Time really does fly, doesn’t it? I can’t believe we’re already halfway through 2008 - OK, sorry, I’ll stop rambling.
I’m moving my blog over to Results Junkies so please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds. For those of you that were previously linking to this site, I’d appreciate it if you’d take a moment to update your links to the new site.
See ya soon!
I’ve spent the last few months (maybe years) trying to figure out how I could best please everyone in my life. I’ve read blogs, books, magazine articles here and there but it just doesn’t seem to add up. You just can’t have everything at once and, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t keep everyone happy either. And if that’s true - how are we, as young adults, supposed to live our lives?
The truth is, balance is a load of crap. It’s an imaginary goal that is entirely intangible and therefore unmeasurable. The quest for balance between work and life, in my opinion, isn’t just a losing proposition - it’s a hurtful, self-destructive one at best.
When we’re looking for that magical balance, we strive for achievement everywhere, all the time — and we feel guilty and stressed out when, inevitably, we fall short.
The balance movement is fatally flawed. For those of us trying desperately to keep up with everything that needs doing, it poses two mythical ideals. If we work hard enough at it, one goes, we can have everything. Or if we cut back, we can have just enough to be truly content. The first obliges us to accomplish too much, often at too high a price; the second doesn’t let us accomplish enough. Either way, balance is a relic, a fleeting phenomenon of a closed, industrial economy that doesn’t apply in a global, knowledge-based world.
Essentially, each of us has the two options mentioned above and we all know it. It’s obviously not rocket science and it really does line up with what we read in these “how to balance your work and life NOW!” articles. But what if these two options aren’t good enough? What if something inside you says that you just can’t accept either solution?
There’s a better way to think about all this, one that requires us to embrace imbalance. Instead of trying to balance all of our commitments and passions at any one time, let’s acknowledge that anything important, and anything done well, demands our full investment. At some times, it may be a demanding child or an unhappy spouse, and the office will suffer. At others, it may be winning the McWhorter account, and child and spouse will have to fend for themselves. Only over time can we really balance a portfolio of diverse experiences.
Now, this is starting to make some sense. Again, it’s not rocket science but it is a third solution that’s worth thinking about and it requires one uber-important ability: the capability to segment your thinking and quickly move 100% of your attention to the task at hand. More on this later.
Great leaders, serial innovators, even top sales reps may be driven by a kind of inner demon — the need to prove themselves, to achieve for fear of being worthless (or, as Freud postulated, for fear of castration).But it’s hard to argue with the result: Such people are incredibly productive. They drive change. And that cuts to the problem with a reductionist view of balance. Simply cutting back on work inevitably fails, because in real life, success in work is predicated on achievement. In a competitive business environment — which is to say, every business environment — leadership requires commitment, passion, and, to be blunt, a lot of time.
This isn’t a cynical argument in favor of clocking the hours — though let’s face it, in some organizations, that pressure is all too real. Rather, building something great, leading change, truly innovating — “it’s like falling in love. You have to abandon yourself to it,” says John Wood. “There’s the risk of inherent contradiction between wanting to do something entrepreneurial and wanting to have balance.”
Ok, now we’re talking - this is starting to feel like it’s right on target (to me) and I’d venture to say that some of the people reading this blog can relate to this last excerpt.
But Paul, you might say, why can’t someone just leave work at the office and come home to family?
Here’s the problem: success at work is through (measurable) achievements while success at home is through more intangible items such as caring or being there.
And here’s the solution (and, as with most things, it’s obviously easier said than done): we’ve got to learn how to instantaneously shift our full attention (yes, that means 100%) between tasks and people in different parts of our life.
David Zelman, a psychotherapist and executive coach, sees this as a crucial skill successful people must learn. “Can you leave the office in the office? Can you give someone outside the office the same attention you gave your CEO? If you can give your children or your spouse 100% of your attention, even for a brief period, it goes way longer than compromising and giving them some time because you think you should.”
Now, excuse me while I go figure out how to actually do what I just said.
“We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.”-Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks
Amen, brutha.
Sukhi and I have been working on BST Construction over the last 6+ months and it’s been a great street-MBA thus far. For those of you that don’t know, this has been my family’s business for the last three decades here in Northern Virginia.
If you know anyone that needs some masonry work, let me know or pass the word along — I’ll make it worth your while.
Pronunciation: ju-THEE
Function: noun
Usage: See below
1 : A shoe
2 : A beating
Usage:
1. Damn. Those jutti’s are hot! I need to get a pair fo’ sho!
2. Whoa, you need to tie your jutti man.
3. Uh oh, my old lady’s pissed. I’m gonna get a jutti if I go home right now!
I just this one and it really did help to make me a bit happier.
Rid yourself of a nagging task: answer a difficult email, purchase something you need, or call to make that dentist’s appointment. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a big rush of energy and cheer, and you’ll be surprised that you procrastinated for so long.
Full Article: Seven tips for making yourself happier IN THE NEXT HOUR.
