The Entrepreneurial Savant

- Jean Cocteau
Sometimes criticism is a sign that you are on the right track. Often, when we are pursuing a personal dream or vision, our actions and decisions may seem completely off base to others. They begin to second guess or constructively criticize our actions to make them fit their view of reality. Sometimes this can be a help but other times you should be careful to trust the individuality of your path and keep following it. As Cocteau implies, lose your personal style and risk losing yourself.

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If you constantly compare yourself to others you are doomed to failure. Their accomplishments are accomplished in the context of their lives, not yours. The true test of success is to look at what you are doing and ask yourself if you are doing your best. If the answer is yes, then you are succeeding.
Comparing yourself to yourself always gives you a benchmark or point of comparison. You know your own personal rules and guidelines and you can use them to judge yourself. Comparing yourself to others tilts the playing field because you can’t possibly share the same resources and experiences.

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The definition of success not only varies from person to person but also changes as you define and achieve your goals. Those things that seemed so important and unreachable at age 20 now are run of the mill or replaced by totally different priorities. As we grow through experience, our goals change, often from material things to spiritual or personal growth goals. We may take on bigger, more visionary projects or simply try to be good parents, community members and workers. The ultimate message of this site and the ultimate definition of success have more to do with experience of achieving than the achievement. Life occurs in between the peaks and every time we conquer one, a whole new vista, previously unseen, unfolds. Enjoying the journey is the true secret of success.

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Are you a logical hard-headed business person? Write a poem and send it out to a hundred of your friends, associates, customers, competitors and enemies (I hope you don’t have any). The results may surprise you. If nothing else, it keeps people from solidifying their impressions of you. You know what a solidified impression looks like don’t you? Cement.
To avoid being as exciting as concrete, do the unexpected. If you’re a pale-faced geek, train and run a marathon. Make sure you prominently display a picture of yourself triumphantly crossing the finish line in your office where your co-workers can see it. If you’re a mud spattered artist, show up for a lunch meeting in a three piece suit. If you’re going on a date with someone who may already have a certain idea of what you’re like, break the mold, do something wild. If you’re normally wild, go low key and classy. Whatever unexpected behavior you do, make sure you do it as though it is a piece of cake, even if it means practicing and studying fine wines or belting out a blues song at a local dive.
Doing the unexpected makes you a more interesting person, both to others and to yourself. Good preparation will help you to enjoy the process and will reduce your fear of failure. Try it, you’ll be amazed at the results.

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I’ve tried to avoid clichés in this collection but this is one that everyone can relate to. Scams, undependable people, dreamers and crooks have all flourished because people conveniently forget this simple statement. When something sounds really great, stop a minute and think it out. Seek informed opinions. Check references. Ask to speak to long term satisfied customers. Do a little research. Then and only then, if everything still smells like roses, go ahead. If there’s any doubt, throw the bums out because if it sounds to good to be true….

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Every salesperson knows what a ‘cold call’ is. Its a telephone call to someone you don’t know that you make for purpose of furthering your cause. If you’re selling something, you may be seeking an appointment to make a presentation. If you’re raising money for a cause you may have a similar goal. If you’re trying to learn about a new career or resource you may simply be trying to find the right expert for advice. Whatever the reason you make the calls, they are often the only way you can accomplish your goal(s). Unfortunately a very human and common fear of rejection keeps most of us from making cold calls and we get stuck, unable to make forward movement.
There are many methods of beating the fear. Use a script so that when fear freezes you up, you can keep going with what you wanted to say. Rehearse your script ahead of time with a co-worker or spouse. Find common ground ahead of time through research so that you can turn a feared encounter into an opportunity to share interest. Most importantly, make a certain number of ‘cold’ calls everyday. These shots into the dark can lead to many new resources and profitable relationships.
Give yourself an incentive to make your calls everyday. Think of them the way a salesperson might. A good cold caller knows exactly how many calls they need to complete to make an appointment and how many appointments it takes to make a sale. Knowing their average profit on each sale, they can assign a dollar value to each and every call, no matter how successful. For instance a real estate agent may call on homeowners to get houses to list and sell. She knows that for every twenty calls she completes (reaches a person), she gets one appointment. One half of her appointments result in listings for which she averages a commission of $1500 each. The math shows each call she makes to be worth $37.50. ( 40 calls = 2 appointments = one listing @ $1500. 1500/40=37.50) It kinda warms up those cold calls doesn’t it? Take your goals and reduce them to the value of a phone call done three times a day, day after day. The value of each of those dials may be a pleasant surprise.

