Project management is among a top skill to master in any business; especially one wanting to grow.
Why?
Because without project management, business owners will unnecessarily run into common issues:
You often get derailed by "the unexpected.”
It’s inevitable.
You get interrupted an unexpected number of times daily. Those interruptions come at unexpected times. They each take an unexpected amount of time with which to deal.
That’s why it’s "the unexpected."
These interruptions kill your flow, destroy your focus, and force you to work on the urgent instead of the important.
So how do you deter, prevent, and deal with the problems these unexpected interruptions incur?
I was shocked, hurt, and felt like my idea had been stolen. Though I had the idea first, Nintendo would be the star. Nintendo would make $millions. It took years before I was old enough to recognize the important lesson in this experience...
Are you second-guessing your next great idea? Are you downplaying the value you could provide to others? Are you upset that you found a competitor in the market who seems to be offering everything you want to (and seems to be finding great success doing it)?
It might be time to step back and realize a few important things.
Baseball is a game of failure.
Failure to hit the ball. Failure to get on base. Failure to push a runner home. Over and over, play by play, someone, somewhere on the field is failing.
It’s not for lack of trying. It’s just the nature of the game. And, of course, there’s the flip side...
Some games see big hits, great plays, and few failures. Those games you usually win. Other games though, the failures accumulate and you wind up with a loss. Every once in a while, a real struggle sets in where every play seems to end up in error. Small failures build on each other until you see no chance to recover. Deep in your mind, you believe you are going to lose. And so, against all your beliefs and training, you stop trying; you just go through the motions until it’s game over.
Why the monologue on baseball? Because baseball (like any sport) is in microcosm of life.
You’ve faced failure countless times. Maybe you’ve swung at an opportunity and missed. Maybe you ran hard toward your goal, but just couldn’t reach it. Or, maybe you put all your effort into throwing a competitor out, but they somehow managed to slide under your tag and score.
Those are the times you feel the struggle; the times when winning feels too painful too bother trying. But you know you have to... try, that is. The question is, how?
Yes, have fun. This isn’t empty advice aimed at taking your mind off your problems, though it does help.
No, having fun is a call to action. A call to remember why you are playing the game in the first place. Having fun is actionable advice, reminding you not to take the game you play too seriously. It’s pain medicine administered to
So the next time struggle hits you hard, step back and remember why you started. Remember what made your game fun in the beginning, then go do that.
If you’re a photographer struggling to capture the perfect pic, take some silly photos of your kids, weird looking bird, or whatever. If you are an entrepreneur struggling to capture the next big idea that will skyrocket your company to success, draw some wacky doodles on a whiteboard and brainstorm how you can build and sell whatever you’ve created.
Then, when your mind is at ease and your smile returns, gently guide your mind back to the problem at hand. Transform the fun you had into a renewed energy and focus, leveraging the childlike sense of wonder that first captured your imagination, long ago, before the stakes got too real and everyone started taking themselves too seriously.
Remember to have fun.
Mike loves having fun, but often forgets because he’s “too busy” helping entrepreneurs get productive and turn their ideas into reality. Come to think of it, he should probably go have some fun right now. That way, next time you contact him, he’ll be fresh, energized, and ready to rock and roll.
One word.
It’s the most common investment advice you hear.
You do it with your assets, your wealth, investment types, even investors.
Diversify.
Diversifying protects your downside. It prevents massive losses and minimizes risks to your portfolio. Diversifying is arguably one of the most important concepts for wealth management. After all, if all your eggs are in one basket, you can’t afford to drop it.
But diversifying isn’t the way to maximize growth in business. Quite the opposite.
In business, you must constantly stay ahead. You must find your unique perspective and use it to claim (and protect) a portion of your market. Then, with that as a foothold, you have to grow your market share and squeeze out the competition, or at least prevent your competitors from encroaching on your territory.
To do that requires learning — continuous, focused learning.
Take, for example, a “diversified business owner.” He spends one part of his day selling technology, then rushes over to work on marketing for a bakery, finally finishing the day with a trip to his hair salon to manage the books.
Clearly this is not optimal.
The problem is, this owner can’t apply the lessons he learned in from business to the next. His actions are fragmented and unfocused. He can’t use the experiences from one company to make the next better.
Entrepreneurship requires focus.
Focus on learning the right things. Focus on learning the right skills. Focus on applying what you learn to run a more efficient, productive, and profitable business.
When it comes to your investments, diversify. When it comes to your business, focus.
Mike just crushes focus and productivity in business for entrepreneurs. Right when they feel the weight of too many things to do, Mike can jump in and focus their efforts on achieving their vision and goals. Just don’t ask him about investing...
The theme on Charles Street was hard to ignore, though most did. Hundreds of locals passed dozens of storefronts by the hour, largely oblivious to the marketing efforts of each business, silently trapped in their own heads. Their feet carried them mindlessly to their destination. Few stopped to shop.
I, on the other hand, couldn't help myself. Every window display captured my attention. Every smell from every bakery turned my head. The very bricks of the sidewalk, now cracked and gnarled and settled from over 200 years of foot traffic, guided me from one store to the next. While others were lost in their thoughts, I was captivated by the intersection of history and modern-day small business... and I wondered of the story for every small business on the street.
Knowing from experience how difficult it is to start, run, and build and grow a business, I wanted to hear how they did it. How did they get started? What gave them the most success? How did they deal with the daily challenges of keeping their (literal) doors open?
If only they could tell me, and I could share their experiences, the challenges they've faced and the problems they've solved could help thousands of business owners like themselves.
The following article is that help. Not from the handful of brick-and-mortar stores in Beacon Hill, Boston, but from business owners running every kind of business throughout the world.
