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.

“What are you doing?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“No big deal,” he said, another signal that I should run the other way.  ”Just running a water line to the ice-maker on the refrigerator.”  I knew it.  Plumbing.  Ugh.  I hate plumbing.  Not the way Indy hates snakes, but close.  But there was beer to be had, and I’m a sucker for beer.

“OK,” I said.  ”What do you need me to do?”

Three hours and many banged knuckles, swear words and empty beer bottles later, we called it a night.  There was still no water supply to the ice-maker, but there was a hell of a mess in the kitchen.   We capped off the line, threw all the tools and implements of destruction into an empty laundry basket, tossed the basket in the garage and called it a night.

This is why I hate plumbing.  It’s the same way I feel about writing HTML code and data entry:  I can do it, but I don’t love it.  And because I don’t love it, I’ll never be really good at it.  My skills as a writer and marketer and sales professional will always continue to improve because I love those activities and spend a lot of time doing them.  My skills as a plumber and data entry clerk and writer of code will stay static or diminish because I do everything I can to avoid getting involved in those activities.

There are those who could have done in 15 minutes the job that took me and my brother 7 man hours to complete.  They are the ones who love plumbing enough to be really good at it.  I guess that’s the lesson in all this: if you want to be really good at something, pick something that you love to do.

It sounds really simple, I know, but not a lot of people take the lesson to heart.  Instead, they choose a business or a career based on what others think.  They don’t trust their hearts, and they pay the price.  It’s why Henry David Thoreau said that most men lead “lives of quiet desperation”.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Ask yourself: am I doing what I love?  Or did I fall victim to one of the classic blunders?

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Just a quick note to say that there’s still time to suggest a moral for last week’s Social Media Fable.  I’ll be picking a winner on Friday, so be sure to check back then to see which moral wins.

Also, be sure to order your copy of “Sociable!” by Shane Gibson and Steven Jagger.  It was released today.  I wrote a review about it a few weeks ago.  You can read that review here.  It’s a great book, and a must-read if you want to incorporate social media into your business.

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?”

And therein lies a huge problem in the thinking of many businesspeople.  Let me be completely clear: not everyone is a potential client for you! No matter how well you think your product or service could be used by each and every person on the planet, it’s just not true.  Yet, it’s what almost everyone believes.  Just ask any small (or large, for that matter) business owner who their ideal client is, and the most common answer you’ll hear is “Everyone!”

Have no doubt: this is a big problem.  If you don’t have a clear idea of who your target market is, how in the world are you going to find them, let alone sell anything to them?   The answer: you’re not!

So, back to the lesson we can learn from Joel, then.  Since we’ve established that not everyone in the world is your client, why are you trying so hard to please everyone?  That approach will get you, at best, a lukewarm response.  But if you’re not afraid to lose a few potential clients by being really clear about who you are and what you offer, you’re reaction from the potential customers who are in alignment with you’re offering is going to be enthusiastic, to say the least.  You’ll probably even create some raving fans!

So take Joel’s advice: stop thinking that a 3 on a customer satisfaction survey is better than a 1.  It’s not.  Start aiming for 1s and 5s only.  I guarantee you’ll make a lot more money and have a lot more fun with a few 5s than with a legion of 3s.

It’s like my childhood hero Dr. Suess said: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

“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!

Think for a moment, though, about something you hate to do.  For me, it’s yard work.  For some reason, no matter how she tries, my wife just cannot convince me that spending time pulling weeds and trimming hedges is good for me.  So, here’s another question: what will I do to get out of doing yard work?  The answer: whatever it takes!  I’ve even been know to occassionally fake injury and/or illness to avoid spending the afternoon on this loathsome chore.

Now take these same principles, and apply them to the average salesperson or entrpreneur.  Did you know that as many as 87% of respondents in surveys say they dislike their jobs?  Keep in mind, that number includes people who are self-employed!  Can you imagine hiring yourself to do a job you hate?  Why would anyone do that?

The point is this: if you hate what you do or what you sell, it’s going to come through loud and clear to the people you serve and they are going to be less likely to buy from you.  After all, if you don’t believe in the product or service enough to be excited about it, why should they buy it?

Your passion and enthusiasm for the products and/or services you sell is critical to your success.  If you don’t feel particularly passionate about what you sell, though, all is not lost.  It’s possible you just need to shift your perspective.  What does your product offer to the people or businesses you serve?  Better value?  Some kind of competitive advantage?  Is there anything about it that gets you excited?  

If you can find that spark of excitement, latch on to it and go sell that enthusiasm and belief.  If you can’t, though, it might be time to consider a change.  After all, trying to motivate yourself to do a job you hate is like trying to get a geek to do yard work: it annoys the geek and frustrates his wife.  Trust me; I’ve got the weeds to prove it!