Finish Strong

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Today it is not so much about what I write as it is that I write. Purely symbolic, maybe. But important. Critically important. Important that I close 2016 and step over into 2017 from my happy place...doing what I absolutely love to do....in private, nakedly baring my soul.....in public, painting word pictures on the canvas of your mind. How are you finishing the year?


Did you finish strong? It may have been a turbulent year. Nothing much may have gone the way you planned. Life's like that. It throws us in at the deep end sometimes and if we're not careful, sink we will. I had many of those days this year. There were days I felt the futility of my efforts hit me straight in the face; days I felt overwhelmed and under-appreciated; times when I felt weighed down by a sense of stagnation and sterility. But then I learned that all this is a part of the process.

And so I kept at it. The good thing in all this is that I learnt long ago not to play to an audience, and  I've learnt over time to shed things I have no interest in...things I do not feel called to do. And so today, I am driven by passion and purpose,,,,and that helps. It helps to provide the fuel when my natural adrenalin levels dip; It keeps me going when there are no cheers (and that's more often than not). And maybe most importantly, I've learned that in any moment, right at that moment, all is as it should be. And I forge ahead.

And so through the ebb and flow of 2016, I have kept the keen awareness that all is in alignment. I watched as others around me prospered, and I wished them well. I did my best to build others up; I built a bridge where I could....and I let it be. I didn't chase opportunities, but eventually they came. I learnt the value of discipline and I set my sights towards BECOMING....and eventually I finished strong.

So yes....there's no way I could have closed this year without coming back to my happy place....to celebrate my strong finish; to express my gratitude to my Creator; to reflect on all that has passed and to embrace this strong sense of hope that I have for 2017.....for my own growth, but more importantly, for the thousands I plan to assist in building something worthwhile...for the difference I will make in big and small ways. I trust you have already accounted your blessings and realize that you finished strong. But if you haven't yet, there's still time. In the dying moments of 2016...reflect on your path and count all the ways you conquered and indeed you'll find that you did, after all, finish strong.

It's Your Race.....Your Pace

Discipline, they say, is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. It is the single most important ingredient in our 'becoming'.....and becoming is what life is all about.....at least that's my view....more than my view, in fact.....my obsession. Becoming better. Becoming more.

The only trouble is, I lack discipline. I fight to set myself goals and some days I achieve them. But then there are days I can't stand to hear the word. Some days I just want to live free...no constraints, no artificially imposed standards of behaviour, nothing I don't absolutely want to do in the moment. And it's then that I live 'free.'

But the consequences are heavy. I see my 'becoming' fade even further into the distance. I see that elusive version of myself slowly drifting asea, further and further from my grasp....and 'becoming' becomes an even more painful reality. And I wonder if it's even worth it. After all, what's all the fuss about? At worst, I remain who or what I am...and I'm not such a bad version of me right now, am I?

It's called rationalization. Trouble is, it works for some.....not for me.

It leaves me forlorn....downright unhappy. So I keep at it. I don't always keep the daily routines that lead to discipline, and so I don't always make the big goals. I'm not as consistent as I ought to be. But I put something into everyday...because I know that everyday counts towards my 'becoming' who I want to be...

But be careful now...setting and not meeting goals can be the easiest way to demotivate yourself. So be gentle with yourself. Discipline is important. Consistency is critical. But you may want to go easy on the 'big hairy audacious goals' sometimes. I like the small achievable ones. The ones that build self-confidence...little by little. The ones that don't quite stretch you yet....the results are not usually very noticeable but that's okay. It's that little extra that makes the difference. 

So if you find that you have not been meeting the goals you've set yourself on your way to becoming more, maybe you need to step back a little. It's your race. Your pace. It need not be a sprint. Slow progress is better than no progress. Consistent slow progress is fine...much better than 'big, hairy, audacious goals' met once in a while. Keep at it!

Don't be Scared of a little "Scared"

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It's the season to talk about being scared so here goes: Have you ever felt like you are on the threshold of something big, like you've built up enough momentum to take you to the next level but you find yourself too scared to take the next step? You calculate the risks, take stock of the sacrifices you would need to make, and are just too petrified to make another move? I don't know, but they say you're in good company. They say anybody who's ever had some measure of success has felt the fear and made the plunge anyway. (Not sure who 'they' is either....I'm just going with the flow.... ). Seriously though.....I've come to realize that feeling fear and vulnerability are necessary parts of the journey. Business owners risk that the market will accept a new product or innovation; Potential start-up investors know that on average seven out of ten of these investments go belly-up. Most new entrepreneurs hear the 'eight out of ten new ventures fail' tale every-day. But they do it anyway. I guess everybody comes to the place where they realize it's do or die.

