Tag: work

A Glass Half-Full in a Half-Empty World

Sustained optimism in the craziness of modern life is essential. It pulls you through in hard times and keeps you wide-awake in the good times. What makes it difficult is many attach their optimism to good fortune-small and large.

Let's face it, anyone can be optimistic when the glass is half-full in a half-empty world.

I've written before that human beings are excellent actors. This is really true in our modern life. You've seen it (maybe by accident) before. A leader works on summoning the right words, the right posture, the right look in the eye, all to portray something either not true or something less than sure. This is the strange dichotomy of being real versus the act.

True optimism requires truth.

I've found that people who have followed me just wanted me to be me. They were just looking for truth. Followers are often not under any delusions about where things stand these days. Pity the poor leaders who have convinced themselves otherwise.

So what's your glass like?

The Life and Work Awaiting

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I've always been a persevering type of human being. That has served me well in the dark times and in the times where a vision was in sight. Today, I have found myself in that place where a new life and work are awaiting me.

Anna Farmery once said to not keep your struggles a secret from your audience. I admired her for stating that, while not sure if it fit me. But of course, those who've followed my blog know about my father, my former life in corporate America and my spiritual side. In some ways I gave you a glimpse. I just never gave you a view of my business model struggles, except the somewhat vague challenges I faced as an entrepreneur.

Now is the time for you to get a deeper view into my current state.

2011 was a year that I needed to see great business/revenue success. After being on my own for 5 years, it was clear financially that a rising tide was needed. Bluntly, I had no more money and enough clients to sustain Epic Living beyond another year.

Last year did not unfold the way I'd hoped.  

As 2011 came to an end, I made plans with my wife to look at other roads to change the state of things. I am in the midst of that now. What will it look like? I don't know for sure, but whatever it is it will have to do 2 things. One, be sustainable from an income/revenue perspective. Two, be something that requires me to show up. That's my prayer anyway.

To you the reader, I want to be clear on a front not easy to write about. I've always been the type, for better or worse, of entrepreneur that believed great work was the best cure for financial needs. Indeed, that is true, and it took me a long time to learn that marketing and sales can be a help if not left to run amok on their own. If you expected me to be more aggressive in selling Epic Living or being more vocal in letting you know that things were rough, I'm sorry.

The life and work awaiting me is a bloom formed out of my experiences from the last 6 years. But that does not mean an ending. It will just look different than today, so I do intend to continue to write in this blog and offer my expertise where appropriate. The other Epic Living services will go quiet in the coming weeks.

As always, you can contact me directly if you want to know more this transition or to pass on some wise input. Thanks for joining me on the Epic Living journey.

Knowing What You Want

Knowing what you want is important-really important.

Until you nail what you want, all of the meetings, all of the training, all of the long hours, all of the self-convincing will be an absolute waste of time. And you don't have time to waste. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by your paycheck, retirement account or the applause of the audience.

The ditches are full of people that could never committ to what they really wanted.

When It’s Too Late to Change

I'm an optimist, a dreamer, more than I should be some have said. As I spend more time on this planet, one thing is for sure, there is a point in time when it's too late to change. 

This doesn't make me a pessimist. We're all in the dye-casting business. Slowly.

Think of all of your small and large decisions over life's road. Each one creating permanence. Rather daunting I know, but the beauty of it is we have been given the freedom and responsibility to decide whether we go ahead or go back. Very few of us will ever have a gun to our head demanding we ignore our physical health or to tell that little lie that will tilt things in our favor.

We've read of the those coming to the end of their days regretting much of what was before. The sober reality that no matter what they say or do, nothing can be altered. Funny thing how our culture is great at taking in information, while doing nothing with it. Any time you encounter someone whose story is entering the final act should make you review deeply your own course. The desire for distractions and easy paths will disconnect your best intentions every time.

Here are some things to be very careful with as you seek to make your life regret-free:

  • Money
  • Power
  • Longing
  • Work
  • Dissatisfaction

Maybe there is more to add here. But one thing is certain, there is a time when it's too late to change. Count your days and you'll get a better understanding.

My Entrepreneur Path and My Son

Father and son

I've chronicled some of my struggles with the entrepreneur path before, but this post is about the often forgotten beauty of it.

