Want to Do More? Do This First

Whenever New Year’s Eve rolls around, we can be quite sure that at least one news program will send a reporter out on the street to inquire about resolutions for the coming year. I saw such a story several years ago on my local news.

After the reporter heard the usual resolves to lose weight, start exercising, and spend more time with family, he interviewed a smiling woman who said, “I plan to smoke less and walk more.”

The moment I heard that I thought, “She’s the only one who will succeed.” I could imagine that every time the urge to smoke came over her, she’d head for the door and take a spin around the block.

The brilliance of this woman’s plan can be easily adopted by anyone wanting to succeed at creating change or welcoming the new into their lives.

You see, with every change there’s always a tradeoff. If we aren’t willing to make that trade we won’t accomplish what we say we desire. I don’t think that’s pointed out often enough, but it’s an essential step if we’re going to accomplish goals both big and small.

A wonderfully simple way to instigate change or start a new goal-setting project is to create a Do More, Do Less List. It can include simple changes such as “Eat more vegetables, eat less sugar” along with bigger challenges.

In fact, a Do More, Do Less List incorporates the first two steps in my personal goal- setting system: 1. Sharpen Your Focus, 2. Eliminate the Nonessentials. Making room for what you do want by clearing out what’s no longer useful or satisfying, speeds up the process (and avoids unnecessary clutter).

Before you know it, you’ll have created a blueprint for building the life of your dreams.

And while we’re still thinking about resolutions, see what Maria Brophy has to say in her Top Five New Year Resolutions for Creative Entrepreneurs.

All You Need Is

There was an ad running on television a couple of years ago that always caused me to stop and watch it. It featured forty years of photos with narration that goes, “This is Paul. He’s been a Quarryman, Beatle, Wing, poet, painter, father, frontman, producer, business mogul and if that weren’t enough, a knight. The key is, never stop doing what you love.”

In many ways, that seems truly radical. We all know that Doing What You Love is not a course offered by many schools. But the notion that love is the key to discovering multiple parts of ourselves is one really far out message.

There was a time, of course, when it was assumed that a person could be many different things. During the period known as the Renaissance, when the creative spirit was in full bloom, it was not unusual for an individual to be a poet, businessowner, artist, soldier, linguist and lover.

Although such thinking fell out of fashion (and with it came less creative thinking), all sorts of people have told me they always suspected they were in possession of a Renaissance soul. I believe we all are and that feeding that soul is an exercise in love.

Love Me Do

Love and work sounds like an impossible combination to many people, but it’s the starting point of all great (and many small) undertakings.

“The real purpose of work,” says Claude Whitmyer, founder of the Center for Good Work, “is to give us an opportunity to practice being human—to discover everything we are and all that we can be, both as individuals and as members of a community.”

Getting Better

It’s not unusual for me to receive  messages from frustrated people who feel stuck because they don’t know what It is for them. Nothing they’ve tried seems to satisfy.

The passport out of this discouraging state is to step back and give serious thought to purpose. To never stop doing what you love, you have to start doing what you love.

Yup, those same puzzling questions that philosophers have discussed for centuries still matter.

One of the best explanations of purposeful vocation comes from Patricia Ryan-Madson. She wrote, “It is possible to seek and find work that consistently supports some purpose of mine. For example, my purpose may be to make the world a more beautiful place. To that end, I may choose any number of jobs that focus my time and talents on creating  aesthetic environments.

“I can serve that purpose, not only when I work as a graphic designer, but also in the way I set the breakfast table for my children. I can serve that purpose by picking up trash in the park or in my neighborhood. I may serve that purpose as well when I refrain from rough language or gossip.

“So the answer to the question of purpose precedes and informs all that follows in the search for my true work.”

Here, There and Everywhere

The aforementioned Paul knew from early on what his bigger intention was. He explains, “See, my trick in life is to get away from having a job. That’s been my guiding light.”

Not working for someone else may not be the only way to feed our Renaissance soul, but it’s the best way I’ve seen to develop multiple talents.

At the same time all the recent emails of frustration were rolling in, I was also deluged with messages from numerous new entrepreneurs who had a different story to tell. The common thread in each of their accounts was that their business was teaching them new skills or opening them to things they’d been avoiding.

One woman said she was finding herself in leadership roles for the first time in her life. Another is doing her first media interviews. Over and over, they told me about discovering the unmapped territory inside themselves.

