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Content vs. Satisfied

They’re synonyms, but we reflect the differing meanings in our posture.

Satisfied – “happy and finished.” You’ve taken action, you’ve gotten uncomfortable, and you’ve accomplished your goals. You are ready to rest on your laurels.

Content – “happy but still laboring.” You’ve started, you’re improving, but you haven’t arrived. You’re still hungry and you’re not ready to pat yourself on the back.

When you strive for satisfaction, you begin to look for an end. And when there is an end to your work, you allow yourself to think about cutting corners to get there. Instead, try striving for contentment. You’ll be okay with realizing your work is never done. That realization will give you the energy to put out your best work day after day.

Why I Don’t Want An Easy Life

When was the last time something easy changed your life?

Conversely, challenges have probably changed your life multiple times over. How we react to challenges is the best indicator of our character. But if you’re rarely (or never) challenged, it’s hard to get to know yourself on that level.

I don’t want an easy life. An easy life, by definition, is one devoid of difficulty. If everything is easy, nothing would force me to stretch. I want to be challenged because challenge brings change. I want to keep growing, keep maturing, and keep refining myself. I want to top my most recent feat.

“…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance…”
– Romans 5:3

Suffering is something most of us actively avoid. But if we never face hardship, we don’t grow. James, the brother of Jesus, said, “suffering produces perseverance.” Steel isn’t forged by laying iron in the sun for 30 minutes and hoping it gets hot enough to become malleable. It is intentionally heated to 3,000 degrees for three and half hours. Talk about suffering.

The same goes for our lives: suffering shows us what we’re capable of. Running a marathon taught me a lot about who I was. Forcing myself to write for 90 days did, too. And although the Redbox movie I watched last night was great, it didn’t have the same impact. A comfortable life isn’t the key to happiness.

Assess where you are. Think about the last time you were challenged and how it changed you. You need nights with a Redbox movie and some time to chill. But you need to fill the other space with things that mold you into the person you want to be. Find the furnace that will heat you to the temperature required and suffer as needed.

The Most Indicative Trait Of Success (You’ll Never Guess)

Anyone can start.

In fact, it’s easier now than ever to start something. Websites are cheap, information is abundant, and the economy is shifting to embrace the freelancer lifestyle.

But, starting isn’t indicative of success. For exactly that reason, anyone can start. So even though we’re in the age when everyone gets a trophy, you won’t get much credit for starting. Starting 20 projects in a year doesn’t necessarily make you successful. Finishing 20 projects in a year, on the other hand, does.

Starting is crucial, please don’t mistake what I’m saying. At one point the tagline for this blog was, “How do you expect to finish if you never start?” I understand the importance of starting and I applaud anyone with the guts required to start. But don’t pat yourself on the back until you ship.

The most indicative trait of success is endurance.

To ship, you may have to endure financial hardships. You may have to outlast your competition. You may have to grind out projects you don’t want until the ones you do want come to fruition. You have to endure until you’re content (not satisfied) with your progress. And then you’ll have to endure some more.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
—Lao Tzu

Starting is important, but it is the first step. The good news is that it’s the hardest. In his fantastic little book, The Dip, Seth Godin says the time to question your idea is at the beginning, not in the middle. Don’t quit when you’re in the midst of the struggle, quit before you start. So that when you start, it is calculated. You start intentionally, not haphazardly. When you begin a project, you don’t just begin because you had a fleeting whim to create. Start because you’re ready to endure till the end.

The Art of Overdelivering

The concept is simple: deliver more value than the recipient is expecting.

The Hiring Process

We live by unwritten rules in today’s American society. An example can be found in the hiring process. I’ve had a number of friends who struggled to find the right – or sometimes any – job. They don’t expect a company to spontaneously find them, but they don’t know how to get their proverbial “foot in the door,” either.

I recently interviewed with a company and decided I would turn the tables. I viewed the interview as an opportunity overdeliver.

In most interviews, the hiring company finds someone with a certain background they can mold into someone who brings value to their organization. They need to be taught the skills, operations, and workflow of the organization before they can make an impact.

That seemed like a waste of time to me. Why wouldn’t I bring value to the first meeting? Risk, that’s why.

When you attempt to bring more than you ought, you risk failing. You risk not impressing someone. You risk appearing overambitious. You risk the comfort to “just do it like everyone else.” You even risk appearing arrogant.

You have to be willing to be different if you’re going to stand out in an ocean of applicants.

Overdelivering 101

When I met with the two gentlemen who interviewed me, I brought copies of my resume, an extension of my resume (because they are a hackable game used by HR to disqualify people based on technicalities), my 90-day plan if I were hired, resources I would utilize to catch myself up to speed (notice I didn’t expect them to do that for me) on the industry, and ten ideas to improve their business.

It’s a bold move to tell someone with the title “VP” that you, without having worked a day in their industry, have ideas on how to improve their successful multi-million dollar operation. In fact, it’s quite risky. And if your overdelivering idea fails to impress, you’ve wasted a bunch of effort. Yet another risk to account for.

