Category: New Business Development

When I was younger,
I didn’t talk about my failures often.
I didn’t like the “poor you” comments
I received
when I talked about failure.
It made me feel like I did something wrong.

A few years ago,
a loved one failed
and I told him
“Try again. You can do it.”

His response?
“Fine for you to talk.
You always succeed.”

THAT was when
I realized
I wasn’t doing anyone any favors
by hiding my failures.

As Siimon Reynolds
in Why People Fail says
failure is a “forbidden subject.
We’re not supposed to fail
and if we do,
we’re supposed to hide it from everybody.
It gives people the wrong impression
about what it takes to be successful.”

Talk about your failures,
especially to the people you’re mentoring.
Take the shame out of this vital part
of being successful.

Few of us
get a new skill perfect
the first time
we try it.
We KNOW that.
We expect it.
We don’t need others
to point out
how imperfect our first try was.

What we need is encouragement
to try again.

Steve Roesler shares

“Transitions and change imply,
by definition,
that people are trying something
for the first time.
When your little child
tried out her first steps
and fell after the third one,
you didn’t offer a performance appraisal.
You hugged her, made a big fuss,
took a video,
and called the grandparents.

Offer the same to adults
who are trying something
for the first time.
Truth be told,
they are feeling like kids at that moment.”

Don’t critique that first try.

I had a discussion yesterday
with one of my buddies
about whether or not white folks were ever slaves
in the U.S.

She insisted they weren’t,
that slavery was not a white issue.

I knew that not only were the Irish enslaved
but they were valued less than African slaves
because they were cheaper to obtain.

So I told her to Google the subject.
She was shocked and dismayed
with the results
and she asked me why no one ever told her.

Exactly.
Why with all the focus on slavery
and civil rights
did no one ever tell her
these issues applied to everyone?
That we’re all more alike
than we are different?

What IS said can be questioned.
What ISN’T said is much more dangerous.

Do your own research.
Don’t accept another person’s truth blindly.

Joe Kane, electronic imaging pioneer
and creator of A Video Standard,
presented the first true gray screen
at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

This screen greatly reduces
the amount of time
spent in post production
and color correction
because everyone in the viewing room
views the picture the same way.

If I’m seated in the middle of the room
and I say the flesh tone is natural,
my buddy standing against the wall
also sees the same natural flesh tone.

There’s no dissension,
and
no time needed to prove what I see.

If you need a project to move quickly,
one of the easiest ways to accomplish this,
is to ensure everyone sees
the problem and solution in the same way.
We give them a common vision.

Odds are…
it isn’t.

I was watching
a Storage Wars marathon.

The first season,
the professional storage locker buyers
had very little competition.
They bought lockers
at low prices
and often made their money back.

In the most recent season,
due to the popularity of the show,
there are a lot of new people
getting into the business.
The professionals aren’t worried, however.
They know the business is harder
than the show makes it look.

When I say I’m a writer,
almost every person replies
that they’re writing a book also.
I nod and smile
because I know
writing is a LOT harder
than the average person realizes.

I’ve yet to find
an easy business or career.
If you want success,
you’ll have to work for it.

The good news is…
most of your potential competition
WON’T work for it.

Yep, you heard that right.

But Terrible Minds says it better.

“Fuck dreaming.
Start doing.
Dreams are great
— uh, for children.
Dreams are intangible and uncertain looks
into the future.
Dreams are fanciful flights
of improbability
— pegasus wishes
and the hopes of lonely robots.
You’re an adult, now.
It’s time to shit or get off the pot.
It’s time to wake up
or stay dreaming.
Let me say it again
because I am nothing
if not a fan of repetition:
Fuck dreaming.
Start doing.”

You have your dreams.
You’ve set your goals.
Now
DO!

Some of us struggle
with whether or not
our jobs
add value to the world.

If the product or service
you help sell
(and by working for the company,
you’re helping to sell that product)
is repurchased by customers,
it absolutely adds value to them
and to their world.

People aren’t dumb.
You may fool them once
with a useless product
but you won’t fool them twice.

If it is a one time purchase product
and your company
has been around for a while,
then it also adds value.
Folks talk.
If your product doesn’t add value,
they’ll eventually know.

Is the product/service adding the value
you want it to add?
That’s your personal call.
Is it adding value
to the people you want to help?
Again, your call.

But the product/service IS
adding value.
Jesse Lyn Stoner has a post
on more questions to ask.

Whenever I need to clean the house,
I watch Hoarders.
Seeing folks buried in their stuff
drives me to purge my house
of my own stuff.

Whenever I feel like a lazy ass
about writing,
I read articles about Nora Roberts
and I’m inspired by her almost crazy dedication
to writing
and her absolutely insane daily word count.

Seeing the extremes
shows me that my more average goal
is completely doable.
It blasts through my excuses.

If Nora Roberts can write seven novels a year,
I can write three.
If a hoarder can clean out
a house filled with stuff
in a weekend,
I can clean my relatively tidy living room
in an hour.

If you’re inspired by the extremes,
use that inspiration
to achieve your goals.

I don’t watch the news.
Surprisingly,
I don’t miss much.
I get the bulk of the information
from headlines on the internet
and from discussions with others.

Not watching the news
was a conscious choice.
The majority of news stories
are downers.
I found they
devoured my optimism,
optimism I needed to feed
my creativity.

Mike Michalowicz shares
“In some cases,
burnout is a result of depression.
The constant negativity
perpetuated by news reports,
over time,
gives many people
the false belief that all of life is horrible.
And with that comes
depression and burnout.
Try not watching or reading
the news for 30 days.
It may be the perfect burnout cure.”

Need the optimism necessary
to create?
Don’t watch the news.

I was at a party over the holidays
and a dish got broken.
As I asked the hostess
where the broom was
to sweep the broken pieces up,
she asked me
“Who broke the dish?”

My reply?
“Why does it matter
who broke the dish?”

It didn’t.
The person was embarrassed already.
It was an accident.
The incident wouldn’t be repeated.
Assigning blame wouldn’t accomplish
anything except make the person feel even worse.

When I lead projects
and mistakes happen,
I ask myself the same question.
“Does it matter
who made the mistake?”

Almost always
the answer is no
so I don’t attribute the mistake
to anyone.
There’s no upside
vs a downside of possibly
alienating the mistake maker.

Unless necessary,
don’t name the team member
who made the mistake.