“When you work ,” goes the well-known passage from Kahlil Gibran, “you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. To love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. All work is empty save when there  is love, for work is love made visible.”

To Read or Not To Read

My niece Gretchen is about to give birth to her first child. During her pregnancy, her husband Tony has been reading to their unborn baby. Currently, he’s working his way through Don Quixote.

In my family, this is considered normal.

Of all the things I’m thankful for, high on my list is that I was raised by readers. Since I was the eldest child and my father was faraway fighting a war, my mother read to me incessantly. Happily, I’m still being read to.

In the midst of her kindergarten year, Zoe called. When I answered the phone, I was greeted with an exuberant, “Grandma, I can read!”  Read she can and does. When I’m a guest in their house, I have the pleasure of Zoe reading to me every evening.

Of course, you can catch book passion any time in life. However, the sooner you get it, the more time you have to consume more titles.

Once caught, this fever doesn’t diminish. My sister Nancy, who has lived abroad her entire adult life, is relocating to Santa Barbara. She told me that the shipping company required that she count the books in her library.

“I discovered,” she said, with some amazement, “that I own 1,026 books.” Now I’m eager to do an inventory of my own since I have no idea how many books are in my library.

Since Nancy and I are both moving into new homes, finding the perfect spot for our books is a top priority. I keep thinking of Anna Quindlen’s observation, “I will be most happy if my children grow up to be the kind of people whose idea of decorating is to add more bookshelves.”

So while reading for pleasure is what often snares us to begin with, a desire to become our best selves often has us exploring new sections of the library and bookstore.

If you’re building a business, new titles and old can accelerate your success, connect you with ideas, resources and inspiration you’d never have encountered while walking down the street.

Here are five old favorites that are a pleasure to read and filled with useful insights for the Joyfully Jobless life:

Growing a Business by Paul Hawken

Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Small is the New Big by Seth Godin

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

While some of these titles may be old friends already, I chose them because they all are worthy of more than one visit.

And if you aren’t a regular reader, make time every day to sample the creative thinkers, the life teachers, the pioneers who have wonderful things to teach us. If you don’t, you’ll be inflicting a needless handicap on yourself.

As the wise Jim Rohn used to say, “The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last 90 days, is not reading a book in the last 90 days and thinking it doesn’t matter. Skip a meal if you must, but don’t skip a book.”

Shining a Spotlight on Small Business

Janesville, Minnesota, the small town where I grew up, had a population of about 1200 when I was living there. It also had 4 grocery stores, 2 hardware stores, 2 dry goods stores, a bakery, 4 restaurants, 4 gas stations, 3 bars, a law firm, 2 doctors, 2 farm equipment companies, a Dairy Queen and a drug store.

Besides the 1200 loyal customers who lived in town, the businesses were also supported by the farming community that surrounded it.

By the time I was in college, people were being enticed to travel a short distance to a town that was 16 miles away  where supermarkets and Kmarts were popping up offering more merchandise than could be found at home.

Slowly, the longtime merchants in my hometown began to retire and close up shop. Like many small towns, the impact of all that business going elsewhere was felt.

There are, of course, all sorts of explanations for the changing landscape of small business in America. What wasn’t noticeable at first, was that while Main Street was changing, so was small business and what it meant.

The media talked about small business being gobbled up by big box stores and while that was one aspect of the changing face of business, it wasn’t the only thing going on. Familiar businesses were disappearing, but entrepreneurial spirit was simply moving elsewhere.

Even as the quest to recruit workers for large organizations with out-of-control ambitions for world domination continued, there was a Quiet Revolution taking place that largely went unnoticed.

In retrospect, it appears this revolution was a very good thing. Mom and Pop businesses no longer were limited to running the corner grocery store. Suddenly, Mom and Pop were becoming partners in a new paradigm of what it meant to be entrepreneurial.

A desire to make a living was certainly part of the motivation, but not the only one. Fueled by individuals who were rediscovering philosophy and spirituality, the new breed of entrepreneur brought values, passion and curiosity to their enterprises.

Still, nobody paid much attention—except for the happy clients and customers of these specialty operations. Without the confines of location, these new little business wonders were free to ply their trade anywhere and everywhere.

