Moving Past the Struggle

I have written many blogs, and for the most part, I talk about the opportunities in the marketplace, the people, the freedom, the places, and the experiences of being an entrepreneur. Rarely have I discussed the struggle and how being an entrepreneur can be downright difficult at times. This is part of the environment that you take up when you choose or, for some, are forced into this path. The allure of the business owner draws you in, but are you prepared for the reality that will inevitably follow?

Ben Horowitz, with the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, reminded me of this in his recent blog entitled “The Struggle.” Yes, this is the same firm co-owned by Marc Andreessen, who started Netscape, which introduced one of the original web browsers. It is the same firm that invested $250,000 into Instagram and walked away with $78 million two years later.

You might think there isn’t much to struggle over as a successful business owner, but in reality, in order to get to that success, you experience “The Struggle.” This is a world that is dark and difficult, and it is one with which I am familiar, as are most entrepreneurs that have achieved any level of success.

Some of the comments that really resonated with me are as follows:

The Struggle is when you wonder why you started the company in the first place.

The Struggle is when you are having a conversation with someone and you can’t hear a word that they are saying because all you can hear is The Struggle.

The Struggle is when you want the pain to stop. The Struggle is unhappiness.

The Struggle is when you are surrounded by people and you are all alone. The Struggle has no mercy.

The Struggle is not failure, but it causes failure. Especially if you are weak. Always if you are weak.

The Struggle is where greatness comes from.

This is not a good place to be and can bring down the best of them. I have been there before and have even felt it recently. The economy and world situations are causing many to be in The Struggle. Business is not easy, and most are reluctant to spend when they can’t see past all the doom and gloom.

Ben explains that there are no answers to The Struggle, but he discusses several things that have helped him move forward. Share some of the burden; don’t put it all on your own shoulders. Realize that it will not upset your people more than you because nobody feels the effects more than the person most responsible. We both think that getting the most brains on the problem, the better. Remember collective intelligence.

This is a chess game and one that is multidimensional. You always have a move even when you don’t think there is one. Ben says to focus on the road like they teach you when driving a racecar because if you look at the wall, you will drive into it. You go where you are focused.

Another key philosophy Ben and I share: Stay in the game long enough, and you might get lucky. To say it another way, in the technological world in which we live, the answer that seems impossible today may turn up tomorrow if you stick around.

One thing that helps me is to stay present. This is not easy to do, but I find when I focus on my mistakes (and in the past, there have been many) or try to deal with what might come up in the future, I have removed myself from knowing that everything is alright in this moment. I think you are more open to the answers the universe brings you when you are right here right now, rather than when you are looking back or forward.

All the best deal with the Struggle. Remember, that is where greatness comes from.




The Effectual Entrepreneur

If you’re an entrepreneur, have you ever looked at how you went about starting your business?  Does it seem a bit unorthodox when compared to how people told you it should be done?  This stimulating topic is backed with years of research, shedding light into the mind of an entrepreneur.

When I first started reading on this topic, I found it fascinating because it made me feel less like a renegade for my unconventional method of starting a business.  I hope this knowledge can perhaps help someone out there who is exploring the concept of being an entrepreneur, or possibly help someone like me who simply needs to feel good about the way entrepreneurs go about making things happen.

Last week I mentioned how I started a mutual fund.  What I did not mention was my process, which went against what every book I read in college taught me.  I did not go out and do a long term planning analysis on growth and demographics of people investing in mutual funds.  I did not use this data to pick the right target market to focus on.  I did not do financial projections, a business plan, a prototype or even spend time thinking about raising money.

What I did do was just decide one day that starting a mutual fund would be a better path than the one I was currently on.  THEN I WENT OUT AND DID IT!  I used everything I had learned to that point and paired it with my burning desire to make it happen and push forward.  I started calling people that I knew could either help me themselves, or get me in touch with others that could. 

According to a research and a paper written by Saras Sarasvathy back in 2001, entrepreneurs think in an “effectual” way compared to a “causal” way.  In the effectual way, entrepreneurs start with 3 means to getting things done:

  1. Who we Are – which means our traits, tastes and abilities
  2. What we Know – which is our education, training, expertise, and experience
  3. Whom we Know – our social and professional networks

It’s likely you’ve heard stories of entrepreneurs starting out borrowing money from family, friends and even maxing out credit cards.  This is the effectual entrepreneur in action.

