The Leap

Let's Get to Work!

Unemployment and underemployment levels remain well above normal as the global economy continues to slow.  An economist at Harvard Business School recently stated the world needs to prepare for potential contraction of the global economy by 2-3% per year for the next few years.  What does this mean for the workforce here in the United States?  College graduates are entering an environment where finding a job is difficult.  Mid-career professionals don’t have as many options as in the past and older workers are having a difficult time making transitions and finding work before they retire.  I am faced with these situations every day as I am asked for help by friends and contacts who find themselves in transition.

Today on FoxNews.com my article titled “Let’s Get to Work” gives practical advice and eight proven tips to help those looking for their dream job in 2013.   We all realize the rules of the game have changed so we must change the way we operate.  You might not be in transition or looking for a job right now but it is highly likely that you will be in the future.  What you do right now can prepare you for success when that day comes.

Did you know that college graduates today can expect to change jobs 10 times in their careers?  Long gone are the days when my family members in Michigan could enter a GM plant right after high school and have employment with the company for thirty years.  We can lament the situation or prepare for the future.  We have entered the “free agent” economy and those who know how to play the game will win and those who don’t will lose.  I think this new world offers amazing opportunity and flexibility for everyone in the workforce from entrepreneurs and employees alike.

This free agent economy will offer flexibility, opportunity, and excitement to those who know the rules, prepare to play the game, and execute with precision.  In the coming weeks ahead I will let you know how this economy is different, how to prepare, and how to be successful as someone in transition.  No one likes change but we all know it comes whether we like it or not.  Those who prepare have nothing to fear.  I believe those who prepare will have great opportunity and amazing success.

This blog has been titled “The Leap” and I have showcased entrepreneurs who have taken the leap from corporate America to start their own companies and enterprises as an entrepreneur.  We have highlighted success stories and talked about what to do, tools that can help lean start-ups have success, and the pit-falls to watch out for.  However, in the new free agent economy those taking the leap are not just new entrepreneurs but all employees who are leaping into this new economy whether they know it or not.   I hope in the coming weeks this blog will help those in transition and everyone else prepare for success in this current economy.  Understanding the new dynamics and creating a plan is the best place to start.

On March 19th our fourth entrepreneurs conference is being held in Birmingham, Alabama.  Doing Business in the New Normal will include ten industry leaders coming in to network with attendees and to disucss doing business in this new economy.  Guest speakers include Wade Myers, Managing Partner of Cherry Tree Capital and Harvard MBA, Henry Kaestner C0-founder of Bandwidth.com and Sovereigns Capital, Mark Conklin Senior Manager of Chick-fil-A, Peter Greer CEO of Hope International, Patricia Barnes Founder of Sister Schuburt Rolls, Kevin Thompson C0-Founder of Thompson-Burton PLCC and many more.  Come join us for a day of insight, learning, and networking.

 

 

 

Go Bend a Lacrosse Stick!

To be a success at anything in life I have found that you need three basic things: a passion for what you are doing, the ability to work tremendously hard, and a total commitment to excellence.  I have yet to find anyone that is considered a success in their field that is missing one of these key ingredients.  

As a YPO (Young President's Organization) member I have been fortunate enough to meet and work with some amazing entrepreneurs and business leaders.  Recently a YPO friend of mine was interviewed on Inc.com.  David Morrow is an incredible entrepreneur and has the three traits mentioned above in spades.  As an All-American lacrosse player for Princeton he started Warrior Sports in his dorm room to solve a problem, he kept bending his lacrosse stick.  He now leads a $200 million a year global business.  I have never spent time with him where I did not walk away having learned something important while at the same time being impressed with his complete passion for what he does and his drive to be the best.  

In this short video clip, Inc.com asks Dave about the benefits of manufacturing in the US vs. China and even though not asked directly about these traits, you can quickly see them highlighted in his answer.  I love his quote, "Your product is the heart and soul of your brand.  You have to ensure it is excellent."  He built Warrior Sports on a commitment to excellence and that is why when anyone wants to purchase the best lacrosse and hockey equipment in the world they look for the name WARRIOR.

