Sabbatical

I am leaving for sabbatical. During that time, I will not be blogging, nor doing any other online publishing. But, I will be back before too long.

See ya soon!
Courtney
😊

Who Are You?

Permission

As an entrepreneur, you are a change agent. In no small measure, inducing change is what entrepreneurs do.

A big part of the challenge, with being an entrepreneur, is that people naturally resist change. Technically it is called the Status Quo Bias. More commonly, we say things like, "Don't rock the boat." Or, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

There exists an Indian yogi by the name of Sadhguru. He posses great wisdom. And, I recently heard him mention how our school system teaches us to be obedient. Don't rock the boat.

Unfortunately, you will not achieve your dreams by being obedient. So much of success is about giving yourself permission to disobey the rules and norms.

Obedience is a good thing in childhood. However, as an adult, obedience can be quite destructive. Sure, any society needs boundaries. We call these boundaries "laws" and they need to be followed. However, within the boundaries obedience can be suffocating.

I have heard it said that the key to success is to look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite. That is a little overly simplistic but the point is well-taken.

A key element to business success is differentiation. The Harvard business school professor, Michael Porter, is considered the world's leading expert on strategy. And, you do not need to go to Harvard to understand what he is saying.

Porter says the key to business strategy is differentiation. Of course, a lot of people will not permit themselves to be different. It has been said that when people are free to do what they want, they usually imitate each other.

You need to give yourself permission to be different. To go against the grain. To stand out.

Here is are a few other ways you need to give yourself permission:

– If you are an entrepreneur, you are a salesperson. And, as a salesperson, you need to give yourself permission to interrupt people.

– We fail our way to success. So, you need to give yourself permission to fail. This is particularly difficult for perfectionists. Thus, perfectionists need to learn to forgive themselves for their mistakes.

– Last week, I mentioned how lonely it can be if you are ambitious. It is the road less traveled. And, you need to give yourself permission to stray from the pack. You need to give yourself permission to not be popular (at least for a while.)

However we acquire this habit, I have found that people tend to look for permission before doing things. And, it can be a real problem. You need to give yourself permission to live your life.

The Loneliness of Ambition

This may be the hardest part of the whole puzzle.

You cannot teach the new dogs old tricks

The title of this blog post comes from the greatest entrepreneur of all time. I hope you can agree, it is a phenomenal quote

We have all heard the saying, "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks." And, I happen to think it is one of the more pathetic sayings in all of existence. It is so sad and complacent.

Thanks to the science of neuroplasticity, we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the human brain remains malleable throughout the life span.

For example, what do you know about Jim Arruda Henry? Here is a man who learned to read at the age of 92! (he subsequently went on to also write a book)

Most of us learned to read at an early age, so we may not appreciate just how hard it is. Perhaps a good equivalent is learning a second language. Do you speak two languages?

Now back to the title of this post, it is something Warren Buffett likes to say to his partner, Charlie Munger. Both gentleman are big fans of the concept, "Invert, always invert." Meaning, consider ideas from multiple perspectives.

We all hear people say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. But what if the opposite were true? What if you cannot teach the new dogs old tricks? There sure seem to be something to it.

Of course, what Warren and Charlie are saying is that somethings can only be learned through time.

Here is an interesting paradox for ya. Have you ever noticed that the younger we are, the less patient we tend to be? Patience is a virtue generally learned through time, meaning, as we get older. So, the less time we have, the more patience we tend to be. Kinda crazy, right?

What about Win-Win? "Reciprocal altruism" as it is often called. Some people call it "enlightened self-interest." At the networking group BNI, they say "Givers Gain." They are all saying roughly the same thing.

However you wish to label it, reciprocal altruism is an advanced concept. And, it is seldom mastered by the new dogs. Indeed, it can be very hard to teach the old dogs old tricks.

Beware the Naked Man

There is an old proverb that says, "Beware the naked man who offers you clothes."

This idea warns us that people cannot give what they do not have.

Clothes are a good metaphor because they are tangible and visible.

Of course, much of what we have to offer is invisible.

This is an idea that came to mind based on my last two blog posts.

It is an idea that is applicable in countless situations.

For example, you cannot teach people to see through the availability heuristic if you, yourself, are incapable of doing so.

