People have been thinking for thousands of years. Why do we suddenly need a book to tell us how to think?

People have been running, too, for thousands of years. But if you want to be in the Olympics, it’s generally a good idea to get a coach.

Most of us can think really well about one or two parts of a problem at any given moment. The challenge is that most problems are more complicated than that, and what might seem like a good solution at first can end up spawning all kinds of other problems we didn’t expect. Brilliant thinking is meant to take our good thinking abilities and use them to completely think through really complex problems — so we can come up with creations and solutions that we’ll be happy about not only today but five years from now.

My work is to help people think. My clients write books, create innovative solutions, develop brilliant breakthroughs, and endeavor to make the world a better place.

During the last twenty years of working with business leaders to build their personal reputations, and to enhance the profile of their organizations, I created a system for developing intellectual property – ideas.

Not long ago a number of my clients turned the tables on me and suggested I take a little of my own medicine and organize my methodology. I eventually distilled my process down to eleven essential steps. I wrote a draft outline and circulated it among many of my clients, asking if it captured what they had found valuable. With their comments and further refinement, that system is what you now hold in your hands. I call it the Endleofon (END-leo-fahn), an old English word for “eleven.”

Do you get a knot in your stomach when you sit down to pay the bills each month?  Wake up in the middle of the night wondering how you’re ever going to get out of debt?  Get a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness when you read headlines about the housing crisis, oil prices, soaring health care costs, inflation, recession and unemployment?

If you’re feeling worried and anxious about money, you’re not alone.  For millions of people, financial stress is eating away at their basic sense of security and well-being.  And it’s not just bank accounts that are being drained, but also physical and emotional resources, which in turn impact health, relationships, productivity and happiness.

It is easy to fall into the trap of busyness – constantly going from one thing to another – from demands at home to demands at work to emails to exercise to relationships – with no time for stopping, reflecting, or recharging.  We can become like a carpenter who doesn’t have the time to stop and sharpen his or her tools.  As a result, the tools become dull; more and more effort is required; less and less is accomplished. We think we must move faster, work harder.  It’s a vicious circle.