Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Weekly Affirmations for the Self-Employed
I am flexible enough to meet obstacles and change my goals when needed.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Beijing 8/8/08 at 8:08
As I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday night, I was awed not only by the extensiveness of China’s history and culture, but by the size and scope of everything--the display, the number of performers, the number of people watching (news reports the following day suggest more than 4 billion people watched them on TV or online).
There are so many people in the world.
Did anyone else have a moment of feeling completely teeny-tiny, too?
And was I the only one recalling all the seminars and workshops I’ve skipped about exporting to China?
If you sell your products or services to China, let me know. A guest blog post could be yours.
There are so many people in the world.
Did anyone else have a moment of feeling completely teeny-tiny, too?
And was I the only one recalling all the seminars and workshops I’ve skipped about exporting to China?
If you sell your products or services to China, let me know. A guest blog post could be yours.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
A Little Extra Inspiration for This Week
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you've got to have is faith and discipline when you're not yet a winner.
--Vince Lombardi
--Vince Lombardi
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Weekly Affirmations for the Self-Employed
All aspects of my business are under my jurisdiction, not only the parts I like and enjoy the most.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Don’t Sneer. Do.
Sneering at something is an admission of failure. You are claiming superior talent or insight…but declining to use it. The best way to sneer at something, if you must, is to improve it or outdo it.
--Spider Robinson, science fiction author
Many would-be entrepreneurs get stuck in our own fears of presumed failure and sneer at the successes of those for whom we work instead of having the courage to see if we really CAN do better.
Friday, July 4, 2008
If They Can Do It, So Can You
I eat flaxseed.
Mixed with plain yogurt, a few shakes of cinnamon and a handful of raw nuts (when I’m feeling particularly indulgent, I add some organic blueberries and a teaspoon of honey), flaxseed meal provides a nutritious, low-carb snack that’s surprisingly yummy.
And that flaxseed meal comes from Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods in Milwaukie, Oregon.
In this month’s issue of Oregon Business magazine, there’s a short profile of Bob Moore, the founder and owner of Bob’s Red Mill.
According to the profile, Moore stumbled upon the milling idea after owning, operating and losing his shirt in the business of service stations. Following his financial ruin, Moore discovered a book that changed his life: John Goffe’s Mill by George Woodbury. The memoir told the story of Woodbury’s successful restoration and operation of the grain mill that had been in his family’s possession since the Revolutionary War. In the article, Moore says of Woodbury's undertaking:
And so he has. After nearly 30 years, his mill has recently doubled its manufacturing capacity to keep up with 25% annual growth.
That one phrase—“If she can do it, I can”—repeated in my head for years while worked for my last employer. As I watched how my boss ran her company, I kept looking for some mysterious characteristic she possessed that was the reason for her success. What was it that she had that I didn’t? After more than four years of searching, I realized there wasn’t anything. The only difference is that she took the risk to begin.
When I asked another entrepreneur I know how she came to start her own day spa, she told a similar story. While she worked for a spa owner, she constantly bumped up against the limitations of being an employee, especially as she peppered her boss with ideas. Tired of hearing the young upstart’s suggestions about how to improve spa services, her employer said, “If you think you can do a better job, go start your own spa.” So she did. This month, she celebrates five years of owning her own successful business.
Have you ever had an idea for a business or product and looked at others who have taken theirs to market and wondered, “How did they do that? How can they do it, and I can’t?”
You can. But you have to be willing to take the first step.
For inspiration, go have an amazingly delicous, whole grain breakfast at the Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store and Visitors Center at 5000 SE International Way, Portland, OR 97222.
And in the meantime, Happy Independence Day!
Mixed with plain yogurt, a few shakes of cinnamon and a handful of raw nuts (when I’m feeling particularly indulgent, I add some organic blueberries and a teaspoon of honey), flaxseed meal provides a nutritious, low-carb snack that’s surprisingly yummy.
And that flaxseed meal comes from Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods in Milwaukie, Oregon.
In this month’s issue of Oregon Business magazine, there’s a short profile of Bob Moore, the founder and owner of Bob’s Red Mill.
According to the profile, Moore stumbled upon the milling idea after owning, operating and losing his shirt in the business of service stations. Following his financial ruin, Moore discovered a book that changed his life: John Goffe’s Mill by George Woodbury. The memoir told the story of Woodbury’s successful restoration and operation of the grain mill that had been in his family’s possession since the Revolutionary War. In the article, Moore says of Woodbury's undertaking:
“I thought this guy didn’t know beans about milling when he started, and if he did it, I can do it.”
