Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneur’

In 2002 I was laid off from the last of my “good” jobs.  It was, for me, my second lay off in three years. The jobs were considered “good” because they paid well, used my education and carried a title.

While working my “good” jobs I woke up every morning much earlier than I wanted, hurried my children off to school so I could drive 40 minutes to my office.  In the evening, I’d repeat the trip this time filled with rage, frustration and a sense of futility, which I would share with emotion over the dinner table.  Perhaps my boss was exceptionally volatile and inconsistent. Perhaps my expectations for creating positive change in a well established organization were unrealistic. Perhaps there was something intrinsically wrong with me that I couldn’t find happiness in the American dream of a well paid job and a loving family.  What I know is:  I turned into a bitter, complaining woman.

The Law of Attraction – It Works

I lost those jobs. Just as promised, the law of attraction responded to my misery by delivering to me exactly what I wanted. 

At first I did not respond at all well to getting my way.

I am okay with it now.

It took these two painful and unexpected experiences (thank you universe) for me to begin to accept my chronic unemployed status as an irrepressible calling from my spirit.  My finally stepping into a place of authenticity came from a universally human commitment to my own self preservation. Shaken and uncertain after the second corporate rejection, I found myself unwilling to go through that same pain again. That is when I declared, out loud, and without my usual careful research and planning; “I will never again work a job.”

Transformation

I had no idea how I was going to keep my promise but, as with all transformation stories, through my commitment I created a new reality.

Once I truly committed to never working again not having a job became my new comfort zone. Once we commit, truly commit, to a change, it is easier for us to find our way to our new reality than to stay in the old rut.

It Takes Time

My transformation was not immediately evident. In those long, lonely and lost days of my unemployment I realized some things about myself. The truth was, ever since I pitched my first freelance story idea to the local paper, I had always wanted to be independent, creative and resourceful, in short, an entrepreneur.

This change in my understanding of myself came slowly. In the beginning, steeped in my own judgment of my failure, being independent, resourceful and creative did not seem like a good thing.  I saw myself not as I do now, as a uniquely gifted spirit called to benefit others with my knowledge, products and services, but as an unemployable, a seriously flawed individual, a misfit, a failure.

I was ripe for a Working Miracle.

The Value of a Good Title

At some point in my social isolation, I discovered in my junk mail an invitation to a workshop called Wealth Without a Job . 

Talk about the value of good titles! Wealth without a Job is exactly what I wanted.

So, worried the whole time about the expense and guilty to be spending money on my undeserving, unemployable self, I flew to Arizona to attend.

It was at that workshop; presented by the late Phil Laut and his business partner Andy Fuehl, that I first discovered the concept of passive cash flow.  Up until that point I thought my choices were either work for myself or work for someone else.  With the concept of passive cash flow I understood that what I need was not work but a source of income. My life was changed. I had glimpsed the path I was to follow.

Skills and Abilities

 Back home I started to work on both my money psychology and my business skills.

Psychology comes first because, it was clear from my recent career decisions that I was operating from a place of fear.

 Every corporate job I’d ever taken I had taken despite an inner knowing that said, “You do not want this”. Every job was taken out of fear: fear of a lack (money) and a pathetic desire to avoid criticism (attack) by finding approval in the eyes of others. 

Once I recognized the thoughts that caused my behavior, I was free to challenge my own thinking and free to take a chance on listening to my inner voice. In short I was free to be happy.

And so, after a long and difficult journey with many wrong turns, I finally found my path.

Taking my inherent gifts into account, instead of discounting them, I started a journey of learning and discovery.    Years of study are not the right path for everyone but, given who I am; my natural skills, strengths and abilities, it was the right path for me. (I can help you with this too) I set out to learn not just about working for myself but about making money by building a business that showcased my skills and abilities and, just as promised, the teachers appeared.

Me as Millionaire

You can find the teachers I choose to learn from and the programs that inform all that I teach my clients here. If you want to explore any of these programs further, I will be happy to talk to you about my experience, what I want you to know right now, is my conscious decision to learn what I needed to know to make money a source of energy in my life, and my commitment to taking action, including overcoming obstacles, on all that I learned, turned me from an insecure frightened bag-woman-in-waiting into a millionaire.

I feel no shame in telling you that my million dollar status did not survive the economic down turn because really that detail doesn’t matter.  What I gained and still value is my self-image as an excellent money manager, my income as a successful entrepreneur and my confidence that I am now a person who creates the money she needs and always will.

Now that I have discovered this gift, it is mine to share. All my experience and learning has led me to become a business coach.  For a woman with my skills, my experiences and my personality my obvious area of growth is to share what I have learned with others.

