You Need to Offer Hope

When I was about 12 years old my stepfather was dying of cancer. The cancer had spread so far in his body there was nothing the doctors could really do anymore. They had already completed several operations, which had removed a lot of the cancer, but this didn’t seem to matter. My stepfather had undergone chemotherapy, and although he was just in his early 40s he no longer had any hair. Every few hours he would have a bout of throwing up, which would last several minutes. He was doing the best he could to make the most of his remaining days on earth.

Because he was so sick, I was spending most of my time with him and my mother. One evening we drove an hour outside of Detroit to see a doctor who was going to sell my stepfather a potion, which he represented would cure the cancer. I remember that the potion was a few thousand dollars at the time, and my parents had to scrape for several days to get the money; however, the potion offered hope. We went out to a farmhouse in the middle of a large field, and inside, a doctor had set up all sorts of test tubes. He seemed to be in the midst of a giant medical experiment that went from his garage to his kitchen to his living room. Whatever he was doing, he seemed very serious about it.

Before the purchase was completed, my parents sat down with the doctor and his wife, and the doctor told various stories about the miracles that the potion had produced, how it turned around the cancer of various individuals. I was enthusiastic that the potion might do something for my stepfather; however, at the same time I was old enough to understand that this probably would not do the trick. Something about it just did not seem right. After some time my parents gave the man their money. He went into the kitchen and took out several glass jars of the material that he had made, put it into a grocery bag, and sent us on our way.

Within a few months my stepfather was in the hospital for the last time, where he would ultimately succumb to the cancer. The potion obviously did not work. A few weeks before he finally died my mom came home one evening and told me that the most miraculous thing had happened. She said some people from the church had brought over a small piece of the cross that Jesus died on–it was no larger than a sliver of wood–and that this might cure my stepfather. She told me very briefly that this piece of the cross had apparently cured many people and that we were incredibly lucky to have been allowed to use it until my stepfather got well.

My stepfather never got better. A few weeks later he died.

In thinking back on this episode, what occurs to me is that everywhere around us, no matter what the situation, we are all looking for hope. The man who sold my parents the potion was offering hope. We need never look far to find someone who is offering us hope–hope that our future can look and be different from the way it is now.

A couple of months ago I was in the airport and I could not find anything to read. I was preparing for a fairly long flight and the only book I could find that looked half interesting was Kevin Trudeau’s Natural Cures They Do Not Want You to Know About. I have been around the block quite a bit and even I was astonished about a particular topic covered by the book, which “they” understandably do not want you to know about: energetic rebalancing. Trudeau writes:

Frequency generators have been around for decades. Royal Rife was using frequencies in the 1920s and 1930s to cure cancer. Today there are several machines using frequencies to balance out a person’s energy, thus eliminating the energetic frequency of the imbalance or disease. When the frequency of the disease you have has been neutralized, the disease goes away. These machines include the Intero, Vegatest, Dermatron, and others. The most advanced technology that I know of is used by a man who treats many well-known celebrities. His technology is so advanced that, no matter where you are in the world, he can have his computerized frequency machine monitoring you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, constantly balancing the energetic frequencies in your body. I personally have been using the technology for the last seven years, and I have never in that time been sick. When everyone around me had a serious cold, I got the sniffles for about two hours. When all my friends got the flu, I never experienced a single symptom. I highly recommend you read the book Sanctuary to get the full story on this revolutionary technology. Here’s what some others have to say about this program.

Dr. Wayne Dyer, bestselling author of Wisdom of the Ages; lecturer; spiritual teacher:

“In regard to Stephen Lewis, EMC², and the AIM Program: Everything is energy. Everything and everyone has a frequency. Those frequencies that are out of balance with our natural harmony can be identified and removed. I know this to be true. I have seen the Sanctuary process at work. I practice it daily. My entire family participates in the AIM Program, and I have seen wonderful results. This is real, it is transforming, it is true healing, and it is a giant step into the inevitable future where each of us is our own personal, transcendental, and totally enlightened healer. I have found that in my higher self, and so can you. It is available now.”

