The dictionary definition of irrefutable is;
“ Impossible to refute or disprove, incontrovertible, as in irrefutable arguments, irrefutable evidence of guilt “
When we identify a part of The Power Time System as an Irrefutable, we mean just that. The purpose of denoting a part of the PTS an Irrefutable is to point out that this particular part of the System is crucially important to you and to your success using and implementing the System. It’s like us waving a red flag and saying come over here and look at this particular sentence.
If you do nothing else, go through the PTS and pick out just the Irrefutables, and use just those tools.
What Are They
If I asked you to teach me something that you were good at, what would it be? Let’s say you were a baker and you were going to teach me how to bake your favorite recipe, an apple pie. You start off by saying you need some apples. Apples are an Irrefutable ingredient for making an apple pie. That’s what an “Irrefutable“ is, a piece or part of something that is absolutely required to be part of that equation or it simply will not work. Can you bake an apple pie without apples? Of course not. This was an extremely black and white example, one that I hope no one could argue with. Let’s carry this example to the next level, still using our example of the apple pie. As you continue giving me your recipe for apple pie, you list off sugar, flour, and nutmeg…. wait a second, nutmeg? I will buy sugar and flour as Irrefutables, but nutmeg could be a problem.
Nutmeg is NOT an Irrefutable. You can easily make a recognizable apple pie without nutmeg, which is a regional ingredient. Some people put lemon juice in an apple pie. It’s optional. And so is nutmeg. Irrefutables are not optional, they are an irreplaceable part of whatever you are doing. Making a pie, learning how to run a computer, building a house, washing the floor. Each of these tasks have integral items or processes that, when missing, make the task impossible to complete or if it’s complete, unrecognizable. What would an apple pie be without apples?
Time Management and the Irrefutables
We are not baking an apple pie here, or building a house. We are working on getting our time under control; getting better value for the time we invest, looking to get more out of life. During the development of the Power Time System, which has been a work in progress since 1983, the term Irrefutables was developed the same way other words and phrases were developed that are unique to The Power Time System. I was looking for a term or word that would help me emphasize very select and very crucial activities that were absolutely and irrevocably important to people when they were working with us on their Time Management journey. In other words, Irrefutably crucial to their success. You have to be very careful when you bring out a term like this one and inject it into a System like ours. There are a couple of problems:
1. When you have a System like The Power Time System, which has hundreds and hundreds of individual components, that are all important, which ones become Irrefutables and which ones do not? Denoting something as an Irrefutable in our System means that without having this piece of the puzzle in your personal Time Management program, you will not be successful. That is a very strong statement to make. It’s like drawing a line in the sand and saying, "it's this way or no way".
For our System to work for you, there has to be a balance between what the System can do for you and your ability and commitment to apply the System to your everyday routines. The flexibility of the System is one of its strong points but at the same time, there has to a structure to the System that in fact identifies it as our System. This brings us to why the Irrefutables are identified.
When something is identified as an Irrefutable, it means this is a key critical aspect that makes it unique and different. When implemented with the key pieces in place, the Irrefutables will ensure your success. As you go through The Power Time System, whenever we refer to a part of the System as an Irrefutable, just ask yourself: is it really an apple pie with out the apples? When the answer is a no, then look at what we are saying regarding our System and ask yourself; do I really want to delete this from the System?
2. What happens if we disagree? There are hundreds of ideas, suggestions, tools, polices and tricks in our System. There are also about 30 Irrefutables that we have denoted as crucially important, irrevocably necessary to your success. What happens if you go through the System and start to add and subtract, do the things you want and ignore the things you do not think are important?
I’ve gone through this question with thousands of clients and the answer is always the same. You are always the ultimate judge. This exercise you and I are going through is meant to do one thing and one thing only; improve your quality of life, make your time valuable to you and to make you feel better because you have spent some of your time working with us here. Those are all relative values and, in the end, only your opinion matters.
3. This is not an academic exercise. What we are doing here has real life consequences. Our claim here is very simple; use some or all of our Power Time System and you will live a better, more fulfilled, productive life than you were before. It is impossible to add any or all of what we have available on this site, in our System, and not benefit from it.
Let’s be sure to add that it will take some effort, commitment and work on your part to gain any benefit. No gain without pain. The Irrefutables come in as a guideline to those who want to see the most radical change in their lives. If you really want to move forward, then be sure that you concentrate and work on the key elements of The Power Time System, which have been denoted as the Irrefutables.
Case Study
I used to own two franchise organizations that stretched across Canada. One of them was a Lawn Care Company with 119 franchisees. Part of being the franchisor was to provide training and support to the franchisees and their employees. It was during this process that I developed a training program, along with Bob McLennan, a business consultant who was working for me at the time. We were trying to find an effective way to get the franchises to “buy into the program“.
It was a constant struggle to get people who were not initially business people, to operate within the established program. Our program had a history of success. We worked on this problem and one day, it just came to us. If we make a set of procedures that are so critical to their success and made them irrevocably important, they would just have to follow them. Right?
It made good sense; all we had to do was come up with a name. To be honest, I can’t remember who came up with it, Bob or myself, but we named theses procedures The Irrefutables. We built a whole series of training sessions around these Irrefutables. We put on the training sessions with the franchisees, right across Canada, and what do you think happened?
It was a resounding success as well as a resounding failure. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Some franchisees saw the light, got on board with the program and were more successful then before. Others argued that there was a better way to do things and did not get on board. As a result they stayed where they were in terms of success and profitability.
In a franchise organization, the franchisor, myself, would get everyone’s financial statements and profit and loss statements, every year. I would know who the most successful franchisees were and the ones who were not doing as well.
It was interesting to note that the most successful franchisees were the ones who, when shown the road map to success, took the advice and implemented the procedures into their businesses, profited by following The Irrefutables. Out of the top 15 franchises in that organization, 12 of them were the most enthusiastic participants in the new Irrefutable training program. There was a direct correlation between profitability and those who embraced and welcomed the new Irrefutable training program.
It’s interesting to note that during the time frame of 1983 and 1990, when I owned this particular franchise, this was also the initial development of The Power Time System, which was taught to this group as part of their training program. We would announce a training session where we would be training them in the use and implementation of The Power Time System. Basically showing them how to better utilize their time, how to be more profitable, how to maximize their investment in their business. After the session was over, I would call the ones who had not attended and asked them why they weren’t there. Their answers were always the same, “I didn’t have the time. I was busy“. I found this amazing. Particularly amazing when you consider they had already paid for the training as part of their franchise fee.
Activity
This section was about zeroing in on the key elements of our Power Time System, the Irrefutables. You may want to pay attention to the points, tools and procedures that are repeatedly dealt with throughout all of the information on the site. It stands to reason that the more we talk about something here, the more important it is to you. Ask yourself three questions:
1. Will I be adding this to my own Time Management procedures?
2. If not, why not?
3. If I’m not following this System, what system will I be following?
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