So how do you learn to develop a world-class work ethic, commitment to excellence, and passion for what you do like Dave?  I believe that passion for what you do comes from deep inside and you either have it or you don't.  It is very hard to inspire someone who dislikes his or her job one day to love it the next.  If you don't have passion for what you do, then I suggest you go find something that you LOVE.  When you accomplish this, you will never again “work” a day in your life.   

So how do you develop your work ethic and commitment to excellence?  These traits can be developed over time with the right mentors while modeling what they do.  To be honest, I only want to work with people who display these qualities.  Being a part of a team where this is commonplace is exciting.  Anything becomes possible!  Before long you will have created a “virtuous cycle” of improvement and a culture of excellence.  I am also a firm believer that continuous learning and self improvement is important and there is no better place to start than to learn from the leaders in their respective fields.

This Friday I will attend the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast in Atlanta where leaders like Soledad O'Brien, Tim Tebow, Patrick Lencioni, Marcus Buckinham, Urban Myer,  Roland Fryer, Angela Ahrendts, John Maxwell, Andy Stanley, and Sheena Iyengar will be speaking.  This is a world-class event with world-class leaders who are recognized by everyone as being some of the best in their fields. I look forward to hearing what they have to share and I know I will walk away having been motivated to grow and develop as a leader for my organization.

So whether you are taking “The Leap” and starting your own venture, changing careers, or looking for that thing that you are totally passionate about to invest your life in, make sure you have a tremendous work ethic and total commitment to excellence in all you do and you will be successful in any endeavor you tackle.

 

Now is the best time to build your business and WIN!

Gary Vaynerchuk usually has great perspective on things and this video is no different.  The first part highlights why it is important for companies to be honest and transparent in dealing with their customers if they want to win in the market place.  I really loved the second part of this video and thought it was amazing timing that he would talk at great length on why he feels now is the best time to start a business.  

I could not agree more.  If fact I just gave a 45 minute interview this afternoon to the Knoxville Business Journal on this very topic.  The reporter was very interested in why there seems to be so much attention and excitement in start-up companies and how the Angel Capital Group is helping companies here in our community and around the United States take the leap.  Rachael Qualls, founder of the Angel Capital Group, has done a great job of putting together the largest angel group in the south and she has her sights on our network being the largest in the country.  This network and networks like this are playing a very pivotal role in the funding of great new companies and resurgence of our economy.

It has been said that entrepreneurship is the relentless pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.  Entrepreneurs dream and find a way to make it happen.  Angel groups like ACG are key partners in this process to help fund start-up companies when the time is right for entrepreneurs to inject investment capital to take their company to the next level. 

This was a hot topic of discussion with my Harvard classmates earlier this year as well.  We are seeing a perfect storm for entrepreneurs now.  Many new tech advancements are allowing start-up founders to boot strap like never before in the early stages. With the changing dynamic of Venture and Angel groups there is a lot of capital ready to be deployed in start-up companies that have a winning idea, great leadership team, and a well tuned business plan.

The difference between an idea and an opportunity is when you have a true business plan and model wrapped around it.  Angel groups like ACG help entrepreneurs link strategy with capabilities so they can win.  If you have an idea but have been too scared to get started, why wait?  You could be about to start the most exciting journey of your life!  Take the Leap! 

 

Work Smart by FastCompany.com

I love the short videos FastCompany.com creates.  This one is only 3 minutes long but it is packed with some great information to start the week.  Amber Mac does a great job and highlights, Xobni, a great service to add more functionality to your inbox.  She also interviews Guy Kawasaki about his new book Enchantment which is fantastic by the way.  

For the entrepreneurs out there I also recommend checking out Freshbooks.com.  I use this for all my invoicing and have it hooked up to my PayPal account for quick payment service.  Freshbooks.com is a free service that you can check out and later upgrade to a premium account if you need to.  I need to give credit to this great find to my brother-in-law, Kevin Thompson, who uses this for his law practice and turned me on to it.

