Explore More

Nearly all of us who arrived on this planet after World War II grew up in the Culture of the Single Lifetime Career. From early on, we were encouraged to pick a path and follow it. Once we had made the choice, we discovered that getting off that path was not only difficult—it incurred scorn and criticism from others. Besides the enormous discontent that such thinking has produced, it’s also crippled our adventurous spirits.

R. Buckminster Fuller was one of the greatest thinkers of the past century and someone who refused to give in to such singular notions. In his fascinating book, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, he writes, “Society assumes that specialization is natural, inevitable and desirable. Yet in observing a little child, we find it is interested in everything and spontaneously apprehends, comprehends and coordinates an ever-expanding inventory of experiences. If the total scheme of nature required man to be a specialist she would have made him so by having him born with one eye with a microscope attached to it.”

Isn’t that a great image? Think about an older person that you know, one you would describe as youthful. What’s the distinguishing characteristic of this lively elder? I’m guessing that curiosity about anything and everything is what stands out.

It’s the same quality that makes for successful entrepreneurship. We need to be curious about our own industry, of course, but we need to be equally curious about things that seem to have no direct bearing on what we’re up to. After all, the world is full of people who are crazy about things we know nothing about  and discovering what they love can make our lives richer.

One Thanksgiving, I had dinner with a group of relatives I didn’t know very well. The sister of the hostess sat next to me at dinner and the moment she sat down announced, “I want to have my own business.” I asked her if she knew what she wanted to do and she lit right up. “I love doing beadwork. I come home from my job and go right to my project room and bead all night,” she told me. The moment dinner was over, she whipped out her beads and spent the afternoon making jewelry. It was fascinating to watch her work and her joy was visible.

A few minutes later, my cousin Ray came over to visit with me. Ray has been a farmer his entire life raising corn and soybeans. Four years earlier, he turned several acres of his farm into vineyards—an unusual crop in Minnesota. In his second year of production, his crop outperformed all expectations. He was so excited about this new aspect of his business and had a list of ideas for building it. I couldn’t wait to return in the summer to see his vines.

Even though I may never take up beading or growing grapes myself, being with these passionate folks opened a creative valve and I spent my long drive home stopping to write down ideas for my own business.

Exploring is more than just amusement. There’s no doubt in my mind that you, I and our fellow humans are in possession of Renaissance souls just waiting to be discovered. It’s only by following our hunches, by trying a wide range of things, by listening to others share their passions and by moving outside the familiar that we can unwrap the gifts that are waiting our recognition.

You don’t have to go halfway around the world in order to be a genuine explorer. You just need to open your heart and mind to testing and tasting the unfamiliar. And when you catch yourself thinking or saying, “I would never…” reverse that thought and give what you’d never do a try— providing it’s not immoral. You might discover that you adore traveling alone or giving a speech. Or you might discover that once was enough. Either way, you’ll have gained a new insight into what brings you the greatest joy.

“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it,” said J. Krishnamurti. “That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”

Making It Better

In the small town where I grew up, the local businessowners were also the community activists. If something needed to be set right, funds raised, or a park furnished, they were the corps that got things rolling. Entrepreneurial volunteers are still shaking things up. Here are some ways to get involved.

° Need inspiration? Visit CNN online and check out their Heroes videos. Great stories of ordinary people making an extraordinary impact.

° Want to help out the country? In the US, go to www.serve.gov and get the lowdown on programs that include AmeriCorps, Citizen Corps and Senior Corps. If you want to create your own program, there’s information on how to do that as well.

° Know a teen who wants to make a difference? Tell them about this online resource: Do Something.

° Want to spruce up a national or local treasure? The American Hiking Society sponsors volunteers working in parks in 30 states and the Virgin Islands. Many state park associations also help you connect with projects.

° Not sure how to find the right opportunity? If you live in an urban area,check out the clearinghouse VolunteerMatch. You can search by location or area of interest.

° Find yourself with unexpected spare time? All kinds of projects can use an extra hand, even if it’s only for a day or so. Pick up a hammer and help a Habitat build, stock shelves at your food pantry, etc.

