Business is a People Thing

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

People are everywhere, right?  Considering that my first small business successes came as buying and selling stocks, doing business face-to-face with people was something that took a while for me.  Now that technology is everywhere, you are still doing business with people on the other end of the Internet connection.

In October  1989, I was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy, and my life changed completely.  My entire business experience until then was investing in the stock market and a few other instruments profitably.  I had never done any interpersonal business yet.  It was technically, the first day of my business career.  I took a chunk of my savings ($3000)  and mailed it to a company that had published an ad in the Tuscaloosa News, and I was suddenly in business for myself, without any clue what I was doing.  The ad had specified that there was no selling involved and that I would make $100K per year!  I thought that this was perfect for me.  I had just gotten out of the military, I had limited “people” skills and apparently I didn’t need any!  Then, the 100K per year didn’t come. What did come in were many customer inquiries.  I now know them as leads, but back then, they were people who ALMOST bought my product.  The distributor support person on the phone said “You have plenty of leads now.  All you have to do is close them.”  Thus, became my first realization that business is a “people thing.”

My First Business Job

After I ended my first business learning experience in January 1990, I got a job as a manager-in-training for a (now-defunct) jewelry store chain.  It was here I learned that businesses need real customers and potential customers to walk through the door BEFORE I could make any money.  I was reasonably good and had a great teacher and mentor.  I managed a store in Meridian, Mississippi and a recession and mounting personal problems washed away my small successes.  I did retain the knowledge I had gained from managing someone else’s business before going off on my next adventure.   Sure, I knew what to do if someone came to town and wanted to buy a $3000 diamond solitaire (and it did happen a few times).  I didn’t know how to find these people and get them inside the store.  My hands were also tied by a strict marketing budget from our home office.  It’s no surprise that the company doesn’t exist today.

Technology Changed, But People Haven’t

Since then, the Internet has come along, and everything is different.  What used to cost thousands and thousands of dollars (as far as marketing and market research is concerned) now costs very little compared to the early 1990′s.  There are a lot of great technology tools to market with these days like social media and search engines, but people haven’t changed that much.  The Internet has given us tools with which to communicate more, but have you ever gotten in an argument with someone after “texting” because you couldn’t see the expression on their face or hear the tone of their voice?  Words alone on a screen are OK for communication, but it’s not the whole picture.  Technology is great for getting in front of the people you want to sell to, but closing that sale over the internet isn’t as great.  In order to sell effectively, you have to communicate that you care about their needs.  Technology can sometimes get in the way of communicating that you care about your prospect’s needs.

Although the way we communicate has changed, but we as organisms haven’t.  We still need to see the expressions on their face and the tone of their voice of our conversational counterpart to communicate effectively.

Technology Doesn’t Buy Things; People Buy Things

When you are tweaking the SEO on your web site, there is a tendency to think in numbers.  How much traffic? What’s the bounce rate and how can we improve it?  What is out search engine ranking on Google?  These are great questions to answer, but the object is still to have your web site noticed by someone who will buy from you.  A Google “spider” will not buy from you, but someone who visits your web site and says “Hey, that makes sense” will.  No one gets a job by posting a LinkedIn profile, but a job seeker can find someone with whom to have lunch, who can direct them to a better job.

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” -Peter F. Drucker

Since the overall purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer, the use of technology in business should keep the end-user in mind.  The purpose of SEO (and other tech solutions) is to find and connect with a human on the other computer who can and will buy from your business.  Even with all the technology that we have today, business is still and always be a “people” thing.

 

Filed Under: Business

My Sober Date Four Years Later

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

No alcoholic beveragesI joined the ranks of the sober on May 5, 2009.  I had always envisioned myself as the brash, hard-drinking, hard-smoking business guy.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.  The truth was that I was living in a very small apartment (long-term motel room) as I had for the last 7 or so years, drinking at least a six-pack of beer every night at home.  I  no longer could afford the bar tabs that I generated.  I used to call it “networking” when I went out to justify my drinking (even though, sometimes, I really was networking).    I would go for stretches without drinking, usually lasting about 45 days.  This was just long enough to convince myself I didn’t have a problem.  Then, I’d celebrate the little successes I had over those 45 days, usually erasing my successes and returning to the troubled things as they were. This time, after a four-day bender, I was laying in bed, feeling the pounding in my chest and feeling like hell.  I wondered that my heart was going to stop or explode.  All I could think about was everything I had not accomplished.

