One of the nice things about working for myself is that I get to work where I want. That's often my home office or one of the many coffeehouses around Evanston, IL. Or if it's about 3:30 and another cup of tea will make my head explode, it's one of my favorite bars where I can sip a craft brew and work in the eerily dead time between lunch and happy hour. (I love the fact that pretty much every establishment feels the need to have free WiFi). Watching a Sales Call Unravel As I was sitting here at the bar today, enjoying the last drops of this year's Great Lakes Oktoberfest, a sales rep for a local Chicago craft brewer came in. She had … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurs – Stop Waiting for Clients to Come!
"Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." Every time another baseball postseason ends, I'm reminded of the quiet corn field in Iowa that becomes a baseball diamond in Field of Dreams. In the beginning of the movie, Ray hears the famous line, "If you build it, he (his father) will come". Ignoring mounting debt and the doubt of those around him, Ray builds the baseball field. And at the end of the movie, it switches from "he will come" to "they will come" as cars line the road to pay a few dollars to visit the field... and take care of Ray's money problems. Oh, Hollywood. They Won't Come Just Because You Built It! Too many new … [Read more...]
Drop It on the One
Depending on how much you like old-school hip-hop (or current electronic dance music in an "everything cycles back around" kind of way), you might have heard the phrase drop it on the one. It refers to the DJ bringing in a new song or sound at the beginning of the next bar of music...i.e., the one beat. When I started DJing I realized how scary it is to drop it on the one - because if you are offbeat everyone is going to hear it. I've often let an old song play on too long because I wasn't sure of my mix and I didn't know if I was going to make something awesome or awful. Taking Chances In the same way, life and business are full of … [Read more...]
Moving Past the Damming (and Damning) Power of Getting It Right
I've found that one of the biggest challenges for myself as an entrepreneur and creator is the desire to get things right. I know that it sounds a little backwards, but I've found that one of the best ways to not make forward progress is to worry about making sure your progress is the best it can be. Perfection Gets You Stuck Getting stuck because of this focus on perfection manifests in different ways for different people. For some it's analysis paralysis, where they keep accumulating more and more data instead of acting. For some it's constant revision and changes on their projects which prevent them from being released into the … [Read more...]
To Stay or Go? How American Professionals are Like Scottish Voters
Like many Americans, I watched the reporting on Scotland's independence referendum last week with fascination. What fascinated me, though, was how close the election was. With a final vote tally of approximately 55%/45%, the decision to stay in the UK was hardly a landslide (although David Cameron, in a post right here on LinkedIn, said that the results were "clear". Clear, yes, but hardly a mandate - you have to love how politicians spin things). There wasn't an overwhelmingly answer to the question of whether Scotland should remain part of the larger entity or go its own way. The response was decidedly mixed. There wasn't a strong … [Read more...]
The 30 Minutes Between You and Your Dreams
I sent my latest draft of Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks and What to Do About It to the editor last week. I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about it. And a little surprised. If you had asked me at the beginning of the year if I could write a nearly 200-page book, I would have demurred and said that I didn't have the time or the patience to do it. Writing a book was a pipedream. So how did I do it? And why should you care, even if you don't plan on writing a book anytime soon? One Step at a Time Like many of us in this information-soaked age, my attention span is not the greatest. In addition I run my … [Read more...]
The Right Questions Make All the Difference
I was catching up with my friend Ian yesterday and our conversation turned philosophical (as it usually does when we are sharing a few craft beers). At one point he asked, "Do you think that American society is on the path to solving its problems, or are we not even asking the right questions?" This morning I'm thinking about how that same distinction can apply to us as individuals. We worry about coming up with the right answers, but we actually need to start by examining the questions we ask about our lives. The quality of our answers, in fact the possible answers we can come up with, are dependent on the questions. And I'm not … [Read more...]
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