Some weeks ago, as I read Brene Brown's "Daring greatly", I was faced with two big questions. One I had heard many times over, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" It's a question I have answered several times in my mind - ranging from running a full time business (and yes, its all done on paper) to speaking to a live audience of thousands - but the second question is what really got me thinking (and excited). She asked us to contemplate "what's worth doing even if you fail?" Hmmmm. Now that's something else. What's important enough to you to risk failing at? What matters enough to you to get you beyond the point of being scared? How willing are you to challenge Henry David Thoreau's assertion that the 'mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with their song still in them?"


So what's a little 'scared'? It's a good thing, actually. It renders you vulnerable, humble, dependent on expert advice and most importantly, teachable. It makes you aware of the mistakes you make along the way and therefore provides a host of what-not-to-dos next time round. Mistakes, they say are better teachers than successes. It's wisdom you can pass down, paying it forward as you progress in your business, building strong networks of partners and team members. So embrace the fear. Know that it comes with the territory. Just do it again, and again, and again....Do it scared that's how you get there,

So today, challenge yourself to identify that one thing that you are scared of that's likely to have the biggest impact on your dream. Now juxtapose that fear against your biggest WHY...What's your most important reason for wanting to pursue your dream? How do they stack up against each other? Do you find your 'why' more compelling than your fear? Does your 'why' not push you beyond those boundaries? If it does, you're in a good place. Feel the fear and do it anyway.....

Learning how to Measure Value

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Recently I stopped to compile a list of likely little known quotes about how to create value in the home and at work. These reflect the thoughts of entrepreneurs, inventors, authors and politicians. At first glance they appear trivial but but they unwittingly hold a wealth of wisdom. Take some time to give each some thought:

1. "We must teach our children not to spend their money a dollar at a time. If you spend your money a dollar at a time, you'll wind up with trinkets not treasures. You can't buy much of value a dollar at a time."
2. "When you do more than you are paid to do, you'll be paid more for what you do."
3. "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget your errand."
4. "Profits are better than wages."
5. "We must seek the opportunity inherent in the risk, knowing that we must sometimes run the risk of going too far in order to discover how far we really can go."
6. "The highest reward of a man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."
7. "It's best to start the discipline of generosity when the amounts are small. It is easy to give ten cents out of a dollar; it's a little harder to give a hundred thousand out of a million dollars." 
8. "Being grateful for what you already have creates magical pathways to infinite possibilities 
9. "The greatest good you can do for another is not just to reveal to him your riches but to reveal to him his own."
10. "Many of the things you can count, don't count; many of the things you can't count, really count."
11. "The borrower is servant to the lender."
12. "What you become directly influences what you get."
13. "We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time.....but we get paid for the value, not the time."
14. "Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune"
15. "The rich invest their money and spend what's left. The poor spend their money and invest what's left."
16. "Here's the major problem with going on strike for more money: You cannot get rich by demand." 
17. "Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money; you cannot get more time."
18. "The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the million dollars. It's the person you must become in order to be able to earn that million dollars."
19. "Poor people have a big TV; rich people have a big library.
20. "Money is usually attracted, not pursued."

Are there others that you have come across and would like to add?

Actions, not Ideas, make the difference....

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The world does not pay men for what they know. It pays them for what they do with/about what they know. I often hear people express fear about having their ideas stolen. I tell them the world is probably better off for the many ideas 'stolen' for had it not been for these 'idea thieves' we might never have been exposed to these life-changing solutions. The fact is, ideas are a dime a dozen - no matter how innovative they seem. It's been said that anyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea with the potential to 'change the world.' That's how cheaply they come. The real truth is, it's no matter the extent of your imagination, the creativity or novelty of your idea or the breadth of your vision, it is only what you do about them that counts.

Life has a way of making room for the man (or woman) whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. Thomas Edison, the famed inventor, is known to have said "If we did the things we are capable of we would astound ourselves." Have you ever stopped to think of the number of times you have been complimented for a particular talent or skill you possess? Yet you find yourself constrained by thoughts of your inexperience and inadequacy. Add that to your thoughts about how humongous the task is, then stir in your habit of procrastination. The result? You're stuck. Inaction characterizes your existence. What's worse, you look ahead of you and find people with far less skill and aptitude making their way happily across the finish line....and you ask yourself 'how'...and 'why'?

