My thoughts about Tiger Woods

So many are discussing all of the circumstances around his actions of late and to me at least the core issues are not being discussed or at least not the ones I think should be:

• Incorrect priorities - instant gratification, adoration and pleasure was more important than the commitment to his partner
• Instead of focusing on what he had - a loving wife and children the focus was on what he felt is was missing
• Breach of agreement - when the wedding took place certain promised were made which in business terms constituted a breach of agreement
• Not fulling grasping the nature of his position - what man people who seek positions of fame, prominence or influence forget is that these roles in life come with a price and one must be willing to accept that people will look to you as an example and that any mistake you make will be magnified for some to make themselves feel better by devaluing you and others because their faith in you and hopes of finally finding a worthy role model were destroyed

How could this have been avoided - what is the solution (note: this are only my opinions)?

• Focus on your goals - what is important and them ask yourself how this person or action moves you toward your aspiration (if they are a destructive influence remove yourself)
• If a person is a sex addict much like an alcoholic for some the only way to deal with the problem is never to put yourself in a position of temptation (like waling into a liquor store). In the case of a sex addict one would avoid being in situations alone with anyone other than your family.
• In business contracts are agreements stating the base line expectation which ideally your conduct will exceed such that the paperwork is redundant and never needed - same in a marriage - a person should strive to conduct themselves in such a way the agreement is never examined or brought into question
• Focus on what you have. Too often people complain about things that do not really matter and overlook what is important. Let me put it this way which person is more beneficial Person 1 - fun to be with, great at parties, says all of the right things in public, makes you laugh, great sex, is exciting, undependable, disrespects you , breaks commitments, complains about what you are not doing for them, is self absorbed, does nothing to help you and upon closer examination leaves a path of destruction behind them. Person 2 - Loyal, respects you, is willing to inconvenience themselves for you to have what you need, acts in your mutual best interests, keeps their obligations to the best of their ability, tries to take an active interest in what you are doing, edifies you where possible and always treats you will respect because they are interested in your well being vs what you can do for them.

I could go on however I think you get where I am going - the topic being discussed while never addressed directly to me is a matter of emotional maturity.



An underlying question that is not discussed but I will bring up is the self image of ethnic minorities - could it be possible that the actions were in part due to the fact on some level despite all of the hard work there was a feeling of being unworthy so instead of focusing on the root cause and resolving because they were unaware situations were created to self sabotage and make their life better match their self image - just a thought to ponder.


These are my thoughts - what are yours?

I will close with this thought:

1. If you are a person lacking integriety the rules do not matter
2. If you are a person of character the rules do not matter

The only difference between the two is in the first society will hold you accountable where as in the second you hold yourself

Are you an Entrepreneur?

Over the years many have approached me about wanting to be a Business Owners or Entrepreneur and some were shocked when I suggested that they would best served seeking another job as an employee.

What does it mean to be an Entrepreneur?

Fear based decisions

So often in society we are taught to base our choices and decisions on fear. Fear causes us to make the wrong choices and make poor quality decisions. Fear based decisions also at their root cause people to pick up and carry the baggage of those who projected their limitation onto us. When we act in fear we abdicate our control and we place limitation on ourselves that prevent us from living up to our potential. What is even worse is we give power and credibility to people who not only should we not be empowering but truth is so often they do not care less and move on to the next victim. Because they themselves has little to no personal worth they steal yours and once the damage is done often move on to seek out new victims to harm.We in our reaction give power to people who should not have any and we often allow them to change who we are - this is wrong.

A classic example of this is our political system - so often we vote and make choices not of the best candidate but the lessor of two evils or the one who scares us then promised to protect us from the fears they created instead of seeking people who offer a solution. Was speaking to a friend earlier who explained to me one of the consequences for example of GM is that now the government owns 51% of it so as a result it is really no longer General Motors but Government Motors. I will not go into the detail of how this happened but rather ask why?

Consider the thoughts shared in these videos and then ask yourself what is the basis of your decisions? Do you focus on what is not or what you have lost or what is and what you may gain? Remember life happens to all of us the only difference is how we respond to it.

Are we victims?

Where are you going?

Are you happy:

• What do you want to accomplish?
  
• Can you quantify it?
  
• Why are you doing it?
  
• What is your vision?
  

http://billfitzpatrick.com/

Make the right choice

What are your choices and what do they say about you:

• What are your values?
  
