Apr 07 2011

Businessball

Git yer glove

                            

an’ git in the game!

                  

                     

Keep your eye on the ball! Catch the ball! Throw the ball! See the ball! Hit the ball! This is not advanced calculus, statistical derivation, chemical formulae, rocket science or brain surgery. It’s simple concentration. Concentration.

                                                                                        

Odds are that the business or professional practice owner, partner, operator, or manager who has been blessed with strong concentration skills has put her or his business way ahead of the game . . . is already keeping an eye on the ball, and achieving the success that many entrepreneurs merely dream about.

  • Can you edit a technical report on a work-from-home day while the TV blares, the kids scream and the neighbor’s dog barks incessantly at scampering squirrels? 
  • Can you outline a strategic plan while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic?
  • Can you draft your tax return while chaperoning a birthday party at Chucky Cheese?
  • Can you write a publishable poem while touring or working on an active construction site?
  • Can you read and grasp a chapter in Follett’s Fall of Giants or Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram or Gruber’s The Book of Air and Shadows (or extract some meaningful business guidance from the Bible?) while you’re sitting in Grand Central Station at rush hour?
                                                                          

If you answer “Yes” to any of the above, you can probably answer “Yes” to all of the above, and probably need no help or pep talk today, and should just go your merry way and return Saturday for some new stimulation. Adios y gracias!

Now, if you’re still here, allow me to suggest that you might start exploring ways to start out “on the ball” every day, all day long. Because that’s what it will take if you expect to catch that shooting star you fantasize about. You thought maybe you could take a pass an hour or two a day or a day or two a week? Sorry Charlie!

But it’s so hard! So is success! Unless of course you choose for it to be easy, in which case it will definitely be easier than if you choose for it to be hard! Got it? It’s all a matter of improving your concentration skills and ability to focus full attention on what you’re doing AS you’re doing it — on keeping your mind in the here-and-now present moment.

People with great concentration skills are those who understand that their pulse and heartbeats and breathing are the most immediate human signals of here-and-nowness.

If you’re an entrepreneur and dismiss these kinds of messages off-hand, don’t waste the negative energy.

You cannot ignore yourself and expect your business to win!

                                                               

If you believe —as most of the thousands of small business principals I’ve known seem to me to believe– that you are here in your business and community, on this planet, to make a difference, you need to accept that the place to start and to keep your eye on the ball with is your SELF. Here’s one place to begin or booster-shot that journey. 

Play Businessball every day (and Familyball too for the positiveness and high energy it will prompt). Everything will grow with your growing focus. Get it. Grow it. Keep it. Spread it around.

Posts RSS Feed FREE Blog Subscription

# # #

                                               

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!

3 responses so far

Apr 04 2011

Budget woes? Slash a trillion!

C’mon . . .When was the last

                                         

time you ever remember 

                                   

in your whole entire life

                                    

having a “trillion”

                             

of ANYthing????  

                                   

                          

Have you been listening to all the politicians talk about budget-slashing? They must be kidding!

Hey, it’s definitely no joke the economic mess we’re in. And TRUTH? Truth is -no matter who says what– truth is that we’ve got to live with it all for at least another three years. It’ll take a year and a half or more just for the new White House to undo the reckless spending tangle that the great “Hope and Change” hero created.

Business Owners Beware!

                                                                                   

If you own a business and you’re not already working at unseating the socialism plague that’s practically brought you to your knees, you must be part of that crowd that thinks it understands “trillions.” I just read somewhere that a million dollars a day every day since Jesus died wouldn’t even add up to close to a trillion dollars.

The deal is that you must protect your budget without tearing it out by the roots. Oh wait, that’s your hair. Well, the thing is that if your business budget isn’t bare bones yet, you may already be out of hair and roots!

Here’s an example of spending priorities

that smart business owners must consider:

                                                                            
  • MARKETING — You should be spending money for a professional marketing or branding writer to create your sales messages, but you should NOT be spending money needlessly to get your messages out.

