For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been doing a new podcast with my good friend, Jackie Dotson (AKA Captain Awesome).  Jackie is an all-around badass business therapist, and doing the podcast with her has been a lot of fun.  Click here to check it out…it’s called “The Powder Keg of Awesome”. I’d love to hear your feedback on the show and to have you call in to share some ideas, if you’re so inclined…the call-in number is listed on the show’s page.

Anyhow, the reason I bring it up is that this past Wednesday, the show was all about the lessons from 2011 that we planned to carry into 2012.  2011 was a pretty epic year for me, and for a lot of others I think, too.  There were some really shitty parts (getting divorced, some major financial setbacks, the end of a couple of very close friendships), some really amazing parts (new friendships, new directions in my business, new partnerships, a new relationship), and some really incredible learning that happened along the way.

One of the biggest lessons of 2011 for me was learning to let go, particularly letting go of my attachments.  What does that mean?  It means that I learned to watch things unfold, to observe without judgement or interference, to accept that life is random and chaotic and that there is a beauty to all of it, even the bits that don’t turn out like I planned.

I was listening to Maria Nemeth speak a couple of nights ago, and the thing that stood out to me was her repetition of four very simple words: clarity, focus, ease, and grace. Clarity, focus, ease, and grace. Clarity, focus, ease, and grace.  I can’t think of a better way to move through life than with those four qualities.  And inherent in all four of them is the ability to let go.  To let go of the noise in your head and pay attention to your purpose.  To let go of the 1,001 distractions and concentrate on what’s truly important to you.  To let go of your need to struggle and to accept that life is supposed to be fun.  To let go of your resentments and anger over the past and to choose the path of forgiveness and tolerance.

Here’s the real message: those things you’re holding onto so tightly are the very things that are holding you back.

Learn to let go.  Cultivate the ability to step back and observe, without judgement or interference, and to allow your life to unfold in the way that it will.

Does that mean that you shouldn’t set goals or make plans or try to influence the outcomes of your life?  Of course not.  You’re in the driver’s seat of your life; you have to decide how you want to live it.  The secret is to learn how to do that without getting attached.  It sounds like a paradox, I know, but it gets easier the more you practice.  As Deepak Chopra says, “Set the intention, let go of your attachments, and let the Universe do the rest.”

That’s the recipe for real happiness: live your life on purpose, and let go of your attachments to having it turn out a particular way.  If you can learn to do that, you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes in your life.

If you want to hear a little more about the subject of letting go, check out this episode of the “Powder Keg of Awesome” podcast.   You should also check out what my good friend Jeff Marmins had to say about the subject in his recent blog post “Letting Go“.  While you’re at it, leave a comment here to let me know about your big lessons from 2011.  What did you learn that’s going to change your life moving forward?

Neil Senturia is not your typical…well, he’s not your typical anything, at least as far as I can tell from his new book I’m There for You, Baby – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Galaxy, Volume 1 (WARNING: affiliate link).  What I can tell you for certain, though, is that Mr. Senturia knows how to tell a story.

I haven’t had this much fun reading a book since I was a kid reading They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? by Patrick McManus (yep, another affiliate link…sorry, but it’s just easier than logging out of Amazon).  I don’t often laugh out loud when I read business books, but this one had me chuckling, snickering and, occasionally, guffawing (I may have just made that word up…sorry about that).  Even better, I learned a thing or two along the way.

The book is a series of stories built around The Baby Rules, a set of entrepreneurial truisms culled from Senturia’s experiences as a real estate mogul, venture capitalist, Hollywood writer and all around deal-making addict.  But don’t make the mistake of believing everything you read; Rule #109 states “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”  Senturia’s grasp of the ridiculous, his razor-sharp wit, and his blunt-force-trauma style of truth-telling make for a great read.

One of my favorite lessons, and one that made me stop and think about my own journey, is Rule #19: “Entrepreneurs do not do it for the fame or fortune – they do it for revenge.”   I’ve been thinking about that one ever since I read it; it’s been dogging my steps, haunting my sleep, and generally driving me nuts for weeks.