In her book, Daring Greatly, author Brené Brown is teaching people to be more courageous. She says parents cannot give their children what they do not have (which can make parenting a pretty scary proposition.)

Similarly, I have a real problem with weight loss gurus who have never lost real weight (and, since relapse is part of recovery, I prefer if they have lost weight more than once.)

Beware the naked man who offers you clothes.

Hiding in Plain Sight

I once heard it said that there are no secrets. They are all simply hidden at the library.

Another way of putting it is the following. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Last week, I talked about the availability heuristic. AH is a mental shortcut and it can be a form of laziness.

If you want to get to the truth, you need to search it out. Do not wait for things like media reports. Or, heaven forbid, commercials!

Here is the thing. If you are willing to put in the work, what you will find is, the answers have been hiding in plain sight (ya just gotta cut through the noise.)

The Availability Heuristic

Time for another nerdy post! But, I promise to tie it in to a contemporary topic.

Lately, I have been thinking about something called "The Availability Heuristic" (AH). AH comes from the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. If you do not know the names of these two gentleman, pay extra attention to this post, because it will be important.

For his work, Kahneman ended up receiving the Nobel Prize. Tversky would have been awarded, as well, however, the Nobel Prize is not given posthumously.

The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that people use. It effectively says, "If something is important, I will hear about it." Conversely, "If I have not heard about something, it must not be important."

This shortcut can be innocent enough. But, it can also cause a lot of problems. Let me flesh-out this idea, by using Grant Cardone as an example, since he is getting a lot of attention online.

Cardone might not be familiar with the term "availability heuristic." However, AH is central to what he does. It is Grant's stated goal to become known by all seven billion of the earth's inhabitants.

Cardone wants everybody to know his name. Because, as Grant himself says, "Money and power follow attention." And, a big reason money and power follow attention is because of AH.

Let me tell you a secret. And, if you are seasoned entrepreneur, you already know this. Grant Cardone is NOT the world's best sales trainer. Oh sure, he claims to be. But, he ain't.

One thing Cardone IS great at is self-promotion. And, I do respect the fact that Grant is very transparent about what he is doing. He is using AH is amass money and power. Whether or not this is fair-game is for you to decide.

The reason I am making this post is to reveal another secret. A lot of the world's most important work is being done by people you have never heard of. Tversky and Kahneman being two examples.

So, this ends up being something of a paradox. As an entrepreneur, you need to get lots of attention for yourself. Yet, it is probably best to not listen to people who get lots of attention for themselves.

I pay attention to people like Grant Cardone, and Donald Trump, as case studies in self-promotion. Is Donald Trump the world's greatest real estate developer? Of course not. However, amongst the world's real estate developers, he might be the greatest self-promoter.

What I am recommending is the following. You need to learn how to dig. You need to learn how to sift through the BS. Because, there is a lot of BS out there!

It was the French economist, Jean-Bastiste Say, who coined the word "entrepreneur." And, Say said, “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.”

According to Say's definition, I would argue Warren Buffett is the world's greatest entrepreneur. And, as you may know, Buffett attributes most of his success to his ability to think for himself. 

This is important! Do not let the availability heuristic get the best of you. Learn to think for yourself.

Choose Your Hard

Have you ever heard the saying that discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. I know I have. And, I definitely agree. How about you?

Yesterday I was talking with somebody about dieting. More accurately, we were talking about cheating.

It is fine to splurge on Easter. But, day-to-day, how do we keep from giving in to the sugary temptations (the "hourly temptations" as Francis Galton called them)?

I thought of that old saying, "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips." It is a useful reminder. It is a variation of the idea that discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

The world's leading expert on self-control is probably Walter Mischel. If you have not already, you should definitely read his book titled The Marshmallow Test.

In the book, Mischel talks about two systems for thinking: hot and cool. The cool system supports self-discipline while the hot system is impulsive. Both are hard.

The hard part of the cool system is resisting the Oreo cookies or chocolate eggs. The hard part of the hot system is living with regret.

I am of the mind that living with regret is much harder than temporary self-control. I think regret is toxic and insidious. And, very often, what we regret are our lapses in self-control.

In no way is this stuff just about eating right. This applies to all of life.