Those with wanderlust grabbed their passports and built their businesses both at home and abroad. Others traded in their family homes and permanent addresses for a motorhome and took to the road. Others, fascinated by technology, began connecting with kindred spirits all over the globe.

These hardy pioneers were inventing a new definition of what it meant to be an entrepreneur—and it bore little resemblance to the shopkeepers and corporate models of the past.

If they opted for small town living, that was just fine. Their customers and clients didn’t need to be living down the street in order to do business with them. If they loved the thrill of big city living, that was also an option.

Freedom was now limited only by their own imagination. We may no longer call them pioneers, but they certainly are blazing new trails, innovating, and committing themselves to creating the life of their dreams.

And these pioneering folks are about to have a special day of their own.

In case you haven’t heard, November 27 is the first ever Small Business Saturday, a day when everyone is being encouraged to support small businesses. Of course, if you’re a small business owner, you may already have a personal policy of doing that as often as possible.

Even so, start thinking now about ways to help the spotlight shine more brightly on the folks who are putting their energy and time into keeping small business alive and well.

In case you need more incentives, check out Steve Strauss’s Top 5 Reasons to Participate in Small Business Saturday.

Goal Setting Revisited

When I was heading back from a quick trip last week, I found myself behind a fertilizer truck with a sign on the back that always makes me do a doubletake. “Safety is our goal” it proclaimed.

What’s wrong with this claim?

Since a goal is something we haven’t accomplished yet, the message literally declares that the business is working on safety, but they haven’t reached it yet. That doesn’t seem like something a business should be bragging about.

In fact, I’m not sure that personal and business goals are something that should be publicly shared at all—which is not to say we should abandon setting goals in the first place.

What’s the difference between those who consistently achieve their goals and those who don’t? It’s not the concept that’s at fault; it’s the approach that has a positive or negative impact on results.

When my granddaughter Zoe was four, she and her mother flew to Las Vegas for a visit. As we were leaving the airport, a billboard caught Zoe’s eye. “What is that red bird?” she wanted to know.

I explained that it was an ad for Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere. I told her it was a favorite show of mine and thought that was the end of it.

Zoe had a different idea. “Can I see it?” she asked. I told her that when she was a little bit older, I’d be delighted to share it with her.

Every time we were together for the next two years, she’d inquire about “the red bird show.” I sent her a magazine ad for the show which she promptly displayed on the wall of her room.

In July, the time had finally arrived for Zoe’s first encounter with a Cirque show. I was almost as nervous as she was. Would she like it? Had I oversold it?

On our drive to the theater, we listened to the music from Mystere to get in the mood. She seemed a little bored with the unfamiliar tunes. I wondered if I was about to witness a big disappointment.

We took our seats. The lights went down, the music came up and Zoe was spellbound for the next ninety minutes.

On our way out of the theater she asked, “Can we come back tomorrow night?” I laughed and told her that a return visit would have to wait. Nevertheless, the magic of that night lingered on.

A few days later, I was driving Zoe back to her new home in California and put on the Mystere soundtrack again. This time she not only listened, but accurately recalled what was happening during each piece of music.

Then early in August, my daughter called to say that Zoe had decided on her Halloween costume. Did I want to guess what it was? “The red bird?” I ventured.

Of course, I was correct. Little did I realize that Zoe had also decided that I would be the costume designer for this elaborate get-up.

Besides the fact that I’m a pushover for Zoe’s requests, what characteristics of  successful goal setting were operating here? More significantly, what can you do to make your goal setting more effective?

Here are four simple things:

1. Set authentic goals that make your heart sing. An authentic goal is not one that is accompanied by thoughts of “this is what I should be doing” or “this is what my parents/teachers/spouse expects me to do.” An authentic goal is aligned with your purpose and passion.

2. Use visual reminders. It’s a noisy, distracting world we live in. Having visual reminders (i.e. Zoe’s Mystere poster) keep our important goals front and center. Create a vision board, carry a talisman, practice creative visualization.

3. Seek help from people who can help. Zoe didn’t waste time asking her parents, other grandparents or friends to take her to the show. I was her Las Vegas connection and she didn’t let me forget it.

4. Celebrate. After weeks of searching for a new home, I finally found my next World Headquarters. When I told my daughter and sister (who had shared the ups and downs of this quest), they both reacted the same way: “How do you want to celebrate?”