And so he has. After nearly 30 years, his mill has recently doubled its manufacturing capacity to keep up with 25% annual growth.
That one phrase—“If she can do it, I can”—repeated in my head for years while worked for my last employer. As I watched how my boss ran her company, I kept looking for some mysterious characteristic she possessed that was the reason for her success. What was it that she had that I didn’t? After more than four years of searching, I realized there wasn’t anything. The only difference is that she took the risk to begin.
When I asked another entrepreneur I know how she came to start her own day spa, she told a similar story. While she worked for a spa owner, she constantly bumped up against the limitations of being an employee, especially as she peppered her boss with ideas. Tired of hearing the young upstart’s suggestions about how to improve spa services, her employer said, “If you think you can do a better job, go start your own spa.” So she did. This month, she celebrates five years of owning her own successful business.
Have you ever had an idea for a business or product and looked at others who have taken theirs to market and wondered, “How did they do that? How can they do it, and I can’t?”
You can. But you have to be willing to take the first step.
For inspiration, go have an amazingly delicous, whole grain breakfast at the Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store and Visitors Center at 5000 SE International Way, Portland, OR 97222.
And in the meantime, Happy Independence Day!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
How Do You Define Success?
A headline in this morning’s NY Times caught my eye: “Why Some Succeed Wildly.”
The article is about the book Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t by Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. In an excerpted paragraph quoted in 800ceoread.com, he says, “I want to convince you that the way we think about success is all wrong.”
Instead of looking at only the people themselves, he suggests, we need to consider their backgrounds and circumstances, as well as the contexts from which they emerged. As suggested the by NYT article’s author, Gladwell hints that it’s not so much the people who create success, as it is the necessity of the idea itself. If the timing is right, the wildly successful maverick is merely the most adept opportunist, able to take the ripe idea to its fullest potential.
As the book isn’t due out until November, the details of what Mr. Gladwell suggests will have to wait until later. But for now, the premise of the book and its title alone are enough to generate questions and thoughts from me about success.
Why do some of us reach for success and others find contentment where they are? What is it that makes some of us so damned dissatisfied with what we have and what we’re doing? Why is it that some of us always want more?
How do we know when we get THERE? Where exactly is success located? How is it that no matter where you set the bar for your own success—when you get there, or even come close to getting there, it always seems to move?
What exactly is success? How do I define my own success? What do I need to say I’m successful?
With just more than one year of self-employment to my credit, I still own my home. With no second income, no partner or husband or pick up the slack from my lost salary and no public assistance, I’m still afloat. I pay my bills on-time (at least as on-time as I ever did) and put healthy food on the table for me and my daughter.
I help small business owners reach more customers, convert more sales and lay the foundation on which they’ll grow and build their businesses. I earn money for my talents, skills and experience—and my ability to connect those with people who need them. My own belief in my value enables me to create mutually rewarding relationships and transactions.
I have friends who love me and help me. When I need a shoulder to cry on, when I’m scared, confused or not sure what to do next, I have a number of amazing women and men who are there to lift me and bolster me with their care and support. Whether they take me to lunch and listen to me vent, come help me work, or show up with wine and chocolates to just laugh together, they are the roaring, cheering fans who energize and excite me to push ahead.
I have a life that I share with my child. I am able to be both physically and emotionally present with her, creating and enjoying shared experiences—even the mundane ones such as making dinner together. I am also exposing her to the lessons of incremental success. When I reach my monetary goals and I’m taking her on trips around the world, she will know how it happened.
My daughter is not growing up with a mom who says “I wish I had done…” or "If only..." I’m teaching her that if you want something, you have to work hard and focus to get it. She watched me first try and fail to buy the business I wanted, then hang out my shingle as a copywriter, then work for my first clients, then form an S-corp and open an online store, then figure out how to juggle all of those endeavors. And she saw me do it all while still being there to pick her up at school on time (more or less). She knows that even as important as my own dreams and goals are to me, she is the most important part of my life. While together we may set a course for bigger, better things, the unit of “she & me” is the orbit around which those dreams revolve.
My skills are improving. I learn every day.
I am getting better at trusting myself. I am getting better at trusting other people, and knowing how to protect myself.
I have dreams to which I aspire and in which I believe.
No, I cannot afford a new car; I can barely afford the one I have. No, I cannot afford to landscape my yard or hire a full-time assistant. I cannot afford to begin my travels yet.
But that is not how I define success.
By my definition, I am already wildly successful.
How about you?
The article is about the book Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t by Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. In an excerpted paragraph quoted in 800ceoread.com, he says, “I want to convince you that the way we think about success is all wrong.”
