photo credit: jurvetson

This piece by Paul Graham talks about a survey of startup founders, but it reminds me very much of my software company days.

Too much, perhaps.

It may not describe the business you’re in – since it’s mostly talking about software businesses – but the attitude, expectations, “reason why” and much more is certainly something that should be on your radar.

Not altogether different than the energy this country had when it was racing to the moon.

Where is your business racing off to?

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photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

A combination of events over the last couple of months has had me thinking more about the expectations we have for ourselves, our kids, our employees and holy moly, even our politicians.

First, Jim Rohn passed away.

Jim talked a lot about expectations and how delivery of them is on one person – you. I highly recommend Rohn’s stuff. While you can buy his books, videos, audio etc online, quite a lot can be found at no cost on his site and on YouTube.

Next, four of my Scouts attained the rank of Eagle on the same day, after progressing together in Scouting since the second grade.

Three of them had been Life Scouts (the last rank prior to Eagle) for over three years. They needed a little prodding to finish the last item or two on their checklist, but they all assumed they’d get it done. If nothing else, they figured their parents would pressure them to get it done. Note: They were right.

A tall, steep mountain

But a year ago, one of them just didn’t think he could get there. Not because he isn’t confident (he is), but because the mountain in front of him was so very tall.

A year ago, he was a Star Scout (and had been for some time). That means that he needed several merit badges in addition to finishing the requirements for the Life Scout rank, then he needed to spend six months actively providing senior leadership to the troop,  and finally had to come up with and complete an Eagle Scout service project.

All of that had to happen in about a year, and with a dose of reality, it had to happen in an environment that includes a job, his senior year of high school, cars, girls, school, skiing, hunting, a summer of fun (including traveling for a team sport) and everything else teenagers do these days.

The size of the mountain doesn’t matter much

One thing that I’ve found with folks young and not so young is that the size of the mountain in front of them rarely has anything to do with their ability to climb it.

What’s far more important is whether or not they THINK they can climb it.

Yeah, I know…I’m teetering into the land of the touchy-feely. However, what folks think they can make happen clearly has a huge impact on what they accomplish.

For that one young man, it was easy to seem like Eagle wasn’t reachable because it was so far away.

All he needed was to see that *I* completely believed he could do it if he applied himself. I didn’t do the work, I didn’t give him any shortcuts, and I sure don’t deserve the credit, but that little tiny bump in the road could have kept him from getting there.

Once he believed he could get over it, he simply had to chip away at it till he was done.

You can’t do that

I wonder how many of those little bumps and “You can’t do that” comments employees, business owners and entrepreneurs run into and what accomplishments they prevent.

Some people would see a comment like that as a challenge. They’ll swing for the fences and complete the task with a flourish (think “Ricky Henderson“) as a way to say “Oh yeah? Take THAT. I *could* do it.”

Most business owners and entrepreneurs probably steamroll past that stuff or they wouldn’t be in those positions.

But… not everyone is built that way. It might take a success or two to show some that they really can kick butt and take names.

I spend a lot of time with kids due to Scouts, swim team and other things I’m involved in. I sometimes see kids who are told they *are* great (whether they are or not) rather than encouraging them to *be* great (or even better) and accomplish great things.

More kids need to be encouraged to BE great, whether they want to be a rocket scientist, a millwright or a statesman (“statesperson” sounds a little weird for me). We could use a few (hundred) *great* statesmen of both genders, in fact.

Just telling them they are great isn’t enough. They need mentors, like anyone else.

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photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

So today you wake up and find that you have only 15 days until 2010 (fewer than that if you count working days, at least for most people).

You vow that 2010 is going to be the year that you finally get your act together – despite the state of the economy, since can’t do anything about it but create your own…

Maybe you vowed that in 2009 and it did or didn’t go so well. Doesn’t matter. What’s gonna make 2010 DIFFERENT?

No matter how things are going, they could be better. If they’re going great, the challenge is to keep it that way and build upon your success.

