In my job, I get to work with a lot of different people. It’s great because I love people. People energize me. I’m always talking, emailing, tweeting, commenting, etc. I’m always “on” – which can wear a lot of people out.

I get that.

Not everybody is me. Not everybody has my energy. Totally cool. The world would not be a better place if they did.

But what kills me are people who lack a sense of urgency in a constantly evolving and quickly shifting marketplace. There is a delusion that a lot of people operate under that has them making excuses for inaction while wrapping it up in a nice little ribbon. Here are two of the more common myths:

Myth: I’m waiting on more information
If you’re under the impression that you can make a fully informed decision with more information, you’ll never act. We’ll never have all the information we’d like. However, we will always have all the information we need.

Ask yourself this question: If this is all the information I will get on _____________ what decision would I make right now? Chances are, you won’t change your mind no matter what information you receive. Get used to making under-informed decisions. They all are.

Myth: I need to clear a few things off my plate first
Trust me, your plate isn’t as full as you think it is. And even if it is, it’s not going to get any emptier. Busyness is a perception. What’s busy to one person is lazy to another. The truth is we’re all pretty busy. But the world doesn’t care. Our competitors don’t care. Our clients don’t care. Our families don’t care.

You don’t need to clear things off your plate, you need to manage your time better. You need to learn to prioritize. Besides, if you’re good at what you do, you’ll always have a full plate.

Remember, the world is changing and evolving whether you want to or not. You need to have a sense of urgency. I’m learning to only work with people who do. You don’t need my energy, but you do need the ability to act in a moment’s notice on limited information and adapt to whatever comes next.

Questions: What are some of the excuses you’ve heard for inaction and lack of urgency? Which have you used in the past? How can we create a sense of urgency in our lives without letting “the tyranny of the urgent” control us?

So you read yesterday’s post That’s Not My Job and thought to yourself, “I never say that.”

Cool. But how many of us will turn right around and tell someone else that something they’re doing is not their job?

We tend to get territorial about our work or our responsibilities. Why? Are we afraid of getting out-shined? Are we afraid someone may take the credit for something we do?

Sidebar: some of the whiniest, most territorial people are software developers. They HATE when people get involved in “their” code or change “their” design. I’m not saying all developers are like that. Just that programming has a disproportionate amount of prima donnas to other industries. I should know, I was one.

Sorry, back to the post.

Anytime I hear the words, “That’s not his job,” or “That’s not your job,” it’s a clear signal that is is somone who’s insecure about their work.

• Secure people work in groups.
• Secure people know that input from others is valuable and ultimately helps them grow.
• Secure people are not afraid of being out performed, because they know it’s not a zero sum game.

There is always room for more than one person to succeed.

Questions: Are you territorial and insecure? Do you ever tell people that what they’re doing is not “their job”? What’s your response to people who say that to you?

These are perhaps the four deadliest words to your career. If you tend to see things through the prism of who else is responsible for a particular project or task or problem, I recommend you rethink that approach.

The world is changing at such a rapid pace that companies, clients, business partners and employers have little time for people looking to pass responsibility on to someone else.

What those four words effectively communicate is that you are either incapable or unwilling to be valuable to an organization. You also just conceded that another person is more capable than you.

So which is it? Are you incapable or unwilling? And which of those two do you think people are looking at when considering who to keep on a team?

Try these four words instead: “How can I help?” Or, more directly, “Let me do that.”

You can only have something (or someone) of value when the amount of money you invest or pay is exceeded by what you get in return. Be valuable. Return more than expected.

Questions: Have you ever caught yourself saying, “That’s not my job”? How do you respond when other’s say that to you?

If you run a business, or are a leader in an organization, you’ll undoubtedly encounter large, complex problems. These are the problems that keep things from getting done or act as roadblocks to growth. What I’m going to share with you are five steps for solving those complex problems.

Do these five things and you will have resolution quickly. Skip or change any of them and you won’t. Simple as that.

1 – Involve Only People with Power to Create Change

Anyone can point to a house and tell you it’s on fire. Only a rare few can or will work to put it out. Those are the people you want involved in a meeting about the resolutions. You don’t want people who are adept at communicating problems. Also, just because a person is impacted by a problem does not entitle them to a vote or voice in the solution.

Nobody likes to be left out so prepare to hurt a few feelings. That’s okay. You need people who can walk out of the meeting and act without needing more permission.

You want people of action. Scratch that. You need people of action. Ignore this step and you’ll get mired in the back-and-forth bickering and positioning that will prevent forward progress.

2 – Define the Problem(s) Without Passing Judgement

Sometimes the problems are evident (like a burning building). Other times, the problem is more like an interconnected web that’s tangled and jumbled. Let everyone in the meeting define what they see are the problems.

If you have the right people, this will not turn into a frenzy. If anyone begins to whine, pass judgement on a problem or person, or point fingers, stop them immediately. If they continue, give them the boot. See step 1 above – no whiners allowed.

