Why: Pirate problems… even if more effort, failure to level-up

What: Epiphany: you cannot change things without changing yourself

Example: Baby to Adult, many things change, not just actions.

How: Not on the level of doing, but on the level of being. Who are you?

What-if: Picking a different role, image… can bring the level-up, without actually doing anything.

What would be the result if you would transform yourself?

Why: The difficulty with transformation is that you don’t know who you are going to be. Lack of vision causes resistance or lack of pull

or it is different, Eg. adult…

or it is completely different, eg. butterfly metamorphosis. How can you possibly know in advance? How can you trust in future abilities (flying)?

What: If the identity of being pirate is the problem, what other role is necessary?

Some have it easy, those that don’t identify strongly.

Some have it really hard: Identification with the struggle. They need pain before they can change.

How:

1. Have a vision of the result, Patron
2. Know the before
3. Know the after

What-if: What if you are not sure if this is possible, able, permission? Try it out, you can always go back. Option. More choice.

How To Become A Patron?

Why: Sometimes backwards: having a vision is the key, nothing else necessary. Eg when I saw a painter…

Sometimes forwards: the action is necessary, gradually, remember the butterfly.

What: Attack it from several angles: vision, beliefs, other people, action.

How:

1. Learn, do the training: what are beliefs, mindsets?
2. Be around Patrons
3. Act as a Patron. Act as-if. Fake it until you make it.

What-if: Fall-back? That’s ok, eg childish adult. It keeps mobility between role. Even Patron is only a role, never your whole being, because your whole being is beyond roles.

What is a Score Card?

Why: A scorecard allows us to find out where we are standing. If we try to reach a goal, we may be close to the goal or far off the goal. Often we may have a vage idea, but more often than not it is complicated and we lack clarity. Without clarity, without feedback, without measurable results it is difficult to know which steps to take next. It is easy to get overwhelmed or lose the right path. This is where a score card comes in.

What: A scorecard is a table that contains 7 important success-factors, one column for one factor, and 5 stages of success for each success factor, one stage per line.

How: There are several ways to measure the stage we are in for each success factor. One way is to simply look at a scorecard and mark the stages that we think fit best. The more easy, precise and playful was is to answer a few quiz questions. This does not take longer than 3-5 minutes and at the end the quiz will output the score and ideally provide a filled-in scorecard with your personal results.

What-if: You may be surprised to learn where you are at in your journey. But even more importantly, the clarity of a scorecard will show you the next step and it will motivate you to get into action, because for each success factor you see the stages that are still in front of you.

Why should you use a Piracy score card?

Why: Do you already have all the standards you need? If you don’t, then you may wonder what else you could do to get them. Chances are, you have tried one or two or three ways, but with varying degrees of success.

Using a piracy score card gives you a quick overview over the most relevant success factors as a pirate or patron (aka expert or buyer) and and it shows you exactly the stage where you are at. You may be surprised to learn what more you can do next.

What: The 7 success factors of the treasure score card are 1, 2, 3, 4… Each one is split into 5 distinct phases.

How: Click here and answer a few simple questions. At the end you will receive your personal pirate score.

What-if: Read through the quiz-result to better understand what your pirate score means. Once you have understood where you are at, you can follow the missing steps to obtain your treasure.

Why: knowing the mistake means finding treasures. Not knowing means not finding treasure and busy-work.

What: The biggest mistake is not knowing what a treasure is. Most believe that a stack was a treasure. But thats silly, because (pirate principles).

How: How to avoid the mistake? But a treasure must be legal… (treasure principles).

What-if: its inevitable

What is the second biggest mistake Pirates make?

Why: not knowing this mistake means missing an opportunity.

What: The second biggest mistake is believing treasures are only for pirates. win-lose. The org has to lose so the pirate can win.

But the truth is, both sides have the same goal, the same treasure

in fact, everybody has this goal. We all are pirates insofar as we want to uncover treasures.

This frees us from scarcity, win-lose,

sharing instead of stealing

abundance instead of scarcity

We can create treasures. It’s our purpose to do this. I decided to create the standards treasure. For us.

How:

1. treasure already exists
2. giving instead of taking
3. the more it is shared, the more valuable it becomes

What if: I would prove the idea by creating it. All that was missing was the idea of tripling the treasure

How Can We Triple A Standard Treasure?

