Jul 18 2017

Increase Your “Inside” Strength!

“That which does 

 not cause my death,

    increases my strength!”

— Samuel Johnson or Frederich Nietzsche in the mid-late 1800’s

     It really doesn’t matter who said it or when. What matters is that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinkers need to take heed now. Why? Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinkers are often thought to be over-acting “drama queens” because they rarely worry about hiding their emotions. They tend to become excited about anything and everything that leads to forward movement of their “burning desire” idea.

     And, yes, these same enthusiasts will also over-react to negative news about anything that impedes the progress of making their idea work.

     If you fit this description, or if you work or live with someone who does— lo and behold!– you can actually make a difference in the equation!

     It’s called REALITY. A good strong does of reality will take away any pain, any upset, and tendency to engage in analysis paralysis. Being realistic is, after all, the key ingredient of five essential criteria that define effective goal-setting and successful goal-pursuit.

     REALITY is a slippery piece of soap for many even thought they may honor its value. Reality has a way of turning quickly to fantasy whenever things don’t seem to be going right.

     It is, after all, much easier to get “lost” in fantasyland than it is to “shape up” mentally or physically or emotionally to the point of being able to most effectively deal with what’s right in front of your face.

     But, alas, this was why breathing was invented, don’t you think? Every breath– like every heartbeat and pulse throb– has the ability to put us in touch with reality . . . with what’s going on this very split second . . . vs. past (more than a few seconds old, over which we have no control and cannot change even if we want to), and future (more than a few seconds ahead of the air and space and mindset we are in at this exact split second, and which, of course, may never happen anyway).

     So, bottom line: no need to fret. Just pay attention to your SELFWhen you begin to feel upset, choose to focus your attention on your heartbeat or pulse, pinch yourself, take a deep breath, then get back to dealing with the next incoming immediate split second of your life. Let go of what’s over and what hasn’t come. Stay with where you are this minute. It COULD make a difference for you between a headache or backache or an ulcer or or heart attack or stroke. And if it does, consider how much stronger it has made you, or makes you this very next breath and, hopefully, the many more to follow.

# # #

 

Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jan 29 2017

KNOWING WHEN AND WHERE TO STOP . . .

RELENTLESS PURSUITS

Can They Sputter and Flip Into Reverse?

 

The crazier you become about an entrepreneurial venture, the better it is IF you are (actually, and against all odds) a true entrepreneur.

If, in other words, you  work yourself into a frenzy because you have what you think is a great idea, you start thinking about applying to “Shark Tank,” you’re ready to bet the farm on your brainstorm because friends and family encourage you, and you know in your heart you’ve got what it takes to revolutionize the marketplace.

But–in the end– you don’t have that magical,

mystical entrepreneurial INSTINCT:

Prepare to Crash!

“Entrepreneurship” is NOT what all the universities and

colleges and entrepreneur centers are actually teaching.

  • Just because some disillusioned government leader rewards the dreams of an aspiring faculty member a wad of grant money, doesn’t mean you, the student, will learn how and be able to become an entrepreneur. 
  • Just because some misguided instructor thinks that “teaching entrepreneurship” will generate increased personal income for her or his family vacations while simultaneously being able to ignite the community economy, doesn’t mean you, the student, will learn how and be able to become an entrepreneur.
  • And just because campus administrators are dancing in the board room because one of their faculty has just generated grant money into their building fund, does not mean that you, as a student, will learn how and be able to become an entrepreneur. 

Neither does any of it mean that what you learn can be turned into a cash cow for you or your friends or family or community–all of whom, because of your genius and your wonderful entrepreneurial training will be able to live happily ever after.

B e c a u s e :

No one can TEACH you

how to become an entrepreneur!

 

You can learn about how an entrepreneur thinks and acts and makes things happen, and you can convince yourself that you can muster what it takes to follow these guidelines into Entrepreneurville.

You will hopefully discover in time to save your savings that entrepreneurs are NOT the risk-takers most of society would have us believe. Risk-taking is NOT a trait of entrepreneurs. Real entrepreneurs take only REASONABLE risks.

