Connecting & Collecting

The latest issue of Budget Travel magazine arrived today and as I was browsing through it, a piece on Denver’s LoHi neighborhood caught my eye. One of the businesses they mentioned was especially intriguing.

Sipping ‘N Painting offers classes for adult amateur painters. For $40, participants receive brushes, paints, and a blank canvas for an instructor-led session designed around a theme. Also included is a glass of wine or beer for those who are so inclined.

As soon as I saw the story, I hopped over to their website to learn more. Then I sent a link to Connie Hozvicka, who did such a fabulous painting workshop at the Jamboree. It seemed like an idea that might fit her portfolio of projects.

Had I not spent time with Connie and seen her in action, I probably wouldn’t have thought to send this idea along to her. Nor would I have alerted Karyn Ruth White to Ode magazine’s humor issue, if I didn’t know her passions.

Of course, it works both ways. Almost daily, someone sends me a link to an article or resource or clever business idea that they uncovered and thought I’d want to know about too. I am thrilled and appreciative.

When I got the hang of Twitter and began spending time there daily, I felt as if I’d just found a volunteer research staff. Hardly a day passes without someone sharing a terrific idea or article that I’d never have uncovered myself.

Connecting with entrepreneurial thinkers is a critical, but frequently overlooked, key to success. In direct and indirect ways, such folks will enrich your life, expand your horizons, add positive fuel to your dreams.

As Scott Stratten so brilliantly points out in UnMarketing, building a business today begins with building relationships. And unrestrained sharing of ideas, encouragement and resources.

‘Tis the Season

Although I wasn’t in the market for a pumpkin, when my daughter said they were headed to the Lombardi Ranch after naptime, I decided to tag along. I assumed we were visiting a normal pumpkin patch.

I was so wrong.

The Lombardi Ranch is a family-owned seasonal business that’s a Halloween tradition with folks in this part of the world. The parking lots were jammed and people of all ages were milling around with smiles on their faces.

I plunked myself down on a straw bale while my family went off to enjoy a horse drawn wagon ride. I was facing acres of tall sunflowers which were home to numerous scarecrows who seemed to attract more photographers than birds.

Pumpkins and wagon rides were only two of the offerings of this entrepreneurial family. There were food stands (corn on the cob seemed to be the big seller), a party tent available for private rental, a petting zoo, face painting and pony rides.

There were thousands of pumpkins, including white ones, in every size and shape. Families walked the grounds pulliing small wagons loaded with the perfect jack-o-lantern material.

Even though the overcast skies appeared to be getting ready to produce a downpour, there was a festive atmosphere made even jollier by the live music coming from another tent.

I’m guessing that Halloween is the favorite holiday for the Lombardi family. It’s also one that requires more planning and preparation than it does for those of us who simply don a costume.

For years, I’ve been singing the praises of the seasonal business and pointing out that if you sell pumpkins, most of the year has no cash flow. When that cashless spell is followed by a Harvest Celebration, payday can be huge. And hugely fun.

Speaking of hugely fun…while I was taking in the in all the pre-Halloween delight, Connie Hozvicka (aka Dirty Footprints) was sharing her experiences celebrating National Boss’s Day as her own boss. Don’t miss her story.

Got Backup?

This week has been mostly about getting ready for the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree. There have been long Skype conference calls with Alice Barry and Sandy Dempsey and a steady stream of e-mails.

All of us are filled with anticipation and excitement because we’re old hands at taking ourselves away, changing the scenery, surrounding ourselves with a new cast of characters, and focusing on moving ahead without distractions or interruptions.

Retreats are so powerful that I can’t imagine why everyone doesn’t take advantage of such opportunities. After all, in order to do all we can and have all we desire, we must first become all that we are.

For most of us, that requires the assistance of those who are farther along on whatever path we’re treading. There was another example of this last week from one of my Facebook friends.

Andrea Brigitte Klee wrote, “I just returned home from Barbara Sher’s Scanner Retreat in France. What a week! I ate the best southwestern French food ever, and had a major breakthrough concerning the direction of my life. I found the answers to two basic questions, and, surprisingly enough, it was me who answered the questions.”

Yup, retreats have a way of letting us get in touch with our boldest dreams. At their best, they also provide us with tools to keep the momentum going once we’re back in familiar territory.

