Discover Your Inner Samurai
January 12th, 2008 by Liz Fuller
One of the fundamental premises at More Than WE Know is that as Women Entrepreneurs, WE Know More than WE Believe WE Know. Dr. Susan Reid has taken a similar premise and expanded it in her book Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Journey to Business Success
What I think of as that small, still voice within, or our intuition, Susan has described as “Our Inner Samurai”.
Too often, as Women Entrepreneurs, we allow our intuition to be devalued as not being serious or business-like enough. WE feel embarrassed to admit that we are making decisions based on our intuition rather than data and facts.
The flaw in this way of thinking is that we can never gather all of the facts in a short amount of time. And if we take too much time, the moment for the opportunity may have passed. Timely business decisions must be made in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Therefore, the most powerful business leaders gather all the facts they can, and then trust their intuition to make the final decision.
By describing our intuition as an Inner Samurai, Susan gives that inner voice power and credibility. She makes us realize that a well-developed intuition is a powerful secret weapon.
In her book Susan describes how to distinguish between the “rational mind…with lots of chatter, explanation, and convincing and the yes-or-no pulsing of our intuition.”
Once she helps you connect with your inner samurai, Susan walks you through how this connection can serve you in every step of starting and building your business. She understands that many Women Entrepreneurs never intended to start their own business.
Instead, many Women Entrepreneurs are “Accidental Pren- hers” who may have stumbled into owning their own business unexpectedly due to a job loss, personal disappointment, family crisis or overwhelming passion for a hobby. (This is certainly true for many of the Women Entrepreneurs I work with).
Susan reminds us that “there are no accidents” and that “everything that happens in your life happens for a reason…even if you don’t recognize it as such at the time.”
Susan’s book has been described as “The Secret for business” (Muzetta Swann). Which makes sense because in addition to being an author, Susan runs a business called Alkamae which specializes in branding, niche clarity and Law of Attraction based marketing for Women Entrepreneurs.
There was a lot in Susan’s book that resonated for me - so much so that I have asked her to let me interview her for More Than WE Know. Look for that interview next Friday.
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Note: Today’s book review and next week’s interview are part of a Virtual Book Tour for The Inner Samurai. I’m pleased to be a part of this tour along with many other bloggers. To learn more about Susan’s book, check out the other ”stops” along the way on the book tour by visiting Inner Samurai Virtual Book Tour.
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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under book recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I think the tide is turning, thanks to blogs like this one, and authors/coaches like Susan Reid. Intuition isn’t something that we hide anymore, and the more of us who come forth and demonstrate how well our instincts work for us, the better. The information and stories in Susan’s book help women to trust their Inner Samurai. That relationship of trust within ourselves is the key to success in all areas of life, and the catalyst for positive world change, as well.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Good points Dana. The more we learn to trust our intuition, the more we can move our lives in the direction that we want them to grow. We are sometimes drawn to opportunities and change without being able to articulate “why”. I think this is our intuition speaking to us and that we can learn a lot by following where it leads and having confidence that the reasons will be revealed over time.
Susan’s book does a good job of honoring that process.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I’ve not only been fortunate enough to have read Susan L. Reid’s book, “Discovering Your Inner Samurai”, but am also blessed by being one of her coaching clients. Susan’s gentle yet firm coaching (and incredible patience with me!) has finally moved me from a position of lack, the idea that I can only succeed if I work my butt off for an hourly wage. I urge everyone to listen to their “inner samurai” - read Susan’s book - it’s a different world from what we grew up with. There is no security in working for someone else and making money for them - we CAN make money ourselves, and in keeping with our inner voices. Since connecting with Susan, my income has increased two-fold. All hail to Susan!
January 14th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Liz, you’re exactly right . . . as women entrepreneurs, we know more than we believe we know. The belief is that we don’t know. When, in fact, we do know. That’s what our wonderful Inner Samurai is telling us . . . that we actually do know what we know and that we can trust it, take action on it, and live our lives by it.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Over the years some of my biggest business ventures have come from a place of Knowing. Let me back up…at first the ideas feel a bit outlandish. How could I possibly to that! And then when I listen deep within, I Know that the project is exactly what I should be doing. I’ve learned to listen extra hard when my Knowing seems to counter the “logical” answer. I also find that listening to my deep inner voice is essential through all phases of a project–from inception, creation, fine-tuning, launch, and follow up. Thanks for bringing Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Journey to Business Success to our attention.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:05 am
[…] Were you intrigued by the recent book review of Discover Your Inner Samurai? […]
February 7th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Indeed Carol, at first ideas generated from your inner knowing, what I like to call your Inner Samurai, can feel quite outlandish. That’s how it felt to me when I followed my inner voice and left the ivory tower.
The voice inside my head was screaming, “You idiot! This is ridiculous!” Yet, my calm, Inner Samurai knew which road to choose when my two roads diverged in the woods . . . and I, I took the perfect one for me.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Great comment Susan. I really liked in your book how you explained that if the little voice in your head is rationalizing and explaining, etc. - that’s not your inner samurai. Your inner samurai is the one clearly saying - Do this! Even if all the logic behind it isn’t quite clear yet.