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.

Give It a Twist

For several years I’ve been sharing an idea in my How To Support Your Wanderlust seminars, but suspect I’ve never convinced anyone to try it.

I’ve suggested that a photographer might set up shop near famous tourist spots and take pictures of visitors which they turn into postcards. Not only would this appeal to solo travelers (like me), but lots of tourists would enjoy sending unique postcards with themselves in the picture.

To my delight, someone has finally done something  similar. Michael Lato founded HazelMail.com, a site where you can turn your vacation photos into postcards. Hazel will print and mail your postcard anywhere in the world for $1.50.

Got an idea for a business but think it’s already been done to death? Consider putting a new spin on an old idea. It’s another way to stand out from the crowd.

That’s precisely what Paul Hawken did when he returned from Findhorn in Scotland wanting to import the gardening tools he’d discovered in the UK. Despite warnings from the experts that Americans would never buy gardening tools from a mail order company, Hawken and his partner David Smith printed up their first little catalog, mailed it to their friends and Smith & Hawken was born.

The possibilities for adding a twist to an old idea are endless. For instance, touring famous destinations has been around for centuries. A popular variation on that business is offering tours after dark.

You can take a helicopter ride over the Las Vegas Strip or tour Jerusalem’s Old City after the sun goes down. In London, a popular night time walking tour follows the trail of Jack the Ripper. It just wouldn’t be the same in daylight.

Jim Denevan, an artist, surfer, chef and founder of the Slow Food Movement, has turned the ordinary picnic into a foodie’s delight. His company, Outstanding in the Field, hosts picnics at beaches, vineyards and other outdoor venues.

You won’t find fried chicken and potato salad on his menu, however. Denevan flies in top chefs from major cities to prepare the special cuisine. His company is currently undergoing a global expansion with events planned in Italy, Spain, France and Australia.

Or take your business to the customer as massage therapists, dog groomers and car detailers have done. It’s an idea that’s served Tupperware and Avon nicely and seems especially appealing in our busy times.

Have you uncovered—or started—a business that’s put a new twist on an old idea? If so, we’d love to hear about it.

The Cranky Woman at the Post Office

When I was growing up in tiny Janesville, Minnesota, I developed an enormous fondness for the mail. To me, it seemed the most compelling evidence of life outside my village came through our family mailbox at the post office.

I did everything I could think of to increase the amount of mail that arrived bearing my name. I sent away for things advertised in comic books by taping dimes and quarters on little bits of cardboard. I acquired penpals. The quality of the mail I received was far less important than the quantity.

When I began my self-employment journey it was natural to include some sort of mail order component. As a result, daily trips to the post office have been the only regular activity of my business life.

Because the post office has been my partner in business, I’ve always cultivated relationships with the postal workers that I see on a regular basis. I know their names,I know about their families and they know about me.

Even before I moved to Las Vegas, I acquired a post office box with the help of my friend Cheri who was living there. The gang behind the counter is an eclectic bunch and, with one stunning exception, all friendly and fun.

Then there’s Judy. She seldom smiles and frequently scowls when her co-workers are sharing a joke with a customer. I did my best to avoid going to her window, but it’s not always possible to circumvent her.

One day, I made a purchase from Judy and when she handed me my receipt she slipped something else in my hand. I didn’t look at it until I got to my car and discovered she had given me a religious tract. Apparently, she had  decided I needed to  be saved.

I promptly sent a complaint to the postal service via e-mail. The next day, Judy’s manager called me and expressed his horror that she had done such a thing. He promised to discuss the matter with her.

I assume that Judy knew that I was the source of her reprimand (although she may have spread her proselytizing around for all I know) and any time I landed at her window, transactions were conducted in silence. Sometimes I’d let the folks behind me in line go ahead just to avoid an encounter with her.

On the Saturday morning when I went to the post office carrying dozens of copies of Making a Living Without a Job to be mailed, I was slightly dismayed to see that only Judy and one other employee were minding the store.

When my turn came, I was paired with Judy. Several of the books were going to other countries so needed special attention. When she realized what was in the packages, she asked me what kind of books I wrote.

I mumbled something about self-employment and Judy surprised me again by saying, “I want to be self-employed.” I said nothing. She kept processing orders and asked, “How much is your book?”

I told her the price and then (to my further astonishment) said, “I’d like to give you a copy. Maybe it will help.”

