I have something to confess.  I have become fascinated with other people’s business stories.  The seeds were planted when I saw “Julie and Julia“ while still in the midst of running my first business.  I am a big Julia Child fan and was surprised (and yet comforted) to realize she and her two co-authors argued over royalty distributions.  If the great Julia Child couldn’t create without encountering bumps in the road, how could I expect to do so?

However, my fascination fully bloomed when I recovered from my meeting with the successful (and really very kind) Lincoln businessman who quizzed me unrelentingly about my first business and then explained that everyone has at least one bad business experience in their life (click here if your memory needs refreshing).    

So you can imagine how I anticipated seeing “The Social Network.”  My bookclub had even read “The Facebook Effect” the month before so I had an inkling of what to expect.  However, I was still surprised.  Not by the movie so much, but by how my fascination shifted afterwards. 

It may not seem amazingly insightful to you, but then you may not have yet experienced the hazy fog that can envelope you when you start a businesses.  There are so many unknowns and so many wrong steps that can be taken.  So many decisions to be made and so many people saying so many different things (and even the same expert saying absolutely opposite things in the same breath).  Most of all, there is so much work (physical, mental, emotional) that needs to get done at the right time – and the right time can be one of the unknowns.   And there is so little restful sleep or time to think… 

As I sat in the dark after the movie, not really seeing the credits or hearing the chatter around me, all I could think was that everyone had a little bit of the truth, but that every one of them believed they had all of the truth.  No one was completely right or completely wrong.

I have been trying to completely avoid all the noise associated with the start-up fog, but I think the real trick is to make and take and brutally defend the time to be quiet so you can better discern and piece together the bits of true and useful information for moving the business forward.  In other words you remove yourself from the start-up fog so that you can make more sense of it and discern the bits of truth when you return to the fog.  How you do this I’m still uncertain. 

Like I said, you probably won’t think this is very insightful if you’ve never experienced startup fog.  When you do experience it though, I hope you remember this idea.

Looking back, I don’t know how I could have demanded the time in some situations to think before taking action.  I do suspect that it would have been easier to make the demand if I’d had more sleep and more confidence. 

Which gives me hope. 

Here’s an image from my last experience with physical fog.  Traffic was reduced to 20MPH on a 55MPH state highway. 

For the record, my new fascination is strategies for coping with start-up fog.  Let me know if you have any thoughts…

Two things happened recently.  First, a professor told me that he thought I was really brave to make the transition back to school (at my age was sort of implied).  Then I stumbled across this quote from E.E. Cummings:

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

The thing is, I think they might both be wrong.  Rather than courage and bravery, I think it might first take fear.  Fear that you’ll be more miserable not making a change.  Fear that you’ll slowly die (creatively, intellectually, emotionally and yes even physically) doing the same job year after year.  Fear that the world will be missing something wonderful because you wouldn’t get off your butt and create it.  Fear that not changing will end up being harder and more difficult and more gut wrenching than the change process itself. 

Besides, can we really be courageous without fear?  Does it qualify as bravery if we’re not at least a little afraid?  Can we grow into what we’re really capable of doing if we don’t fear the consequences of not growing?   Fear is an impetus for action.

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Or can your fear

actually help you

move forward?

We’ve struggled with the flu at my house during the last week.  The dog got sick and then the cat and I got stressed.  It’s been unpleasant and I’ve had enough of cleaning floors. 

On the positive side, it’s led to a lot of thinking about how all sorts of things are contagious – including ideas and skills such as entrepreneurship. 

Seriously, I think people might catch entrepreneurship.  Well maybe not catch it in a viral sense, but in the sense of “Hey, if my silly neighbor and idiot brother-in-law can both have an idea and sell a product or service, then I bet I can too!”  Or “Hey, I think I can do what my friend is doing in her basement only with this other product that I know more about!”

And when enough people start thinking this way, a whole physical region might get a reputation for being entrepreneurial.  Which would draw more infected or want to be infected people to the area. 

The question is how do you intentionally spread the infection?  And how do you spread the infection most effectively?  How many typhoid Marys do you need and what exactly do they look like?

