Throughout her career as an author, speaker and consultant to major corporations and individuals, and now as NAPMA’s Success Coach, Lee Milteer has constantly focused on the single concept that could have the most positive effect on your future: changing your mindset to that of an entrepreneurial thinker.

Much of this two-part, Millionaire Smarts™ Coaching Program interview, with Dr. Gene Landrum, centers on the ideas in his latest book, The Innovative Mind: Stop Thinking, Start Being. One of the major points of his book is that to develop innovative thinking, which is how most successful entrepreneurs think, you must learn how to become a rightbrain learner.

Lee and Dr. Landrum discuss how fixed, left-brain thinking starts in childhood and, subconsciously, becomes how most people think the remainder of their lives. You may have faced this challenge when your family and friends tried to convince you that you should choose a “safe” job, instead of opening a school. They may have even thought your were weird or had lost your mind, but that is Lee and Dr. Landrum’s goal: to “lose” your left-brain tendency and open your mind to the unlimited possibilities, as the operator of one of the most important educational centers in your community.

Lee Milteer: I am deeply appreciative that Dr. Gene Landrum agreed to this interview because many of his ideas can be critically important to modifying your thinking process and providing you with the success tools you need to grow your school.

Now, I want to give you a little bit of a back story, and many of you know I like to give back stories because I think they’re so important.

First, I had the honor to introduce Dr. Gene Landrum at the Renegade Millionaire Retreat a few years ago; and, frankly, he blew my socks off with information that is important to all people who are big thinkers, visionaries, professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs-or want to be. If your personal goal is to grow into one or more of those roles, then his knowledge and wisdom can assist you.

This interview focuses on Dr. Landrum’s newest book, The Innovative Mind, subtitled, Stop Thinking, Start Being.

I just finished reading his book, which is unusual for most interviewers, because they seldom read an author’s book before interviewing him or her. They generally rely on the questions that authors send them. I don’t do that. I read the books and, in advance, because if they’re not full of good information, then, frankly, I pass on them, and don’t pass them to you, either.

If I recommend a book, it’s because I think it has value and information that will move your mind and your success forward.

I received a real adrenaline charge when I read his book; in fact, it is entirely outlined and highlighted with three different colors of markers. I swear to you that this book will stimulate your creativity, and occasionally pat you on the back.

When you try to think out of the box to improve your life and business, others will often accuse you of being weird or different or having a different mindset than the norm-but that’s one of the secrets to success. Dr. Landrum’s book will explain why that is an advantage for you.

I also interviewed Dr. Landrum when two earlier books of his were published, The Superman Syndrome and Paranoia and Power. Those are both great books.

The first book of his I read is Profiles of Power and Success, which presents the story of 14 geniuses who broke the rules. My good friend, Dan Kennedy, and I often joke that anyone who is planning to be married, and is an out-of-the-box thinker, should ask his or her potential spouse to read that book. To ensure domestic bliss, I recommend that all entrepreneurs (or future entrepreneurs) to practice full disclosure with their spouses, so they know how and why the entrepreneurial, creative mindset often results in a bit of “insanity.”In my opinion, Dr. Gene Landrum is one of the best thinkers of our time because his real talent is recognizing genius and revealing how geniuses think, act and succeed. Prepare to take note for a fun-filled, mind-blowing wild ride, with one of my favorite authors, Dr. Gene Landrum.

Lee: Gene, I’m so excited that we can have this discussion. My first question is what motivated you to research and write your new book, The Innovative Mind: Stop Thinking, Start Being?

Gene: As you may or may not know, I didn’t complete my doctoral dissertation on the innovative mind until I was fifty years old, but I did it on the innovative mind. Although I have a Ph.D. and I am a graduate school professor, I also have a practical, on-the-street take, if you will, because I’ve run a number of companies, so pragmatism does prevail.

Part of my practical perspective is that too many people find themselves lost in the trees, which is a result of left-brain thinking, when they must see both the trees and the forest, so they can deal with the trees.