“Would you autograph it?” she asked. She was smiling for the first time ever. I assured her I would do that.

I walked out of the post office shaking my head at the unexpected shift in my relationship with her.

Later that day, I returned with more packages to mail and a copy of my book concealed in a gift bag. “You may not want to read this in the employee lunchroom,” I suggested.

Based on my experience with Judy, I would not think she’d make an especially good entrepreneur since she doesn’t seem to like people very much. I could be totally wrong about that, of course.

Perhaps her misery in her current job is simply too great for her to keep it to herself.

Judy reminds me why it’s so important that we make the commitment to discover the work we love and then do it with all our heart.

When we don’t, we inflict our unhappiness on others. We never become masterful. It’s like going through life with a low grade fever that’s not bad enough to keep us in bed, but we don’t feel good enough to operate from our best self.

George Bernard Shaw, who showed us he knew a thing or two about personal transformation in his play Pygmalion, observed,“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

For most of us, that purpose is expressed through our work and if we fail to connect with the work that ignites our imagination and makes us wildly eager to share, we spread a virus of a different kind, one that infects everyone who comes in contact with us.

Yes, it’s that important and the Judys of this world that keep reminding me of that. I only wish that there were fewer of them.

True Stories to Add to Your Library

Although it didn’t arrive until the end of October, Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs was the top selling book of 2011. It’s continued to grace bestseller lists this year, too.

This is notable for several reasons, but caught my attention because biographies of entrepreneurs don’t usually attract such huge readership. What a shame.

Many such true stories are every bit as intriguing as fictional tales. More importantly, they can provide inspiration and trigger ideas for others wishing to succeed in the Joyfully Jobless world.

As Caroline Myss reminds us, “We evolve at the rate of the tribe we’re plugged into.” Knowing the stories of others who have carved their own path can be enormously helpful to our own evolution.

Some of my favorite business biographies aren’t even close to being bestsellers, but they’re certainly worth investigating. While many of the subjects/authors are now well-known, there was a time when they were known only to their families.

If you’ve missed any of these true stories, track them down and see what you can learn.

Losing My Virginity is Sir Richard Branson’s autobiography of his early years in business. He’s written several other books sharing his philosophy and recent enterprises, but this charmer offers us a glimpse of the early days of the self-described adventure capitalist.

Ben and Jerry’s Double-Dip by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield shows us what it means to create a values-led business. Read this while enjoying a bowl of Cherry Garcia or Creme Brulee.

Hershey by Michael D’Antonio is the surprisingly inspiring tale of Milton S. Hershey who not only became synonymous with chocolate bars, but was one of the country’s first social entrepreneurs. This visionary was decades ahead of his time.

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel by Karen Karbo brings us the philosophy of another visionary whose humble beginnings bore no resemblance to the influential woman she became. Chanel was opinionated and not shy about speaking her mind on living life on your own terms.

In Pursuit of the Common Good by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner is one of the funniest stories on the list. It’s a marvel that Newman’s Own ever managed to succeed.

Body and Soul by Anita Roddick is subtitled Profits With Principles. This book recounts the early days of The Body Shop. Equally worth tracking down is her later book, Business as Unusual. You may need to do some detective work to find either title. It’s worth it.

Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, urges us to use our businesses to make a positive difference in the world.

Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland is a book I reread every year. It’s the incredible story of the author’s journey to create Manchester Bidwell, a jobs training center and community arts program near Pittsburgh. Every city should be so blessed.

Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus shares the story of the birth of micro-lending, which helped poor women in Bangladesh become successful businessowners.

While you may be able to locate some of these books through your public library, I believe they deserve a permanent home in your library. Every one of these stories is worth revisiting from time to time.

You’ll find several of these titles on Barbara’s Book List, along with several others that I haven’t included here. Out of print titles may be available through my new favorite used book source, Thriftbooks.

 

Shy Man Becomes Marketing Madman

John Schroeder was one of the first people I met when I moved to Minneapolis. At the time , he was working as the editor of an in-house magazine for a large company.

He surprised everyone when he decided to go out on his own as a freelance writer. His business has covered a wide range of writing projects including books, study guides, catalog copy, newsletters and articles.

He’s also a voracious fan of garage sales and spends every weekend in the summer going to sales, flea markets and antique shows.

John’s biggest obstacle has been his reluctance to market himself. In true John style, he’s named this approach his No Marketing Marketing Plan which means that he delights in work that comes to him, but seldom instigates projects.

