to make decisions.
The part of the brain that handles this function is called the reticular activating system, or RAS. Psychologist Jerome Bruner said the “inhibitory system” of the RAS “routinely and automatically removes from perception, reason, and judgment over 99 percent of available fact.”
Through various neural paths, the RAS connects the brain stem to the cerebral cortex. The brain stem controls many involuntary functions and bodily reflexes, while the cerebral cortex is believed to be the seat of consciousness and thinking abilities. The RAS links these two regions and helps our consciousness focus on what’s most important or urgent in any particular moment according to the belief system we have developed since birth. This is essential, but it’s also a double-edged sword.
Out of those 2 million bits of data we receive every second, we only have the capacity to process around 147 bits. Pause for a second to digest that. As Bruner said, our RAS filters out nearly everything we experience, more than 99.99 percent, and hides it from our awareness. This is a conundrum: In every moment, we are blissfully unaware of almost all of the world around us. The RAS filters out whatever we have decided, through learned beliefs or mental habit, is not important, and it allows into consciousness only whatever seems most relevant or needs immediate action. What does this mean for a first-time entrepreneur who wants to start a business? If we believe, for whatever reason, that it is the wrong time to start a company or that we lack the talent or ability to run a company, the RAS will let through information that supports these beliefs and filter out any contrary evidence. Any established negative habits or thought patterns will be reinforced, and in order to change them, we have to decide to change them and consciously choose to expose ourselves to new sources of data. In other words, we have to alert the RAS that it needs to focus on something new that’s more urgent and important.
For instance, the RAS is the reason that, every time you learn a new word, you then start hearing it everywhere. It’s why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people, yet immediately snap to attention when someone says your name. Advertising tries to hook the RAS: When you see a new car commercial that causes an emotional response, you tend to notice that car whenever you see it next.
Normally, all of this happens without us noticing. The RAS filters the world through the parameters we give it, which includes our philosophical, religious, and political beliefs, as well as our beliefs about ourselves. This helps to explain why we repeat negative behaviors even if they hurt us. If we expect failure, the RAS reinforces that by filtering out any contradictory information. On the other hand, if we feel empowered or expect success, the RAS will focus on data that confirms and supports this.
Because of the way the RAS functions, it’s difficult to change repetitive or habitual thoughts, behaviors, and experiences. Yet it’s possible by deliberately changing what we focus on. Bit by bit, we can reprogram our RAS and gradually change the world we experience. Instead of letting a winning idea fade, we deliberately feed the RAS a new goal by incorporating the idea immediately. This is not positive thinking. It’s positive reaction, and that makes all the difference.
Positive Reaction: The Psychological Benefits of Incorporation
Maybe the most important benefit of incorporating your winning idea is that it immediately starts to retrain your RAS. Once you take action and make an emotional commitment to the idea, you are saying to your RAS: I am serious, this is important, and I want this. Obviously, your incorporated company will not have much substance to it yet and maybe not for a while. That is not important. What is important is that you are acting on your intentions. You are breathing life into your winning idea and taking the first tangible steps to creating your own business.
Below, I explain how to complete the process of incorporation online. Usually only a few days after you do so, the paperwork will arrive in the mail. If seeing your company name in a bold header, with your name and title as owner and CEO, doesn’t give you a thrill and make your stomach flutter, maybe you shouldn’t start a business after all. If it does, this will give you a massive emotional and psychological boost. Your RAS will shift gears and start gathering all the information it can to help you succeed, as if it were saying: Hang on a minute. This is real. This is no longer just a crazy idea. Red alert. Time to reconfigure our pathways. Looking for complementary sensory data now!
Continue to support this positive reinforcement in every way you can think of. Make copies of your incorporation papers, and populate your life with them. Keep copies on your desk, next to the bed, in your wallet, in the car, in front of the TV, and just about anywhere you spend time. Create letterhead and business cards with your company name (and a logo; see pages 215–16), and take them with you everywhere you go.
This is essential. Every time you notice these, it will make you think about your business, and each thought will inspire you further and retrain your RAS. The more you do this, the more you rewire your brain to a new way of thinking. The more you rewire the brain, the more attention you place on the company. And what we pay attention to. . .grows.
While you commute to work, as you think about the paperwork in your briefcase, you might start to imagine how your company will be structured, who will manufacture the product, and who the ideal customers will be. Your RAS takes all this on board, and before long your attention will be drawn to billboards, articles, and commercials that you somehow missed before but which now help you continue the process of reacting forward. This launches what feels like a magical process of serendipity, as things fall into place, but it is simply the power of your attention. Your RAS is helping change the 147 bits of data to include your successful company and filtering out the rest. It takes time, but it works. . .always.
Read the paperwork again before going to sleep, and your dreams might help you solve difficult problems, like how to raise finances and what the final product will look like. You might fantasize about the difference your company will make in the lives of others or even what it will feel like to sell the company for millions.
As you sit in yet another mind-numbing work meeting or are doing the laundry, sneak peeks at the incorporation paperwork. Every glance gives you a psychological boost, and every boost increases your level of self-confidence that you can make your company real. Every glance rewires your brain to a new way of thinking, builds momentum, and keeps you on the path to startup success.
The Positive Effects of Reacting Forward
I recently observed firsthand the practical effects when someone reacts forward and when they don’t. During a remodeling job at my home, I was impressed by the quality of the work of the three-person team, but Anne stood out. She was the youngest and newest to the company, but she went the furthest to ensure that I was a satisfied customer. She seemed to be the main source of inspiration for the other two, and she was also the one who had the most innovative solutions to problems.
I asked her if she had ever thought about starting her own company. Her eyes lit up, and she confessed that she was always thinking about it. But just as quickly the light faded in her eyes, as she said she didn’t think she could pursue her dream.
I pushed a little and asked what she had done to try, beyond just having an idea, and Anne reeled off a list of reasons why she had done nothing. She thought she did not have sufficient savings, and the economy was too shaky. She felt she might be too young and inexperienced. She lacked self-confidence, which wasn’t surprising to me given the content of her thoughts. She was stuck in negative expectations, which reinforced themselves, since her RAS obediently identified all the reasons she couldn’t start a company, rather than helping her solve the problem of starting one and taking the next step.
When I suggested that Anne incorporate her business and turn her idea into a real thing, her expression changed to confusion, then fear. This is a common enough reaction. To Anne, this sounded complicated and daunting. I explained it was neither of those things, and