A true story from my university experience illustrates my point. A chairperson of a department at the university where I teach asked me to give her the best paper of one of my students during the last few years. I gave her a paper written by a young lady about Mary Kay Ash, the cosmetic queen. She is famous for promoting her business and herself with the color pink. She dressed in pink, lived in a pink house and gave her top salespeople pink Cadillacs.

Before my student completed her paper, I pushed her to be innovative. She responded by using a pink sheet as the front page of her paper. I thought, “Boy, this student is very creative.” I gave her a better grade for her creative thinking.

Now, the university environment suffers from considerable left-brain thinking, especially the “rules” that must be followed when writing and presenting scholastic papers. Some of the rules of The American Psychological Association, which apply to this story, are very good, such as double-spacing your manuscript, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and footnotes and citations of your sources.

On the other hand, the APA is suddenly godly, when it comes to innovative thinking. It doesn’t allow students and scholars to include photos or art of any kind, or to use color.

The Chinese were right 10,000 years ago, when they coined the phrase, a picture is worth 5,000 words. When you show a one-year-old child a red truck, and say, “This is a red truck,” he or she learns that association as a right-brain function. When they verbalize and say, “red truck” or  “bright red truck,” that’s a left-brain function. The optimum learning experience is to be able to flip flop between the left-brain and right-brain. Albert Einstein and Walt Disney had that ability.

To return to my story, excuse the expression, but I was so pissed at the chairperson of the department. I put the my student’s excellent paper on the chairperson’s desk and she said, without opening it, “I’d flunk her.” I said, “What?!” I almost fell off my chair. I said, “You haven’t even opened it.” She said, “The APA doesn’t permit any color but white.”

Very candidly, nine months later, I quit working for her.

Lee: Good for you. This story is so important for all business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals because they work with people with that mindset: bureaucrats and government officials. You might hire a new staff member that comes from a traditional corporate environment who is “infected” by the mindset.

Gene: That is such a good point, Lee, and I’d like to just add that 88% of the world tends to be very left brained. Many of them will say, “You can’t do that. It’s not in the budget.” An innovative right-brainer might respond, “What if sales could be tripled?” Left-brainers are often lost in the process because it’s safe.

Lee: You use a term in your book to describe those people who can only follow the rules.

Gene: Yes, concrete sequential learners, but I also use some other terms.

Lee: Yes, you did, and some of them weren’t very nice.

Gene: A professor at Stanford University calls it a fixed mindset. In another study, which I cite in my book, it was determined that there are only two types that run businesses in an executive leadership format: adapters and innovators. The innovators would prefer to be different, but adapters must be perfect or they feel bad about themselves.

Where are you on that continuum? It’s okay to be perfect, but you must sometimes permit your brain to look at life’s possibilities and opportunities and be a bit more innovative, which is why I wrote The Innovative Mind.

My experience in having that book published is also a lesson in the innovative mindset. I talked with more than one publisher, including the one that published two of my books. I told him that he might have trouble producing my book because I would insist on breaking the pagination rules of a book. Look at most books and you’ll notice that chapters always begin on the right page.

I said, “I want to violate that form because, after all, the title of the book is The Innovative Mind. I want the left page to be the beginning of every chapter. It would contain just a few words that will be crucial to altering a reader’s mindset, so he or she is more innovative, making him or her great and imminent.

“Then, I want a graphic image, photo or art, that illustrates or communicates the message on the left page. I want readers to open the book to the beginning of any chapter, and see a left-brain message (words) on the left page and a right-brain message (graphics) on the right page.”

As an example, an illustration of the Greek god Prometheus is the right-brain message for the first chapter. A statue of Prometheus overlooks the famous skating rink outside 30 Rock Center in Manhattan.