A few years ago, he asked if he could get together with me and our friend Georgia to discuss his goals for the coming year. A meeting was set up and John arrived with his goals neatly typed.

One item caught both Georgia and my attention. Several years earlier, John had written a booklet which he was thinking about expanding into a book called Garage Sale Fever.

We were wildly supportive of this idea and pointed out that he needed to get at it immediately if he wanted to take advantage of the spring selling season.

We met again about six weeks later and asked about his progress. “I’ve kind of put that on the back burner until the end of the year,” he said languidly. “I don’t think I can get it out by the end of April.”

Georgia and I leaped into action and argued against his procrastination.

The next day, John got a call from his publishing friend Shane who said, “I miscalculated. If you get the manuscript done by mid-March, we’ll have no trouble reaching your deadline.”

What happened next was nothing short of astonishing. With Shane setting deadlines, John finished the manuscript ahead of time.

A couple of mornings later, I got a call from John—about two hours earlier than I’ve ever heard from him. I also had never heard such excitement in his voice.

“I’ve been working on my marketing plan for Garage Sale Fever,” he announced, “and I’ve come up with eighteen ideas.”

I congratulated him and said, “Here at Winning Ways, we’re planning to give you a big plug, too.”

“Oh,” he exclaimed, “that’s nineteen!”

Even more amazing were some of the ideas on his list which involved contacting the media, talking to shopkeepers and doing workshops. My introverted friend had turned into a marketing madman.

The next thing we knew, John was appearing on local radio and television shows, being interviewed in newspapers and quoted in Newsweek magazine. He also agreed to teach classes in a community education program to show people how to have a successful garage sale.

John’s story is a great example of the power of passion. His enthusiasm for garage sales, has had him on a perpetual treasure hunt for years. Being able to share that passion pushed him past all sorts of doubts and fears.

John’s story also illustrates how valuable it is to have entrepreneurial friends who can encourage and keep us accountable.

Got a neglected project that’s gathering dust? Try giving it an infusion of passion and invite a couple of cheerleaders to keep you going.

And keep in mind this bit of encouragement from Irving Allen: No matter what your present condition, there’s  something a little better right within your reach.

A Few Tips for Entrepreneurial Gypsies

This morning I had a consultation with an American living in Mexico who is itching to add self-employment to his portfolio. Not surprisingly, his next step was hiding in plain sight and incorporated several of his passions and skills while giving him the opportunity to exercise his curiosity.

It was perfect.

By the time we finished talking on Skype (a favorite tool of expats), I was contemplating  a trip to Mexico. His enthusiasm was quite contagious.

It seems to me that—more often than not—entrepreneurs are explorers. Those explorations take many different forms, of course, but keeping their wanderlust well fed is a high priority for many.

As an intrepid traveler myself, I’m always gathering ideas and travel tips. Over the weekend, I came across a few old favorites that I’ve shared in Winning Ways newsletter and decided to pass them along here.

If you’re traveling to a country where a different language is spoken, it makes sense to learn a few key phrases in your host’s language.

Travel writer Catherine Watson says, “Learn how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in a dozen languages. And then use them at every opportunity.

“For a real payoff memorize how to say, ‘I am sorry but I don’t speak your beautiful language,’ in the tongue of every country you’re going to visit.”

I wondered how you’d say Joyfully Jobless in another tongue so I paid a visit to a couple of online translators. (If you actually speak any of these languages, you might translate differently.)

Should someone ask you, “What do you do?” here’s how you might reply.

Afrikaans—blydskap werklose

Czech—radosti bez pracae

Danish—glaede arbejdslose

French—joyeusement le chomeur

German—Freudig arbeitslos

Italian—gioia senza lavoro

Norwegian—gledelig jobblos

Spanish—alegria por desempleo

Swedish—gladje arbetslosa

Your travel also can be enriched by having a project to explore. When I was visiting London several times every year, I always gave each trip a theme. One time I would visit gardens; another time bookshops were my focus.

Catherine Watson puts it this way: “For added pleasure, have a quest. It’s a lot more interesting to search for the Holy Grail than just sightsee.

“Start with something that means something to you at home. Say you collect antiques, pursue genealogy, love horses of just plain have a smart dog. Use that as a way to get inside the culture you’re visiting.