So, how did you go about starting your business?

Next week I’m going to go deeper into understanding the effectual entrepreneur and how they operate as compared to the casual approach.




Leadership exposes issues…what are yours?

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing notable business coach Marshall Goldsmith speak at the Fortune Growth Summit.  Marshall’s work helps to make people better and is both educational and enlightening.  He has successfully coached several of the Fortune 500 leaders, and has done so by helping them in areas that required improvement.  As we’ve all heard time and time again, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Marshall has written two bestselling books, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and Mojo: How To Get It, How To Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It.  What is interesting about this is that the key to success for people already in leadership roles is in their own, quirky personality flaws.  I find it comforting when reading his material and hearing him speak to learn that we all have those flaws.  The most successful people out there are filled with “issues” about how they are viewed by the people around them.  I know personally that I am dinged by both my partners and others around me for my own personality traits that they find annoying.  So what are we to do?

The first thing you need to do is identify the issue.  Marshall does this with a 360 degree survey.  He doesn’t just focus on the subject with the issue, but interviews all the people around that person (and is paid big bucks to take the time to do so!)  There are a variety of testing tools out there that do very similar things (check out the multipliers blog).  The second step is having the desire to change.  If that’s not there, you might as well stop here.  Marshall says that coaching someone who does not want to change is a waste of time.  Most of us want to get better, but there are still those who believe “being this way is what got me where I am”.  For those, it will usually take losing a job, or missing out on a prime opportunity to make them look back and finally question what went wrong, and what they could have done differently.

Marshall lists 20 main areas of interpersonal behavior that are annoyances to those around us.  A few of them are: winning too much, passing judgment, starting with “no”, “but” or “however”, speaking with anger, negativity, making excuses, not listening (my issue), and clinging to the past.

After the interviews take place and you have feedback, Marshall explains the 4 ways to address your issues, which include: apologizing, telling the world (what you’re going to change), listening and thanking.  He takes an entire chapter for each of these topics to explain them in greater detail.

We could all use some coaching, even Marshall.  His coach calls him every single day, no matter where he is, to ask him a dozen questions, such as:  how many pushups did you do today, have you said anything nice to your wife, how much time have you spent writing, and how much time did you spend on things that didn’t matter?  He discusses this in his interview with Verne Harnish.

Who is helping to make you better?




Are Your Living Your Passion?

take your passionAs an entrepreneur, you are never very far from your business.  No matter where you are or what you’re doing, it’s always with you, slipping into your consciousness.  You might be in the shower, lounging on the deck, on an airplane with everyone around you snoozing or out on the lake….your mind will still be spinning on the latest issue or the next big opportunity.  When you’re passionate about what you do, you have an advantage because you’re energized and motivated to give it the extra thought that helps keep you ahead of the game.

This weekend I spent time out on the lake with a few fellow entrepreneurs and some young up and coming entrepreneurs.   It was only natural in this environment for conversations to take place around what drives a successful business and person.

We gathered on a long time friend and fellow entrepreneur’s boat, Scott Brown.  Scott is a very successful chiropractor, due primarily to the fact that he broke his back when he was young and was told by the doctors that he would never again be able to do all of the physical activities in life that he loves so much.  He went to see a chiropractor and it changed his life, so he decided to go to school and become one himself.  From there he started his own practice, and he did so with a passion.

My son Tony’s friend Steven was another entrepreneur that joined us.  He is in the business of putting breathalyzer devices in cars that are occasionally ordered by the courts.  He’s facing issues in some states due to laws that have yet to be passed, which led Scott and I to discussing with him how it takes passion to push a business through the tough times and excel to higher levels.  We asked Steven, “Are you passionate about your business?”

Steven said he was passionate about boats, and was thoroughly enjoying the 60 foot one he was on.   Steven might very well find success without finding passion in his business, but he’ll not likely reach the level that he could unless he can find a way to connect to it and build passion around it. 

Scott suggested finding something in his past or through a friend where an effect of drunk driving could invoke some emotion.  Another option could be to talk with members of MADD (mothers against drunk driving), and connect with moms who’ve lost kids to drunk driving.  Having options like these to dig in and pull out the things that can fire up a passion help people to develop a conviction that supersedes money alone.  If this doesn’t work, experience tells me to move to where the passion is.

