I spent a couple days
rereading some of the stories
I’ve written.
They’re good.
That’s why they were published.
Rereading them reassured me
that I could write
another good story.
They powered me up
to start that story.
If your a$$ is dragging,
consider taking a few moments
or a few days
to review some of your past accomplishments,
your past wins.
That might be
the energy and confident boost
you need.
It is wildfire season
in my part of the world.
We didn’t have
wildfire ‘seasons’
20 years ago.
There were rare wildfires
but definitely no season of them.
That has changed.
Wildfires are
no longer rare
anywhere on the planet.
As business builders,
we should plan for them.
We should upgrade
ventilation systems
in our stores, our offices,
our homes
to deal with the smoke.
We should have a plan
for our businesses, our homes,
our employees, ourselves
if we have to evacuate
in a hurry.
We should have masks
and other gear
for employees working outside
(this includes delivery people).
Wildfire ‘seasons’ are here
to stay.
Plan for them.
There is a big push
right now
to ‘put women back in their place’
and that place
seems to be in the home,
under complete control of men,
having babies
and following orders.
One of the arguments
for this movement
is…
birth rates are down.
We’re running out of people.
Which is complete
bullsh*t.
Birth rates might be down
in little pockets of the world.
But we are NOT running out of humans.
We are averaging
401,300 births a day
and
158,686 deaths a day
on a planet
with limits,
limits we’ve surpassed.
We have WAY too many humans
(which is why, I suspect,
our leaders are doing nothing
to stop the multiple pandemics
happening right now).
If you have a choice
between having kids
and building a business,
choose the option
that brings you the most happiness.
For me,
that is and always will be
building a business.
I am child free
and super happy to be child free.
I am also, ironically,
often surrounded by children
and I’m happy for that also.
Make the decision
that is right for you.
I often use
the past to help predict
the future.
I’ll look at past sales
for vampire romances, for example,
to help predict
how many sales
my vampire romance
might have.
In the past,
this prediction
was dang close.
Today?
It could be
business-flatteningly off.
The world has changed
significantly.
In the book world,
AI and COVID
has shifted the baselines.
But we are also in a new era
for climate
and pandemics
and politics
and almost everything else.
Being VERY cautious
when using the past
to predict the future.
A writer asked me publicly
if there was a market
for a certain type of story
in my specific niche.
They looked to me
as an expert.
I didn’t know
if there was a market
so I said…
Exactly that.
“I don’t know.”
Some commenters mocked me.
Some questioned my expertise.
They’re dumba$$es.
I ignored them.
Because no one,
including experts,
knows everything about their field.
No one
has all the answers.
Making sh*t up
to appease the dumba$$es
makes us look like idiots
to knowledgeable people
and erodes our stances
as experts in our own fields.
Say “I don’t know”
if you don’t know.
The WHO quietly upgraded
all their ventilation systems
in 2020
while proclaiming to the world
COVID wasn’t airborne.
They KNEW it was airborne.
(Now, they’re claiming
they couldn’t say that
because the entire world
couldn’t upgrade their ventilation systems
and having only wealthy countries
do that
wouldn’t be ‘fair.’)
Leaders lie.
They lie constantly.
Their words,
their advice
often has very little meaning.
There’s a meme
floating around the internet
that when leaders say
not to panic,
that is when we should panic.
That meme isn’t a joke.
It is reality.
Watch what leaders DO.
Are they quietly taking action?
Take that same action.
‘Cause we know
they’ll save their own lives,
guard their own cash,
protect their own businesses
first.
Watch what leaders do.
The last frost date
in my part of the world
was, at least,
2 full weeks earlier
than expected.
The seed company
I ordered from
sent their spring bulbs and roots
two weeks late.
When the bulbs and roots arrived,
the ground was already warm and dry
which means those bulbs and roots,
the seed company’s products,
are at high risk of dying
or failing.
Product failures result
in either
customers wanting a refund
or
being VERY unhappy with the company.
The situation for
commercial food production
is worse.
Some farmers didn’t have their seed
to plant.
If they DID have their seed
to plant,
they likely didn’t have the workers
to plant those seeds
on site.
If they DID have the seed
and the workers,
the farmers likely won’t have
the processing system,
the delivery system
and the selling system
available to them
when the crops are harvested
two weeks early.
Farmers, farm workers,
processing plants/hub, truckers, grocery stores
and eventually consumers
will be impacted.
It is a mess.
And all that was caused
by the last frost date being moved up
by two weeks.
Is your system flexible enough
to deal with a shift
of two weeks or more
in timelines?
The Red Car Phenomenon
or Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
roughly states
that once you start to look for something,
you tend to see it everywhere.
You might not notice red cars,
for example,
before you started looking
for them
but now that you ARE looking
for red cars,
you see them everywhere.
You might think
there are more red cars
than there actually are.
The red car phenomenon
greatly benefits business builders.
Once we start looking
for opportunities,
we see them everywhere.
Look for opportunities.
Governments are, right now,
hiding the true impact
of Bird Flu.
I suspect they are hoping
it will go away
and they won’t have
to make tough leadership decisions.
What it is truly doing
is making the Bird Flu situation
much, MUCH worse.
They aren’t giving scientists
the data
for them to manage it,
stop it,
cure it.
Right now,
I suspect you have a problem
you’re tempted to hide.
I certainly have a problem
like that.
Hiding the problem
will likely make it worse.
Share your problem
with people or entities
that can help you
address it.
That’s the best way
to make it go away.
I started gardening
because I know food shortages
are coming
and anything I can do to help
will…help.
I started gardening NOW
because I also know
it often takes multiple tries
to get something to work.
I don’t want to be
learning
how to garden
and making those dumba$$ mistakes
when I desperately need
the garden to produce food.
You might not need
the income from a small business
now
but start now.
Because you WILL make
dumba$$ mistakes
and it WILL likely take
multiple tries
to get your product/service right.
Give yourself that time
before you desperately need
the income from the business.