Featured
View Count: 2847
Everything that occurs in our world and to us has a cause. The cause may not be immediately obvious, but it is always there waiting to be found. The result of anything you see always contains its cause, and everything that happens is the result of either good or bad seeds that have been planted at some point in time:
Each outcome has its own unique cause. A person becomes president of the United States because of something he did or caused. Likewise someone becomes incarcerated because of something he or she did or caused. Just as every creation that ever comes to fruition was once merely an idea, each type of person that you see in the world–a happy person, an angry person, a powerful person, or a weak person–has a unique cause, a seed that has brought the person into his or her state of being.
It follows that if everything we see has a cause, it might be more valuable to study and understand the cause more than the effect. Once you understand the cause, you have the ammunition to make better decisions in your career and your life. There are far fewer things more important than being able to understand why something is the way it is. If someone you work with is very successful, you should seek to understand the cause. If someone you work with is unsuccessful, you should also seek to understand the cause. The more you understand the causes of things, the more you can make causes work for you and avoid causes that will work against you.
Everyone knows that if you walk into a bank and rob it, the effect of this may be escaping with some money; however, the effect is more likely to be getting hauled off to jail. This is one obvious reason why robbing banks is not that popular. More popular ways of getting ahead involve things such as going to college and working hard at our jobs. Most of society seeks out causes that are positive and more likely to give us better long-term results. By and large we avoid things that are likely to cause negative results, and we gravitate toward what is likely to cause positive results–both for us and for those around us.
If you look at a chair, the cause of its existence is generally the person who built it. If you wanted more chairs like this chair, the best thing to do would be to find the person who made the chair. If you find the person who made this chair, or the factory that made the chair, you will have discovered the cause.
If you look at a young child of age two or three, who appears incredibly happy and is always laughing and playing, you could study this child as well and find a cause. The cause of the child’s happiness might be a parent; it might be both parents; it might be the way the child naturally sees the world; it might be that the child has never been seriously disciplined. The child’s disposition might very well be genetic, and the result of his or her parents’ having similar genetics. There are countless potential explanations for why the child might be happy, but there is likely also a cause that can be traced and quantified.
Similarly, if you look at a child who is incredibly unhappy all the time, there is generally a cause for this as well. It may be how the child naturally sees the world, the discipline the child has received, the lack of care it has received from parents and relatives. It might very well be genetic. The more you study this child, the more you will realize what specifically has made him or her unhappy. There is always a cause.
I have always enjoyed watching shows like Forensic Files, Intervention, Power Privilege and Justice and other similar programming that provides in-depth psychological profiles of people who commit various despicable acts. One of the reasons I enjoy these shows so much is that there are often interviews with the families of the person who has committed the crime, which usually has involved murder, prostitution, and/or drugs. The more serious the offense, the more interesting to me these interviews seem to be. In watching these shows, in most cases I am always more interested in watching and learning about the parents than the person who committed the crime.
One of the consistent themes I have noticed in these shows is that the mothers of the murderers, drug addicts, and so forth are typically very cold. The mothers have typically had a lot of issues themselves, and the thing I notice is that they are almost always very detached and unemotional in their speech. The fathers also seem sort of weak in many respects. You do not get a sense that they are all that loving or willing to take the time to understand their kids.
I am making some gross generalizations; however, I have watched hundreds of these shows over the years and this same pattern just seems to repeat itself over and over again. In my opinion, for many of the people out there who are creating mayhem in the world and who are having severe problems, there is always a cause, and the cause is, in most cases, the people’s parents.
A few years ago, I was complaining to one of my parents about something or other that happened when I was growing up, and my parent said something that was quite memorable: “Grow up and forget about it!”
I thought about this statement a lot at the time because it did seem to resonate with some truth. I had no business being upset about something that happened or did not happen some twenty years ago. Incidentally, I cannot even to this day remember what I was complaining about at the time; nevertheless, whatever had occurred in the past had apparently planted a seed within me that was still festering in the present.
Another more extreme example: If a man is beaten up by thugs, he is going to be a different person in the future in some ways than if he had never been attacked. The attack puts a seed in him. Going to war and being in combat plants seeds in men too. If a woman wins a beauty contest at a young age, this plants another type of seed. If a person goes to college and does horribly, this is yet another seed. If a person gets fired from a job, if a person is raised a devout follower of organized religion, these too are seeds, life-shaping causes that help form a person and his or her future.
Once you understand these seeds, you will generally understand their various outcomes and will quickly come to understand the person.
The problem with understanding the cause for people’s situations is often that the causes are hidden. For example, when looking at a giant acorn tree, most people see only the tree. They do not think of the fact that the acorn tree came from the acorn nuts like the ones that are now growing out of it. The cause of the acorn tree is the seeds. But what most people see is the tree–not the cause of the tree.
