by Jason R Owens | Mar 6, 2012 | High Attrition
We could list dozens upon dozens of reasons on why entrepreneurs fail – lack of money, lack of customers, unproven business model, etc.
But what is at the heart of those reasons?
Lack of money doesn’t cause people to quit. It is a symptom. I know plenty of people who persevered through long periods of low funds.
Lack of customers is a symptom, too. It has been cured through thousands of innovations.
People quit when they are emotionally exhausted — burned out. They give in. We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. Seth Godin wrote an entire treatise on quitting in his book, The Dip. He suggests that quitting isn’t all that bad when it is the right thing to do.
If somehow we could manage or alleviate an entrepreneurs level of emotional exhaustion, we may keep more of these job-producing engines alive.
by Jason R Owens | Mar 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
The most vexing question in my entire doctoral program was not posed to me by a professor. Instead, it was forced upon me by situation.
“What is the topic for my dissertation?”
I can’t tell you how much sleep I have lost over this question.
by Jason R Owens | Mar 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
On my teaser slide that I placed on the home page I said “What I learned while teaching 4500 people to use Salesforce”. Let me add this disclaimer: I was not alone on this project. The thought of one person taking on that much work is laughable. There were three of us at first, so it was a team effort. You can see that the student-teacher ratio is now much lower at a more manageable level of 1500:1. 🙂
by Jason R Owens | Feb 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
In my last post I mentioned how I had a considerable portion of my grade hanging in the balance during the last week of class. It ended well. I took a risk on my final assignment, and the professor liked it. I received the grade I was looking for, and moved on to my next class. Only three more traditional classes left. After that the only thing that stands between me and a DM is my dissertation.
by Jason R Owens | Feb 26, 2012 | Uncategorized
I was reading the book “The Genius in All of Us” by David Shenk today. It is a fantastic book that breaks several myths about talent and how much of it we can expect to inherit from our parents. The good news is that talent is something that everyone can develop. It isn’t just for the gifted few.
A good friend of mine, Enrico Contolini, noticed that his oldest daughter had a knack for geography. He helped his daughter develop this knack to the point where she was good enough to compete. Fast forward. She has won the state geography bee twice.
Shenk makes the case that genetics will only take a person so far. Having talent is one thing, but developing that talent is another. The environment also plays a very formative role. Shenk uses examples of both cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma and Mozart to illustrate that very involved and capable parents play a critical role in helping children realize their full potential. Enrico’s daughter inherited a mother who is a skilled educator and a father who is an engineer. The cards appear to be stacked in her favor.
Enrico has developed a teaching and coaching method that clearly works with his daughter. Music’s Shinichi Suzuki developed and honed his Suzuki method of teaching, and it revolutionized how music is taught to children. Perhaps the study of geography is about to receive the Contolini Method for getting kids energized about the places of the world. See more on this father-daughter team’s quest to share their love of geograhpy at www.geokid.org.
by Jason R Owens | Feb 26, 2012 | Uncategorized
I love highlighting great work by amazing people. A good friend of mine lives with his family in Colorado. He recognized that his eldest daughter had a talent for geography, so they explored it together. This father-daughter hobby turned into a competitive sport. Enrico now coaches his daughter in her geography bee pursuits at the state and national level. This father-daughter team also take their love of geography to local schools. See more on their story at www.geokid.org.
by Jason R Owens | Feb 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
My wife has done a fantastic job over the past 12 months at the Animal Care and Control division of the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department. Check out her site at www.clever-canine.com for more details. If you are short on time, just check out the first post or the first video.
by Jason R Owens | Feb 2, 2012 | Self-Employed Sweet Spot
Editors Note: I found this article so valuable because it links to a string of eight other articles where a very successful author discusses how he learned to deal with rejection. I’m offering this to my readers because I know that developing thick skin is a very important part to growing your confidence. Read more in Cecil Murphey’s About Rejections series.
by Cecil Murphey
Early in my writing career, I sent a manuscript to Christianity Today and within weeks I received a rejection. Inadvertently, I sent the manuscript back to the same magazine. Two weeks later, the same editor not only accepted my article but also asked if I wanted to write paid book reviews. (Not being stupid, I said yes.)
I’m not encouraging writers to follow my example but only to point out that rejection is a subjective response. The cliché holds true: “What one editor hates another one loves.”