I suppose the real question is whether you’re contagious enough to spread the ideas and skills to transform others into entrepreneurs.  In other words, are you an inspiring innoveer?

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I have a little dream and it looks something like this:

How I think about my work is indistinguishable from the way I think about my needlepoint or cooking: here is the project I’m involved in.  It is play.  In this sense all my life is spent in play – sewing or needlepoint, or picking flowers or writing, or buying groceries. – Diane Johnson

Is this impossible?  It has been for me so far.  But I continue to hope, work and dream with this destination in mind.

Below is one of my favorite pieces from Patricia Scarborough, a Nebraska woman who seems to have mastered the combination of work and play…

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Last night I took my beloved dog, Eleanor, to a fundraiser swim being held by the Omaha Humane Society at one of the closing city public pools.  We met our neighbors John, Norma and Bailey there - much to everyone’s enjoyment. 

The pool was one of the new kinds - with two water slides, a lake-like ramp in the shallow end and water fountains that shoot up and down in various locations.  Two little diving boards, but no high dives. 

Eleanor loves water and dogs and it was a lot of fun to watch her with the two together.  So I did a lot of watching.  It was fascinating.  The people interacting with each other, the dogs interacting with each other, people and dogs interacting together.  There was a lot of risk taking happening in all these interactions.  Lots of trust all around and occasionally some panic. 

The most fascinating was the two water slides.  It was impossible to predict which dogs would make it up the steps and down the slide. 

Which reminds me of people.  I think it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict who will rise to the occasion, take the right series of risks and succeed in business.  This means we can continue to guess wrongly or we can choose not to pass any judgment and to maybe even offer a little encouragment to everyone we interact with to persevere with their ventures.  For me, the second option seems by far the more productive and compassionate.  I suspect your dog would agree. 

Below is Eleanor venturing forth to enjoy the water and other dogs.

I like Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon.  I’m also a fan of Amazon.  I like reviewing books, I like reading other’s reviews, I even like the emails I get from Amazon recommending books.  (Although I confess I nearly always check them out from the library, rather than clicking on the useful link and buying the book.) 

I’ve been paying attention to the press junket Jeff Bezos has been on promoting the newer and cheaper Kindle.  Not that I’m ready for a Kindle or any other electronic reader yet.  I still like the feel of paper too much and fear the technology problems that plague my on-line and computer lives.  I’m still amazed and filled with a sense of self-satisfaction each time I get a blog entry to properly post. 

But back to Bezos and all of his interviews.  I’ve been impressed by several of his talking points. 

First, I love this quote: “It’s not just a business for us, it’s a mission for us.  And missionaries build better products.”  He’s absolutely right.  I think it has to do with the Heath brother’s elephant and rider analogy.  If you have a mission you’re engaging both your emotional elephant and your logical rider.  In other words, you’re going to travel farther faster and build a better product in the process.  To do this, you have to feel passionately about your business and the mission you hope to achieve through it. 

The second talking point that resonated with me can be paraphrased like this:  Business isn’t a sporting event or any other type of competition.  No one has to lose for you to win.  The idea behind this is that markets are large and if you build a great product and provide  great service, you don’t need to worry about what the competition is doing.  This wasn’t always the truth, but the internet has leveled the playing field – or maybe it’s better said that the internet has given everyone access to the playing field.  Either way, you’re better off focusing on your mission and products than what the competition is doing. 

Lastly, Bezos has defended the design of the Kindle.  Apparently it’s a little basic and blah when compared to competitors.  The point though, is that the Kindle contains only what truly enhances and doesn’t distract from the reading experience.  For example, Kindle doesn’t have a touch screen because the layer of plastic needed for the touch screen adds glare to the screen which contributes to eye strain.  Another example is that Kindle doesn’t have color because this would dramatically decrease the device’s battery life.  Which would cause worry about the battery charge or the need to stop reading to recharge.  Both are distracting to the reading experience. 

All three points are related.  If you know your mission, it’s easier to know whether or not your product is achieving that mission.  If you’re achieving your mission, you’ve found a better way to meet your customers needs than your competition and so don’t need to worry about what your competition is up to today. 

