Archive for June, 2008

Jun282008

Saturday Op-Ed: Defining Your Life

Yesterday I was driving throughout southern Macomb County, in Metro Detroit, looking at some property acquisitions with one of my business partners, Dylan Tanaka. We were stopped at a traffic light and I glanced around, taking in the sites of an area that looked like it had seen better days (better days are ahead, in my view, but not yet on the horizon).

As we sat at a traffic light, I noticed a woman walking across the street in front of us. She couldn’t have been past her mid-30’s. What struck me, however was that she was sheparding six children, all under the age of 10. It was a hot and humid day, and they all looked quite uncomfortable. All appearances and circumstances indicated that they weren’t living in the land of milk and honey. The woman, in particular, looked as though she would rather be somewhere else, anywhere else. She had a look of despair and forlornness that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

The light turned green. We moved on and so did the woman, but the look on her face left an impression on me. I started asking myself questions like: Did this woman ever define what she wanted in life? Did she ever get a chance?

I often talk to other entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs who are eager to quit their jobs about ‘defining their lifestyle’, as in: define the life you want to live, use your business as a vehicle to achieve it. What gets lost in the mix of this message sometimes is a dose of perspective.

When you are in the trenches building your business everyday, it’s easy to become myopic. We become mired in squabbles over changes in the tax code and get upset when our internet is down for more than 30 seconds. We can become so focused on our goals that we lose sight of how far we have come and how fortunate we are. On this count, I plead guilty. My focus and routine almost detach me from the rest of the world at certain points and I have to force myself to take more time to see the big picture. It’s sobering- like getting a cooler full of ice cold water thrown on you.

As I thought about the woman at the traffic light, I wondered to myself: “is this woman existing or living?” Who was I to say (or even wonder)? But, I could not push this question out of my mind. I thought about this as it applied to my own life, family, business and career. I encourage you to do the same thing. Stop for a second and ask yourself if you are existing or living?

There is a difference.

Chances are you will know the answer right away. Being conscious of the fact that there is a difference will help you gain some perspective in short order. And, if you are conscious of the difference, start defining your life, be thankful that you can and stop standing still.

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 28, 2008
in Self Improvement and Success
. 2 Comments
Jun262008

THE Solution to High Gas Prices

Kill everybody!

gas shortage

Just kidding…(sort of)

Here it is…

1. Spend Less

or

2. Make More

A tale of two paradigms? Yyyyyeeeeessssss….

It’s the age-old “top down” versus “bottom up” approach in business management. Meaning = you can either improve profitability by increasing sales and holding costs constant or you can cut costs while revenues remain steady - or better yet, option #3 - do both.

Believe me, I hate paying $400.00 (er, $4.15) for a gallon of gas just as much as the next red-blooded, apple-pie eating, hot-dog gobbling, puppy-dog loving, drive 50 miles just for the heck of it American consumer. But, there has to be a better way to get around this whole gas situation without blaring our lungs complaining like Walther Mathau in Grumpy Old Men.

It’s all a matter of offense versus defense. Sometimes it’s good to play defense, but only as part of an offensive strategy. The whole goal of the game is to make money, right? Why have a defensive mindset, then? Why not play the game to win instead of playing ‘not to lose’?

Worth considering further…

Test your natural instincts by asking yourself what the first thing you do when things in your business show signs of slowing down. Do you look to slash and burn costs right away? Or, do you look to re-double your sales and marketing efforts?

It’s really hard to save your way to success in business. If you take the ‘wait and see’ approach, you will likely be seeing your competitors pass you by. This is why I have found that when times are more challenging, it is best to re-focus on your top line. Always stay mindful of your costs, but if you cut back when things aren’t so rosy, you will be on the short-end of the inertia stick when the weather breaks.

Instead of complaining about high gas prices and cutting back on driving places you want to go (assuming that you are cutting back on driving to save money and not because of your un-abiding concern for the environment) try taking a different perspective - make more money. Once you start looking at things this way, you will feel your mind open up to new possibilities; you will be looking at the world through the eye-glasses of abundance instead of perpetual scarcity.

