Jun 01 2011

How Much Is “Too Much”?

“We are in an information-

                                       

overloaded society.

 

“Most people receive more information from just their smartphones in a week than their grandparents received in their entire lives.”

                           

        ———– Bestselling Author David Baldacci from his newest novel, THE SIXTH MAN www.DavidBaldacci.com

 

I’m often asked about having done both, and continuing to do both, and can assure you that owning and operating a small business is not the same as writing a book. The commissioned memoir I recently completed and published privately, entitledGOOD LUCK!” is summarized in the following 25-word “logline” synopsis:

“Steamshipped away, Hitler to Manhattan, 15-year-old Ernst delivered newspapers, farmed chickens, enlisted…  WON medals, citizenship, Holocaust bride, Delaware leadership, White House prominence, and business fortunes.”

                                                               

That brief description was distilled from the 230-page book. The 230 pages came from more than sixty jam-packed file cabinet drawers and a dozen storage bins, a stack of videotape interviews, and many thousands of photographs, plus over thirty hours of personal interview notes and another 50 hours, at least, of online research.

I’m now working on another commissioned memoir for a totally different kind of business leader. But it’s the same thing. The cutting away process is like being a sculptor, and not always fun. But there is no other way to do justice to representing a lifetime of accomplishment.

Running a business?

Fly by the seat of your pants!

                                                             

Leave it to the corporate biggies to drown themselves in research. They’re all busy justifying their existences, preoccupied with their own company culture memoirs, while entrepreneurs trial-and-error-and-adjust themselves into small business success, innovative product and service market approaches, and meaningful new job creations. 

I do both (entrepreneuring and writing books) because straddling the two different worlds is challenging to me and because I enjoy the unique opportunities ignited by having one foot in research-based writing and the other in creating new business directions, revenue streams, marketing programs, and sales channels.

Here’s what I see: The bigger the business, the more information-overload there is, and the more of a sculptor one needs to be. The problem is that the pace of life and today’s instantaneous global access forces even an information sculptor to work quicker. So the end product may not always be one of quality as much as one of expediency.

Who spans this gap, covers up and rises through this mad rush? Who leads the way to economic revival? Certainly not those lumbering, top-heavy corporations filled with people trying to cover their butts and write their make-believe life stories as if they were nonfiction.

Your small business is what it is. Avoid the temptation to over-burden it with too much information and too much analysis. Keep hold of the reins, but let it –and your people– run free! At least until it gets so big and successful that you need to ask yourself:

Hmmm, how much IS “too much”?

 

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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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Nov 24 2010

Thanksgiving Greetings!

Thank you! I am grateful

                                                                   

for you, for your time, your 

                          

attention, your visits here,

                                        

 and your ongoing support!

  

 

Please join with me in adding the following to the grace you say at your family gathering Thursday:

… and special thanks for all those whose 

courage and vigilance allow us the freedom

to celebrate this great family day together”

                                                                                                  

And please click on the link below (and turn your volume up) to enjoy this terrific smile-making (G-Rated) video from Business Week that you can share with everyone (except perhaps devoted vegetarians!)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR0OrgKtgsM    

 

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend! I’ll be back with some big-time small business observations Sunday night.

In the meantime, please take a cruise through the Archives (or by Search Window topic) here, and be sure to see the scoop on my latest new book, “GOOD LUCK!” by clicking under the  “Literary Agents” heading at the top of the right-hand column. See you Sunday!

 

~~~~~~~~~

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!

No responses yet

Oct 04 2010

YOUR BUSINESS LEGACY

Inspiration can run deep,

                                        

but it’s what you make 

                               

of it that counts!

 

Another Milestone. Another Published Book. This one a 300-page commissioned memoir that took me ten months to write and four months to edit and prepare for printing.

The first copy arrived today, and I am pleased. It is not for sale. It was done for a man with a heroic and inspiring life leadership story who wanted it for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He hired me (from a phonebook listing, no less!) to write his life story for him because he was 89-years-old and in punishingly failing health and because he worried his history on Earth would never get recorded while he was still alive.

The title of his authorized memoir is “GOOD LUCK!” Wisdom from a Life of Leadership in Turbulent Times. He died four days after giving the final text a rave revue.

I mention this here for a number of reasons, besides that I am proud to have known him and to have done him justice.

His final words to me were the highest compliment a writer could have:                                                       

“I always thought I had an interesting life, but I never knew it for sure until I read what you wrote about me; thank you for making my life so special for the children who could never know me otherwise.”

                                                             

GOOD LUCK! is the story of a 15-year-old child who arrived alone in New York Harbor, speaking no English, aboard a ship from Germany, on the good fortune forefront of time, out from under Hitler.

A door-to-door salesman, egg farmer, opera lover, decorated U.S. Army Sergeant, U.S. citizen, multi-millionaire small business success, and trusted advisor to six governors (half GOP and half DEM) . . . yet a low media profile, even with walls-full of awards.                                                                       

He was a prominent yet quiet leader in government, military, business, academia, civil rights, and in service to his family, church, community, state, and his country.

He didn’t have to be any of these things.

He chose them.

                                                                  

I also bring this story to light because the successes this man achieved evolved from his commitments to himself, to live a life of rigid discipline interwoven at every corner with humor, a passion for excellence, and profound caring for and service to others. Enigmatic maybe but it worked.

Consider for a minute what might be written of YOU and the differences you will have made during your short stay on Earth.

Will your accomplishments be limited to small, confining wins because you’ve always been easily satisfied and quick to say, “Oh, I couldn’t do that!”? Or will they warrant a memoir for future generations to appreciate your life of rising to the occasion, and making your time really count for something important?                                                            

Is what you are doing right now

leading you to where YOU want to go?

                                                                     

Are you trusting and believing in yourself enough to stand strong in troubled waters? Have you ever thought about your legacy before? Are you moving in the direction you truly want to be moving? Can you make some positive mid-stream adjustments? How can you start doing that today? Tomorrow morning? It is, after all, your choice!   

 

www.TWWsells.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




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