On May 5, 2013, I celebrated four years sober.  My life is much different now than it was before I started living my life sober.  I’m not writing this to anyone in particular, but if someone out there is considering making this lifestyle adjustment, here is how my life has improved over the last four years sober.

I live in a Nicer Apartment

I live in a nice apartment for the first time in about 13 years.  I don’t have any roommates, and I pay the rent on time.  I was living in a long-term motel for about 6 years since I moved to Atlanta.  I once lived on a picnic table in Coral Springs, FL for about 2 months.  The apartment I recently moved into is a huge improvement.

I Have Fewer Problems  When I am Sober

I was never in trouble with the law, but I did have problems that would just appear out of nowhere.  I have noticed that I have fewer problems happening than I did when I was drinking.  Life is no longer about battling from one problem to the next, but is stable and getting more enjoyable.

I Have a Clearer Sense of Direction Sober

I know what the next thing I need to work on is when working on personal and business goals.  I have a better idea of where I am going and what I am doing.

I Don’t Feel Compelled to Drink Alcohol Anymore

I actually tried this recently.  I went to a bar after work with some friends and didn’t drink alcohol.  I had my long-time favorite Coca-Cola.  I had a lot of them.  No one made fun of me, and no one shunned me.  The bartender was actually very friendly, but I also tip very well under those circumstances.  I don’t frequent bars, but I no longer fear attending social functions where other people are drinking.

I Get a Lot More Done Sober

If you ever are wondering about where you are going in life, track your time and your money.  This will lead to your greatest priorities.  The question then, is “Is my time and my money going to my greatest priorities?”  I tried this little experiment in late 2008 and discovered that my life’s purpose was drinking instead of what I thought it was.  I don’t spend a few hours every night drinking and a few more hours every morning recovering physically.  If you want a different perspective, doing that equates to the same amount of time a part-time job takes.

I like Myself a Lot More Sober

I like myself a lot more.  This is more like a net result of all the other things I have mentioned already, but I genuinely like myself a lot more.  I am building a few new web sites and working on building some business concepts and doing what I have always wanted to do.

My life, in general, is a lot better sober.  If you think that you would like to try living sober, then I highly recommend it.

 

Filed Under: Life

Define “Your Business”

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Generic BusinessI read a lot of business books compared to my co-workers and colleagues.  I recently read How to Make Millions With Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur’s Guide (1997) by Dan Kennedy.  The business examples were a little outdated, and there might be an edition that has more “information age” relevance, but the concepts behind the book are very sound.  I found one sentence that gave me a lot of “food for thought” about my business career as an entrepreneur.

“If someone else has control over your destiny, if someone else can change the economics of your business, alter our marketing rights, impede your creativity, sell the parent company, or otherwise unexpectedly interfere in your business, you don’t really have your own business.”

I don’t have any astounding successes, but I do have a lot of little successes that keep me going.  I had to think back to the days when I used to bet the farm and lose.  I had no idea of what an entrepreneur is and no idea of how to manage risk.

In my first “business”, I was a credit card distributor for a company out of St. Louis, Missouri. I followed their distributor marketing plan, never made a sale and went broke.

In my second “business,” I was a distributor for a personal care products company with a network marketing framework.  I was constantly reminded not to make any outrageous claims and then proof of income.  This was very easy because I didn’t have any income about which to boast (which should have been a red flag).

I got involved in becoming a professional waiter/bartender and someone at one of the first restaurants I worked in told me that I was in business for myself there.  Then I worked in a few restaurants in which the owner failed to execute or to market well.  I went broke because the restaurant owner didn’t know what he was doing.

In my third “business,” I finally built a “real business,” or so I thought.  My business partner thought he was my boss, and I thought he was my business partner.  There’s no need to wonder how this arrangement turned out.  I did not have control over my marketing or my financing of projects, which cost me dearly.

The last time I “bought into” a business, I started to learn this lesson’s importance.  I was following their marketing plan and wasn’t making any money.  I wasn’t going broke, but I wasn’t making any money.  I was becoming frustrated by the lack of results I had and by the rules of marketing that were more restrictions than guidelines.  I heard about social media, and how it was changing the face of marketing and I was trying a new lead generation technique with a web site I built.  Then I had to get the web site approved by their marketing department.  After a long list of changes and improvements, I got their permission to market the site for six months.