Researchers find that most people get to the end of their lives wishing they had really gone for it. Wishing they had not been controlled by their fears and doubts. Meaning, most people end up with a lot of regret.

Here is the beautiful thing, you get to choose your hard. And, I am convinced that discipline is nowhere near are hard as regret.

One prays for miracles but works for results

I wish I could take credit for the title of this post. However, once again, the credit goes to Peter Drucker.

I was recently rereading Peter's book Managing the Non-Profit Organization. Though you may not be able to tell from the title, the book is all about leadership. In fact, it is the best leadership book I have ever read.

One assumption people can have is the idea that prayer works. Drucker's assumption is better. One prays for miracles but works for results. Peter would say prayer is no substitute for right action.

Drucker was a man intensely interested in people. He wanted to know what people did and why they did it. And, when studying people, it does not take long to discover they are driven by goals.

The goal could be as mundane as getting out of bed in the morning. Doesn't matter the specific goal, humans are driven by goals.

As its most simplistic, people have two main goals: seek pleasure and avoid pain. But, people vary widely regarding their proficiency at achieving goals. For this reason, Drucker's name has become synonymous with the word "effective."

If people follow their goals, it made sense for Drucker to study the best paths to goal attainment. And, one thing which stood out for certain was, goals can only be attained by taking action. For this reason, Peter had a very strong bias towards action.

It is fine to pray for miracles, but ya gotta work for results.

If smart phones are so smart...

...then, how come half of the videos are backwards?

Listening to the Call of Growth

I have long maintained that growth is life's imperative. A concept I recently wrote about (click here.) Additionally, there is a great line, in the Kabbalah, which hints at the idea that all things have angels who encourage them to grow. I recently read an article, by Rabbi Alan Lurie, which I thought was really great. And, I wanted to pass it along. Here is the article in its entirety:

In the Talmud - the encyclopedic compilation of Jewish moral and ethical debate - can be found this beautiful and mysterious sentence:

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, ‘Grow, grow.’

For some, this sentence presents several obstacles to understanding its message. First, based on painting, statues, and greeting cards, we may think of angels as pretty, androgynous beings with feathery wings. If these actually do exist, can there really be one of these over every blade of grass? Second, even if we do have a less literal image of “angels”, we may associate them with miracles, or of conveying a crucial message to human beings - not of hovering over blades of grass. Lastly, you may simply say “I don’t believe in such nonsense as angels”, and dismiss this sentence as superstitious nonsense.

These obstacles stem from the reading of this sentence as a literal description of an actual event. As with any mystical text, however, we must read deeper in order to understand the writer’s intent. Within the spiritual vocabulary, “angels” are the non-physical carriers of the Divine will in physicality, just as gravitons are postulated to be massless manifestation of the force of gravity, photons are the basis of electromagnetism, and wave-like electrons underlie all matter. According the Talmudic writer, one of the forces that angels carry is the urge to grow - to develop, improve, and evolve. By noting that even every blade of grass is imbued with this urge, the Talmudic saying teaches that, like light, gravity, and electromagnetism, growth is a ubiquitous force of nature.

Everything yearns to grow; it is an inherent drive embedded in all creation. All you need to do is watch a seed push through the earth, or see a child’s relentless urge to walk, to understand that everything is pulled forward by the call to growth, like a plant leaning toward the sun. As the Talmud writer implies, the persistent whisper “Grow! Grow!!” calls to all creation. Like grass, we grow physicality, because physical growth is naturally built in to the cycle of all life. Unlike grass, though, we also have the capacity to grow in another, more crucial way. We can grow in consciousness - in our ability to connect to others, to live meaningfully, and to have a positive impact. This force of conscious growth is what drives us forward to create a personal and communal future that is better than what we had yesterday and what we have today.

We can choose to hear and to act on this call to conscious growth, or we can ignore it, drowning out the angelic whisper with the noisy external distractions of constant entertainment, the internal chatter of our mental judgments, or the drone of our unconscious routine ways of thinking and reacting. We resist the call of conscious growth in order to feel safe and to avoid the discomfort of change, but this strategy inevitably backfires. Since this resistance is in opposition to nature, it will eventually lead to feelings of frustration, dissatisfaction, meaninglessness, and depression.