Maybe that sounds like a “Catch 22”? It’s not. There are plenty of ways to reach your target market effectively for free, but you’d better be saying something worthy of capturing attention, creating interest, stimulating desire, and bringing about action and satisfaction, or get back to your budget board and start all over!

  • OVERHEAD — Of course you have to pay the mortgage or the rent, but can you sublet part or all the space to a business that operates when yours doesn’t? Many instructional program businesses operate in evening or weekend hours. Do you have extra space you don’t need that you can separate from your workspace?

A lumberyard office building barters one small corner of space to a moonlighting graphic designer who provides the lumber company with free brochure and flyer designs in exchange for the space, electricity, and computer hookup.

  • PAYROLL —Maybe space-sharing’s not practical, but what about sharing people? A centralized reception area and receptionist can save two or three or four businesses money and afford to hire a hard-working quality employee.

There’s much to be said for the old entrepreneurial “incubator” days, where all kinds of services and workspaces were shared. These included common area receptionists, centralized booked-time conference rooms, cleaning supplies and maintenance services, delivery and fuel costs, security systems, office supplies. If you can think it, try it!

  • PROFESSIONAL SERVICES — When did you ever meet an accountant or lawyer or consultant or creative service person who wouldn’t be please to offer a discount for two, two, two clients in one? (Oh, that was “mints”? Sorry.)  

This kind of arrangement is especially win-win when common elements or interests prevail. Adjoining physical therapy and occupational therapy offices that both require similar electronic medical forms maintenance for insurance coverage reimbursements. A publisher and designer who both need a copyright lawyer.

Dig out your imagination here. Do the railroad track warning thing: STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN. Look around at what you’re doing from the standpoint of sharing, bartering, co-sponsoring . . . and maybe you too can “slash a trillion” or so!

 

Posts RSS Feed FOR FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION

# # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 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!

No responses yet

Mar 31 2011

Seeking Crossed Paths

If you are one of the following, you are all of them . . .!

Small Business and Professional

                                                 

Practice Owners and Managers,

                                      

Educators, Sales Professionals,

                                        

and Entrepreneurs

 

 

What makes you different? Just the path you’ve chosen to take? Think about the one you’re on. 

                                                                                                   

It doesn’t matter if you teach third grade, own a chain of pizza parlors, sell advertising space or socks or perfume or gaskets. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a heart surgeon, hot dog vendor, social media guru. or a charity fundraiser. It makes no difference whether you manage a work team, a sports team, or function like the Lone Ranger.

The bottom line is that you’re not a government incompetent or corporate mogul or union thug, which means that you work for a living.

You work at what you do, what you support, believe in, were trained for, invented, designed, inherited, created, or stumbled into.

Does that pretty much cover it?

                                                                                   

Ah, but what makes you the same? How could such diverse specialists have common grounds? Well, hey, you’re all leaders, right? You’re all communicators. And you are all (like it or not, willing to admit it or not) heavily engaged in selling on a daily basis.

You spend the bulk of your energy attempting to engage the interest and support of others in the ambitions, goals,  practices, opportunities, beliefs, ideas, and challenges that occupy your table, fill your plate and dance around your dining room.

Even when you’re not “at work,” even when you’re at family gatherings (you know, Ground Hog’s Day and Boxing Day, stuff like that), you’re still selling (oh, that nasty word again, especially for all you professional practice types; I know, there’re not too many brain surgeons rolling up their sleeves in supermarkets these days doing a “tell ya what I’m gonna do for you” presentation. There is that guy,though, with the sets of knives . . .)

What is it that you do when you get ready to give someone your spiel? Isn’t it that you (and sales professionals know this better than the rest of the world) are seeking common ground, shared interests, places where you can better relate to your audience? Aren’t you looking for places your paths have crossed?

Oh, my, there go all those light bulbs at once. Wait a second will you while my transition lenses back off. Ah, such a flood of light! 

So back to places your paths have crossed . . . of course that’s what we instinctively seek! Isn’t it, by the way, the premise for Facebook and LinkedIn?  