Finally,  if you are looking for a unique finance software check out this new tech start-up that is gaining a lot of traction. My friend Scott Saunders started PayOff.com and this is an amazing FREE service that helps you organize your finances. Check out their board and leadership team.  They are going after their second round of funding and I think this has huge potential.  I am constantly amazed at how much free information and services are available to build a business.

 

Entrepreneurs take time for your family!

Can you be a successful entrepreneur and still have time to build balance in your life for you and your family?  Richard Branson thinks so.  This is a great article in Entrepreneur.com about how he built his successful and dynamic empire yet always had time for his family. 

The people I admire most are the ones who have been successful in their endeavors and have always kept their family and those relationships the main thing.  I have seen a number of people chase after success only to leave a total train wreck of relationships in their wake.  I must admit, I am a workaholic and it is easy for me to fall prey to this type of hard-driving lifestyle so I have a couple of key friends and mentors that hold me accountable and make sure I build balance in my life.  My wife Brandi has always been a partner in everything I do and helps me keep on track as a husband, father, and with all the other important relationships in my life and I am blessed to have her in my life.

A few years back my life became so out of balance I asked a close friend to hold me accountable for my personal fitness.  He literally came to my front door every morning at 0530 to wake me up for a morning run and he did this for over a year.   To this day he calls on me to make sure I am keeping fitness a priority in my life and keeping balanced with the family.  That is what true friends do and Gary Brimmer is one of the best friends I have. 

As you head into the weekend I hope this article is inspiration for everyone to build balance into your life as you work hard towards your goals.  I'd also like to recommend the book The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  This is an incredible book for all you hard charging and driven entrepreneurs and successful business people.  It radically changed the way I work and operate. 

Have a great weekend with the family!

Harvard Business School Grad Dishes On Entrepreneurship

In Case You Missed Our Recent Webinar....

I highly encourage everyone who follows this blog to take the time to watch this informative free webinar by Wade Myers.  Wade is the founder of New Venture Academy and is a successful entrepreneur with years of successful ventures under his belt.  He is a former Army officer and Harvard Business School graduate and Baker Scholar.  I have found the information on his site to be very beneficial and his webinars contain great information for all entrepreneurs. 

Faith and Business

Rich Karlgaard, publisher for Forbes Magazine wrote an article in the April 23, 2007 edition of Forbes titled Godly Work in which he asks why so many people of faith have an improper perspective about business and the pursuit of excellence in the business world. His article is nothing short of an outstanding essay on this issue that continues to plague the faith based community in many circles.

My father, being a minister for over 30 years, has addressed this issue as well.  He has a positive world view of business and the positive effects it can have on communities. He is a vocal supporter that everyone should work hard, achieve excellence in their field of study, and then use that as a platform to make a difference in the world. After all this is the biblical mandate. We are commanded to pursue excellence in all we do and to make a difference in the world by our efforts. Having come across many segments of society that still have a negative view of wealth and the accumulation thereof he was led to write a book about it.

His book titled, The Biblical Perspective of Wealth looks at this issue from a faith based perspective and shows all the examples from the Bible that support wealth creation how it should be used for good in the world. It is very ironic that Rich is such a strong supporter of this topic. This has been a very passionate argument my father has had for quite some time. I have posted Rich's article below. For those of you who do not already do so I highly encourage you to follow commentary from Rich Karlgaard.

Godly Work by Rich Karlgaard, Publisher Forbes Magazine (April 23, 2007)

"Work is about the creation of value." this is a nice quote. If pressed, you might guess it was a pet phrase of Peter Drucker or Jim Collins or some other famous business guru. But it was popularized by Dallas Willard, a philosophy professor. Willard taught at the University of Wisconsin and later ran the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California during the early 1980s. He is on sabbatical now and spends most of his time writing and occasionally lecturing on a vexing subject: How should people who call themselves Christians conduct their lives in the secular world? This is a good question and a very serious matter for people of any faith.