° Want to spread some entrepreneurial spirit? Although Junior Achievement  isn’t the hands-on business organization it once was, it could be a way for you to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. Go to JA.org to see what’s happening in your part of the world.

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Business author Stephanie Chandler celebrated the Fourth of July with this fine article on 10 Reasons to Love Being an Entrepreneur. 

Getting To Know You

It’s not unusual for me to finish reading a book I adored and think, “Oh, I’d love to sit down with the author at Starbucks.” What is unusual is to have that thought about an author I’ve never read, but the more I learn about Vicki Pettersson, the more fascinated I become.

She’s the author of the Urban Fantasy series called Signs of the Zodiac. That’s not a genre I’d normally pay much attention to, but after hearing two interviews with her on Nevada public radio, reading another interview with her in Las Vegas Weekly, and visiting her Website, I’m smitten.

Pettersson first caught my attention on public radio with her thoughts about the writing life and what it takes to succeed. A disciplined artist, she began writing in her teens. Along the way to publication, there were some detours.

Pettersson, who was 5’ 10” by the time she was 12, worked as a showgirl while launching her writing career. As she told interviewer Josh Bell, if she had grown up somewhere other than Las Vegas, she might have been encouraged to play basketball or volleyball. In Vegas, she was encouraged to be a showgirl. That is how she put herself through college and that’s how she supported herself until her writing sold. “It paid for school. And it was part-time work for full-time pay…Then I got a real job and realized that it paid part-time money for full-time work. And that was just unacceptable.”

Besides the fact that she obviously has the heart of a Joyfully Jobless person, what has me thinking about Vicki Pettersson today is that she’s showing us one of the essential concepts of successful marketing. Although I’ve only encountered her from afar, I like Vicki Pettersson a lot and I suspect I’ll be exploring the pages of her first Zodiac novel sometime soon. This would not have happened if she hadn’t shared her personal story and ideas in highly visible ways.

We all know that we like to do business with people we know and like. If we don’t know you, we can’t like you. It’s as simple as that. If you’re ready to collect fans and friends for your business, take a look at Making Your Business Visible. It’s full of tips for getting started.

 

 

A Business Built on Dust

Great business ideas can come from anywhere—frustration and frugality, for instance. One such story began in a tiny monastery in the countryside of western Wisconsin.

Father Bernard, one of five Cistercian monks living in at the monastery, was perplexed by the high cost of printer ink. That may not be the sort of problem you’d think would concern a cloistered monk, but Father Bernard is a frugal man.

As he recalls, “All I wanted was a little bit of black dust for one of our monastery printers. In my search for a toner cartridge, I was suddenly struck with how incredibly expensive this black dust and a few squirts of ink were. ‘There must be a better way,’ I said to myself. And so began my foray into the world of imaging supplies. What I discovered was a revelation. Simply stated, the mark-up on ink supplies is sinfully high, reaching in some instances into the 1,000-2,000 % levels. I also discovered that there were many companies that manufactured either new compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges at a fraction of the cost of the big name brands. My thoughts starting racing.”

What started out in 2001 as a search for a better way grew into a multimillion dollar Internet success story. Not only did Father Bernard find a way to cut costs for their monastery imaging supplies, he thought that he could create some extra income for their mission by selling remanufactured cartridges. The first year, the monks brought in a whopping $2000 gross. As the media began telling their story, sales multiplied 700% in 2003. They conservatively project doubling or tripling this year. 

What did these monks know about starting a business? They  began by applying the Rule of St. Benedict, which emphasizes the concept of hospitality, kindness and charity. How could they be hospitable in dealing with their customers, their vendors and their growing staff? How could they extend themselves to the community? How could they use their profits for the greater good?  

In addition to keeping their hospitality mission at the forefront, they also insisted that their business would be about these four things:

Bring joy and meaning to our work.

Involve the customer in our mission.

Position our company as socially conscious.

Grow financially and spiritually.

Ever since learning about them, I’ve been an enthusiastic LaserMonks customer and have been the recipient of their superb service. One of the bonuses of buying my ink from them is that I also am invited to leave a prayer request. Of course, I always do. Do you know any other business that offers to pray for yours? 