Why: Realizing that we have a treasure, have the power to create and share treasures is the precondition. But it is still abstract. A vision. But without tripling it remains abstract and not usable.

What: Making visions concrete… for this we have three brains. What works must satisfize all three areas.

3 brains

How: for mind: mindsets.

For emotion: addiction

For physical: voucher

For spiritual: principles

Aristoteles: in order to have a vase for the grave, we need the idea, the creation, the material…

Together, triple the treasure

what would not work is physical gift without emotional (addiction) fix or emotional fix without mental mindsets or mindsets without physical tools or wrong purpose (harming orgs or harming pirates).

What-if:

They are packaged up in a training, which is available here.

Piracy is similar to printing money: What is the consequence of printing money? Even though printing of a lot of new money does not physically diminish the individual money bills, at one point inflation kicks in and reduces the value of money. Then the price goes up and the value of money goes down. In other words, inflation does not harm the individual dollar bill, but it harms the value of money.

Just like money is being devalued through excess money supply (inflation), widely available free copies of standards can diminish the price value of the standard. Because the incentive to buy a standard would drop if the standard was available for free everywhere.

Inflating money harms those that hold money. Inflating standards harms those that create or sell standards. Therefore piracy is not OK, even if it does not diminish the original standard document.

Fun:

We think that there’s no downside to “free.”

– Dan Ariely

This explains why people LOVE things that are for FREE.

Free money! Free standards! Free downloads!

However, he also reveals that loving free so much is not a rational choice, but rather because an irrational delusion.

Free seems so attractive, because we overlook the downsides.

Yes, free means that there is no visible upfront cost to it. After all, the price is zero. So we don’t need to pull out the wallet and make a payment to get access to whatever we want to have.

But the invoice comes later. The wake-up call comes with a delay. The invisible cost appear after the first rush of excitement has subsided.

Ariely claims that “Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! we forget the downside. FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is.”

Pirates are especially prone to falling for the Zero-Price Effect.

Now, being a pirate or not, what can we do to avoid falling victim to the Zero-Price Effect? After all, we are better off if we are not affected by delusions, right?

One answer would be to keep in mind what the dowsides are.

• Hidden cost
• Hidden risk
• Opportunity cost

What exactly are hidden cost, hidden risk and opportunity cost of piracy?

Read this post to learn more about hidden cost.

Click here to explore the hidden risk of piracy.

Check out this post to learn more about opportunity cost that pirates pay, even if they get things “for free”.

Please don’t get me wrong.

When you are reading this post, chances are you are human. And being a human means to have flaws and imperfections. Those make you relatable. They make you… well… human. So don’t be discouraged to learn that you have been falling for some psychological effect that some famous guy has written a book about. This is not to make you feel bad about yourself.

The point of this post is to make you aware and to invite you to reflect on something that affects you, triggers you and manipulates you. Even if you have fallen for it in the past, so what. It’s not your fault.

But use it as an opportunity to improve yourself.

Do it when it is the right time for you. Do it when you are ready for it. Good luck!

Why: Because they are rare. But more importantly, because people use only part of their capacity.

What: Many do the same over and over and expect different results.

How: Some try the opposite. This seems clever, but is not enough either.

What-if: What if a treasure has 6 locks? Then you need more than just one key. What if it is not an action or a mindset.

What are the 6 keys to transform yourself?

Why: You are not the first to study transformation. Many have asked mentors. But even mentors rarely know how. In fact, most are specialized one one key. Eg teachers, coaches… But who knows all keys?

What: Dilts. The trainers trainer. Dilts Levels

My story trying to create a treasure failed because I focused on a 3 keys only.

Here they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

How: How to use them?

1. which ones do you master
2. which ones do you lack?
3. Shift to the one you lack.

What-if: what if it’s too hard? Start with what you can start with. Eg talking in front of camera. So I bought the environment.

True. Piracy is not theft.

But this does not make it OK to pirate.

Why does this argument not justify piracy?

Because fraud is not theft eighter.

And robbery is not theft eighter.

But this does not mean that any of them ar OK.

Because theft, fraud or robbery, they all have one thing in common. They are an offense.

They are just different types of offense.

And all of them are equally illegal.

Which means that they are not OK.

The real question is…

Do you want to harm?

Or do you want to support?

If you support the creators you do not need to use bogus justifications any more. You can be proud of your contribution and you can enjoy benefits pirates will never experience.

Congratulations if you choose this path!

Start here.

