"In"treprenurship - Your are in charge of your work life!

We’re talking about “Intrepreneurship for Everyone” (taking charge of your life) from Eric Butterworth’s book, “…PosiTrends or Negatrends?” (DPWTMPN) in this blog and comparing it against his most well known book, “Discover the Power Within You” (DTPWY).


EB believes that “Change is avalanching on our heads, and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it” this quote comes from Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock. (p. 14) EB says that the remedy to this ill preparedness is to remember that “Life is lived from within out.” (p. 16) Looking outside of ourselves leads to a “resigned expectancy” that life will continue to be “…more of the same” that we have experienced in the past. (p. 16) He continues with his prescription telling us that we need to have the consciousness that sees the coming period, whether it is a year, a decade, or a century, as an opening filled with potential.

EB’s description of what is happening in our economy and our businesses paints a dismal picture. He pictures the common worker pushed out of the position that was traditionally held by that worker for a long time, possibly the person’s entire working life. EB believes this is a natural turn of events created by the mechanization and expanded technology. He states that a “prominent economist” [he never says who this is] believes the 21st century will see less than half of the workers with the jobs that offer a future with health and retirement benefits.

This is where the EB we all know coins a word. Instead of “work ethic”, a term often associated with a good employee, EB suggests we adopt a “worth ethic”; meaning that the focus of our job needs to be self-esteem. It is EB’s position that commonly our jobs detract from our self-esteem. He believes we see our jobs as a necessity for survival and therefore there is little joy in work lives. He refers to the story of the Garden of Eden where God curses Adam and Eve to perform hard work in order to survive.

I loved the reference EB makes to the Greeks and their distaste for work. Stating that the Greek word for labor is ponos, which refers to the Greek god of sorrow, EB blames the poor attitude of most people on the Industrial Revolution. He believes, “The Industrial Revolution shifted human values to the measurement of life in material and pecuniary terms…the job is a social artifact created by the Industrial Revolution to package the work that needed to be done in the emerging factories” (p. 18) EB puts the blames squarely on the shift of the factories from using people to using computers and systems of robotics. “Jobs discourage accountability” EB says because people are rewarded for doing a job rather than for performing the job well. (p. 19)

EB creates the word “intrepreneur” which means “…persons who are imaginatively seeking to redesign their attitudes toward work, effectively altering their work without changing their jobs.” This looks like basic Unity philosophy to me, what you think creates your experience and therefore your world. This intrepreneurship is the key according to EB! Using this attitude, you never look at your job or your employer as the source of your security. You know the source of everything, your security, your income, your happiness, your health, likes within you because you work for God. The company for which you work is a channel of the abundance that God showers indiscriminately. There is cause for gratitude to your company for the opportunity to work and for the flow of compensation through it.

Another aspect of intrepreneurship is the accepting view of change and doing what is necessary to prepare for it. EB offers an affirmation to help shift your consciousness, “I do not resist change, but I adapt myself to the law of ‘All things work together for my good.’” (p. 22) EB is clear that change is a good thing and that a change in job from time to time is healthy. He recommends a change every ten years. Seeing a job as a “…way to learn a living” is what EB believes is crucial to this new attitude. Blooming, growing, unfolding are all things EB encourages you to do in your job. Success is never being defeated even though defeat may happen to you.

God is your employer. Accept change and prepare for it. Seek out ways to make what you do for employment joyful, empowering, growth inducing, and open to change. This is the message of DPWTMPN. Let us see what EB says in his former work DTPWY.

The concepts used in this chapter make up his former work, DTPWY. Every chapter in his earlier work refers to the precepts right thinking and attitude, the source of your power is within you, adapting is healthy,

What I love about EB is that he makes personal responsibility the foundation of everything he says. Although in DTPWY he proof texts a lot, in other words he makes use of scripture as the foundation for his ideas even if they do not match exactly. EB does not specifically focus on your work life in DTPWY. He does talk about the same ideas and attitudes is his chapters entitled, “The Amazing Be Attitudes”, “Your Thought is Your Life”, “The Law of Compensation”, “The Great Demonstration”.

The thrust of what EB believes and expresses in both books is basic Unity: what you think manifests in your life, to change your life circumstances, change what you think. A part of me is comforted thinking that if I just correctly do what EB says, everything will be fine. This puts responsibility for ensuring that my thinking is always on task. I am human, however, and sometimes I miss the mark, other times regardless of whether I have done everything correctly or not, things just do not work out. EB gives a response to this as well; he says the variable is time. As with all things, time changes everything, Great wisdom EB!

Comparing two of Eric Butterworth's works

Hi folks!

I have found something that will be an adventure into the thoughts of Eric Butterworth (EB). In class, we have finished with most of EB’s book “Discover the Power Within You” (DTPWY). He wrote this book in 1968. I am giving a presentation to the class on his 1998 book “Dealing Positively with the Third Millennium PosiTrends or Negitrends?”(DPTMPN) As I prepare, it occurred to me that there could be change in the ideas that Butterworth writes in this book. I am interested in seeing how his ideas may have changed in the intervening thirty years.


