My Turn to Face Reality Part Three (aka "I Thought I Had A Business Education")

I know that I am not "religious" about my blogging but it would really be helpful for you, the reader, to locate and read the first two parts of this series My Turn to Face Reality.  I am working on being better at blogging though, so please stay tuned!

After reading The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth this spring, I had to question what I was doing based on the results I was getting.  I decided to work on my Entrepreneurial Resume.  Not because I'm going to post it at Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com or scour Craigslist.org jobs ads for the "Entrepreneur" job title.  In my opinion (and I could be wrong), that is something I create myself.  I wanted to identify IF I had indeed developed the skillset of a successful entrepreneur.  According to my bank account, I had not.  Over the years, I confess that I have been duped into thinking that if I sign up (giving them my money in the process) with the right mentor and work my ass off doing what they are doing that I would be successful in any business area.  This is not true.  I have tried that many times for many years.  I failed.

What DO I know about designing and starting a successful business?  I declared that I am a self-educated businessman.  The last formal school I graduated from was US Naval Nuclear Power School that used to be in Orlando, Florida.  They didn't teach me much about business. My next step was to identify all the business books that I have actually read and when.  I was not afforded the luxury of a formal business education and have not positoned myself to do so since my college-aged years.  I did come across a book called The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten.  With all the arrogance I could muster, I thought that SURELY I had read 100 business books.  I counted the books on my bookshelves.  I didn't come up with 100.  As I was outlining my "business education," I did read the majority of the Portable MBA series that was written in the early 1990's...and that was it.  Except for a few books that I have read since 2004, I really had no idea what I was doing.  It sucks to admit that, but knowing where square one is becomes the beginning of the new journey.

I decided to start my own list of 100 best business books of all time. I discovered The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman.  This is where my business education will begin...at least the "book" part.  Since then, I have discovered about 30 additional books on about 20 different business topics and even a few new business ideas that I might be able to develop into new businesses. 

It's amazing what you can find when you start looking...

A Slight Edge Moment

The first time I ever heard of The Slight Edge Theory, it was during my first listening of The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy about 11 years ago. As an example, it states that the winning racehorse wins approximately 10-100 times more money than an average racehorse, but wins the races sometimes only by a few inches. In The Psychology of Selling, Brian goes one step further and states that the same thing about us as businesspeople, that the salesperson that gets the sale and the salesperson that does not get the sale differ only by about 1%-4%, but the difference in commissions (or revenues) is enormous at the end of the year. I have also heard The Slight Edge Theory mentioned by the late Jim Rohn, as well as the fantastic book "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson.

This morning I had a brush with The Slight Edge. I accidentally woke up a little bit earlier. The clock on my coffee maker accidentally got set an hour ahead so coffee was ready when I accidentally got up. While I was rebooting my computer and preparing it for the rigors I put it through everyday, I checked my email on my Blackberry and noticed that the usual stack of emails I have to sift through in the morning weren't there yet. Part of my morning ritual is to retweet Seth Godin's blog (when I feel it is applicable). This morning it was the first tweet for me to review, saving me from what is sometimes a time consuming process.

It's not something that I've never noticed before. It's not like I've never heard the expression "the early bird gets the worm." It's just neat to sometimes experience a universal truth all over again...a kind of reaffirming sense of discovering something new, but something I've always known. Let's see what else I can re-discover today!

Focus on What I CAN Control

Ok, I admit it. I have gotten distracted. I have allowed the pundits on TV and the ________'s in Washington seduce me into getting involved in politics instead of focusing on business and what's REALLY important in my life...maybe not REALLY important, but what I can REALLY directly control.

Right now, I see that there is a battle taking place between government and business in which government is limiting business and the prosperity of this country, if not financially bankrupting my country. I had never noticed this before, but I also have read Atlas Shrugged now, at least to the point that the warning in the book and the drama on the TV became the same (in my eyes). I don't see "liberals" or "progressives," I see "socialists" and "communists." When I hear "tax the top 1%," or "the wealthy must pay their 'fair share,'" I hear "wealth redistribution" a la "The Communist Manifesto." I also see this as morally incorrect and an infringement on the freedom to succeed in business and in life, even though I am currently far from being in the top 1%.

When I first discovered Klout.com, I was influential about entrepreneurship, a subject that is near and dear to my heart. After a couple of political tweets, I find out that I'm influential about "prison" (Klout.com is based in Nancy Pelosi's district, lol). I've never been to prison however a few people with my name have, as I discover after "Googling" myself. After getting involved with the current political debate (and recently there have been many), I found myself taking a breather from my business life and getting angry about things I cannot directly control.

Here's the deal from my perspective. I give something power by the amount of thought and attention I give to it. If I give a government that has a history of spending beyond it's means more attention than it deserves, I give it power and I take away power from what I can do to contribute to the business world and the world of entrepreneurship. Where the two cross in my world is my love for the foriegn exchange markets and the government policies that are in the background. I need to remember that I cannot directly change government policy as I also cannot directly control how the FOREX market trades.

I CAN control my attitude and keep it a winning attitude. I CAN control how I invest my money and making it increase in value. I CAN control my business education and make sure I'm learning something new everyday about business. I CAN control my FOCUS and stay focused on what's REALLY important.

By staying focused on entrepreneurship and business, I make the best contribution to the world I can make...one more happier, wealthier and more-educated individual.

Why I'm Doing Better Than I Was Three Years Ago

This is a note to all the politicians and the people that think that government will help you out.

First, the question that is a campaign tool for many politicians is "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" I am a fiscally conservative single heterosexual man who is doing better than he was four years ago. I even had to spend a weekend or two at a local homeless shelter here in downtown Atlanta as early as August 2007 and April 2008. So now, it's July 2011. How did I accomplish this miracle of improving my life in the midst of a financial crisis that is actually still going on?

The government didn't have a thing to do with it. I didn't get a stimulus check and I had business losses that gave my Federal tax benefits. I did not and do not see how the government did anything towards my personal progress except giving me the freedom to do it.

Perhaps, one of my best friends said it best: "You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and pulled your head out of your ass."

1) I stopped drinking alcohol
2) I stopped smoking cigarettes
3) I took responsibillity for the results of my life
4) I invested in my mind and my continuing education
5) I read positive things, listened to positive things and started exercising
6) I started using Quicken software to better control my expenditures
7) I stopped wasting money on pipe dreams and "businesses" that I didn't have time to execute on.

Philosophically speaking, I came across "The Art of Exceptional Living" by Jim Rohn and "The Psychology of Winning" by Denis Waitley. I listened to them. I took notes. I red Atlas Shrugged because Jim challenged me to. I started pushing the limits of who I was into a new definition of Who I can be. I quit investing in a business that was doomed from the get-go and investing into more productive areas. I started paying off my debts and investing in me.

The bottom line is that I started accepting responsibility for my life. It's the only way to create change in your life.

My challenge to you is "Are you taking more responsibility for yourself than you wre four years ago?"