It's not rocket science. It's simply that they have learnt to be more action-oriented. They do not wait for perfect conditions to move. They understand that while timing is important in business, every moment is perfect for some level of activity. They possess an ability to sense, mobilize and act under conditions of uncertainty. "Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4). It can't get clearer than that!

As life would have it, finding is reserved for the seekers and doors of opportunities are opened to those who go knocking. How many of us have ideas upon which we sit like hens brooding over her eggs? The problem is, unlike the hen, our ideas will never hatch with inactivity. Continuous activity/effort - not strength or intelligence, wishful thinking or hope - is the key to unlocking our potential. What we know and how we feel merely determine our potential for achievement. We must find ways to demonstrate externally what we possess on the inside. If not, our values will remain unappreciated and our talents undiscovered and unrewarded.Now what will you DO about it?

Choose the Lens You Use

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"The way we see the problem is the problem." So said Stephen Covey. That's powerful. Indeed, I have learnt that if I always see a problem as a problem, then that's a problem. Learning to see the opportunities buried in the challenges that face us, not only increases our ability to problem-solve, it equips us to meet the next challenge head-on. Indeed, there are two distinct ways of seeing the world...we can see the things we want to accomplish, or we can see the things that prevent us from accomplishing the things we want. When we begin to see challenges as within the scope of our influence we feel empowered to create change. But when we look at our challenges as outside the domain of our influence....as mountains we can't climb, as anchors that keep our ships grounded, then indeed our ability to problem-solve will be significantly compromised.

Now I'm not suggesting that we look at life through rose-coloured glasses (though, believe me...it has its advantages). What I'm suggesting is that we be mindful of the fact that we don't always see things as they are. More often than not we see them as we are. We bring to every interaction, every challenge our past experiences, our perceptions, our established ways of thinking. Obviously, these become the point of reference for all new experiences. In order to see things as they are we need to be mindful of the focus. Though we may be pre-disposed to a certain way of seeing things, we must mindfully choose the lens we use.

So how do we get to that place of power?

• We begin to see challenges as growth opportunities - we keep our eyes on the broader vision and remember that the problems come to improve our abilities to operate at the next level.
• Be mindful of the things we focus on - what we feed our minds everyday will manifest in our approach to life
• Understand the power of influence - Limited association, increased association and complete dissociation are options available to us. It's always better to choose the people who influence our worldview than to have them chosen for us.
• Harness the power of reflection - Maybe at the end of the day, maybe in a moment in between high-intensity activities, whenever some down time comes around, take a moment to consider if your last interaction left you proud of the person you are. It forces us to see the world through the eyes of persons with whom we interact; obviously, this improves empathy and emotional intelligence
• Remain a dreamer - Dreams help bring the impossible into the realm of possibility; dreams help keep us hitched to a star, keeping us unhinged from the mundane. 
• Understand that in every moment all is as it should be - it keeps us hopeful in times of despair.

In every challenge we face we have the power to control the way we see what we see. You can change that picture by changing the lens. We change our lens as we carefully filter the influences upon our mind, We make ourselves into possibility thinkers or we lead lives of quiet desperation. The choice is ours

Faithful when the Amounts are Small

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Once when noted business philosopher, Jim Rohn, was asked the most important advice he would want to leave with new entrepreneurs, he said, "be faithful when the amounts are small." Over the years I have found it to be excellent advice. The truth is, many of us have fanned the flames to keep a dream alive in our hearts; we have had great ideas that we were/are convinced would take the world by storm; we were pretty sure that we could and would attract investors with our novel startup ideas..only to find that reality had some very different ideas about what could become of our dreams. We are unable to attract the start-up capital we envisioned; readers are not as excited about your blog as you though they would be.....your website has been up and 'running' but it has not been attracting the kind of traffic you were expecting.....and, to add a little of the trivial, the numbers of facebook likes and adds you were sure you would be getting have just not materialized. Life sucks sometimes...too often....I know.