Whether we’re teaching a classroom full of students, explaining a procedure to a patient, a reason to donate, a special deal on foreclosed property, the benefits of sushi, the truck’s suspension system awards, how the use of Twitter can outperform Facebook, why everyone should buy a new mattress every ten days, or how easy it is to use this new bookkeeping system . . . we are constantly looking for common interest areas we can use to establish rapport.

                                                                

We go to great lengths and ask a zillion questions to get to the point of “So you’re a Cubs fan, huh? Poor guy; you’ve really suffered over the years. I used to hang out with a few of them when I commuted from New York to Chicago for three years; I had an office at One East Wacker Drive on the Loop. What’s the name of that rooftop restaurant there?”

Well, maybe not all that dicey, but you get the point. We all seek crossed paths. They help us get closer to what’s under our skin. Prospecting is easier, but –more importantly– growing our relationships with existing customers, clients, patients, employees, suppliers, investors, lenders, and referrers is also easier.

Stop fighting it. Getting to know others better is a pathway all by itself . . . and one you can never tell where it will lead, but usually it will go where your authentic self opens doors and focuses spotlights. Open minds open doors.

# # #

 

931.854.0474   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!

No responses yet

Mar 28 2011

The Recession Still Roars

Reported today on Sirius radio’s America’s Newsroom . . .

One of every eight American

                            

homes now stands empty! 

 

Based on today’s news . . .

This “one out of eight” no doubt

                             

includes The White House!

 

 

Double-speak –such as that evidenced in tonight’s feeble address by Mr. Obama in attempting to justify his unauthorized headstrong reaction (instead of a measured response) to the challenges and sickness of another nation’s madman leader– doesn’t work for America’s people.

And guess what? Double-speak also doesn’t work for the business you own and/or run and/or manage.

Small business owners, first of all, know instinctively how to practice responding instead of reacting.

If we don’t, we’re out of business. Period.                

  • It is lack of leadership that has emptied American homes. It is lack of leadership that has led America to falter and approach other nations balanced on weak knees.

  • Lack of leadership is what brings down business enterprises and national governments alike. Clearly, America’s White House is as empty as the two suits that run our country.

