Inventing a New Game: Interview with Philip Auerswald
Today’s Stories from the You Economy interview is with Philip Auerswald, author of The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs are Transforming the Global Economy.
I downloaded & started reading The Coming Prosperity the day it was released. In it, Auerswald investigates the way the old economic system is crumbling and how a number of factors – not the least of which is interconnectedness – are allowing people to rebuild a new system in its place. In this system, people who have never had access to commerce are making change and transforming global institutions.
In our interview, Auerswald uses an engaging metaphor: a chess game. In the old system, “there’s a set of structured opportunities & a clear hierarchy,” just as a chess game has a clear cut set of rules and roles.
People who are off the chess board and are spending all their time trying to get back on are going to feel frustration.
But what is happening now, economically speaking, is that the real game is happening off the chess board: What happens when you start playing with all the spare pieces? Make up your own rules?
What game will you invent with the chess pieces scattered around you?
That’s a big challenge to the status quo, of course. And it’s a necessary part of the push & pull of an evolving society.
Want more? Thought so.
Listen below or click here to download this 20-minute interview. (right click then “save as”)
[audio:http://taragentile.s3.amazonaws.com/PhilipAuerswald.mp3]Find Philip Auerswald on his site or on Twitter. Grab The Coming Prosperity here.
Calling you out on your “hope” — and asking you to work backwards.
I’m going to call you on a particularly pernicious piece of bullsh*t today. It’s this:
Hope.
Let me explain.
Yesterday I was on call with Amanda Farough, the owner of Violet Minded Design. We were discussing the income & sales brackets her new target clients are in. I was a bit surprised that she didn’t have a quick answer because these are celebrities that you & I both know. These aren’t mystery people and they talk about their earning quite a bit because it’s part of their job!
That was the tip off.
If she wasn’t aware of their sales bracket, then she wasn’t aware of her sales goal.
She let me know she “hoped” for a certain figure this year.
“A hope is not a goal,” I said. “A goal has a plan.”
She wrote that down in her notes.
When you have a hope, there’s no ownership attached to that outcome.
You’re shooting blanks and you don’t even know what your target is.
If you’re operating your business on “a hope,” today is the day to get honest about that fact and turn your hope into a goal that shapes your business for the better. Here’s how:
- Fess up. Admit to yourself that the number, the milestone, the ideal you’ve had in mind is only a hope and not a goal.
- Get real. Is what you’ve been hoping for really what you desire? Is it more? Is it less? Is it different? Understand what you really want for yourself & your business. Often when something remains a hope and not a goal, it’s because it doesn’t represent the true desire.
- State the goal. Turn your hope into a goal by stating it directly & with confidence. Don’t dare use the word hope when you state your goal.
- Work backwards. Now that you have the goal, it’s time to work backwards to create the plan. How many widgets do you need to sell to make the sales number? How many phone calls do you need to make to reach the milestone? How many press releases do you need to send?
- Tell someone else. You are not alone. Your business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Tell someone your goal and use the same language you used when you stated it yourself. Better yet, fill them in on the plan and tell them how they can help. You’ll take the words right out of their mouth.
See the plan you created when you worked backwards? Those are your priorities. Anytime you are faced with the opportunity for something new & shiny in your business, ask yourself if it helps you accomplish any piece of that plan. If the answer is no, ignore the shiny!
Work that doesn’t fit the plan is busy work. It may need done but it probably needs to be done by someone else.
Work that doesn’t fit that plan is keeping you from serving clients the way you want to serve them and it’s keeping you from being served by your business in a way that moves you – as a human being – forward.
When all you have is a hope, that extraneous, sometimes shiny work, is attractive. Even addictive. It helps you keep the hope a hope and nothing more. It gives you an easy out on what could be true goals. It gives you excuses when you really you have none.
Check & recheck. Is it a hope — or is it a goal?
What hope have you been holding onto in lieu of a goal? Click here to share it on Twitter.
The risk of realizing your potential and the opportunity of disaster
“High tolerance for risk.” It’s a qualification for hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. But you?
Most think entrepreneurship is a relatively risky endeavor. Steady pay checks, job descriptions, chains of command, succession plans, and – don’t forget – the unemployment safety net provides much more of a “sure thing.”
I’ve never thought of myself as being especially risk-tolerant. At the same time, I rarely perceive risk. I have always been a fan of worst case scenarios. If I can imagine the worst case scenario and imagine living through that, how risky could something really be? And really what can’t we live through?
But risk is really a matter of perspective. It is the awareness that, while potential is a constant, our actions have the capacity – and the will – to take us step by step, foothold by foothold, towards our of desires.
What I have learned through my own series of risky actions – buying a business, writing ebooks, transitioning brands, hosting a high end live event… – is that the outcome of any “risky” decision is rarely beyond the scope of my own actions. I will make the calls I need to make, write the emails I need to make, produce the content, close the sale, push through the barrier. It’s the risk – or its perception – that allows me to better understand the capacity of my own will and desire.
Of course, embracing risk on the basis of my own merit flirts with the potential for control issues. Yep, got those too. So I balance the knowing of my own actions with the unknowing of what opportunities disaster could bring. And yes, that is quite a happy way to live life.
I know that in disasters there is pain, heartbreak, financial hardship. But there is also revelation and revolution.
A revolution is a way of being that becomes a significantly better way of doing.
– Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions
The perception of risk – of the potential for true loss – fades a way when this balance is understood. The way up is yours to climb. The fall down presents its own glorious uncertainty.
Focus your awareness on the beauty of this balance.
Risk falls away.
You will endure.
