Small Business – Page 2 – Disney Brand Loyalty Keynote Speaker

It’s The Worst I’ve Seen

My friend is a small business owner. He’s been in business for over 30 years. Yesterday he told me, “This is the worst I’ve seen it”.

No one is coming into his store. He has gotten creative and started, for the first time ever, going out looking for business. If business won’t come to him, he’s going to go to it.

I congratulated him on being successful for so long, and mentioned I started an LLC in January, and the odds are (overwhelmingly) stacked against me. In fact the odds are stacked against anyone starting a (small) business.

History and statistics don’t lie.

What to do?

Figure it out. Failure is not an option.

History and statistics do not lie.

jungle jeff – The Wellness Fanatic?

jungle jeff is absolutely a wellness fanatic. Most don’t realize this. Why would they realize it? Why should they?

I started with one push-up per day for a week and then each new week, add one more push-up per day. After six weeks, that’s six push-ups per day.

Also started running one mailbox per day for a week and then each new week added another mailbox. After six weeks, I was running past six mailboxes. Then walked back.

Through continuous improvement techniques learned at work (fortune 100 company), managed my boredom, injuries, motivation and goals – and after a decade, guess what happened this past Summer?

From one push-up per day ten years ago, to representing the USA at the WMA Master’s Track & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Men’s 400 meters, 50 – 54 age group.

So, excellence can be attained in virtually anything, but you have to be willing to set an impossible goal, work incredibly hard and never give up. Ya with me?

Seth Goden and 37signals

Seth Godin is like a new BFF. Why? Because if I…..

If I have to explain it to you, you may not get it. Click here to go to his blog. Highly recommend you read Seth Godin’s blog every day. It’s simple to subscribe to it and you can have it waiting in your in box each morning.

But maybe you’d rather just stick with a plan that’s certain to be safe.

Anyone here remember how Napster destroyed the Music Industry’s decade-old business model? The Internet is changing all the rules.

Next on deck, 37signals.

Here’s my prediction, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll most likely become a victim of a Napster-like competitor.

Or, you could just stick your head in the sand.

Who Is Leading Your Tribe?

Tribes, by Seth Godin. Heard of it? Read it?

The tag line, “We need you to lead us”, really hits home for me. Why?

Because, in today’s world, if you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of chaos and uncertainty. “Duh”, right?

What I’d like to challenge is our predisposition to look to others to be better leaders. When in reality, the real work, where the biggest need is, is right in front of you as you look in the mirror.

Quite complaining about others needing to do this or do that – and presumably thinking that your life will get better as soon as “they” change.

Let the change begin and end with you. Period. Because until that happens, you are in no place to expect it from someone else.

Exploiting Chaos!

Walking through an airport this week, a book title caught my eye, “Exploiting Chaos“.

Why? If I have to explain this to you, you most likely won’t understand. But, because I’m a sucker for people who want to understand and continuously improve, I’ll give it a brief try here.

Chaos is a paradox. We can (and probably do) hate chaos. Or, we can (and probably don’t) love chaos.

Hate it for all of the societal norm reasons most hate chaos.

Love it for all the opportunity it brings. Yes, opportunity. So once again, if I have to explain this to you, you won’t understand. But if I were you, I’d quickly try to figure it out, or get left behind.