So back to my point about agreeing with every article that has called something overrated. Think about the amount of information that we are exposed to.  The depth and breadth of the information as well as the speed with which we get it almost guarantees that we are going to beat certain stories to death.  An athlete gets a DUI?  We are on it.  A royal wedding?  We are going to bury you with information that you could give a shit about because somewhere some person is soaking it all in while shining their collector’s edition royal wedding plates.

When you think about it, if you are important enough to garner attention in the first place, there is no way that you won’t become overrated due to the fact that we stack layer upon layer of importance on topics and people until you can’t stack it any higher. Then we knock it down by calling it or them overrated.

A recent article in BNET about leadership being overrated got me thinking about this today.  In the article it talked about leading in place of doing real work.  We tend to want to lead the team that does the work rather than do the work itself.  Meanwhile we aren’t actually doing the things that we should be doing and ultimately not achieving the results that we want to achieve.

I have spent a lot of time talking about clarity recently as a means for achieving results.  From mission statements to values and how to structure the creation process, it only makes sense if there is action behind it.  In other words, doing work.  Do work son!  This was a phrase commonly heard from the Rob and Big show on MTV.  Business coaches they are not but the phrase always stuck with me because it is about doing work.

If you are looking for real results in your business or career, the only way you are going to get the results that want is from working your ass off doing the right kind of work.  If you aren’t sure of the difference between real and fake work then check out this book review.

Success is always going to be achieved by those who want to put the time and effort into making it happen.  Other techniques, strategies and lessons come and go but real work never dies.  What are about you? Do you think that work is overrated?  If so, in what ways?

There are things at a job that are tough to deal with at times.  Annoying co-workers, work that doesn’t always satisfy us and a pain in ass boss are just a few of the annoyances that we face on a day-to-day basis.  Despite all that, there are some benefits to having a day job.

The first benefit goes back to the “Sex and Cash Theory” that I talked about in my recent review of Hugh McLeod’s book, Ignore Everybody.  To refresh, the sex and cash theory essentially states that there are some activities that we do that pay the bills and there are some activities that we engage in that keep our creative juices flowing.

Hugh gives examples of actors who will work on a cool indie flick that gets rave reviews and then later that year appear in a forgettable big budget film.  The indie flick gives the actor props but the big budget flick gets the actor paid.  The key is in finding and maintaining that balance.  Having a day job as well as a creative outlet on the side makes sense for a lot of working professionals who feel that they don’t get a chance to stretch their talent while working in a cubicle.  For many aspiring entrepreneurs, this is a great way to build something you care about while not sacrificing everything on a business idea that you are not sure will work.

I previously mentioned annoying co-workers as a reason to have a creative outlet outside of your job.  Ironically enough, these same co-workers (OK maybe not the annoying ones) are the same reason why you may want to keep your day job.  Starting your own business, especially in the first few years is a lonely proposition.

For myself as an extrovert, it has been the toughest thing about leaving corporate America.  I miss the friendships and the camaraderie that go along with working on a project with a team and working hard to ensure that the project is successful and then going out afterwards to have a beer to blow off some steam.  Talking about the stupid thing your boss did or about the annoying co-worker that doesn’t understand why you never invite him for a beer because he doesn’t realize that he is kind of a douche.

These are just a couple of reasons why you may consider keeping your job while you start your business idea.  This is only acceptable provided that you are actually working in a career that is worthwhile financially and utilizes some of your skills.  I would caution against being the starving actor who waits tables their whole lives waiting for their big break.  That seems sexy in the beginning but in the end is just uncool.

Keeping your day job isn’t something you have to do but it’s good to talk about the fact that you do have options.  Some business coaches would have you believe that you must “burn the ship” in order to be successful in business and this is just not always the case.

You may be saying to yourself that integrity is the easy part.   Most of us think that we possess a high amount of integrity and in many cases, we do.  When it comes to running a business, there is a small margin for error when you are dealing with clients that have paid for your product/service.

The fact of the matter is that there are many instances in our personal lives where we act and speak out of integrity.  We may tell a friend that we will be somewhere at 10:00 and we show up at 10:15.  Or we tell our spouse that we will get right on something and we finally get to it after our spouse has nagged us about it a few times.  In your circle, you may be known as a highly unorganized person.  All of these things are OK at times in our personal lives because our loved ones will forgive us.  In business, people aren’t as forgiving.