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Today, my friend and partner-in-crime at Reclaiming Wealth, Adam King, is releasing his new book. It’s called Entrepreneurship at Your Own Risk. It’s a personal narrative of risk-taking & shifting perception that is colored by interviews with 7 entrepreneurs, including Jonathan Fields, Mark Silver, and… me!
You’re sitting on the next great startup: YOURS — an Interview with Chris Guillebeau
Shortly after I met Megan and right as I was really coming into my own with writing & growing my business, she said to me, “You do know Chris Guillebeau, right?”
“Um, no.” I said. “Should I?”
I went home and devoured his blog for hours. I felt like I had found a place I could belong, a community I could relate to, a leader I could follow. This story is not unique; it is shared by tens of thousands of others.
I now have the privilege of calling Chris a friend and mentor.
From his popular blog, to his first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, to the twice sold out World Domination Summit, to his latest book, The $100 Startup, Chris is influencing and inspiring thousands upon thousands of artists, entrepreneurs, and motivated idealists. He is a humble leader, a shrewd strategist, and a practitioner of all that he preaches.
In his new book, Chris examines hundreds of You Economy businesses and analyzes what makes them work. Then he distills that information down into strategies, action steps, and practical ideas for you to use in starting or growing your own bootstrapped startup.
Here are the highlights from our interview:
- Did you notice anything in common between all the businesses you examined? (1:06)
- “They’ve pursued a passion or developed a skill and tied that to the needs of the market” (2:34)
- How do you define a “startup?” (3:17)
- What’s the benefit of staying lean & mean? (4:48)
- “The number one thing people want is more freedom.” Click to tweet! (5:19)
- How big can a self-funded business get? (6:21)
- “It’s easier to create growth once you have something that’s already working.” Click to tweet!(8:18)
- “What can you do to tweak your way to the bank?” Click to spread the word! (8:52)
- What do you see as the future of this information economy? (10:30)
- “Anything we want to do – we can either do it or we can figure it out.” Click to tweet! (13:00)
- Why is it important to you to have a business that gives back? Is that an advantage in the 21st century? “I don’t really separate business & life.” (13:37)
Grab The $100 Startup today!
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Rethinking an Entire Industry for the 21st Century: Interview with Dr. Cory Annis
What does it take to turn an entire industry on its head? What’s involved in rethinking process, billing, communication, and approach?
Ask Dr. Cory Annis. She’s bringing innovation to the patient-client relationship and helping to rethink the future of the healthcare industry. Instead of using technology to make medicine more, faster, cheaper, Dr. Annis is using technology to strength relationships, to create an experience of health, or make healthcare more meaningful for those she serves.
Dr. Annis has chosen to focus her remote medical practice on entrepreneurs. She believes healthier entrepreneurs are more effective entrepreneurs. And that more effective entrepreneurs solve more problems, serve more people, and affect greater change.
She faces a number of obstacles, including well-meaning medical boards, but, because of her beautiful vision, she is determined to make this business work and to create the change that it requires.
Here are some highlights:
- How did this remote medical practice begin? (1:02)
- “Private practice doctors are, by nature, entrepreneurs” Click to tweet! (1:35)
- “Being healthy & being an entrepreneur are sometimes diametrically opposed to one another.” Click to tweet! (2:45)
- “Each of these monolithic infrastructures have been crushed by the ability of one person to talk to another person.” (5:21)
- “Not only would I be creating a business for myself but I would be doing my civic duty” (8:20)
- Tell me more about optimizing the performance of entrepreneurs through health. (18:18)
Pay attention to how a lifetime of experience plus a genuine need created a business. It wasn’t a single moment but a slow genesis of inspiration & need.
The real question that pushed the business forward was the question, “Why can’t I?”
Whether you watch the interview or not, I hope you’ll check out The Unorthodoc. And I hope you’ll answer the following question either in the comments below or by tweeting @theunorthodoc:
What would your ideal medical practice include?
Which story are you telling?
There are two stories to tell when communicating about your business. Neither are wrong, neither are right. The story you choose to concentrate on tells others quite a bit about why you do what you do and how you do it.
What are these two stories?
There’s a long-term story. And there’s a short-term story. Click to tweet!
Most online entrepreneurs are telling a short-term story. It’s the story that is focused on the present, on the growth of the business. It’s the story of immediate needs, quick fixes, and hype.
It’s based on perception. It’s works towards near-sighted objectives.
There’s a place for this story. It drives you to generate revenue now, to attract clients now. It keeps you motivated even when the going gets tough. It allows you to celebrate small wins – and celebrating is oh-so-important.
This isn’t a bad story to tell – especially when you’re telling it to yourself.
But there are those telling the long-term story. It’s the story focused on value, on the way forward, on the client relationship. It’s the story that produces movements, conversations, communities.
The long-term story creates collaborative goals. It’s the tide that lifts all the boats.
When money is tight, when resources seem scarce, the long-term story is the last thing you want to think about. The long-term story seems like a luxury.
But the long-term story is what your customers & clients are looking for. They want to know you’re here for the long haul. They want to know you’re as concerned with their needs as you are with your own. They want to feel care for, nurtured, understood.
The people attracted to the long-term story are the ones you want to work with. There the ones who want your best work. They’re the ones who pay what you’re worth and understand your value. They’re the ones that support you as an artist, thinker, creator.
Your customers believe in you because you give them a story to believe in.
So what story are you telling? Does you website tell the long-term story or the short-term story? What story does your social media tell? What story does your person to person interaction tell?
What story are you telling?
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If you’re interested in telling a long-term story, I invite you to sign up over at Kick Start Labs. You’ll start getting a free ecourse designed to help you blog a smarter, more engaging story around your business: your long-term story. Click here to get started now!