How did I do it?

I embraced the one TRUTH that hardly anyone knows or will tell you about. It’s gonna blow your mind. Here it is:

The best stash of pirated standards in the world – is NO stash of pirated standards.

In fact, even if you would offer me the biggest pirate stash in the world for free right now, I would not touch it. Absolutely not.

Now, that may come as a total shock to you. There is a place and time where most of us have been dreaming of a standard stash, and I am not blaming you for it. I get it. It happened to me. It happened to the best of us. Maybe it happened to you too.
But I have obtained MY standards before I EVER found a pirate stash, or EVER met a pirate who had found one.

I am going to share why. But before I must warn you. Your lack of success is based on a lie.

Did you notice that pirates unconsciously accept the 4 core conditions of piracy? I call them “pirate principles”. They are

1. Misalignment
2. Illegality
3. Incongruence
4. Cheapness

For years, hardcore pirates had been telling me: If you engage in piracy – and therefore, accept the pirate principles – you will eventually find a stash. This will be your treasure. But thats a lie!

And it’s even worse. As long as we follow pirate principles it’s IMPOSSIBLE that we ever find a true treasure.

In fact, using pirate principles means failure is inevitable. A pirate stash can never be a true treasure!

Think about it. Something that requires us to…

1. damage parts of the standards community and
2. break the law,
3. Ignore feelings that want us to be congruent with our deepest values,
4. Aime for cheapness instead of value

… something like that cannot be a true treasure.

Something that has so many downsides and weaknesses can only be a fake treasure.

When I understood this for the first time, that’s when I realized my failure wasn’t my fault and I was finally able to break out and get the results I deserved.

If you ask me who is really to blame for this, it’s the hardcore pirates…

You know, those that make it part of their identity to fight standardization organizations.

Those that suffer from helper syndrome. Rather than helping, they make others dependent on them.

Those that treat others like victims, because then they can wallow in their heroic identity.

Those that have given up having high standards and who have forgotten how to dream big. “They’ve lost their way.”

I am angry at them, because they are the ones keeping me and you from getting what we deserve.

There is a better way to get the job done. And its amazingly fast.

Here is the trick: Instead of following pirate principles, patrons follow polar opposites. They call these principles Treasure Principles.

Here are the 4 treasure principles:

1. Alignment
2. Legality
3. Congruence
4. Value

This is the secret:

Just as pirate principles prevent us from EVER finding the treasure, Treasure principles not just make it POSSIBLE that we find our treasure. They make it INEVITABLE.”

Some identify as expert, some as buyer, some as accidental pirate, some as hoarding pirate etc. But all variations circle around the same polarity. It is either a pirate or non-pirate. Shadow or non-shadow. But very few people ask the essential question. What is the other polarity? It is like saying, I am darkness or I am not darkness. But what is on the other side of the spectrum? What is light? Very few are able to name the light. Few can identify what the identity of the bright side could be. If we know that something is a problem, knowing that we don’t identify with the problem is a great first step. But to find a solution we must go further. We must be able to point to the other polarity and eventually, as the last step, we must transcend both polarities to find unity on a higher level.

What is the opposite of a pirate?

Or put in another way, if we don’t want to be pirates, what else could we be?

If we know that being a pirate has negative consequences, then what better identity could we choose from that would lead to positive consequences?

I have spent years searching for the right name for a better identity. I suggest that the polar opposite of a pirate is a patron.

Patron may not be the perfect word, but it it has a good ring to it. Listen to both names: Pirate and Patron, can you hear the similarity? Can you hear that both lie on the same achsis, even though they are distinct from each other, like polar opposites? Even more important than the formal match of both identities is the match in content.

Let me introduce you to the treasure patron manifesto:

Here is the definition of a patron:

Here is how Merriam-Webster defines a patron:

Can you see how a Patron is the polar opposite of a pirate? Can you see how a pirate is like a shadow of a patron?

Think about it:

Scarcity vs. Abundance

A pirate is based on scarcity. He does not have enough. He needs to take from others in order to make up for his lack of resources.

On the other hand, a patron is based in abundance. He has more than enough. He has so much that he can guard, protect, support and sponsor others that create.

Giving vs. Taking

If a pirate gives, he gives what he does not own and which was not offered to him.

On the other hand, if a patron gives, he acquires in fairness. He gives money (he buys) in exchange for goods and services offered.