So lets go over 5 things that you can do to make sure 2010 is the year your business gets the effort – and the results – it deserves:

Number 5: Become and remain brutally focused about the time you have and how you use it. Need some help with that? Try The Power of Focus and Dan Kennedy’s No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs

Number 4: “Put on the hat” of your biggest critic or doubter: Ask yourself some tough questions. Justify what you’ve done this year. Reflection is a critically valuable tool. It isn’t about guilt, it’s about recognizing the need (or lack of) for change as well as recognizing what went well.

Even better, take your biggest critic/doubter out for coffee and ask them to let you have it. Ask them to kindly critique the year they’ve seen from you and suggest what they think you should be doing. The feedback isn’t the result you’re looking for. Instead, consider your reactions to the conversation. How do they make you feel about your level of commitment and what you’re really trying to accomplish? Do something about it.

Number 3: Schedule communications (not boring ones) in some form with every customer, at least once every month. If you can’t figure out what to say to your paying customers, you aren’t thinking hard enough – or – they aren’t much of a customer to you. If you can’t afford to communicate with them (and I don’t mean just by email) on a monthly basis, it seems clear that your business model could use some work.

Number 2: Spend some time considering where the leading edge thinkers in your industry are going – and why. If one of those leading edge thinkers is you (be honest with yourself), think harder. Look outside your industry for ideas you can use and “convert” for your business.

• How do these things fit into your current plans?
• Do those plans need adjustment?
• Does your entire big picture need adjustment?
• Do any legislative changes affect you in the coming year?

Number 1: Spend an hour (I’d prefer you spend a day or two – or a week if you can do so) and really, seriously nail down a picture in your mind of a few things:

• What things in your business should look like on Dec 15, 2010.
• What that year of progress is really, truly working towards – yes, what exactly *is* your big picture?
• Did 2009 work toward it, or go somewhere else? If you don’t like the answer…do something about it.
• If you have staff, do they fit the result of this discussion? Can they be trained to do so? What other resource challenges does this bring to mind?

Tick tock.

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Mr. Jim Rohn passed away on Saturday.

While I haven’t seen him in four years, I will miss him. Thankfully I have a bunch of his recordings and video to keep me company, even though that’s not the same.

Rohn’s impact on business people for the last several decades is something you can’t even put a number on – but try this on. The guy who picked up Tony Robbins and helped him down the path to helping others… was Jim Rohn.

If you think about how many people Tony has impacted, you know that’s a big number. Some of those people have likely passed their newfound knowledge on to others as well.

That’s the impact of just ONE of the many people Jim has sent out into the world with better ideas and a better plan for themselves.

One of Mr. Rohn’s classic quotes goes something like “To improve your situation / job / life, start by improving *yourself*.” Rohn very strongly believed that life-long learners did better in life. Not just financially, but in all aspects of their lives.

It isn’t just for employers and entrepreneurs. Share this stuff with your employees. You want them to have better attitudes, work smarter, think better. It’s a gift that the right ones will appreciate.

To that end and to honor Jim’s role in helping others improve themselves, here’s some stuff to get you started:

• http://www.openculture.com/2009/12/10_power_tools_for_lifelong_learners.html
• Learn from Jim
• Your best year ever part 1
• Your best year ever part 2
• Your best year ever part 3

RIP, sir.

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photo credit: jared

Today’s guest post from the Washington Post is about a football player turned law enforcement officer from small town Louisiana.

If you don’t read anything else, catch 2 of his last comments on page 4: “I know the margin between being in the NFL and being out of the NFL is so small. You can’t get comfortable with yourself. You can’t be satisfied.”

Would’ve been easy for him to give up. And while some (especially Dallas fans) would say that Washington doesn’t actually have a pro team, they’d be missing the message.

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photo credit: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R)

Happy New Year in November?

I don’t mean the Chinese New Year, the Jewish New Year or the new Federal fiscal year. I’m talking about the regular old New Year that happens on January first.

Are you ready for 2010? Or will you start getting ready for it on January second like a lot of businesses do?

I know some that simply don’t do much of *anything* in December. Their business is open, but strategically, it may as well be closed till 2010.