I am sure you have heard the term, you play how you practice.  This is true in business.  In business you must possess and cultivate the success habits to make it work.  You must do what you say you are going to do and you have to be highly organized.  If you struggle with this personally, make sure this is addressed right up front.  Organization is essential in business and they are critical to running a side business.  If you don’t have a handle organizationally, your reputation and client experience will suffer.

I will step off my soapbox for a minute and share my own experience with this or by experience, I mean failure.  My design firm initially started with a couple of guys who had full time gigs at other places.  (One of those guys being me.)  We specialize in corporate and business branding and was fortunate at that time to have some businesses see our work, like it and decide to hire us.

At our design firm, while the end product always looked great, there were a lot of things that we did terribly.  We missed deadlines, our communication with the client was inadequate by any standards and worst of all we were ignorant to the harm that we were causing the client and our own business.

The sad part is that the clients themselves never complained so we thought all was fine.  This was until we were looking at working with another client and they decided not to work with us based off some information that they received from one of our former clients.  It felt like I got punched in the gut.

It was really a turning point for our business.  We had to focus and get more clear on systems and processes and how we would deal with clients.  We went back to old clients and apologized and actually still work with some of these clients today.

The lesson here is that you can run a business while working for someone else but it takes a high level of discipline and organization to make it work.  Once you start traveling on the bad habit train, it’s hard to get off.  In my own experience we corrected it through a lot of tough conversations as well as let time heal old wounds and our reputation.  I would have rather not had to do that in the first place.

Everyone has heard or seen the romanticized version of the entrepreneur, the rugged individualist who overcomes all of the odds to build a successful business and becomes a millionaire. He/she puts in long hours and years of hard work and has built something that he/she owns. Great story.

Or there is the other story that people like to tell about entrepreneurs. The story of the fortunate entrepreneur who just happens to be at the right place at the right time. His/her success more a product of luck and a series of fortunate circumstances vs actual work. A lot of us for some reason hope this is true and that success will just fall into our lap one day.

The truth is that running a business probably falls somewhere between the two opposing visions that people have about successful entrepreneurs.  It is hard work but that hard work puts you in a position to get some breaks.

Before I get into why you may consider keeping your day job while building or running a business, I do want to say that I am not talking about doing some work from home or some online get rich quick scheme. Those opportunities don’t exist. People who are successful building online businesses work their ass off to make them work just like everyone else. Even if they have a success formula, chances are it’s not going to equate into the kind of success that the individual who is teaching the formula had. This is nothing against that type of business but I think that unless you feel your Soul Purpose revolves around online commerce, you should not waste your time.

I read Hugh Macleod’s book, Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity a few weeks ago and the concept of keeping your day job did resonate with me as I did see the wisdom in this advice.  Like any piece advice, there is not a one size easy fit for every single individual.  I worked in sales for a number of years and I can say that if you are a commission sales person, you practically have a business even though you don’t have any input of the companies’ decisions, you do control your earnings to a certain extent and it requires a lot of work physically, emotionally and mentally.  It would be hard to be a salesperson and be able to run a business on the side.

With that being said, I do think there are a number of industries that would work nicely with running a business on the side.  Any kind of creative business is a no brainer.  If you write, design, build websites, code websites, paint etc all of these types of businesses are easier to run on the side as you can do this on project to project freelance basis.

It’s also easier to run a business on the side if you have the kind of job that when you leave, your done for the day and you don’t have to be responsible for your work outside of your work time.  Also, it may make sense to keep your day job if you really enjoy it and it gives you some freedom to do projects on the side.

These are just a couple of scenarios that I thought that really make sense when it comes to keeping your day job.  Obviously there are financial considerations that come into play here as well.

What are some other scenarios where you think this makes sense?  Does this even make sense to do this?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Take a look at these stats on multitasking and interruptions:

When drivers text, their collison risk is 23 times greater than when not texting.
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 2009

Organizations lose around $1,250 per user in annual productivity because of time spent dealing with spam, $1,800 unnecessary emails from co-workers, $2,100 – $4,100 due to poorly written communications.
Tom Pisello, ITBusinessEdge.com, 12/2008

In 2007, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, such as writing reports or computer code, after dealing with incoming email. They wandered off to reply to other messages or browse the Web.
New York Times, 3/25/2007

15% of Americans say they are addicted to email.
59% of those using portable devices check email as it arrives.
43% of users sleep near their email unit to hear incoming messages.
40% consider email accessibility when they plan a trip.
83% check their email once a day while on vacation.
43% check their email first thing every morning.
AOL, Opinion Research Corp., study 7/26/07

**The above stats are from Key Organization Systems.

The above stats show that we have a hard time leaving work behind with the increasing availability of e-mail and phones that allow us to browse the internet easier than ever.  Even when we are at work we aren’t as productive as we can be because we allow ourselves to be constantly interrupted.  Take the stat above from Microsoft.  It took on average 15 minutes to get back on track after an interruption.  If you are interrupted just once/hour, that’s 2 hours/day of lost productivity.