Because I’m realizing how true it is, at least sometimes.  I find myself driven, sometimes to extreme measures, by a deep desire to prove that I can do it, no matter what anyone says.  The voices in my head, the ones that belong to former teachers and family members and well-meaning friends, telling me to settle down and settle in and settle?  I’ve got a middle finger that would like to speak with you.

And that’s the kind of festering truth that I’m There for You, Baby rips the scab off of.

Thank you, Neil Senturia, for a fantastic book.  And thank you for breaking some shit in my head that needed breaking. Consider me a fan.

In Part 1 we talked about Law #1: The Law of Value and proposed that there are five primary categories: Excellence, Consistency, Attention, Empathy and Appreciation, that you can use to increase the value you deliver to your clients and customers. (These are covered more in-depth in “Go-Givers Sell More”, Bob Burg’s and John David Mann’s second installment in the series, although that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves.) The main point is that we discovered giving doesn’t necessarily mean giving away for free.

The second Law, the Law of Compensation, states; “your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them”.

In January I had the privilege of attending Bob Burg’s Big Event 2011, with speakers such as Dr. John Maxwell, Les Brown, Carrie Wilkerson, Randy Gage, and Paul Martinelli and came away with a new appreciation for the seminar format. I’ve been to quite a few seminars, mostly motivational in nature, and I always left all fired up and ready to take on the world – for about 72 hours. Then for the following week I would have that adrenaline letdown, like you get after a minor fender-bender. You may have experienced the same thing. This time was quite different, though.

The six speakers, and all the sponsors, applied the Law of Compensation so expertly that a week later I’m still going strong. AND I’m a Personal Walking Ambassador for each of them, and a customer, for life. Why? Because I came away with so much Value that I’ll be nurturing the ideas and connections for a long, long time. I came away feeling I could put into action one idea from each of the speakers. Most importantly, I came away feeling that I can do it too.

I’m a big proponent of one-on-one coaching, it’s my primary business model, and I’ve seen some amazing things happen because of the focus it provides. But I can only do so much in the 24 hours we are all blessed with. I can only help a limited number of people. From an income standpoint I’m limited by that single factor. My goal now is to pattern the six amazingly talented speakers that served nearly 300 of my (now) closest friends during the two-day event; Consistently serve a large group of people by adding value to their lives.

I now feel the Law of Compensation is quite possibly the single most powerful of the Five Laws because once it’s applied it opens up endless possibilities. Endless possibilities because you get to choose. You choose how many people’s lives you touch. You get to choose how much time you and effort you spend adding value to those people. You get to choose how much you earn from that effort. YOU. CHOOSE.

Give the Law of Compensation some thought and then leave a comment below to let me know what possibilities you have opened up. If you could touch the lives of 10 more people with your product or service what would that mean to you? If you touch 1,000s of lives what would that look like? If you serve millions of people, enriching their lives in a way that adds value, what would that do for you? I can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

In the next post we’ll dig into the meaning of “Networking” with Law #3: The Law of Influence.

What happens when you combine several hundred thousand square feet of the latest in consumer technology with the most unapologetically over-the-top city on the planet?  I’ll tell you what: your brain melts.

Miss Destructo gave me some great advice before I left.  She told me not to try to do everything.  I’m glad I listened.  Trying to cram the entire show into four days would have been like forcing an 80-pound kid to try everything at the Treasure Island buffet: likely to induce bouts of vomiting.  It is, quite literally, too much good stuff.

That said, I’ll definitely be back next year.  The CES Tweetup was far and away the most fun I’ve had at a Tweetup, the educational tracks were fantastic, and the trade show was pretty incredible to behold.  And, of course, it’s in Las Vegas, and I’ll use any excuse to make a trip down there.

And of course I brought back a couple of business lessons.  Stay tuned the rest of this week to hear about those, and check out my pictures of the trip on Facebook.