My son is the benefactor here. He was born in the midst of my runnings in the corporate world. He was 4 1/2 when I left. He probably doesn't remember much about the type of man I was in those years of tossing and turning. His reference point of me is during the entrepreneur years. He may have gotten some insight into what running a business looks like. But the following is what I pray he caught:

  • The applause and opinion of others is really not important.
  • Perseverance is essential to living.
  • Love matters more than anything else. Anything else.
  • Hope springs from going through tough times.
  • My time and touch do matter.

I can't be certain (at least not now) if he has embraced the above list. But it's what I've modeled over the last 6 years-on purpose and by accident. And as I will certainly face times ahead where I will wonder if this path I've chosen is worth it, I will know he is.

Real Collaboration

I had a chance to take a sneak peek at a documentary on Nile Rodgers a few weeks back. It was nicely done, even though it was in Japanese. It really didn't phase me because much of the dialog was from Nile. The short can be viewed here.

It might seem an obvious that collaboration and music go together.  And as someone who is a musician, I would agree that often the two go hand-in-hand.  But what about the rest of the spheres of life and work?  Not so much.  There was one scene where I found myself thinking"that's it."  Nile was working with a group around the production of a Broadway musical he created called Double Time.  If you check-out the clip you'll know what I'm referring to.  But I was struck by the group's dynamics.  There were a few musicians, a vocal ensemble, directors/producers, and Nile.  Each of these folks were doing there work individually and collectively.  One thing was clear, they were moving toward the goal of a great performance.  And isn't great performance what we want?

Have you found some form of collaboration that leads you to a great performance?

In your career experience you may not have found it.  And many never do.  Part of the problem arises in organizational health and our own misplaced priorities.  We don't fully understand how collaboration works and how to get the most from it.  Ironically, you might be involved in it and not even recognize it.  You have to look for it.  You have to want it.  The tragedy is found in those who just do it and don't think anymore about it.  Routine, habit, monotony are keywords here.

Your career should be about more than salary, benefits and MBOs.

I really believe our best and greatest work comes when we collaborate.  It's a key way to leave your fingerprint on this motion picture called "life."  But as with all brilliant things, there are the enemies and the threats.  Let's review a few:

Money and the Desire to Get More-this one is manifested when our endeavors are rooted in making money first.  The emphasis is on the word first.  Making money is not a bad thing, unless it is at the top of the list.  Greed.

Self-Centered Leaders-these folks have no interest in anyone or any endeavor other than themselves.  These types of leaders may mask it, smooth it or even lie about.  Their mission is to be King or Queen-first and last.

Our Fear-We all bear some responsibility for the collapse of collaboration.  We fear so much and find ourselves unwilling to be vulnerable.  I don't need to tell you what a killer fear is.  Collaboration is sabotaged when we are insecure and doubt our place at the table.

I have felt most alive when I've been involved in the art and science of real collaboration.

The Box

Box

You've heard it a million times; "think outside of the box."  Maybe more would do that if the people asking were not invested in the box industry.  I used to be more tolerant of the think outside the box admonition.  But I've moved to a place where I stop the train if someone tries to put me in a "box" or any other confined category.

I spent a good deal of time in the banking world before moving onto my mission at Epic Living.  I was successful in many eyes. And to this day, I still have people who think my life then was nirvana or even better, I should go back to it because I was so good at it.  When I tell them how much I loathed it, the inevitable furrowed brow appears. 

I no longer take it personally.

The biggest reason people want you in a certain box has very little to do with you.  It really is about them.  It's much easier to keep order and predictability when a friend or colleague stays the way they're perceived.  When someone makes a move outside that zone it produces anxiety, fear and even loathing.  Call it a move to protect what they perceive as safe and secure.

We Need the Real Problem Solvers

The need for solving problems seems so obvious in our current environment.  But I'm amazed how far away that concept is for many.  Whether it's the job hunter or the board member of a non-profit, it seems like the idea of solving problems is rather foreign.  Now, I know we talk a lot about solving problems, but I'm referring to the talking and the doing.  I know this is hard to do in my country.  We've gotten a little soft on real problem solving.  Many are still operating as if we were still in the industrial age.

There needs to be a changing of the lens we use.  So put on a different pair of glasses and build the habit of being a problem solver.  You'll be glad you did, and so will the people and organizations waiting for your solutions.