So I think right about this point is where I remind you of Jim's great advice. Press on. Be faithful when the amounts are small. Small amounts matter. They add up. Once, as I taught a class in entrepreneurship, and we discussed the concept of failure, a student asked "when do you know it's time to stop...if your results continue to fall short of your expectations, when do you pull back and call your venture a failure?" Without thinking too much about it, I found myself telling him, "when the fire inside you dies." As long as the dream still inspires you, as long as you are still able to will yourself to do the tasks, push through the mindset that tells you the results aren't worth it. The results will compound over time. But it's crucial that you remain faithful.

If you are a wee bit spiritual (as I like to think I am...yeah, a wee bit) and you make the scriptures your reference point, you will find a verse over in the Old Testament that says, "Do not despise the day of small beginnings..." Point underscored. It's important not to be discouraged by the size of either the input or the output early in the game. And who is to say how long that period of small beginnings will last? Maybe that dream you are 'birthing' needs a longer gestation period. What's important is that you do all it takes to keep the dream alive.

One important lesson I have learnt over time is that the dreams we easily stop pursuing were never meant to happen. Contrarily, there are those of us who have a dream pursuing us...ones we don't have the luxury of releasing as they refuse to release us. So even though we get discouraged by poor results, even though others are not seized with the essence of our desires, even though we find ourselves in the ring alone...we dare not be discouraged by small beginnings. We press on. We remain faithful when the amounts are small. We continue in the arena....We continue to dare greatly.

We Must Teach our Attitudes to Serve Us.....

Recently I conducted an exercise with some business students I had. I had been watching their approach to class attendance and participation and recognized that their levels of interest and engagement were low, despite having themselves chosen the business field as their future career endeavor. It's an exercise I had seen in a video presentation and thought it would be useful to them. The presenter spoke about wealth creation as well as fulfilling our lives purpose and destiny. He very cleverly showed pictures of well known, highly successful, business moguls and asked participants to give one word that came to mind when viewing the pictures. After documenting a list of about fifteen words for each picture, the presenter asked his audience to determine if each of these words would fall into the category of skill, knowledge or attitude. Interestingly (for me at the time) more than ninety-five percent of the words fell under the category 'attitude.' It was an effective way of teaching his audience (as I later did with my students) that attitude is everything.

Jim Rohn, though deceased, remains my highest value business mentor. Several years ago, he coined the phrase 'It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind, that determines which way we will go.' Adversity is a staple of life. Business deals don't get closed, sales numbers fall, competitors out-perform our best efforts. That's business.....and life! It's not what we are going through now, nor what's happened in the past that determines our destiny. It's simply our determination to keep focused on the goal ahead, to turn with the wind, to remind ourselves that pain is a gateway to power and freedom - depending, of course, on our attitude toward that pain. The same sun (they say) that softens the butter, hardens the clay.

Our attitudes are created by our mindset, our mindset by the philosophies (known or unknown) that underlie our perceptions and action. And that's something we have control of. Completely. Obviously, there are those philosophies we may have been force-fed by parents, schools or churches....beliefs that have likely become ingrained in who we are. Some are probably good, some are bad. These likely now form the core of our value system. It's up to us to determine how well these values align with the core of our being. Do they foster and promote a positive attitude to the people and things that are important to us? Do they serve the ultimate goal of facilitating our purpose and destiny?

We must teach our attitudes to serve us...our higher goals and destiny - be those business or life goals. And if our attitudes are fed from our mindset, we must be in control of the things we feed our minds...those things that dictate what we believe and who we are at the core. It may mean deliberately choosing the people we let into our lives and those we release, increasing mindfulness as we make choices, re-thinking the things we have been taught over the years, but which do not promote harmony within. As we focus on pouring in the new we will find that the old ways of thinking and past attitudes that have not served us, will disappear....and slowly we find our minds and attitudes fully aligned at the core with the person we were meant to be.

Changing your Response Changes Everything...

Over the years of my life I have struggled with who I am...whether that be my physical appearance, my introversion, my anger and resentment at the world, or simply my longing to become better at what I do......my life has been an unending struggle for change. More importantly, as a border-line-irrational control freak, I have spent my life trying to control and change every adverse circumstance I've found myself in...determined to experience only the ideal. Sometimes that looked like praying for change, other times it meant negotiating my way out of a situation, but most often it meant senselessly working my butt off......plenty good that did me (or not!)

