Your Biggest Asset

In one of the first books I ever read about self-employment, You, Inc., author Peter Weaver pointed out that people who work for themselves tend to take better care of themselves.

“I’ve found that most people who have their own small businesses seem to run a little harder, stay a little thinner, drink less and smoke less,” Weaver wrote. “Oh, you can find some who are florid-faced, wheezing, too fat, drink too much and smoke too much, but in general most self-bossers tend to take care of themselves.

“Maybe it’s because they realize that they are the most important asset on their company’s books. They’ve invested so much time and money in their business, they want to protect their investment.

“Then, maybe it’s because they’re happier with life and they don’t feel the need to overindulge as a means of escape.”

As you may have heard, October 16 is National Boss’s Day. If you’re the boss of you, I suggest you celebrate heartily.

Slip off to a movie matinee.

Send flowers to yourself.

Invite a Joyfully Jobless friend or two out for lunch.

Write a Gratitude List of all the blessings your business has brought you.

Set a new bold goal.

By all means, look in the mirror and blow yourself a big kiss.

Being the boss rocks. Celebrate!

A Lesson from Venice

As my Facebook friends can attest, I’m totally besotted by Venice. So imagine my excitement when the amazing Lisa Tarrant came up with this new header for this blog.

Take a look at those lovely buildings and what you’re seeing were originally the world headquarters of many homebased businesses. The Venetians weren’t the first, of course, to work from home, but they did it with more elegance.

Those three-story buildings were designed to house both business and family. The ground floor served as a warehouse for goods coming and going in and out of Venice. The second floor was used for business offices, while the entrepreneur’s family occupied the top floor.

Although tourism is the top business in this magical place today, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well as I was reminded on my last visit there.

When my family and I arrived at the vaporetto stop in Venice, we were greeted by our temporary landlord Carlo. He shook hands with each of us and then escorted us back to the 500-year-old building he owns which housed our apartment.

The first thing I noticed about him was that he didn’t actually walk: he bounced. And he smiled a lot.

The next afternoon he stopped by to make sure that things were running smoothly. “So, Carlo,” I asked, “where did you learn to speak English so well?”

The grin got even bigger and he told us how he’d decided to learn English when he was 16 and began his lessons by listening to Simon and Garfunkel. “Then I went to London and discovered I didn’t know how to speak it at all.”

We invited him to sit down and tell us more about this building which he was renovating. What followed was a delightful story about creative entrepreneurship.

He said he’d been a pharmacist, but when the building came into his family rather unexpectedly, he left his pharmacy to devote himself to this new enterprise.

His parents occupied an apartment on the ground floor. There was another space he rented to a group of architects. Carlo lived on the top floor while the other four apartments were vacation rentals.

Redoing the building had obviously been a huge undertaking and he seemed to be enjoying it all. I tried to imagine how difficult it would be to rehab an old building in a city where everything had to be brought in and removed by motorboat. It seemed daunting.

When Carlo told us that he was facing a couple of off-season months with few takers, my sister Margaret suggested he advertise on Craigslist, which he was unfamiliar with.

To our delight—and his—he promptly got two bookings after posting on that popular site.

The following evening we received an invitation from D.J., the occupant of the apartment next to ours. He’s an American who calls himself a “globalnista” who spends four months of the year in Venice.

We accepted his invitation to stop by for a drink and once the seven of us were seated and had drinks in hand, I asked him a question about himself. That began a long monologue which involved D.J. and his own cleverness as the theme of the story.

While I wouldn’t call him a liar, some of the details seemed a bit fuzzy while other parts of the story were obviously embellished.

When we left, Margaret said to me, “I can’t tell: was he fascinating or tedious?” I laughed and said, “He could have used some editing.”

But it was more than editing that D. J. needed. The difference between him and Carlo really came down to authenticity. Carlo was genuine and D.J. was faking it. Just as important, Carlo paid attention to his listeners; D. J. paid attention only to himself.

Whether we realize it or not, we’re telling our stories all of the time—to strangers as well as those we know. And storytelling can be a powerful—or neglected—business tool.

The authors of Funky Business say, “Communicating a vision not only involves repetition and a carefully distilled message; it demands the ability to tell a story. True leaders are CSOs—Chief Storytelling Officers…Funky leaders give rise to and spread stories.”

After telling a few good stories themselves, they conclude, “The message is simple: light the campfire, gather the tribe, and start preaching and practicing. Lift us up where we belong.”

If you haven’t done so, give some thought to storytelling and how it can enhance your business and your life. Collect stories, share them, find the stories in your business and pass them along.

Make storytelling one of your business building tools.

And while you’re at it, why not make this next year the one in which you write the best chapter of your own story so far?

Putting the Power of Synergy to Work

It’s easy to imagine people looking at the prolific William Morris and saying, “I wonder how he gets so much done.” During his lifetime, he produced a dazzling body of work that included writing, social activism, publishing and all those intricate textile and wallpapers.