Another area that multitasking hurts our productivity is in the area of concentration on long tasks.  CNN had an article on this a couple of months back that stated that heavy multimedia users and multitaskers had a harder time staying focused on longer, intense projects because they are more easily distracted by irrelevant information.  As a business owner, focusing on intense projects is a must if you are going to work on your business and build it the way that you need to.

Work aside, another group that gets affected by multitasking is the family.  Parents have a hard time leaving their work behind especially on vacation.   They are constantly “checking in” to make sure they didn’t miss anything.  Let’s be honest about this.  Nobody’s job is that important.  Yet, we would like to think that it is and we want those around us to think that it is too.  It’s like were a bunch of mini Ron Burgundys running around.  I mean, I don’t know how to tell you this but I’ m kind of a big deal.  Therefore, I will only listen to half of what you tell me, the least important half, while I spend the entire conversation texting someone else. Because look at me, I am the Chief Implementation Associate at Rubber Dog Shit Inc.  People need me.

If you are a business owner and can’t step away from your business for a few days, it’s time to work on developing your team as well systems and processes that will allow you some freedom from the business.  Many people site work/life balance as being important to them yet few will allow themselves that opportunity when they refuse to be present in the moment.

Just because you are in the same room as your family doesn’t mean that you are actually with them.

Beyond family, research has shown that taking real breaks are good for your health as well.  Trying to work and take a vacation doesn’t make sense does it?  I’m pretty sure it doesn’t qualify as a vacation if you are calling your office every day.  Taking a stand against multitasking may help you live longer and healthier.

Maybe we just think we are more important than we really are.  Maybe it’s just the pressure we put on ourselves to be the best.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to do less.  Americans haven’t quite figured that skill out yet.  Take a look at your work day.  How you can you restructure what you are doing and what behaviors can you change to be more productive?  What effort can you make to ensure that you are creating the appropriate balance for yourself with regards to your work life and your personal life. So as I was writing this, I missed the end of CSI which is a bummer, it looked like a good episode, wait, hold on I have another call coming through. Hold that thought.  I need to take this.

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you.  You have a 9:00am job that you go to Monday-Friday.  Your morning routine starts with your alarm going off at 7:00am  (if you’re a guy move that to 7:30am).  You snooze at least 3x maybe even more depending on if you went out and had cocktails the night before.  You finally get up, stare at yourself in the mirror for a couple of minutes and then decide to get ready for the day which includes picking out your clothes, showering, grabbing any work materials that you need and maybe if you have time, you grab something to eat (half the time you forget this step.)

You don’t have a garage and when you get to your car during the cold months you realize that you have to scrape your windows.  You think to yourself, “damn, why didn’t I give myself some time to scrape my windows.”  The reality is that you don’t have time so you do the ever popular move of scraping a little bar of ice off of the front window so that you have a little slit to see out of.  If you were driving a tank to work this might be acceptable except you are actually driving a 1998 Honda Accord and it’s actually pretty dangerous.  You get in the car and head to work.

During your commute, you pray to God that you don’t hit any bad traffic, a train crossing etc.  Your commute should take 30 minutes but you continue to plan as if it takes 20 minutes and hope that you hit traffic perfectly and hit some spots where you can drive really fast.  By the time you arrive at work, it’s either time to start or it was time to start 5 minutes ago.  You have no plan for your day because you didn’t have time and now you need to start working.  The whole day passes with the day running you vs you running the day.  During the course of the day you forget about meetings, you forget to do things that you reminded yourself needed to be done the day before, projects are late, the boss is on you about a past due project.  In short your personal productivity is terrible.