But I have mellowed. Time has taught me the wisdom of letting it all happen; of letting the rain come, and dancing in that rain. Yes, I have learnt to dance upon my disappointments, smile at the storm, wait in the shadows for change. But that doesn't always mean sitting back and doing nothing. In fact, more often it means a rational approach to looking for growth opportunities. It means looking for the  lessons the problem was meant to teach me and searching out ways to grasp those lessons. The biggest lesson I have learnt through all of this, however, is that so often we expend our efforts at trying to solve the problem or change the circumstance when, without fail, (a hundred percent of the times) the only thing we need to change in order to progress is our response to the problem.

So I have learnt to turn the search-light on myself. But I no longer struggle with who I am - my physical appearance or even my melancholic-choleric personality type. I have accepted that, and I no longer try to change who I am in order to fit in. Instead, I spend much of my waking moments crafting my response to life's circumstances. These days that looks like praying (..still), journaling, introspection, finding expert advice (mainly through reading), changing what I can and letting go mentally of the things I can't control. And I ask myself over and over again...how can I get better, wiser, stronger from all of this....and I look steadfastly for the answers.

In all of this, I have found a simple but trustworthy approach to life.....accept who you are (while you are on your growth journey) and work on changing your response to problems....the problems usually work themselves out. The struggle for change must never lead to the inauthentic or superficial. It starts with a face to face acceptance of who you are, unearthing the strengths you find and applying those to the problems life throws at you. You will find in the process that change comes, that improvement is in fact guaranteed......both to you and to your circumstance.

Breathe......

Do you ever get tired of all the advice that is thrown at you from the internet? Ten ways to do this, five things successful people do every day, thirty things you ought to know before you are thirty...yadda, yadda... and the lists go on. Does it all become overwhelming? Do you find that each attempt to follow the advice results in increasing levels of inertia.....growing numbers of failed attempts leading to increasing levels of reluctance to try again? I know. I've been there. So here's what I'm suggesting........give it all a break. Time out. Chuck it. Breathe....

I know.....isn't that what I am guilty of right now? Giving you advice. Maybe. But I am right at this place right now and needed to escape...to my comfort zone; my happy place; my introverted self; my writing....and I write not because I'm good at it. I write not because others look forward to it...not for an audience. I write because it is my happy place; the place I escape to, far from the madding crowd...away from the sometimes cruel eyes of scrutiny; not caring a bit about other people's opinion of my abilities..just opening up, being me, speaking to my spirit; calling forth that which is natural and beautiful....in my own eyes. And I am deliberate about it. I am purposeful about my refreshing, my escape. I empty the space of other people's opinions and expectations. And I elicit the unknown.

So while I may be guilty of attempting to follow the internet's road to perfection and success advice sometimes....in the back of my head always is the thought that this is my journey...my pace....my story...and I tell tell it just the way I want. There will be times when I keep pace with the crowd, times when I am slow and steady... but most importantly times when I back out altogether...times when I heed the call for a refreshing....when I remind myself what's really important in life.

So where do you go when you want to stop the voices telling you how to go from good to great? Yes...those voices that beckon to you mercilessly everyday of your life....sounds your heart responds to, but sounds from which you need to withdraw and retreat to preserve your sanity sometimes? What is your happy place? Is it calling to you now. Be deliberate. Make some time and space for your happy place. Get back in touch with your soul. Answer the call.

Your Gifts Will Make Room for You

Like the caterpillar cocooned in its chrysalis, do you sometimes feel that you were born for ‘something more than this’? I know I have. I know I do. Every…single…day…of…my…..life. All day. Everyday. And that's fine. It means I'm still growing.  The trouble is many people never get beyond that feeling. Not for lack of a desire to change, but rather because of a lack of know-how. Experiencing that metamorphosis, though, is more up to our intentional efforts than the forces of nature at work on us. Here’s what I have found to be the most powerful formula in getting us to that place:  “If you work on your gifts they will make room for you.”

 In other words, it is in our giftedness that we are most effective…..not in our level of intellect….not in the extent of our exposure, not even inthe strength of our connectedness. Very simply, it is in the development and maximization of our gifts that we find our place on this earth. It is a universal law, a biblical declaration. In fact, the Bible declares “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” It doesn’t get clearer than that.  Our passions fuel our purpose but our giftedness determines how far we go, how effectively we deliver on our purpose. Obviously, the more gifted we are, the higher uphill we can climb in pursuit of our purpose.  