Conscious growth, then, begins when we chose to listen to its call, and invite it in. We invite growth when we are willing to examine our fixed beliefs: who we think that we are, why others behave as they do, and how the world works. Many (perhaps most) of our beliefs about ourselves and others are simply constructs that we created, usually at a very early age, in reactions to fears, unmet needs, and disappointments, in order to protect us from the uncertainties that we could not understand, and to ensure survival. Because these are built on our fears, many of these constructs are negative, such as: people can’t be trusted, I’ll never be good enough, what matters most is what others think of me, that which I can’t control must be eliminated, those that I love will hurt and betray me. We then grow up believing that these constructs are absolutely true, and since we can not imagine another way of responding we assume that everyone else lives from the same constructs that we’ve created, thereby driving us further in to a self-protective stance and away from others.

Conscious growth happens when we break this pattern and begin to realize that there are other, more effective, more positive ways to be. This can happen through the example of another person, or by experimentation. Let’s say, for instance, that you “just know” that if you’re not perfect you will be hurt in some way (criticized, rejected, abandoned), and you make a mistake in front of someone who you respect, but that person shows no signs of the rejection and criticism that you had assumed naturally accompany such an event. Perhaps this person actually draws closer, and supports and encourages you! Or you may find that you’ve come to a crisis in your life (another failed relationship, fired from a job, a health crisis) and out of shear desperation you are willing to try anything new, and decide to step in to the darkness - of trusting someone, when you just “know” that people can not be trusted, or telling someone about your fears, when just “know” that you will be taken advantage of if you reveal your deepest feelings - and to your shock, you find that this desperate measure works; the person is trustworthy, and vulnerability brought you closer.

Now you begin to realize that there are possibilities for understanding the world to which you were completely blind, because you absolutely believed your construct about how things are. Suddenly the incredible possibility arises that your construct may not be the absolute truth, and there is another way of seeing things. Then, in the birth of new possibilities you grow and are pulled forward, as new ways of seeing your life and the world appear. Then, you look back of where you’ve been with gratitude at the urgent, persistent whisper of growth.

Everything is an Oversimplification

Last week I said culture is a pattern of assumptions. We need to operate based on assumptions to get by in the complex world we live in.

The world is, indeed, vast and complex. Have you ever spent time thinking about this? It can be a pretty intimidating idea, for sure.

To get by we need to utilize assumptions, shortcuts, heuristics, etc. These are necessary simplifications because there is a limit to how quickly we can process information. Indeed, everything is an oversimplification.

So, what are we to do? I guess the short answer is to not settle, and put time to work in our favor. Meaning, though the brain can only process so much information at a time, it can process for long periods of time.

I recently read Anders Ericsson's book Peak. If the name does not ring a bell, he is the guy who did the research which ultimately led to something called the 10,000 Hour Rule.

Like many oversimplifications, the 10,000 Hour Rule is not actually a rule. But, it sounds nice. So, Malcolm Gladwell put it in his popular book Outliers.

The idea is relatively simple and it goes like this. The human brain is extremely adaptable. And, with enough practice it can master just about anything.

Putting in 10,000 hours takes about 10 years. Which is, of course, a long time. But, the result is expert performance (a level few aspire to) so most things will not take as long.

Though I know I am rambling in this post, my point is the following. Life is complicated and it takes time to figure out. So, don't give up.

Depending on your persuasion, the fact of life's complexity can be either stimulating or depressing. The depressing slant would be that 10 years is a long time to work hard. The stimulating idea is that we need not ever get bored.

I mean, let's face it, the time will pass either way. Look at it this way, 10 years is about 12.5% of the average lifetime. Doesn't look so long anymore, does it?

I will leave you with that famous quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But, for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, I would give my life.”

On Culture and Leadership

The universe is a complex and ambiguous place. Reality is not always easy to grasp.

A few weeks ago I said the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. Through this process of repeatedly defining reality, a leader creates a culture for his or her organization.

Culture is a difficult, but important, topic. Perhaps the world's leading expert on organizational culture is Edgar Schein. Ed spent much of his career as a professor at MIT.

I recently read Schein's landmark book Organizational Culture and Leadership, and loved it, so I thought I would pass along a portion of that love.