The funny thing about this story is that it has semi-autobiographical overtones.  This was me at the beginning of my career, except I drove a ’99 Nissan Altima, correction, still drive a ’99 Nissan Altima.  The problem for me was that I couldn’t get my ass out of bed in the morning and it was killing my ability to be as effective at my job as I wanted to be.  My productivity was completely tied to luck most days.  I hoped every day that the stars would align perfectly so that things would work out.

I was notorious for not being a morning person.  Friends would joke about it and tell their favorite, “That one time that I woke Brandon up in the morning”, stories.  Then a funnier thing happened, I decided to grow up a little (just a little) and change the way I approached the mornings.   It has dramatically changed the way my day is executed and has significantly increased my personal productivity in all areas of my life, mentally, spiritually, socially etc.

There are still a lot of people who will read this and relate to this story because they had this same experience just this morning.  These same people will also wonder why they don’t get to places on time and why they always seem to be frantically running around trying to get things accomplished.  In some cases, a reputation may be damaged by this behavior.  I know because I have been there.

If your day is not going the way you want it to, the good news is that you have control over that situation.  One of the best ways to get a good start on your day is to start it at the right time.  In many cases, this means getting up earlier.  It will suck at first and you wont like it but once you get yourself in the routine, it will get easier.  So start tomorrow morning by committing to getting up a half hour earlier than normal and see what it does for your day and who knows maybe over time you can become the morning person that everyone else wants to punch in the face.

Tip #1  Implement the power hour concept into your life and stay focused on it on a daily basis.  Stephen Covey talks about this being his “sharpen the saw” time.

Tip #2 Use your morning routine to work on your business.  This is a great time to do the important things for your business that you put off during the day because other things distract you.  These are items such as: defining your mission, vision and values, putting together your business and marketing plan and creating systems and processes for your business.

Tip #3 Give gratitude.  It’s easy during our lives to focus on what we don’t want to have happen or what we hate in our lives.  Too often, we neglect to recognize what we are truly grateful for.  Giving gratitude allows us to maintain a positive mind state and focus on what’s currently great and what will be great and keeps the negative thoughts from running our lives.

Tip #4 Use the your daily morning routine to set up your day.  This is a great time to ask yourself what you want to accomplish and then go out and plan your day around that one important goal.  How successful do you think you would be if you just did that one thing alone.

Tip #5 Nothing motivates me more than learning something new that I can use to make my business successful.  This can be reading someone else’s blog or reading a book.  Where ever you can find the resource just make sure you spend some time educating yourself on a daily basis.

These are a few of my daily morning tips for staying motivated. It’s not easy to make habit changes in our lives but if we can muster some discipline and make some changes you will see positive results in your business, career and life.

What tips work for you?

Part of the reason we haven’t achieved at a higher level collectively, which we are now as a society starting to look, has to do with an archaic look at achievement and where are focus should be.  The other reason has to do with the fact that it’s difficult to execute nothing.  When you don’t set goals and commit them to writing, that’s exactly what you are doing.  Working hard to execute on nothing.

You may have certain work tasks that you need to accomplish that are written down but don’t mistake those for personal goals.  Those tasks will do a great deal for your employer but they wont do much for you beyond a 3% raise and an “atta boy or girl”.

Business owners run into this same problem as many of them at the onset fail to set personal goals as well as put together a business plan.  Lack of business planning makes almost every list of reasons why small businesses fail.   The reason why business owners don’t put together business plans is because generally speaking we fail to set goals as a society.

When you consider that roughly 3-5% of Americans actually put goals down on paper, it’s not as surprising that business owners don’t do the same for their business.

The point is that if you want to do a better job of executing a plan, we need to have a plan in the first place.  It’s much easier to execute and achieve our goals when they are fully articulated on paper.

The premise of the article is that employees create much of the stress that they encounter in their work day. The 7 signs or issues that employees face are:

1. Not making enough money?
2. Underappreciated, nobody loves you?
3. Your group gets no respect.
4. You have a psycho boss?
5. Too much work, too little time.
6. Peer problems.
7. Executive management doesn’t listen or care.

Looking at 1-3, I will say one thing until I die about working for someone else.  If you are a great employee, you will never be compensated, appreciated and respected like you should be.  It’s almost impossible for an employer to fully meet your needs here.  As an employees, you need to accept this or don’t work for someone else.

Number 4 is where the real problems appear.  Your boss is an abusive jerk and you should deal with it by getting over it.  Why should you accept this?  Because unemployment is at 9.5%.  That’s the country that we live in today.  If someone is abusive to you no money, possessions or status are worth putting up with someone like that period.  If your boss causes you stress through abuse, you should leave.  Can we be too sensitive about this?  Sure but either way you are unhappy.