But you can’t and you won’t fit the elusive entrepreneurial “mold” (if there is such a thing) unless you were born with the instinct — the will to succeed at all costs and, the most crucial characteristic: the ability to take the intuitive steps necessary to make that happen.

Lectures and textbooks and “hands-on” activities can give you a sense of what it’s all about, but they cannot instill instinct. 

Does not having this deep-seated sense of intuition the inherent ability to have innate, inherent, inbred, spontaneous, consistently productive hunches-mean that you’ll fail?

No. It simply means you are not an entrepreneur. But not being the entrepreneur you thought you were doesn’t mean you are doomed to failure.

You may simply need to rise to the occasion of being contented with being the best you can be instead of trying to be something you’re not. You may need to settle with the notion that success translates to hard work that produces steady long-term business growth, and to having to struggle through setbacks you never saw coming. Above all, you need to accept and work within the framework of reality. Yes, reality!

As with the critical 5 criteria of effective goal-setting (being specific, flexible, realistic, due-dated, and in writing), true entrepreneurship is marked first and foremost by being realistic!

And just as not meeting all five goal-setting criteria produces nothing more than a wish-list ticket to Fantasyland, so too does a reckless charge at entrepreneurship end up producing failure by cultivating a business-life platform based on make-believe.

All the time? No. Nothing is always, including the word “nothing.”

 

So the bottom line IS:

If you’re entrepreneur material, you’ll know it and so will others (including savvy investors).

If you’re not a true entrepreneur, welcome to the vast majority of businesspeople and the reality that –even though you may have missed the “E” Ship– your odds for business startup and growth success are measured exclusively by: how hard you’re willing to work at making your venture productive for yourself, your family, for those who work with you, and for your community.

Your actions may need to be more calculated than spontaneous, but that doesn’t mean they will end up having any less impact. What’s important is that you start out by being realistic and by measuring the steps you take with a reality yardstick.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that some educational venue or individual can teach you how to launch your interests into outer space… to become another Steve Jobs, or Lori Greiner, or Mike Lindell, or Mark Zuckerberg, or Oprah Winfrey, or Donald Trump, or Beyonce, or Mark Cuban, or Frank Purdue.

Accept yourself for who you are,

but never settle for who you are

capable of becoming.

Courses on entrepreneurship may help shed some light on the directions and kinds of decisions that produce entrepreneurial success stories, but choosing those directions for yourself and making those kinds of decisions will not make you an entrepreneur anymore than a new car or suit of clothes will make you into another person. They may make you feel good, but they won’t change your skill set.

Work at and stick to

what you know best,

and what you do best,

and what you like most

. . . and you will succeed!

TRUST YOURSELF!

 

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US             931.854.0474

Guidance to Over 500 Successful Business Startups

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

God Bless You and Thank You for Your Visit!

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Aug 03 2016

Not Leadership, Not Teamwork, Not Investors, Not…

BOOST YOUR BUSINESS?

GROWTH BLOCKS

 

…STOP LOOKING OUT SIDE!

 

If you thought leadership, teamwork, investors or data-based analysis would boost your business into the spotlight, you’re probably wrong.

 

All of these are ingredients –that used wisely– can contribute to business success, but none will make the kind of difference that entrepreneurial thinking can deliver. This single quality offers the greatest success dynamic possible.

It is at the heart of all Internet, and tech innovation, as well as product and service-product development.

It is the cornerstone of all brick and mortar and service businesses. Yet it is most often overlooked, unacknowledged, intentionally disregarded, and seldom credited.

Creative ThinkingBut it is entrepreneurial thinking that ignites and electrifies all other business-boosting ingredients. Entrepreneurial thinking is what launches leadership, teamwork, investor support, and data-analysis meaningfulness into a flexible productivity orbit.

Entrepreneurial thinking is the funnel through which energy, enthusiasm, and reality must pass in order to lift a business enterprise off its feet.