Then it came time to renew the company’s permission for my web site.  I didn’t make a single change to the web site.  Then, there came a long list of changes that I had to make to continue operating my web site.  I complied, made the changes and then resubmitted the site for review.  There came another long list of changes.  I complied and resubmitted the site for review.  Then another reviewing person wanted me to change the web site back to the way it was.  I sent an email to confirm the requests, and the answer was a vague “Do what we tell you to do or you can’t have the web site” type answer.  I quickly concluded that they didn’t want me to have the web site or control of my marketing.  I quickly got out of that business.

The moral of this story:  If your object is to create wealth, then “the best equity is exclusivity.”  You can get rich with distributorships, dealerships and franchises (buying into someone else’s business concept), but it is extremely difficult.  If they are financing your business, you are not the owner anymore; they are.  You are a manager.  If someone else controls the marketing rules for your business, you’re not the owner; you’re a sales rep.  It certainly is not be the worst place to be in the world, but at least you’ll know you aren’t the business owner anymore.  It also can impede your creativity and can limit your opportunities for growth as an entrepreneur to work someone else’s game plan.

Filed Under: Business

The Problem With “No Problem”

April 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Forget You!I used to say the phrase “No Problem.” I don’t use this phrase anymore. I hear a lot of people using the phrase with abandon.  I have only recently experienced the negative, and dismissive attitude that goes behind it.

I was at the Georgia Department of Labor in December 2011, and my unemployment “benefits” were unexpectedly cut off after two weeks.  The restaurant I was working in as a decently paid waiter had closed for good a week before Christmas, and my last $500 went to my child support payment.  I didn’t know why my benefits stopped, but I sincerely wanted to know why.  I went to my local Georgia Department of Labor office to find out.  As it turned out, it was my fault.  I worked for a temporary agency to earn a small sum of money.  Since there is no provision in their paperwork for doing temporary work, I filled out the paperwork incorrectly that caused their computers to end my unemployment “benefits.”  I wouldn’t discover this for a couple more visits. What this meant was that I wouldn’t be getting an unemployment “benefits” check this week, my rent was due, I was in a bit of a crisis, and I wasn’t handling it well.

I hadn’t totally lost my mind…yet.  After passionately stating my case to the employee who treated me like an interruption to her otherwise perfect day, I thanked her and turned to walk out the door.  Then I heard the phrase that almost led to actions that would have gotten me arrested: “No Problem.”  It stopped me in my tracks.  I composed myself, turned around, got as close to “in her face” as possible and said “Wrong. It’s a problem for me.”

Here’s the deal.  I had a problem.  It was her job to help me understand the problem so I could take a different action to solve the problem. I left with the same problem and didn’t know what to do about it (hence, she didn’t do her job).  The problem was still there.  Her response of “No Problem” sounded like another way of telling me “Go screw yourself.”

Her response of “No Problem” sounded like another way of telling me “Go screw yourself.”

I’m apparently not the only one who has noticed the recent increase of this nonchalant, dismissive response.

To the government employee’s defense, government has never been in the customer service business and never will be.  People who work for the government work for one thing: a pension.  They trudge into to their daily course every day and do as little work as possible, including take care of their “customers.” How can they get away with it?  Because they can.  There is no competing Department of Labor across the street.  The government has a monopoly on government services.  That’s why they are called government services because you can’t get them anywhere else and there is no method to complain.

Fortunately, we, as business people, don’t have that “luxury.” If you are in sales, marketing or customer service, erase the phrase “no problem” as a response to your customer’s “thank you.” The response “no problem” tells your customer that you really don’t give a damn what happens to them.  The response “no problem” tells your customer that they didn’t ruin your otherwise perfect day by bothering you with their trivial existence (that pays your bills).  A much more appropriate response is “You’re welcome,” and if you’re genuinely on your game, you can reply with “Thank you,” as in “Thank you for your business that ultimately allows me to pay my bills.” Because your customer’s business pays your bills.

But you don’t have to say all that, just remember it.  After all, you’re in business to help solve your customers’ problems.  If you don’t, someone else will.  Or you could get a job with the government…

Filed Under: Attitude, Business

Setting New Year’s Resolutions for 2013?

January 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

iStock_000014342439XSmallI have a confession to make: I have never been very good at making New Year’s resolutions. At least not intentionally.  A few years ago, I got into the habit of setting goals, following through and achieving those goals that I decided for myself.  So, why should anyone declare to a bunch of people after a couple of bottles of bubbly how they’re going to change themselves and the world starting with first thing in the morning?  If you do them just once and then make a habit of doing them over and over again, they are no longer resolutions. They become your goals.

