Be the nerve centre, not the nerves

But... it IS personal :-/

"To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."
                                                                                -William Blake

O.K., here is what I have learnt in a few short months of running my own business. No matter what 'The E Myth' (see previous 'business classics' post) says, running your own business IS always personal.

It doesn't mean you have to physically be there to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's on every single invoice. In fact, the failure of most small business owners lies in devoting time and attention to those time-consuming but unrewarding tasks rather than focusing on what really matters - i.e. brings PROFIT.

However, running your own business is always involving and always absorbing. It not only should not but MUST NOT demand every ounce of your time, attention and energy (otherwise, how can you stay energetic and inspired and produce more great goods?!?) But there always things your business does demand from you. These are: your energy, your vision and your values.

give give give to GET GET GET


GIVE YOUR ENERGY

One very important reason you cannot spend 20 hours of your day working, hugging a can of Red Bull: You have to have energy!!! Energy to inspire, create, communicate, drive. If you do not give your business this fuel, who will? Be the instigator and the engine of positive energy and see it reverberate through everyone you touch with your ideas. Be excited, be buzzy, and believe in what you do and watch the results. Energy and positivity are infectious!

GIVE YOUR VISION

By vision, I don't mean a floating reverie of you, a white fluffy cat, a beach and a margharita. I don't mean the vacuous image of a goal. I mean the PROCESS.

Think about
How do you want your business run?
What is the role you see yourself playing in your business?
What do you want this business to ultimately achieve?
How do you want people to think of your business?
What it is that you want to create with this idea that you have?
Why do you want to spend this money, energy and nerve cells on these ideas?
What is it that makes this business so important?

Write down some solid points and them commit yourself into living them out every day from the time you open your eyes. Then, the next time you ask yourself 'dear God, WHY?!?', you will have all the answers you need.

GIVE YOUR VALUES

What are the values of your business? Why is it so important for this business to exist?
A business is an extenstion of you, and an excellent, unique opportunity to offer something of yourself of the world. Imagine your business as a human being. What values do you want it to have? What motivates it? What inspired respect from other people? What separates it from others? These are things the business can only get from you.

Mantra
I try to spend every day analysing the health of my energy, vision and values. Being vibrant, visionary and living out your values is far more important than getting a sale or completing another receipt that day. I believe if I can really establish what is important and brings the most value to my business and do my best to not stray away, great things await!

Plus, it means you can have your business AND always have the time to say YES to a cofee break in Darling Harbour...

- Victoria A.

The art of consumption

Image courtesy of fabulous illustration artist
 Julia Sonmi Heglund,
sonmisonmi.com

Consumption: what does it mean to you? If you are like most people, you are probably thinking of eating a Vegas-style buffet in a Hummer with a proud owner of a fresh pair of double Ds.

With all the (fully justified) negatives we have come to associate with excess consumption, it is time to speak in defense of the artful consumer.

A successful entrepreneur is a successful consumer. One of the key reasons why I am in business is because I am the ULTIMATE consumer. Food, literature, conversation, advice, sunshine... I soak it up.


I wake up in the morning to drown myself in coffee and stuff down my latest email intake of information and stimulation. I love to research recipes and get excited about gourmet food to the point of embarrassment. I bask in moments, hoard clothes, relish conversations and have been known to mistake random immobile objects for pie.

Chew on this: beneath the surface, and we are all animals, roaming for our next titbit of provisions. To see how deep this runs, just look at the language we use in daily life. We are constantly getting offered 'pieces of advice', are spending lazy Sundays 'devouring magazines', or 'gulping down' words. Consumption: we eat it up.
 
OVER STIMULATED
 
The natural instinct of a human being is to consume. We live in an over-stimulated world where large corporations have devised various mental and physical mechanism to enslave us to our needs. Our wants, needs and deepest desires now all come from magazines, advertisements and word of mouth gossips.
 