If your business is struggling, I suggest you reconsider that strategy. In fact, I think you’re nuts to wait 6 more weeks to start your business’ new year.

Why? Sorry, I thought you were serious about your business.

From all I’m hearing on the street, some businesses are having a pretty good year (really!), but others are struggling a little and some are struggling mightily.

It’s pretty much like any other time except that the definitions of “struggling a little” and “struggling mightily” have changed substantially for a lot of folks.

So in order to help you have a Happy New Year, I want you to start your own stimulus plan by start the New Year today in your business.

Do it right now.

Did I just outlaw December? Nah.

BUT…You have about six weeks until January first. I suggest you put them to very good, very strategic use.

With the exception of retailers and a few others, right about now it’s very common for lots of businesses to start mentally winding down for the year.

I understand that the temptation to join them is strong. I also understand that for many, your business is sucking wind. If that’s the situation at your place, you just can’t wait six weeks to get serious again.

I don’t mean that you should skip all the family stuff you do for the holidays and work late on Christmas Eve. However, I do suggest that you get very strategic, very focused about how you use the valuable time left in the year rather than coasting through it like most everybody else.

Rather than not hiring, interviewing, or starting new projects because it’s the holiday season, I suggest you do just the opposite: Start / continue the process today.

Whatever it is, do it TODAY.

Get up an hour earlier on Thanksgiving (if you’re not in the US, get up early anyhow). Get up an hour earlier on Black Friday. Keep that up for the rest of the year. If nothing else, your area’s coffee business will improve (yes, that was a joke).

For every hour of work, ask yourself: “Is this getting me closer to where I need to be, or is it just busy work that I can delegate or not do at all?”

If you have new projects planned for 2010, think of the project as a fully loaded semi-truck (80,000 pounds of in-your-market coolness) and use the next six weeks as the acceleration lane to get that semi up to highway speeds, business-wise.

Finally, be ruthless with yourself and your time. Focus like your next meal is on the line cuz it might be.

Remember Jim Rohn’s comeuppance? (see below)

He couldn’t even afford to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies from the cute little Girl Scout at his door. A grown man with kids, working at an executive position.

That’ll focus you in a hurry. Are you that focused?

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photo credit: orangeacid

Yes, I know that is going to rile some folks up, but you probably need to be riled up anyhow.

What exactly do I mean by “give them the fish”? Let me back up a little.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the saying: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”

I used to agree. It used to seem that teaching someone to fish was sufficient, but human nature is a powerful teacher.

Not anymore.

First, a couple of examples from the Rotary world:

• Do you think that Rotary should just airdrop polio vaccine (and instructions) over Africa and let those folks take care of vaccinating themselves?
• What about the hand-operated wells that Rotarians regularly donate and install in third world communities? I’m talking about the wells that eliminate a mother’s 6 mile daily walk for water. Before you think “So what?”, think about how long it takes a mother to walk 6 miles, then walk 6 miles back carrying 5 gallons of probably not-so-clean water. If you’re taking care of a couple of infants, consider how that impacts your child-rearing and your ability to make a living. Now suddenly you’re taking clean water out of a well right in your village. Impactful.

But…I didn’t start this conversation to talk about Rotary. Their polio and water efforts just make the point easy to illustrate.

Personal Inertia

All of this is really building up to some comments about personal inertia.

Inertia is a big obstacle for an 80,000 lb 18 wheel truck or a jumbo jet, but a person’s personal inertia makes their inertia pale in comparison.

Powered by daily routines and daily “crises”, as I referred to yesterday when quoting Mr. Rohn, it’s bigger than most people realize.

While everybody can do what so and so does to be successful, reach a goal, get out of a mess, change some aspect of their lives, or market their product; but not everybody will.

Why Personal Inertia happens

A lot of the reason for this is that people just aren’t used to taking NEW actions. Sure, they get up for work in the morning (even if they work for themselves) and they go about their business, but they struggle to make new things happen.

Rather than making things happen, they often watch things happen (or worse, wonder what happened).

That’s why you have to give them the fish. Change is tough. Sometimes scary. Sometimes, just different enough that your routine just doesn’t seem to allow for them.