What is a Resolution Anyway?

This is a great place to start. After all, if you don’t know what a “resolution” is, it’s kind of hard to pick them.  A “resolution” is defined by Webster as “the act of resolving.” A little further down on the page I found a definition that I liked a little better: “the act of determining.” Either way, we’re either “resolving” or “determining” to do something different from what we did in the previous year.  Maybe we ate a little too much and exercised too  little and it’s starting to show.  That would lead us to a resolution.  Maybe there’s a little too much month at the end of the money and the pinch is starting to hurt a little too much.  That would lead us to another resolution.  One of my resolutions I had a few years ago was to wake up with a lot fewer hangovers in the year and it led to my abandoning drinking alcohol altogether.  A year or two later I resolved to quit coughing so much and determined that I liked running more than I liked coughing, so I gave up smoking cigarettes.  I’m by no means perfect, but I list these as examples only, however, I highly recommend stopping drinking heavily and smoking cigarettes.

That leads us to define a “resolution” as a “desire for an improvement or a change,” at least in this context.

What does resolve mean?

If you have read any of this blog, you’ll remember that I’m a big fan of a man named Jim Rohn.  He has left us now, but he did leave us with some great advice.  I have invested some of my hard-earned money into some of his advice because it’s good advice to have.  Some of the advice he gave was on the word “resolve” and it’s meaning.  As Mr. Rohn tells the story, he was speaking to a group of children in school and the topic of the word resolve meant.  He tried to answer it to the best of his ability and then a little girl gave the best definition that he had ever heard: “I will keep trying until…” That, by the way, is a great definition of “resolve:” I will keep on trying until I die.

How to Decide On Your Resolutions: Where Does It Hurt?

Where do people get ideas for these resolutions anyway? One source I found is the most unlikely of sources: the federal government.  Of all the things, in my opinion, the government should NOT be helping me with, it’s my new year’s resolutions.  I really think they have more important things they should be doing right now (but that’s another blog post).  The best way to determine what to change in your life is to ask yourself the question “Where does it hurt?” This comes from another of the wisest men I have ever listened to, Brain Tracy. I would also highly recommend listening to both Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn.  They have a lot of great information.  That could be your first resolution.

The Resolution To Keep Resolving

What happens when you keep a new year’s resolution to keep resolving all year.  That begins another pattern.  That’s when resolutions stop staying resolutions and become goals.  When you keep resolving to resolve all year and your resolutions become goals, then that leads to improving your life and the lives of the people around you.  When you start leading in your life all sorts of wonderful changes and opportunities can open up for you.  They did for me and I’m just getting started.

Filed Under: Personal Development

Does the Election Really Matter to Small Business?

November 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Economic PuzzleI’d like to thank Barry Moltz for posting on his blog that helped get my wheels of thought turning on this topic.

Now that the presidential election is over, what does this mean for small business?  It is not news to write that this was probably THE most hyped presidential election I have ever seen in my lifetime.  Then again, there was Reagan/Carter in 1980 and, maybe Truman/Dewey in 1948.  I don’t know, I wasn’t around in 1948.  Now that it’s over, what now?

What Does This Mean to You, The Small Business Owner?

Let’s say that you are a small business owner who is struggling.  I know that the political left likes to say that business owners are sitting on their cash and in effect “going Galt,” and that might be true for larger corporations, but your average “Mom-and-Pop” small business can’t afford to do that.  Small businesses over the last few years have been hurting and fighting for their very survival.  If you don’t believe me, take a look around and count the number of “For Lease” signs in commercial real estate. Unless it is a new real estate development, the chances are pretty good that there was once a small business there.  The chances are good that you voted for Romney, although as a small business owner you might have voted for Obama.

How Big Government Relates To Small Business

The people on the far left think that government drives everything and that the social safety nets are there to catch everyone who falls.  They believe that government knows everything and that the capital belongs in the hands of the government.  They also believe that government agencies (like the Small Business Administration and the Department of Energy) fund business start-ups long before they get their first customer.  As it turns out, these people don’t know a lot about successfully running a small business if they believe these things.