Treasure chest

So, let’s look at our choices to the gas price crunch once again:

1. Spend less

2. Make more

I hope you go down the rabbit hole of choice #2. But, if you see a lot of talking animals you may have sniffed too many fumes at your last fill-up (be careful)…

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 26, 2008
in Entrepreneurship, Inspiration and Leadership
. 0 Comments
Jun232008

Tuesday Top 5: 5 Reasons to Ditch Your Blackberry

Warning: this post is written by a recovering crackberry addict.

I knew things were bad when I was in Las Vegas last summer and my friend was getting stitches in the emergency room (don’t ask!) and I was furiously typing emails and instant messages, oblivious to nearly everything going on around me (including my good buddy’s agony).

In the maddeningly fast paced world of global business, “on demand” has gone from being a tagline from an old IBM commercial to a mantra throughout all rank and file in the business world. I think entry-level college grads are even being given Blackberry’s as some kind of cruel, “thrown to the wolves” corporate initiation so that they can be pawns to their new bosses sadistic Sunday afternoon work whims.

My friends at Research in Motion (RIMM) are going to be gunning for me now (I’ll split the price on my head with somebody).

crackberry

“Crackberry’s” and their ilk, epitomize the perverse notion that we can make everybody happy all the time. The novelty effect is huge (did anybody ever get more done with “daytimers” or Palm Pilots?). At any rate, here are five reasons that I have come up with to help show you the light in ditching your Blackberry and the entire business paradigm they represent.

1. Your productivity will improve

“On Demand” business just doesn’t work for entrepreneurs. If you work for Big Blue, than so be it - bind yourself to the corporate leash. But, if you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, take it from me, the more you condition your customers/clients, suppliers, employees, shareholders, etc. to expect instant results from you - the moment you fail do deliver that instant gratification will mark the beginning of your fall from grace.

There is a mistaken notion in today’s business climate that instant service = good service. This is not necessarily the case. Often, if you have more time to think about a problem or situation, you can put together a better, more thought out response that will end up making you more money.

2. You will see some of your sanity come back

If you’ve ever heard of the stories of wives divorcing their husbands or relationships going into counseling because of crackberry addiction, they are probably all true. Rarely have I seen someone who owned a crackberry who had a good sense of balance (or even a sense of self about them).

When you are constantly ‘at the office,’ the lines between work, family and fun begin to blur. You are always at the office, even if it’s 10:30 on a Tuesday night or 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Not knowing where work ends and where you begin will slowly turn you upside down and inside out.

3. Your thumbs will feel a lot better

Although you may burn a few extra calories as you furiously scroll and type, your thumbs will be glad you saved them the numbing feeling of keying endless emails (who really reads them anyway?)

4. You will definitely look better

The crackberry as a fashion statement is a non-starter. Always has been. Always will be. Men shouldn’t accessorize in the first place, but when you throw the leather crackberry holster in with the business casual ensemble you just look like a guy straight out of ‘geek-fest’ magazine.

**For those of you crackberry heads out there, stop thinking you look important by having your crackberry buzz 50 times with incoming messages during a meeting and then furiously scrolling and glaring at it after the meeting lets out–spare me!!!**

5. Your business will likely improve

This one is from personal experience. When you stop thinking ‘instant response’ and instead think “quality response” you will see your level of customer satisfaction increase significantly. I am now better able to handle client responses in a thorough manner while at the same time being much more productive (getting more done in far less time) than when I was hooked on crackberry.

**Bonus** 6 - Your cell phone bill will decrease

Since we should try to look at all angles, I guess this one should have made the cut for the Top 5, but I didn’t like it as much as the other ones, so I added it here as a bonus. This one is really a no-brainer, because crackberry service puts additional cost on your monthly service plan and also puts you out the higher fees for purchasing the device.

Ahh…now, there it is…I feel much better. It’s theraputic to get things out in the open. As I turn around I am looking to be doused with ‘hater-ade’ like John Madden after a Super Bowl Victory. Let the debating begin and the comments reign in - I am ready.

