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<p><img src="../../../../../work/columns/hedgecock/eclectic/img/www_subdomain/eclectic.gif" width="180" height="216" alt="Eclectic Avenues"><p>
by Catherine Hedgecock
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<p>
<b>
<font size="+1">T</font>HE
<font size="+1">M</font>ELLOW
<font size="+1">P</font>ATH<br>
<font size="+1">T</font>O
<font size="+1">S</font>UCCESS
</font>
</b>
</font>
<br>
<p>
<p>Published July 22, 1996<br><p>
<p>
<a href="../../../../../www_subdomain/work/archive/hedgecock.html">Other Columns</a> by Catherine Hedgecock<p>
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<p>
<font size="+2">R</font>arely is there an opening at New World Library, Marc Allen's new age publishing company. That's because no one ever leaves. Small wonder: Allen treats the twelve employees of his Novato, California company with generosity that flies in the face of the "conventional wisdom" for small businesses.
<p>
<font size="+2">E</font>very employee has full medical and dental benefits -- even the one part-timer. They can make personal phone calls at work or take a "mental health afternoon" off without getting anyone's permission. "Everyone has a life outside of work. Everyone should have a life," says Allen, a wiry, energetic guy who looks a lot younger than 50. He practices what he preaches by arriving at the office between noon and 1 p.m.
<p>
<font size="+2">"T</font>hat sounds really nice," you say, "but when is this company going to mellow itself out of business?" Not anytime soon. Revenues are healthy and growing -- in the fiscal year that ended June 30, they were about $12 million.
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<font size="+2">Workers can take a "mental health afternoon" off.
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<font size="+1">
<font size="+2">W</font>hich brings up the best part of Allen's philosophy: profit-sharing. We're not talking about piddly window-dressing here. We're talking about half the company's profits -- yes, half -- going to employees. Salaries are comparable to the rest of the publishing industry, and bonuses can add up to several months' salary. The better the company does, the more profits there are to share. You find a lot of dedication and little talk of leaving at New World. And if employees want to blow their entire bonus, they can do so without guilt. An amount equal to 15 percent of every employee's salary and bonus goes into that person's pension account from Allen's corporate pockets.
<p>
<font size="+2">A</font>llen has a lot of interesting things to say about work. He was a happy but broke pianist, actor, and spiritual seeker throughout his 20s. He lived off the land in Oregon, spent six months at a Zen Buddhist Center in Hawaii, and did three years at a Tibetan Buddhist Center in Berkeley.
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<font size="+2"> Changing his thought patterns was the key to success.
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<font size="+1">
<font size="+2">T</font>hen, on his 30th birthday, Allen woke up with a start. "I was living in a tiny slum apartment in Oakland. I'd had a good time, learned a lot, but I'd gone nowhere. It was always stronger people who were getting me into things. I had no income, no direction."
<p>
<font size="+2">A</font>llen looked inside himself for the answers by using an exercise he'd learned in Oregon -- he visualized his ideal life five years down the road. "I saw very clearly three things -- that I would have a publishing business, write books, and record music." Once he had the vision, the first steps toward it became clear.
<p>
<font size="+2">H</font>e worked as a typesetter and scraped up enough money to publish a first book on transformation. Things were tight at first, and Allen found the hardest part was bumping up against his constricting beliefs about success. One night he was driving to the bank to take yet another $2,000 out of the automated teller. "I was thinking to myself that I was stupid, senseless, and out-of-control with my money." He pulled over and wrote out affirmations to counteract these thoughts. He taped copies of them in his bedroom, his car, and his office, and repeated them to himself like mantras. Changing his thought patterns was the key to getting through that period, and eventually to succeeding. It's a cornerstone of his book, "Visionary Business," which was published in January.
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<font size="+2">Allen has no problem finding good people and keeping them.
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<font size="+1">
<font size="+2">N</font>ew World Library had its first major success at the end of 1978 with "Creative Visualization," by Shakti Gawain. Her book has sold 2.5 million copies to date in the United States and is available in 27 other languages. The company has 103 titles in its catalog now, including "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" by Deepak Chopra, a New York Times bestseller with 1.6 million copies sold in the U.S.
<p>
<font size="+2">O</font>ther publishing executives scratch their heads in wonder at Allen's ideas, but they are intrigued. "They say how hard it is to find good people. I tell them I have no problem finding good people and keeping them. It's all a matter of treating them right, paying them well, respecting them." Now that is revolutionary!
<p>
You can reach Marc Allen at marc@nwlib.com, or order a New World Library catalog by calling (800) 227-3900.
</font>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<p><a href="mailto:cathy@creativesports.com">Catherine Hedgecock</a> is a freelance writer and editor in Berkeley, California. She has written for USA Today, Knight Ridder newspapers, GNN, and other publications. She has won first place investigative reporting awards from California Newspaper Publishers Association, Gannett newspapers, and Best of the West. Ms. Hedgecock is currently writing a mystery novel.
<font size="-1"><p>© 1996 Catherine Hedgecock, All Rights Reserved
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