I grew up in the South which might explain the next part. There are also people on the far right who believe that  certain deities control everything and that before a business can get off the ground, some religious entity has to be involved.  I’m not saying that a little prayer every now and then may not hurt.  I do know from experience that you’ve got to give a new business everything you’ve got and why not every now and then toss in a little prayer?  I’m also pretty sure that prayer won’t do everything for you.  Maybe the deity you’re praying to wants you to learn the hard way sometimes.  I don’t know.   To borrow a line from the late, great Jim Rohn, “I’m an amateur at this [religion] stuff.”

I think somewhere in the middle.  I do not believe that government funds small business successfully and that they should not fund small business.  I also believe that, even though a little prayer may not hurt, it’s not going to be the ONLY thing to get you where you want to go…especially if you believe the incorrectly repeated saying about the eye of the needle and the camel (different blog again).

Your Money and Your Vote

I have noticed that around every election time, government officials start fawning all over the small business community like a 15 year-old boy would over the latest issue of Penthouse magazine…and for nearly the same reasons.  Now that the elections are over, the big picture political picture didn’t change much.  That means that if you are struggling and you were hoping for help from the government, chances are that it’s not coming.  Let’s say that your average struggling small business owner voted for Romney in the hopes that help for your small business would come.  For the sake of debate, let’s say that Romney got elected.  Do you know how much help would be coming your way?  Probably not any at all.  Why?  It’s not the president’s responsibility to grow your business.  It’s your responsibility.

It has been my experience that government doesn’t give one fuzzy, blue damn about you or your business on an individual basis.  They want two things from you as a small business owner:  your taxes (or revenue) and your vote (permission to take your revenue).  Red or Blue, the government is not here to help small businesses grow unless it serves the government in the form of increased taxes from your small business.   Jim Rohn, one of my favorite business philosophers, said that government was like the goose that lays the golden egg in the sense that it provides the environment for us to achieve the levels of success that we deserve by working hard and working smart for it.  Taxes is how we feed the goose that lays the golden eggs.  Some would say that the goose eats too much and that is probably true.  But it is the tax revenue, mostly from small business, that keeps the goose laying the golden egg of opportunity that always prevails in this country.  There are probably politicians out there that think that raising taxes on small businesses HELPS small business.  That delusion is another blog post entirely.

The second only time that government is concerned about small business is when they are courting the small business voting bloc. It’s pretty big. Think about it.  When you consider that there were 23 million small businesses in the US around 2011, that means that there were at least 23 million business owners in 2011.  That’s a big voting bloc.  Of course, every time an election rolls around they are concerned about small businesses.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that you are responsible for the success of your small business success and no one else.  Also consider that you are also “response-able” for your small business as well, meaning that you are not responsible for everything that happens to you, but you are responsible for your response (reaction) to that event.  Yes, our taxes are probably going up, whether you make $250,ooo or less.  Is that fair?  I don’t know, that’s for us to decide individually.  That’s also for us to decide in the next election.

Filed Under: Business

Learning and More Learning

October 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If there is one thing I have been doing a lot of lately, it’s learning new things.  You may have seen this picture as part of the header of another blog site I am working on.  I didn’t download this photo from a photo stock source, like Getty Images.  I took it with my camera.  This is actually what a portion of my library looks like.  I call it my “personal development library.”  The last business I got into there was a lot of talk about this evasive thing called “personal development.”  Some people call it “self improvement.”  There are some that call it “self-help” and then proclaim that they will never read a “self-help” book.  These people will never become anything more than they already are.  I was told that all I had to do in life to overcome impossible odds were to read at least ten pages of good book a day and listen to at least a half an hour of good audio.  Sorry, but that’s how life works.  If you are not constantly learning new things and adapting to new situations, you will ne day be replaced by someone who did.  Ask any dinosaur.

I began investing in myself years ago when I had become a great failure in sales with a great company in 1999.  I didn’t see eye-to-eye with my “boss,” at least so I thought.  The real reason for my lack of success was that I couldn’t get myself out of the way.  I had many flaws of character the rest of world could see that I couldn’t.  My friends were doing the same things that I was doing like drinking beer every night and wasting my life and my money on smoking cigarettes.  It seemed like I was the only one that was dissatisfied by this, but I couldn’t see the damage I was doing to my own life and my own life’s results.

About two years ago, I undertook a challenge to read 100 business books and TheLearnMore2EarnMore.com is the result of this effort.  It chronicles the books that I have read since March 2010 when I decided that I didn’t know what I needed to know.  I recommend checking it out if you’re not happy with the results you are getting (creating) in your life.