Schein defines cultures as, "A pattern of basic assumptions–invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaption and integral integration–that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to the problems."

He continues, "Because such assumptions have worked repeatedly, they are likely to be taken for granted and to have dropped out of awareness."

Culture is the result of the assumptions we use to get along in this crazy world. The assumptions we live by. Assumptions about the way the world works.

All is well-and-good as long as the assumptions hold. However, the world is constantly changing. And, eventually, good assumptions will turn into bad assumptions.

For this reason, it is wise to periodically question your assumptions. Perhaps every couple years ask yourself, "Are our assumptions still valid and effective?"

Especially after you experience an unexpected failure, you should reevaluate your assumptions. Unexpected failures are often the result of flawed assumptions.

Like Schein said, very often our assumptions and beliefs operate outside of conscious awareness. As you probably know, we humans tend to operate on auto-pilot. The key, just like with a pilot, is to know when to turn-off the automatic assistance, and fly the plane conscientiously.

Don't forgot to question your assumptions.

Does life have no meaning?

Last week, I talked about the idea that two people can look at the same set of facts, come to different conclusions, and both be right. Does this mean we should all simply become nihilists? Does life have no meaning? Well, yes and no.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would say that life has no meaning. That is to say, your life does not have some preordained meaning, which was written amongst the stars.

To clarify the point, Csikszentmihalyi then says this does not mean your life cannot be given meaning. Indeed he says, "The meaning of life is meaning." By that, Csikszentmihalyi is saying it is incumbent upon each of us to discover, and cultivate, our own life's meaning.

To say we must each discover, and cultivate, our life's meaning is to say we must each define our own reality. And, this brings us back to the Max DePree quote from two weeks ago, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality."

In my life, one thing I have discovered is that leadership is largely a function of effective living. Effective living gets results. And, people tend to follow results.

The problem, of course, is that life is complicated. And, getting results ain't easy. Especially with entrepreneurship!

So, to the extent we are effective in our own lives, we are better able to lead others, because we know how to get results. As Carl Rogers said, "What is most personal is most universal." 

Life does have meaning. It has the meaning you give it. And, the same thing happens within organizations. Businesses are given meaning by people because leaders help define reality.

I think Csikszentmihalyi was on to something. The meaning of life is meaning.

"It is not logical..."

Last week, I talked about Max DePree and how he said the first job of a leader is to define reality. This week, I wanted to elaborate on the concept because defining reality is harder than it might sound.

I want to bring Stephen Covey into the discussion. Have you ever read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? It truly is one of my all-time favorite books. In 7 Habits, Stephen Covey talks about the subjective nature of reality. Covey says two people can look at the same reality, come to different conclusions, and both be right.

To illustrate the point, Covey includes the following image:

Apparently, this is an exercise used at the Harvard Business School. During the exercise, half of the class is shown an image which primes them to see a young woman, in the image above, and the other half is given an image that primes them to see an old lady.

Then, when all the students are shown the image above, and asked what they see, they end up arguing over whether it is an old lady or a young woman. Both sides can become incredulous even accusing the other side being being completely ridiculous.

The students use lots and lots of words to try to convince their counterparts of what they are seeing. Unless you have done this exercise, you have not been primed with regards to which woman you should see. So, let me try to explain how to see the two woman.

In the picture, the young woman is looking away. She has black hair, a feather extending from her forehead, and some sort of fancy white head-dress. With her looking to her right, we see a clear shot of the left side of her jawline. She also has a black necklace and a fluffy dressy shawl type thing. Can you see her?

The old lady is shown more in profile. The necklace of the young woman becomes the mouth slit of the old lady. The left ear of the young woman becomes the left eye of the old lady. The jawline of the old woman is the profile of the old lady's left nostril. What had been a stylish white head-dress becomes a more functional head cover.

Whereas the young woman is looking to her right, perhaps to see what all the excitement is about, the old lady is looking forward, towards the ground, with her chin tucked in, as though she were feeble or cold. Do you see it?

I have tried to explain the differences to show how futile words can be. If I have done an insufficient job, you can click here to be primed with the young woman, and click here to be primed with the old lady.