(Just don’t offer me a free dose of crackberry)

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 23, 2008
in Management, Productivity and communication
. 2 Comments
Jun182008

The Power of Doing

The first few years after I graduated high school and first started college, I competed in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting (sorry no pics right now). I did reasonably well and found a coach to work with me in preparing for meets and national level championships. One day, my comrades and I were training about 5 weeks ahead of an important meet - it was a particularly long and difficult training session. We were discussing various things between sets (girls, college classes, girls, etc.) when I loudly proclaimed to one of my training partners that I was going to lift 160 kilos at the upcoming meet.

Upon hearing this, my coach suddenly stopped what he was doing, creaked his neck around and gave me an odd look. He turned around and walked briskly over to where we were standing. Puzzled, I looked at my friend for any idea of what was going on, but he returned an equally puzzled look. Coach stopped in front of us and looked at us both intensely but didn’t say anything - it was one of those uncomfortable silent moments where you dare not speak first.

Finally, coach looked me in the eye and said:

“don’t ever talk about what you are going to do”

I blinked back an acknowledgment that I had heard him and he walked back to helping another lifter. For the rest of the day we trained in silence, methodically performing the rest of our exercises. I reflected on what my coach had said that night and on many different nights since then. Looking back on that day, I don’t think that my weightlifting coach was auditioning for a philosophy professorship, but the words: “don’t ever talk about what you are going to do” have had a sizable impact on me at various times.

You can interpret “don’t ever talk about what you are going to do” in several ways. Here is what I usually come up with:

  • don’t jinx yourself (ha!)
  • don’t trash talk
  • don’t brag
  • don’t reveal your intentions
  • be “in the moment”
  • talk is cheap
  • actions mean everything

Perhaps I could mash all these things up and come up with something really profound…

What my coach said soft of flies in face about what I had been taught about goal setting, you know, where you are supposed to boldly tell everyone you know what your goals are. However, I think there is something more powerful in the works here.

You see, I think when we talk about what we are going to do, it’s a way of programming your mind. Words are very powerful and can indeed manifest themselves in your life. However, most people (virtually all) are not careful with the words they use and how and when they say things. In addition, most people don’t think through what they are going to say (even if it is a goal, they haven’t even thought through that) to make it adhesive at all in their own minds. Simply blurting out things, no matter how profound or substantive we think they are, usually just pollutes the air.

Here is the other aspect: actions are all that count. In the court of life, the only thing that matters is what you do. What you say may offend or make people happy temporarily, but your actions will be the lasting impression and feeling they have. In this light, I have added the old Nike commercial tag line as an ad-lib to my weightlifting coaches saying:

“don’t talk about what you are going to do - just do it”

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 18, 2008
in Goals and communication
. 1 Comment
Jun72008

Ok, Stop Talking

shark

Zig Ziglar, one of the world’s foremost motivational speakers, likes to say;

“God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason”

The reason is that you should listen twice as much as you talk. But, how many people actually do this?

I am routinely astounded when I am talking to somebody and it is blatantly obvious that they are not even close to listening to a word I say because they are so intensely focused on what they are going to say next. Have you ever had a conversation like this? Where the other person doesn’t appear to be listening to a word you are saying? I have been both a victim and a perpetrator of this crime (rest assured, this is an area of continuous self improvement for me - honest!)

Most people don’t understand how powerful words are. When you speak something, you are giving life to whatever you are speaking on or about. Your brain makes a connection when words crystallize into verbal noises deciphered by your eardrums.

If you are having a problem in your business (or your life for that matter), chances are it is because you aren’t listening and you are talking too much.

When I was running my first business, a vending machine company, I remember working on signing up a new account. I said and did all the right things to win this guy over. He had already said ‘yes’ but we hadn’t signed any paperwork yet. I figured it was in the bag. After a while, we stood around the front desk of his hotel talking. Naturally, I felt that I had to keep making him feel good about selecting my company for his vending machine needs. I continued to tell him what great service we had, how we would not let him down, how our product was always fresh and so on. Basically, having diarrhea of the mouth.