Linda Gray, actress, Goodwill Ambassador on Women’s Issues to the United Nations:

“I have used this technology for years. It is the most glorious gift that anyone could receive.”

Courteney Cox Arquette, actress:

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have participated in Energetic Balancing for over three years. I don’t know what I would do without it. I don’t believe anyone can afford not to be part of it.”

Now, when I initially read this my thought was that there was probably nothing wrong with this concept of “energetic rebalancing,” and that there is potentially a lot of truth to the practice. For example, I have been in yoga classes before wherein the instructor spoke about “energy,” and I certainly have felt a lot of energy after a yoga class. Moreover, I believe that energy is all around us and in this respect what I was reading sounded perfectly sensible. I have no idea who this Kevin Trudeau guy is; however, if energetic rebalancing is getting the thumbs-up from the likes of Courteney Cox I figured there must be some truth to it.

I did further research on the practice and tracked down the AIM program on the Web. In order to learn more about how to participate in the practice, the website required that I fill out a form online and sign up to receive more information. I was perfectly fine with the concept of energetic rebalancing and was very eager to learn more about it. When the material arrived in the mail I could scarcely believe what I was reading. Apparently the program involves sending the company a copy of your photograph and $1,000. Your picture is then placed on a tray that is connected to a computer somewhere, which sends out frequencies to your picture, supposedly creating all sorts of incredible life improvements for you.

Here is some information from the literature I received:

EMC² performs an initial life force check from your photo. Your facilitator will inform you of the results of the life force check. We place your pictures on the trays which deliver the balancing frequencies.

You immediately begin receiving balancing frequencies which assist in your self-healing.

A letter I received with the material reads:

EMC² does not diagnose, treat, prevent or cure disease. Instead, we provide balancing energies which help to remove your energetic imbalances. Energetic imbalances cause blockages in the flow of “life force.” Blocking the flow of “life force” manifests as difficulties. When you remove your energetic imbalances, you can use your “life force” to create well-being in every area of your life.

More than 40,000 people around the world have personally experienced the extraordinary benefits of the AIM Program of Energetic Balancing. Many have reported amazing changes in their sense of well-being, their ability to enjoy life more fully, to adapt to change, to think more clearly, love more deeply and release unproductive and uncomfortable patterns in their lives. Enroll today to begin your own success story!

Thank you for the opportunity to minister to your energetic needs.

Whether or not this is true is not my interest to discover; however, what I do know is that there are an incredible number of people out there to whom others will gladly give money in exchange for a promise of hope. Note in the disclaimer offered above by EMC², there is no promise of results; there is only a promise of hope to obtain the desired results. All around us there are various people offering hope in one form or another. Some may be honest and some may be deceitful. Some salespeople will say practically anything to offer us hope, and this is indicative of how important hope is to us.

I had another run-in with “energetic balancing” at a seminar a couple of months ago. A man with a giant watch that must have cost him $40,000 was selling something called the QLink for hundreds of dollars. The QLink is a copper wire surrounding a metallic wafer. According to the company website:

In 1994, the National Institutes of Health in the United States adopted a new term – biofield – to describe a growing body of research showing a subtle field that permeates and extends beyond the physical body. The biofield is something you’ve probably already noticed: a vital force that animates our bodies and powers our daily lives. When our biofield is out of balance, we’re out of balance. Disease, fatigue, and apathy all reflect a compromised biofield. When something improves our biofield, such as the Q-Link, it can increase our mental and physical performance, reinforce our natural immunity to stress and enhance our sense of well-being.

Every day, our biofields are negatively impacted by flickering computer monitors, irate bosses, cell phones, emotional stress, tabloid television, and traffic jams. We are literally bombarded with frequencies that wear us down. That’s why it is essential to recharge.

Each of us wants hope–whether it is for the curing of a disease or for a better life or something else. The most successful promoters out there in every field are those who offer hope in some form. People imply that using a product or service will provide a future benefit. In most cases, the benefit that people are going to receive is not something that is 100% assured–it is only a possibility or a hope. For example, when you purchase a car or an oven, you know exactly what you are getting. For products or services offering hope, however, you are generally only receiving an implied benefit, and the promise that the product or service will, in conjunction with some applied effort on your part, make you a different person tomorrow from who you are today.