And that’s where the fish comes in.

Sometimes you have to give them the fish to prime the pump. To make the impression necessary to show that the learning is worthwhile.

What IS The Fish?

The fish is what you do for others. Maybe a service, maybe something you teach or something you create for them if they can’t or won’t do it themselves.

I know you can teach them to fish (whatever your fish is), but they have to WANT to learn to fish or your time will be wasted.

Yep, WASTED.

More than likely, whatever you do is the fish your client needs (or is related to it).

Again, giving them the fish primes the pump and helps make that action part of their routine.

Until it’s routine, it’s unlikely to happen.

Before you give them the fish, before they “get it”, they might not have the vision you have.

The fish might be necessary to make the impression (produce the results?) necessary to show that learning to fish is worthwhile in the first place.

Give, then teach

Once the lesson, the results, the vision/buy in are there, learning to fish seems like a good idea.

Their idea. Your gift made it so.

When eyes light up, budgets appear and/or time opens up, it’s time to teach.

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photo credit: JasonRogersFooDogGiraffeBee

Jim Rohn is a gift to every business person. I cant recommend his information highly enough.

One of Jim’s many pieces of wisdom…

“We are all affected by five things. But the most important thing that affects us is our dreams–our ability to see the future. But here’s why we don’t reach into the future. We’re trapped either by regret of the past or the routine of the present. So make sure that the greatest pull on you is the pull of the future.”
Jim Rohn

Does the routine of the present or the regret of the past haunt you?

The fix? One thing a day. One step at a time. Drip, drip, drip.

That’s how you break the spell.

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photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

For Labor Day, it seemed to me that a TED video about the value of hard work was a good choice – particularly the kind of work I suspect few (if any) of my readers do.

Below, Mike Rowe from Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs talks about work, sheep, and a little bit of Greek.

Note: Some of this discussion might gross you out a little – but it is Dirty Jobs he’s talking about.

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Today’s guest post comes from TED, where musician/educator Benjamin Zander talks about music, passion and how he can tell if someone has a passion for what they do – as well as what kind of impact (if any) his playing has on his audience.

Are you producing that kind of impact on your clientele?

How many people left this hall and told a friend about the amazing experience they just had?

How many people do the same when your business gets done serving their needs?

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photo credit: * Honest *

Not world peace mind you (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but peace between your ears.

Do you find yourself somehow mindlessly wasting an hour, 2 hours or more a day? Maybe not even every day?

You arent alone. Rarely does a day go by when I don’t hear it from someone.

In today’s guest post, Peter Bregman has a solution you might find useful. It only takes 18 minutes a day.

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photo credit: miyukiutada

Silly question – cuz I’m sure you do.

Dave takes a different cut at personal standards. A cut you might find challenging, but I hope not.

Just the same, today’s guest post from Dave Navarro (no, not the famous guitarist) is worth reading and looking in the mirror about.

Check it out here.

A big part of what others do (you know, like your family, your staff…) is a based in large part reflection of you as a family leader, a business leader, a community leader and so on.

What do they see?

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photo credit: TheGiantVermin

Normally I don’t do two guest posts in the same weekend from the same person, but Lisa Barone’s “It’s not the recession, you just suck” resonates with a number of things I’ve been passing along to you over the last few months.

As such, I thought I’d let someone else in the PickYourselfUp Choir sing the lead this time.

Here she is.

Look at it this way… if McDonald’s closed, you wouldn’t starve to death. Why would allow a business closure or layoff to starve your career?

GOYA.

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Forty years ago tonight, two guys stepped on the Moon for the very first time (as far as we know, anyhow).

They did so not by accident or happenstance, but because of an explicit choice (and a challenge).

One of the things that always intrigued me about President Kennedy’s speech was his use of words when he suggested that we go to the moon:

“We choose to go to the moon…”

Choose.

Not think about, mull over, ponder or consider, but choose.

It’s an important word. It means get off your keester and take action – one of the most important things you can do.