This isn’t impossible to do.  In fact, we all have our own mission possible that our unique skills, passions and abilities enable only us to achieve.  What’s your mission possible?

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Click here to see one of my favorite Bezos videos.

I’ve been contemplating what I love most about my self-employed status.  There’s an addictive feeling of contentment which arises from a sense that there is a direct correlation between the work I do and the rewards (financial, satisfaction of helping others, building something worthwhile, etc.) I receive.  I’m not saying that a formula runs this correlation (at least not any simple formula).  Instead I’m confident that, if I’m creative and work hard, eventually there will be positive results. 

But contentment doesn’t explain it all.  Which is why I’ve found myself contemplating this issue so often lately. 

I’ve decided the big explanation has more to do with chickens.  Specifically free range versus cooped up chickens. 

Have you ever seen Food Inc.?  It’s a documentary about the food industry and where our food comes from today.  In it there are images of these chickens with chest muscles so large that they can only take a few steps before they fall down.  They can’t fly at all and don’t even try.  They’re cooped up together in this large one story structure where they mingle like drunks at a bad party in a too small ballroom.  They’ve been bred for large chest muscles because of our great fondness for chicken breasts.

The big breasted cooped up chickens are well fed, they get to socialize a lot and nothing much is expected of them.  They’re probably happy – mostly because they don’t know anything different from their current circumstances. 

But if you put a free range chicken in that place the free range chicken would be miserable because it is accustomed to the freedom and thrill of dodging predators, hunting down a juicy insect, flapping it’s wings and all other types of chicken joys and trials large and small.  Milling about in a room waiting for dinner or the time to become dinner would be a bore for the free range chicken. 

Which doesn’t mean that it’s evil to be cooped up.  The chicken coop has it’s advantages.  Even a free range chicken might want to rest in a coop every now and then. 

But once you’ve been free range, you know when you’re cooped up. 

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On the Fourth of July the History Channel ran an America the Story of Us marathon and I DVRed every single episode.  I love the series and have never been able to see all of it. I’m slowly watching them one by one now and savoring every little bit.  Yesterday I learned that NASA has used (and may or may not continue to use) whale oil in space.  Apparently it’s the perfect lubricant for space exploration because it doesn’t freeze at the low temperatures found there.  Imagine that, an 1800′s relict enabling the exploration of space.   

Today my favorite quote came from a guidebook that was given to new immigrants at Ellis Island.

Forget your customs and ideals.  Select a goal and pursue it with all your might.  You will experience bad times.  But sooner or later you will achieve your goal.  Don’t take a moments rest.  Run. 

Wow!  How amazing is that?  Can you imagine showing up to a new job and being handed that pamphlet?  What would you think?  How great a company would that be to work for?  How great a country is that to live in?  Oh I hope we still hand out similar pamphlets to new immigrants.  I also wish that we’d hand out similar pamphlets to our existing citizens. 

Had you forgotten how wonderful a place we live for encouraging and enabling entrepreneurship?  I had until I listened to that quote.  I wish I had that pamphlet to sprinkle all over town – at the library and the post office and the coffee shop where all the entrepreneurs hang out like exotic safari animals at a watering hole. 

Your country needs you.  Select a goal.  Get to work.  Don’t take a moments rest.  Run.  Sooner or later you will achieve your goal.

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In catching up a little with my DVR this weekend, I watched several Charlie Rose shows.  In one Philip Johnson (an influential architect – the reason we have glass buildings) is visiting the Frank Gehry designed Bilbao Guggenheim Museum for the first time.  Overwhelmed, he says “It’s too bad there’s no words.  Architecture is not about words.  It’s all about tears and love.” You have to see it to really understand its impact.  Check it out here and fastforward to 06:14). 

Being a teary person myself, it got me thinking about the other times when there are no words.  Even when we’re teary because of good circumstances, these are still difficult times simply because they are so emotional – and often so hard won.  

