda's taxes ready by Friday, but he had already agreed to meet with Mr. Jones on Tuesday (in East Frasalia, two hours each way by car), Mrs. Smith on Wednesday and I forgot, what is it you are doing all day Thursday Stuart? Saying "NO" to requests for his time is so hard, he often winds up at the effect of everybody else's everything. He commonly spends three times longer getting someone's taxes done than he charges for. That plus his alimony and numerous outstanding accounts receivable has him in a bind. Did I mention the wounded dog? Stuart has adopted a one-legged dog and the Vet bills on this poor animal are sky high.

Given what you have read so far it may not seem likely that Mary Ann and Stuart are both living in the Exalted Form of their Life Lessons today. But they are. Both are earning high scores on their respective Life Purpose fulfillment charts. Let's take a look.

Under pressure from the court to join a twelve-step program or lose custody of her child, Mary Ann took a stringent self-inventory and, looking in the Truth Mirror, saw the sad eyes of Mary Ann The Loser looking back. Instead of running off or blaming the world, Mary Ann somehow found the courage to maintain eye contact (I contact) and reached out to the desperate side of herself that didn't know how to do anything right. Using support group techniques as a model, big Mary Ann let little Mary Ann know she was not alone. "I won't abandon you. I am right here. It must be hard to feel so frightened. I love you Mary Ann. I am here for you. It is OK." God bless twelve-step programs.

Some people fall right back into the old behaviors five minutes later but Mary Ann's convergence was real and long lasting. At first, changes were small and incremental. Mary Ann cleaned her apartment. She stopped stealing pennies from the Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny thing at the 7-11. She started to show up for work on time. I would love to tell you that Mary Ann instantly found her pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but…actually I wouldn't want to tell you that because it would be misleading. The truth is, things did not get better right away for Mary Ann. As a matter of fact, The Loser, irritated that its role in her life was being threatened, tried mightily to make a comeback.

Just when Mary Ann was being considered for a higher position with more responsibility, a sheriff came to her work place and hauled her off downtown for six unpaid parking tickets. Co-workers had to bail her out. How embarrassing. But Mary Ann did pay her friends back even though it took almost a year. The experience of Living in Integrity and the positive feelings it generated multiplied itself over time and eventually Mary Ann started to create a real pot of gold for herself.

It wasn't the queen's ransom she had been dreaming of in the past, an illusive treasure that would have magically solved all her problems, but she is making a living, supporting herself and her child as a trainer for salesmen and women. With the Innovative Healer (Inspirational Communications) Life Purpose shown above, Mary Ann's success is all the more meaningful because of what she had to go through in order to earn it.

Stuart's Life Purpose is Emotional Connection, the fingerprint chart just to the right of Mary Ann's. Put his life on a bar graph and you will find a similar Paradox Principle trajectory to Life Purpose satisfaction as Mary Ann. Some face intimacy insecurities (Loser in Love fears) without creating over-large problems for themselves, but that was not Stuart's story. A painful divorce followed by years without relationship was his path. Finding a way to forgive himself for being so lonely, letting go of his blame for relationship errors, this was the key to Stuart's transformation.

How did he do it? Maybe Stuart woke up one morning and decided that feeling needy wasn't something to be embarrassed about. "So I feel needy. It is not an indictable crime." Maybe doing ninety-nine things for Client A only to hear that wasn't enough, maybe that was the straw that broke this camel's back. In any event, one way or another, Stuart escaped the Loser whirlpool and found his way onto solid ground. Like Mary Ann, the Experiential Process led him, if not directly then at least over time, to his Life Purpose.

Ultimately, Right Thumb and Right Saturn are about Success and Self Worth. When these two are all or part of a person's Life Lesson then, by definition, blind spots tend to skewer one's self-evaluation. Early Mary Ann ignored her irresponsibility, never admitting any mistake regardless of the evidence. Early Stuart did the opposite, falling into Pleaser behaviors, taking on too much of the blame so as to avoid recrimination from others. The Goldilocks Rule says to expect too-much and too-little errors of this kind. Responding to the consequences created, learning about yourself as you search for just-right solutions, that is the path to The Winner.

Some with The Loser in their fingerprints are fine in most arenas of life and Loser-ish only in that one little corner over there. Others allow the Loser to move right in and set up house: The Loser as Total Lifestyle Option. Still others play Hot Potato, trying to win at every competition, demeaning their opponent, or worse, their spouse. "If I can make you lose then I don't have to feel like a Loser myself." Now there is a losing strategy. So many ways can be found to avoid the responsibility that comes with being a Winner. But in the end, if you can pay attention to the inner dialogue that The Loser brings into your life and allow The Experiencing Process time to do its magic, you may just unlock your Winner and find your Life Purpose.