For weeks now, all I’ve been hearing is people talking about how they can’t wait for 2010 to be over and a brand new year to begin.  In fact, I joined in that chorus a time or two.  No doubt, 2010 was a rough year.

But it’s over now.

We’re officially three days in to 2011, and from the looks of things, it has the potential to be a truly amazing year.  Personally, I’m excited to be kicking things off in style with the International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, NV.  This will be my first CES, and I can’t wait to get there.

It also rocks because I’ll be making the trip to Vegas with my friend and fellow blogger, Ryan Snethen.  Ryan is a very cool cat who knows his music and movies, and the more obscure, the better.  His “Did You Miss It?” blog is chock-full of movies you might have missed.  He’s also a writer and an entrepreneur.  We’re making the 10-hour trip by car, so we’ll have lots of time to brainstorm new ideas.  Can’t wait!

Which brings up the topic of road trips.  A couple of recent road trips reminded me of two things: a) I love taking road trips and b) I don’t take enough of them.  I’m changing that this year; more road trips are a must.

Johnny B. Truant also got me thinking today, which is a bad habit of his.  He wrote a post called “Resolutions Suck. Try Anarchy.” that got me thinking all about WHY I want to do the things I want to do, and whether they’re really worthy goals, and whether I’m up to the challenge of seeing them through.  Great stuff.  If you’re not reading Johnny’s blog, start now…even if the posts are a little longish.

2011 has the potential to be a kick-ass year, no doubt about it.  But we can’t assume that it’s going to magically turn out that way just because the calendar rolled over and 2010 is finished.

You’re going to have to put forth some effort if you want to see those results; in fact, truth be told you should have been putting out that effort for awhile now.  But don’t despair if you haven’t already started: just get your ass in gear and figure out what you want to do and, more importantly, WHY you want to do it.  Then (and here’s the really tricky part) go do it! Don’t wait for someone to give you permission or for the circumstances to be just right; they won’t.  Not ever.

Remember one thing: the only moment you really own is this one, right now.  If you let it slip by, it belongs to the past, not you.  And the ones coming up? Those belong to the future, not you.  You get this one.  Use it wisely.

So tell me: what are YOU going to do in 2011 to make it your best year ever?  Share your vision in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Gary Klaben

Today, there is a strong pull between the profit maximizers and the purpose maximizers.  It is not that working on Wall Street or Main Street for large companies is all about profit maximization, or that starting a small business is all about purpose maximization.  It is about the tide turning towards purpose, while maintaining profit.

In Daniel Pink’s recent book, Drive (2010), he identifies and discusses three types of motivation.  Motivation 1.0 is the basic need to survive.  Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent nearly all their time fulfilling this need.  Motivation 2.0 involves seeking rewards and avoiding punishment.  From the time of antiquity through the 20th century, this was the primary motivator after achieving survival.  Finally, motivation 3.0 seeks internal, intrinsic satisfaction — the fruit of personal freedom, challenge and purpose. What we like to call MVP (meaning, value & purpose).

Ours is a motivation 3.0 world.  The unexpected and unpredictable will increasingly occur.  Change is the only constant.  Continual surprises!  Microsoft’s digital Encarta encyclopedia — a profit maximizer — lost out to tens of thousands of online hobbyists writing and editing topics in Wikipedia’s open-source, interactive encyclopedia without pay — a purpose maximizer.

Surprise!  Wikipedia — now the world’s most popular encyclopedia, with 13 million articles in 260 languages — maxes out on personal motivation, massive value and combined purpose.  How many other industries today are likely candidates for Internet “re-purposing”?

We are at a very important crossroads in history.  Both the developed and developing worlds have a unique opportunity to transition to what makes all of us tick: what is inside of us, who we are, what we dream to be,  what is most important to us, how we want to be remembered.

Before you consider a career upon completing school, before you pursue a new job, before you give up on the unemployment line, consider the current environment.  Literally every citizen in this, the world’s freest country, can start any business with an iPhone or a BlackBerry and a laptop.  Barriers to entry have never been so favorable to the small business owner.