The message I am getting at is very significant and it could change your life. You have many seeds that have been planted within you throughout the years. These seeds have been planted by your parents, your friends, your schools, and chance events that have occurred. Some of these seeds are good seeds, which can result in positive outcomes, and other seeds are bad seeds, which can result in negative outcomes. The issue is that you may not be aware of which seeds are which. You are living your life under the constant influence of seeds that were planted long ago within you–and you do not understand or know what they are.
In order for you to make the most of your life and career, it is crucial that you do your best to be influenced by the good seeds and learn to avoid the bad seeds. When people spend tine on a therapist’s couch, what they are essentially doing is learning about the bad seeds that have been planted in them, and coming to terms with them, in order to move on in their life. Most of us suppress and do not come to terms with the bad seeds that are influencing our lives; however, by learning to understand them, we are in a much better position to deal with them.
Conversely, there are an incredible number of good seeds out there that have a profound influence on us. These good seeds are the things that make us happy, the people who support us and help us grow, the circumstances that enable us to be better people, the positive things that have helped us get to where we are today and to be the people we are today. Good seeds are something incredibly valuable and we need to make a conscious habit of moving toward good seeds and reinforcing the good seeds in our lives.
I urge you to look at other people who have achieved the levels of success you too desire, and look for the good seeds that have brought them to where they are today. The more you look for the good seeds within people, the more you can use these same tools to move toward where you want to be. You need to adopt good seeds in your own life and bring good seeds into your life to the maximum extent possible.
Seeds do not grow instantly. Seeds take time to grow and they grow based on how they are nourished and the environment they are in. Every single day of your life you are planting seeds. You may be planting seeds that cause good things to happen in the future, or you may be planting seeds that cause bad things to happen in the future, or perhaps nothing at all. This is how it works: the more positive seeds you plant, the better your life will become. It may not all happen instantly, but it will happen.
Advertising is an example of planting seeds. An advertiser goes out and plants ideas in the public’s mind about buying its product or service, with the objective of creating instantly and over time, a harvest of revenue. Businesses plant seeds just as individuals do.
We are addicted to selfish behavior. It is easier to hate than it is to love. We are quick to argue and slow to apologize. Many people drive hard bargains. It is easier for some people to lie than to tell the truth. It is easier for some people to break promises than to do what they say they will do. Selfish behavior is an example of planting a bad seed. It may not happen instantly, but every bad seed you plant will come back to you in some way, making your life more difficult.
If you are not climbing, you are falling back. The lower you descend, the more you suffer from depression and turmoil. The further you are from doing good, the unhappier you are likely to be. This can express itself in various forms of illness, financial hardship, social problems, marital problems, fear, anxiety, and more. All of these are the result of planting bad seeds.
Reject the selfish impulses that pop into your mind–do not plant bad seeds.
Choose to interact with people who truly enhance your life–plant good seeds.
Choose to interact with people in ways that truly enhance their lives–plant good seeds.
THE LESSON
Everything happens for a reason, and that reason might lie hidden underneath the surface. Understand the root cause of everything that is happening to you and around you. When you see the seed from which the tree has grown, you will discover exactly what you should do to improve your life and career.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
Filed Under : Featured, Life Lessons
Tagged: ammunition cause, career advice, career advice | a harrison barnes, forensic files, how to find a job, job market, job seeker, legal recruiter, new job opportunities, unique cause
Job Market
recent posts
You need to provide people what they want, otherwise you will not have a job. Although they might not always be the most desirable kinds of jobs, certain jobs always exist because they provide services that people will always require. The only secret to continual employment is to provide a service that people always need; if you do this, and nothing else, you will always find yourself employed. Give people what they want.
Your ability to help people will determine the extent of your success; the more powerful and effective your help, the greater rewards you will receive. One of the rarest and most profound achievements is to follow through on your goals and create a paradigm-shifting idea. The more revolutionary your work, the more people you will affect and the more memorable of a career you will have.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
The ability to fit into your work environment is among the most important parts of obtaining and retaining a job, even more so than your skill level. Fitting in means nothing more than being comfortable in one’s work environment, and making others similarly comfortable. Employers want to hire people who will embrace their approach to business and the world on physical and moral levels, so you must strive to fit in with their worldview.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
In this article, Harrison advises you to live the lives you wish to have, do the jobs you want to do, and basically live your dreams to your best possible ability. Life is fleeting and no one knows what tomorrow holds. So Harrison puts forward certain questions – when are you going to start living the life you want and when are you going to take charge of your life. The time to have the career you want is right now, not tomorrow, and not later. You need to take charge of your career and life and no one else is going to do it for you. Your entire life and the quality of it is a product of your decisions. You can have, do, or be anything you want. Do not create alibis for making comprises in life. What separates the best and the happiest people is the ability to stop to making excuses and Harrison wants you to be this person.