Author Sondra Ray once pointed out that the most important item in a budget is for personal growth and yet few people include it. Ray says, “When someone says, ‘I don’t have enough money to go to that seminar,” it’s like saying, ‘I’m not a good investment.”

Precisely.

If you’re a one-person operation, you are the biggest asset your business has. Without investing time and money in yourself, it’s difficult for that asset to expand.

Retreats have another bonus in addition to self-discovery. Ever see the movie About a Boy ? It has nothing to do with attending a seminar, but it certainly is a terrific story about personal growth.

Hugh Grant plays a purposeless young man who is supported by royalties from a silly Christmas song his father wrote years earlier. His life begins to change when he unwillingly befriends a socially inept boy.

At the end of the movie, when many lives have changed for the better because of the relationships they’ve made, the boy says, “One is not enough. You’ve got to have backup.”

That astute observation doesn’t just apply to personal relationships, of course. Having backup is critical for anyone who is serious about building business longevity.

So what kind of backup should we be putting in place? According to Scott Stratten’s brilliant new book UnMarketing, it starts with connecting to others. To do that successfully requires making relationship building an on-going activity.

Some of those relationships will begin via social media, of course, but face to face offers another dimension that can’t be achieved via a computer.

So I’m heading to Austin expecting to come home with new ideas, new enthusiasm, and fuel for the next leg of my journey.

Most of all, I’m excited to find some new friends who will provide—and receive—backup, because, quite simply, you can never have too much of that.

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We’ve had many questions about recordings from the Jamboree. However, we decided it’s a “you had to have been there” kind of experience so we won’t be Tweeting, posting, recording or taping the event.

5 Ways to Make it Harder

If you’ve met me or seen my picture, you may have noticed that I am blessed with hair that’s straight as a ruler. Unfortunately, when I was a little girl, Toni home permanents came up with a solution—Tonette for children.

After it appeared on the market, my mother enthusiastically administered this smelly monstrosity to my hair at regular intervals. When I would protest, she’d remind me, “You must suffer to be beautiful.”

It became one of my mother’s favorite mantras and I suspect the message spilled over into other areas of life. How dare I feel proud about any accomplishment that came easily?

While I no longer believe that suffering is a necessity when it comes to personal achievement, I do know that worthwhile endeavors usually involve a challenge—or several.

Nevertheless, I suspect that too many of us continue to make things harder than necessary when we’re going for a dream.  I also suspect that we’re often unaware of those behaviors that slow us down and add drudgery.

How can we be sure we’re making it harder than it needs to be? Here are five surefire ways that can burden the entrepreneur’s journey.

1. Avoid investing in ourselves. Anyone who starts a business signs up for a learning adventure, but those who never bother to attend a seminar or travel to a conference are making their own success a low budget priority.

And it’s not just information that needs to be acquired. As author Earnie Larsen points out, “You can’t outperform your own self-image.”

For most of us, acquiring a healthy self-image requires an investment of time, money and assistance from pros.

2. Pamper our excuses. We’ve all got them and when we repeat them often enough, they begin to feel welcome.

That’s only a short step away from believing them. The moment we do that, our excuses assume a position of power.

It’s hard to move ahead when our excuses have lodged themselves around our ankles.

3. Never ask for help. In a recent post, Seth Godin said, “Too often, businesses (and freelancers) focus on making it on their own. In fact, the secret of being indispensable is making it together.”

Colorado Free University founder John Hand believed that for everyone who has a problem, someone in the community has the solution. Whether the community is geographic or virtual, we make it harder for ourselves if we fail to find those helpful resources and listen to their advice.

4. Ignore the successful. The world is full of people who are willing to share their experiences, lessons and techniques.

The best way to keep from following in their footsteps is to avoid putting yourself in their presence to begin with, but should you find yourself in the same room, use it as an exercise to compare yourself to them rather than learn from them.

5. Scorn inspiration. One of the best kept secrets around is that inspiration is available to all of us, but it needs to be cultivated. In order to do that, we need to know what inspires us—and take ourselves to those people and places on a regular basis.

As Mary Pipher observes, “Inspiration is very polite. She knocks quietly and if  we don’t answer, goes elsewhere.”

Inspiration, even at its quietest, helps us to feel more brilliant, more creative, more capable. When we undervalue it, we rob ourselves of its gifts.

It’s so much harder to succeed if we haven’t invited inspiration along as a companion.

