Who’s Your Customer?

Although retirement is not a word in my vocabulary, I’ve been noticing all the tv ads designed to appeal to those taking the plunge.

There’s the whimsical Raymond James ad telling the story of the fastidious librarian Emily Skinner who lived to the age of 187 without running out of money.

Then there are the When I Grow Up ads from AARP which inspire viewers to realize that it’s never too late to try something new. Seniors wistfully describe their plans for rescuing old houses, running a marathon or becoming a teacher.

Charles Schwab takes a different approach. Using something called rotoscoping animation, the series seems to favor cranky clients who have been abused by other financial service companies.

The current Schwab ad may be the most curmudgeonly of the batch. It features a man who begins by saying (and I’m paraphrasing since I couldn’t bear to watch it once more), “Some financial planners seem to think retirement is a dream. It’s some magic number or beaches houses or vineyards.”

After ranting for a moment in this vein, he ends with, “A vineyard? Give me a break.”

When I hear that, I don’t think, “I’d better call Chuck.” My reaction is, “I’m glad I don’t know that guy.”

And that’s just fine. I’m not in the market for Schwab’s services, but that’s not the point here.

All three of these ads are  designed to appeal not just to anyone thinking about retirement. They’re designed for a specific group of people who might be in the market for what they have to offer.

Who do you want to do business with? Make sure you’re speaking their language.

Welcome or Not?

While I was waiting (and waiting) for UPS to show up with Winning Ways newsletters, I decided to tackle the grungy grout in my tiled entrance. I’m a bit of a fanatic about dirty grout after spending five years in a house with tiled floors in dusty Las Vegas.

(Bonus tip: To clean grout, make a paste of baking soda and peroxide and apply with a battery operated toothbrush. Let stand for a few minutes and mop up.)

As I was polishing, I got thinking about how important it is for me to have a home that welcomes me and others. In fact, one of the first purchases I made for my new condo was a welcome mat that’s covered with bright red and purple flowers.

Everytime I return home and see it, it makes me smile and silently affirm, “I welcome my good.”

It’s a stunning contrast to the doormat outside my downstairs neighbor’s home which declares, “Go Away.” I haven’t met the owner of that place, but I’ve tried to imagine why they choose to make that statement to passersby.

Perhaps it was a housewarming gift that was intended as a joke, I mused. Or maybe they are weary of chasing away paparazzi. Of course, there’s also the possibility that they’re truly anti-social and proud of it.

What kind of welcome mat are you putting out? The way you answer the phone, the ease of navigating your Web site, the speed with which you answer e-mail, the extra effort to right an error, all communicate Welcome or Go Away.

This morning my local public radio station had a lively conversation about annoying background music in stores. Caller after caller talked about being driven out of retail establishments by loud music.

You may have had the same experience.

One woman said she’d accompanied a friend to an emergency animal hospital on the night her friend’s cat had to be put to sleep. They arrived at the hospital and found the waiting room television running a raucous comedy program. “It seemed insensitive,” she said.

It’s easy when we’re busy or distracted to ignore small courtesies, but it’s worth the time and energy to consider how to be as welcoming as possible.

Think of it as regularly scrubbing the grout. Then top it off with the most cheerful welcome mat you can find because, whether we realize it or not, we’re all in the hospitality business.

11 Ways to Be a Jolly Goalsetter

There are hundreds of perfectly smart reasons to be Joyfully Jobless, not the least of which is that people who are doing work that they love tend to be, well, more loving and joyful.

One time after I’d visited my aunt Marge, she sent me a letter that said, “The Bible says a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. That’s how I feel when you come to see me.”

Besides that fact that it was one of the nicest letters I ever got, it’s remained a powerful reminder of why it’s important to stay merry. Here are some of my favorite ways to bring more fun and joy into a business.

° Specialize in Firsts. Challenge yourself to do things you’ve never done before. It can be as simple as trying a new food or taking a yoga class.