I have met a lot of people who are in that position of having a job serves only the purpose of providing a paycheck.  You can see the lack of enthusiasm and dread in their time at work.  I went after what I loved, starting as a young boy, which was to have my own business and the freedom to create value for others, letting the money follow.

Are you passionate about what you do?  If you’re not, are you doing anything to get there?  We deserve to be happy, and we are when we live our passion.




Changing the World

I am currently at the EO Amsterdam University, which is a 5 day conference packed with amazing speakers (even 2 Nobel Prize Winners), incredible, fun loving, successful entrepreneurs and exciting activities and venues.  One of the most interesting things we’ve done is take a canal ride through the city, making our way through the canal system and on to dinner, where we wore Dutch Clogs.  The really cool thing about this conference, though, is that it’s centered on changing the world and how each of us can do our part to make a difference.  The only thing stopping us is our own self imposed limitations.

Before I go any further, I first want to send out a thank you to those of you who sent me email, texts and Facebook messages about my 9/11 experience.  Your thoughts were very heartfelt and appreciated.  Something I wanted to add to my story is that the following day I rented a car and drove to Rochester, NY to see my family.  I arrived about 30 minutes after my brother Mark delivered his 3rd daughter Ava.  After witnessing so much death and destruction, it was incredibly uplifting to walk into the hospital room and be greeted by my entire family, including the latest addition, baby Ava.  Happy Birthday Ava, and thank you for spreading so much light on all our lives!

Now back to change. I’ve talked a lot about the social aspects of entrepreneurialism, how to approach change and make a positive difference, both personally and professionally.  What we’ve done at the conference is break out into groups to do some creative brainstorming with creative specialists, which proved to be a very stimulating and educational process.  We focused on what brings about change in our lives and what experiences we’ve had that caused major change to take place.  We then discussed what kind of change we would like to see for future generations.

On the topic of change, Dr. Muhammad Yunus spoke to us about change that benefits and empowers poor people around the world.  Yunus is founder of the Grameen movement and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.  He’d heard some years back about people in Bangladesh working with loan sharks in order to purchase things needed to run their businesses and just survive.  The loan sharks were charging interest as high as 1500%.  Yunus went to Bangladesh and pulled together a group of business owners.  When he asked them the total that they had borrowed, combined it came out to be the equivalent of around $43.  He proceeded to loan them the money to repay the loan sharks at no interest.

Greg and Dr. Muhammad Yunus at EO Amsterdam, 2011

Once they all paid him back, he gathered others to help raise money to loan the people, who continued to repay him around 98% of what he’d lent.  This was the catalyst that started the Grameen Movement that has raised millions of dollars to be lent to thousands of people as they seek to change and better their own lives.

You might recall my mentioning a desire to start a microfinance opportunity in Pondicherry, India where Efficience has our software development office.  I spoke to Dr. Yunus, who gave me his card and offered to help me.  If you’re seeking something, the universe might just put the right people in your path to help you, so keep your eyes peeled.

I will use this opportunity to do my part and try to create a positive change in the world, to try and help others have better opportunities and hopefully better lives.

How are you changing the world?




What is Your Reality?

Are you creating the world that you want to live in, or is the world you live in creating you? Is your life what you want it to be, or one you plan to change…someday? If there were a proven method to create the life you want to live, would you use it? What if I said that there is one, and I’ve used it, and it’s changed my life?

Back in the early 90’s I read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I know it has one of those names that sounds too cliché to believe there is actually a powerful message found inside. It was written in the early part of the 1900”s, after Hill interviewed all the successful men of the day like Ford, Edison, Rockefeller and even a few presidents over the previous few decades.

Hill says “There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it”. So how do you get to that level of belief? You do it by creating a reality statement. Then you repeat that reality statement aloud, to yourself, with passion. You work your subconscious into believing in the world you want to create. This passionate belief helps to attract the people and resources that you need to bring it into existence.

John Assaraf, in the book The Answer, says “that thought creates everything” and “Your thoughts not only matter, they create matter. Your thoughts are where your business comes from”. His book is more recent and gives the detailed explanation that Hill did not get into of how the brain works and how recent science can explain this phenomenon. Assaraf discusses how making a reality statement can allow your desires to manifest.