Sightseeing Tips for Entrepreneurs

The prolific Martha Stewart once told an interviewer that she had just returned from a trip to Munich and came home with dozens of new ideas. “Everywhere I go,” she said, “I scout for ideas.”

She’s not  the only entrepreneur who finds inspiration when she travels. Would there have been a Starbucks if Howard Schultz hadn’t been smitten with Italian coffee shops?

Shortly after my daughter and her family moved to Austin, TX  I flew in for a visit. Before we went to their house, I got the mini-tour.

When I commented on all the people we saw who were running, walking or bicycling, Jennie said, “This town isn’t about buying stuff; it’s about doing stuff.” I liked it already.

I got even more interested when Hector said, “What I love about this place is all the little independent businesses.”

Those words were barely out of his mouth when we passed a parking lot where there was a shiny Airstream trailer with a giant cupcake on the roof—and a long line of customers. As I was about to discover every time we passed that way during my visit, the long line of people never diminished.

I couldn’t wait to learn more about Hey Cupcake! As soon as it was politely possible to excuse myself, I began investigating this business on the Internet. I found out that Hey Cupcake! is the brainchild of Wes Hurt, a 20-something Texan who says he was born entrepreneurial.

His story reminded me of an article I wrote in Winning Ways newsletter called “Take a Trip, Come Back With a Business”. That’s exactly what Hurt did.

The inspiration came during a trip to New York when he visited the Magnolia Bakery. He says, “I waited in line for 20 minutes or so and was amazed by the enthusiasm and anticipation emanating from everyone in line. That day I started planning what would eventually be Hey Cupcake!”

Hurt’s idea wasn’t exactly an instant success, however. He opened his first cupcake stand on the campus at the University of Texas where about 10,000 students passed by daily. Unfortunately, not enough of them stopped to buy a cupcake.

Hurt was disappointed, but in true entrepreneurial fashion decided to revamp. He changed locations and moved into the Airstream. That did the trick. At their busiest, they now sell about 1,000 cupcakes a day.

I met several more members of the Austin entrepreneurial community when I stopped at a beautifully restored post-Victorian house where David Walker runs a co-working space called Conjunctured. He and his partners have created a place where solo entrepreneurs can come and work in a less isolated environment.

It didn’t take long to learn that Walker is wildly enthusiastic about the Joyfully Jobless life, but this isn’t his only business. He and a group of folks run 302 Designs which produce t-shirts with beautiful designs and inspirational words. He’d just signed a contract with Whole Foods who will be distributing their shirts.

With all that entrepreneurial energy flying around, it was easy to select Austin as a natural locale for the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree.

Almost any place you visit becomes an opportunity to explore local businesses. I often begin my own sightseeing by checking out independent bookstores. On a visit back to Minneapolis, Alice Barry took me to one of my favorites, Wild Rumpus, a splendid children’s bookshop.

When I was writing in my diary tonight, I noticed on this day a couple of years ago, I’d been in Portland, OR where I spent time at Rejuvenation Hardware, a store I could happily live in.

It’s a wonderful way to nurture your own entrepreneurial spirit, even if you have no intention of running a shop yourself. Seeing someone else’s dream brought to life might inspire a new dream of your own.

Dare to Commit

Scan the bookshelves for titles on relationships and you’ll quickly discover a trend: numerous titles tackle the issues around lack of commitment.

It’s not just personal relationships that are feeling the fallout from this wishy-washy approach, however. Hordes of people refuse to commit to anything much at all.

Does the idea of commitment make you tremble? A commitment is, after all, a pledge to do what we said we were going to do. It’s actually a way of volunteering to be accountable.

Those who avoid making such a pledge to themselves have no idea that they’re cheating themselves of some of the biggest rewards in life.

If getting a dream is step one, committing to that dream is the next thing that needs to happen. Commitment doesn’t mean trying something for a while to see how it turns out; it means being actively involved in how things turn out.

Obviously, not everything we attempt turns out according to our plans—but that’s not the function of commitment. Being committed is about going in for the long haul, not simply for one little project.

When I was cleaning out some back issues of Winning Ways, I came across this story from travel writer Pico Iyer that is a testimonial to the power of commitment:

Part of me really wanted to write and I suppose wanted to travel too, but I couldn’t find a way to do it. Finally, I decided I’ve just got to commit myself to this.