That’s not all that makes LaserMonks a standout. Since five monks have modest financial needs, much of their profit is given to charities with an emphasis on helping disadvantaged children. Even though their business is global, their focus is local. As they grew, LaserMonks made an effort to employ single mothers in their area, for instance. They’re equally committed to passing along frugality to their customers, whom they estimate saved over $200,000 last year.

“Everyone wins with LaserMonks,” says Father Bernard. “Isn’t that the way business should be?”

What We Almost Missed

While Bill Bryson was toiling away at a London newspaper, he was dreaming about being a freelance writer. With a wife and family to support, this seemed a risky and selfish dream. So he continued to drag himself to a job that was growing more loathsome.

One day he got a call at work from his wife Cynthia. “I’ve just put the house on the market,” she announced. Her husband was livid, but she remained firm. “You’ve been talking about quitting your job and it’s time you did that.” 

The London house was sold and the Bryson clan moved north to rural Yorkshire for a new life. Bryson’s modest goal was to earn a decent living by writing articles and books. He produced several books on the English language, which had modest sales, but it was his humorous travel tales that earned him a following and massive popularity. He’s also earned numerous awards, including  an honorary OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his contribution to literature.

It makes me shudder to think that he could still be an obscure copy editor instead of making his devoted fans, of which I am one, laugh out loud.

Thinking about Bryson’s story makes me want to jump up on my chair and holler, “Hooray for the Cynthia Brysons of the world!” People like her are in short supply. On the other hand, the world is full of people like her husband, people who dream of doing one thing while doing another. 

Self-doubt is a nasty scoundrel that kills armies of dreams and thwarts ambition of all sorts. When we allow self-doubt to keep us from going after our dreams, we dupe ourselves into thinking that we’re behaving prudently. Unless we understand the folly of this position, it’s impossible to take action.

In the end, self-doubt is just that: doubt that one allows to fester in oneself. You don’t need a Cynthia Bryson to cure it, but you do need determination to get past it.

One of my favorite reminders comes from Paulo Coehlo who wrote, “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 the same: in both cases, we will pass through both difficult and happy moments. But when we are living our dream, the difficulties we encounter make sense.”

 

The Second Top Reason for Being Joyfully Jobless

Two years ago, I took a little poll asking people what they thought was the best thing about being Joyfully Jobless. Overwhelmingly, the most  popular answer (about 85%) given was ”Freedom.” That’s a word that has long been near and dear to us in the United States, but it takes on added meaning—and power—when we become our own bosses.

There’s another reward, however, that often comes as one of those pleasant, albeit unexpected, surprises. For me, it may be my favorite thing of all. It certainly wasn’t something I’d anticipated when I first set out on my own, although I now wonder why I hadn’t realized that my life as an entrepreneur was going to bring a new cast of characters with it.

When my Aunt Marge was alive,  I always looked forward to visiting her. As soon as I’d arrive, she’d settle into her big chair and ask me where I’d been and whom I’d met. She loved hearing my stories and would often exclaim, “Oh, you meet the most interesting people.” She was right, of course, and I suspect there’s a reason why I looked forward to sharing those stories with her. 

In my old life, my pre-self-employment life, I hardly knew a soul that I would have described as creative, curious or adventurous. I suspect nobody would have used those words to describe me, either. Today, I hardly know anyone who isn’t creative, curious and adventurous. Those artists of everyday life who are exploring and bringing their ideas to life are doing far more than merely running a business: they’re making things better in ways that ripple and flow. 

 So throughout the month of July, we’ll be exploring how to make our lives richer and more interesting by welcoming newcomers into our personal worlds. I’ll be sharing some of the stories that my Aunt Marge loved hearing along with offering tips on ways to uncover genus entrepreneurus, also known as your tribe. After all, as Caroline Myss reminds us, “We evolve at the rate of the tribe we’re plugged into.” 

And, of course, I’ll share tips on connecting with clients and customers, as well as collaborators. Come back often. You never know who you might meet.

What’s Your Mantra?

The way to change your life, Elizabeth Gilbert told Oprah, is to, “Get a new mantra.” She wasn’t talking about mantras in the spiritual sense, but as a personal motto or phrase that inspires you or expresses something you believe in.