Occupying vs. Owning

A pirate does not own or manage an establishment. He sabotages or occupies establishments.

On the other hand, a patron owns a treasure. He is able to multiply treasures.

How: How can you become a patron?

Many people stay trapped in a problem, because they think that analyzing the problem is the solution. But this is a mistake. While analyzing the problem is helpful, there is a point where we have to let go of the problem and when we must explore the solution space.

As Einstein once said: “We cannot solve a problem on the same level that created the problem.”

Here is what you can do.

Step 1: Explore the solution space

I suggest that having a vision of the solution space is an important first step to improve things. In other words, explore what it means to be a patron, rather than a pirate.

By learning about what a patron is we can open up our thinking for new opportunities.

Step 2: Understand that you have a choice.

It is important to understand that you have a choice to be who you want to be. You have a choice to be a pirate. But you also have a choice to be a patron. It is entirely up to you. Identifying with one or the other is not a fact of reality. It is a choice you can make consciously.

Please understand that this is not a matter of doing. Choosing an identity is more fundamental than doing something. It affects the essence of who we are. It affects the core of where we want to be in relation to other people, in relation to society, in relation to our destiny. It affects our core. So don’t underestimate the importance of choosing your identity.

Step 3: Double down on the new direction

Once you made a choice to be a pirate or a patron everything will change. Maybe it takes time until the result manifests in physical reality. Good things take time, right? But things WILL change. Once you made a choice to be a patron, your actions will inevitably change. Your relationships will change. Your outlook on life, work and everything will change. All this will inevitably change your path and your results.

I am not suggesting that being a patron is necessarily an easier path than being a pirate. But being a patron is definitely much more fulfilling an joyful than being a pirate.

I believe that being a pirate is like investing in something that charges negative interest rates. Collapse is inevitable. But being a patron is like investing in something that pays positive interest. It may take some time, but eventually the profits will compound and pay off handsomly.

What if you would be a patron, just for one week?

What do you feel when you imagine yourself as patron? Does it feel strange? Does it put you out of your comfort zone? Or can you relate to it? Can you even feel familiar with it? Can you envision the spaciousness and potential it entails?

Whatever your personal associations may be, I invite you to play with your identity. What do you really want to be? What identity is aligned with your highest values? What if you simply try out the patron identity? Just try it out like a jumper in a cloths shop. You don’t have to decide right away if you want to buy it or not. You can still give it back, if it does not suit you.

But I encourage you to try on the patron identity for a while before you make a decision. Try it out, just for a week. Its FREE! You have nothing to lose. And if you like it, just keep it.

If this is too serious for you, have some fun:

Sidekick – Treasure Patron Manifesto
A) Did you see the Treasure Patron Manifesto? – sounds interesting, what is it?
B) A treasure patron does not abuse creators and never sees himself as victim. – Great! I love it
C) He heals addictions and gives sustainable support – wow. I definitely want to be a treasure patron.
D) A treasure patron does not pirate standards – What? Sorry, I’d rather be a pirate.

This is like saying, I cannot afford to board a plane and fly to Hawaii, because I don’t have the money. Therefore it is OK to hijack the plane and force the pilot to fly me to Hawaii for free.

A lack of resources?

Not being able to afford something indicates that we perceive a lack of resources.

But is this really true?

What if the problem is not our lack of resources, but the lack of value that we create from what we want? What if we just need to learn how to create more value with what we have?

For example, if we use standards to create more value we can generate more money, which in turn makes us more resourceful, so that standards become affordable.

Reducing cost

One way to make investments affordable is to reduce their cost.

Sure, piracy reduces cost. At least the upfront cost. But it also creates hidden cost and opportunity cost that are easily overlooked – and can become costly.

Standard organizations offer discounts, corporate accounts and subscriptions that reduce cost under certain conditions. Plus buying standards avoids the hidden cost and opportunity cost that come along with piracy. And buying a valid licence offers more value.

Can you really afford piracy?

Note that piracy has a number of hidden cost and risks, that can be even more expensive to bear than the purchase price of a standard. Can you afford to take those hidden cost and risks? Can you afford to miss out on the benefits of a purchase which are entirely unavailable to pirates?

Patrons come to the conclusion that they can afford to buy a standard if they really need it, but they cannot afford to engage in piracy, considering the second order consequences.

The ideal is to buy a standard as an investment and to create so much value from it that it pays for the purchase.

Do you want to try?