Looking at points 5-7 and this points speak to all the things that people hate about their jobs.  A high workload.  Office politics. An indifferent executive team.  If you think that executive level management doesn’t care about you or your ideas, guess what, they probably don’t.

My point is if you are so unhappy find out what the root of the issue is.  Is it you?  or is it the job?  I believe that most of us who are unahppy in our careers are unhappy because we are not working in an area that plays fully to our abilities.  For the rest, it’s a matter of having a serious attitude adjustment as unfortunately there are those of us who can’t be happy regardless of the circumstance.

If you have stress in the workplace.  Identify the root.  What can you change and what can’t be changed?  From there analyze if it’s you or is it the job.   Good luck.

PS…By the way here’s Part 1.

Not too long ago, I ran across a statistic that said that only 5% of people actually have written goals.  I was surprised by how low the number was.  When I thought about this more, however, I realized that I didn’t know anyone who wrote their goals down consistently including myself.  I got especially bad about this after I left corporate America and went out on my own because now I was only accountable to myself.  The reason that we don’t write goals down is that we think it’s good enough if the goals are in our head and we don’t worry about committing them to paper.

Goal setting is one of the foundations for effective time management.  By effective time management, I mean a system that centers around productivity in your day versus just busy work.  Goal setting allows you to better structure your day and understand what activities need to be managed in the time that you have.  Doing this will allow you to ultimately achieve the goals that you have set.  When used in conjunction with a solid time management system, you will also review your goals more often which is an important piece to goal achievement.

Time management is especially important in this day and age.  I have seen numerous articles on how much “busier” we are as Americans.  I laugh at that because while there can be more demands on our time, we are also master wasters of time as well.  You know right now you are reading this blog when you should be working and you got to this blog while you were surfing Twitter or Facebook.  Don’t get me wrong, I am glad you are here, but it’s easier to get distracted than every before.  Every time I hear someone complain about spending too much time on social media tells me right away that that person doesn’t have a plan.

Consider this your own personal recovery plan.  Are you unsatisfied with how your life looks currently?  Don’t worry about it when it happens because we all visit that place from time-to-time.  The question is what behaviors are you going to change to create a different outcome for yourself.  A great way to change your outcomes is to create a productivity system that includes personal clarity, goals/planning and time management to get the things done that are most important to your personal success.  Time management in and of itself is useless without the clarity and planning piece behind it.

How has your life been affected by having goals or a lack thereof?  If you don’t set goals, why not?  Do you agree with me?  Disagree?  I would love to hear your perspective.

A couple of months ago I shared the spiritual side of utilizing your talents by sharing the “Parable of Talents” from the Gospel according to Matthew in the New Testament.  When we use our talents, we aren’t just doing it for us.  We are doing for mankind and for your creator.   That’s a lot of responsibility.  It’s certainly one that we shouldn’t ignore.

When we use our talents in business.  It allows us more freedom and flexibility to run our business in a way that maximizes our abilities and expertise.  We can set the context for how we will interact with clients, how they will be marketed to and what products we will offer.  All of the creation is up to you.  This is much easier in some respects than what we do at a regular job which typically entails trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

Are there talents that you have that you don’t share like the story in  Matthew?  Are you unsure what your talents are?  Do you know your talents but aren’t sure how to utilize them?  What holds you back in this area?  I would love to hear your story.

In the “5 Tips for Living a Fulfilled, Complete Life”, it breaks down the process of fulfillment by moving your desires to goals and you goals into habits.  It also talks about how to stay flexible in your journey and to not pay too much attention to your detractors along the way.  Most of all, it states the importance of making sure you are tracking your progress on your journey.

This is sound advice for all business owners and wage earners alike.  Fulfillment comes from making not only our lives better but the lives of others better around us.  There is a process and a journey for reaching towards this end.  During this process it’s important to ask questions like, what do I want out of my life?  Is what I am doing giving me energy?  Am I utilizing my talents productively to help others?  What are the answers for you in your journey?

Let’s look at 3 in particular that are particularly relevant in today’s market.  They are hard work being rewarded, money and freedom.