Many mantras begin with the words “I am” and are a powerful force for shaping our lives. If we’re unaware of the mantras we’re thinking and saying, we may miss the connection to what we’re becoming. 

I was reminded of this when I received an e-mail from a man I’d met seven or eight years ago, but hadn’t had much contact with recently. I wrote back asking for an update and received a mantra-filled reply. Here’s a sampling:

I am still trying to make the best of an employed life and I find that I am not that happy. I am trying to make it work for the steady paycheck and health insurance. I do not believe that I can match my current income and benefits on my own, and I need to support the family.  Yet, it takes so much out of me, I have no energy to start anything outside of it.  Each day, I force myself  to be on time, force myself to comply to the ongoing, overwhelming requirements made of me, and come home exhausted.

Compare that to the mantras in Angela O’Brien’s message:

My business is better than ever right now and I have no fears about layoffs. I work as a private math tutor and babysitter and had to adjust my ego because I can’t tell people I have some lofty position.  What I have is daily freedom, joy, and independence. 

 I am learning to live on a lot less money and it is fine.  My motto is “there is always more than one (or two) answers”.  I am no longer sacrificing my health in order to have what society has always told me I should have.  My boyfriend is an independent massage therapist and his business has never been better, either.  We keep saying, “Wow, there’s no recession for us!”  I don’t have a big retirement account and neither does he, but we feel so confident in our ability to take care of ourselves that it doesn’t matter!  Self-bossing is the best!

See the difference? Pretty hard not to see it, but it’s a bit trickier to hear our own mantras and see how they are impacting our lives. Start by listening to the mantras that you are using to create your life. Are they a reflection of your dreams or your fears? Either way, consider adopting a brand new 2009 mantra for yourself. 

That’s what Sue Hibbetts, SupportBuddy on Twitter, shared with us on Sunday. She wrote, “At Jubilee Church the minister said, ‘What if your dreams are closer than you think?’ Today, my mantra  is, ‘My dreams are closer than I think!’”

And don’t just write a mantra for yourself. Your business deserves them, too. In fact, Guy Kawasaki says, “Forget mission statements — they’re worthless; instead create a powerful mantra for yourself.”

So write those mantras and, if you’re feeling frisky, share them with the rest of us. Or if you’ve already seen the power of a mantra, tell us that story, too.

 

The problem with getting bigger is that getting bigger costs you. Not just in time and money, but in focus and standards and principles. Moving your way to the biggest part of the curve means appealing to an ever broader audience, becoming (by definition) more average. More, more, more is rarely the mantra of a successful person. ~ Seth Godin

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Join me at Follow Through Camp, May 15 & 16, and you’ll go home with a new mantra–and much, much more.

Hiding Out or Hanging Out?

On Friday morning, Pat Egan sent out an SOS on Twitter which read, “Does anyone know a good dog trainer in the Boulder, CO area?” A couple of hours later, it hit me that I did, indeed, know such a person. In fact, dog trainer Pat Blocker had driven me to the Denver airport last Saturday. So I sent her info on to Pat (via Twitter) and a couple of hours later got a message from Pat (via Twitter) saying, “Thanks for the referral.”

I’m telling you this not because it’s such an unusual occurrence, but because it’s the kind of thing I do all day, every day. In fact, one of my favorite hobbies is matching up people who have a problem with someone who has a solution. I might see a request on Help a Reporter Out, for instance,  that is a fit for someone I know so I pass it along. It doesn’t take much time to do this, but it does take knowing more about a person than just their name.

I’m not the only one who recognizes that, of course. A few years ago I heard an editor say that if she had two equally good articles to choose from she was inclined to buy the one from the author whom she knew. I’m guessing it wasn’t the editor who made the effort to create the relationship to begin with.

Yesterday I was going through my Twitter follower list and noticed that at least one third of the folks who signed up to follow me have never posted a single message of their own. What’s up with that?  Why are so many people not bothering to get to know each other?  Same thing goes for the Follow Through Camp group on Facebook. How have I failed to explain that building a business is really about building relationships?

Happily there are lots of folks sharing their journey on a regular basis. Some do it as a marketing ploy, of course, but I see plenty of others who are just delighted to connect with others simply because it feels good to connect. It can also inspire.