Instead of looking at only the people themselves, he suggests, we need to consider their backgrounds and circumstances, as well as the contexts from which they emerged. As suggested the by NYT article’s author, Gladwell hints that it’s not so much the people who create success, as it is the necessity of the idea itself. If the timing is right, the wildly successful maverick is merely the most adept opportunist, able to take the ripe idea to its fullest potential.
As the book isn’t due out until November, the details of what Mr. Gladwell suggests will have to wait until later. But for now, the premise of the book and its title alone are enough to generate questions and thoughts from me about success.
Why do some of us reach for success and others find contentment where they are? What is it that makes some of us so damned dissatisfied with what we have and what we’re doing? Why is it that some of us always want more?
How do we know when we get THERE? Where exactly is success located? How is it that no matter where you set the bar for your own success—when you get there, or even come close to getting there, it always seems to move?
What exactly is success? How do I define my own success? What do I need to say I’m successful?
With just more than one year of self-employment to my credit, I still own my home. With no second income, no partner or husband or pick up the slack from my lost salary and no public assistance, I’m still afloat. I pay my bills on-time (at least as on-time as I ever did) and put healthy food on the table for me and my daughter.
I help small business owners reach more customers, convert more sales and lay the foundation on which they’ll grow and build their businesses. I earn money for my talents, skills and experience—and my ability to connect those with people who need them. My own belief in my value enables me to create mutually rewarding relationships and transactions.
I have friends who love me and help me. When I need a shoulder to cry on, when I’m scared, confused or not sure what to do next, I have a number of amazing women and men who are there to lift me and bolster me with their care and support. Whether they take me to lunch and listen to me vent, come help me work, or show up with wine and chocolates to just laugh together, they are the roaring, cheering fans who energize and excite me to push ahead.
I have a life that I share with my child. I am able to be both physically and emotionally present with her, creating and enjoying shared experiences—even the mundane ones such as making dinner together. I am also exposing her to the lessons of incremental success. When I reach my monetary goals and I’m taking her on trips around the world, she will know how it happened.
My daughter is not growing up with a mom who says “I wish I had done…” or "If only..." I’m teaching her that if you want something, you have to work hard and focus to get it. She watched me first try and fail to buy the business I wanted, then hang out my shingle as a copywriter, then work for my first clients, then form an S-corp and open an online store, then figure out how to juggle all of those endeavors. And she saw me do it all while still being there to pick her up at school on time (more or less). She knows that even as important as my own dreams and goals are to me, she is the most important part of my life. While together we may set a course for bigger, better things, the unit of “she & me” is the orbit around which those dreams revolve.
My skills are improving. I learn every day.
I am getting better at trusting myself. I am getting better at trusting other people, and knowing how to protect myself.
I have dreams to which I aspire and in which I believe.
No, I cannot afford a new car; I can barely afford the one I have. No, I cannot afford to landscape my yard or hire a full-time assistant. I cannot afford to begin my travels yet.
But that is not how I define success.
By my definition, I am already wildly successful.
How about you?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Power of Humor, or, Goodbye Mr. Carlin
I laugh at myself every day. I usually try to laugh at other people just as often.
And as I've ventured into so much unfamiliar territory over the last year—new business relationships, new responsibilities, new mistakes, new opportunities, new situations—humor has been essential to keeping me sane through it all.
Some situations, like the time I spent almost $6,000 on a customer acquisition campaign that was poorly conceived and yielded nothing, have been so painful and tough to swallow that it was hard to know whether I should laugh or cry. But given the choice, I almost always prefer laughing.
And when it comes to healing my self-doubt and rebuilding trust in my own decision-making, humor is a magical balm. Taking myself less seriously is a necessary step to forgiving myself when I screw up.
Humor is also a fantastic antidote to fear. Consider the moment in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Professor Lupin shows the students how to disable the Boggart, a dark creature that appears to each victim as her greatest fear. The spell that defeats the Boggart turns it into something comical. By putting roller skates on a giant, blood-thirsty spider, you can laugh at it. The thing of which you were most afraid loses its power; you regain control.
Starting up a business is a journey rife with moments of stark terror. I use humor often to shore up my courage so I may conquer my fear.
The news yesterday of George Carlin's death made me pause to consider how much I value humor in my life. Knowing he isn't here anymore to skewer hypocrisy, play with language, mock our sacred cows and dismantle the power of obscenity makes me sad. But that he left us to much to laugh about is a rich legacy indeed.
Mr. Carlin, you will be missed.