  • Lack of leadership, in the form of poor management, is responsible for 9 out of 11 new businesses failing within the first 2-3 years of existence (source: The SBA)  

~~~~~~~~

                                                                                          

We —as small business owners and managers, and entrepreneurs– must learn from this place in history.

Incompetent leadership cannot be covered up with great oratory and superficial reasoning. We, the electorate see through it. While the facade pictures that are verbally painted may convince those who know not how to think for themselves, they no longer appease or hook those with intelligence.

When we cover up business incompetence, we lose customers; we go bankrupt. We lose.

If you or I were to run our businesses with the same Johnny-come-lately, wimpy, and universally arrogant intervention approaches that were expressed tonight by Mr. Obama, God bless us all.

He has done everything possible to undermine and smother small business because he fails utterly to understand it. He has in the process led us into world disgrace. His assessments –in addition to being unrealistic– are inflammatory to say the least. Talk about pouring gasoline on a fire!

You and I cannot make our business problems go away by giving a political speech and calling it an “explanation.”

We cannot avert financial collapse by offering endless apologies (or simply printing new money!).

We cannot achieve success by concentrating on competitors. 

                                                                 

Sad and unfortunate as it is, thousands of people die every day by acts of terrorism. When –and before– those forces become genuine threats to our existence, we need to act quickly and decisively and unapologetically to protect and preserve our interests.

Do we like what’s happening in Libya? Of course not. But Libya offers no such threat to America. The more the U.S. tries to become the world’s police force, the less effective the U.S. becomes. The more your business tries to monopolize a profession, industry, or marketplace, the less effective it becomes. But you already know that!

Do we like what all our competitors are doing. Of course not. Do we engage them apologetically and make that be productive for us? Are you kidding? Those who succeed in business are those who focus on their businesses, not on what other businesses are doing, or not doing, that may be distasteful. 

When it’s possible to help other businesses without putting your own at risk, go for it! Until then, strengthen yourself so you can get to that point. That works for business and business works! Being consistently authentic and honest and demonstrating integrity works for business too. Will shallow-minded ego-crazed politicians ever get it?    

 

Posts RSS Feed FREE blog subscription

# # #

                                                                   

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!

One response so far

Mar 23 2011

Talk To Yourself!

When all else fails, get in the

                                         

closet, or under the covers,

                                   

or lock yourself in the car

                              

. . . and talk to yourself!

 

 

Let’s face it, nobody knows more about your business than you. You can collect ideas and information from everyone who works with you, even those who work against you (like, for example, disgruntled people you once fired, or competitors, or in-laws ;<) and –as yesterday’s post suggested– single-digit-aged kids, but . . .

BUT sometimes, when you’ve got a problem brewing, that’s like sending someone else to the doctor’s office to get a check-up for you.

Only you can know what ails your business.

                                                                                             

Yeah, there’s government incompetency, over-regulation, sky-high taxes and fuel costs approaching tsunami proportions, plus other stuff that you can’t control (um, I did mention in-laws earlier?). There is, however, a whole lot you CAN control that you’ll find out about when you talk to yourself.

By the way, take notes!

Here’s how to dig deep under your skin, inside your gut (yucht!) and produce some viable solutions to the problems that threaten your business.

Follow these 17 steps to happy resolution and stop beating your brains in:

  1. Cancel your appointments for the afternoon.

  2. Find a private place.

  3. Go there.

  4. Take no hostages: no other people; no cell phones (torture, huh?); in fact, take no electronics of any kind (that means no radios, no portable WiFi’s, no leftover pieces of your dog’s Invisible Fence, no “Beam me in Scotty” magic rings!).

  5. Take some deep breaths . . . until you’ve wiped clean the slate in your head that has an agenda on it.

  6. Take some more deep breaths (can’t have too many of these!) and tell yourself (out loud) about all the things you’ve been doing right since the year started. Make a list. Yes, quote yourself! Actually write your brilliant comments down on a piece of paper.

  7. In each case, identify the key ingredient that made the situation work out positively. Say it out loud to yourself, and, yup, write it down!

  8. Are you still breathing?

  9. Next, zero in on the 3-ring target you draw. Announce out loud to yourself the number one most immediate problem that needs fixing. Write it down. Put it in the center circle. Next, state and write the number two most immediate problem that needs fixing, in the first ring, then state and record number three in the next ring.

  10. Take some more deep breaths.

  11. From your initial list of what you’ve been doing right, what key solution ingredient did you use that could be applied to your targeted issues? Say it. Write it. What’s left? 

  12. Write down what you might have thought about doing about any leftover problem(s) ten years ago. Don’t “Yes, but” yourself. Just write it down. Now put your pen and paper down, and sing a favorite song to yourself. If you can’t think of any, “Happy Birthday” works just fine. (I did tell you you needed a private place, right?) 