• What do you want to accopmlish in life?
  
• Are you being honest with yourself or others?
  
• Are you promoting yourself?
  
• Do you know what your core values are?
  
• Do you hold yourself accountable?
• Do you sabotage yourself?
• Do you make excuses?
• Do you lie, cheat or steal?
• Are your dreams your owns or someone elses?

http://billfitzpatrick.com/

Pictures of Sat before Easter with Spearman Family

Writing a Personal Mission Statement

This is important for you in a professional and personal capacity

What is a mission statement - a brief statement of the purpose of a company, organization. It is ideally used to guide the actions of the organization

http://BillFitzPatrick.com/

Naturally Seven (Practice makes perfect)

Your only limit is your imagination.

Just because someone has not done it before does not mean it cannot be done.

Those who criticize you are actually talking about their own dreams.

Just because you are different does not mean your wrong.

Not everyone has to like, appreciate or understand you.

• Naturally Seven
  
• Naturally 7 - Vocal Play
  

The Secret Language of Kings (Emotional Intellegence) - Lenai Stewart

Lenaistewart sent me a great write up on twitter - I enjoyed it so much that instead of looking for something else to write I figured I would share it here 

Lenaistewart@lspearmanii I have a something ON Emotional Intelligence ck it out... http://bit.ly/RJoB

Your Affiliate Benefactor is: Lenai Stewart

E-mail: lenai@lenaistewart.com

Phone: 631-961-8811

To order this $9 Book which gets home delivered that includes an audio CD from Joe Schroeder, go to: http://www.godoyou.com/

Strategic Planning

Many people and business think operating with time sensitive goals is not import and yet jusy like drive a car with out a destination in mind and an ETA the business can flounder around aimlessly arriving no where and wasting time and resources. Shure you can operation with short term goals only yet that too will eventually lead to demise because you will deplete your resources without provisions for things like refueling and you will often find yourself going incircles wasting effort. Also the plan truth of the matter is so often short term thinking conflicts with long term thinking.

Consider this material as you think about your business

Business Lessons – a few thoughts on Goals

I hope you enjoyed. With the advent of a New Year thought I would talk about goals because so often people make new years resolutions. Yet for business goals are important. According to Wikipedia a New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous while a goal or objective consists of a projected state of affairs which a person or a system plans or intends to achieve or bring about — a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. 

The last post completed my series of expanding on the points contained in the post Business Lessons - A few thoughts on making quality decisions.

• Reliability
• Quality/Integrity
• Durability
• Predictability
• Consistency
• Price
• Warranty
• Customer Service
• References/Reviews 

As a business it is important that you make strategic (not emotional) decisions, plan term and balance short term objectives. Let’s dig in a little deeper – for a goal to be effective it must be reasonable and as much as possible take into account the TCO (Total cost of operation/ownership). Let me use two examples to break this down. 

• You want to buy a car for an employee or technician. This car costs $300/mo – that is all you need to consider right? No, Insurance (required level of gas, maintenance (oil, tire, wash, etc)
• You want to hire a new employee – their salary is $20/hr – done right. What is I told you their real cost is somewhere between $40 and $50/hr plus insurance and other miscellanies expenses including but not limited to training, tools, unemployment, health insurance, G/L insurance and the list goes on) 

In both of these examples you must also take current revenues and expenses into account when making a decision. In any decision it is important to make sure that your expenses never out strip your revenues least you end up in a financial deficit and are required to pull funds from other sources to cover the expenses. Doing this could mean none payment of some other current liabilities or possibly the termination of existing employees (see outfall of financial meltdown). 

So how do you plan for effective goals, ironically the first thing needed is introspection. You must know yourself and your priorities, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, etc which requires frank, honest and often harsh introspection. Nest you must be realistic and consistent with your goals and values. Why must your goals be consistent with your values, because if they are not you will never follow through with them.   

Once you have set your goals then the hard work starts, you must look at all of your actions personally and professionally to determine if they are moving you closer to or further away from your objectives. If they are moving you further away they should be eliminated and if they are moving you closer they should be enhanced. 