This is harder to do than you may think since we humans tend to build habits and then operate in familiar territory. Having Firsts requires conscious, creative effort.

° Exercise your entrepreneurial thinking to keep it in shape. You build entrepreneurial muscle by studying other enterprises, by acquiring new skills, by taking risks.

Just like physical exercise, it needs to be a daily activity if you want maximum results.

° Don’t be afraid to be whimsical. Small businesses should not look like miniature corporations.

Lighten up. Create a costume and wear it when you work or exhibit at a trade show. Have toys or a guitar in your office for play breaks.

And if whimsy’s not your style, from time to time purposely do something out of character. You’re bound to startle your friends and you might delight yourself.

° Celebrate all victories. Jim Rohn told a story about his early days in business and how he’d take his family out for dinner and say, “Tonight we’re ordering from the left side of the the menu. Pay no attention to prices.” He said it helped him stay on track.

Find your own way to celebrate milestones and progress. Send yourself flowers or invite a friend on an outing. Don’t let victories—large or small—go unnoticed.

° Plan Joyfully Jobless get togethers. Find 5 other self-bossers that like each other and let each one plan a monthly gathering, just to have fun.

You could find yourself salsa dancing one month and picnicking in a park the next. Hanging out with other entrepreneurs can be a lovely tonic, but don’t wait for somebody else to get things rolling.

° Turn ordinary chores into satisfying rituals. Got bills to pay? Instead of gritting your teeth, light a candle, put on some lovely music, pour a cup of tea and make it an event. Slow down and express gratitude for your current abundance.

Invent rituals to turn ordinary tasks into something special.

° Stay focused on rewards. On snowy days in Minnesota, my Joyfully Jobless friends and I would call each other to rejoice that we didn’t have to drive on bad roads.

Keep a running list of all the rewards that you enjoy because you’re self-employed. Post it in your workspace and remind yourself often of the benefits and pleasures of this lifestyle.

° Support that which supports you. This has been my personal and business policy for a long time and it hasn’t failed me yet.

For example, I give top priority to supporting the self-bossers who support me. My newsletter, Winning Ways, is designed to pass along ideas and resources that have helped me on my journey.

You get the idea.

° Expect the unexpected. Businesses often surprise us with new opportunities and directions. While this may be upsetting to control freaks, true entrepreneurs delight in it.

° Change the scenery. The creative spirit flourishes when exposed to new people and places.

Whether that means taking your laptop to the park for a morning writing session or attending a weekend seminar, give yourself the benefit of working in different ways. Rigid routine is the enemy of creativity.

° Be kind. When we commit an act of kindness our endorphin level goes up. Likewise, when we receive a kindness it raises our levels.

However, studies have also found that if we merely witness an act of kindness, it raises endorphin levels too.

Go ahead and spread some kindness around.

In Business to Inspire?

When I first moved to Minnesota, I used to joke that there was a church on every corner. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but it seems that most major thoroughfares are dotted with them.

For several years, there was a church that I passed almost every day. Like most churches, it had a message board out in front. Unlike most churches, this message board actually contained messages.

Even more unusual, the messages were changed a couple of times every week so there was always a new one to check out.

Some of the messages were attention-getters like the one that said, “Satan loves a dusty Bible.” Others were funny. My favorite one said, “Trouble sleeping? Try a sermon.”

Mostly they were lovely philosophical reminders to be kind and to contribute to making the world a better place.

One day I was pondering some troublesome problem that had me stumped. As I passed the church, the sign board declared, “Love is the answer.”  I burst out laughing. That was exactly what I needed to solve my problem.

One day I called the church and said, “In case no one has told you this, I want you to know how much your message board is appreciated by those of us driving by.” The secretary said they’d gotten many positive comments on it, then added that the senior pastor went out at 5:30 in the morning to change the board.

“Please thank him for me,” I said.

Several months later, I passed by the church again and saw a gathering in the yard. A fancy new message board had just been installed. It had a burgundy and charcoal frame and was lighted from within.