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When things aren’t going your way or you ‘blocked’ and can’t seem to resolve a problem or begin to take the steps required to solve that problem, there are exercises that can help to break out of your ineffective state of mind. One, from Dr. Van K. Tharp, a psychologist who specializes in the psychology of successful investment traders, goes like this:
“Get up out of your chair. Walk away about four feet and then look at how you looked in that chair. Notice your posture, your breathing, your facial expressions. Then imagine how you would look if you had the sort of mental state you would like. When you can see that clearly, sit down in the chair again and assume the position that you just imagined.
The exercise works for almost any situation as it involves several important principles–changing your body posture, seeing yourself from a more objective viewpoint and imagining a more resourceful state.”*

*As quoted in Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager, Harper & Row

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Breaking down your goals into steps is important and making those steps achievable is even more important. You can go even further and break them down into steps that can be accomplished on a daily basis. This really gives us the sense of getting somewhere with our plans.
An important thing to keep in mind when planning these incremental gains is to think them out ahead of time and make sure they are realistic in the context of your overall goals. Don’t set them each morning but rather, know them ahead of time. This done by taking the bigger steps in your plan and breaking them down into a series of tasks. These tasks may overlap each other or be unrelated activities that are spread out over time. Just try to identify the ones that can reasonably be accomplished in a day and put them on your calendar.

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When we set goals for ourselves or others, we have to also determine the steps required to achieve those goals. A common mistake in goals work is to set goals that are so distant that it is difficult to imagine reaching them. Even when we make our goals more realistic, we often define steps that are too far apart. This makes it difficult to stay motivated and on track.  It is important to put achievable steps into your planning so that you give yourself and your co-workers something to celebrate. These early victories serve to recharge your engines and get you psyched up for the next stage of your project. So, even if you include difficult steps in your goals process, put in some intermediate ones so that you can celebrate some early victories.

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Superficial knowledge and borrowed experience are the rewards of being an observer rather than a participant. No matter how much expertise you accumulate by watching, reading and listening, you will never truly experience success unless you take the plunge and go out into the deep water. When you become fascinated by a subject and go beyond the contemplation stage into the action stage your entire perspective changes. All kinds of opportunities open up. I’ll give you what may seem to be a far-fetched example.
A friend’s father is nearing retirement from a job with a large company. In the past few years he has become interested in carved duck decoys. These decoys have evolved from a utilitarian aid for hunters into an art form. In fact there are  competitions with categories for non-functional decoys that are judged solely on the skill of the carver. Our retiree has read books and articles on the subject, has calendars featuring photos of decoys and has often contemplating trying his hand at carving. One Christmas he is presented with a book of patterns and goes beyond reading and actually tries his hand at making a bird. His first attempts are amateurish but because he has actually done it, his insight into other’s work is radically changed. He begins to look at how they resolved certain problems and learns about carving competitions with categories designed for novices. He begins to enter and receives awards and encouragement from people who he had revered as experts.
After a few years of carving, his birds begin to sell for respectable prices. By now he specializes in certain birds and certain positions and has developed a style that is recognizable to decoy aficionados. His armchair interest in an esoteric discipline has become an important (and profitable) part of his life, opening up whole new groups of relationships and providing an interesting second career.
As soon as you explore an interest beyond what you can absorb through observation you are in new waters. To continue the metaphor, you may get swept along into an entirely new and fascinating life.

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