Things have been busy lately but the one common job that I’ve always (and will always) have is sales. At some point in my life it was selling cars, selling pizza, selling electronics — but regardless of where I’ve worked, I’ve always had to sell myself to someone.
First of all, get your mind out of the gutter — Paul Singh ain’t no male gigalo (but I’d probably be good at that if the situation ever arose). 
Let’s face it — when you want a job and ask for a $103478546173570.99 salary, you’ve got to convince the other guy why you’re worth that much. (Unless, of course, you just want to be laughed at and brushed off — but I’m sure that’s not the case since you’re a badass reading this blog.) So, how do you do that?
Magic word = because
So, let’s go back to the previous example:
You(Badass): Yes, Mr. Boss, I’d like a $103478546173570.99 salary per day…
Boss: Hmm. (Most likely with a slight look of bewilderment.)
You: …because I’ll be bringing to your company and thereby assisting you to further grow this biatch by 4872065% in the near term. I’m sure my resume and references can confirm my ability to do that.
Boss: Ok, you start tomorrow.
You: YAY!
Remember badass readers, the magic word is because.
Guy Kawasaki recently put up a post asking if business plans are really necessary and it definitely deserves a read if you’re even considering heading down the path of entrepreneurship. He cites a recent Wall Street Journal article:
A study recently released by Babson College analyzed 116 businesses started by alumni who graduated between 1985 and 2003. Comparing success measures such as annual revenue, employee numbers and net income, the study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them…
“What we really don’t want to do is literally spend a year or more essentially writing a business plan without knowing we have actual customers,” says William Bygrave, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., who says he generally advocates “just do it.” Entrepreneurs must be nimble, and will be more apt to stick with a flawed concept they spent months drafting, he adds.
If you haven’t heard of Guy already, he’s a successful entrepreneur and now runs a VC firm — with that said, I think his thoughts on this topic are worth keeping in mind when you’re assessing how much time and effort to devote to your own business plan:
The phrase “unless a would-be entrepreneur needs to raise substantial startup capital from institutional investors or business angels, there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan” merits discussion. Most venture capitalists require a business plan as part of due diligence. This doesn’t mean they spend more than ten minutes reading the plan, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they believe it.
As a wanna-be entrepreneur with a little bit of experience under my belt now (with UpSolv and, to some extent, InfoRelay), I’ve learned that what Guy’s saying is absolutely true. Business plans don’t “prove” anything at all — but they are a tool (one of many) that can help to make sure that your ass isn’t flying completely blind in whatever it is that you do. Man, where was Guy when I was learning this stuff the hard way?!
According to the New York Times:
According to the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, most college freshmen in 1970 said their primary goal was to develop a meaningful life philosophy. In 2005, by contrast, most freshmen said their primary goal was to be comfortably rich.
My how times have changed.
I ran across a pretty sweet article over at Entreprenuer.com recently that details 7 business lessons that can be learn from Mr. Bond.
He (the character) is also an entrepreneur, at least in spirit. His salary comes from his Majesty’s Secret Service, but on the rare occasion a world scandal erupts, forcing his employer to drop him from payroll, he’s worked for himself until he dispatches with the bad guys and gets back in his company’s good graces. He also has a business mindset, frequently networking and making deals, to either prevent himself from getting killed or to save the world.
While all of the lessons are quite beneficial in their own respects, one of my favorites:
Business Lesson 6: Network, network, network. One of the characteristics that makes Bond the world’s greatest spy is his expertise at networking. For instance, when Pierce Brosnan’s Bond searches for the missing GoldenEye satellite weapon in GoldenEye, he starts off in St. Petersburg, using a CIA contact to meet Valentin Zukovsky, a Russian mafia leader. In exchange for an arms deal, Zukovsky sets up a meeting in a deserted graveyard in the dead of night with the head of a Russian crime organization called Janus Syndicate, who turns out to be a rogue agent turned bad guy—well, you get the picture.
And to sum it all up:
The same should be true for anyone in business. The chamber of commerce might connect you to someone at the nonprofit organization S.C.O.R.E., which might hook you up with a mentor who ends up finding you an expert in marketing who helps you increase your sales by 25 percent.
Amen, Mr. Bond.
Read the full article: 7 Business Lessons From 007
Technorati Tags: 007, business lessons, James Bond
How many times have you heard someone tell you (or someone else) that they should “never give up” and other motivational mumbo jumbo like that?
Sure, it’s nice to pump someone up by telling them that they can succeed at anything they want, but is that really the best thing to be spending your time on? In my opinion, the answer is no.
Chew on this: If you want to finish up some work and can’t seem to get it done at the office, what do you do? Do you choose to “never give up” and tough it out in the office or do you go find some other place that is more conducive to you getting your shit done? Make sense?
Bottom Line: If you’re doing something that takes your blood, sweat, and tears — and you still suck — you’re probably more suited to do something else.
Do yourself a favor and spend your time on figuring out what works (and doesn’t work) for you. Once you do that, I guarantee that you’ll make progress on whatever it is that you want to do.