Rather than following our inner desires from 'within' we are now going 'without'. Without guidance, without direction, without satisfaction and without control. We are driven to fill a bottomless pit of emptiness with piles of nothing.
 
ABUNDANCE
 
As business people, we have a corporate social responsibility to ensure that whatever product or service it is that we offer, it is creating something of positive value to the world, rather than just feeding more of its perceived 'needs' and 'wants'.
 
When I think of my label, STOC, I think of abundance. Abundance of products, abundance of creative design, abundance of sales, abundance of people to work with, abundance of friendships, connections and relationships that we make with everyone who is involved inworking with us. I think of endless supplies, endless creative and manufacturing processes, and endless customers to share our work with.
 
INSPIRATION OR DESPERATION? That is the question.
 
To understand the difference between overstimulated consumption and abundance we need to ask ourselves one question: Am I doing this because of INSPIRATION OR DESPERATION? If we are inspired to do what we love, abundance flows our way and there appears an infinite supply of all the things we need and desire. If we are doing something because we are fearful and desperate to avoid something (poverty, loneliness) we are immediately making ourselves victims of senseless consumption.
 
If you are in business to help yourself and others do more of what you love, congratulations! You have far to go. If you are in business to buy yourself a job - think again.
 
VALUES
 
To consume well, establish your values and what is important to you and don't compromise. This simple piece of advice has served me in professional as well as personal life. Whilst it may not be perfect, it certainly works far better than the alternative! I've never heard anyone praised for being weak and confused.
 
An excellent speaker, Amir Zorghi, who runs a daily and weekly email of 'The Quest for Truth', advises us to give whatever it is that we lack, as this is what will give us what we perceive we need.
 
If you need kindness, give kindness wherever you go. If you are short on support, take care to consciously offer support and help to everyone you come across. Whatever you are seeking, you find it in you.
 
This applies in business. If you feel there are not enough reliable people in the industry you work in, always stand by your promises. If you feel the workers are often mistreated or underpaid, treat others as you want to be treated. If you feel there needs to be more independent suppliers or creative thinkers, become one!
 
Use the need for consumption as a tool to give, give, give more and more of your valuable product and service to servce the world. 
 
If that's not enough, here are the words of GOD: 'Give, and though shall receive'.
 
Now, be satisfied.
 
-Victoria A.

Why be an entrepreneur??

Quick post on the pros of being an entrepreneur:

1) Create things you love

Not everybody gets into business because they love what they do. Just the successful ones.

It is your love for what you do that will give you inspiration to get up every morning, provide you with enlightening ideas to build and grow your business and help you persevere through the hard patches.

Moreover, people are far more supportive of people that are visibly passionate about their business. These people don't 'sell' their product or service. They simple share something brilliant with the world.

2) Serve your values


How many of you are frustrated about limits on the way 'business is done around the place'? As long as you are working for someone else, you are going to be working for a business that has a different set of values to you, and this translates in how things are run. For example, if the business is always cutting costs on customer service, and you believe customers come first, it will be a constant cause of friction which will be impossible to change.

Working for yourself provides a wonderful opportunity to right the 'wrongs' of your chosen industry as you see them, and paint a bit of the world with your own colour.


N.B. Dr John DeMartini is an excellent, life-changing international speaker on value systems and how they serve your life. His work is an absolute must read for anyone who intends to have a good life.

3) Live happy

If you do what you love, every day is an opportunity to grow, create and prosper. This doesn't mean filling in each invoice with a crazy grin on your face. This means seeing the seeds of happiness and contentment in everything you do. Even doing those boring daily tasks or dealing with difficult people becomes more manageable if you realise that all of this is serving your dream of creating more of what you love.

There is no 'good' or 'bad' - only how you see things. Being an entrepreneur, and being a boss of yourself, your time, money and attention, and committing yourself to what you truly LOVE can lead to nothing but abundance.

Why wouldn't you want to be an entrepreneur?!

- Victoria