The Basic Operating System:

I have a computer; it came with Windows already installed. Windows is the operating system. Without an operating system, the computer would be of little use.

What an operating system does is start up the computer, configure it, and direct the basic internal activities of the hardware. It tells the computer how to take in information through its input devices, which include the keyboard, scanner and disk drives. It also tells the hardware how and where to organize, store and act on the information it takes in.

The operating system uses a set of preprogrammed processes that manage and perform pre-arranged functions. It also serves as the platform on which specialized applications programs are created and run. Some of the applications programs I intend to use include desktop publishing, inventory control, statistical assessment, design and accounting.

There isnt anything very special about this computer. It has the same hardware as any other desktop computer and it works on the same operating system. All that differentiates this computer from any other is the applications programs I decide to use.

Between your ears you have the hardware for a chemical/electrical computer. This piece of hardware is basically the same in all of us. This computer has information input devices such as eyes, ears, nose, taste and sense of touch. It has a data storage system we call memory and a central processing unit, which for the sake of this discussion we shall call the subconscious. This computer comes with one pre-programmed piece of software. You were born with it. It is the operating system for your computer. We call it the Basic Operating System (BOS).

The Basic Operating System is pervasive. It runs everything within you from below your level of conscious awareness. It uses your genetic programming and its own complex instruction code to automatically drive, direct, control, monitor and keep in balance all of your natural activities and internal functions. It operates your heart, lungs, heating system and everything else it takes to make you a functioning person. It is the setup software for your computer.

The Basic Operating System sets up your memory hard drive. This is where you accumulate, organize and store information that comes in through your senses. That accumulating information base is what allows you to analyze situations so you can make decisions. Your Basic Operating System also defines the processes you will use to perform functions like decision-making. Those processes are a built-in set of criteria that allow your computer to help you determine what is important and what is unimportant.

As amazing as your mental computer is, there is not anything particularly unique about it compared with other human computers. We all have the same basic hardware and we all have the same Basic Operating System.

What makes you unique are the application programs you choose to create and run. It is your personal choices and the beliefs you have accumulated that make you different from me and everyone else. We each learned to do things a little differently. We have accumulated different information and we have different understandings. That is our uniqueness.

We create similar basic application programs like learning how to walk, talk and tie our shoes. We move on to learn/create other more unique specialized applications programs like how to sell, run a store, be a brain surgeon or become a company president. These personally learned application programs are what make you a unique individual. Your uniqueness, and the level of success you achieve, depends on the skill with which you created the application programs.

Suppose your job was to create application programs for Microsoft. Does it sound reasonable that the more you know about Windows, the operating system and the processes it uses, the easier it would be for you to create an application program? Of course it does. The same thing is true with your chemical computer. The more you know and understand about how your Basic Operating System works, the easier it is for you to create applications programs, and running a business is an application program.

Obviously, if you have the same operating software as everyone else, then the more you know and understand about how your operating system works, the more you will understand how and why your customers do things.

Your Basic Operating System is one of Mother Natures most pervasive and powerful systems, and like many of her more powerful systems, your Basic Operating System is invisible. That is not particularly unusual; in the world of nature, invisible systems abound. Their invisibility does nothing to lessen their power or the effect they have on each of us.

We cannot see the wind, but we recognize the results when the power of Hurricane Andrew blows ashore. We cannot see electricity, but we recognize the effect it has when lightning hits a tree or we throw a light switch. We cannot see magnetism, but we notice the needle on the compass swing to the north. We cannot see gravity, but we recognize its effect when an apple hits us on the head. Mother Natures invisible systems influence our lives on an ongoing basis. They are silent, omnipresent intruders upon which we depend, and while we have some understanding of how they work, we do not fully understand any of them.

Fortunately, through research, observation and testing, we have learned to define some of their fundamental processes. This has allowed us to use their power and properties for the advancement of man and the betterment of our families and ourselves.

Your Basic Operating System is one of the most constant, pervasive and unrecognized of Mother Natures systems. It is the fundamental determinant for everything you do as a human being. It is Mother Natures people system. It is the basis for every business, whether it is the business of a single salesperson or a major conglomerate. It is the underlying structure that directs and controls our social and political organizations. Its anomalies are the primary reason for business failure. It is the cause of wars and recessions and it is the creator of human excellence, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. This discourse is intended to be a description of the systems cause-and-effect influence on your business. The objective is to make business success as predictable and inevitable as business failure always has been.