The best way to regularly accomplish your goals is to give yourself credit for the things you have already done successfully. Success really does breed success—but only if you notice.

Sitting on a Gold Mine?

Shortly before the end of the year, I was talking to Karyn Ruth White and the subject of resolutions came up. “I don’t really make them,” she said. “But I do sit down at the end of the year and write about ten lessons I’ve learned in the previous year.”

Then she added, “I’ve even had a couple of them published.” What began as a personal project, got shared with others.

Great idea, isn’t it?

While it could be argued that every business is informed and influenced by our personal experiences, a great deal of opportunity goes unused by people who fail to see the potential of putting that experience to work for them.

In order to create a profit center that grows out of your own life, there are four essential ingredients that need to be present. They are:

* Value Your Own Experience. Often the things that are easy and effortless for us are overlooked because we assume that what we can do, everyone can do. That’s almost never true.

Our special set of talents, skills and life experiences are a one-of-a-kind package, but we have to recognize why and how that can be valuable to others.

* High Self-awareness. Writer Carolyn See says, “I hope I’m wrong, but I imagine about 90 percent of the human race is snoozing along, just going through the motions.”

Staying awake for the journey is important if we are to find the gold in our lives.

* Generous Spirit. We must be convinced that what we have discovered will make other people’s lives richer, happier, healthier or smoother in some way. Keeping it to ourselves seems, well, selfish.

* Eager to Learn. Starting a business based on personal experience is just the entry point. It’s really an invitation to mastery if we use it to learn, grow and improve.

Personal experience lends itself to all sorts of enterprises. Here are some possibilities:

* Find a Better Way. Doris Drucker, the wife of management guru Peter Drucker, found a new opportunity for herself this way.

She writes, “For years my role as the wife of a professional speaker was to sit in the last row of an auditorium and shout ‘Louder!’ whenever my husband’s voice dropped. I decided that there had to be a better feedback device and if there wasn’t, I was going to invent one. Then I decided, at the age of 80-plus, that I would start a business to sell it.”

Solving a problem or simply finding a more effective way of doing something has been the start of many a successful business.

* Tell Your Story. Benjamin Franklin said we should all write something worth reading or live something worth writing.

Personal experience can be the basis for autobiography and how-to books, of course, but that’s not all. Workshops, seminars and consulting are other ways of making your experience pay.

You need to live it first, however. That may sound like common sense, but at least once a week I’ll get a call or letter like the one I got from a man in Idaho who went on at great length about how confused he was about what business to start, then added a p.s.saying he plans to organize a seminar on Discovering Your Purpose.

* Pay It Forward. A few years ago, Kevin Spacey was in a movie with that title and apparently the message of passing along our good to others took root.

Spacey took a year off from film making to put his energy into a website called Triggerstreet that is creating opportunities for the next generation of screenwriters.

Spacey says he realized that his considerable success was the result of others believing in him before he believed in himself and now he wants to pass that gift along to others.

Your experience could be utilized through teaching or mentoring those coming along behind you too.

If it’s time to plan a new profit center, take a fresh look at your own life. You may be sitting on a gold mine, you know.

On Conduct Unbecoming

A few weeks before Christmas, a friend was recounting her frustrating experience at the post office. “Not only were the clerks cranky,” she said. “The line was full of people who obviously don’t come to the post office very often.  It was like trying to get through an airport full of infrequent flyers.”

I knew just what she meant.  When people are unaccustomed to doing something, such as traveling, they’re unaware of customs and procedures which are second nature to those who are experienced.  Even the casual observer would notice that amateurs behave differently.

It’s not surprising, then, to see new business owners behave in ways that are inappropriate, but that doesn’t excuse such conduct. Behaving badly will not move you toward success and will not make your journey a pleasant one.

If you’re taking on the role of entrepreneur, here are some pitfalls to avoid no matter what stage of development your business is in.

° Never complain. And especially do not complain to your customers. A friend was checking in for a flight and was told that it had been canceled. “Could you put him on a different carrier?” I asked.

The gate agent snarled at me and said that was impossible, then added, “We’ve been working without a contract for two years.”

Not only was that none of my business, it had nothing to do with the situation.

If  business is slow or you have unsolved problems, chose carefully with whom you discuss these circumstances.