It was pretty spiffy, but I noticed that the message simply listed the times of their services. That’s the way it stayed. I hardly noticed it anymore.

What’s the point of posting the times of their services? Those hours never change and surely their members already know when services are held.

If the point of posting them is for the convenience of nonmembers who might want to join them, I’m not sure there’s any obvious reason to pick this church over any other.

I’ve tried to imagine what happened here. Maybe the senior pastor retired and nobody else wanted to do it, I thought. Maybe not enough people let them know that they liked the effort.

Or perhaps, and I hope I’m wrong here, the church forgot that it’s really in the inspiration business. Most likely, somebody decided it was too much bother to keep the messages up and in making that decision lost an enormous opportunity to contribute some random good.

“The difference between people who exercise initiative and those who don’t,” writes Stephen Covey, “is literally the difference between night and day. I’m not talking about a twenty-five to fifty percent difference in effectiveness;  I’m talking about a 5000-plus percent difference, particularly if they are smart, aware and sensitive to others.”

What Covey is talking about seems to be a big secret: if we want to get great results we can’t wait for others. We have to practice generosity first.

As Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once told an interviewer, “It’s not our customer’s job to lie awake nights figuring out how we can serve them better. We have to take responsibility for improving.”

We always have the choice of creating a life that is grim or glorious. If you want to make this coming year the best one you’ve ever had, take the challenge now to discover and share as generously as you can.

Whether you’re repairing small engines, teaching yoga or designing Web sites, you’ll find there’s no shortage of opportunities to inspire and encourage other people—if you are so inclined.

Inspire them by your joy, inspire them by your commitment, inspire them by caring about their success. When you’re focused on ways to be generous, you’ll be dazzled by all the abundance you’re getting back.

Avoiding Groundhog Day Syndrome

Twenty-two years before the movie Groundhog Day subtly illustrated the boredom of a repetitious life, I set my first goal.

My goal? To never have two years of my life be exactly the same.

Not yet thirty, I had already reached a point where my life was frighteningly predictable. I realized that if I didn’t do something about it, I was going to keep having the same year over and over again until my life came to an end.

Despite growing up in an environment  that frequently warned not to expect  too much in order to avoid disappointment (a classic example of twisted logic), from the moment I heard about goal setting, I became an enthusiastic practitioner.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t terribly successful at accomplishing those early goals. Over time, however, I discovered there was much more to the process than simply wishing for things that I didn’t have.

Here are a few things that have made a positive difference for me.

* The real reward isn’t at the finish line. While visualizing the things you want to accomplish is certainly a fun part of the process, the big prize is what you become by making a commitment to be, do or have something that’s missing from your life.

When we set goals, we’re issuing a challenge to ourselves to stretch, grow and overcome. Keep moving in the direction of your dreams and you’ll grow in ways you can’t imagine at the outset.

* Ink matters. As Patricia T. O’Conner reminds us, “An idea in your head is merely an idle notion. But an idea written down, that’s the beginning of something.”

Every goal setting system I’ve ever studied begins with the admonition to write them down. You don’t have to publish them online (unless you want to) or show them to anyone else, but writing them down is still step one.

* Size matters. Many people fail at their goal setting attempts because they timidly set goals that don’t ignite their imagination. Other times it requires a bit of reframing to get us excited about doing the work.

I just rediscovered that myself.

Because of respiratory problems, I have avoided stairs for several years. When I decided to buy my second floor walkup condo, the stair climbing was an issue, but I thought I could manage.

For the first few weeks, I dragged myself up the stairs, often telling myself that this exercise was good for me. I still arrived at my doorway breathless and cranky.

One day, I realized that the steps weren’t going away and unless I wanted to become a recluse and live on pizza delivery, I needed a different approach.

Now when I arrive at the foot of the stairway, I remind myself, “I’m training for my next trip to Venice” (where stairs are unavoidable). Climbing those stairs is more enticing now that I’ve connected the activity to a more exciting project than just getting the groceries upstairs.