By the way, according to Wikipedia, "Priming is a technique whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention."

We are all the sum of our life experiences. These experiences have primed us to look at the world in various ways. And, we have all had different experiences. As such, we have all been primed to look at the world in different ways.

So, who was correct? The people or saw the young woman? Or, the people who saw the old lady? The answer is BOTH. Again, two people can look at the same set of facts, come to different conclusions, and both be right. Covey says it is not logical, it is psychological.

The First Job of a Leader

I sit here, typing these words, with a hot cup of coffee, a warm pair of slippers, and perhaps the most comfortable chair ever invented. The chair is called an Aeron, and it was created by the Herman Miller company.

Herman Miller is a very interesting company. Their designs are beautiful. Which causes them to win all kinds of awards. And, as I have mentioned, their products are simultaneously elegant and utilitarian.

Herman Miller got its start in 1905. The company was, and is, based out of a little town called Zeeland, Michigan. Knowing this, we immediately encounter a challenge. How do you attract high-level designers to a little town in western Michigan? In a word; excellence.

The company was started by DJ DePree, who obviously did a great job, before turning the reins over to his son Max. Throughout its history, Herman Miller has focused on building a great organization, not just great products.

The level of institutional intelligence, at Herman Miller, is quite impressive. Today, I simply want to mention one point. It is a quote from Max DePree. Max said, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality."

This is a really important concept because, the truth is, many people try to deny reality. You see, we humans have mastered the art of wishful thinking. For various reasons, we choose to believe reality is what we want it to be, rather than what it truly is.

Life is to be lived and enjoyed. This I truly believe. So, there will always be room for romance. There will always be room for wishes, dreams, and fantasy. That said, leadership is about getting stuff done. The right stuff!

I think I am going to leave it at that. If you are, or hope to be, a leader, your first responsibility is to define reality. It is your job to distinguish between truth and fantasy. And, this is usually not very easy because we have a real knack for wishful thinking.

How do we overcome our proclivity to delude ourselves with wishful thinking? I wish I had a magic potion to give you. Truth be told, I think it boils down to an old, boring word. Practice. (sorry not sorry)

Growth is Its Own Reward

Please allow me to get a little nerdy, for a moment, and say that humans love transcendence.

Meaning, we humans love to transcendent our physical and mental limits.

This desire for transcendence can lead to good, bad, or innocent behaviors.

Drugs and alcohol are a way to transcend. And, within reason, they can be pleasurable. However, taken too far, they can turn, and become destructive.

There are also innocent ways to transcend. For example, kids often enjoy making themselves dizzy. Their pleasure is the result of temporarily escaping their day-to-day earthbound reality.

Halloween is another big occasion for transcendence. Kids of all ages enjoy dressing up because it allows us to become something other than we usually are. It allows us to transcend our limits.

Hopefully you are following me. I admit this post is a little nerdy.

This leads me to, perhaps, the most important form of transcendence; growth. You see, every time we grow, as human beings, we transcend our physical and mental limits. Isn't that right?

Becoming more than you were is definitely a transcendent experience. And it is available to us all. Indeed, humans are hard-wired to enjoy the growth experience.

Do not get me wrong, while in the process of growth, it can be very unenjoyable. Growing pains are a very real thing.

The joy is experienced upon reflection. When we look back at our struggles, and the obstacles we overcame, it can be a highly transcendent experience.

And, again, this is an experience available to all. Even better, it is a constructive, not destructive, behavior.

Last week I talked about the importance of faith. And, this week, I am asking you to believe. While you are going through the growth process, it may not be very fun or enjoyable.

But, I am asking you to believe. To put your faith in the knowledge of the joy of transcendence.

Indeed, I believe growth is life's imperative. No matter your age!

Blind Faith

Faith is an interesting thing. It is very necessary. Yet it ain't easy. Far from it.

To succeed, as an entrepreneur, you will need very large doses of faith, because doubt is insidious and destructive.

As entrepreneurs, we are bringing new and better things into existence. We are change agents. And, this can be very difficult because humans are wired to resist change.

Psychologists would call our natural tendency to resist change the Status Quo Bias. And, it messes with our heads. Because, the job of an entrepreneur is to innovate and bring new things into the world.