Following are some of George Carlin's jokes to help you keep laughing along your entrepreneurial journey:
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Some people see things that are and ask, Why?
Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?
Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that shit.
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
And as I've ventured into so much unfamiliar territory over the last year—new business relationships, new responsibilities, new mistakes, new opportunities, new situations—humor has been essential to keeping me sane through it all.
Some situations, like the time I spent almost $6,000 on a customer acquisition campaign that was poorly conceived and yielded nothing, have been so painful and tough to swallow that it was hard to know whether I should laugh or cry. But given the choice, I almost always prefer laughing.
And when it comes to healing my self-doubt and rebuilding trust in my own decision-making, humor is a magical balm. Taking myself less seriously is a necessary step to forgiving myself when I screw up.
Humor is also a fantastic antidote to fear. Consider the moment in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Professor Lupin shows the students how to disable the Boggart, a dark creature that appears to each victim as her greatest fear. The spell that defeats the Boggart turns it into something comical. By putting roller skates on a giant, blood-thirsty spider, you can laugh at it. The thing of which you were most afraid loses its power; you regain control.
Starting up a business is a journey rife with moments of stark terror. I use humor often to shore up my courage so I may conquer my fear.
The news yesterday of George Carlin's death made me pause to consider how much I value humor in my life. Knowing he isn't here anymore to skewer hypocrisy, play with language, mock our sacred cows and dismantle the power of obscenity makes me sad. But that he left us to much to laugh about is a rich legacy indeed.
Mr. Carlin, you will be missed.
Following are some of George Carlin's jokes to help you keep laughing along your entrepreneurial journey:
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Some people see things that are and ask, Why?
Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?
Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that shit.
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
Weekly Affirmations for the Self-Employed
I am at the helm of my business. I am captain of this ship.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Amazing Women, Amazing Businesses, Amazing Kids: Who Says You Can't Have It All?
This winter, I became a member of Mamapreneurs, Inc. (formerly Portland Mamas Inc.), a business networking and support organization for entrepreneurs who share a common trait: first and foremost, we're mothers.
How I failed, until now, to mention this fantastic organization, encourage Portland-area mamapreneurs to join, and pass on any of the opportunities presented by PMI is a mystery to me. To my fellow PMI members: I'm sorry to have neglected to mention you. To those of you Portland-area mothers who have your own businesses, are thinking of starting your own business, or who are looking to work for a mother-owned business...check us out.
There are lots of active, vibrant business groups in Portland, and plenty of strong, quality associations for women both here and nationally. But PMI has some of the most engaged, creative, attention-getting, talented, smart, ambitious women I've had the pleasure to meet. That so many of the members can achieve so much, work so hard, and still have so much fun—while also raising our kids, being pregnant, and fitting it all in between school hours—amazes and inspires me.
It's been an honor to be welcomed so warmly into the group and to be supported by other members.
Visit the PMI website and check out upcoming events, read the articles that range from tips to launch a product to believing in yourself as a mother, and support the mama-owned businesses listed in the membership directory.
And if you're a mamapreneur with five years experience or less in running your business, check out the upcoming two-day conference just for you: "The Makings of a Mamapreneur." It runs September 23 & 24 from 8:30 am - 12 pm (we *do* have kids after all) at Design Within Reach, located in Bridgeport Village, Tigard.
How I failed, until now, to mention this fantastic organization, encourage Portland-area mamapreneurs to join, and pass on any of the opportunities presented by PMI is a mystery to me. To my fellow PMI members: I'm sorry to have neglected to mention you. To those of you Portland-area mothers who have your own businesses, are thinking of starting your own business, or who are looking to work for a mother-owned business...check us out.
There are lots of active, vibrant business groups in Portland, and plenty of strong, quality associations for women both here and nationally. But PMI has some of the most engaged, creative, attention-getting, talented, smart, ambitious women I've had the pleasure to meet. That so many of the members can achieve so much, work so hard, and still have so much fun—while also raising our kids, being pregnant, and fitting it all in between school hours—amazes and inspires me.
It's been an honor to be welcomed so warmly into the group and to be supported by other members.
Visit the PMI website and check out upcoming events, read the articles that range from tips to launch a product to believing in yourself as a mother, and support the mama-owned businesses listed in the membership directory.
And if you're a mamapreneur with five years experience or less in running your business, check out the upcoming two-day conference just for you: "The Makings of a Mamapreneur." It runs September 23 & 24 from 8:30 am - 12 pm (we *do* have kids after all) at Design Within Reach, located in Bridgeport Village, Tigard.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