° Never do your accounting in public. Sarah decided to organize a monthly dinner for women in business. She found a location, got a good price on the dinner and began advertising.  She intended to cover her costs and make a small profit for her efforts.

After a couple of women challenged the cost, Sarah became defensive and at the third meeting addressed this by defensively telling the group (most of whom were delighted by the opportunity to meet) where every penny went.

Some people were shocked by this public disclosure, but it had an even more damaging effect on Sarah, who cancelled the project thinking she was the target of criticism.

While people who are not doing well financially seem the most eager to talk about it, your finances should never be the subject of  discussion with anyone other than your accountant, business partners or spouse.

° Tell the truth. In fact, take a cue from Nordstrom’s and make it your policy to under promise and over deliver. Being ruthlessly honest is not only good manners, it will keep your relationships running smoothly with your customers and build your reputation as a trustworthy person—one worth doing business with.

And if you’re just getting started in business, don’t exaggerate your experience, but don’t be embarrassed by your lack of it, either. Emphasize what you have to offer (such as devotion to your clients) and focus on your assets.

° Apologize only when it’s appropriate. There’s a hilarious scene in Wayne’s World when Garth and Wayne meet Alice Cooper and prostrate themselves chanting, “We are not worthy.”

That may be funny in the movies, but it’s pathetic to see adults with a misplaced sense of people pleasing grovel in front of their customers, apologizing for things that they aren’t responsible for—such as the weather.

If you make a mistake, by all means apologize, but don’t apologize for the fact that you are selling something—or you’re taking up space on Earth.

° Remember that half-hearted attempts create half-hearted results. If you are tentative about your business, if you never quite complete things, if you are waiting around for goodness to happen, you’re not fully engaged.

The world is littered with abandoned projects that could have succeeded with a full out attack.

Giving up on your dreams (and blaming it on circumstances or other people) is the most unbecoming conduct of all.

10 Things Self-Employment Can Teach Us

Comedian Paula Poundstone once said, “My father always told me I needed something to fall back on. But I knew if I listened, I’d fall back.”

I thought of that this morning when I read Connie Hozvicka’s blog post about that very thing.

Connie, who did a pair of marvelous workshops at the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree, is brand new to the Joyfully Jobless life. Like most of us, she’s had to challenge some not-so-helpful conventional wisdom.

What creative person hasn’t been told You Need Something To Fall Back On? Read Connie’s take on it here.

Here are ten other bits of wisdom that haven’t been widely circulated. It’s my personal list of things self-employment teaches me each and every day.

1. To think creatively and see that there are opportunities to approach the most ordinary tasks in creative ways.

2. To be an enthusiastic problem-solver.

3. It’s okay to be uncomfortable. In fact, comfort zones are much scarier.

4. Expanding is more fun than shrinking.

5. Right livelihood alters the way we think about work.

6. We can be more, do more, have more than we originally thought possible.

7. Imagination is a power tool.

8. If we ask better questions, we get better answers.

9. Personal responsibility is heady stuff.

10. Lifelong learning is a joy.

“There’s an unexpected pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student,” said Oliver Goldsmith. I think he was talking about us.

NWA vs. SWA (And the winner is…)

When I picked up my mail yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find a small package waiting for me. I was so curious that I opened it right in the post office and discovered a nifty luggage tag with my name printed on it.

The little gift arrived from Southwest Airlines with a note thanking me for five years of membership in their Rapid Rewards program. I had to laugh when I realized they were thanking me for taking advantage of their free flight program.

It’s no secret that I’ve been smitten with SWA from my very first encounter with them a decade or so ago. I had flown to Sacramento from Minneapolis on Northwest (almost the only option), but was taking a side trip to visit my family in southern California.

When I arrived at the airport, I stopped to ask a question at the gate. The gate agent then asked me if I was returning home to Burbank. “No,” I said, “it’s my birthday so I’m going to spend the rest of it with my daughter.”

By this time, the waiting area was filling up so I found a seat in the back and settled in. A few minutes later, the gate agent came on the PA system and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an important person flying with us tonight. Would you join me in singing Happy Birthday to Barbara?”

As my fellow passenger broke out in a rousing chorus, I blushed and thought, “This would never happen on NWA.” I’d had enough experience with the older carrier to know that making their passengers smile was not in their company policy manual.