  13. Take some more deep breaths.

  14. Return to your target and speak out then write down three ways you could use to solve the remaining problem(s) — the first three that come to mind. Which of these is the most realistic and most practical? Need to re-invent your business? Re-invent yourself?

  15. Do it.

  16. Go back to work.

  17.  Have a great day! And remember, you have all the answers. Just reach in and grab them. And keep talking to yourself! 

 

# # #

    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!

No responses yet

Mar 22 2011

Business Lessons From Kids

Kids are

                 

the world’s greatest

                                                         

salespeople because

                       

they know how to 

                                       

paint a verbal picture 

                                   

. . . and put you in it!

 

 

When’s the last time you took business advice from a single-digit-aged kid? Every small business owner, operator, manager, entrepreneur, and sales professional should have to do this at least once a month, even for a ten-minute long crash course.

Ask someone under ten years old to tell you why she or he likes something. Then listen. Ask questions but only for clarification. Odds are pretty good that you’ll end up inside that child’s verbal description of a thing, a place, or an event. You’ll get there by your own choice and you’ll enjoy the experience.

Those of you who are Mothers (or Mr. Mom’s) know all about the pearls-of-wisdom-from-the-mouths-of-babes thing, but in case you’re not, or don’t, don’t think for a minute that you haven’t time to waste with such foolishness.

Innovative business empires have been built on ideas and messages that have come from listening to children.

Children —and generally the younger the better– are less inhibited, have far fewer fears, and fewer feelings of self-importance. They may fantasize. They may not seem very realistic about things like money or distance or amounts or sizing up people or situations, but they speak the truth.

And they are passionate.

And they know how to

paint a verbal picture.

And they won’t hesitate to tell you

all the things you need to know

that no one else will tell you.

                                                                       

You will gain value from a child’s perspective.

His or her viewpoint, remember is looking up under your chin and your belly, and inside your nose. Put your new product, or a photo or video clip of it on the table in front of the nearest 8-year-old and ask what she or he thinks it is. Ask what it does, how it works, who would use it, why, when, where, how?

It’s a service? Simplify your explanation of it and see what you get back. Offer and ask for examples and comparisons. Does he or she if the product or service would be a good or bad thing . . . and why?

Tou’re looking to save your business money? What better deal can you make than to get an outpouring of honest, unbiased opinions about your business or business ventures for the price of an ice cream or hot dog, or a trip to the circus or a walk on the beach or through the park?

On top of all that, you’ll get a firsthand booster shot of salesmanship. Maybe you forgot about how important energy and enthusiasm are, or the importance of painting a mental picture with words, and walking a customer into it. Hmm?              

Posts RSS Feed FREE Blog Subscription

# # #

                                                                   

302.933.0116     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

No responses yet

Mar 10 2011

What you see is . . .

In business and life:

THINGS AREN’T

                                

ALWAYS WHAT

                                        

THEY SEEM

 

The business world is filled

with its share of illusionists.

Look in the mirror. Are you

coughing from the smoke?

                                                                             

We are under relentless media bombardment of fake unemployment numbers. The make-believe news has risen to howling proportions. It’s the White House’s feeble attempt to have us all swallow that the economy is on the upswing (which failure to confirm requires, merely, a trip to your nearest gaspump, with $8 a gallon coming soon to you!).

Just the word “gaspump” puts a gasp in your ump, right?

Probably because it prompts you to remember the last guy who ripped you off.

(Am I imaging this? I doubt it!)

Looking back to November, 2008, should remind us all that in business as well as government (and all of life!), what you see is not always what you get!

                                           

Though most of us think the Latin phrase “Caveat Emptor”Let the buyer beware— first surfaced in the Ralph Nader consumerism movement of the 1960s, the birth of its use was in fact claimed in 1523, would you believe? So, bottom line here is that deception in business has been around for awhile.

Talk with anyone who sailed through the last few years of the “Dot Gone” Revolution in the 1990s, and you’ll hear sad tales of almost jumping out of tall buildings. I lost $500,000 with a legal signed contract in hand. Another family member lost $1.5 million with a signed contract in hand. The lesson? Signed documents mean nothing!

Where does that leave us? Having to be V~E~R~Y cautious about others we do business with. I’m not so much talking about customers (though big-ticket product and service customers have been known to take what they can and run). I’m really referring more to employment and investor and loan arrangements — big bucks deals!

But I’m also keying in on small business ripoffs that cost big-time hours and effort.

Those are the real killers of entrepreneurial spirit!

I need to make sales to eat.