Imagine busting your tail for a company for years, sacrificing family time, increased stress, innovation of new products and ideas for that company that you aren’t directly paid for and then in one 30 minute meeting on a Friday evening you are told that your time with the company is over.  Maybe the company is having financial issues and needs to cut back, maybe there was a merger that took place and there is no longer a spot for you or perhaps they just weren’t satisfied with your performance.  Regardless of the reason, you are left with nothing at that point but a story for your resume and a declining 401k that no one is managing.  Entrepreneurship is a lot of hard work, in many cases much more time consuming than your W2 wage job.  If you spent 5+ years running your own business, chances are if it has lasted that long you are starting to realize real success and have a wealth vehicle built that you own and control.  This is much better than the alternative of the 9 to 5 where when it ends all you get is the crappy severance package and an uncomfortable conversation with your wife and kids.

Money is another benefit.  No matter how great you are at a W2 job, you will never get paid what you are truly worth.  In your own business, you are more likely to control this and get compensated for the value that you are creating in the marketplace.  More money gets you closer to the last benefit that will talk about with regards to business ownerships.

That benefit is freedom.  When you own your own business, you have to be disciplined.  With the proper discipline comes the benefit of never having to apologize again for taking a day off and going on vacation.  No more missing important functions with your kids etc.  It’s just important that you don’t abuse use and run your business into the ground as a result of neglect.

There are certainly risks associated with starting a business.  There are also ways to mitigate those risks with planning and starting your business for the right reasons.  No of the above benefits is a reason to start your business but they are fruits to be enjoyed from business well done.  Ask yourself this question, are you a top notch performer at your current job?  If so, would it make sense to go out on your own and maximize your talents?  If you are in a job where your talents are not allowed to grow, is it time to leave?  What has been your experience as a wage earner or business owner with regards to the above benefits?

I forwarded an article that I ran accross called “5 Signs That You Have a Crummy Job”,  http://www.bnet.com/2403-13059_23-208897.html.  What got my attention, besides the fact that I didn’t know people still used the word “crummy” was that it was almost exactly how my friend described his job.  Comraderie was dead, bureaucracy was the norm, innovation and motivation was at a stand still and people were scared because of lay offs and cuts.

This spurned a move from my friend to get out on his own.  The thought was, that he was doing more work for the same pay and very little respect.  He did leave recently under the premise that company would still use his services on a contract basis.  Unfortunately they reneged on that offer and now he is a little worried about the future.

We often get angry at certain situations like lay offs and the by products of lay offs.  Even if you weren’t the one laid off, who do you think needs to pick up the pieces?  This causes discontent in the organization and spurs people to act hastily when it comes to their career.

The lesson is be careful what you wish for.  If you haven’t been working on your business on the side while you are working, it may not be the smartest thing to quit your job cold turkey and then start from scratch.  If your job sucks maybe you just need a different job, not necessarily a new business.  Don’t make decisions for your business based on emotion.  Nothing good can come from that.  Start your business for the right reasons under the right context and the Money, Power and Respect will follow.

Why Do I Exist?  This is a great question personally as we well as for your business.  I ask this question to small businesses in our initial discovery process.  I often get answers that have nothing to do with their business.  Answers regrading why they exist revolving around money and things for them.  Recognition, time off , respect etc etc.  The problem with these answers is that they don’t get your through the tough times and doubt that come along with running your own business.  Your existence can’t be superficial.

Who do I serve? Simpy, who are my customers?  I common answer is that you customer base is everyone.  I have also heard it said that if your customer base is everyone then your customer base is no one.  This is an important follow up to the question of your existence in business.  If you haven’t spent much time hashing the question of who your customers are, you aren’t thinking enough about your customer.

Understanding the intrinsics of your business will help you to ensure that you are clear on why you are in business and what the value proposition is for other people to engage in business with you.  It will ensure that when people doubt your business that you are not discouraged (at least not completely) from the negative feedback.  How do you keep yourself engaged in your work?

Incorrect reason #1 is the  most  common of our reasons or excuses for everything that we do with regards to work.  Money.  We stay at our current jobs that we hate and get stuck running a business that we don’t enjoy oftentimes because of the money that it brings in.  In the case of the job, security is key.  We like our guaranteed (maybe not so much in this economy, yet we still hang on) money, benefits, 401ks etc.  With a business, we started it to make more money and now work more than ever on it and have built it to the point that other people count on our businesses for their livelihood, shutting down or getting out is not as easy.  It’s like a marriage where you have kids, you will be more likely to try and work it out when it’s not just about you.  Regardless of how miserable you are.