Okay, so how does one acquire this magical capability? By nurturing free-spirited approaches to problem-solving.

Is this the same thing as “out-of-the-box” thinking? Not really:

Entrepreneurial thinking has no box to be out of.

It is unconfined to start with.

 

Sadly, not everyone understands it or has the wherewithal to coax it out onto center stage. Remember (especially academia!!), that entrepreneurship is an instinct — not a learned skill.

But if you are one of those who find this subject elusive, there are others –probably within your own circle of contacts– who readily exercise entrepreneurial thinking processes and who may find the opportunity to apply themselves to your pursuits in ways that prove personally rewarding to them, or at least tempting. You’ll never know unless you ask.

So use it, or find it, or buy it . . . nothing else can truly boost your business to where you think it deserves to be.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

931.854.0474 Coaching for Higher Branding Impact

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Personal & Professional Growth/ Creative Entrepreneurial Thinking

 

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Jun 05 2011

Someone’s Opinion of You

“Someone’s opinion of you

                             

   does not have to become 

                                           

   your reality.”

                                                                                         

—Motivational Speaker Les Brown

                                                                                     

Let’s look at it this way: You are reading this right now because you are an entrepreneurial thinker and/or leader, because you own or operate or manage a small business or professional practice, or because you are a partner or investor in, or advisor to (or a student of) small business.

If this is true of you, then you know you are made of different stuff than are corporate or union folks, or those engaged in mass media. . . or government employees (from the White House to your State House, County Seat and Town Hall . . . including all levels of government agencies) . . . or those theoretical academic types.

Let’s put all those people aside for a minute. (Yes, of course there are exceptions; I’m talking about the overwhelming, vast majority of individuals who simply don’t get it, and who prefer being sheep!)

You, on the other hand, have a brain. And common sense skills. You know how to think and act productively.

You are focused on the here-and-now present-moment more than most people, and have little or no use for analyzing the past or fantasizing the future, beyond getting your ideas to work.

You know how to make things happen.

You have a sense of urgency, and you know how to “turn on a dime” when it’s time to change direction or meet a market need.

You create your own opportunities and are not afraid to step up to the plate when they arise — plus, you are smart enough to know how to get yourself on base without swinging wildly for the seats on every pitch.

                                                                        

Okay, so as far as others cut from the same fabric as you are concerned, all of the above makes you a (no gender implied) “Good Guy.” (There are 30 million of us!)  

But–alas–those admirable qualities that set the entrepreneurially-minded apart from the closed-minded also fail to insulate small business enterprise high-achievers from warped opinions!

Here’s the bottom line: When you find yourself beginning to worry about others’ opinions of you, your behavior, the way you run your business, the kind of schedule you keep, ask first if you are behaving legally and second if you are sacrificing your own health or your family’s existence.

If it’s “no” to both of these questions, change the channel.

It’s your brain. You are the only one who controls your brain. Simply change the mental channel in your brain from whatever self-denial, self-badgering, self-guilt station is playing, to something more challenging or geared more to easy listening.

It’s a choice. You can choose to rise above other’s opinions and pursue your burning desires freely.

Imagine if Edison or Ford or Gates or Winfrey or Ashe or Carnegie or Jobs or any great entrepreneur had balked at others’ negative opinions. We’d probably be –just for starters– without lightbulbs, cars and computers. Don’t choose for the negative opinions of those who can’t see your light to create darkness for your business ventures.

There’s too much to do, and life is too short to waste time dwelling on or worrying about other people’s opinions. Because–in the end– all you have for certain is you!

                                                                    

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Apr 17 2011

Set Your Assets On Fire!

Before you throw all your

                                     

  tech stuff on the BBQ . . .

                                                                                                    

 

Recognize, first and foremost, that your greatest assets are your people. If you’re a one-man-band, maybe “your people” are a loving spouse, partner, children or parents who assist you, or a reliable friend or two who consistently refer(s) others to you . . . or a hotbed of talented interns.

If you’re the owner of a small to medium-size business, perhaps “your people” are account or department or office or branch managers.