I teach tactical, practical skills for turning your abundant gifts into a quality life, without sacrificing what you are uniquely designed to do. The key to my small business coaching is a process I call the Working Miracles Map to Success.  My process includes, gaining control of your money psychology, following your inner knowing, embracing the abundant gifts you already have and giving yourself permission to create wealth as you adopt the skills and attitude of a business leader.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. It is lonely, risky and hard work. So why do it?  What is your motivation?

Pain and Pleasure

We are all born with two basic sources of motivation: to move toward pleasure and to move away from pain.

From Within or Without

Motivation also comes from different directions.  Intrinsic, or from within, and extrinsic or from without:  Each of us is hard wired to be one or the other.

If you work for recognition and validation from others, for external reward including the reward of avoiding an external pain, you are extrinsically motivated

If you work for a sense of personal satisfaction, including the pleasure of knowing you’ve done a good job in your own eyes, you are intrinsically motivated.  Clearly, given the hard, lonely work of an entrepreneur, intrinsic or self motivation is the most useful.

Personally Speaking

I am naturally extrinsically motivated to avoid pain. (I trace my world view to religious training that taught me to live my life so as to avoid the long term consequences of sin.)  Consequently, I am often afraid of perceived long term consequences: I am afraid of failure, afraid of success, afraid of potential problems.   I’ve learned to use my irrational fear as an intrinsic motivator

For many years I struggled to avoid the pain promised by external motivators. (Most recently a difficult boss.) Eventually I realized by confronting my fears I could release myself from the reactionary prison I had created.

The last job I accepted, before I became a committed entrepreneur, I took with this argument in my head. “I only need to do it for 10 years and if I am careful and save my money, then I can retire.”

I was avoiding the long term pain of a lonely, desolate and depended retirement.  This was the pain promised by various external authorities including the media, every financial adviser I ever met and my parents.

When I realized the price I was paying to avoid this anticipated pain, I made an internal decision to take charge of my own reaction.  I made a conscious decision to quit avoiding pain and instead to move toward pleasure by learning how to make money without working a job.

This learning to overcome my own fear has led me to absorb a great deal of knowledge and test my knowledge with real world experience.  Sharing my knowledge and experience as a business coach is the natural next step and a great pleasure.

My personal growth depends on making my life and learning have meaning by sharing it with those who can benefit.  This desire to grow and find meaning in my life is internal motivation.

I am still afraid: afraid of criticism; afraid of judgment; afraid of failure; afraid, if truth be told, of success since it will lead to criticism, judgment and the possibility of an even bigger failure.  Yet, on another level, an internal level, I am motivated to continue.

Self Motivation

For entrepreneurs and small business leaders there is little outside authority to wield the stick that keeps us pulling the wheel?  For entrepreneurs it is necessary to be self motivated.  To find and maintain self motivation you need to be emotionally attached to achieving the goal.

What motivates you to do the work that you do?

Today we return to my series of lessons on leading your small business as if  it were a mega corporation and you, my small business friends,  are CEO’s with a huge staff of highly trained, highly paid, executive MBA wiz-kids to rely on.

 ”My every waking hour is a contest to see how much fun I can have making money doing what I love to do.”

Meaning Is the New Money

Times are tough, business is tough.  There is a school of thought that says if you are happy, you are successful. 

True but…

 Money is important too. As a mentor of mine often says, money may not be the most important thing but it is the most impactful thing.”  Translation: if you can’t pay the rent, you are going to have a hard time holding on to your happiness.

Which is why, for all the meaning and satisfaction your work gives you, you must, at least occasionally, focus on the money. Focusing on the money is, in mega corporation parlance, the job of the Chief Financial Officer or C.F.O.

Money is Mostly Numbers

Do you know how much money you will make this year?  It is now the fourth quarter of 2010. You should know. If you are not sure, overcome your math anxiety and do a little sales forecasting.

“In math there is always one right answer, and if you can’t find it, you’ve failed.  That makes me crazy” High school math student

Guessing at the Numbers

Forecasting not really math it is more like educated guessing. Guessing about how much money you expect to make in the next month or 3 months or 12 months. To forecast you need to know how many units of each widget you will sell and for what price. Simple multiplication will give you a sales forecast.

10 widgets X $10 each = $100

Math Anxiety is Unnecessary

Being anxious about this simple math is an overreaction because there is no absolute right answer. It is a guess! But it is a guess that will give you some direction in your day to day activities; some way to judge your effectiveness and some sense of security knowing in advance what you might expect for income in the months ahead.

Anxiety in General is Unnecessary

If you are feeling anxious about your any aspect of your business, consider signing up for In The Trenches: the new Working Miracles newsletter for small business leaders with practical tips for consciously turning your work into a miracle of prosperity and meaning

My premier edition is due out in mid October.  The sign up form is not yet up on the web site but I promise to get you on the list.  Just let me know in the comments box below.

Image by Flickr user Al Power, licensed under CC 2.0