I’ve always suspected that the secret of his enormous output stemmed from the weekends he organized at his home, Red House, where he invited his artistic friends to come and spend the weekend “making things.”

Rossetti, Burne-Jones and the others who came to make up the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were participants in these Art Weekends.

In gathering all these creative souls around himself and nurturing their talents, he was taking advantage of that extraordinary energy known as synergism.

This phenomenon was first noticed and named by the pharmaceutical industry where it was observed that combining drugs sometimes produced a result greater than the individual parts. The same thing can happen when people gather together and the result is greater than the individual contributions.

In other words, synergy says two plus two equals twelve.

While synergy can occur spontaneously and in unexpected ways, the smart entrepreneur will consciously create situations to help it along.

This is particularly important for those of us who work alone and need to reach out to other self-bossers on a regular basis to take advantage of the rewards of synergism.

Here are some suggestions for doing just that.

 ° Choose carefully. “As I look at my life,” says Stewart Emery, “I notice that all my friends are people who support me in learning the lessons I have to learn. We have consciously chosen each other based on the contribution we can make to each other.”

We all know that both Dreambuilders and Dreambashers inhabit the world. When we share our ideas with the latter, our energy is diminished and the likelihood of accomplishing our dreams dims, too.

While we may not be able to avoid them altogether, we do need to learn to protect ourselves from these psychic vampires and spend time with people who get as excited about ideas as we do.

° Instigate. Create situations and gatherings for the purpose of brainstorming. Form your own small Joyfully Jobless group. Have regular breakfast meetings with another self-bosser.

If you’re feeling really frisky, invite a few trusted folks to go away on a mini-retreat where you spend time away from normal demands and concentrate on generating ideas for all members of the group.

You could even host your own Art Weekends ala William Morris.

° Show up. You’re  more likely to be the recipient of synergistic energy at a seminar than you are watching old reruns on television.  Today many people are enthusiastic participants in social media on the Internet. While this may be an efficient way to share information, it’s not the same as being in the presence of other people.

Communication is more than just words and, in fact, nonverbal communication is hugely important. As Mary Pipher so eloquently puts it, “To have a real life people must participate in real communities.”

Get involved in events and activities where ideas are encouraged and flow easily.

° Be opportunity-minded. My friend Chris Utterback and I seldom had a conversation without one of us exclaiming, “Oh, there’s a great business idea!” We always were observing the things around us with the attitude of finding better ways of doing things or discovering something that was missing.

Often this led us to giving ideas away to others who could carry them out.

More importantly, it conditioned us to see the world as a place filled with abundance and unlimited opportunities. We knew that we’d never run out.

Connect, collaborate, create and watch how synergy  helps you to build a better business.

Or as Jim Rohn pointed out, “You cannot succeed by yourself. It’s hard to find a rich hermit.”

6 Ways to Build Momentum

Momentum, says my dictionary, is impetus gained by movement. We learned the essence of it in high school physics when we were taught this principle: a body in motion stays in motion; a body at rest stays at rest.

It’s easy enough to see how that applies to a Frisbee, but not always so obvious when we’re thinking about a project, idea or dream.

Every enterprise begins as a body at rest. It’s up to us to apply the momentum to get it in motion.

The more momentum-minded you are, the more dreams you’ll achieve. It’s as basic as high school physics.

It’s important to realize that the real enemy of success isn’t failure. It’s inertia.

How can you create impetus and keep it going?

By all means, read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, if you haven’t done so. It’s the closest thing we have to a manual for building momentum. You can also depend on the following six surefire tips.

 ° Momentum is fueled by passion.  It’s not impossible, but it is extremely difficult, to make things happen if you’re lukewarm about doing so.

Entrepreneurs are often driven by the passion for freedom, creativity, curiosity, independence, the opportunity to serve others, personal growth and adventure.

If the thought of any of those things doesn’t make your heart beat faster, your passion reservoirs may be dangerously depleted.

 ° Give up ambivalent commitment. I believe that’s an oxymoron, but there are plenty who think they’re committed when they’re not even close.

It is not making a commitment to say to ourselves, “I’ll just try this and see what happens.” Genuine commitment says, “This is what I’m going to do and keep doing until I succeed.”

Excuses and explanations about why things didn’t turn out (or couldn’t possibly turn out), supports inertia, not momentum. You can’t spend your days spinning straw into gold and spend your nights turning it back into straw.

“Those who would reap the blessings of freedom,” wrote Thomas Paine, “must be willing to undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” It’s still true.

° Make haste slowly.  When things happen quickly or prematurely, there’s little chance of longevity. It is far wiser to take the long view, building bit by bit until your foundation is strong and unshakable.

Visionaries often have a hard time with this and their impatience sends them back to square one over and over until they figure it out.