If I’m going to be a writer, I’ve got to haul myself into the unknown, be unemployed and try to make it work.

When I finally decided to commit myself to it, instead of just wavering, then suddenly opportunity came out of nowhere.

I think that if I hadn’t had the resolve to take the plunge at last into the unknown, I might never have been rescued in midair.

I think the whole process of traveling is about pitching yourself into a circumstance in which you don’t know how things are going to work out, but that initial act of faith can bring about good results.

Commitment, it seems to me, is a lot like love. It grows and strengthens over time when we’re truly committed to something that we care deeply about.

We don’t always know at the outset what will become commitment-worthy. What may begin as a simple flirtation, becomes more compelling as we learn more, increase our exposure and devote our energy to it.

For many of us, we’ve tried to make commitments to things and people and ideas that we really weren’t that crazy about. It’s hard to get past lukewarm if our heart isn’t engaged.

No wonder the word commitment elicits feelings of dread and drudgery. And if we’re only willing to commit where the outcome fits our preconceived notions, we’re doomed to a life of commitment avoidance.

Seems to me that commitment needs a new press agent and here’s what they might advise:

Give up ambivalent commitment.

That’s probably an oxymoron, but there are plenty who think they’re committed when they’re not even close.  Genuine commitment says, “This is what I’m going to do and keep doing until I succeed.”

Sound like it’s too much trouble?

“Those who would reap the blessings of freedom,” warned Thomas Paine,”must be willing to undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

It’s still true.

Will You or Won’t You?

One day I got a message from my friend Peter with a subject line that read, “I just turned down $10,000…” He finished the sentence in the body of the message with, “and it feels great.”

Peter went on to describe a project he was working on that felt less and less like a good fit for him the longer he worked on it. He gathered his courage and ended the relationship.

He also knew that many people would think he was crazy for walking away from the money. He ended the message by saying, “I just had to tell somebody that I knew would understand.”

This incident always reminds me that sometimes quitting is both a moral choice and an act of courage. It’s also a reminder that when running a business we need to be clear about what we are willing to do—and what we won’t do.

This may sound obvious, but I suspect that every entrepreneur has taken on projects because their cash flow was squeaky or they convinced themselves that a potential client wasn’t really as big a jerk as they appeared to be.

Smart entrepreneurs use such experiences as lessons that help them clarify their own vision—and avoid repeating their bad choices.

Of course, there are also many things that fall under the umbrella of Against My Ethics and we don’t spend much time pondering whether or not we should do something illegal or immoral. We’re not even tempted.

On the other hand, it makes sense to think about those services or products that we won’t be including. You may not advertise that you don’t do windows, but having determined that’s not part of your portfolio you’ll know how to handle requests for such a service if it comes your way.

When I was starting out, I decided that there were three things I wouldn’t be doing in my business. Even though I had seen others do such things with some measure of success, they felt inappropriate to me.

These three condiitons were more guidelines for me than policies and included:

1. I won’t duplicate what is already being done. While I love passiing along resources that I think are useful to my audience, I am not about to pretend I’m the oracle for all wisdom. If someone else has covered the territory well, I’ll send people their way—and be thankful I can work on other subjects and projects that are my true passions.

2. I won’t develop dependency relationships. I’ve watched people get wealthy in the personal growth industry by developing devoted followers who never are quite ready to break the ties to their guru and create something of their own. While this can be highly profitable for gurus, I’ve always wanted to inspire folks to create, invent and deliver their own special gifts to the world. I’m happy to be a midwife, but not a parent.

3. I won’t teach what I haven’t learned. You won’t see any pictures of me standing next to a Ferrari with palm trees in the background telling you how to make a bazillion dollars in the next six months. You also won’t see any seminars or writing from me about subjects I’ve researched but haven’t tested in the laboratory of my own life and business.

Over time, I’ve added other guidelines about what I will and won’t do. A few years ago, for instance, I adopted the mantra Work With the Willing to remind me that I am not in the business of evangelizing and making converts. My ideal customers and clients are already sold on the notion of living a joyfully jobless life and simply want to keep evolving forward on that path. That’s where i come in.

I’ve never changed my mind about any of those things even though compromising on any one of them could have added to my bottom line. More importantly to me was realizing that what I will and won’t do was the only way to build the business of my dreams.

What about you? What won’t you do?