Be not mistaken about it, I know all men are not gifted equally. In fact some men (and women) are not even sure what their gifts are. That’s not hard to understand. Some people are more in touch with themselves, more mindful than others. Some have asked the question of themselves for years and still come up blank. There’s only one way I know how to answer the question (and maybe you know many more). But so far I’ve worked with ‘what am I good at?’ Simple. And we are not now talking relative to your neighbour or sibling or friend. It’s simply about self. Of all the things I do, what ones do I do best? That’s the first step. You may not come up with many, but it’s a place to start.

The thing about gifts and talents though is that they have to be developed. Nurtured. Matured. Maximized. Only as they grow do we grow. Our gifts will never take us places if we don’t actively seek ways to use them. Consistently. Consistency makes the difference. Consistency compounds our growth and our effectiveness. Let’s today make the intentional decision to find an outlet for our gifts, one that gives us the opportunity to consistently use them and then let’s sit back and watch as they ‘make room for us.’

Embrace Your Inexperience

Youthful Exuberance Prohibited 

As a lecturer to young, soon-to-be graduating college students, class discussions often run into the realm of the beyond. What’s to be expected after graduation? Will they be (or have they been) adequately prepared for the real world? Inevitably the conversation comes around to their inexperience and the part that that will play in their ability to join the work-force in short order. Intimidation often sets in, bolstered of course by their discomfort with trying to articulate the anticipated “what do you bring to the table?”

Sometimes it gets hard to listen to them grapple with their feelings of inadequacy. Knowing full well that a ticket to even the average corporate internship requires some amount of experience and that even gaining entry level jobs has become competitive, I have found myself, over the years, encouraging them to volunteer. After all, voluntarism underscores ones value to corporate citizenship and sends a positive message about our willingness to learn and serve. Nothing wrong with that…..I guess.

But in recent times, and as I continue to explore the value of adopting the entrepreneurial mind-set as a worldview….as I examine the need for creativity, innovation and personal initiative in corporate environments, I have come to believe that experience is over-rated. I cannot but drag my mind back to the realities of continuity.... of a lack-lustre, below par corporate environment that is steeped in rules, regulations and processes that confine and constrain employees to under-perform.  

What if employers began to place more value on the curiosity and fervour  that young graduates bring to the environment? What if they began to view inexperience as an asset that could help in harnessing the unconventional, leveraging the creativity that leads to innovation? What if more corporate recruiters began to think like Steve Jobs who is known to have said “it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people to tell them what to do.” What if corporate executives began to see experience as a greater risk exposure? – the huge risk of remaining constant in an ever-changing (rapidly evolving) business environment? What if the unwillingness to embrace inexperience robs companies of the following?

•         The outsiders’ advantage – Industry thought leaders have over the years assisted in innovation – incremental innovation, more often than not. The newbie, the outsider, introduces a greater likelihood of deep and thorough investigation from avenues never before pursued. He/she introduces a new perspective, asks the ‘dumb’ questions, maybe…leading to the right answers
•     The value of unlearning and re-learning – too many corporations get bogged down with ‘the way things are done.’ Learning is constrained by the conventional...the traditional. Strategies then remain reactive rather than pro-active. The benefits (though over-stated) of the ‘first-mover advantage’ are never realized. The inexperienced often bring the latest know-how technologically, theoretically and practically. All have their advantages.
• A greater readiness to explore the unexplored – Inexperience is often tied to youth and youth to exuberance. Who are more willing to challenge the status quo than youth inebriated with the desire to create and cease opportunities for renown and success?
• Hunger for success – 'Passion', purpose', 'contributing to a cause' are not only buzz words on the tongues of entrepreneurs and the people interested in them. Today there is a new breed of young, admittedly inexperienced, college graduates waiting to make their mark on the world. Their hunger drives them. They want to belong to something bigger than themselves but they want to be able to carve out their place in that ‘something.’ They want to leave their finger prints and foot prints. They want to succeed and succeed big.

Shouldn’t any right-thinking company, serious about gaining competitive advantage, therefore, embrace the possibilities that lie within the realm of inexperience? What if you, in your own personal experience, were to embrace your inexperience as an opportunity to disrupt the no-longer-working status quo? What if you saw yourself  as a critical link to the as-yet-unknown? Let's face it, in today’s business environment inexperience is no longer a disadvantage. In an age of innovation, exploration, discovery and disruption, inexperience (aka creativity, innovation, energy, experimentation) is an asset – a value you should wholeheartedly embrace!