As I was thinking about all this, Lynn Girardi wrote to tell me of her Sunday outing. She said, “ I  checked out a suburban town a couple of hours train ride away from Brooklyn today, to help lift my spirits and get some inspiration/relaxation. It helped. While strolling around the stores on my own, I read an old newsletter of yours where you mentioned how sometimes it’s even better to learn among people also interested in learning the same thing…like that yoga class you went to of your niece’s which was easier to stick to then just a DVD. Funny, but I was just saying something similar to the teacher when I went to a dance exercise class at the ballroom studio this week…I loved it and it helped uplift my spirits and was so much easier and more pleasurable to stick to, doing it with others rather than solo with my television! Thanks for confirming that idea!”

This weekend was the annual River Run in Laughlin, NV which brings in thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts every year. The local news was doing a piece from Laughlin and interviewed a man who had ridden in from Palm Springs. He mentioned that he never misses the Laughlin event, nor the one in Sturgis, SD. “It’s a matter of priorities,” he said. “If you want to be part of this, you have to find a way to make it happen. If that means putting away a little money all year long, that’s what you’ve got to do.” Then he added, “If you’re into bikes, you’ve got to get on and ride.”

And get into the conversation with your fellow travelers.

Laughing All the Way

Should I ever wake up some morning and think, “I guess it’s time to get a job,” I know exactly how I’ll abort that thought. I’ll just get in my car and head for the nearest freeway. A few minutes spent in rush hour traffic would certainly bring me back to my senses. It’s not just the slowness of heavy traffic that annoys me: the behavior of my fellow drivers is one of the few things guaranteed to make me lose my cool. No thoughts of universal oneness and love of humanity surface when I’m spending time in traffic.

Shortly after being inspired by Marianne Williamson’s Everyday Grace, I decided to try a new approach. When a fellow driver would threaten my life, I’d send them a silent blessing and then say a short prayer that went something like, “Dear Lord, please send that person better driving skills.”

I figured there was a hidden opportunity here to start shaping up all the folks who didn’t bother using their turn signals or who were distracted by a fascinating phone conversation. It calmed me a little as I recalled the Biblical admonition to pray without ceasing and realized that bad drivers were propelling me to a constant state of prayer. I had no idea that another weapon awaited me.

A few years ago, an adult ed center where I taught on occasion, had an open house. I decided to sit in on the Laughter Workshop taught by Kim McIntyre Cannold. After all, I love to laugh and I thought it would be fun. I didn’t expect to learn something so amazing, something that has proved invaluable already—especially in traffic.

Cannold, who is certified by the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, opened her workshop by talking about the different kinds of laughter and had us all try out various types from tittering to belly laughing. Then she boldly suggested that we could schedule a laugh fest every day and simply laugh our heads off for no reason other than it would improve our emotional and physical well-being.

That was news to me. Laughing for the sake of laughing? While laughing as a healing agent has long been known, I’d never heard it suggested that we could just laugh without any outside stimulus.

Then she went even farther and asked us to list things that bugged us. Bad drivers headed the group list. She proposed that when we found ourselves in those normally upsetting situations that we abandon our usual angry reaction and laugh instead. This seemed a bit over the top to me, but I decided to give it a whirl.

The next time a driver cut me off, I decided to laugh, although it seemed a bit hypocritical. To my astonishment, it felt great. It felt much better than fuming to myself, which didn’t change the situation. Laughing didn’t change the other driver’s behavior, either, (and I figured my prayers might take a little longer to be answered), but it sure changed me. It was obvious hat the one who laughs gets the reward.

If you’d like to expand the amount of laughter in your life, here are some ideas that can help.

° Memorize this quote. Ernest Hemingway said, “The seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that in those who can laugh in life the seeds are covered with better soil and a higher grade of manure.”

° Meet my friend Karyn Ruth. The most hilarious trip I ever took was the London adventure I shared with Karyn Ruth White. We both recall it as a week of nonstop laughter. If she’s not available to accompany you on a trip, order her Laughing in the Face of Stress or (my favorite) Kiss My Botox CDs or her book, Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like a Comedian. She’s a seriously funny woman.