I have completely redesigned this site and I will continuously redesign this site as time goes on.  I will try new things as I learn more things.  This is the good part and the reason that it’s the good part because I am constantly learning new things.  I highly recommend it!

Filed Under: Personal Development, Self-Education

Personal Change and Why It’s Good (aka “What To Do When Your Blog Sucks”)

September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I was thinking about two titles and I went with the first title…but I also had to include what I was thinking when I started working on this blog again.  I was reading my blog a few months ago and I thought about letting it go.  Then I thought that I might have some relevant information for other people.  I write this blog to help other people, not for my own vanity.  The problem was that I wasn’t helping too many people.  As indicated by my web analytics, not many people were visiting my blog and the only conclusion that I could come to was…that my blog sucked.  I decided that the time had come for me to put some additional work into my blog, change it…and make it…”NEW and IMPROVED!”

In the time that I first started a blog in WordPress in October 2010, it has been an opportunity to improve my knowledge of how web sites are built, how a WordPress theme operates and is interpreted by the browser (how web sites work).  It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been incredibly informative.  It is still, like any part of change, a process.  This blog is a testimony of the process of change.  In creating the positive changes in my life, I have had to change as well.  I have had to get stronger, learn more and get better at everything I do in order to improve my personal results.  It’s called “personal development”…and it’s good.

To get involved with personal development, it means you’re going places…new places.  It means that you are open-minded to changing the direction of your life and that what was once good enough…is no longer true for you.  It means that you understand that the purpose of life is to live by your values and to constantly improve your results.  It means that you are investing in yourself and changing how you do things.  For me, one of the things it means is that this blog is getting a little better and the personal rewards are worth it!

Filed Under: Change, Success

A Lesson in Personal Leadership: Now Leaving The “Comfort Zone”

July 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This is a story about  personal leadership from events that took place on June 7th.

I’ve almost got a new web site “marketable.”  I start thinking about the supporting Facebook and Google Plus page I have to build.  I have to write a blog entry.  Wait, I’m doing it right now! I have to get all my profiles saying the same thing or at least similar things. I have a new affiliate to market for on the topic of leadership.  I do one day of marketing and then, “wham!” I work two 10-12 hour days in the restaurant I work in at night. I get an email from Twitter about a bunch of other people who want to talk about “leadership” and many of them I follow and admire.  Between the exhaustion of working a job working for someone else to a surprise email from Twitter with a bunch of other people who are leadership gurus of one sort or another.  Then it happens.  My day off arrives.  I have some time off and time that I can use to get to work on what I’m working on.

This is my “comfort zone.”  The A/C is out in my apartment and will be out for an unknown period of time.  I live in Atlanta and it’s June with a high in the mid 80′s.  Thank goodness it isn’t 95 degrees outside, but it’s in the 90′s in my little apartment.   A friend of mine says I need a new restaurant job and gets me an interview.  I spend the first day laying in bed and getting nothing done.  I’m too tired to read books or even concentrate.  Part of me thinks that my inability to focus might be from fatigue.

I try to figure out just why I want to go to the interview.  I would be essentially trading one restaurant/hotel job for a restaurant job…not what the glamorous people would refer to as “glamorous.”  It’s summer and the business conventions I rely on are dwindling for the summer.  I won’t be able to increase my income to the levels I need in order to meet some of my most daunting personal goals.  It’s my fifth summer in the same apartment and the fifth summer I complain about the heat in the summer.  A new apartment will require a 40% increase in income, which my first “boss” deems impossible.  The second job seems imperative.

In the meantime, I must get that last page of the web site finished.  I think about the two blogs that I have started, and the other 5 domains I have purchased that I haven’t had a chance to get started building the web sites for…or have I been ignoring the chance to get started.  Then, I think about my appetite dropping off.  I’m normally starving by now, but all I can do is think about what I must work on next…the long list of things I must work on next.  Thinking, but not doing.  I wonder why my appetite would drop out like that.  I think of the possible unknown reasons based on survival instincts.  I realize what the problem is. It’s not that I’m overwhelmed.  It’s that I’m scared to death.  My fight or flight mechanism is trying to kick in and I am stuck in the middle like a deer in the headlights.

I wonder about the deer in the headlights.  Why does it just stay there?  Here comes impending death and doom and all it does it just stand there.  Is it that it’s trying to see what is coming at it?  Is it terror?  Then I think about my “comfort zone” and why I’m in it.  It isn’t comfortable.  It’s hot and has a very uncertain future.  It looks like I’ll be working harder for someone else than for myself…but then again this is how I fund these projects working for myself.