Making small daily moves is often far more effective than taking one occasional leap.

° Put problems, setbacks and obstacles into perspective. Why didn’t someone tell us, in a positive way, that life is an ongoing problem-solving exercise and if we embrace it with enthusiasm, solve the problems in front of us, we’re on our way to upgrading to a better class of problems?

Since that message hasn’t been widely circulated, many people treat problems as punishment or failure. “Why is this happening to me?” they wail.

“Because you can’t grow without challenge,” I want to reply.

The only people who don’t encounter setbacks are not going anywhere to begin with.

Very often, the act of solving a problem creatively contributes more  to our momentum than any other act.

I remember hearing Norman Vincent Peale talk about problems and saying on the days he woke up and couldn’t find any problems to solve, he got down on his knees and prayed, “What’s the matter, God? Don’t you trust me? Send me some problems!”

 ° Build a brain trust.  We all need sounding boards, people we can call on when we’re stuck or when we have cause to celebrate. These momentum builders will not show up in your life if you’re sitting in your living room waiting for them.

Go to seminars and conferences. Approach people first. As you reach out and show genuine interest in other people’s projects, your own brain trust will naturally form itself.

These relationships only will work, however, if the empowerment is reciprocal.

° Stay focused on the ultimate rewards. Letting yourself be pulled ahead by your vision can create a huge amount of momentum.

One of the best ways to enhance this is to keep visual reminders around you. Pictures, inspiring words, representations of your final results can keep your mind paying attention to the right things.

“Nothing is impossible,” said La Rochefoucauld. “There are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will, we should always have sufficient means.”

That’s momentum building in a nutshell.

If Nothing Ever Goes Wrong, Nothing Much Goes

On the night before I was scheduled to head out of town on a four day trip, I was quietly reading in bed when I heard a strange gurgling sound coming from the bathroom. Further investigation revealed that the water in the toilet bowl was looking like a volcano about to erupt.

Since my plumbing skills are nonexistent, I decided to flush it and see if that solved the problem. Moments later, water was flooding the floor and I was bailing water and mopping up with a towel.

I shut the water intake valve off, but spent the next couple of hours fretting when I should have been snoozing.

What if the toilet erupted while I was away? Would I flood my downstairs neighbors in the condo below mine? Would I return to a home in shambles?

On Friday morning I headed to the airport still carrying trepidation along with my luggage. Later in the day, my daughter sent me an e-mail assuring me all was well (or, more literally, all was dry). I relaxed a bit.

My attention shifted to teaching the liveliest seminars I could to three groups of students in Sacramento. When I shared my mini-disaster, I got all sorts of advice on dealing with my plumbing problem.

Early on Sunday morning, I headed to Las Vegas to meet up with the folks from International Living. They were running a Fast-Track Your Retirement Overseas Conference  where 600 people were investigating what it would take to live abroad.

Since I have no plans to retire either here or abroad, I wasn’t there as a participant. I had come at the invitation of International Living publisher Jackie Flynn to discuss a product they’ll be launching in the new year.

On Sunday evening, I shared dinner and ideas with Jackie and her writing team. I went back to my room feeling quite excited about their new project.

Monday morning I woke up and had two e-mail messages that took me by surprise. The first was from Southwest Airlines alerting me to a delay in my late afternoon flight back to California.

The second was from my long time online merchant provider announcing that they were closing down shop at the end of the year.

I shared my bad news with my Facebook friends and promptly began receiving messages of encouragement. Once again, the dark cloud lifted quickly.

The truth was that neither the bad news nor my overflowing toilet is what I’ll remember from this journey.

In fact, there were so many delightful moments in these four days that when I recall the trip, the first things that come to mind will be the fun I had spending time with my friend Judy Miranda in Sacramento.

I’ll also think about meeting Facebook friend Lisa Montanaro for the first time and the engaging participants that showed up for my seminars.

And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the view from my room at Red Rocks Resort with the full moon shining down over the lights of Las Vegas.

Or the joyful time I had brainstorming with the International Living team.

After our meeting Monday morning, I headed to the airport although my delayed flight was hours away. I went to the Southwest ticket counter, asked if I could be put on an earlier flight and a few minutes later was heading home.

“Is there a charge?” I asked the ticket agent.

“Not from me,” she replied (just in case I needed another reason to love that airline).

This little outing reminded me, once again, that building a business isn’t about living in a total and continuous state of bliss. Anyone expecting such a thing won’t be in business very long.

On the other hand, on those days when you wonder if all the annoyances, distractions and disappointments are worth it, remind yourself of  this observation from Paulo Coehlo:

Too often we decide to follow a path that is not really our own, one that others have set for us. We forget that whichever way we go the price is always the same: in both cases we will pass through difficult and happy moments.

But when we are living our dreams, the difficulties we encounter make sense.