Are you intrinsically energized to achieve your MVP?  Then you stand on the threshold of a most interesting, exciting future.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake ourselves.”

Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Carthaginian general Hannibal:  “We will either find a way, or make one!”

Yoda (from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back):  “Do or do not.  There is no try.”

But success doesn’t come easy and, at the end of any given day, you may not be able to control each outcome.  Certain folks, for various reasons, will always resist change:  Therefore, we need as much enlightenment as possible to guide all of us intelligently and creatively into a bright future.

I’m frequently reminded of Yogi Berra’s admonition:  “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

About the Author

Through a series of chapter “conversations” about client dysfunctions and challenges encountered over 25 years, author and financial advisor, Gary Klaben, seeks to stimulate a new kind of conversation. Time and time again, people have watched helplessly as the family wealth-destruction cycle has gone from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” in three generations. His book, Changing the Conversation, seeks to empower readers to begin a journey of self-discovery in order to become masters of money, not slaves to it.

Last week, I signed up for what looks to be a cool new service called SeededBuzz (I saw that a few of my friends had “liked” their ad on Facebook, so score 1 for the effectiveness of Facebook ads).  The basic idea is that you can submit your best blog posts (called “planting a seed”) , and other bloggers can pick up on the theme and write posts of their own based on your “seed” post (otherwise known as “buzzing” your “seed”).  Once you get a handle on the goofy terminology, it can be a great way to meet, connect with, and befriend other bloggers.  And it works!

Meet Tia Peterson, creator of BizChickBlogs.  Tia knows her stuff: she’s been designing websites and messing with WordPress since graduating college, although she won’t tell us how long ago that was.  Her tips and advice for bloggers are spot on.  I met Tia via (heh…that rhymes) SeededBuzz, and this is why I love blogging: it’s all about the connections!

Anyhow, a few weeks ago Tia wrote a post that considered the question of why so many blogs fail.  I think that’s an interesting question, especially considering my new Blog Whisperer project.  The reason I started MyBlogWhisperer.com was the fact that so many of the blogs I was setting up for people were left vacant once they were completed.  When I would ask the owners of said blogs what was going on, I’d get different versions of the same answer: they felt like they didn’t have anything worth saying.

And I think that’s the number one reason most blogs fail: FEAR.  So many of us have been filling our heads with negative self-talk for so long that we refuse to believe that anyone would want to hear anything we have to say.  I’m here to tell you, though, that they do!  Believe it or not, there are thousands of people just like you who are looking for someone to give voice to their thoughts and feelings.  That someone can be you, if you’ll just get out of your own way.

And it doesn’t stop with bloggers. For so many of us, fear is the only thing between us and the success we desire.  The object of our desire, whether wealth, fame, a satisfying relationship, or a prosperous business, is right there, ripe for the taking; and yet we’re afraid to reach out and pluck it off the branch.

Isn’t about time you broke your mind out of the dungeon of fear?  Isn’t it time you conquered your fear, once and for all, and let your light shine?  I think it is.  I think it’s time for all of us to reconsider the power we give to our fear, and start to take some of that power back.  Stay tuned for suggestions on how you can do just that.

What do you think?  How has fear held you back, and how do you plan to reclaim your power?

First of all, I have to say a big “Thanks!” to Dave Navarro of Copyblogger fame for his great article today about how to write headlines.  That’s one thing I’ve never really paid attention to, but I’m going to start.  Thanks Dave!

So…are you curious?  Wondering what these five evil mistakes are and how you can stop making them?  Well, I’m going to be recording a podcast with SMB technology guru, noted speaker and award-winning author Karl Palachuk on his Cloud Services Roundtable Podcast next Wednesday at 9:00 AM.

If you want to listen to the podcast interview for free, you’ll have to register and listen live; otherwise, you can sign up for the membership and download it at your leisure.  After the podcast, I’ll be diving into a 5-part series on this topic here on the blog.

