Stick to What You Love

January 21, 2010 on 12:09 am | In attitude, passion | 4 Comments

I missed posting last night because I fell victim to one of the classic blunders.  The most famous, of course, is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”  The second, only slightly less well known, is “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”

The third, and the one I learned the hard way last night, is this: “Never trust your brother when he says something will ‘only take five minutes.’”

I should have known better, too.  After all, he’d already been working on the project for a good hour, banging on pipes and sawing things and tossing out the occasional curse.  I also should have known better because, even though he’s a year younger than me, I’ve been following him into harm’s way for 35 years.  It’s amazing how our memories fail us at such critical moments in our lives.

“Jerry,” he said.  ”Can you give me a hand?  I’m almost done with this and just need a hand pulling this line through.  It should only take five minutes.”  I ventured into the work zone, and was astonished by what I saw.  It looked like every tool in the garage was being used.  There were three different kinds of Makita devices, drills, grinders, lights, wrenches of various shapes and sizes…I think there was even a hammer, just in case.  It seemed a little excessive.  Worse, it seemed like plumbing.

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Don’t Be Afraid of Your Own Opinion

January 11, 2010 on 11:52 pm | In entrepreneur, passion | 9 Comments

My friend Joel D Canfield, author of The Commonsense Entrepreneur (seriously one of the best business books I’ve ever read, and he doesn’t even pay me to say that), made an interesting comment to me today.  He said that he never wants to go to his book’s page on Amazon and see 3s in the ratings; he only wants to see 1s and 5s.  That might at first seem a little strange: after all, why would he prefer 1s to 3s in his book’s ratings?  Wouldn’t it be better if people thought his book was just okay instead of hating it?

Not in Joel’s mind.  Why?  Because Joel is a polarizer.  Love him or hate him; just don’t say he’s “okay”.  In fact, Joel says that if someone disagrees with an opinion he states, he’s likely to lean even further into that opinion.  He never aims for the middle ground.

We could all learn a lesson from that.  Far too often, businesspeople try to pander to the middle of the road.  We think that if we can make everybody happy, we’ve done our job, but that’s just not reasonable.  It’s also not possible, because what makes some people happy is sure to piss others off (if you have any trouble believing that, just ask the man in the White House).  Your goal should not be to make everyone happy; it should be to make your ideal customers happy.

“Hold on a minute, though,” I hear you say.  ”Isn’t everyone a potential customer and therefore deserving of my efforts to make them happy?”

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No Passion, No Success…Know Passion, Know Success

May 19, 2009 on 7:59 am | In Motivation, enthusiasm, passion | 3 Comments

“For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.” – Zig Ziglar 

The last two posts on this blog discussed steps you can take to accelerate your motivation in tough economic times.  The first suggested that you get clarity and focus on your goals by asking “Why?”  The second mentioned the need to stay focused, primarily by avoiding the distraction of the “Bad News Blues”.  

What else, though, can you do to get motivated and moving in the direction of your dreams?  The quote above from Zig Ziglar nails it: you must get passionate about what you do in order to stay motivated and moving forward.  Why?

To answer that question, I’d like you to think about an activity you really enjoy.  Let’s say, for example, that you love to golf.  Here’s the question: what does a golf lover do in order to play the game?  The answer: whatever it takes to get on the course!  In fact, people who are passionate about golf have been motivated to call in sick to work, cancel all other activities and golf in the rain in order to play at a favorite course.  Now that’s passion!

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