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Insist on taking the best risks you can take

Disney Conference Keynote Speaker
This was a silly photo idea last week. i like it though. In the far left shadow hides the photographer.

 

Are you getting your money’s worth?

Insist on taking the best risks you can take.

  1. Expect to fail, expect to lose, expect some pain.
  2. Expect to succeed, expect victories, expect great joy.

You can’t have one set without the other.

We know this, yet behave like we don’t.

i get jazzed by acting like i not only know it, but by embracing it for all it’s worth.

 

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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.

Torn between the lesson i’m learning and the product i’ll receive

Young entrepreneurs class
There are courses in entrepreneurial leadership. There is also a real life entrepreneurial course called “starting your own business”.

 

Torn between the lesson i’m learning and the product i’ll receive. As a small business entrepreneur, there are lessons in life that no book can teach because in life, the lesson is real, and it’s your lesson.

Paying a contractor by the hour versus by the project may not be the best choice. It is probably the best choice for a contractor, but for a customer (me), it may break the budget.

Time will tell, and i will accept what happens because i didn’t know enough before the agreement. i went on a hunch that everyone would end up being happy.

PS. Fast forward 100 days later to today…happy ending. i don’t contract with many people, and everyone i’ve contracted with has delivered exceptional quality. At the end of the day, you pay top dollar for great quality, whether it’s by the hour or a contracted price.

 

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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.

Creating this workbook is a great business lesson

Disney's Cinderella Castle
i must always remember my roots, my DNA.

 

Creating this workbook is a great business lesson. Should you pay by the hour or by the project? i do not have the definitive answer, but i do know this workbook will be well over $1,000 to design. Learning expensive lessons comes with the territory. Especially when you hire the best people. There’s a decent chance this workbook will be a breakthrough. Breakthroughs generally are worth every penny you spend.

PS. After this was written, the printing cost alone was $50 per book for 40 copies ($2,000 plus $1,000+ to design = $3,000+). Each book had a tangible $75 price tag. i did not factor in any of my time, which would up the price significantly. The client will never know.

 

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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.

Working hard to not work so hard

The Disney Way keynote speaker
Lower right box represents our (job) contribution to society, for which society pays us money.

 

Working hard to not work so hard. i cannot recall the last time i didn’t work seven days a week. It may have been 1998, the year before i joined Disney Institute. When i became a “teacher’ of the Disney Way to executives and staff at the world’s most admired companies, something inexplicable happened.

i discovered that i was born to teach.

And learning how to become a great teacher has never felt like work.

 

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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.

Why i haven’t jumped on the podcast bandwagon

Magic Kingdom bag check area at Dawn
It’s not the Magic that makes it work, it’s the work that makes it Magic.

 

Following is a blog comment i wrote yesterday in response to a blog comment from Brian:

•  •  •  •  •

Brian, first, i appreciate you taking time to (read and) comment. There is a lot of hype about “the benefits of this platform or that social media platform”. i’ve heard it all. There’s a ton of theory and best practices.

When you own your own business, you are in a different game than when you worked for someone else. You have to create your own brand, take your own risks, spend your own time and money. If you’ve never done it, it’s an incredible eye-opening experience. You make a lot of mistakes. You carry a lot of fear of trying new (different, counter-culture) things because everything you do has a consequence. And your ideas might not work.

Theory goes out the window.

All you have is what you try and what you learn from trying.

i shy away from the industry standard practices.

Why?

We have the choice to pick one of two: Become the best in an existing category, or to become the category.

All of my keynote speaking business comes from recommendations and referrals.

Would you pay a per-usage fee, a monthly fee, or an annual fee to listen to the podcasts you’ve described?

Thank you Brian for the thought-provoking dialogue. i hope i have returned the favor.

 

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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.