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Who Inspires You?

anniversary

It’s important to surround yourself with people who lift you up and inspire you.

Last week I found myself unexpectedly packing up our family car and heading West due to a cancelled flight.  I feel I need to explain why my blog posts will now be delayed for a few weeks.

We had plans to visit family and friends and those plans suddenly turned into the kind of road trip that my wife and I had been dreaming of.  We crossed through amazing country in West Virginia, plains I never knew existed in Kansas, dealt with the threat of a tornado in Colorado, and saw amazing beauty in Wyoming when we passed some buffalo.  We were on the road for three and 1/2 days with our young kids in tow.  A lot of friends said we were crazy and we even had our doubts...

August 10, 2013 Inspiration 2 comments
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The E-Myth: How Do You Get People to Do What You Want?

Twitter Summary:  How do you get people to do what you want?  It comes down to feelings.

Principle

So I’ve written a few posts about some key points of Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth over the last few weeks.  I’ve written about the difference between abdicating and delegating, how creating a system of doing business is the solution to most small business problems, and how relying on systems helps ordinary people do extraordinary things.  Today I want to segue into a logical follow up to the systems posts.  Once you have your systems set up for your small business, the key question then becomes, how do you get people to execute the systems you’ve developed?  Or in other words, how do you get people to do what you want?

Gerber writes that the degree to which people “do what you want...

July 29, 2013 Books, The E-myth 3 comments
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The E-Myth: How Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

Twitter Summary:  A 19-yr old kid from Hawaii learned to speak Spanish thanks to a system that changes something ordinary into something extraordinary.

Principle

In the previous post I wrote about Michael Gerber’s crazy idea that the success of small businesses is founded on creating systems that produce consistent results.  Today I want to write about how a system can take ordinary people and help them do extraordinary things.

Gerber writes in his book The E-Myth that a business which is dependent on highly talented people can feel shackled to those talented individuals.  What is worse, the high quality results of these highly talented individuals are hard to replicate consistently.  In the end, the success of a small business is NOT dependent upon the people it hires, but the consist...

July 22, 2013 Books, The E-myth 2 comments
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The E-Myth: The System Is The Answer

Twitter Summary:  A lot of your screw ups can be fixed by new routines.  Let me tell you all about it.

Principle

The foundation of what Gerber teaches in The E-Myth is that the success of small businesses depend on creating efficient systems that provide consistent results.  He used examples of McDonalds and other fast food franchises that use consistent systems to deliver the same product regardless of location or personnel.  So even if your product isn’t of the greatest quality (like McDonalds food!) the consistency with which it is produced makes it extremely valuable.  If you can consistently release a product that people can depend on, they will choose yours over high quality results that are inconsistent every time.

Small businesses often struggle because the owner usually finds...

July 19, 2013 Books, The E-myth No comments
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The E-Myth: Abdicate vs Delegate

Twitter Summary: If you’re in charge, do you find yourself working in your organization or leading it?

Principle

Michael Gerber in his book The E-Myth explains that one of the many reasons small business fail in their infancy is because some owners unintentionally abdicate vs delegate work responsibilities. Instead of delegating a portion of the business, providing clear guidance, and remaining involved, they often assign it to someone else, remove themselves completely from that portion of the business so as to focus on the actual work being done.  They struggle to know the difference between owning a business and working in a business.  Gerber says this is more a result of just not knowing how to do the work of an owner/manager than it is intentional negligence.

In Gerber’s own words ...

July 12, 2013 Books, The E-myth No comments
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Run In A Box

The Allreds are moving!  So I won’t be able to give you your usual weekly post.  Until the dust settles and I can get back to the regular blogging, here’s something to make you smile.

To help others find their "unrepressed child" sometimes you have to go first.

To help others find their “unrepressed self” sometimes you have to go first.

At my son’s birthday party I was cleaning up and decided to run in a box.  I threw a box over my head, thinking the kids would get a kick out of it.  Remembering I had my pocket knife, I cut out a peep hole and started running at the kids.  The picture is what happened next.  Even the horse seemed happy about it!

I’m glad I had a chance to make my kids laugh that day in so many ways.  I know some of their best memories will be of small stuff like this...

June 19, 2013 Challenge No comments
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The E-Myth: Upcoming Posts

Twitter Summary: Stop thinking you can do better than your boss just because you can do the technical work!

Background

My brother-in-law owns an real estate data services company and I was talking to him a few months ago about some of the new blogging ideas I have been having. He stopped me mid-sentence and asked, “Have you read the E-Myth yet?” I hadn’t, so he added, “Stop reading whatever else you’re reading and read this immediately. Then let’s talk.” I took his advice to heart and I’m glad I did. This book has completely changed my paradigm when it comes to conceptualizing effective organizations. A lot of how I view leadership and efficiency has now changed.

emythThe E-Myth, by Michael Gerber, stands for the entrepreneurial myth...

June 10, 2013 Books, The E-myth 2 comments
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The Element: What Is Your Element?

Twitter Summary: Has the thing you love to do become the thing you do well?

Principle

For my final post on Ken Robinson’s book The Element I want to clearly explain what Robinson means when he asks, what is your element?  Robinson starts off his book by writing, “My aim in writing [this book] is to offer a richer vision of human ability and creativity and of the benefits to us all of connecting properly with our individual talents and passions…I use the term the Element to describe the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.”

In other words, your element is when the things you love to do become the things you do well.

Robinson gives three reasons why people struggle to identify their individual element...

June 4, 2013 Books, The Element 5 comments
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The Element: A Worthless Degree

Twitter Summary: Do you possess a worthless degree? You’re not alone.

Principle

Towards the end of Ken Robinson’s book, The Element, he makes a statement that will resonate with anyone who has gone through a Western public  education system and felt like they ended up with a worthless degree.  He writes, “Of course, many people do well in their schools and love what they have to offer.  But too many graduate or leave early, unsure of their real talents and not knowing what direction to take next.  Too many feel that what they’re good at isn’t valued by schools.  Too many think they’re not good at anything.”

Robinson goes on to offer a few recommendations for this problem...

May 28, 2013 Books, The Element 2 comments
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The Element: Are You Accomplishing Anything?

Twitter Summary: You feel accomplished when doing something that matters to you. Often we settle for doing things for security instead of things we love.

Principle

Ken Robinson’s book, The Element, makes you consider the value of what you’re accomplishing in your life.  He says, “..it’s difficult to feel accomplished when you’re not accomplishing something that matters to you.”

Robinson explains how fear in all of its variations is the greatest obstacle to finding your personal “element.”  And by “element” Robinson means, when the things we are passionate about become the things we are good at.

That fear is represented as a fear of failure, not being good enough, fear of disapproval, poverty, and just fear of the unknown...

May 20, 2013 Books, The Element 4 comments
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