A Teaspoon, a Bucket, or a Tractor Trailer?

“The Ocean doesn’t care! The Ocean just wants to OUTFLOW!”

If you are familiar with this statement then you know Reverend Ike. And it is with my deepest sympathy that we remember the great Reverend and what he did for the world. The Reverend passed away on July 28, 2009.

In Money & You^®, we have been teaching, and giving credit to, Reverend Ike for decades. Graduates of Money & You^® will remember that over the course of the 3 1/2 day program, students are taken from a mindset of scarcity into sufficiency and finally to one of abundance. And one of the most memorable and favorite teachings from the 3+ days is in a segment called “Ring Toss” – it’s a segment that teaches how successful people play in business, and ultimately, it’s a game about leverage.

At this point in the program the energy is high, tensions can be high, and the instructor is having a blast with participants engaging in this-for-that bargaining and pleading for answers.  The reason why Money & You^® works so well is participants discover the answer from within and they truly learn, rather than being lectured and told the correct answer that sits in a notebook on a shelf for the next 30 years. It’s a pivotal point in the weekend seminar and we always have many reviewers coming back to re-experience this particular segment. In fact, we have noted that there are at least two PhD dissertations on this game.

As the game proceeds, the instructions are quickly and always repeated for the class upon request. And after each reading of the instructions, the instructor adds his or her own most excited rendition of, “There is an Ocean of Abundance! There is an Ocean of What!?”

And the class, already anticipating the answer, resounds, “Abundance!”

To which the instructor responds, “You can come to the Ocean with a teaspoon, a bucket, or a tractor trailer! The Ocean doesn’t care! The Ocean just wants to outflow!”

That is the famous line the Reverend left us with – and we will always remember! We have used it with his permission and I must say thank you, Reverend Ike! Everyone loves to hear it. It’s almost a Money & You^® trademark because our grads have psychologically anchored this phrase with a new paradigm of thinking – away from scarcity into sufficiency and finally abundance.

The Reverend was also an instructor at the Excellerated Business School^® for Entrepreneurs where he taught hundreds of successful entrepreneurs and business owners in exotic places like Hawaii, where we held the now 8-day program for many years.

The Reverend was outrageous and that’s why we loved him! He expanded people’s comfort with their own deserve-ability. We still teach Reverend Ike’s philosophy and will continue to spread the word of Ike!

With Loving Thoughts,

DC Cordova

Read more about the Reverend here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/nyregion/30ike.html

Image by Getty Images via Daylife