When I started working with my life coach, Steve D’Annunzio, about 10 years ago he helped me create a reality statement. I’ve had many over the years and they all have helped me create the reality that I wanted to live in.

In the next blog, I will share the necessary ingredients to making your own reality statement.




4 Steps to Creating Your Reality

Did you know that if you have 2 piano’s in the same room, and you play a note on one piano, it will cause that same note to vibrate on the other piano without ever touching it?

You can create that same kind of vibration in your life, where you radiate a belief that attracts like-minded people. These people can help you manifest the kind of life that you want to live. This is a follow up to my last blog on reality statements, so if you didn’t read it, check it out here.

1 Brainstorm all the positive things you want in your life. The job, career or business you want to have, the relationship you want to have, the income, the net worth, what you want to give, and any material things or spiritual accomplishments.

2Write out your statements in a clear phrase, present tense (very important) and creating a vivid picture of the world you are creating. It isn’t good to use the word “want”, because that leaves you in a state of wanting something, rather than having it.  Instead, say “I will make a million dollars this year” or “I am giving a million a year to help parentless kids in India”.  Also, adding descriptive details helps you to paint a picture that sinks into your subconcious mind quicker by engaging your emotions.

3Practice autosuggestion and say the statement out loud 3 times a day with passion and emotion. Create the emotion by remembering a time that was a highly positive, emotional moment in your life and relive that moment while saying your statement. This creates the magnetic force that is the attractor.

4This should be done every day for at least 60 days to sink into your conscious mind. Saying it more often is good, and it can also be said in your head instead of out loud.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says on planting a seed in your mind “any idea, plan or purpose may be placed in the mind through repletion of thought. This is why you are asked to write out a statement of your major purpose, or definite chief aim, commit it to memory, and repeat it, in audible words, day after day, until these vibrations of sound have reached your subconscious mind”.

For a much deeper explanation of how to create your reality statement read The Answer or The Prosperity Paradigm.

By having the belief and faith around what you want your life to be….you can create it by feeding your subconscious mind the right messages that will set in motion decisions and actions along with attracting to you the resources you need.  Most importantly, it will help us get past our biggest obstacle, ourselves!




The Power of Forum

I just got back from a conference for EO Injected Forums in Sonoma, CA where I had a great time with my Forum mates sharing and learning together. It struck me that I talk about Forum lot in my blog, but not everyone has had the opportunity to be in a forum or even understand what a Forum is, so let me tell you about the Forum experience.

My EO Injected Forum biking through wineries in Sonoma, CA

I am in two Forums. One is a local EO Forum that I have been in since 99, which meets monthly. The other is a regional Forum made up of EO members from the South East who have been in EO for more than 7 years, and meets quarterly.

A Forum consists of anywhere between 6 and 12 people, usually staying in the 8-10 range. The purpose of Forum is to create an environment that is trusting and confidential, allowing a high level of sharing to take place. Members usually discuss issues they’re experiencing, both personal and professional. The issues are presented and discussed in a very organized fashion. Time is allotted for an issue to be presented, followed by a period for questions, then ending with experience sharing by other members. The experience sharing is the most important part of Forum, as the key to helping someone comes from sharing what you have experienced, and letting them know what worked and what didn’t work.

My East TN Forum Retreat in Atlanta, GA

Experience sharing should not be confused with giving advice. There are 2 important reasons why this time is called experience sharing: (1) people don’t like to be told what to do, and by sharing your experience they are more likely to take that information and figure out how to apply it to their own situation, (2) if you take someone’s advice on something and it doesn’t work out, it’s too easy to blame that person who advised you, thereby breaking the trust and respect between the members. I have found that this practice is better for all relationships, and wish I could do it all the time.

Confidentiality and trust are key in Forum, because without them, the level of sharing is not at its highest. Having the right Forum can be life changing and can allow for growth beyond comprehension in all areas of your life. It has done that for me, and sharing with all my EO friends around the world has given me perspective that has helped, changed and allowed me to grow in both small and large ways.

If you have been in a Fraternity or Sorority, you probably have experienced the closeness of a group of people similar to Forum. We take a yearly retreat to bond, get to know each other and to build trust. It has been said that you will talk about 95% of your life to most people. Forum is where you talk about the other 5%.

If you want to know how to set up a forum, how they’re run, and all the details, read Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders by long time forum trainer Mo Fathelbab.




