Mar 28 2017

Entrepreneurs: Today. NOW. This Minute!

STOP Hoping and Wishing.

 

 

STOP Analyzing and Trying.

 

 Just get the damn job done.

 

  Today. NOW. . .This minute!

 

You’re an entrepreneur or an entrepreneurial thinker. If you weren’t one or the other, you wouldn’t be reading this.

So, straight out, here’s the bottom line: The work you’re doing now in your life (as goes the old advertising expression goes) “ain’t your father’s Oldsmobile.” What you’re doing now (or want to be doing) is not likely to be the boring office or hard labor or high-stress job that you grew up hearing about.

This also means that the days of analysis paralysis that evolved from corporate mindsets is gone.  The age of putting in long hours and working up a sweat every day doing physical labor or mind-numbing assembly line work, or some high-stress (air traffic control, e.g.) job to eke out a living, pay the avalanche of bills, and put food on the table, are not for you . . . cut your own path.

You want a better life. You have some great ideas, but –instead of making them work– you’re wasting time trying to make them work.

You cannot afford to drag your feet. You cannot afford to worry about every detail. You cannot afford to be wasting so much time.

Problems will solve themselves if you just get off your ass and get moving. Some action is always better than no action! But don’t trip over your own face!

Finish Line Runner

Speaking of “buts,” remember that the “Yes, but’s” and the “Maybe, buts” run circles in the woods with the rabbuts, and (aside from an occasional carrot) never get anywhere of any consequence.

The hardest part of marching forward to success is the marching. Many give up with, or even before, the first step. And many who get that far tend to lose the drive to go further because they lose the vision or perspective or finances or connections to keep marching forward.

Sustaining initial startup energy once you’ve designed or developed or invented or introduced or found a market niche for your product or service can feel impossible. But it’s really not . . . unless you choose for it to be.

Consider that all behavior is a choice –conscious or unconscious, made now or in the past– and that many people surrounding our lives every day are doing their best (often unaware) to sidetrack the entrepreneurial thoughts and pursuits of others because success may threaten their investments in the status quo.

Others –especially friends and family– may simply (and often without realizing it) not want to see you succeed. They may feel threatened by what they perceive as your stardom. Jealousy is not always something we are aware of, but it is right up there on every measure of emotional spectrum leaders.

Think about what you’re choosing to do that’s actually holding you back. What can you change? How will you do that?

It may be in your best interests to try taking some deep breaths before trying to answer those two questions.

You might next explore ways to stop making excuses, to stop blaming others and circumstances, and –instead– take some steps on your own behalf. “What’s the worst thing could happen?” is a good question to ask yourself. If there are no legalities, or physical or emotional harm involved: Go For It!  

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Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals and God bless you!

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Make A Grandparent Happy Today!

GET Hal Alpiar’s short story, “DIRT FLOOR VISIT” in the great book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING Amazon ($19.95–with a few for under $9– or $9.99 Kindle OR order special (signed by Hal)  $22.45 total check only (includes s&h), payable & mail to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC, 370 South Lowe Avenue, Suite A-148, Cookeville, TN 38501. Include continental US ship-to address.

 

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May 24 2011

No one MAKES you do it!

FEELING: Angry? Depressed? Embarrassed? Happy? Sad? Disappointed? Frustrated? Anxious? Afraid? Lonely? Poor? Dumb?

YOUR EVERY ACTION,

                                                        

AND EVERY THOUGHT

                                                                                                        

IS YOUR CHOICE!

 

Nah!  That’s not possible,” you say?  Hey, it’s not only possible, it’s true. And it’s true  100% of the time! 

We CHOOSE our behavior. 

No one makes you mad.  You choose to feel mad about something someone says or does or thinks.

No one embarrasses you.  You choose to feel embarrassed about something you or someone else chooses to do or not do or say or not say or think or not think. 

And it IS your choice

Anger. Depression. Embarrassment. Humiliation. Envy. 

Jealousy. Guilt. Hatred. Fear. Loneliness. 

                                                             

These feelings don’t just fall down from the sky and land on your shoulder.  You, we, all of us, choose these emotions and we also choose the time-wasting behaviors that come along with them. 

So, maybe you don’t like hearing that, or thinking about it because you don’t want to have to admit that you’re that wimpy, wussy, weak-willed, fragile, malleable, and stupid. So you conjure up all kinds of defensive excuses and scenarios to discount the validity of it. But you can’t. There’s no discounting the truth.

Maybe you didn’t choose to get in that car accident, but you did choose to get in that car. You knew there was a risk associated and you knew that other drivers were not always as careful as you, and you chose to drive or ride anyway. But you had to BE someplace else. Wasn’t that a choice also?

It’s not that we make bad choices. Everyone on Earth does that. It’s that we convince ourselves that bad stuff is not the result of making a bad choice. We didn’t make a bad choice; circumstances were bad. Ah, but we chose to put ourselves in those circumstances by either direct or indirect choice. We did! At some point in time, it was a choice. 

I mean why would anybody CHOOSE to feel angry?  It’s much easier to blame others for the upset negative feelings we have and the accompanying nonproductive behaviors.  Isn’t it? 

That moron cut me off in traffic!  He’s a jerk!  He makes me so angry I think I’ll race up alongside him, give him the finger, and then cut HIM off!  I’ll show him!  Hey, that’s great . . . the stuff road rage heroes are made of, right? 

