Pick a Direction - Page 9 of 28 - How do you expect to finish if you never start?Pick a Direction

Learning to Drive Your Business

Learning to grow a company is a lot like driving a 5 speed vehicle. What gets you started isn’t what gets you to top speed.

1st Gear

Getting started is the hardest part of driving an automatic vehicle. You have to release the clutch just enough to match the pressure on the gas before you get moving.

Starting is hard because you have to have some preparation. But too much will leave you just sitting there. At some point, you have to stop preparing and start doing. First gear is your Minimally Viable Product or Service (MVP), your first try for customers. Some people spend hours in parking lots practicing and practicing before they ever venture out on the road. Others are thrown into the fire and have to figure it out as they go. Neither is right or wrong, just two ways of learning.

Why Your Company NEEDS A Christmas Party This Year

What does your company do to bring people together outside of work?

Two week ago, we came together for after work cocktails and appetizers. One of the wives of a coworker sells Arbonne products, so this was her opportunity to show each of us (more importantly our significant others) what her line of work entails. We all received facial masks and had our feet soaked in exotic, vegan beauty products.

I can’t say I’d be excited to sign up for party like this, but the opportunity to chat with my coworkers was there so I took full advantage. I’m glad I did. It’s rare that we all hang out without work-talk dominating conversation.

Success Comes From Delayed Gratification, or Does It?

Delay Gratification & Pursuing Meaningful Work

Work can be draining. It can break you down & beat you up. It can be your most loathed activity… If you let it.

On the other hand, meaningful work lifts your spirits. Meaningful work challenges your ring of competency to expand. It taps into new curiosities & flings open new doors of opportunity.

“Quit your job & find your passion” is a phrase that gets tossed around with ease. The truth is, we have the capacity to be passionate about things with which we’re not even familiar.

Meaningful work inspires passion. It fulfills our hierarchical need to be challenged. Difficult tasks often require us to be creative in our efforts. If our best efforts bring about achievement, we build self-esteem.

It’s Easy to be a Phony, It’s Hard to be On Point

It's Hard to be On Point When others look up to you, a pressure begins to weigh on your shoulders.

If you’ve ever had someone put you on a pedestal, you know what kind of pressure I’m talking about. It’s the pressure to always do right by them. More than anything, you don’t want to let them down. It’s a great motivator to be on your A-Game, but it can take over if you’re not careful.

When I taught Furniture University, the sales class at ABF, I had to be on point or my students would call me out. We would have “walk-in” customers that weren’t scheduled show up during a training session asking to buy furniture. If no other sales person was present to take the appointment, I would have to do it in front of 10+ students hawking my every move. If everything I said didn’t match up with everything I’d been teaching them, my credibility would be flushed down the drain.

How to Create a Culture of Burnouts

We’ve all seen it. Some of us have even experienced it.

It can be known as having your priorities out of whack. In other circles, they’re referred to as workaholics. Spiritually, it’s known as idolatry.

At it’s root, it’s arrogance. Nothing else in this world matters other than your work. For these individuals, nothing comes before their work. I know, I was on this path for a long time.

If you’ve ever spent time with someone like this, it’s obvious they have a hard time focusing on you. They repeatedly check their phone for texts and emails, even if it didn’t make a noise. They make eye contact, but their mind is elsewhere.

How to Spot an Opportunity

Op·por·tu·ni·ty

äpərˈt(y)o͞onədē/ – noun
1.) a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something
2.) a chance for employment or promotion

Circumstances, as stated above, are what make up opportunity. But everyone knows that.

What most people don’t know is how to identify that perfect storm of circumstances. Knowing when those circumstances are just right is much easier to say than to do. Spotting opportunities is one of those skills that has to be honed. Similar to sales, some people have a gift for it, and others have to work hard just to become adequate.

We don’t really foster this type of environment in our school systems, so most people don’t figure out how to do this until after school.

13 Rights Effective Leaders Must Forfeit

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
– Robert Frost

Leadership is the road less traveled.