“Abroad, you could go to local auctions; end up in Alpine villages connected to your family; seek out country horse trials in England; talk to sheepdog trainers in Scotland.”

Of course, entrepreneurial gypsies are on the lookout for business ideas. That’s what Howard Schultz did when he decided during a European visit that what the US needed was a neighborhood coffeehouse.

As a result, thousands of neighborhoods now have their very own Starbucks.

When you travel, read local newspapers and magazines, visit small businesses, keep your eyes and ears open. You never know when an idea that charms you in a faraway place might be ready to come to life in your part of the world.

That’s precisely what the late Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, discovered. She said, “I’ve always said that travel is the best university; getting from one place to another means more than physical movement.

“It also entails change, challenge, new ideas and inspirations….I had this idea of making little products like shampoo and so forth using ingredients I had found when I traveled.”

 

15 Ways to Wake Up Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

* Go to the library. Whenever I’m in a slump, a trip to the library never fails to get me unstuck. Every shelf is loaded with possibility. Browse in sections you don’t normally visit.

* Interview self-bossers. Choose the joyfully jobless, not just the self-employed. Let their passion rub off on you.

* Pay attention. Listen to the compliments that come your way. They may hold the key to a profit center. Listen to what people say is missing in the world for more clues.

* Play every day. Even if you aren’t yet running a business fulltime, do something—no matter how small—to move yourself ahead each and every day.

* Break your goals into 90-Day Projects. 

* Give your projects a theme. A theme helps you focus your mind and sparks creative thoughts.

* Pick an entrepreneurial hero or heroine and become an expert on their life. 

* Carry a notebook. You never know when a great idea will strike or when you’ll see something worth remembering. Richard Branson carries one all the time. So should you.

* Read a novel. Not just any old story, however. Read novels that feature entrepreneurs as main characters. Mysteries, especially, feature them. You’ll learn alot.

* Have regular tune-ups. One seminar does not finish the learning process. As Zig Ziglar loved to remind us you wouldn’t just bathe once and think you’d done it, would you? Keep going back to the well.

* Immerse, don’t dabble.  Follow your hunches and give them your nurturing attention. Take inventory on a regular basis to determine where you’re getting the biggest ROI on the time you invest.

* Acquire good tools. Use the best tools you can afford to do the best work you are capable of.

* Create an inspiring working environment. Your office or studio should be a place that rises up to meet you.

* Subscribe to Winning Ways. Read what successful entrepreneurs read. Build a library. Gather good information and ideas every single day.

* Memorize these five steps: HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN LUCK 1. Get a hobby Find the thing that fascinates you most. You’ll recognize it instantly. It’s the thing you feel you have to do every day or the day is wasted. 2. Obsess Get to know it so well nothing about it is unpredictable, including its ability to surprise you. This part of the process will take approximately one lifetime. 3. Charge for it If you’re so crazy about it and so good at it, go pro! 4. Flourish If you’ve followed steps one, two and three, this is the easy part. 5. Succeed Do it so wildly that everyone tells you how lucky you are.

Opportunities Everywhere

Without a doubt, my favorite people to spend time with are those who are tuned in to opportunity. My friend Chris was such a person.

Not only was she constantly seeing new opportunities for her own business, she saw great ideas everywhere just waiting for a champion.

When I’d visit her rural Connecticut home, we’d spend time studying the wonderful small businesses that surrounded her. We soon had our favorite entrepreneurs that we’d call on including an innkeeper, an antiquarian bookseller, a gardening book and ornamentation shop and an antique dealer.

Chris wasn’t shy about passing along ideas she had for these entrepreneurs and delighted in seeing how many of her suggestions were implemented.

Developing opportunity awareness, it seems to me, is the best way to build entrepreneurial muscle.  It’s also important to realize that as you become more conscious of opportunity, you’ll see it all over the place—whether it has anything to do with your business or not.

Let’s just consider the two forms of opportunity that directly impact your business.

Summoned opportunities come after we have set a goal or made a decision to do something. For instance, you decide to set up a practice as a personal trainer and get busy finding clients.

As you look for ways to grow your business, you essentially are inviting opportunity to take up residence with you. Everyone who hires you becomes a new opportunity to expand your business, as does every new avenue you pursue to market yourself.

By taking action you’ve drawn opportunity to you.

Serendipitous opportunities appear to be unplanned.

Let’s say you have a client for your personal training business who happens to be a filmmaker and thinks you’d be perfect for a series of exercise videos he wants to produce.