I used him because the mythological story is that Prometheus defied his boss, Zeus, first among all Greek gods by stealing light and bringing it to humans. The ancient Greeks thought Prometheus was the god that helped them be innovative. By the way, Epimetheus, Prometheus’ twin brother, represented someone lost in the trees. He wouldn’t act, good or bad, unless it was written. The name Prometheus means “foresight,” and Epimetheus means “hindsight.” That’s another good way to compare right-brainers and left-brainers.

Lee: I know we’ve talked about Walt Disney and his brother as a similar comparison.

Gene: Walt Disney was Prometheus and his brother, Roy, was Epimetheus. Walt was the innovator and his brother managed the money. When Walt told him that he would build Disneyland, his brother thought he was nuts and should be committed.

Of course Walt defied his brother and found money to start Disneyland by selling his house in Palm Springs and hawking his insurance company. His brother was even more incredulous when Walt bought the land in Anaheim, and proceeded with his dream.

Lee: Many people have what I call illusionary views of Walt Disney.

Gene: Yes, much of the current adult population watched Uncle Walt on television, as children. He seemed so nice and friendly and especially able to communicate with both adults and children; however, in real life, he was bipolar, obsessive compulsive, an FBI formant, drank a fifth of scotch every day. I’m not trying to be negative, but he had eight nervous breakdowns and tried to commit suicide. Uncle Walt was not normal.

I say that in a positive manner, in the sense that many mothers tell their children at a very young age to be normal, but normal is a synonym for mediocrity. Walt Disney would not be Walt Disney, if he had followed his mother’s advice, which presumably his brother did.

Parents tell their children not to speak to strangers, which is good advice when you’re a child, but when you’re 25 and about to take on the world, you better be ready to talk with strangers because that networking leads to career advancement and entrepreneurial success.

Of course, parents are just trying to protect their children, but I’ve learned through my research that if you hear such advice for just 16 seconds and mom keeps repeating it for years, then it is imprinted on your unconscious mind. As an adult, you may not be aware that your mind is responding with fear or apprehension when you meet others for the first time. Xenophobia, or a fear of the unknown, a fear of the foreign, sets in. Your unconscious mind sees them as strangers, but that isn’t a very productive mindset when you have the opportunity to meet someone new that could provide a career or business-growth opportunity.

I was fortunate. I didn’t have parents. I was raised in a military academy, and I was on my own. No one was imprinting those negative thoughts on my mind. Consequently, you can drop me in a foreign environment, such as Indonesia, tomorrow, and I can make it. I’m not afraid.

Lee: I was lucky, too. My parents thought if there was food on the table and a roof over your head, then they had done their job.

Let’s talk about a topic I really love: learning in reverse. Many of my Millionaire Smarts^TM Coaching Program members have developed that skill, but our NAPMA members probably don’t have much experience with that concept. No doubt, the rest of the world thinks us entrepreneurs are weird because we learn in reverse. Please explain that concept. I think it’s extremely important.

Gene: Occasionally, a student where I teach or someone I meet will ask, “How do you write a book?” I tell him or her to write the last sentence first, and then start the first chapter because now you know your destination.

In my book, I tell the story of Leonardo da Vinci and his relationship with Pope Leo. Leonardo was hired to design and build Leo’s tomb. During one of their frequent meetings, Pope Leo expressed his frustration with da Vinci, calling him lost because he always started at the end.

Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous. He painted The Last Supper with both hands. He always started at the end because if you don’t know where you’re going, then you’ll never reach there.

If you’re running a business, then you better know the end objective. Sure, you know you must create various documents and marketing materials and follow systems that make your operations more efficient and effective, but you should know where you’re going, so you’ll create the materials and follow the systems that will take you to the finish line.

Many people have difficulty with the learning-in-reverse concept because they’ve been so spoon-fed by the school systems and their bosses that you start here and proceed to the next step and then next step, etc. I’ve seen so many people suddenly realize during their mid-40s that they have been following the same path as their parents.

Your parents had the opportunity to chase their dreams. You should be chasing yours. Find your dream and then determine where you want to be in five, 10 or 20 years. Then, do whatever it takes to reach your goal because if you don’t know where you are going, then it doesn’t matter which road you take. They quote me at school, in fact, “Dr. Gene says, ‘When you don’t know where you are headed, jump on any road. It will lead you to nowhere.’”

