Business Savvy

Have a grateful heart

Grateful Heart Art Print
Pope, Katherine &…
8 in. (200 mm) x 20 in. (508 mm)
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Framed   Mounted

Sometimes things don’t go as you, in all your wisdom, want them to go. The best business books – you know the ‘scratch with the turkeys or soar with the eagles’ ones will tell you to redouble your efforts even if it means bursting that vein and going to the great beyond…

My experience (learned with some pain, mind you) is that some time it’s best to just let go that particular idea, and see what alternatives present themselves. Often the solution that appears is so magical, so innovative you would never have thought of it in common hours. I believe it is best to approach things with a grateful heart and be open to the gifts that the challenges bring. And, yes, I know the pain of not getting my own way, but I generally try to avoid acting like a spoiled brat when the universe has another plan.

Have some faith in yourself, change your thinking, be grateful for the challenge – lesser people than you would’ve given up by now. Prove something to yourself.

Now I Know

Now I Know Art Print
18 in. (457 mm) x 24 in. (610 mm)
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Framed   Mounted

Easier said than done – being yourself, that is. I believe the way forward is to remember yourself – your best self – and then be the person you always wanted to be.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~ e.e. cummings, 1955

If we work, however, on ourselves, and on our business or trade, without negative compromise, it is reasonable to expect that you will achieve mastery. Don’t expect instant results – I have yet to find anything of real substance that can be mastered in less than 10,000 hours. Perhaps I’m wrong. Come back to me after you’ve spent 10,000 hours mastering something, and then tell me how you really got it after 2,000 hours and the rest of the time was just to prove me wrong.

100 Ways to Help You Succeed/Make Money

In February 2005, management uber-guru Tom Peters wrote “50 short, wonderfully sweet nuggets of advice…” – Part I of 100 Ways to Help You Succeed/Make Money. We sat around holding our breath waiting for Tom to … well, whatever. Waiting. Waiting. WAITING. C’mon Tom, do it or get off the pot. And then, in February 2008, Tom dropped Part II. Eh? 2008? Just 16-17 ways of making money per year? PER YEAR?! Well, was it worth the wait? You be the judge. Management is always something vaguely questionable to an entrepreneur, but if you get a single good idea then the documents are worth every penny. And they’re available for a free download, courtesy of the nice people over at Change This, so the idea doesn’t even have to be all that special… and, if you were to implement one micro-idea every three days for a year you’d be 100+ ideas up on your competitors by the end of the year. Where would you rather be?