Money Dragons Make Lousy Pets

Last week, Vibrant Nation reprinted my article on Outsmarting the Money Dragon.   Not surprisingly, it generated a number of comments.

The article begins this way:

Every so often I am asked some variation of the question, “Do you ever worry about money?” The truthful answer to that is, “Not anymore,” but getting free of the Money Dragon had little to do with earning more money and everything to do with challenging my belief system about money.

Allowing the Money Dragon to rule your world is a surefire invitation to sleepless nights and perpetual poverty. Banishing that monster starts by answering some important questions.

Do you live in a world of scarcity or abundance?

Many people create scarcity by focusing on everything they don’t have. Author Sondra Ray points out that if you have any money anywhere — even a few coins — you actually have a surplus. How many people give themselves credit for that?

Thinking abundantly comes from a healthy self-image, knowing you have options, and an understanding of the role that attitude plays in creating wealth.

Most of us arrive at that state through conscious work, eliminating thoughts and words of poverty. Books such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Creating Money can help us get rid of our own blocks and limiting thoughts.

You may have to work more diligently than ever these days. In case the Money Dragon hasn’t been scaring you lately, the media is quick to remind us that it lurks behind every corner, in the alley and may turn its fiery breath on us all at any moment.

It matters not that Warren Buffet, who long ago tamed his own Money Dragons, offers a cautiously optimistic forecast. Plenty of people have a vested interest in keeping the Money Dragon hovering in the shadows. After all, money has been one of the most effective ways of controlling others for centuries.

As long as we participate and allow ourselves to be controlled by money fears (whether imposed by others or generated by our own thinking) the Money Dragon will continue to breathe over our shoulders.

As I have frequently said, “Self-employment is where we go to examine our relationship to money.” If we aren’t willing to honestly examine our limited scarcity thinking, we can’t expect to prosper in our businesses.

For many of us, this has been an uncomfortable part of the curriculum. When I first realized that my own belief system about money was hindering, not helping, me, I got busy doing something about it.

I read books, attended seminars, created projects that stretched my thinking and, ultimately, my bank account. I stopped avoiding people who had a reality of abundance and began to seek them out.

In one seminar I attended, the leader challenged us by asking, “Who has a problem that they had five years ago?” It  was a genuine wake-up call as I realized that any problem that becomes a regular part of our lives turns into an excuse for not living boldly.

So why, I’ve been wondering, do so many people insist on keeping the Money Dragon around as a pet? They feed it, nurture it, haul it out to show others why they can’t do wonderful things.

“Can’t you see I have this Dragon to feed? How could I possibly go to the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree…even though I see More Money is one of the themes?”

If you’ve got one of those Money Dragons hanging around, here’s a way to start releasing it back into the wild. Define the problem and avoid blaming yourself, your parents, your previous choices.

Take personal responsibility for changing your attitudes and, ultimately, your situation. Explore the connection between setting goals and generating cash flow—and take responsibility for that as well.

A great way to build your goal-setting muscle is to invent a small project — one that really excites you — and create the funding for it in a totally new way. Then work up to a slightly larger project. Not only will you realize more of your dreams, you’ll build a larger Option Bank for yourself in the process.

You might even decide to acquire a new pet—one that’s worthy of sharing your joyfully jobless life.

Getting Noticed

When I opened my Gmailbox the other evening, there were a dozen or so messages waiting for me. One of them had a subject line that read, “Your Brilliant Book.”

Which one do you think I opened first?

What this writer employed was something I learned about in the public speaking class that I took my first year of college. One of the first lessons Dr. Meisel taught us was to open a talk with an attention-getting device.

For a speaker, that could mean starting off with a story, a joke or a startling statistic. None of this, “Thank you for inviting me here today,” stuff would do in Dr. Meisel’s class.

For a writer, the title is the first attention-getting device.

There was a fine example of that in a post from Copyblogger the other day. It said, “Do you think that Freakonomics would have been a New York Times Bestseller with the title Aberrational Behavior and the Causal Effect of Incentives?”

Children, of course, are masters at using negative means to get attention. It sometimes appears that they don’t outgrow it when they become adults. They may not throw public temper tantrums anymore, but have no qualms about shouting from our tv screens about the wonders of Oxiclean.

Fortunately, you don’t have to scream or wear clothing adorned with meat in order to get attention for your business. Here are some simple ways to add attention-getting devices to your marketing efforts.