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Find your Penny and Stay Invested

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Almost every time I turn my mind toward writing an article for this blog, something inside me questions my reason for continuing. What is it that I'm gonna say that has not already been said? Are there not thousands of blogs and bloggers saying the same things? What difference will I make? What value will I add? Isn't it just as well I throw in the towel and call it quits? I guess I could. But I won't. Here's why:

• My blog is my voice - a way of pushing back against the things I disdain, and registering my opinions and ideas; the place where these ideas and opinions gestate awaiting birth.
• It is my sanctuary - My place of retreat...therapy for my soul, a place to reflect and take stock...to be the person that nobody sees, the deepest, most beautiful parts of my spirit -an opportunity to be awed by who I really am....deep down.
• It is my contribution to my world, my place to make a difference, to join hands with thousands who crusade for change and growth, and actively impacting others for good.
• It is my chance to prove the veracity of the philosophies I hold dear...philosophies that tell me that meaningful change is incremental; philosophies that remind me that in order to fell the trees of life (challenges), I must sharpen the axe (me).
• It allows me the chance to hone my craft, to peddle my creativity, to add value to the world of literary artistry.

Maybe you feel the same way about your business, your writing, or a task you have been labouring over for years. Maybe you have begun to question your/its worth. Maybe you feel like you're adding no value to the room...like its time to throw in your cards and walk away from the table. The market is saturated you say....the world has enough people like me. Maybe...but what of your niche? What of the space in time that you were created to fill, that space that only you can fill? Maybe you need to step back and think for a moment about these things:

•  What's your differentiation strategy - for your life, for your business, for your mission?
• What's your value proposition? - What problem(s) do you propose to solve for others?
• What's your unfair advantage? - Your core competences, your available resources? What makes you uniquely you.... and gives you an edge above the competition?
• How can you leverage your passion in ways that make 'work' less laborious
• And to borrow from author, researcher and psychologist, Brene Brown, 'what would you do that's worth doing even if you fail?' 



Image courtesy of quotesgram.com

If you find you can answer these questions conclusively then its time to get back into the game. If you can't answer all just now, take your time. Do your introspection. Just don't give up on who you are and what you want just because the arena seems full. You may find you have to sit out a round but never become a spectator to your own life. 

 Sometimes staying invested is literally that - an investment  - of a penny. A penny - that's all. My blog is my penny. What's yours?

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Be Doers of the Word(s)

"Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only" is a popular scriptural injunction - one I have found it to be as relevant to building a business or to building a life as it is to building faith. We have often heard that readers are leaders. The most successful people in the world spend a significant amount of time learning their craft. Much of this learning comes through reading.

 We are told that Warren Buffet spends up to five hours per day these days just reading within his field. Yeah, maybe you're right. He can afford to. But what if you found out that he's been reading profusely since age seven? If you followed Mark Zuckerberg's facebook page last year, you would have seen his 30-book challenge ( https://www.facebook.com/ayearofbooks/); and   is there anyone around who doesn't know of Oprah's book-club? There's sufficient evidence amongst these highly successful people for us to conclude that this is not merely correlation.  

What's important, though, is that these intellectually elite have learnt that knowledge is not an end in itself. It's good to set ourselves reading goals, but even more important is the need to find ways of implementing the learning. Noted business philospher, Jim Rohn often said, "better than knowledge is applied knowledge." Change does not not happen with increased knowledge. Change happens when we begin to do the things we have been taught. We are often too content to pat ourselves on the back for achieving the lofty goals of 'hearing the word.'

It was Maya Angelou who said, "I did then what I knew how to do. Now I know better I do better." The fact is, knowing better... knowing more, and not acting in accordance with this new frame of reference renders us ineffective...on par with the man who never reads, even as we deceive ourselves of our superior standing. As we watch others around us with a lesser intellect and fewer resources make great strides toward their goals, the effect upon our psyche and sense of self is devastating. The truth is, we do ourselves greater harm by 'hearing the word,' acquiring the knowledge and taking no action towards applying that knowledge to our own life circumstances than not 'hearing' at all.

So what will it be? I'm not advocating that we stop 'hearing' the word. I'm suggesting that we find strategies to implement the learning...one discipline at a time. Don't read another book until you've made your mind up to practice what you learnt. Bridge the gap between learning and application, between who you are and who you want to become. A hundred books per year may be a feather in your cap, but implementing the lessons learnt may just be your ticket to the next level.