Anyone can be up when things are going well, but the real challenge comes when things are not. Do not look at problems, which are inevitable for any person or business, in a negative light; think of them instead as challenges, lessons, or opportunities. There is a silver lining to be found in every problem, and finding that silver lining will enable you to grow.
Understanding what you do for a living is very important for your career. You should understand the generality of your specific profession. You and your career are a product. You need to know where and how to market yourself in the best way possible. You need to be relevant and understand the skills you are offering. Being a relevant product is essential for your success. It’s easy to be relevant when you understand what you are doing and what purpose you serve. Being relevant is more than just getting a job. Being relevant also relates to serving the employers with the skills they need. You need to understand your market and what your customers want. This is the way to stay employed, and it is also the means to continual improvement.
Things will not always go the way that you want them to go, so you must not be discouraged by adversity in your job hunt. When you persist and consistently put forth your best effort, things are much more likely to go in your favor. Also, you must resist others’ efforts to undermine your efforts and potential; focus instead on doing everything in your power to fight on and complete the task at hand.
Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
Don’t ever give up, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Take chances and invest in your best skills, and persist in the face of unfortunate events. Have faith in your considerable work and capabilities, and use them to create value for others.
In this article Harrison discusses what a good hiring manager should look for. Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistakes when hiring. They put too much emphasis on skills and experience. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, he/she will bring down the morale of the other workers. The person will harm the company through the negative outlook. The key to success is having the power to stick it out in jobs and finding happiness wherever you are. Hiring people who do good work and are always able to find happiness should be the number one objective of hiring managers.
To reach the goals to which you aspire, you must compare yourself with people superior to you for motivation. Most people prefer to look at life the way they wish it to be, rather than as it truly is. Move out of your comfort zones and face reality. Don’t seek out or compare yourself with the average people around you, as doing so will only mire you in mediocrity rather than push you forward.
You can better market yourself by taking a stand against something. Peoples’ personal beliefs, including the things with which they do not agree, define who they are as people. Standing against something differentiates you from the crowd; when done in the correct manner, without disrespecting others’ opinions, such a stance can help you land your dream job.
Maintaining a routine in both life and work is important to success. Not only do you need to establish a routine, you must make that routine demanding and push yourself to the limit. Budget a certain amount of time each week for networking, applying to jobs, brushing up your interview skills, and following up with employers. Such consistent effort on a daily basis will make a huge difference to your career success.
A recommendation from a powerful person can make a huge difference in your job search; a reference from an influential person makes a tremendous difference to a prospective employer, and thus can be a major advantage for you. When an important person whom the company trusts recommends you, you instantly qualify for positions that may previously have been unattainable. Make the absolute most of your connections with the powerful people in your life, because doing so can instantaneously change your career and life.
You must plant seeds in the minds of others, so that they will be more likely than otherwise to think of you when a future need arises. In planting seeds, you are making people aware of what you have to offer; you must make sure that you are ever present in the minds of your potential employers. Planting seeds is the most effective way to generate top-of-mind awareness, and ensure that the right people remember you at the appropriate time.
Recent immigrants exemplify the benefits of willpower, passion, and excitement in the way that they work so much harder for their goals than the people who have been here for most or all of their lives. Like most Americans, you need to rekindle the spirit of your immigrant ancestors and become hungry for what you want. The entrepreneurial spirit that brought people to America has often faded over time; adopt the fire and work ethic of new immigrants in order to achieve your goals.
Determine whether you are a global or specific person. Most people are either too general or too specific in the way they treat information, and overly detail-oriented people risk losing sight of the bigger picture. General people are more comfortable in managerial positions, while detail-oriented people prefer everything to conform to a logical sequence. Understand which sort of person you are, and seek work that best harnesses your natural inclination.
In this article Harrison talks about releasing the lack that you feel, in order to reach your full potential. If a sense of lack dominates your thinking, it will affect your interaction with the world and how the world sees you. There are many areas of your life where you are coming from a position of lack. Your ability to release this lack and go forward with your life can create a tremendous sense of peace and more natural accomplishments in your world. The amount of lack that people see out there is profound and it has a massive impact on their lives. According to Harrison, the most successful people in the world see the world as a place of opportunity and not lack.
When faced with difficult times, you must develop the ability to transcend the trouble around you instead of giving up or assuming that nothing can be done about your situation. Keep your wits about you and take charge of the situation, and you will find yourself on track for constant improvement and career success.
It is extremely important that you enjoy your job. Most people find themselves in jobs that they resent, and eventually make this resentment known by appearing disinterested and distracted. Success comes from being engaged in and grateful for your work. You can define your job according to your own vision; you can either choose to engage with your work, or avoid and despise what you do. People recognize and appreciate those who are enthusiastic about their work.