The Power of Forum

I just got back from a conference for EO Injected Forums in Sonoma, CA where I had a great time with my Forum mates sharing and learning together. It struck me that I talk about Forum lot in my blog, but not everyone has had the opportunity to be in a forum or even understand what a Forum is, so let me tell you about the Forum experience.

My EO Injected Forum biking through wineries in Sonoma, CA

I am in two Forums. One is a local EO Forum that I have been in since 99, which meets monthly. The other is a regional Forum made up of EO members from the South East who have been in EO for more than 7 years, and meets quarterly. 

A Forum consists of anywhere between 6 and 12 people, usually staying in the 8-10 range. The purpose of Forum is to create an environment that is trusting and confidential, allowing a high level of sharing to take place. Members usually discuss issues they’re experiencing, both personal and professional. The issues are presented and discussed in a very organized fashion. Time is allotted for an issue to be presented, followed by a period for questions, then ending with experience sharing by other members. The experience sharing is the most important part of Forum, as the key to helping someone comes from sharing what you have experienced, and letting them know what worked and what didn’t work.

My East TN Forum Retreat in Atlanta, GA

Experience sharing should not be confused with giving advice. There are 2 important reasons why this time is called experience sharing: (1) people don’t like to be told what to do, and by sharing your experience they are more likely to take that information and figure out how to apply it to their own situation, (2) if you take someone’s advice on something and it doesn’t work out, it’s too easy to blame that person who advised you, thereby breaking the trust and respect between the members. I have found that this practice is better for all relationships, and wish I could do it all the time.

Confidentiality and trust are key in Forum, because without them, the level of sharing is not at its highest. Having the right Forum can be life changing and can allow for growth beyond comprehension in all areas of your life. It has done that for me, and sharing with all my EO friends around the world has given me perspective that has helped, changed and allowed me to grow in both small and large ways.

If you have been in a Fraternity or Sorority, you probably have experienced the closeness of a group of people similar to Forum. We take a yearly retreat to bond, get to know each other and to build trust. It has been said that you will talk about 95% of your life to most people. Forum is where you talk about the other 5%.

If you want to know how to set up a forum, how they’re run, and all the details, read Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders by long time forum trainer Mo Fathelbab.




Three Things Scrooge Would Say About Our Business

 

As we approach Christmas and get to spend more time with our family and friends in a spirited, colorful environment full of lights, we open our hearts and our pocket books to give and share what we have with others.  While I cannot speak for you, it makes me feel good to give to others.  When it is done with sincerity, I feel it has that effect similar to when the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes.  It changed him.  I look to the holidays to have that growing heart experience and hope the holidays have the same effect on you.

However, in certain areas of your business, I feel it is necessary to have a Scrooge mindset.  I have experienced this in the areas of operations management, stop doing , and cash!

grinch 7

For operations management, I find it useful to go through all the expenses on a periodic basis and for each ask, “is this expense necessary and does this add value to my business?”  I always do this at the end of the year and prefer to do it quarterly.  I often discover things we are paying for that no longer need to be paid or that could be modified or reduced.  For example, during this end of year review, I found that we were paying to store outdated documents off-site.  These can now be destroyed, thus stopping that expense.  My team is also reviewing our servers for potential consolidation and fee reduction. What expenses could you reduce or end?

What can we STOP doing in the true Scrooge fashion?  Many times we take on too much and have to stand up and be a scrooge and say, “No, I can’t do that at this time because it will affect my other work.”  It can be most difficult to say no to clients, but as I have experienced, it can be the most important thing you say in business.  You can read much more on this in last week’s blog.

The last and most important area I’ll discuss is cash.  We all know that not having the cash to pay our bills is a bad place to be.  Therefore, being cautious and miserly in this area is prudent in the right context.  Ask the question, “what can we do in order to get cash in faster and pay it out slower?”  Extending cash outflow for thirty days by putting some of our expenses on credit cards could be an option.  What are the opportunities to negotiate getting paid upfront or sooner from clients in exchange for some benefit to our clients?  We have lines of credit in place and credit card availability as a back-up in this area.

As we go into this holiday season and the New Year, I am shooting for balance between being a scrooge in some business areas and growing my heart three times.  Wishing you all a wonderful giving and sharing holiday season!