Maybe

We’ve all got them: a list of things we want to do, things we want to be, things we want to accomplish. We may have them handwritten in a journal, stored digitally somewhere on our phone, or ever-present in the back of our mind. But, they’re there. The problem is that, all too often, that’s exactly where they stay. We …

Who’s It For?

“Who’s it for?” is a powerful question. It determines what it is we’re going to do. It guides us in the direction that we should follow. It advises us on how to get there. It influences exactly how far we’re going to push. It controls how successful we’re going to be. And it’s amazing how many of us have no …

Clarity

Clarity is defined as “the quality of being clear and easy to understand, see, or hear”. Clarity is an important concept, arguably the most important concept for a small business owner. It affects everything we do, and should infuse every aspect of our business lives. Without clarity, it’s almost as if we’re rowing a boat with only one oar. We …

I Was Mistaken

No one likes making mistakes, but unless we actually do make mistakes, it’s often difficult for us to learn. Author Bryant McGill said “A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.” We’ve been told since we were small that we should learn from our mistakes. So, is it possible that we’re not making enough mistakes? Does a lack of …

Better, Better, Better

We should all aspire to learn as much as possible from our mistakes. Putting this idea into practice, however, remains a difficult hurdle for most of us to overcome. As humans, often with fragile egos, we try everything in our power to guard our self-image. Our default mode is to try and justify anything we do that could possible be …

Getting Ahead of Ourselves

Thinking back on when we started our new venture, things were likely different than they are now. We were new. We were hungry. We tried everything we could think of, every trick and technique we could get our hands on, try to get things moving in the right direction. But once we achieved some level of success, things changed. We …

A Stop on the Road

We all want to be good at whatever it is that we do, but the sad fact, the harsh reality, the underlying truth that none of us wants to hear is that we really can’t be good unless first, we’re bad. All of us begin our careers with very limited skills. We have to start out as a bad inspector, …

Negative Nellie

It seems that we’re all afflicted with the same innate, inborn, biologically driven negativity bias. We can have 20 people tell us that we did a great job, but let one person be less-than-satisfied and we’re liable to dwell on that one negative comment for years to come. If we’re ever to achieve success and be happy, we’ve got to …

Pay It Forward?

While the pandemic has taught us a lot about our world, one of the main things we’ve learned is that lots of people are able to perform their job functions in isolation, with many more people working from home than pre-pandemic. Lots of them have been successful and content in this position, especially those people who already experienced working in …

Screw Ups

It’s impossible to do any kind of work in the public eye without sometimes slipping up. Occasionally, these errors can hold grave consequences. But it’s unavoidable; we’re all human and we all screw up sometimes. The best of us try to learn from our missteps, working hard to minimize future errors, and quickly rectifying any damage done. We’ll never totally …