The life of an innovating entrepreneur is filled with doubt. And, the only known antidote to doubt is faith.

How do we develop faith? It is a great question. And, one you must answer on your own. That said, I do have some recommendations.

One thing I know, for sure, is humans are contagious. I am just getting over the flu. And, we all know how viruses and bacteria are contagious. But, that is not all. Many aspects of humanity are contagious.

This is why it is so important to be careful with whom you choose to associate. Ideas, attitudes, and emotions are also extremely contagious. If you want to build faith, get around people who have it. Go to conferences, symposiums, etc.

Perhaps the most critical element of faith is faith in self. This might be called self-belief, or simply confidence. If you have ever been around a successful entrepreneur, I am willing to bet that person reeked of self-confidence.

Which should make sense. To succeed, as an entrepreneur, you must overcome mountains of doubt. And, in doing so, you develop a very healthy self-confidence.

So, specifically, how do we develop confidence and self-belief? In a word, incrementally. Like most things in life, we do a little at a time. And, over time, we let the compound effect kick in.

As mundane as it may sound, like most things in life, the key to improvement is practice. You see, doubt will derail your dreams, so you need to develop belief. And, the best way to develop faith is by faithing. Meaning, taking small steps, which require faith, little by little, over time.

It is like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Do the thing and you will have the power." Forget blind faith, go for earned faith.

Technology Destroyed My Company

A few weeks ago I wrote about the human tendency to be excessively seduced by technology. To the point where our brain flies out the window. Click here if you have yet to read it.

This is a really sour spot for me. You see, years ago, technology destroyed my company. I will explain. At the end of my college days, I had an automotive tuner shop, which I was building with a couple partners, and things were looking pretty promising.

In Orange County, California, lots of people like to drive fast cars. So, the market was there. Unfortunately, the company ultimately failed. And, the main reason for the failure was one word; technology.

I had one partner who was the main financial backer. And, without being too rude, this individual had delusions of grandeur. He thought he was he smartest guy around.

In an attempt to create an electronic network of distributors, he purchased Oracle software. If you are not aware, Oracle is not like Quickbooks or whatever. In addition to purchasing the product, we also had to employ a team of 4-5 engineers just to implement the software.

All told, that decision ended up costing north of a million dollars. Worse yet, it never really worked! But, the dream of a seamless electronic network was too much for my partner to resist. In simple terms, he was seduced by technology.

The other enormous financial mistake my partner made was he purchased these things called dynamometers. A "dyno" is a device used to tune cars. An excessive and unnecessary device, to be sure.

Total cost for the dyno mistake (again) more than a million dollars. In fact, when we sold our building, we sold it to a friend who owns a body shop. And, to this day, a million dollars worth of technology lays in the ground, unused.

Businesses usually fail when they run out of money. And, by throwing away more than two million dollars, we were led to a situation where we could no longer meet payroll.

As you might imagine, this was a very painful experience. Like all budding entrepreneurs, I had been very optimistic about the future. To have those dreams shattered was an enormously difficult pill to swallow.

The failure of that company taught me two extremely important lessons. First, as the title of this post says, technology can flat destroy a company. And, it can do it quite easily.

Humans are excessively seduced by technology, and this problem happens more often than we care to admit. To this day, I am very circumspect of any, and all, money spent on technology.

The other big lesson is how being an entrepreneur is synonymous with being a salesperson. Meaning, sales is the lifeblood of a business. If you do not make enough sales, you go out of business.

My formal education was in chemistry. And, unfortunately, my little 21-year-old pea-brain thought the following, "If I can get a degree in chemistry, from the #1 chemistry school in the world, figuring out business will be easy." Ouch! For years it was hard to admit those words.

These sorts of experiences are the reason I spend so much time harping on the importance of sales and selling. If you want to succeed, as an entrepreneur, you need to be a salesperson. And, it ain't easy!

Thus, in a sense, I share in the blame. Had I gotten the company to sell enough, we might still be in business. That said, a two million dollar hole was virtually impossible to overcome.

Had we not wasted so much money, we might have been able to buy the time to figure out a successful sales and marketing strategy. I think we could have bootstrapped our way to success.

All-in-all, as it stands, technology destroyed my company 😞