Color. Different hues subtly or dramatically suggest the nature of your business. Some companies even make a big deal out of their signature color. (What can Brown do for you?)

Your Website, packaging and even your business vehicle are all canvases for your signature color.

Name. Business names absolutely fascinate me. A good one gets noticed, suggests a bit about the function of the business, but isn’t obviously cute or clever.

Sometimes your own name is the best title for your business, but if that’s not appropriate, coming up with a perfect name is worth the effort.

If you’re stumped, throw an Idea Party and gather a few creative friends for a brainstorming session.

I’m still pondering the name I saw on a business in Britain—Jolly’s Funeral Services. I can only assume that Jolly is a family name.

Tagline. Slogans and taglines are also unique ways to grab attention. One of my favorites came from the Saigon Cafe in Minneapolis. The owner proudly declared, “I did not come 5,000 miles to cook mediocre food for you.”

In the early days of the Geek Squad, I delighted in watching this spunky little startup employ attention-getting devices in every corner of their business. They used taglines brilliantly, including the tongue-in-cheek proclamation, “Making the world safe for technology.”

When I would see one of the Geekmobiles driving down the freeway in Minneapolis, I automatically would think, “There goes the Geek Squad making the world safe for technology.”

In fact, before they were absorbed by Best Buy, the Geek Squad was masterful in their use of  attention-getting devices. Tiny details that all delivered a consistent message added up to outstanding success for them.

Those same unique touches will work for your business, too. Notice what you notice, what grabs your attention.

Best of all, you can continue to create new attention-getters as your business grows.

Any attention-getters you’re already using? I’d love to hear about them. Post a comment and share.

Exercising Your Options

Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market may seem an unlikely business to gain international attention, but that’s exactly what happened after filmmaker John Christensen noticed the enthusiasm and energy that the fishmongers brought to their job. He decided to make a film about this unique business.

What Christensen learned was that the fish market had four simple principles that they put into action every day. One of those principles is so important that without it the other three don’t work.

It’s also an option we all have, but not everyone exercises it on a daily basis.

As one of the fishmongers explains, “My buddies and I realized that each day when we come to the fish market we bring an attitude. We can bring a grouchy attitude and irritate our coworkers and customers.

“Or we can bring a playful, cheerful attitude and have a great day. We can choose the kind of day we will have.

“We spent a lot of time talking about this choice, and we realized that as long as we are going to be here, we might as well have the best day we can have.”

That’s not just a nice philosophy, however. Everyone at the fish market looks for creative ways to demonstrate that a positive attitude makes the place delightful for workers and customers alike.

Fish fly through the air and crowds gather around the market that seems to specialize in performance art.

“In fact, we got so excited about our choices that we chose to be world famous. A day spent ‘being world famous’ is a lot more enjoyable than a day spent being ordinary.”

The simple secret of the Pike Place Fish Market is, of course, the realization that attitude is a choice. That’s not something I always believed.

In my early life, I thought that my attitude was a result of what was going on around me. If things were going well, I stayed pretty positive; if my plans weren’t working, it was cause to be cranky. Then I was led to one of the first personal development programs I ever heard of called Adventures in Attitudes.

This program was inspired by the psychologist William James who said,  “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitude of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

I loved that idea, but found taking charge of my own attitude was not always easy. Just knowing that attitude is a choice—not a random emotional event—is the first step to taking charge of it.

If we don’t know or don’t believe we have choices, we don’t.

When it comes to our attitude, if we don’t exercise those choices, creepy, crawly, dark thoughts can move right in. While we can’t control how we feel, we can control how we think and act.

When we take personal responsibility for our attitude, situations may not change, but how we handle them does. And when we are serious about that responsibility, we refuse to let the behavior of others take control of our own attitude.

As my two-year-old grandson would say, “That’s huge, Grandma. Huge!”

If you want to see your business soar, decide that negativity, crankiness and unpleasantness are not options for you. After all, being in charge of an inspired business begins with being in charge of that way of thinking and behaving we call attitude.

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop,” says an old Chinese proverb. It is not an exaggeration to say that the ultimate success of your business will be determined more by your attitude than any other factor.

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A quick reminder that the Early Bird enrollment for the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree ends at midnight on Labor Day. There will be plenty of positive attitude in action in Austin on October 15 & 16. Don’t miss it.