Lessons from the military (as taught by my dad the tech sergeant)

As some of you know I am an Air force brat. My father was a tech sergeant in SAC before the reorganization. As I get older it is funny how much we are like our parents and yet why should we be surprised – they raised us. Here are some of the lessons I learned growing up:

• Service before self
• Unit before self
• It is about the mission not the individual
• Remove people who are not helping you accomplish the mission at head
• Swiftly and decisively deal with people of questionable ethics
• Honor before all else
• Understand your assignment
• Follow all orders except bad one
• Plan your work and work your plan
• Think strategically
• Protect your family at all costs
• Give respect to receive respect
• Respect the person not the rank
• Avoid a fight is you can
• If the enemy will not let you avoid a fight decimate the enemy leaving them no grown to stand on and no quarter to retreat
• The best way to win a war is never to fight one but if you are left no choice to win commit all, decimate your enemy, scorch the earth leaving them no quarter to retreat, and be willing to die for your beliefs
• Losing a battle does not mean the war is lost
• Set a clear objective
• Eliminate things and people who do not assist you in achieving the objective
• Eliminate people who cannot carry their own weight or make the minimum cut
• Know politics enough to know when they are coming so you can avoid them
• It is not what people say that matters but what they do in times of pressure and crisis
• Reward loyalty
• Reward respect
• Reward honesty and character
• Reward performance
• Tolerate no disrespect
• Do not argue with a fool or waste time with people
• Never BS
• Never tolerate BS
• Respect is not given freely it is earned
• Communicate clearly and concisely
• Say what you mean, mean what you say and then do it
• Know your job and do it well
• Be a person of impeccable integrity
• Lead not by words but by example
• Expect nothing less than the best
• Let your work speak for you
• Hold people accountable to their words
• Help those you can and who are willing to learn
• Openly share your knowledge with others
• Do not ask for or demand respect conduct yourself such that people have no choice but to respect you

Granted not many sergeants get promoted to the commissioned officer ranks and yet those who spent time in the military know the Sergeants are actually the people who run the military not the commissioned officers and consider the Sergeants are often the ones training the officers.

There are other lessons, but these were the lessons taught by my father growing up in both word and example

A few simple questions of why?

• Why did or do you want to start a business?
• What made you think you had what it takes?
• What price are you willing to pay?
• Are you the type of person who inspires trust and confidence?
• What distinguishes you from others?
• Are you dependable?
• Are you ethical?
  
• Do you think a business will make you rich?
• Why would I want to do business with you?
• What are you willing to give up?
• Are you comfortable taking full responsibility for your life?
• Are you comfortable accepting responsibility for the lives and well being of others?

Why businesses fail

This is something I can write about with some authority. I have seen many business over the years blow past me one way then back the other. As a mentor and coach I have had some success (one of my people has a business listed on BE 100 fasting growing businesses) and other failures – some quite dramatic. It is amazing that people claim to want success but insist on not changing to achieve it. That said here some of the reasons businesses fail.

· Deception – this is a major one that covers a lot of ground. Lying to your self about what you or your business are capable delivering in part due to a lack of self awareness. A cleaning company is not a construction company – you cannot be all things to all people but because instead of servicing the client the motivation is on money and exploitation the company losses focus and Boom.

· Procrastination – not acting in a timely manner and putting things off that should be done or resolved quickly

· Immaturity – children throw temper tantrums and allow their feelings and moods to dictate their actions. As a business owner you do not have that luxury – you and your company must be the epitome of professionalism.

· Small minded – sometimes some people are unable to grow and repeat the same patterns of behavior (unwilling to learn)

· Improper alignment – valuing the acquisition of money more than servicing their clients or helping their employees and/or believing the purpose of the business is to serve them or make them rich.

· Lack of Consistency – as boring as it may seem – predictability is important because a client and employee must be able to count on your word being your bond – they must be able to count on you without thought or question regarding will your business do what it promises

· Lack of Commitment – some people play at business, as some as things get difficult they quit or when they are required to grow or even let go and trust others they refuse – they were not all in.

· Entitlement – some how believing you or your business are due some special consideration by merit of birth or family or that someone owes you a living instead of understanding you must earn it by serving others

· Lack of common sense – ignoring the obvious – spending more than you make, rewarding negative behavior, obsessing on criticizing other people and businesses instead of focusing self improvement, failing to appreciate and add value to clients and employees (not treating them as investments), believing you are somehow superior, (lack of humility), etc.

There are more reason businesses fail however these are some of the main ones. I hope you noticed Money was not in this list – while capitalization is important it is actually rare that this is why a business fails – when we dig deeper we often find mismanagement causing a lack of good will and a loss of desire to help or work that that business and its owner(s) is the root issue.