Way to Grow

Decision-Making Time

I'm pondering decisions about how best to use my time in 2010, so I was struck by a recent post from Terri Lonier on her Working Solo Minute. It would not surprise me in the least if many entrepreneurs are thinking about what to do differently as they face yet another potentially difficult year. Lonier's advice isn't entirely the usual type of business analysis that people recommend. She goes another layer deeper:

Here are her thoughts (abbreviated a bit, but in her words):

1. Where's the energy?
We can draw up the pro-and-con lists, articulate rationalizations, and craft logical arguments. But we cannot deny another question, posed to me by a close colleague: "Which option gives you the biggest energy jolt?"

2. Where's the future?
Pull out a pencil or favorite marker, some blank paper, and chart out the possibilities...[create] a map of possibilities. If "a" happens, then what are the potential "b" futures? Or, if "x" is pursued, what "y" opportunities (or limitations) emerge?

3. Who's in charge here, anyway?
It's valuable to solicit feedback from multiple parties, particularly those who may have very different views than your own. Their insights bring new perspective to your thinking. It's crucial, however, to be clear on who makes the final evaluation. Only you? In concert with a spouse or life partner? Others?

All three are important to consider. But to my surprise, #1 keeps jumping out and influencing me. I believe the reason many people procrastinate about making decisions is their failure to come to terms with where their "energy" wants them to go. If it's your decision alone, you might want to listen to #1.

The Value of Persistence

With it, you can move mountains. Without it, you will accomplish nothing. "It" is persistence.  David Lorenzo thinks it's your personal competitive advantage. Well, not quite, at least not persistence alone.  But if you have everything else and lack persistence, you'll give up when things get rough. And yes, you can count on it, there will be rough times. Hang in there, and you'll overcome most every obstacle.

Via Ken Dyck.

How Businesses Choose to Fail

Keith McFarland, remarking on the new Jared Diamond book, "Collapse", points out that the mistakes Diamond cites that cause societies to collapse are invariably shared by businesses that fail:

1. They fail to anticipate problems.
2. They don't respond promptly when problems arrive.
3. They exhibit something he calls "bad" rational behavior.
4. They adopt "disastrous values."

You don't think businesses "choose to fail"?  Read McFarland.

Via Ken Dyck.

Avoid the Dark Side -- Keep Control of Your Business and Your Life

Jeff Cornwall aka The Entrepreneurial Mind posted an excellent reminder today that work-life balance doesn't come easily.

"During the first couple of years of your business you often can't take much time off. Even if you do, you are thinking about the business. You are running on adrenalin, excitement, and fear. And even with all of this, it is still fun.

But, at some point what was necessity can become a bad habit. And that is the dark side of entrepreneurship. When the business can take over your life and cost you much more than you ever anticipated: your family, your friends, and your health."

Read it in full for his thoughts on how to avoid the "dark side",

"What It Takes" Redux

All Business, an online magazine, recently ran an article, "Do You Have the Right Stuff to Be an Entrepreneur". Qualities they listed included:

• You can work with numbers.
• You don't mind making mistakes.
• You don't mind selling.
• You don't quit easily.

Read the article.

What It Takes (To Be an Entrepreneur)

I know people from high tech who, when the job market was unfavorable, went into consulting. Quite a few of them were ambiguous about their independent status and secretly longed -- for personal or family reasons -- for an opportunity to return to the stability of full-time employment.

There is an attitudinal difference between entrepreneurs and these people. I believe that if your preference, were everything rosy, would be full-time employment, in the long term your business won't succeed. Why? Because entrepreneurship is not for the faint-heared. It demands a strong sense of commitment to being your own boss. When the going gets rough, entrepreneurs don't experience "setbacks", they just view it as another way that didn't work and doggedly move on to alternatives. Entrepreneurial success is rooted in the profound belief that you can and will make your business work.