I’m writing about it today because sometimes this happens in business.  And we don’t talk about this much.  Business, by definition is business-like.  It’s supposed to be formal, professional, arms-length.  It’s nothing personal, it’s just businesses. 

But it’s not.  At least I think it’s not more often than we like to admit.  For example,  in two different shows, Charlie Rose also interviewed  Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.  Pandora is an on-line music provider that caters what you hear to what you love to hear.  Each artist and song are categorized into a dizzying number of categories (patented and named the Music Genome Project) which means that when you click to communicate that you’re really enjoying a song, the system knows what and who else you’ll like. 

Pandora struggled for more than ten years to become an overnight success.  Tim Westergren is thrilled to finally be pulling a salary and still shares a car with his wife.  He gets a little teary when he talks about the lean years, especially when he mentions how some of his employees worked without salaries for two years.  It’s not just business to him, it’s personal.  Personal for his staff, personal for his family who stuck by him for more than eight years of unsuccessful trying and personal for his passion to help people feel strongly about their music again.   

Last month I became embarrassingly teary when two businessmen asked me about the state of my first business endeavor.  Neither was taken aback by my tears as they pressed me for what felt like every little detail.  In my pain, I was slightly amazed by this phenomenon until one of them told me that everyone has a hard business experience in their past.  Apparently no one survives unscathed.  Once survived, no one likes to think about these things, much less discuss them. 

But we should.  Despite his hard business experience, this businessman is now very successful.  He mentors and supports many new businesspeople.  And he gave me a wonderful gift that day: knowledge that others have made mistakes and have not only survived them, but thrived afterwards based on what they learned.  We can survive if we’re in the right business for the right reasons with the right partners. 

Do you get a little teary about your business?  Are you willing to push through the issues and messes that ultimately lead to tears of all sorts (frustration, fear, anger, gratefulness, failure, joy…)?  If not, are you sure you’re in the right business?  Business building is hard work.  Remember the Heath brothers’ rational rider and emotional elephant?  (Click here for relevant blog entry)  You’ll get further if your elephant is engaged – even if it costs you some tears.

One last note, if someone claims to have survived all their business experiences unscathed I think they’re either a) unwilling to be honest with you, b) in denial, or c) the person who does the scathing.  Think about it.

As the fourth of July neared this year I found myself thinking about freedom a lot.  I have an increased appreciation for freedom.  The neighbor boy who used to mow my lawn graduated from high school and joined the Army last summer.  This spring he went to Afghanistan where he’s been interacting with insurgents and hunting for IEDs.  One day in May some insurgents blew up his Humvee.  Luckily he and his co-workers were walking about looking for IEDs at the time.   Still it seems wrong for a sweet hard working 18 year old to be worrying about his ride being blown up in a 3rd world country.

In his almost 19 years on the planet, he has done far more than I have to defend our freedoms.  Which has gotten me thinking about whether or not I’m even fully utilizing those expensive and hard-earned freedoms.  Sadly, I think I’m not, but I’ve resolved to do better. 

For myself, I think I conform to irrelevant and sometimes even meaningless rules, social norms, and preconceived notions.  I’ve done this thoughtlessly, simply following the expected path and/or the path of least resistance.  I think I’ve also conformed out of fear sometimes.  It can be hard to stick out in the crowd.  But no more! 

Don’t get me wrong, some rules, norms and notions are necesssary for a safe and harmonious society.   I have no intention of becoming rude.  You’ll also notice I’ve not listed laws in my litany of little ways I unconsciously but willingly give up freedom.  Laws I won’t disobey.

So what does this look like in practical terms?  I’m more conscious when I’m making decisions now about why I’m making that particular decision.   From the big stuff.  Such as why don’t I think I can or should take on that project – is it for real reasons or stuffy conventional reasons.  To the little stuff.  Am I wearing that clothing  because it’s comfortable and I’ll think well in it or because it’s what I think I’m expected to wear?  Is that really the expectation?  The point is that I think about it now.  I’m thinking about all these decisions more now.  Or rather I’m thinking about what factors should contribute to my thinking about all these decisions now.  It’s shockingly enlightening.  Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean. 

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