Make a choice to improve your business, to start one, or to start another one. Make a choice to do something that will completely transform the success of your business. Ask yourself “Why not?” if something pops up and tells you that you can’t do something, or that it wont work.

You choose to sit around or you choose not to, which reminds me of an old acronym: YCDBSOYA

YCDBSOYA is an acronym for “You cant do business sitting on your ass”.

Decide. Make a choice. GOYA.

Do it today. Choose to go to the moon, business-wise.

Maybe even further.

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Normally, I hold guest posts till the weekend, but folks, that wouldn’t be fair to you. This video is a gift that keeps on giving and you need to see it now. Enjoy.

Lots of lessons in today’s video guest post from Robert Scoble and Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuk (aka @GaryVee).

Whether you run a specialty retailer in Billings, a publishing company in Winnipeg, an e-commerce store in Colorado Springs, a niche business services operation in San Francisco, or something else entirely,  you simply have to absorb this.

There are numerous instructive moments there for everyone and they should be drop dead obvious. It might take more than one listen, but do it.

Average Joe

If you read the comments, you’ll see someone ask “What’s in this for the average Joe?”

Beyond @gapingvoid’s “Don’t be average” comment, if you can’t easily take away a dozen lessons from this video, you really need to decompress and watch it again and again until they sink in.

Gary’s one suggestion to anyone who would challenge him in the wine market: ”Be better”, suggesting that if he saw Gary Vaynerchuk in his market, he’d go after him big time.

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photo credit: striatic

Yes, me.  I am a slacker. I admit it.

A year ago, I was planning to release my first book, “Business is Personal”.

You probably don’t remember me doing a launch promotion on it. That’s cuz I didn’t launch it.

As you might suspect, stuff happened and pushed it out of my immediate view and soon enough, a year went by.

Bet that never happened to you.

It’s still sitting in my authoring software, laughing at me: “You can’t finish me today, bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa” (yeah, that’s supposed to sound like an insane creepy laugh).

Enterrrrrr theeee excuuuuuuuuusee zoooooooonnnnnne (you can figure out how that is supposed to sound).

The Excuse Zone

See if any of this sounds familiar, even if you have to adjust the facts.

• Before first light today, I headed out to Melita Island to help teach the 2nd part of Boy Scout Wood Badge. WB is an adult leadership course for Scout leaders and I am part of the instructor team.
• The morning after I get back from Melita, I leave for Scout camp for a week.
• The next week is 4th of July week and I have to go to a swim meet that will be a lot about remembering a dear friend who in her last 18 months of life literally willed a small town into getting a new swimming pool suitable for swim meets – all while battling pancreatic cancer.
• Meanwhile I have client work, coaching sessions, blogging, writing my newspaper column, working on my own product development work, doing family stuff, visiting with that awfully cute granddaughter you see in that photo on the blog, a week in Missouri with the in-laws and such right after the 4th, out of town swim meets every weekend till August, then (not 100% sure on this one) 10 days in the backcountry on a wilderness pack trip.
• That gets me to August 16 and doesn’t count other troop activities, Rotary (yes, I’m still club president), a few other volunteer gigs here in town and again, more of that client work stuff.

All the while… it sits there and taunts me. The book, I mean. You can probably hear it giggling.

Choice

You probably think “Heck, no wonder you didn’t get it done, with all THAT stuff going on.”

And you would be completely missing the point.

It has nothing to do with how much other stuff I have to do. It has to do with making a choice about the stuff I AM doing.

Each day since the Spring of 2008 when I started “Business is Personal” (the book), I’ve made a choice – several times a day.

These choices were made to do something else other than chip away at the book, even if I chose to do something that might have seemed important at the time.

No one else made these choices. Just me.

A few of my favorite Jim Rohn quotes come to mind:

• “When you say ‘No’, you say ‘Yes’ to something more important.”
• “Learn to say ‘No’. Don’t let your mouth overload your back.”
• “We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things.”

What did you not get done today that you should have gotten done, if only it wasn’t for that “really important” thing you did instead?

Say “No” to the not-so-important so that you can say “Yes” to the really important.