The point is that I am NOT suggesting you run around torching these folks, or even giving any of them a baseball-dugout-style “hotfoot.”  I AM suggesting that you ask yourself (and answer) the following questions:

                                                                              

Can you readily identify and easily separate your internal and external customers?

What percentage of each day are you actively marketing to each group?

In other words:

  • How much and how often are you (externally) marketing your people?

  • How much and how often are you (internally) marketing TO your people?

  • How much and how often are you (internally AND externally) marketing THROUGH your people?

                                                                               

Do you think the meaning of Customer Service is to have a Customer Service person or department?

  • If each and every one of your internal customers know how to relate to and respond to external customers, why would you have to pay someone or a group to perform this function?

  • Ideally, anyone in your organization whom I might reach by phone or meet in-person should be able to handle my customer service needs.

                                                                  

Your marketing people or your own marketing sense tell(s) you how to motivate external customers. You surely have a strong idea of what sells and what doesn’t sell them on your product(s) and/or service(s). Do you have a sense of confidence about the best ways to motivate internal customers?

Do you apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

                                                     

If you try (or have tried to) apply Maslow’s Hierarchy, are you (or have you) doing (done) it from a position of strength — by first being a detective to understand individual “hot spots”? Has this approach helped you to realize that the best internal customer rewards are not (in spite of all popular beliefs) not always cash, raises, and bonuses?

As a leader who is heavily invested in growing the loyalty, respect, and receptivity of both internal and external customers, are you making a conscious effort to breed entrepreneurial thinking accompanied by reasonable risk-taking behaviors? Or are you breeding investment in the status quo?

Are you fostering and nurturing innovation. Do your people come to you with just ideas, or do they fully exploit the ideas they propose with well thought out paths for implementation that include all possible operational, financial and marketing applications? Do you get a thorough and complete picture instead of just a quick sketch? 

Having great people behind you is great for your ego. Having great people behind you who are inspired and highly motivated, who deliver comprehensive plans of attack, is great for your business.

Which is more important? 

 

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302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 01 2010

The Entrepreneurial Mind

If you think you have an 

                               

entrepreneurial mind,

                                            

it’s probably because

                         

you have no mind left!

  

Anyone in their right mind would hardly choose an entrepreneurial career path if, indeed, any sense of logic was to prevail on the ultimate decision.

Those who go to college and major in entrepreneurship, imagining themselves as the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mary Kay Ash or Henry Ford should instead imagine themselves as job candidates for Disney World.

                                                    

Entrepreneurship is not an academic pursuit, and any college that offers it, pretending that it will produce graduates capable of changing the world should have its legs kicked out from under it.

I graduated from The New School for Entrepreneurs. I have taught entrepreneurship in college and university classrooms, and in private training facilities. I’ve written books and articles on it.

Entrepreneurship is an instinctive, gut, behavioral attitude that is more often inherited than learned.

 

It comes with the territory of growing up in a family or home where some influential person (father? mother? uncle? brother? next door neighbor?) has made a living by exercising an innovative spirit and taking reasonable risks in pursuit of a burning desire to make an idea succeed.

People can learn ABOUT entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ventures and enterprises and mindsets, but people cannot be transformed into entrepreneurs out of thin air simply because they can complete some egotistical business flunkie professor’s course outline with flying colors.

Wouldn’t that professor be a successful entrepreneur instead of a has-been academic?

At one weak point in my corporate life and academic existence that followed, I actually bought the theory that entrepreneurs could be made as well as born. It’s not true.

Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs, and those of us who are not entrepreneurs should stop pretending we are.

The pathway to independent business success is becoming irrevocably clogged and impassable. Legitimate entrepreneurs are being denied access to big-time success by the tsunami of incompetence being churned out by so-called “higher education.”

Hey, who can blame those struggling academic administrator types? After all, the promise of delivering entrepreneurial graduates sounds delicious to the communities-at-large.

 

The implied promises of happiness that accompany the freedom of working for oneself are expounded upon.