What did I learn from this day?  My “comfort zone” isn’t comfortable.  When in doubt of what to do next, do something…DO ANYTHING!  The first step has led to the next step and that builds into a plan.  Just don’t stay staring into the headlights of potential disaster.

 

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

Steve Farber and Extreme Leadership

June 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Radical Leap Re-EnergizedI’m kind of shocked that I haven’t written and published more about my connection to Steve Farber and Extreme Leadership more than I have.  Steve Farber is author of The Radical Leap, The Radical Edge, Greater Than Yourself and the compliation of the first two books, The Radical Leap Re-Energized.

I think it was June 2004 the first time I heard about Steve Farber and Extreme Leadership.  I was recovering from one of the toughest parts of my life.  I had crashed my business and moved to south Florida.  I was leaving my hometown of Birmingham, AL to start over in the currency and commodities options and futures business.  It was after my first two attempts at the brokerage business that had been fruitless.  It had actually landed me living on a picnic table in a park in Coral Springs, FL and waiting tables at Chili’s onUniversity Boulevard.  I moved to North Palm Beach, FL with the help of a few “friends” and starting my life over…again.

I was also Fast Company magazine’s now defunct Volunteer Coordinator for the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Special Interest Group.  It was through Fast Company magazine that I first came in contact with Steve Farber.  Steve had been a vice president and “official mouthpiece” for The Tom Peters Company; that immediately got my attention.  I had been in touch with The Tom Peters Company briefly in the late 90′s.  Steve’s having worked with THE business guru (in my eyes) made perfect sense.

At the time, I was working out of the Palm Beach Community College library that was open to the public and waiting tables at night.  I had lost my computer about a year earlier when I had lost everything.  I was desperate to figure out why things had turned out so badly and desperate to validate myself as an entrepreneur.

My introduction to Extreme Leadership came as a free book called The Radical Leap that came to me through the magazine.  I was honored that I would get a copy and that my opinion would be so valued.  Almost immediately the book resonated with me.  Here I was, in one of the toughest times of my life because I was doing what I loved to do. There were no instruction manuals and there still aren’t for entrepreneurship.  The best way to learn is to get out there and do it, no matter how many times you fail or how painful those failures are.  Success is still the goal.  If your goal is to discover failure, I can guarantee that you will find it and even find people who will help you find it.  That’s exactly what The Radical Leap said to me.

Here is one of the most important excerpts from The Radical Leap Re-Energized:

“Skateboarders developed that style [baggy shorts] so they could wear kneepads under their clothes.  But most people who wear baggy clothes have never even touched a skateboard.  They’re called posers; they want you to think they’re risk takers, and real skaters can’t stand them. Posers try to grab the skaters’ glory without putting themselves at risk.  But wearing the pants doesn’t make you a skater, wearing spandex doesn’t make you a cyclist, looking at the world through Oakley shades doesn’t make you a snowboarder, saying dude doesn’t make you a surfer and, in business, printing ‘leader’ on your calling card doesn’t mean squat.  People who wear ‘leader’ as a label without putting themselves wholeheartedly into the act of leading are just like the fashion hounds; they’re the posers of the business world.”

I think I cried when I read this.  I had lost everything in business, but I was doing everything right.  I was learning by putting “my skin in the game” and getting torn up doing it.  I was an Extreme Leader; I just hadn’t figured things out yet (and I still haven’t).

That was eight years ago and Extreme Leadership is needed more than ever from all of us. Steve Farber’s The Radical Leap and the sequel, The Radical Edge, have been republished in one volume called The Radical Leap Re-Energized.  The copy Steve sent me was much better than the one I was going to buy from Amazon because of the personal note Steve wrote in it (I have to disclose that by law now).

Steve’s book is not a “cure all, fix all” solution of any kind and neither is Extreme Leadership.  It’s the exact opposite.  It’s about taking more risks, putting more skin in the game and getting better results.  It doesn’t give you any step by step methods.  Those are your responsibility.

If you value leadership at all in your business and your life, then I highly recommend that you purchase The Radical Leap Re-Energized and make it part of your business and your life.  There is no other way to become an Extreme Leader than to pursue it, no matter how many times it hurts.  For more and immediate information on Steve Farber and Extreme Leadership visit http://www.stevefarber.com

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Leadership Tagged With:
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