Most pastors, priests, rabbis and imams who speak about faith and work make a terrible hash of it. Listening to them is like hearing a eunuch lecture on sex: He may have studied the topic but really knows little about the mechanics. Worse, I have run into countless clergy across all faiths who actually despise business. They think businesspeople--with all their buying, selling and profiting--have ineluctably compromised their souls, if they haven't yet sold them to the Devil. A religious leader's snipes are familiar to anyone who has spent time in a church, synagogue or mosque: Businesses exploit the weak. They are driven by greed. Their advertisements inflame our baser instincts, such as pride, lust, envy and greed.

This is the same kind of crankiness you might hear from a liberal arts professor who also hates business. But while it's easy to laugh at a Marxist-spouting professor, it's painful for a God believer to dismiss his trusted godly adviser as a crank. It feels almost blasphemous. So we don't argue the point when we should.

Not long ago I heard a surprisingly good sermon, called "Jesus and Your Job," given by Nancy Ortberg of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, Calif. (For non-Christian readers, just substitute the name Jesus with that of your preferred Higher Power and proceed.)

"No matter what your job is," Ortberg said, "you have an opportunity to live that out every day. Work gives you an opportunity to make a meaningful and significant contribution to the world. Unlike being in church, work gives you an opportunity to live out what it means when Jesus says, 'You are salt, and you are light.'"

Ortberg's connection between faith and work is similar to what James Madison had to say about government in the Federalist papers. Madison wrote: "What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary." Similarly, commerce, in Madison's eyes, led to civic, or republican, virtue. Shopkeepers had to act fairly and civilly to attract customers. In her sermon Nancy Ortberg said, "In organizations, I love how people, when they're well led, not only accomplish great things but become better people in the process. I believe that's the kind of redemption that is available in our work. God gave work to Adam and Eve before the Fall. Work is not the result of sin. It is another way in which you and I can work out the image of God that resides in us."

"His Name is Carlos"

 As a FORBES reader, the odds are you have a great job. You manage or influence lots of people. Herein lies a problem facing every manager. Not all employees like their jobs. How do you lead them?

Ortberg spoke of how her mentor, Max De Pree, former CEO of Herman Miller (nasdaq: MLHR - news - people ), engaged his workers. "Max had a rule for his leadership team. Every Wednesday they were to bring a brown-bag lunch and go down to the factory floor, where the furniture was being made, to eat. They were to sit and listen for an hour to get to know the names of the workers on the floor and to learn about the obstacles workers were facing as they did their jobs, as well as to hear about the ideas they had for future designs."

Ortberg herself was at one time an emergency room nurse. One night she witnessed an astonishing leadership act: "It was about 10:30 p.m. The room was a mess. I was finishing up some work on the chart before going home. The doctor with whom I loved working was debriefing a new doctor, who had done a very respectable, competent job, telling him what he'd done well and what he could have done differently.

"Then he put his hand on the young doctor's shoulder and said, 'When you finished, did you notice the young man from housekeeping who came in to clean the room?' There was a completely blank look on the young doctor's face.

"The older doctor said, 'His name is Carlos. He's been here for three years. He does a fabulous job. When he comes in he gets the room turned around so fast that you and I can get our next patients in quickly. His wife's name is Maria. They have four children.' Then he named each of the four children and gave each child's age.

"The older doctor went on to say, 'He lives in a rented house about three blocks from here, in Santa Ana. They've been up from Mexico for about five years. His name is Carlos,' he repeated. Then he said, 'Next week I would like you to tell me something about Carlos that I don't already know. Okay? Now, let's go check on the rest of the patients.'"

Ortberg recalls: "I remember standing there writing my nursing notes--stunned--and thinking, I have just witnessed breathtaking leadership."

Go out and commit breathtaking leadership yourself.

Execution vs. Vision

This is a great post by author Sarah Lacy. I've read a number of her books and for anyone interested in the tech industry she is the insider who has done an incredbile job writing about it. This article I felt was very insightful. See what Sarah has to say about all this.