It’s often hard to do due diligence on a small-time business down the road or in the next town enough to find out that the owner is a scam artist, looking to con as much information from your brain as possible, for free!

                                                                         

Experience has taught me some, but –in the end– I still have to sell my services. Selling services requires giving services. You can sample the pastrami in a deli, but any kind of consultant (except maybe a pastrami consultant) has to provide a sampling of know-how and experience, and that takes time. And time costs money.

So figuring out how to best parcel out samples of your expertise in order to hook the fish but not lose your shirt is the ultimate challenge. And you may never win if you don’t approach prospects with reserved skepticism. I’m not suggesting distrust. I trust everyone until they prove otherwise. I’m talking about being yellow-light-cautious. 

Not everyone has your integrity. Not everyone believes in God. Not everyone functions completely on her or his own. (You’ve heard of silent partners? Wives? In-laws?)

There’s not a whole lot we can do about gas prices, but we always have control of whom we choose to do business with. Yellow lights are only followed by red lights!

Stay alert. Don’t get hurt!

                                                                                          
 Posts RSS Feed  FREE blog subscription

# # #

302.933.0116   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! 

3 responses so far

Mar 09 2011

RE-INVENT YOURSELF!

When the odds are

                                                                         

stacked against you

                                                             

. . . change you!

                                                          

 

You may not always be able to do something to change the odds, but you can always do something about changing yourself. Entrepreneurs are best at this.

Many online business entities and retail shopping club organizations (like CostCo and BJ’s) excel at transforming both the ways and the means with which they do business.

Re-inventing yourself may be the greatest of all-time survival tactics– befitting of small business and professional practice owners in tough economic times– and it beats trying to sidestep” the odds — reality!

In case, you had some fool idea that the economy’s getting better, by the way, HA!

Reports today of findings by The Bureau of Economic Analysis are alarming to say the least.

They translate to the fact that one (1) out of every three (3) adult Americans now exists 100% on some form of government handouts of others’ hard-earned tax-dollars.

1 out of 3! Yikes! Why work?

This whole re-distribution of wealth thing isn’t such a bad idea. Let others work to support me so I can lay around watching TV. I never cared much about achieving my potential anyway.

Besides, America has a whole eleven percent more to go to be as bad off as the pathetic 44% welfare state of the UK. And we’ve even got free healthcare coming down the road. Imagine! Free everything! Ain’t Socialism great?

And we can just keep printing money in Washington and doling it out to all of us who need it so we can get our no-more-work-to-live entitlements, right?

                                                                 

Hey, if you’re visiting this blog, you are surely not among those I speak of. You have drive and ambition and a realistic sense of responsibility. You will do what you have to to stay out of that welfare mentality abyss. But we know the runaway fuel prices will send all other costs, including food, right through the roof.

So survival may mean giving serious consideration to re-inventing yourself. You’re a fine artist and no one is buying expensive art these days? Paint smaller, less-expensive pictures; do your own framing; try commercial design work; cartooning?

You’ve made a living as a management trainer, but companies think training programs today are an unnecessary expense. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but you won’t win that battle.

Instead, switch gears and offer your skills as a consultant to strengthen and/or negotiate separation of partnerships; serve as a mentor for next-generation family business takeovers; teach adult school courses at the community college; throw in with an existing online training entity; write a guidebook.

You’ve always written stodgy business plans and annual reports. Set yourself free and use those skills to start writing website content and news releases.

I visited a religious items store today that has a packing/shipping business. It used to be a packing/shipping store that had a religious items business. Fuel costs are raising shipping rates and people are doing their own packing. And who doesn’t need religion? 

                                                           

# # #

Your FREE subscription: Posts RSS Feed

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!

2 responses so far

Feb 22 2011

Are You Making A Difference?

Are You Making a Difference in 

                                            

Someone’s Life Right Now?

                                     

. . . Is Your Business?

 

 

Most people, it seems to me, share a whole myriad of negative goals. Things like: Stay away from jails, surgical procedures, lawyers, courtrooms, politicians, ER’s, dentist drills,and food poisoning.

There is, though, at least one positive goal that most all of us appear to share –at least in conscience if not in deed:

To make a difference.

                                     

It’s something like the moral of the story deal. You know, as in: “Hey! You’ve taken me through all this, so now what’s the lesson I’m supposed to have learned?”

No one wants to get to her or his deathbed without feeling like life has been worthwhile, or that he or she has helped make life worthwhile for someone else — that the Earth has been left a slightly better place than it was to enter.

