Ever have trouble breathing?

Maybe you got hit hard and had the breath knocked out of you or maybe you choked on a McNugget. Doesn’t matter because while you were choking, you only wanted one thing: to breathe. Everyone knows that desire, which sets the stage for this video.

In the video above showing Giavanni Ruffin’s workout, you should know that he doesn’t play football at Miami or Nebraska or LSU or Southern Cal. He goes to East Carolina. Not exactly a name you see in the national championship. Yet that doesn’t seem to alter his work effort. He clearly has bigger aspirations.

Once you’ve seen the video above, you may want to hear the remaining 10 minutes of this Eric Thomas’ talk. Below, you can see the original two-segment piece recorded as he spoke to a class at Michigan State University.

Want more? Here, Eric channels Jim Rohn (“the 5 people closest to you…”).

Think back to the story about the athlete who wants to be rich and whose head is being held underwater. Think about how hard he fought to get back above the water and breathe. Think about how bad you JUST WANTED TO BREATHE the last time you were choking.

Now focus that level of desire on your business.

Ask yourself the question Eric asks….How bad do you want it?

A simple thought really – and this guy verbalizes it with such enthusiasm.

How are you getting better every day? How is your staff getting better every day?

What are you doing to enable and encourage “increasing the awesome”?

If you aren’t increasing the awesome, what are you doing instead?

photo credit: Watt_Dabney

Today’s guest post is a quote from Henry Miller that I stumbled across.

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. – Henry Miller

Look at your business through that lens. What do you see?

Yesterday, I happened across this video montage of Will Smith interview clips that has him discussing what motivates him.

His comments on persistence, work ethic and competition are a good listen and well worth the 9 minutes.

Do you have that kind of will power?

photo credit: Michel Filion

Wall Street Journal senior economist Stephen Moore recently wrote a column about “takers and makers“, revealing that ”More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.”

Twice as many people (22.5 million) work in government than in manufacturing (11.5 milion).

Upon hearing this, many will launch into their political persuasion’s talking points (regardless of leanings). But it isn’t that simple.

It’s not the 60s anymore

In 1960, about 8.7 million people were government employees. In 51 years, that number has almost tripled. I don’t have a breakdown of the increase in front of me, but a 300% increase is large no matter how you look at it.

Moore derisively calls these 22.5 million “bureaucrats”, which to me coveys the image of the corrupt Daley regime in Chicago or an uncaring, inefficient Department of Motor Vehicles (not what you get in Kalispell’s blue building).

Based on the comments I hear, most don’t view rank and file firefighters, police officers, teachers, train conductors, military personnel and the like as bureaucrats.

In one example, Moore mentions the doubled public school employment between 1970 and 2005, referencing a University of Washington study, as an example of government inefficiency given that standardized test scores haven’t doubled in that time.

Electric shock and cages

In the 1960s, students with Down’s Syndrome, mental deficiencies, autism or physical challenges were treated as second class citizens. Today, they learn as a part of mainstream student populations, just as employers do. Doing this requires increased staff. Some kids have a single staff member dedicated to them. Today we teach topics in school that didn’t exist in 1960, like computers, robotics and computer-aided design (CAD).

I don’t think anyone, with the possible exception of the current Montana Legislature, would wish for a return to the 1960s. Yes, that was sarcasm. Mostly.

If you look at the manufacturing and industrial changes since the 60s, it’s hard not to see the migration of the steel, textile and heavy industries overseas as having a significant impact on employment numbers.

While government numbers have gone up markedly, Moore didn’t address the disappearance of manufacturing and industrial jobs during that same period.

The falloff of employment in those industries didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Blame the third world

The industrial revolution in the U.S. transformed business: Steam, electricity, internal combustion.

In the last 20-30 years, it happened again; fueled by computers, industrial automation and the rise of the third world.

While these changes were decimating U.S. presence in industries like heavy equipment, steel and textiles manufacturing, we retain a reticence to pay anything above 1960s prices for commodities like steel, lumber and textiles.

We kept prices down and competed with cheap overseas labor through industrial automation and computers, but that cost jobs. When someone is laid off from a foundry job, where do they go?

If someone laid off after two decades in one of these industries has an opportunity to share their skills with young people looking to learn a trade, and in doing so, keeps their family off of taxpayer-funded public assistance – are they a maker, a taker or a bureaucrat?

If in that 20 years they didn’t take the initiative (on their personal time) to remain employable by learning a new skill (welding, software, repairing industrial robots, etc), who’s responsible?

Meanwhile…

Industrial automation is replacing cheap third world labor with labor that’s even cheaper. China supplants India, who “stole” the work from US workers. Advances in automation allow us to keep prices low and allow our businesses to avoid paying modern wages for dangerous work now done by machines, but they also eliminate third-world jobs here in the states.

Are those jobs we want? That laid off industrial worker who now teaches…do we *want* them teaching a 1960s or 1970s skill in a 2011 economy?

Businesses of all sizes outsource work because it’s not efficient to keep people on staff to do that work. Business is then more flexible and the jobs we keep are usually more secure, but low-value employment is hammered by it. Is that good or bad?

Nothing is as simple as the politicos and power hungry want you to think.

Want to be patriotic? Invest in yourself, make something that people want/need, and create your own future.

During a recent mastermind session, the gang was talking about motivation and decision-making.

While that was stirring around in my head, I managed to stumble across CC Chapman’s insightful post about inspiration.

Stir in the TED Behind the Scenes video included in CC’s post, which I’ve included above. I strongly suggest you read CC’s comments even though the video is included above.