Lee: Let’s now talk about mental rehearsal and visualizations, the workshop of your mind. I have used this my entire life. Even today, just before our interview started, I closed my eyes and imagined myself turning to the sound engineer in the studio and saying, “That was great! That was fun! That was fantastic!” I imagined the end result of our interview, the outcome that I wanted. Then, when we started, I felt so lighthearted. I felt the fun. I don’t care how I reach that desired end. I just want that end result.

Gene: That is why you have been so successful. In almost a mythological sense, which I wrote about in my book, The Superman Syndrome, you must not be what you are, but become what you want to be. Many studies verify that 95% of our behavior is unconscious; we are so grounded. Sometimes, we are better being unconscious than allow our conscious mind to be driving us 95% of time. I tell my students, “If you have a big problem at work, then go to the beach.

Gene: Taking a walk on the beach or in a park will turn off left side of the brain, which inhibits you from accomplishing goals. Your left-brain will say, “You can’t do that. You can’t reach there.”

Many entrepreneurs and business owners-I have and I’m sure you have-have awakened at three o’clock in the morning with the solution to a challenge. The reason why is that at three o’clock in the morning your left-brain is mostly quiet. It permits the right brain to think, which is the source of our intuition. The intuitive geniuses of the world are able to shut down their left-brains.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, never held a major sales meeting or a conference at the office because people are grounded in policy, structure and the phone. Put yourself in an environment where your right brain can flourish. You can be anything. Stop being structured. Leave the trees.

Lee: That refers to the subtitle of your book, Stop Thinking and Start Being.

Gene:   Right. To use a Superman^TM metaphor, we all have a bit of kryptonite in our brain and that is the enemy. There is much good stuff in our brains, but there is also bad stuff, inhibition that keeps us from being as successful as we could be. We are not always aware of it because it has been trying to keep us safe from a very early age. That is the way to be safe. Let’s be secure. Let’s not do that; it’s dangerous.

Of course, if you don’t take any risks, then you don’t earn any rewards. If you try to be too careful, then you cannot be correct and you cannot be creative. In fact, I mention a Harvard study of five years ago in my new book. Very creative students were compared to average students, wiring their brains to receive feedback. The study found that the creative students had seven times less inhibitions.

Their left-brains weren’t telling them, “Be careful. Don’t talk to strangers. That isn’t the safe way to act.” An example of this is the recent downturn of the stock market; investors are selling everything. Why? Because people are afraid! “I’ll buy gold instead. The country is going down the tubes.” The pendulum never seems swings to the middle. It always swings to far to the other side.

Lee: Exactly. If someone’s investments have been too conservative, then his or her pendulum tends to swing. The next big investment is some wild, crazy, insane choice that won’t work.

Gene: Yes, he or she follows a totally different tangent. It is highly predictable.

Lee: In your new book, you write about innovation as creative destruction. Although many entrepreneurs and business owners are suffering from the troubled economy, and the media only wants to focus on the negative, there are opportunities for all of us. When we experience bad economic times, we are also receiving permission to break all of the rules, to leap to a brand new level of success and money.

Gene: I had one of those periods in my life, and I didn’t know it until much later. At the time, it almost destroyed me. What doesn’t destroy you permits you to stop being lost in what everyone says that you must do.

The textbook definition of innovation is creative destruction. For example, if you own a house on a lot where you want a new house, then you must be willing to destroy the current house. As I write in the book, paranoia or fear or change are like little creatures in your head, trying to keep you safe. Take control and find those little creatures and write over them. In attempting to protect us, they inhibit us from being innovative. Walt Disney is another good example. He had his first of eight breakdowns when various New York distributors stole his first cartoon character, Oswald. He was out of business, until he returned to California and drew Mickey Mouse for the first time.