* Beware of deadlines and timelines. Countless projects have been abandoned  because they haven’t come to fruition in the time we anticipated. When that happens, we may be tempted to call our efforts a failure and give up.

But too often what we call failure is simply running out of patience.

While self-imposed deadlines can keep us focused, they need to be treated with caution. After all, how can you predict how long it will take to accomplish something you’ve never done before?

If you’ve ever remodeled a house, you know how ineffective timelines can be. Effective goal setters are more apt to embark on a new endeavor with the attitude of sticking with it for however long it takes.

* Make space for the new. Metaphysical teacher Catherine Ponder introduced me to the idea of creating a vacuum. In Open Your Mind to Prosperity, she writes, “You must get rid of what you don’t want in order to make way for what you do want. Substance does not flow easily into a cluttered, crowded situation. Substance does not flow easily into a cluttered, crowded mind.”

Ironically, letting go of what we don’t want often requires courage. Whether it’s conflicting goals, lack of confidence or a crowded calendar, elimination is an important part of the process.

* Take inventory every  90 days. What’s working? What isn’t? Have your priorities changed? Do you need to make room for a new project or spend more time on an old one? Are you working on things that no longer matter?

Goal setting, after all, calls us to evolve and reinvent. Checking in regularly prevents hanging on to goals that no longer serve the person we’re becoming—and alerts us if we’re settling for the same day over and over and over.

* More tips. There are many good books on goal setting. My favorite is Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser. Whether you’re an experienced goal setter or just a beginner, this belongs in your library.

Handling Interruptions

Whenever I’m writing a book, I never get out of bed,

because if I get out of bed,

I always see something that needs dusting.

.Jessamyn West

Interruptions can plague anyone who is trying to accomplish a dream, but this seems to be especially true for those who are running a business from home. Years ago, my mother called to ask me to run an errand for her and prefaced her request by saying, “Since you don’t work, dear….”

Such disruptions can not only impede progress, they can cause us to lose sight of our goals.

An interruption occurs when a lower priority intrudes on a higher one. We usually think of interruptions as being caused by another person who distracts us from what we are doing, but we can also interrupt ourselves by letting petty things take up our time and attention.

Sometimes, of course, it makes sense to give into a brief distraction. What is less desirable is allowing time-consuming interruptions to become the norm.

The best way to handle interruptions is to prevent them before they happen and that requires taking a proactive stance. If you sense that distractions are sabotaging your efforts, keep track for a day or two of every interruption you encounter.

Is there a pattern? Are there people who keep showing up? What causes you to be distracted?

Create Boundaries

Your first line of defense is to establish boundaries with those people who may have gotten used to your availability.  “No, I can’t run over and help you turn your mattress right now, but I will be glad to help you this evening,” is one way to handle requests that interfere with the project you need to complete.

One woman with teenaged children took to wearing a hat  when she was working to signal her family that she was to be left alone. Another gave her children permission to interrupt her only if someone was bleeding.

Whether it’s your family or friends, you’ll lower your frustration level considerably by explaining in advance that you are serious about your business and will be unavailable at certain times.  Don’t assume that other people will know that you don’t want interruptions. Tell them when it is and isn’t appropriate to contact you.

Limit Your Accessibility

People who are highly productive tend to guard their time carefully. You wouldn’t expect that your favorite novelist, who is working on her next book, would stop in the middle of writing to have a phone chat with you, would you?

Your work matters, too, and deserves your full attention when you’re creating, inventing or planning.

Yet many people seem oblivious to the importance of limited accessibility and the mobile phone has made it possible to reach them anytime, anywhere.

Unless you deliver babies or repair computers, there’s probably no reason to be on call twenty-four hours a day.

Since the telephone is most frequently the instrument of interruption, it makes sense to be its master. Some people find it easiest to have a regular time to receive and return calls. Your answering message could even explain to callers that you will get back to them between 2 and 4—or whatever fits your schedule.

It’s About Time

Preventing unnecessary interruptions falls under the general heading of Good Time Management. “Without the management of time,” said William Reiff, “you will soon have nothing left to manage.”