And for those of you who are curious, here are the five mistakes we’ll be talking about, the five mistakes that are killing your marketing campaigns:

• You don’t know who you’re talking to
• You don’t know what you want them to do
• You don’t ask them to do it
• You don’t give them a compelling reason to do it NOW, and
• You don’t follow up to make sure they’ve done it

Want the details?  Then be sure to register and tune in next Wednesday (September 1st, 2010), or pay attention to this blog for the breakdown of each mistake – and how you can avoid it – after the podcast.

Click here to register for the call so you can listen live for free!

Guest Blogger Dan Waldschmidt

I’m just going to be me.

I am tired of being the person that you think I should be.  I’m just going to be the best “me” possible.

And isn’t that what you really want from me?

Where did all this start?

We all have a sense about how the world should work.  Right?

The little spoon goes to the left of the big spoon.  The smart kid goes on to be the most successful person in the class.  If you work really hard then you end up having all the best parts of the “American Dream.”

But if you think about it, you didn’t come up with that idea. In fact, you don’t even know the person who came up with those ideas.  And yet for some reason we accept them as fact.

But they aren’t facts.  They aren’t.

What does that mean?

It means that everything you know about what you should be is now wrong.  The slate is clean.  You’re back to square one.

Ohh… and by the way, the people around you aren’t any better qualified than you to start putting plays on the chalkboard.  They are the same goofy nuts who laughed at the same immature jokes that you did in high school.

Sure they look all sophisticated and “put together”.  They look like people whose opinions should matter.

But here’s the reality.  They don’t matter.

Not one little bit.

So what does matter?

You matter.

You’re not a moron.  You actually know more than you think you do.  Sure you’re prone to get turned 37 different directions after listening to all the critics.

But we all do.

We all second guess our motivations, intensions, and strategies.  Sometimes we do it out-loud.  Most of the time, we keep that in our heads.

And that’s even more dangerous.  Because the monsters in that playground are even more dangerous.

So what’s the plan?

Here is the secret to ultimate satisfaction: “Stop doing and start being…”

Be the best “you” possible.

And only you really knows the full potential of what that could be.

It’s bigger than you have ever imagined.  It’s more successful than the critics would ever give your credit for.

Some people will love you.  The rest will still think you’re a loser.  Either way, you won’t really care you’re too busy being the best you possible.

And there is something ultimately satisfying about being all you can be.

__________________________________________________________

Dan Waldschmidt is a former high-growth technology CEO, one of the founders of IntroMojo, a popular inspirational speaker, and a sought-after strategist on creating edgy conversations in the marketplace. He blogs regularly on his popular motivational selling blog Edge of Explosion and is the husband to a cute gal named Sara and the father to two energetic boys. He’s just an ordinary dude who happens to have an outrageous vision. And he wants to help you change the world…

You may have noticed (at least I hope you did) that the frequency of posts here has dropped off a little in the last few weeks.   I thought I should drop a quick line to let everyone know that I’m still here.  I’ve immersed myself in a new project that’s kept me pretty busy (more to come on that later this week), but I’ve almost got it finished so regular posts will resume soon.

In the meantime, I’ve arranged for guest posts from a few of my favorite bloggers; I hope you enjoy reading them.  In fact, I’m planning on making this a weekly feature, so if you’d like to make a contribution to the Motivation 101 blog (or if you know someone who would), please drop a quick email to jerry@jerrykennedy.com with your name, blog URL and a brief description of the post you want to write.

Well, that’s it for now, other than a quick shout-out to my friends, the Nomad Canfields.  If you haven’t checked out Joel and Sue and their daughter Fiona chronicling their attempt at running away from home (they’re in Vancouver, BC, right now), you should  have a look at their blog, Canfield of Dreams.  You might recognize Joel as an infrequent contributor to this blog or as the other guy in the legendary Business Heretics videos (actually, it was all his idea).  Anyhow, have a look and tell them I said you should stop by.

Thanks for reading!