Why not instead choose to STOP for just a minute and take a deep breath, collect your self-control and mentally step back from the nutcase driver who just prompted you to choose to feel angry, and, instead, think to yourself that:

     A)  He’s in some kind of emergency situation or under great duress, or

     B)  I am not going to choose for that nut-job to cause me to choose to feel upset.  He’s not worth it!  

Since many choices are in the unconscious mind, when you find yourself choosing negative and upsetting behavior, pinch yourself, take that deep breath, remind yourself that you are in fact making a choice.  Change the channel in your brain from “Bad News” to “Mellow, Happy Music.” 

Remember that you always control your own brain.

(Ask any POW survivor or cancer survivor about that).

                                                                              

No one reaches inside your brain and causes you to think or act or react in a negative or unsettling or upsetting way.

You do that to you.

                                                                

You can just as easily choose for something hard to be easy, something risky to be safe, something maddening to be calming, something impossible to be possible, a problem to be an opportunity, the glass to be half full . . ..

Go ahead and run the risk!

Choose to overcome the negatives by bringing in the (There’s a really old song my parents used to sing: “E-limi-nate the neg-ative, ax-cen-tuate the positive…”) awareness that you need only blink and then choose –instead of creating or adding to an uproar– a positive, productive behavior, thought, action, response.

Go for it! The more you do, the easier and happier it gets. Hey, it’s your choice.

                                                   

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Oct 31 2009

ENVYING BUSINESS SUCCESS

“Envy is the religion

                                         

of the mediocre.”

                                   

–CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON, From his best-selling novel The Angel’s Game

                                                                    

      All of us have envied someone.  We’re human. But let’s hope by now we’ve outgrown those feelings or learned –perhaps the hard way– to put them aside. If you’re still struggling with them, and you also happen to be in the position of running a business, it might be a good idea to give some thought to where envious feelings are leading you.

     When someone else hits a home run  in business (in your industry or marketplace, or inside your own company!) many business owners and managers turn the other way, sometimes with a “shoulda been me” look of scorn on their faces…especially if the success is achieved by a competitor and / or a brother-in-law and / or a former employee…you get the picture. So what else is there to do except feel resentful?

     Well, how about  examine what went right for the other person and decide if there are any ingredients involved that might have application to your circumstances? I’m not suggesting that you have to pile on the other guy’s bandwagon and be an adoring teammate, or president of his or her fan club. I’m saying instead that it pays to be a detective and an explorer.

     When you take the time and trouble  to step back from what’s going on and what has been achieved, and objectively review and evaluate what has taken place that’s produced the end result, you will also be in  a better position to assess the dynamics of what occurred and have a clearer idea of what might possibly apply to your circumstances.

     In other words, take advantage  of what you know and what you can find out, and choose to make the  most of that information (instead of choosing to feel upset or depressed or vindictive or annoyed or ambivalent… or envious!)

     If “the road to hell”  is indeed “paved with good intentions,” envy of other’s accomplishments will most assuredly help to hustle you along the way. Instead make a conscious choice to put away your ego, and see each potentially envious situation as a great learning opportunity that you can absorb from and capitalize on. Take notes. Smile more. Open minds open doors.                          

  

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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May 28 2009

EMPLOYEES WHO UNDERMINE YOU

Mind Over Undermine

                                                                                                           

     At some time or another, every business and professional practice boss discovers a hired or inherited employee or group of employees whose sole mission appears to be to undermine operations—from manufacturing to customer service/patient care to administration to sales.

     Sometimes it’s vindictiveness, jealousy, bitterness, resentment…all good stuff, right? Sometimes, though, it’s naivety, ignorance, immaturity, misplaced loyalties, or just plain stupidity. While the reason might be important to uncover, what’s most important is to act on the discovery before it has chance to fester.

     If it’s too late to contain the infection from spreading out and affecting others in your organization, it may require you to rise to the confrontative occasion and call for all the cards to be put on the table. This, however, is not always the best solution.

     Why? Someone who may have been undermining you or your business or practice may be truly innocent of premeditation, or was perhaps unwarily acting out someone else’s issues. In that situation, you could be pulling the plug on someone who is a valuable potential asset to your operations or reputation.

     This may be the right point, instead, to pull in a professional to facilitate differences and/or re-train problem employees, or to counsel you on how to do it, or to force the situation to a head on your behalf. At any rate, it’s certainly worth the time to discuss the circumstances with an outside consultant before making that decision. 

     Prepare a short bullet list of issues and individuals involved with your own assessments of how effectively each performs in the roles for which they/he/she were/was hired. Try to keep your comments as objective as possible so as not to prejudice an outsider’s opinions, but articulate your issues and concerns clearly.

     Make your mission clear, and make your goals for each position that’s involved clear ones. In the process, look to your self as well, and question what (if any) contribution your own statements or behaviors may have contributed. Ask your consultant for a straightforward, unvarnished opinion and recommendation.

     Decide when, where and how to act, and what to say. Be receptive to whatever responses you provoke, and assess those in private. In the end, you will have given enough time and energy to the situation to justify moving forward from the point of implementing your decision. Then move forward.     

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116 

 Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting.  God bless you. 

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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