Several years ago a coworker and I went to see a fortune-teller in Washington, DC. The most interesting part of seeing the fortune-teller was that she offered to burn incense and all sorts of things for me after I left, in order to help me. She stated that this would really change my life. This was the fortune-teller’s way of offering hope. People go for this sort of thing all the time and they have probably have been giving fortune-tellers money for thousands of years, all because a fortune-teller gives hope that something in a person’s life will change.

What does this have to do with your career? One of the most important things you can understand when you are interviewing with a prospective employer and looking for a job in general is that you need to give your employer hope. You also should do this with your employer while you are employed. The offer to an employer of hope is a very powerful commodity, and it can make a gigantic impact on your success or failure.

When I am interviewing people I am always interested in what happened with their last job and the job before that. There are a lot of people who have been in the working world for 30 years or more, who have had multiple jobs, and seemingly every company they ever worked for went out of business. It is a common story that I have come across numerous times in interviews. While it may be a mere string of coincidences that the past ten companies where the person worked went out of business, for me I generally do not need to hear any more. Frankly, it scares the heck out of me. Whatever it is that is happening with such persons, they do not come prepackaged with hope. There is something different that they are bringing to the table, in my opinion. These persons may scare away potential employers because there is an unwritten assumption that they may have done something to cause the issues at their previous companies.

Conversely, there are people who have had several jobs where, each time they joined a company, the company thrived. This is an example of a person who offers a tremendous amount of hope to new employers because there is another unwritten assumption that this person may have done something to assist with the massive growth and success of his or her previous companies.

Your job is to offer hope to any employer or prospective employer–hope that by hiring you their company will improve, that you will make their job much easier, and that you will bring them good luck and success. People who purchase energetic rebalancing, wear QLinks, buy miracle potions for cancer, and so forth are all looking for hope and a bit of good luck. So create a perception of yourself as someone who brings good luck and hope. You want it to be implied that good things will come to the employer who hires you. Your presence should mean something to your employer, which will distinguish you from all other employees or prospective hires.

I have often thought about Barbara Bush from the perspective that I wonder what difference the influence of a woman like her made on her family. Her husband became the president of the United States, her son became president of the United States, and another son of hers became governor of Florida. Now, if she were much younger and let’s say hypothetically you were interviewing her to be a mother or wife, wouldn’t you think that she offered hope? And wouldn’t she be a top candidate based on the successes of the people she has been previously associated with? Of course she would. She would offer a lot of hope.

In Los Angeles there is a huge industry of assistants and others who work for stars doing various tasks. They also typically change jobs between stars. The pecking order among assistants typically involves working for the most successful stars and being with them while they are having successful careers. If the star starts to have problems that are high profile, these assistants often start looking for new jobs. They want to be associated with the star’s success–not failure.

When you walk into any health-food store, you will see a variety of ways that hope is bottled and sold. All sorts of roots and other concoctions are promoted as being able to help you change your life. Tim Ferriss, the author of the bestselling book The Four-Hour Workweek, basically sold a vitamin he claimed would speed up your brain (the product is called “Brain Quicker”), which is how he was able to ostensibly work four hours a week. You too might be able to work four hours a week if you sold hope.

Your candidacy, in the eyes of employers, needs to allude to the fact that you will bring great things to the employer, without actually overtly stating this. Whatever you say you did for your previous employers and however you helped them will be taken as a possibility for your future employer as well.

One of the most fascinating things for me when I go to New York is watching people on the street. All of them are always rushing, usually with a look of pain or fear on their faces as they rush about. Where are all these people going? They are rushing toward another moment: the future. In fact, most people are constantly rushing toward the future and never slow down or stop. They are more concerned with being somewhere besides where they are. They have hope of arriving at a future that is different from and in some ways better than where they are right now.

You need to offer hope to your employer, potential employer, and all those around you. Then watch the future unfold.

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.