Another incorrect reason I hear often is to have more free time.  Spending more time with kids, time for your hobbies etc.  In this case the opposite holds true for business owners.  They end up spending less time then they anticipated because of the intensive nature of starting a business.  This reason doesn’t resonate with the W2 earner as much because they are bound by the almighty time clock and need to put in their hours.  They know that if they want time off, they need to justify it, schedule ahead of time and sometimes cross your fingers that you get your request.

Last incorrect reason is that it’s a hot market currently.  If you start a business or a new job in a hot field, in short term it will most likely work out fine.  A couple of examples I can think of are in nursing currently and in mortgages a few years ago.  Many people jumped at the chance to get into the mortgage business because there was a huge demand for originating mortgages.  People made good money.  Fast forward to today, most of those people are broke with nothing to show for it and have closed their doors.  Only the truly engaged remain.  What has happened to the housing market as a result of individuals just trying to make a buck?  The results can be as we have already seen disastrous.

In the case of nursing their is a huge shortage.  This has created a buyers market for nurses.  They get sign on bonuses, competitive pay, travel nursing is more popular because of the need.  What happens if you don’t love it?  Well, there is a shortage which means that the people who are working are working their ass off.  Extra hours, dealing with doctors who treat nurses poorly, increasing demand from patients, because of the increased workload there is  fear of litigation if a mistake is made.  If you don’t love nursing, are you really going to stick it out?

So what’s the right answer?  Read my post from a couple of months ago http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/save-yourself-from-mediocrity.  What to do if you have started your business/job for the wrong reason?  Discover and live your Soul Purpose, use your Soul Purpose to create value for other people and solve big problems.  It’s the cure for what ails our economy.

I read something today in the NY Times which caught my eye in the business section regarding the Chicago Tribune.  The company that owns The Chicago Tribune and The LA Times filed for bankruptcy this past Monday.  That in and of itself was not a shock.  Many newspapers are struggling all over the country as they figure out how to leverage the emergence of online channels in their business plan.

You can read the article here:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/12/tribune-files-for-bankruptcy.html

What was shocking was that the $13 billion in debt that owner Sam Zell obtained in acquiring and running the company was leveraged against part of future of the employee’s pension plan.  In return for Mr Zell doing this, employees were given equity in the company which will now be worth very little.

Here are 4 things that you can do in your career to make sure that you are not exposed in this type of ordeal.

1. Stop putting your hopes and dreams in the hands of your employers.  There is no logical reason for doing this yet we do it every day because we are told throughout our working life to keep our heads down, move up the ranks and retire in 30 years.
2. Build your own business platform.  The first step here is in getting clear on who you are as a person and who you want to be.  There are several different platforms for doing this.   Myers Briggs test www.myersbriggs.org, Soul Purpose Intensive www.soulpurposeblueprint.com, Strengthbuilder 2.0 and a great book to read is Unique Ability by Dan Sullivan from The Strategic Coach.
3. If you insist in working in your current wage earner job, stop relying on the golden hand cuff tools that companies offer.  Particularly a 401k or other qualified plan.  As you can see, what good is having a qualified plan with a match if your employer goes out of business or files for bankruptcy.  Look for investments and opportunities outside of your company that can assist you in your wealth plan.  I would suggest working with a professional in this area to help you.
4. Ask yourself this question about your personal wealth: Is it possible that I could be more wealthy doing my own thing vs working in someone else’s?  When I say wealth I mean more personal wealth in terms of financial, great purpose for your life by working in your passion to make other people’s lives better, more time with your family and people you care about, better health as you reduce stress and finally more energy to work out physically as your not stressed out about your job that you hate.
5. Look at the current model of how we work currently to make a living and then ask yourself if what we have been taught about our careers has really worked out for the majority.

Ask yourself these questions and look at where you are out of alignment and work on how you can build a better platfrom professionally and financially.

Why am I such a fan?  Everyone on this planet no doubt has God-given gifts and talents that when given the proper space and attention to flourish will be more successful than every would be working within someone else’s vision.  Your ability to create value for others is the #1 reason why being an entreprenuer is the best move.

Because you are able to creat value there are a lot of other great by-products wokring for you.  The freedom of creating your own schedule is one, the ability to create your product and platform is extremely rewarding.   There is also a much greater chance of creating a substantial income.  When you work for yourself, the sky is the limit when it come to your income potential.