If you have no plan for slowing the flow of intrusions, they’ll keep coming. You may not have a battalion of receptionists and secretaries to protect you, but you can find creative ways to limit interruptions. Consider a quiet location other than your office for doing some of your work, for instance.

Another helpful tool is The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch who points out, “Twenty percent of what we do leads to 80 percent of the results; but 80 percent of what we do leads to only 20 percent.”

When we identify what that productive 20 percent is, everything shifts.

Know Your Priorities

“Things that matter most,” said Goethe, “must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” Start every day with a brief review of what you want to accomplish and determine what has the highest priority.

Knowing what matters is what makes it possible to finish that novel while the dust piles up—or to give your partner your undivided attention because you’ve finished your work for the day.

How to Stand Out in a Crowd


Since each of us is one-of-a-kind, the market, for all its
supposed predictability, is actually vulnerable to
falling in love with any of us at any time.
Julia Cameron

It’s been a long time since I was in high school, but one thing hasn’t changed much: adolescents still want to be like everyone else. Teenagers dress alike, listen to the same music, love the same movies. Being different is a surefire way to become unpopular, the most dreaded horror of teen life.

While conformity is comforting in adolescence, it only serves a purpose in human development if it’s treated as a stopover in the journey. Unfortunately, many adults suffer from arrested development and spend years trying to conform.

Who’s going to notice a conformist?

On weekends when I have an out of town seminar, I often pick up a copy of People magazine at the airport. Even though the cover of the magazine usually features a celebrity, I find that the stories I enjoy the most are about people who aren’t famous, just fascinating.

One memorable issue included a section called Starting Over and featured six people who had made dramatic life changes. Four of the six of them became self-employed.

One of the others, a former chef in upscale restaurants in New York and Washington DC, reached the point where (in his own words) he’d, “Been there, sautéed that.” Wanting to do something more meaningful, he now cooks upscale cuisine in a soup kitchen.

The other person, Omar El Nasser, abandoned his cubicle in a windowless office in Buffalo and now works as a cowboy in Montana. When an ex-colleague saw a picture of Nasser on horseback, he hung it above his own desk and labeled the image, “Omar’s Cubicle.”

For all of these people, Starting Over was about putting themselves on The Road Less Traveled.

Then there’s Danny Meyer. In his late teens, Meyer spent a year and a half in Italy filling journals with notes on restaurants he visited there. Besides taking note of the food, he sketched light fixtures he liked, flooring that caught his fancy, and studied the ambiance of various establishments.

Today he owns popular restaurants in New York that include Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison Park and Shake Shack, places that regularly top the Zagat survey. In addition, he’s revived a neighborhood near his businesses by spearheading such things as a year long outdoor produce market that serves the residents and restaurants around Union Square.

As a television piece pointed out, he’s created his own village within New York.

His passion and philosophy of making a difference right where he is makes him a standout.

If you want to stand out from the crowd you first have to leave the crowd. It’s a message philosophers have espoused for centuries, but only the most determined among us has paid attention. “

In this age,” wrote John Stuart Mill more than a century ago, “the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.”

While we can be inspired by the Danny Meyers of this world, we fail if we try to duplicate their path. It’s only when we can revel in our uniqueness that we start making the real contribution that is ours to make. Not only will that lead us to optimal joy, it might even bring the media to our door.

Imagine your story in People magazine (or some similar story-filled publication). What would you like the headline to say?

Challenging Worn Out Ideas

I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive, you are better off not doing it. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise creative instincts.  ~ Richard Branson

When you decide to follow the path of self-employment, old notions that you can only make a living working for someone else may not be the only thought you need to leave behind. Your idea of what it takes to be an entrepreneur may be as outdated as the typewriter, too.

Listen in on a conventional business conversation and the first thing you’ll notice is how often sports are used as a metaphor. You’ll hear things like, “That’s just par for the course. You gotta step up to the plate. We need more team players around here.”