Shortly after I moved to Minneapolis, Making a Living Without a Job became one of the most popular adult ed classes in the country. For the next decade, I flew frequently  and eventually amassed a million miles on NWA. (Note: I didn’t even receive a thank you note when I hit that milestone.)

It wasn’t because I loved the airline so much, however, that they got my business. In Minnesota, NWA had a near monopoly, bumping out other carriers and making it difficult to exercise any choice in the matter.

This lack of competition produced visible results. Airfares were higher, crews surlier, and planes dirtier. After all, there was no incentive for doing things well when customers had no other options.

After I moved to Las Vegas, I vowed to fly NWA only as a last resort. Even though I have frequent flyer miles sitting in my account, I have managed to avoid setting foot on one of their planes.

(On my last flight with them, my seatmate was a smelly drunk who should not have been allowed to board. Shortly after takeoff, he nodded off and began groping my leg. Instead of moving him from first class back to coach, I got reseated in a cramped smaller seat.)

On the other hand, I’ve wracked up numerous jolly memories of my flights with SWA. I often wonder if they studied NWA’s way of doing business and decided, “Let’s do the opposite.”

Saturday night stay over? Not required. Hire flight attendants who actually like people? Good idea. Keep things simple and efficient? Makes sense. Charge for baggage? Heck, no. Give passengers an in-flight magazine that’s actually worth reading? Let’s do it. Allow passengers to catch an earlier flight for no charge if there’s room? Sure.

So here’s another radical idea, one you can use even if you aren’t running an airline.

Find a business that disappoints you. Study how they operate. Don’t just be annoyed, however. Learn from them.

Then simply do the opposite.

Investing Creative Capital

A man once wrote to tell me he’d been homeless and living in his car when the old adage, “It takes money to make money,” came to him. Realizing that he couldn’t test this notion, he continued to contemplate his options and came to the new realization that “It takes ideas to make money.”

Having hit upon this thought, he started to get excited about solving his problems with his imagination. That led him to start a little service business that’s grown and prospered.

Struggling entrepreneurs often convince themselves that if they only got their hands on some money, it would solve all their problems. Not only is that position not very helpful, it also postpones the possibility of lasting success.

As Paul Hawken reminds us, “Money follows ideas. Money doesn’t create anything.”

Real estate people talk about sweat equity—investing time and energy rather than cold cash. Creative capital is a similar concept, but it goes a step farther.

When we use our imaginations to grow our businesses, we not only generate bigger and better ideas, we keep our passion alive and build confidence in our own ideas at the same time. Those are powerful ingredients for succeeding at any undertaking.

No one understood creative capital better than Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. She showed a natural flair for what I call Hansel and Gretel marketing. When she opened her first little shop in Brighton, England, she would spray a trail of scent from the main street to her side street location, hoping people would follow the smell.

She writes, “Believe me I was prepared to try anything in those early days to get customers into my shop. I wanted to get passersby to stop, so I put big, old-fashioned sandwich boards outside promoting one or another of the products. I drenched the front of the shop in the most exotic perfume oils so that it always smelled wonderful.”

Early on, Roddick came to understand the power of free publicity. After many runners in the London Marathon complained about sore feet, she got busy concocting a foot lotion and the following year got permission to stand on the sidelines of the marathon and hand out free samples.

The media took note. She also became a regular on talk shows, plugging The Body Shop as much as she could politely get away with.

Instead of spending  money for advertising, Roddick insisted on finding creative ways to communicate her unique message. “How we communicate is gob-smacking,” she wrote in her autobiography, Body and Soul. “We use every available medium to preach, teach, inspire and stimulate, and in everything we do our single-minded passion shines through.”

Another entrepreneur who understood and used creative capital brilliantly was Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens. From their earliest days, the Geek Squad stood apart from other folks in the computer repair industry through their clever use of humor, attention-getting automobiles and badge-carrying employees.

Starting on a tiny shoestring turned out to be an asset, not a liability, says Stephens. As he discovered early on, “In the absence of capital, creativity flourishes.”

The most successful entrepreneurs seem to understand the importance of valuing and nurturing their creative spirits. They experiment, try things, find ways to do more with less.

In fact, the creative business is more like an artist’s studio than a factory production line. It’s a model we can happily adopt.

Just feed your creative spirit well and put it to work on your behalf. This is one investment strategy that works brilliantly—in any economy.