Leadership is the hardest path to take. Leadership requires sacrifice, extra work, and a big heart. To some, leadership comes naturally. To others, it’s a some sort of voodoo magic they can’t understand.

In my years leading teams and organizations, I’ve had to give up every one of these. I’ve compiled a list of 13 rights effective leaders must forfeit.

What Riding My Bike Taught Me About Taking Risks

Lessons about taking risks come in all experiences and forms.

A very recent one came from riding my bike. Sometimes you have wonderful moments enjoying the outdoors, other times you are concussed with a bleeding head.

My First Ride

It was a deliberate decision: I am going to be that guy that rides his bike to work.

This type of transportation costs less money. It’s exercise. It’s a chance for me to see a side of this beautiful city (Charleston, SC) I don’t normally get to experience. But mostly, I like going against the grain.

Just like that it was settled, I bought a 1979 Raleigh Roadbike with years of “character” through Craigslist for $120. After another $45 on a lock and a new chain at the bike store, I was pumped to pedal home on my newest prized possession.

I only enjoyed my ride for three blocks before the back tire popped off in the middle of traffic. At which time I almost got hit by a car (for the first time) on Calhoun Street.

I quickly realized if I wanted to become an experienced biker, I couldn’t depend on others to work on my bike for me, I had to do it myself. There’s been times when I needed help, but not with simple things like putting my back tire securely on my bike. The $8/hour college kid didn’t care about my equipment or my body, all he cared about was the cheeseburger he was going to eat at lunch the minute I left the store.

Nobody cares about your bike/idea/business/success as much as you do. It took a tire falling off my bike for me to realize this, just take my word.

The Good ol’ Days

After the first little mishap, I learned to work on my bike without having to take it to the shop. There are so many resources online and through YouTube it’s unfathomable. You can fix or learn just about anything with only an internet connection and a few tools.

I spent the next couple months navigating the streets of downtown Charleston with care. Many are cobblestone alleys and there are more one-way streets than you can shake a stick at. But the biggest danger is the fact that bikes are not allowed on sidewalks in Charleston. Bikers have to obey all traffic laws and must be on the streets at all times since the sidewalks are so narrow.

I learned to (A.) Pedal fast & (B.) Keep my head on a swivel.

But it’s fun!

I loved the way the traffic made me focus on the task at hand, forcing me to take calculated risks. And the speed is intense, there’s nothing like getting into a full sprint and getting the job done faster than anyone else.

The Crash

One day I crashed… HARD.

I concussed myself, smashed my hand, mangled my equipment, and worst of all… my pride was hurt. It cost me over $200 in repairs (more than I spent on the bike to begin with). The price tag and the head + body aches were more than enough to send most people hobbling for a comfy seat in their car. After all, the bike was a choice.

But I knew it wasn’t the end of me.

I knew what I did wrong and I saw where I made the mistakes that set me up for the fall. I took immediate measures to prevent these mistakes: (1) no more riding at night unless totally necessary and (2) helmet required.

If you’re ever going to do something bold, you cannot be afraid of failure.

You have to be willing to take risks. Sometimes the risks are physical injury. Other times risks come in the form of investments. Still other risks may come in the shape of a career choice.

But the risk is better than the alternative: do nothing. Because when you do nothing, NOTHING HAPPENS.

The Meaning Behind The Story

Everything is relative. I spend a lot of time thinking while I’m on the bike. I originally wrote this to make correlations between riding my bike and business. We learn from stories, and I hope you can get a good chuckle out of this one. I know I did!

Go back and re-read this post, but this time change up some verbiage. Replace bike with business, crash with failure, traffic for competition, and so on. Go back to the beginning and think about your business, think about the passion you started with.

There are parallels for days, sometimes it just takes a bump on the head to make everything clear!

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If you were a bike, what kind of bike would you be & why?

Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!

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Older Posts

Newer Posts

1st Gear

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

My First Ride

The Good ol’ Days

The Crash

The Meaning Behind The Story

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
– Robert Frost