What is your WHY?

Are we really FANTASTIC?

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I heard a story last week about Chuck Swindoll that really has an important application for all entrepreneurs.   A number of years ago a small college here in the United States was led by a dynamic President and this college grew in prominence and stature in the community. One day without warning this highly regarded President left his wife, children and the college he was leading and ran off with his assistant which was many years his junior.   This shocking turn of events devastated not only his family but the college and surrounding community. His adult son who had been groomed for leadership stepped into the role his father left and tried to put all the pieces back together.  However, as you can imagine, the college was in disarray.   Many members of the board left, students transferred, and the entire college was falling apart.

Chuck Swindoll flew into town for a conference and was met at the airport by this young President in the midst of this turmoil.   As Chuck tells the story, he asks the young man how things are going, already knowing the answer but hoping this will open up a dialogue where the elder statesman could mentor and give advice to the young man in need.   To his surprise the young man responded with a big smile, “Things are FANTASTIC!”   Chuck was glad to see the young man had a positive attitude but was concerned that he was not really addressing the truth.

The next year Chuck Swindoll flew in for the same conference and things had gotten worse for this college.  Attendance was down, administrators had left, and morale was low.   Chuck once again was met by the bright young man full of confidence and optimism.   “How are things going” he asked. The response was the same, “Things are FANTASTIC!” A bit confused and concerned Chuck again let it pass.

The following year Chuck Swindoll flew in for the same conference to be met by the same young man and the college had declined even further and was in a terrible state.   For three years things had only gotten worse and he knew something had to be done.   He asked the same question and once again received the same answer.  This time Chuck looked the young man in the eyes and said, “Don’t you think it’s about time to be honest?” It was only then that the young man and the elder statesman were able to have an honest talk about the situation and start working on making changes to put the college back on track.

Life is full of difficulties and this will permeate through our personal and business lives. We will be asked many times in our life “How are things going” and only when we can be honest with ourselves and our mentors will we be able to make adjustments, self correct, and improve.   As long as we lie to ourselves hoping for the best we will not be able to improve.   I know we all have been taught to be positive and that is a greaat thing to do but we also haev to be honest with ourselves.   I teach my children to be positive but if they are failing a class I want them to be honest about it as well and seek advice to figure out how to get different results. It’s okay to say things are terrible.   It’s okay to acknowledge things are tough or that we failed. It is through that honesty that we are able to change directions in life.

Chuck was quick to point out that this did not mean that we should walk around telling everyone we meet all the messy details of our problems and being a negative person. There is a time and place for everything.  Opening up and being honest with your mentors or those who can help is the right thing to do if you want to improve.   This is why choosing your mentor(s) is so important.  I believe it is critical to have more than one mentor from different backgrounds so you can get multiple points of perspective.   The Bible says “There is wisdom in a MULTITUDE of counselors.”

Just remember to always be honest with yourself.  It’s okay to let others know things aren’t going FANTASTIC.   The biggest and best changes in my life have come after I made massive changes in direction due to honestly looking at the situation and taking action instead of hoping the future would change things.  Sometimes you will have to take “The Leap” not knowing where it will lead. I've been blessed to have some great mentors in life from officers in the military to businessmen in the private sector.  If you don't have a mentor I encourage you to think about it and find one who can help you in your journey by providing advice and encouragement.  

In closing, I will leave you with a quote from my friend Josh Linkner.  I had a great conversation with him yesterday regarding the launch of his new book Disciplined Dreaming and I will be posting my interview with him on Monday.  He gave great insight on mentorship, success and failure, the fear of starting new things, why creativity right now is extremely valuable, and what he has learned from his failures in his business career.    As a successful CEO, best selling author, and Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year his perspective is valuable to me.  If you have not bought his book go to Amazon.com and check it out!  Below is an excerpt from our interview.

"Our society is taught to be afraid of failure.  The people who fail more, win more!  I've made spectaular failures in my career but these all eventually helped me win." Josh Linkner