Business as a competitive game reflects another outdated image.

Much of the information about starting a business reflects a limited concept, too. When the idea of starting my own business took root in my mind, I began doing research.

What I discovered was the assumption that everyone wanted to grow a massive enterprise. Did I really want a building with my name in six-foot high gold letters? Employees? Pension plans? None of that appealed to me.

The idea of working for myself wouldn’t go away and I decided there must be another way of doing things—a way that’s high on satisfaction and simplicity. Happily, Dr. Schumacher came along and affirmed my hunches.

The philosophy of small scale enterprise gained global attention in the seventies when economist E.F. Schumacher wrote his visionary book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. Schumacher mainly caught the attention of the counterculture, since conventional business was still focused on a Bigger is Better mentality.

Yet his ideas made sense to those concerned about global issues, as well as those who suspected that one of the functions of business was to help people actualize their potential.

He argued that those benefits could only come from small scale enterprises that care about people and the planet. It’s an idea that suddenly seems ripe and ready to replace the old model.

Meet the 21st Century Entrepreneur

The signs are everywhere that a new kind of businessperson is emerging. The venerable Wall Street Journal even named an editor to cover Lifestyle Entrepreneurs, as they call them. These are people who start businesses for reasons other than amassing a fortune and building a large organization.

These visionaries don’t resemble athletes at all. In fact, they look more like gardeners.

Paul Hawken, a successful entrepreneur and writer, goes so far as to suggest that every business student should study biology since the lessons learned in the plant world directly apply to successful businesses.

Penelope Hobhouse, a real hands-on gardener and prolific writer, shared her life rules for garden design and the parallels to good business design are obvious. (I’ve added a couple of comments in parenthesis.)

1. Never go anywhere without a notebook. Be a perpetual student.

2. Find a mentor—one or many.

3. Do your homework.

4. Trust your own experience. Keep notes of what works and what doesn’t.

5. Don’t get hung up on plants (or products or services). A garden is bigger than all that.

6. Never think you’ll get it right the first time. If a plant isn’t happy, don’t hesitate to dig it up and move it to a better spot.

7. Encourage self-seeding plants to seek their own place in the garden. (Find your own metaphor in that.)

8. Don’t forget that sunlight and shade are design elements. (Your business needs variety and contrast, too.)

9. Avoid fussiness. Above all, simplify.

10. Focus on the garden you really want.

Make Passion Your Business Partner

Passion isn’t something one gets––it’s something one merely allows.

Suzanne Falter-Barns

When I start talking about discovering your passion in my seminars, I notice that some people begin to look uncomfortable. I can almost hear their thoughts: “Passion? Do I have a passion? I took piano lessons when I was a kid, but that didn’t turn into much.”

Sometimes people come right out and say, “I have no idea what my passion is.” Obviously, they’re doomed.

What’s going on here may be a matter of semantics, of having a definition of passion that is limited to things that we think of as creative pursuits or relaxing pastimes. When it comes to dreambuilding, however, passion encompasses an enormous range of possibilities.

Passion is Bigger Than We Think

While it’s true than many  businesses get started because a person is wild about antiquarian books or fixing luxury cars or designing houses, just as many come from having a passion for the activity of running a business.

They’re the ones who love taking a new idea and bringing it to life. The product or service is secondary. It’s business itself that excites them. Richard Branson, whose Virgin enterprises began with selling records and now includes an airline, banks and numerous other divisions, is such a person.

Whether or not you can identify a specific product or service that you consider your passion, I’d like to suggest that there may be dozens of other passions that you possess that are going to be crucial to your entrepreneurial success. Here are a five to consider:

Independence–the desire to be in charge, to take responsibility, to make decisions is a huge catalyst for many an entrepreneur. Being in control of your time, writing your own rule book, and doing things in your own way  isn’t an act of selfishness. It’s the healthy desire for self-reliance.