That’s a possibility you’d never considered, but once it’s proposed to you, it is an exciting idea and you start working on the production, planning the marketing and thinking of new ways to share your expertise.

Either sort of opportunity requires that you have opened your heart and mind to the possibility of favorable events occurring in your life and business.

The reason why so many people remain blind to opportunity is that frequently they come disguised as problems to be solved.

“Most successful new businesspeople do not start out in life thinking this is what they want to do,” writes Paul Hawken. “Spurred by something missing in the world, the entrepreneur begins to think about and envision a product or service, or a change in an existing product or service.”

Hawken knows from personal experience that responding to something missing can be the path to success. As a young man, Hawken discovered he could correct his health problems by controlling his diet.

He figured that others were ready to embrace natural foods as a healthy alternative and opened one of America’s first health food stores to provide products not found elsewhere.

Several years later, Hawken repeated this winning formula when he decided to market the gardening tools he had come to love while living in Scotland.

Is there a product or service you want but can’t easily find? Do you ever think, “I wonder why no one has ever…”?

If so, you may be staring at a wonderful opportunity. Chances are if you have identified a need that is not being met, there are plenty of others who share your feelings.

Of course, if you’re a real opportunity spotter, you’ll see far more possibilities than you could ever tackle yourself. As long as you’re acting on the most exciting opportunities, it’s okay to have a surplus. This is partly, after all, an on-going exercise in keeping your creative spirit engaged.

Psychologist William James thought acting on opportunities was critical to personal growth.

“No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess,” James wrote, “and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.”

Blasé is Not a Power Tool

Shortly after my daughter Jennie graduated from college, I noticed a change in her. News that would have been greeting with an “Oh, wow!” in the past was met with a shrug or a grunt. Nothing seemed to excite her.

When I mentioned my concern to my sister, she said, “I don’t think you need to be worried. I was like that when I was in my twenties trying to send the message, ‘I’ve seen better,’ so people would think I was worldly.”

Happily, the enthusiastic Jennie eventually returned, but not everybody passes through their blasé phase so quickly. Some people make it a lifetime policy to be unimpressed and unexcited about everything that life has to offer.

While they may think that they’re displaying superior intelligence by their perpetually disapproving attitude, they’re really repelling others (including customers and clients) from their life.

Being around the terminally bored is like being in a room lit by 25 watt light bulbs. It’s strangely uncomfortable and there’s a natural impulse to want to move into a brighter space.

Smart entrepreneurs know that apathy is an invitation to doom while enthusiasm is survival gear.

The wise have always known this. “Success is going from failure to failure,” observed Winston Churchill, “without a loss of enthusiasm.”

The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek “entheos” which means “God within”. It appears that those who are in touch with their inner spiritual fire are the most naturally enthusiastic about life itself.

Of course, many people have brief moments of excitement if they make a big sale, buy a winning lottery ticket or get invited to a reception at the White House. These are temporary responses, however, and once the moment has passed, so has their enthusiasm.

Genuine enthusiasm isn’t a temporary response to short-lived good fortune: it’s a way of dealing with whatever life offers up. It is actually an expression of a grateful and awe-filled attitude. Most critically, it’s a cultivated behavior—like good manners.

The chronically cranky don’t understand that they’re doing it to themselves. On the other hand, the perpetually enthusiastic know that their attitude is a powerful weapon against boredom, frustration and intolerance so they take great care to protect it.

Unlike good manners, which are totally learned behavior, enthusiasm arrives with us at birth. Watch any two-year-old exploring the world around them and you’ll see wide-eyed enthusiasm in action.

Unfortunately, many people believe that the role of parenting is about dampening enthusiasm, not fanning it, so too many of us arrive at adulthood with our enthusiasm dimmed and diminished. If we are to approach our lives with enthusiasm and vigor, we need to learn how to light our own fire.

That may be easier than you think. Since enthusiasm is an innate quality residing in each of us, we can decide to release it and allow it to propel us through our lives.

We can also discover for ourselves what nurtures our enthusiasm and make an effort to bring more of that into our lives. Conversely, we also need to identify those people and situations that diminish our zest and either eliminate them or find a workable way to include them with enthusiasm.

If you want to create a business that is rich, full and filled with wonder, start by releasing this magical power.

Do so and you’ll discover first hand what Charles Kingsley was talking about when he said, “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”