Mickey would have never been created had he not reached the bottom. When you are at the bottom, you have very few constraints.

The opening chapter of the legend of Elvis Presley is very similar. At 19, he went to Sun Studios and recorded his first song. While Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Studios and Records, was sitting in the control room trying to determine if what Elvis had just recorded would every sell, Elvis and the other two musicians started playing the old song, That’s All Right Mama. Elvis was inspired by his love for his mother and was playing without the pressure of recording.

When Sam Phillips heard what he is playing and singing, he ran into the studio and told Elvis that what he was doing was different, innovative and that they should record it, immediately. Elvis was no longer lost among the trees of the structured recording process. That one moment created his success.

A great majority of humans are afraid to work, create, outside the structure of their professions, jobs and lives. They are happier living among the trees.

Our culture seems to make everything available seven days a week, twenty-four hours per day. People who once rested on the weekend now use that time for many activities and chores. Our lives seem to contain endless work. All of us must become conscious of the scope of damage that this stressful, materialist cycle has on our peace of mind, happiness, health, communities and our spiritual connection. Is this living in integrity with our values? Are you a human being or a human doing?

Create a retreat for a day or week from time to time to do whatever gives your soul some relaxation and recreation. If you want to avoid non-resourceful states of mind, then take time to be still and listen to your inner self. A retreat will allow you to heal from the insanely busy world and return to nature and to who you really are. When you take time to listen to the inner part of your God Source (that part of you that centers you and gives your peace of mind), you will find that most of your problems will be resolved more easily and you are less likely to operate from a crisis state of mind.

I finally convinced one of my coaching clients that he didn’t have to work so much to be productive. He said that when he stopped working on Sundays, his clarity, enthusiasm for life, and ability to be of service to his customers began to improve. Plus, he became a better father and husband because of increased compassion and patience. He was also able to create new ways to increase his business profits. His stress level decreased and he was sincerely a happier person who was not obsessed with small mistakes. Further, by scheduling time for family and rest, he was motivated to expand his business. He found that he was more productive because he took a break from the daily obligations of being a boss and business owner.

Before he passed away, my father told me that his biggest regret in life was that he did not spend enough time with his children. The bottom line: If you are not scheduling at least one day of rest and fun, then the world will not give it to you. You must declare independence from the constant, draining cycles of work. Take the time to connect to your inner source and KID and give yourself permission to have a life and more fun. According to the old saying, no one says on his or her deathbed, I wish I had worked more! Most people always want to spend more time with loved ones, worry less, and enjoy and appreciate the good life.

I have learned from my father’s regret. I now take one day a week just for me, my family and my spiritual work. I don’t look at e-mails, answer the phone or do mundane chores. I spend time with my loved ones, walk in nature, meditate, pray, write in my journal and greatly appreciate my blessings. I take this quiet time to envision my future and write goals that I want to achieve in my life. This day brings me back to a centered feeling that assists me with the demands of the modern world. I return to work feeling rested, with a sense of calmness that supports me all week long. Trust me, I need this day to let my brain rest from my many simultaneous projects. I rest from the relentless need to create ideas that drive all entrepreneurs. When your brain does not rest from your business life, you become grumpy, unhappy and difficult, and cause problems in your personal life. Please allow this column to be your wake-up call that you must schedule rest and fun during your busy life, before it’s too late!

I suggest that you try an experiment for three weeks. Keep in mind that it only takes 21 days to create a habit. Choose one day of the week just for you and your family. Use this day to focus on your needs and wants. Stop thinking about work, but when you do, write the thought on a piece of paper and put it in a place where you can find it the next day, so you can give yourself permission to let that thought wait until you’ve returned to work. Give your brain a rest from all the demands of your business. Make sure that your family and loved ones know that they are important to you. Do something that fills your soul with the joy you deserve. There are no other rules. Create the day to suit you. Allow the kid inside you to have fun and play! Experience a FEEL GOOD sensation one day a week. Life seems to move much too fast. Please take the time to rejuvenate yourself.