I’ve been writing
one extra blog post
on this site
every day
for the past thirty days.
That might not
seem like much
…except I can now
take a month off
blogging
and still have new content
every day.
Little bits add up.
Don’t have time
right now
to design the entire packaging
for your new product?
Choose a font.
You have time to do that.
Eventually, the packaging
will be completely crafted.
Do a little bit
every day.
A loved one
buys fully grown plants
for her garden
every year.
She doesn’t have
the patience
to grow anything
from seed.
She wants instant results.
She would be a disaster
at building a business.
To build a business,
patience is a must have trait.
We have to be emotionally able
to wait
for results.
Know who you are
as a person
before you start
a business.
If you don’t
have the patience
to grow a plant
from a seed,
you likely don’t
have the patience
to build a successful business.
Even the WHO has admitted
that 1 in 10 COVID infections
result in long COVID.
On average,
North Americans are catching
COVID 2 times a year.
That means
roughly
EVERYONE will have long COVID
in 5 years.
Design your business
around that.
Assume the population
will be ill.
Minimize the number of people
needed to run your business
and to produce your product.
Make your product
easy for an ill person
to use.
Heck, make your marketing
easy for an ill person
to understand.
Prepare yourself
and your business
for this new reality.
It is coming.
Design your business
around an ailing population.
The number one qualification
for an advisor or mentor
is…
They want you
to be successful.
You might think
well…
that’s a no-brainer.
IS it?
Over the past few years,
we’ve learned
that most people
won’t wear a piece of fabric
over their faces
to save our lives.
They are certainly
not exerting themselves
to give people
quality advice.
Not everyone who mentors
wants you to be successful.
Find yourself
a mentor or advisor
who wishes the best for you.
Once a year,
I evaluate this blog
and I ask myself
if it is still adding value
for me.
Does it give me joy?
Is it worth the time investment?
This year,
the answer was ‘yes.’
It was ‘no’
for some other businesses,
processes, routines
I was investing in, however.
They had worked
for me
in the past.
But today, the situation was different.
They no longer worked for me.
So I stopped investing in them.
I’m using that time and resources
elsewhere.
Are all your routines,
processes, businesses
still working for you?
A wet bulb temperature
(100% humidity)
of 31C/87.8F
will kill a healthy person
in three hours.
That’s a hard limit.
Nothing we can do
will change it.
We could stay still,
hydrate,
sit in the shade,
and none of that
would help us.
While building our businesses,
it is important
to set our hard limits
also.
One of my hard limits
with the romance novel business,
for example,
is I would never
write a romance novel
that didn’t have
a romantic happy ever after.
A romantic happy ever after
is my definition
of what a romance novel is.
I wouldn’t try to trick
the reader into reading
a different type of story.
Decide now
what you would never EVER do.
Write it down.
Stick to that hard limit.
I always send gifts
early.
Early is a wonderful surprise.
My gifts are often the first.
They aren’t competing
with other gifts
for attention.
They’re special.
On time is expected.
It is the norm.
The gift will be
one in the sea of many.
It will be compared
to the others.
Late is often hurtful.
It means the giver forgot.
The gift receiver
is an afterthought.
They assume
at that point
no gift will be given.
This type of thinking
can be applied
to the delivery of your products
or to the completion
of a task
you owe the team.
Deliver early
if that is possible.
A loved one’s company
outright lied
on several ‘facts’
dealing with his dismissal.
This loved one
has documentation
that proves they lied.
He kept emails
and detailed notes
on communications.
This documentation
will be the difference
between getting severance
and not getting any compensation.
The company is
Fortune 500.
It is large
and profitable
and has a brand
to protect.
Yet they are willing
to lie
to avoid paying
a small severance.
What would a company
do
to get out of a contract
with your company
without paying penalties?
Document everything.
There is no such thing
as honor in business
anymore
…if there ever was
such a thing.
I’ve been following the disaster
that is this year’s
Giro d’Italia.
Day after day,
top competitors
have dropped out
due to COVID.
It has become
quite clear
that one of the biggest
strategic advantages
in that race
will be
merely staying healthy.
I strongly believe
that is true now
in ALL fields,
not only competitive racing.
Staying healthy
or healthier
means we’re able to do more sh*t,
go more places,
think clearly.
All of that
will increase our chances
of success.
Do what you can
to stay as healthy as possible.
I ask a person for help
usually about twice.
If they refuse to help
both times,
I stop asking them.
And I ask someone else.
This might seem like
a no-brainer rule.
Why would you continue
to ask
someone who won’t be helpful
for help?
Yet we do this
ALL the time.
Usually we do it
with loved ones,
with parents
or spouses
or siblings.
And it causes us
heartache.
Stop asking
people who won’t help us
for help.
Focus on the people
who WILL help us.