It does sometimes feel like technology has taken over, like privacy has been violated and values have been led astray. Yet those who care about those they live with and near, about those they work for and with, about those they celebrate and mourn, persevere in their pursuit of happiness. Because the pursuit alone IS happiness.

Entrepreneurs get it. I’ve always thought the “P” in “Entrepreneurs” stands for “Pursuit,” and that the “s” stands for “seek.”  

                                       

We seek to make a difference in life, in our businesses, in the industry or profession each of us is involved with. We seek to make a difference in the lives of our parents and children, and grandchildren (and, yes, our pets!). . . in the lives of our associates and employees, in our communities and neighborhoods . . . and on our fragile planet. 

We like to think that others do, or can, or will benefit by the examples we set, the charitable deeds we do, and the authenticity and good cheer with which we approach our work and day-to-day existences.

The intensity of purpose that embraces these kinds of positive pursuits inevitably grows as we grow older and more aware of who we are and where we are and what we’re doing.

Growing older moves us ever closer to the fabled moments in time that “dwindle down to those precious few.”

And the calendar pages turn and the clock ticks on relentlessly.

What’s that about “time and tide”?

Is it too late?

                                                       

Is it ever too late for anything, except perhaps enjoying ice cream once it’s melted?

Thinking and acting like it’s too late to change course, to make a difference for yourself, for others, is a choice. If you’re still alive, you still have a choice.

Is your business still alive? If you are, it is. 

 

# # #

YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG, CLICK: Posts RSS Feed

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

“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!

One response so far

Feb 21 2011

Business Message for Gov. Walker

If you’re not in the toy business,

                                                  

 and play games with people  

                                    

who act like children

                                  

 . . . you lose!

 

 

Government in virtually any form is hardly a showcase for business leaders. Time and again, and especially with the current Administration, government has proven itself incompetent of thinking and acting prudently or productively. This latest round of childishness that the White House and the Democratic union-vote sheep in Wisconsin are displaying, is pathetic and irresponsible.

Just imagine employees in your company deciding they don’t agree with your hard-line stance against raises at a time when the very survival of your business is at stake and, instead of sitting down to talk about it with you, they pile onto buses and leave town.

Are you kidding me?

Does that sound like a three-year-old temper tantrum or what?

                                              

God Bless you, Governor Walker for having the courage to stand up against this intimidation and lunacy. Wisconsin will rise again, but only after those who choose to play child’s play grow up and face the reality that they are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Those who you represent should be proud of your stance. You are trying to save your State from economic catastrophe.

You are 100% correct that the people of your State come first, and that they will decide, not the greedy unions or Mr. Obama’s thugs. There isn’t an entrepreneurial American business on Earth that wouldn’t agree. 

  • We know from almost all forms of psychotherapy that when those you are trying to communicate with as adults will only respond as children, you can get down into their playground mentality, become one of them, and accomplish nothing.

  • Or, you can rise above them and act parental, which will create added havoc and ignite either explosions or implosions.

  • Or, you can stay persistently adult until they finally come full circle, accept their foolish waste of time and energy as an aberration, and join forces, or at least agree to disagree, and move on. And, this is the only avenue that holds promise of productive solutions.

                                                           

Union mandates are far beyond the point of reasonability and the infantile attitudes of it’s-my-ball-and-I’m-taking-it-and-going-home-Wisconsin-State-Legislators (who have fled from their responsibilities to parts unknown) must both be quashed.

Governor Walker needs to continue to stand firm, and deserves the support of all 30 million of America’s small business owners and operators.

If Wisconsin’s radical leftist and union leader demands succeed, and added State financial support is handed over to e.g., $90,000-a-year-salaried teachers at the cost of collapsing the State, everybody loses.

Can it possibly be that partisan politics is more important than the well-being of Wisconsin families and businesses? Is building a Democratic power base more important than Statehood survival?

Please, those of you who provoke fights and then run from them: Stand up for those who have supported you, not those who give you pretend pledges!

Reality is that your State, like many, is in serious trouble. Meeting union demands is not a solution. Acting like adults and thinking like entrepreneurs will at least get you to the solutions table.

Stop worrying about losing votes and losing union support, and start realizing you hold the key to your childrens’ and grandchildrens’ future. You’ve made your points, now turn it around.

NOW turn it around.

Wull you give the rest of the country reason to applaud you

or cause to spit on an empty trail that you’ve left behind!

 

# # #

YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG, CLICK: Posts RSS Feed

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

“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!

No responses yet

« Prev - Next »




Search

Tag Cloud