I am going to use the chapters from the latest book DPTMPN as the subjects of my inquiry. They seem to deal with most of the topics addressed in his earlier work. Here is how we will proceed:

1) “The Ground of Being”;

2) “Intrepreneurship for Everyone” (taking charge of your life);

3) “Managing Your Own Health Care”;

4) “The Relationship Revolution” (managing your relationships);

5) “Dealing with Stress”;

6) “The Toxic Effect of Words”;

7) “The Word is Integrity”;

8) “A Heritage of Gentleness”

9) “Victory over Excessive Dependencies”;

10) “Entirement in the Golden Age” (seeing yourself as your own employer)

11) “Quo Vadis?” (What is next?)

Since this is an adventure, I am not sure what I will find. EB may not have addressed some of these topics in DTPWY. He may discuss topics in that work he did not mention in DPTMPN. Some things will most probably be lumped together. We will see.

Please feel free to ask questions. If you are following along in the books, please join in the adventure. Point to what you find interesting within each topic. I welcome discussion.

In “Ground of Being” EB speaks about a negative trend that is the common practice of separating our intellect from our religion. He says we compartmentalize them. In holding them separate, he believes we give up our source of creativity, our power; that we practice a religion where God is separate from us. We have made God out there in our image. This God is vengeful, jealous, and capricious requiring that we beg for God’s intervention and help. How can we blossom with a deity that is jealous of our success? We can never presume to be greater than our God is!

EB posits the idea that we can never reach our full potential until we find and have a positive relationship with God. We must confront all of our constructs about God in order to expand our consciousness to the point where we experience ourselves as expressions of God. We then know our place in that allness. Once we ground ourselves in the experience of our oneness with all that is we recognize that we are in fact in the flow of creativity, intelligence and life.

From EB’s perspective, it is critical that we come to an awareness of and accept our oneness with God. Being a wave in an ocean is the description he uses to relate how each person is in the expansiveness of God. He declares that until we have this awareness of ourselves as expressions of God, our God will never be enough to quell all our doubts in God’s power when tragedy happens.

The last area EB addresses in this chapter of DPTMPN is prayer. He mentions Jesus’ prayer practice here as the foundation of prayer that works. EB is adamant that God is principle and like mathematical principle, cannot be changed by our words or pleas. The purpose of prayer according to EB is to “know the Truth” and declare it for our own awareness. (p. 11) We then use our knowledge of the Truth to solve or dissolve our own problems.

So how do these ideas compare with what EB said in DTPWY? The first thing I noticed about the two books is that in his first work EB relies heavily on scripture to support his statements. In his second work, EB mentions Jesus and scripture, although he does not found his statements upon them.

In this book, EB sets the stage for the idea of power emanating from within each person as expressions of God as principle. He describes this idea as the “Great Discovery” of Jesus and gives a wonderful story of how Jesus may have experienced his awakening as a boy. (p. 14) EB continues by talking about Unity as the religion of Jesus as opposed to all other religions that are the religions about Jesus. He talks about Jesus’ “unique concept of God” as all there is, in us, around us, and the law by which we live. (p. 27) EB has carried all of these beliefs into his later work and expanded upon them based upon his experiences over the interim.

Near the famous EB statement, “But I want someone with skin on” is where he discusses how the common practice is to create God in our image. (p. 29) EB says our practice of anthropomorphizing God encourages the error thinking that we are separate from God. He declares, “You do not have to look ‘out there’ to find the Life Principle.” (p. 33) EB quotes Paul Tillich who referred to God as the “Ground of our very being.” (p. 32) I can detect no shift in belief, all of these ideas relate to his later work.

EB treats prayer in a very straightforward manner. He talks about the different ways prayer is commonly used. Then he says that Jesus outlined a specific prayer idea that was to gain unity with God. “Prayer is not something we do to God but to ourselves.” (p. 106) EB believes that when we direct our thoughts away from finite form we are following Jesus’ example of prayer. We then understand that prayer is to help us shift our thinking to be in alignment with Life Principle, God. When we pray we open our lives to the good that has always been present, we allow it to manifest. EB is right on target with these ideas about prayer in DPTMPN.

Well, that is it for this week. I look forward to reading your comments.

Hi folks, Feeling a bit under the weather today, although the winds outside are certainly whippinig around wildly.
Eric Butterworth (EB) says that we should not be upset when we hear accounts that "God is dead" because we must look to our own understanding of God. What people say is just their opinion. When it comes to a relationship with God that is an individual matter which can only be resolved by the person looking for their own answer. That answer can be within or anywhere the person feels led. The key is that the person must choose their perspective and not rely totally upon the ideas of others, even if the others are EB!