I noticed his mood start to change after a while. What was once a good rapport was quickly deteriorating. He started to not say a whole lot back when I would say something. “Did I offend this guy?” I thought to myself. Time seemed to drag on indefinitely and I finally got around to getting the contract out and asking him to review and sign it. He looked at it for a second and then said that he would have to review this and get back to me and that he would call me. I knew what this meant right away; no new account. He had effectively killed it. Why: because I could not SHUT UP, I talked myself right out of the sale.

Have you ever talked yourself out of a sale? Have you ever had something you wanted in your hands only to have your mouth ruin it? Maybe it wasn’t to place vending machines in a hotel, but it could be something else: going for a promotion, getting a date, getting a new customer? My guess is that this has happened to you, whether you realize it or not.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

-Proverbs 18:21

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 7, 2008
in Self Improvement and communication
. 2 Comments
Jun32008

Tuesday Top 5: 5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a Business

I am often asked a lot of questions about what to expect from people who want to start their own company or quit their job to join the entrepreneurial world.

Usually, there is a recurring theme to my replies and I wanted to jot a few of them down for you today:

1. Your business model will change and evolve

The business you start might not be the business you finish. I think of businesses as a means to an end, not the end in and of themselves. I often get a lot of resistance when I say this. “What do you mean, I was born to do such and such?!” is usually the response I get or “what about my passion?” My answer is: these are all well and good, but the whole point of being in business is to make money. If don’t go into business with the #1 objective to turn healthy and sustainable profits then you might as well not make the jump.

In this vein, if your business is a vehicle, you may have to fix, tune-up or change vehicles altogether to get where you want to go. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. A lot of successful companies started with one idea only to be built around another one.

2. You will have to work harder than you think

Hard work should go without saying, so I hate to waste the bits and bytes to write it. But, I find to often that people (usually) expect success to come far more quickly in their businesses than other areas of their life. I think a lot of people expect the “30 day Slim Fast” weight loss results to translate to their company.

Believe me, it’s a whole lot different to compete against a wide-open market than it is against yourself. You know what your own moves are going to be but you don’t know what your competitors are going to do next. There is an old saying that goes: “life is a marathon, not a sprint.” I would argue that business is like a 3,000 meter steeplechase race: it’s pretty fast and there are plenty of obstacles.

3. Starting a company is a much bigger deal to you than anybody else

When you quit your job to start a company, you really feel like it is a big deal. You want everyone to know what your are doing and how you are taking control of your life and your financial future. Guess what? Nobody really cares that much (outside of your spouse, perhaps). This is not cynicism. It is simply a reality that most people don’t think about you before they go to bed at night - they have their own problems to deal with. So, don’t expect a lot of high-5 and backslapping from your golfing buddies because you fired your boss. Give yourself a quick pat on the back and then a kick in the pants and get moving…

4. Your standard of living will change

Whether you like it or not, your standard of living will change when you start a company. Whether you are opening a pizza franchise or you are going to start flipping single family foreclosure houses full time, you will need to make some initial adjustments to your standard of living. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make less money. However, when you are first starting out, it is wise to feed your company and reinvest so you can continue making money. The worst thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to rob your company of the growth fuel it needs to put you over the top. Way to many entrepreneurs take too big of a salary or draws from their business before the business can prove the ability to sustain that.

Get it in your head that you will have to change your standard of living, at least temporarily. Reschedule those family vacations, sell your second home, get ride of your jet-ski and snowmobile. It will be worth it when you can have these things back 10 fold with a thriving business that pays for all of them and more.

5. Results are all that matter

When you work for a company, you can get good performance reviews and even pay raises and promotions for simply showing up and contributing to a project that never gets done. In the entrepreneurial world, results are the only thing that matter. Period.

The results you are after in business are profits. You don’t have to be out to create the next Microsoft or Berkshire Hathaway, but you do have to be focused on making money and running your business well. Having a relentless focus on the result will help you cut a lot of the crap out of your way that will impede your progress.

There you have it - another Tuesday rant. Read. Enjoy. Apply. Prosper.

Cheers!

Published
by
Adam Davis
on June 3, 2008
in Entrepreneurship and quitting your job
. 3 Comments