Individuality–wanting to explore fully what makes us unique. This is increasingly difficult to do in a world that seems bent on conformity. “Nobody can be exactly like me,” said Tallulah Bankhead. “Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.”

Reveling in our uniqueness and making it an integral part of our business can be an on-going exercise in creativity.

Personal growth–giving ourselves a  lifelong project of self-discovery is enticing for many who come to the conclusion that self-employment does just that. As Paul Hawken points out, “Being in business is not about making money. It’s a way to become who you are.” Amen.

Serving others–knowing that our efforts make life better for other people can be a powerful motivation. As my handyman student Al says, “I have always wanted to help people and I’m doing that now and have never felt so appreciated as I do from my customers. And then they pay me on top of that!”

Curiosity and adventure–as many entrepreneurs have learned, you don’t have to trek through Nepal to have adventure in your life. The nature of building an evolving business is that it always has new discoveries to make.

“Just when you think you’ve arrived,” says singer Melissa Manchester, “you find there’s another mountain to climb.”  Curious adventurers understand that.

In a world where people like to talk about things they just might do someday, the Joyfully Jobless consider where his or her passion lies and then gets busy living it. Passion shows up bearing marching orders, after all.

Philosophers have often reminded us that what we are is more important than what we have. Passionate entrepreneurs live that every day.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

I nearly went into a swoon yesterday when I read Frank Hyman’s New York Times piece called I’m Making a Living From My Hobbies. It’s a delightful example of putting multiple passions to work. Check it out and notice, also, what he says about investing in himself.

Recognizing Opportunity

Recently I’ve been thinking about several entrepreneurs that I know who don’t seem to be making progress. One of them (although I know this isn’t an isolated case) is quick to brush off advice and information with a, “Yes, yes, I’ve heard that before.”

Hearing a good idea is not the same as embracing and integrating one. You can have a garage full of power tools, but if you never take them out of the box they don’t serve any purpose other than taking up space.

That’s also true for ideas.

So I’m kicking off the new year with a month devoted to Reviewing and Rewinding. It’s a perfect time to revisit a few basics that can make a big difference in the foundation we’re laying for our enterprises.

Let’s start with thinking about recognizing opportunities.

Opportunities are floating around everywhere, yet they remain invisible to those who aren’t seeking them. That may be because opportunity often appears as a problem needing a solution.

Several summers ago, college student Joe Keeley took a job as a nanny.  Before long, people in the neighborhood began asking him if he had any college friends who would do what he was doing.

“That’s when I started thinking there might be an opportunity here,” he says. Now he runs a flourishing seasonal business called College Nannies and Tutors which matches families with carefully selected nannies who have special skills and interests that fit the family’s needs.

Young Mr. Keeley is an  example of the two most common ways in which opportunity appears: by summons and by serendipity. Summoned situations 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. Everyone who hires you becomes a new opportunity to expand your business. 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.

At the same time beware of opportunity imposters. A Google search I conducted a few years ago turned up 3,810,000 listings for business opportunities. Not only were most of these offers questionable, many of them were outright scams created by con artists who cost Americans more than $6 million that year.

If something advertises itself as an opportunity, it probably isn’t.

Real opportunity is never a one-size-fits-all affair. In fact, when you come across an opportunity that is right for you it will feel, well, right.  You’ll have an intuitive sense that you’ve been preparing for it all along—perhaps without even realizing it.

Whether opportunity finds you by summons or by serendipity, it requires that you respond quickly or it will move elsewhere. When an idea gets your attention, stop and give it your thoughtful consideration.

Does it fit into your current plans? Can you make room for it? Is it exciting enough to pursue farther? Might you want to pass it along to someone else?

We are more likely to attract genuine opportunity when we’re willing to meet it halfway. Stuart Wilde points out that closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be may involve taking exploratory action.

“It may be  a matter of showing up in the marketplace,” he points out, “becoming a face that people know, demonstrating your expertise, and getting into the loop where the movers and shakers are. People who could bestow great opportunities upon you aren’t scouring the distant hills for talent. They’re in the flow.”