The local media rise to the occasion of making it all look like an admirable life pursuit, and even sponsor entrepreneur award programs (no doubt as investments in future media advertising paybacks from the soon-to-be business successes).

The saddest fallout is that naive parents –who want to see Susie and Charlie Jr. succeed at any cost– swallow the whole enchilada.

Their kids see a clear opening all the way to the fifty-yard line without interference, and four years of partytime capped by an office or store with their names in lights and lots of free time.

They see themselves reporting to no one, and having the wherewithal to pursue other life challenges, like travel and sports and surfing the Net and dating and all that other stuff that respected well-to-do business owners do.

And all the time, they are with dollar signs in their eyeballs.

The trouble is no one thinks about the surprises of needing collateral to get a bank loan or the realities of venture capitalists offering only a sliver of interest in a highly narrow field of business interests . . . and then wanting 65% ownership plus immediate return of their investments.

Little if any thought is given to who’s going to support whom during the years of startup or of (ahem!) unexpected parenting realities (Hmmm, some do manage to make time for some non-business endeavors). 

Not a pretty picture. Nine out of eleven businesses fail in the first five years. It takes six years just to break even. It’s no wonder that people opt for thirty years of brain-dead government work, at higher pay than any comparable position in the private sector. You think some thing’s wrong with this picture? Maybe you should think about voting for a government with business experience next go-round?

~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 18 2008

THE ENTREPRENURIAL WAY

Do it upsidedown

                                                                                                   

insideout

                                                                   

and backwards!

                                                                                 

     Stop just THINKING outside the box.  Hop, skip, and jump outta there! 

     It’s been a while since we’ve talked about creative and innovative business methods and models, but I’m sure you remember me saying that creative ideas in business are worthless unless you can follow through with all the details, which takes a creative idea out of its tailspin and thrusts it forward onto an innovative runway.  Much like taking fantasy into the realm of reality.

     Well, now I’m about to share the thinking that creative ideas in business are really okay when they’re used as a stimulous to entrepreneurial thinking, like a trial and error approach to deciding worthiness for innovative applications.

     Here’s the bottom line.  When you hit a wall, a writer’s block, a blank, and nothing in your traditional arsenal seems to work, it’s time to get down on the floor on your hands and knees and play with the nearest baby, or puppy. 

     Now, I’m not talking token play here.  This is serious stuff!  That means you need to laugh!  Let’s face it, if you can’t laugh at yourself and giggle with the baby and bark back at the puppy, you’re not cut out to run a business.  You need corporate confinement, or a shrink.   

     Here’s the deal.  Got stuck?  Don’t waste a minute.  Immediately withdraw from your computer, your desk, your office, your briefcase, your cell phone and any other business entanglements, and RUN! 

     Run to the nearest source of relief, the nearest distant world, the farthest away mental or physical place you can, then shake your booty, rattle your cage, stick out your tongue.  Put yourself in a totally foreign situation. 

     Hey, a trip to the islands is great if you can afford the price and the time, but I’m talking about an entrepreneurial quick-fix approach. 

     Take a different route to work, and home.  Brush your teeth with your other hand.  Scrub under your other armpit first for a change.  Put your underwear on insideout.  Try doing things backwards and upsidedown.  CAN YOU DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY FOR A DAY?  Watch what happens.  You will amaze yourself! 

     Don’t take my word for it; visit or call someone you know who makes a living by being creative (a writer, painter, musician, stage performer, broadcast personality, sculptor, designer) and ask her or him what’s the best way to stimulate the creative juices.  The answer will relate to doing things differently.

     INVENTORY YOURSELF.  How does it feel?  After you get past the feeling stupid part, how does it feel? 

     What does doing things differently do to your thoughts and expectations about who you really are and what you normally do in different circumstances?  What can this exercise teach you about you? 

     Remember the more you know about what makes you tick, the more you can control your own destiny and the better you’ll relate to others, and be able to help them.  In business, making a sales means helping someone to get what she or he wants or needs. 

The more you know about you, the more you’ll sell!      

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