Your résumé is an extremely important document. There are entire books written about how to craft them. I have written at least one myself. There are scores of résumé consultants, companies, and others that will work on your résumé for a fee. Hiring one of these services can be useful and can improve your résumé. Nevertheless, most résumés can improve dramatically by following the below advice.
In this article Harrison explains how you can do better in your career by selling. The most successful people are absolute masters at sales. Selling is among the most important career skills you can have. When you know how to sell something you can do exceptionally well wherever you go. Knowing how to sell something is a key to survival, advancement, fame, and fortune. Everything we do is about making a sale. Selling yourself is about showing others the value you can bring them. So package yourself to the best of your ability, always be at your best and sell yourself. Develop your sales skills and do not be afraid to sell anything. Whatever your goal in life, becoming an effective salesman will help you achieve it.
It is absolutely vital to be in control of your life and career. When you fail to control your life, someone else will step in to do so and fit your life into their plans. Understand that it is in others’ interests to establish control over your life and work, and instead exert control yourself over your life and the events around you.
Do not be a dabbler, or someone who turns away in the face of stress; the secret to long-term happiness is to instead confront and push through these stress factors. Do not be discouraged by difficulties, but find ways to persist and deal with the stress. Confronting problems head-on is the key to improvement, and will take you much further than the dabblers who fail to approach their careers with commitment.
In this article Harrison discusses how persistent pursuit of something you believe in, against all obstacles, is one of the most important keys to success. So many of us just decide at some point not to push through and not to keep going even when a little bit of extra effort would push us through. The secret to being incredibly good at everything is pushing through and getting better and better when others around you are quitting. Even while hiring, employers want experts and people who are the best at what they are doing–they do not want dabblers. They want to hire the person who is incredibly committed to a job and has persisted against odds in one direction when others have given up.
In this article Harrison suggests that you actually may be safer getting a job without the help of family or friends. It is exceedingly rare that a friend or family member will ever be able to get you a position. They may not even want to help you get a job for various reasons. Their involvement in your job search may actually hurt you. The organization may actually look upon you negatively if you try to use a friend or family member to get a job. So going through a close contact is often counterproductive to your job search. Even if you get a position through a friend or family member, you could harm your relationship with that person in the process. Your friend or family member’s act of kindness may ultimately unbalance your relationship. The risks involved in this kind of job far outweigh the potential rewards.
A powerful sense of self will make all the difference in your life. You must understand that your sense of yourself and your capabilities come from inside of you, not from the external forces that have brought you to your current place in life. What you feel internally might be completely different from what the world is telling you, and you must learn to focus on the former rather than the latter.
In this article, Harrison explains the importance of making an effort in your job which is way above what is expected of you. When you have been given certain responsibilities, it means that someone is dependent on you for certain things. When you fulfill these duties far more efficiently, put in a lot more time and effort, and even stay back on weekends and holidays to complete or do extra work, your employers get the message that you are sharing their burden of pressures with them and begin to place tremendous trust in you. This is what paves the path to your promotion and growth in the company. Harrison believes that you need to develop the correct attitude and possess an extraordinary work ethic to thrive in the job you do.
Related Posts:
Harrison Barnes:
Getting Ahead:
The Role of Jobs in Today's World:
Career Advice:
© 2025 Harrisonbarnes All Rights Reserved
Yes, truly environment contribute intense influence to people. Poverty and other problems is a reflection of what kind of Government that place has. In the other hand, problems may occur as well depends of what is the behavior or values of the inhabitant that composes the society..
“To will a self is to become a self” Nietzsche. Good post… marred by spelling error on first bullet…
nice great post in that article a lesson for the freshers who are finding jobs, and who are graduate but not able to find right job but how there will handle their job and career in the future.
The best way to lead your life.. this article, explains the association between ‘what is’ and ‘why’. Everything that takes place happens due to a certain reason that lies hidden and undiscovered. People, their careers, their relationships, their lives, everything is rooted strongly in the past.
Great article to read on. The man is known by his deeds regarding the kind of job he is doing.
Hi Harry,
Lesson well delivered. Life is an echo.
I discovered your blog today and although am not looking for work ATM I found all the postings lead to this.
My biggest, one of them, issues has been listening to others’ negativity.
At the moment I can’t post much because I question a lot but again much seems to come from the taking on of others’ and society’s views which crush us. Fair enough, there are things that cannot be done for safety, morality, karma, whatever, but so many use everything to get you off your path.
I’ll comment in the future but one other thing, in another post you talked about systematic abuse as victim. What if you were the one doing it? I think we all take turns at both roles.
Thanks
Michael Australa
I really like the blog. The information is really informative ….. Thanks for sharing.
Great article to read on. The man is known by his deeds regarding the kind of job he is doing.
Hello,
I am glad you enjoyed the article and hope you will read more of my articles.
–Harrison
Nice,It just like a truly story!Thanks for sharing!