Here’s the key: overdelivering is about effort. And the good news is that everyone can do it!

There’s a 90% chance they’ve thought of the ideas I shared with them. But that isn’t what got me a second interview, it was my willingness to stick out from the crowd and put more effort into the interview than anyone else. The little things had to be right: intelligent ideas, no typos, presentable format, etc. But, if you want to overdeliver, you have to be willing to risk wasting that effort.

Everyone can do it, but not everyone will. That’s your advantage.

How To Find Your Happy Place

I met Austin when he was a freshman defensive back. He smiled too much and needed to eat a few cheeseburgers, but I liked him. He had a competitive spirit and he wasn’t afraid to work hard for what he wanted.

After football, he was hired with the furniture company as a sales rep. He made a few people uncomfortable because he was unforgiving in the way he pursued success. He didn’t make apologies and he didn’t slow down for everyone to catch up, he just worked.

Fast-forward a few years and Austin is running his own store. He has grown tremendously and he is still working hard as ever for what he wants. He was asked to write a piece for the company and he ran it by me beforehand. I told him it was excellent advice on how to get out of a rut and I thought my audience would enjoy his words of wisdom.

Enter Austin.

If you haven’t seen the movie Happy Gilmore, literally stop reading now. Take the day off and go home and watch it. It is one of my all-time favorites. In it you have a guy who has always dreamed of and has worked his whole life to be a Hockey player. The only problem is that he sucks at Hockey.

One day though, he discovers he’s pretty good at hitting a golf ball really far. There is no other aspect of golf that he is even remotely decent at, but this old man named Chubbs comes alongside him and teaches him how to play the game. His biggest obstacle was himself. He had a horrible temper and when he got pissed it literally controlled him and every aspect of his life. Chubbs’ best advice was for him to find his happy place.

Find what you are good at and run with it

There are no two people reading this article that are the same. We are all uniquely talented and gifted.

“Men only take their needs into consideration and never their abilities.” – Napoleon

Explore your talents, cultivate them and use them to their fullest potential. This doesn’t have to be work. If one of your skills is hospitality, find ways to use it at work, but maybe do something outside of your normal daily life like having your team over for Sunday dinner and cooking and caring for them.

Identify the challenges that hinder you

Maybe they are intrinsic or maybe they are external. For Happy, external challenges revealed an internal conflict. Maybe you are spread too thin. Take some time to develop the people around you. Give them the tools and training to be able to handle some of the issues that are weighing you down. Maybe you absolutely hate handling conflict. It’s even possible that you are overly critical and don’t praise those around you enough. In this sometimes chaotic and hectic business we get overwhelmed by the challenges we face daily and we let those challenges affect us in negative ways that seep into and infect other areas of our lives.

Allow people to speak into your life and point you in the right direction

Welcome accountability. In the words of New York Times Best Selling Author Jack Canfield “After you’ve decided what you want, you have to believe it’s possible and possible for you, not just for other people. Then you need to seek out models, mentors, and coaches.” Figure out where you want to go and then allow someone who has been there before to point you in the right direction.

I hope this year is both productive and fulfilling for you all. Find your happy place!

How To Compliment An Entrepreneur

“You’re cheap.”

This exclamation is rarely used as a compliment. Quite the opposite, it is typically used in a derogatory manner. An accusation that they haven’t earned enough to spend their resources on what most deem an everyday expense.

But if you’ve ever charged a business owner or an entrepreneur of this “character flaw,” you know it is not received as such. Their sly grin and cool shrug indicate an understanding of something that you, apparently, don’t. Your words aren’t received with pain or a offense. On the contrary, you’ve just given them a compliment.

Learn This Simple, Not Easy, Way To Improve Customer Service

Customer Service Shortcomings

I imagined my first printed book in a hardcover since the day I began writing it. Over two years of labor went into my first book and I wanted it to be perfect. Instead of settling on a paperback, which was much easier and cheaper to publish, I looked for a company that could print a hardcover with a dust jacket, like I always pictured.

Bookbaby.com was easy to use and their prices were fair. I found less expensive options, but quality was not comparable. Bookbaby employed a competent sales team who walked me through the process, answered all my questions, and guaranteed their work.

One order of a hundred hardcovers, comin’ up!

The Unbelievably Simple Technique I Used To Stay Focused On My Dream

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is, “What’s the best way to stay focused on my goals?” The following story will give you the experience I had so you’ll better understand my process. Take from it what you will, but this story reflects how I plan to say focused on my biggest goals in the future.

Your Story Starts

The statement was simple, but its impact startled you.

Your intellectual property lawyer, Jeremy, was giving you basic information on copyright law for the book you were writing. The email exchange should have been pretty dry, but his reply hit you like an unexpected dodgeball to the face. He gave you all the information you asked about: when to file for copyright, cost, and what the process looks like. But he also dropped a bomb on you.

Just above his signature, as an encouraging gesture, Jeremy wrote:

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