° Meet Annette Goodheart. The first laughter therapist I ever heard of was Dr. Goodheart whose adult ed classes in her hometown of Santa Barbara had long waiting lists. Dr. Goodheart calls laughter ‘Portable Therapy’ and points out that its benefits include: strengthens your immune system, helps you think more clearly, replenishes creativity, releases emotional pain, it’s free. She’s got a great Web site with several surprising features. 

° Read something funny. There aren’t a lot of authors that make me laugh out loud, but one who does is Bill Bryson. His travel books are especially hilarious. I’m  fond of Neither Here Nor There, although any of his books is bound to produce a giggle or guffaw. You don’t have to be a Minnesotan to find the Pretty Good Joke Book from Prairie Home Companion pretty darn funny.

Laughter is certainly important for the entrepreneurial life. Look for the funny side and you’ll discover there’s no shortage of goofiness to help you meet your daily quota of laughs. Be bold and test it for yourself. It’s medicine that doesn’t require a prescription.

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As anyone knows who has attended one of my special events, there’s always a lot of laughter going on. I’m confident that Follow Through Camp will be no exception. While we are working to get ideas and dreams on track and moving ahead, we’ll find plenty to laugh about. There’s still time to join us, but you need to hurry or you’ll miss out. That would not be funny.

New Kids on the Block

Some people go all fuzzy at the sight of a new puppy. My daughter the doula feels that way about babies. And I get all shivery over startup businesses. Seeing a baby idea come to life makes me want to jump in and help.

As the late Sydney Harris reminds us, ideas, like airplanes, are most vulnerable on takeoff. For many new kids on the block, the tricky bit is getting the word out. So today I’m sharing a handful of new businesses in the hope that you’ll check them out for yourself and pass the word along.

Last fall, I got a call from Joe Cruse asking for help on self-publishing a book he’d written called I Don’t Smoke,  a “stand alone” (do it yourself), but not a “go it alone” (get a cheering squad), treatment in a book.

Joe is a lively septuagenarian who is an addiction specialist. Among other things, Joe was the Founding Medical Director of the Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower Medical Center and also served as President of the medical staff at Eisenhower Hospital. We discussed his options and he chose Booklocker to produce the book. In no time at all, Joe had books in hand and has already won an award from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. 

If you or someone you care about still smoke, I highly recommend I Don’t Smoke.

Another new business I’ve been raving about is Live Counseling. Based in Austin, TX, this startup offers counseling services on a wide range of subjects—no matter where you live. Counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help solve problems, listen and advise. If your new dog won’t stop pooping under the bed or your 4-year-old is suddenly sassy or your relationship is feeling rocky, you can get help quickly.

Live Counseling is also building a portfolio of experts so this could be a great opportunity for you to add another profit center and share what you know. It’s a brilliant idea whose time has come.

Know a bride, bridal shop owner, or fashion-conscious prom or nightclub goer? If so, they need to know about Over the Top Fascinators. I admit I had never heard the word fascinator before my sister Margaret started her business, but I’ve had great fun watching her have great fun creating dazzling hair ornaments. Visit her Website and you’ll not only see her elegant creations, but you’ll see storytelling in action when you read her descriptions. 

If you or someone you know has a special occasion coming up, Over the Top Fascinators will make sure you stand out in the crowd.

“Reinvention” is the buzz word of the day—and for good reason. If helping others reinvent themselves appeals to you, consider signing up for Valerie Young’s brilliant Outside the Job Box consulting program and you’ll be on your way to a new startup of your own.

By the way, if you have a startup that you think my readers should know about, send me details at barbara@joyfullyjobless.com.

Sometimes to make it big, you first have to make it small. Conrad Hilton started out sweeping floors in a dusty New Mexico hotel. He cleaned up as owner of a famous hotel chain. John Paul Getty started with a $500 oil lease in Oklahoma and become one of America’s richest men. David Packard baked the paint onto his first product in a kitchen oven. Forty-five years later, he was running a $4.7 billion company. There are anonymous men and women starting small today whose names will be household words in 20 years. Will one of those names be yours? Get started.–Harry J. Gray