There is a saying that’s been attributed to PT Barnum, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Barnum was a showman and circus owner, so he made a habit of promoting things that perhaps weren’t seen as good and wholesome, but they attracted attention.
Location Independent Business Nonsense
Alright, you can probably tell from the subject line how this post is going to go.
Let’s talk about people spruiking “location independence” funded by their business.
Seizing Opportunity vs Blatant Opportunism
Recently I had an acquaintance tell me about a new business she was setting up online early in the new year. As we were talking it became really obvious that she was not only passionate about the idea but that she’d spotted a pretty cool gap in her niche. Her audience is largely affluent women who have a legitimate problem and will clearly spend up big to take care of the issue.
Scaling Your Business Appropriately
Next week, I’ve got a fairly busy week. Without boring you with the details, I’m going to pick up the management duties for one of my colleagues by overseeing his technical pre-sales team and managing his business unit while he’s on leave. To give you perspective, this isn’t a small department, it’ll do over a million dollars in sales next week and I’ll look at probably $5m in deal governance for approval.
The Power Of Building Habits
The author of Dilbert, Scott Adams, is an interesting chap. I find him funny and his thoughts on how he manipulates his own mind, body and behaviours are quite fascinating. He refers to us humans as “moist robots” which always makes me laugh.
Just Sell Something!
Yesterday I was standing in the hall of this big pavilion here in Sydney at a technology vendor conference. The place was buzzing as it had become apparent that Donald Trump was going to pull off an unbelievable upset victory to become the 45th President of the United States. Everyone was checking Facebook and Twitter like crazy trying to find out how many Electoral College votes he had, which states were in play and there was plenty of debate about whether he could pull off a win in a place like Wisconsin which is a Democrat heartland.
You Should Be More Like Me
Humility is a really important character trait in my opinion. The most successful people I’ve ever met, people like Bill Gates, Michael Dell, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and several hall of fame hockey players are all largely humble people. They have a certain confidence to them for sure, but when it comes to sharing advice or engaging in a discussion, almost everyone I’ve ever met who has attained that level of success has a very strong dose of humility.
Storytelling Helps With Everything
Earlier in 2016, I wrote a post that talked extensively about the value of storytelling and how to learn more about it. You can read that post by clicking here – I think it is actually one of the better ones I’ve written if we’re being honest.
Burning Bridges In Business
I’m cursed with this incredibly hard to control desire to tell people what I really think when they cross me. When I was younger and just starting out in my career it got me in trouble a few times because frankly I just didn’t have the seniority or respect to pull it off – I came off looking like a jerk.
The Sting Of Criticism
The truth hurts.
When you put yourself out there and you create something or you share part of yourself with a wider audience you open yourself up to comments. You’d be naive to think that’s not part of the deal.