Why don’t we pursue the business for self/production model more?  The biggest reason is that we are sold a lifestyle and plan from a very young age that tells us the way to go is to work at a company for 30 years, move up the chain of command and retire.  In this model, if you work in something that you are passionate about you are seen as lucky but we are told that we should just be grateful to have a job.  When we are told a story enough times we start to believe it.

In this economy and day and age, it’s more prevalent than ever that most important person to count on for our livelihood is not our boss or the owner of the company that we work for, it’s us. 33% of individuals during “The Great Depression” actually came out more wealthy in that time.  There are big problems being created in the world today with what is going on in society.  The big question is what are you doing to do to solve these big problems and leave your mark in the world.

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-1724-Career-Growth-and-Change-Bulletproof-Your-Job-4-Ways-to-Stay-Employed/?sc_extcmp=JS_1724_hotmail1&SiteId=cbmsnhm41724&ArticleID=1724&GT1=23000&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=a6ec8f370ef54343b4b5350aefb766b5-281792667-VN-4&pf=true

There are a few items that I had issue with in this article.  The first is when they talk about being visible.  This is the first way the article talks about keeping your job.  It’s not bad advice but if you are “invisible” at your current job my first question would be, why?  Is your performance not up to standard?  Do you not participate in any work conversations?  It may be that you are invisible because you aren’t engaged in what you are doing.  If that’s the case no amount of sucking up or hard work will change that.  It will just make you hate it more.  How about their suggestion to work more hours as a means for standing out?  This can be a double edged sword.  Are you effective or are you busy?

The second issue I have is the suggestion to become a utility player at your firm.  While I do agree that being someone who is willing to step outside of their role and help when needed is necessary and helpful, but it can also be a means to an early exit.  Utility players don’t have staying power anywhere because they never become great at any one thing.  They are just pretty good at a lot of things.  I guarantee that you are more likely to lose out to the specialist in a scenario of who to keep because more often than not their performance will exceed yours.  Being a utility player also lends you to doing a ton of things that you hate doing.  Do you really want to be the person that everyone dumps unwanted work items on?

Last is the suggestion that your job is your greatest asset.  Are you kidding me?  YOU, are your greatest asset hands down.  You are the one who nails the interview, who has built the skills, who has educated themself.  A job is only a means to express that.  It is not the end all, be all.

The most ironic part of this article was the ending that talked about staying ready just in case you need to find another job.  I agree with that, but isn’t the article about being bulletproof?  Maybe the article should be called “A Kevlar vest works great unless you get shot in the head….In that case Good Luck to You”.

Nowhere in this article do they suggest value creation.  You know, actually contributing to a companies’ bottom line.  My suggestion to you if you are worried about losing your job is to ask yourself a couple of questions.  Do I love what I do?  Can I specifically measure my success as it pertains to my companies goals?  If the answer is no, do yourself a favor and find out why and if it can’t be fixed in your current situation then do something else and do it quick.

So what are the good points to each?

To be an entrepreneur, the top benefit that I see is when done right, you are maximizing your talents and abilities to the fullest and creating maximum value for the people that you come in contact with.  There are other good benefits to being your own boss.  You are not necessarily locked into a specific schedule, you have full control over how you do business and the products that you offer (the market will have some say in this but you get my point), you can choose the relationships that you want in your working life.  From a financial standpoint you have more control over your earnings and can increase them more substantially in a shorter period of time than you would at wage earner job.  These are all good things.

For the wage earner, some things that may appeal to you are the sense of security of knowing when your pay checks are coming, the ability to work within a structure that is already created, accountability and a team environment.  I realize that when done wrong some of these things could just as well be liabilities but for the purposes of this discussion we will assume that things are just great

Another often overlooked aspect is in starting a non profit organization as well.  It doesn’t have to be a company that makes billions.  You may get joy in offering a service that you don’t necessarily want to profit from but you want to make sure that you can live doing.  That’s great too.

We have talked about building the platform and that this really begins with yourself.  http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/bring-the-right-tools-to-build-your-platform

The great things is that building your personal platform can be extremely useful in either scenario.  It can push you to new heights in your business or help you stand out more in the crowd at your job because you are more clear on who you want to be.

What needs to be done now is for you to sit down and decide which fits best for you or look at the opportunities that are available to you and decide which route offers the most satisfaction and enjoyment.

What are some pros out there for you in the entreprenuer vs. wage earner scenario?