A few takeaways from the video:

• Everyone fears failure. Even Sir Ken and the other TED speakers.
• None of these people are perfect.
• They all seem to have a very clear vision of what they want to accomplish and what’s really, truly important to them.
• Watch what Raghava KK says to Ken Robinson after Raghava’s talk – and how Ken responds.

Little Things

A takeaway from the mastermind chat was recognizing the importance of the little wins that happen when you’re just starting toward a big goal. These little wins are, at first, what fuel us to become what everyone else eventually sees as an overnight success.

A friend who has lost almost 100 lbs over the last 2 years reminded me of this when saying (paraphrased) “No one sees me doing the hard stuff. The sweat. The celery. They only see the result, and they have no idea how hard it was to get here.”

That friend didn’t say that angrily, but was recognizing that few see the bulk of the effort we make on the way to our goals. The people who didn’t see the loss 500 calories at a time after an hour on the treadmill almost every day for 2 years know better, but some still have the impression that it disappeared overnight.

Little successes. A mile in 15 minutes today. A mile in 14 minutes after 2 weeks of effort.

Doesn’t seem like much unless you’re the one having those successes.

Translating that elsewhere

Those small victories fuel the confidence to keep going, regardless of the goal you’re chasing.

I remember a sale to the Wyoming Red Cross and having the X-Prize folks use my software back when almost no one had heard of them (much less me). Those events were a couple of the small victories I look back on that were essential to building the confidence that helped me move forward.

Remembering those got me to wondering about the small victories that encouraged you. I’d like to hear about them.

photo credit: RonAlmog

Today’s guest post from Jim Rohn arrives courtesy of Nightingale-Conant.

Once again, a page of essential insight from always-on Mr. Rohn.

What have you done today to improve yourself?

Is investment in yourself part of your daily todo list?

photo credit: Hamed Saber

It started with Bill Gates and MS-DOS.

It ends with Leo from ZenHabits.com.

Quite the odd couple, you’d think.

Until you read what they have in common.

Maybe then it will continue with you.

photo credit: Sam Judson

This post about goals at 37 Signals is chock full-o-gold.

Make note of the attitude shift that this post provokes, particularly the paragraph that starts “Hey, if I’m going to stand on the podium of Le Mans…”

See how the sentence that talks about the future of 37 Signals changes EVERYTHING?

It changes what they do.

It changes how they do it.

And a lot more.

What’s your big goal? The Jets are taken.

photo credit: moonjazz

Or at least, minimize/manage it.

Today’s guest post from Everett Bogue (posted over at Julien’s place) is a nice little wake up call if you’ve been thinking about making changes in your life (or lifestyle).

One of the biggest things about taking the big step you know you need to take is dealing with the risk involved in making the change.

Here’s one way to abolish risk.

FYI: What he’s really talking about is managing risk, but that sounds boring compared to abolishing it.

photo credit: Swami Stream

It’s just another Saturday morning (well, it was when this first went live anyhow).

What are you going to do with it?

Let’s see if this guest post from Brogan tweaks your plan for the day a little bit…

If it doesn’t tweak you, I say good for you.

Why “good for you”?

Because you must already be heading the right direction.

The rest of em have already started thinking, I hope.

photo credit: Berlin Wall by antaldaniel

Today’s guest post is from personal development speaker/author Steve Pavlina.

It’s a great message about building a life that should speak to every entrepreneur.

Happy Independence Day!

photo credit: koalazymonkey

Multitasking: We all do it and we all pretty much know how good we are at it.

You may have seen the graphical representations of the difference between multitasking and not doing so.

They go something like this: Lets say you need to complete 3 tasks that will take 3 days each.

If you single task, the first task is done in 3 days, the second one in 6 days and the third in 9 days, so it looks like this:

111222333

If you evenly alternate between them, doing a day of work on each one and then moving to the others, it looks something like this:

123123123

That means that you don’t complete a task until the end of the 7th day.

Yes, you’re doing (roughly) the same amount of work, but your focus is completely different and MOST of your work is delivered later than it ordinarily would be.

But it gets worse…

If you have 9 tasks to do and they each take 3 days, the illustration changes your view even more:

123456789123456789123456789

Task 1 isn’t finished until the nineteenth day, sixteen days later than if you weren’t multitasking.

Working in the Zone

If you do the kind of work that gets you into “the zone” (IT and other technical work is famous for this), give not-so-multitasking a try. This is why folks who do technical jobs are often sequestered away from doing customer support – the unscheduled interruptions can decimate their productivity.

Think about it: If it takes 20 minutes of reading/thought/analysis to get that programming (code/scenario) or differential equation into your head and have you thinking as if your brain were processing the program or equation, then an interruption to do customer support every 15 minutes (only 4 times an hour) will prevent someone from ever getting to that point.

And you wonder why they never reach optimal performance.

Here are some thoughts from Harvard Business Review that dig deeper into why you should stop multitasking and how to do so.

Fifteen minutes with Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv – which means you get some colorful language on occasion – but you also get a dumptruck load of value.

Gary has a way of cutting through the excuses and the cants that few can put into words like he does.

What are you waiting for?

photo credit: Roby Ferrari

Today’s guest post comes from Success Magazine, which offers up 44 ways to improve both your personal and professional life.

Check it out here.

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.

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?

photo credit: geoftheref

Today’s guest post is from @BradRourke, who posts on a litany of topics revolving around self, community organizations, business and things in-between.

The Mark Sanford meltdown was just one of his topics recently, but not so much about the paparazzi angle.

Instead, he writes about what it might take to get a fine upstanding citizen like yourself to go over the edge like Sanford did.

Hopefully you aren’t there and no one you know is there, but just in case, give it a read and see if his story (which isn’t about Sanford) sounds familiar.

You just might save someone – and it might even be yourself.

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).

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.