PS: Stay tuned for the book. If you’d like to help with it, take one minute to slide on over to http://www.businessispersonalbook.com and enter a question (someone will win a pair of free consultations, may as well be you).

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photo credit: rich115

Today’s guest post is more of a news story, but with a big message.

Bonnie Richardson has achieved a lot of success in her life. Great grades, a scholarship at Texas A&M and 2 state track and field championships.

But she does have a regret: “I regret that I didnt branch out more”.

From Rivals.com, check out the story of Bonnie Richardson, 2 time track and field state champion – as the entire team.

Are you branching out enough? Even while staying within your little niche, it’s possible.

If one high school girl can win 2 state *team* championships all by herself, maybe you can try a little harder too.

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photo credit: hilectric

Today’s guest post is from ChrisG.com and is about a question from @starbucker…

What is so natural to you that it is like breathing?

What aspect of yourself, which behavior, skill, activity, talent, is so part of you that you could not imagine yourself without it?

That’s the key, it’s not just what you are good at, or what people expect of you – what do you do automatically, easily, and would do regardless?

Spend some time thinking about that and how it relates to your business. You may find a new product line, service or perhaps a whole ‘nother business inside yourself.

You might learn a few other things as well. Challenge yourself, don’t just go through the motions.

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Early in the movie “Dances with Wolves”, the Sioux tribe elders are discussing what to do about John Dunbar, Kevin Costner’s character in the movie.

Costner plays a lone Army scout at a remote outpost in the western plains.

The tribe had just discovered his presence earlier that day and the elders were discussing what to do around the chief’s fire.

After listening for some time, as chiefs tend to do, the chief talks about finding one man in the middle of the wilderness all by himself. He wonders if the man has “medicine” because he seems unafraid of being out in the plains in the middle of nowhere, despite being all alone.

When John Dunbar asked for this remote duty, he had no idea what he was in for and it just sounded interesting to him, so he did it. Kevin Costner’s character was an entrepreneur, in Army terms. A dreamer (but also a doer).

Dreaming is OK, really.

A while back, someone called me a dreamer. It almost felt derogatory, but I know it wasn’t intended that way.

What bothered me then and still bothers me to this very moment is that this person left me with the idea that they felt dreaming was a bad thing.

A thing to be avoided, or best case, a thing for children rather than entrepreneurs. I couldn’t disagree more.

I really don’t know what caused this person to lose that part of themselves, but I see a lot of that these days and it concerns me.

Recovery is in OUR hands

You see, I believe that the dreamers are the ones who fuel things like economic recovery.

Presidents don’t do it. Congressional Representatives don’t do it. Senators don’t do it.

Business people and their customers do it.

Dreaming isn’t enough

It takes more than a dreamer though. It takes a dreamer who is also a doer. Without action, a dream is not worth much.

A big thinker who does little more than think and doesn’t share their brilliance or find a doer to implement their great idea isn’t nearly as important (in my mind at least) as someone who isn’t quite so brilliant, but gets out of their chair every day and makes things happen.

It simply isn’t enough to sit here and think “What if?”

There HAS to be action.

Often, part of being an entrepreneur is not always knowing what’ll be there when you arrive.

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photo credit: lepiaf.geo

You like to sing. In fact, you’ve been singing since you were 12.

You’re 47, but at first glance, you look a bit older.

You’ve never been kissed.

You live with your cat.

Kids on your street make fun of you.

She’s real

While it sounds like a stereotype that I made up, she’s real.

She has 4 minutes to change her life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Luck? Jim Rohn describes it as the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.

If you had that opportunity in your business, are you ready to hit it out of the park?

Preparation and opportunity. The latter you can’t often control. The former is a different story.

If you had her heart, where would you be?

Be prepared.

Update: A little more about Susan Boyle, the woman featured in the video. She is the youngest of nine children in a coal-mining town, who spent much of her life caring for an aging mother. She was diagnosed with a learning disability as a youngster and was bullied in school. Nobody knew of her talent…except for the patrons of a pub where she sang karaoke, and they were all watching the night she performed on the show, waiting for the world to learn what she could do.

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