WHAT ISN’T THERE

Writes Matt, "...CAN OFTEN TRUMP WHAT IS". Quote:

 

I love optical illusions. Here’s why: The white circles that you see in the rather incomplete grid below don’t really exist. Neither do the white diagonal lines you see connecting them. Yet what isn’t really there is the most interesting part of the image.

The reason it’s so interesting isn’t just that you see the white circles and diagonals, it’s that ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ does. And even if I tell you to focus only on the drawn lines and completely ignore the space between them, your brain will override the order. So will everyone else’s.

 

Here is why I bought this book (got a free copy, too), enjoy it, share parts of it:

 

I decided to live in Japan

after just two months here because I spoke no Japanese. That's right. The missing language capability enabled me to see and hear different, make my life-changing decision. Unable to follow the words, I got my guidance from other cultural clues. And it was Matt who helped me realize it was subtraction that made it work.

 

Nothing but sight and sound

traveled near light speed between us, in this virtual meeting via computer screen across the Pacific in 2011 December. Sight and sound is what it takes to build trust enough to do business or to exchange personal stories. Very few commercial transactions need touch or smell, these stay local. All others may hop on the internet to span time zones as if we had been using video phones for a century already.

 

Matt found my big why

After a while of my mulling views and experience with subtraction, really getting nowhere in our pleasant conversation, Matt asked me how I ended up in Japan. I told him and he lighted up, pointing out to me that what was not there (my ability to understand Japanese) enabled me to make this decision. Yes, had not seen it that way, but realized that was it. He had found his story, and I am proud to announce he put mine on page 25 in the first edition of The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything. Honored to share the space, right next to a best-bought author: Chip Conley. Guess you can tell, I am not into calling an author "best-selling". Subtracted that from my vocabulary, because rarely does an author sell to me. Matt subtracted his own authorship from about 1/3 of his book to share subtraction experience of 50 others.

So, how did I decide to live in Japan?

That isn't here, it is in the book. If you mail me nicely, I am willing to send you that page with my story.

 

Thank you, Matthew E. May, for being my writer.