Here’s another truism: If you’re going to submit material for publication, you’ll receive rejections. That’s a guarantee.
At a writers’ conference in North Carolina in 2001, the speaker asked those of us who had received more than ten rejections to stand. More than half the conferees rose. “How many have received twenty? twenty-five? thirty?”
As the numbers increased, fewer people remained standing. At the end, I was one of only three left. All of us admitted to having received more than a hundred rejections. I’ve been writing longer than the other two, so I assume I had more rejections. None of us felt embarrassed. In fact, one of them said, “Rejections are our red badge of courage—we had fought the battles and turndowns are our wounds.”
Rejection is an unwanted-but-necessary part of professional writing. If you can’t handle rejections, don’t submit for publication.
Cecil Murphey is a New York Times’ bestselling author and international speaker who has written or co-written more than one hundred books, including the runaway bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven (with Don Piper) and Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (with Dr. Ben Carson). His books have sold millions of copies, have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have brought hope and encouragement to countless people around the world. You can learn more about his work at his website, and read his valuable advice for writers on his blog.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on April 20, 2010, and is used with permission.
by Jason R Owens | Jan 22, 2012 | Self-Employed Sweet Spot
Exercise more. It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Lose weight. Get in shape. Feel better about yourself. I haven’t belonged to our local YMCA for several years. I think we let our membership expire about a month after our daughter was born. She’ll be five soon. This time it isn’t about losing weight. It is about something far greater. It is about being the best that you can be. You don’t have to go the macho route here, running 50 miles or lifting more weight than you should. Start slow. Make small changes. Show up. All change can be good.
by Jason R Owens | Jan 22, 2012 | Self-Employed Sweet Spot
A business coach that I admire (Dan Sullivan) once said that there are 6 billion people on the planet; you are not going to please them all.
Seth Godin reminds us that you (and I) aren’t going to be liked by most people, and that it is ok because you aren’t trying to sell to most people. You are trying to find your tribe, the people who really click with you and who find you amazing.
As entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs this should free us from any feelings of not being good enough or not having what it takes. Don’t let The Accuser get in here and play with your head. The ‘net gives us so much power to find those people who resonate with us. Check out the book The Long Tail for an excellent treatment of this (or Chris Anderson’s article in Wired magazine that spawned the book). Godin believes that many people want to find you, and the net makes this possible.
I had come to grips with not everyone liking me when I was on the road doing Salesforce consulting. I love Salesforce a lot more than the average person, so this makes me a bit of an anomaly to start with. When I’m in front of a group of 200 or so people for a big room presentation, I get really excited. I know the world of financial advisors quite well (my client was a Fortune 500 financial services firm), and I get excited about the many ways that Salesforce can help an advisor in their practice. This excitement obviously comes through in my presentation. My boss received some feedback from one (that’s right folks, only one) manager who thought I was too over-the-top. I was really taken back by it. What’s the right thing to do in this case? Dial it back a notch?
I asked my leader how I should respond to the criticism. “Well, that guy isn’t happy about much anyway.” In the end I didn’t completely dismiss the criticism. It was a good wake up call, and one that I probably needed to hear. I didn’t let it shake my enthusiasm, though. In fact, it only bolstered my confidence. I had several managers at the client location and many, many individual users thank me for providing high value content, so I felt secure that I was doing a good job for my client.
Some of you may caution me at this point. You might recite the maxim from an older study performed on government agencies. This one was really popular in the quality movement during the late 80’s and early 90’s: For every person who complains there are 26 unhappy people who don’t complain. I really wish I could find a reference on that study so I could investigate the legitimacy of that statement. For now let’s take the statement at face value and run with it.
So my presentation style didn’t resonate with more than just this one manager who voiced his opinion. I’ll agree with that. I’ll also look to the remainder of the data – the positive feedback given directly to me and the positive feedback given to my manager. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Why? Because I had found my tribe. Right place, right technology, right presenter. I had hit the sweet spot.
Now it is time to go find yours. Let me encourage you with this thought: When you hit the sweet spot — and you will find it someday either in your current venture or in the next — it is the best feeling in the world. It makes all the waiting, struggling and hoping worth it.
Go find your tribe. They are out there waiting for you!