At this stage, do not attempt to offer up solutions! I can’t stress this enough. A lot of what you’ll hear during this stage are symptoms of the underlying problems – that’s okay. Let the symptoms guide you to the root cause.

3 – Discuss All Possible Solutions

With the problems defined, get the team to start offering up solutions, but don’t pre-judge them. Get them all out on the table first. All problems have more than one possible answer. Listen and observe. Come up with variations of the solutions offered up by others.

Be creative. Think of every angle. The time is over for pointing out the problem. Think about what you can do to fix this.

4 – Ruthlessly Weed The Solutions

Not all solutions are created equal. At this stage, you need to cull the bad ones. Explore the good ones. Pick them apart. But do it objectively. Don’t be married to your proposals. Let them sink or swim on their own merits.

If someone is needlessly getting attached to their proposed solutions, point it out. If the rest of the team agrees it’s not the best solution and the person will not let it go, ask them to leave. See step 1 above.

5 – Immediately Implement the Solutions

If you have the right people in the room and you’ve decided on the best course of action, don’t wait to get started. Don’t wait for meeting minutes. Don’t wait for “strategic initiative” documents that act as large CYA for those who are afraid to ruffle a few feathers.

On top of that, if you wait to get started, people will over-think the solutions. Fear and resistance will creep in. Progress will stop and you’ll have a new set of problems.

Step 1 required that you select people who have the power to create change without additional permission. If you did that, you should all be able to walk out of that room and make things happen. If not, you just wasted everyone’s time.

Wrapping Up

There you have it. Do these 5 things and you can quickly solve large and complex problems. Ignore any of them and you won’t.

Questions: When have you tried to solve large problems only to skip one of these steps? How did it turn out? Which step(s) did you skip or ignore? Looking at how you handle problems, are you the type of person that offers solutions or just points out the problem?

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a few entrepreneurs lately and something keeps coming up – building a business to sell it. I’ve got nothing against selling a business. I’d love to build something that people want to buy from me for exorbitant amounts of money.

But building a business with the sole purpose of selling it is a great way to ensure that it realistically never happens.

Here’s why: building a business is a long, hard, arduous process that will test your resolve. I was involved in a startup with the goal of selling. I wasn’t in it for passion and it sucked.

So when things got tough (they always get tough), the business fell apart. And it never falls apart pretty – in fact, it’s generally quite ugly.

Small sidebar: the beginning of the end is when one potential investor said, “So basically, what you’re trying to build is a social network for death.” We weren’t, but social networks were still a bit new and a lot of people didn’t get it. What would later become the death knell for our little startup was when friends and family started asking us how “Death.com” was going. There’s a whole different post there on branding for a different day.

The Best Case Scenario?

Let’s say that your business actually succeeds and is doing quite nicely and you want to sell. Remember, you didn’t build a business you were passionate about. So you want to sell. Do you know the statistics of businesses that actually get bought for large payouts? Of course not. Because most businesses don’t. If it succeeds, you’re going to be running a business you’re not passionate about, can’t sell, don’t like, but don’t want to close.

Sound fun? Of course not. Remember that job you hated that paid really well? You know, the one you quit while making a vow to yourself that you would never settle for another job that sucked the life out of you every minute of every day no matter how much you made? Oops. Only this time its much harder to quit.

The Better Path

Want to increase your odds of success? Of course you do.

Then build a business you’re excited about and don’t want to sell. Your life will be much more enjoyable. You’ll still have bad days – lots of them. But you’ll be able to push forward knowing that you’re one of the few people who actually chose to chase your dream rather than settle for someone else’s.

It won’t guarantee wild success. However, neither will building a business to sell. But I can guarantee you’ll have a lot more fun and be more likely to actually see it through to the level of success you want.

Have you ever tried to create a business that you weren’t passionate about? I’d love to hear your “Death.com” experiences below.

In his book The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Steven Pressfield tackles the constant battle that rages inside of artists. Art, according to Pressfield, is war. So is trying to start a business.

Have you ever considered the similarities between artists and entrepreneurs? Both are trying to create something from nothing. Both dedicate a tremendous amount of effort toward their craft. Both want to earn a living doing something they love. Both face internal battles against self-doubt and fear.

Only one of them tries to get paid prior to having much of anything to show. Guess which one.

Very rarely will you see an undiscovered musician head to a label and ask for a record deal based solely on an idea for a song. Yet an entrepreneur will head to the local angel investor or VC armed only with a business plan and a hockey-stick-shaped revenue projection.

I know because I’ve done it.

Perhaps we need to approach our craft like a musician and not like it’s a get-rich-quick scheme.

• Successful musicians start by writing music first. Entrepreneurs need to start by creating a product or service that makes money.
• Successful musicians practice even when nobody’s looking. Entrepreneurs need to build their companies even when nobody cares.
• Successful musicians care more about their fans than the labels. Entrepreneurs should care about their customers/users/clients more than pleasing potential investors.
• Successful musicians understand it often takes years to be “discovered.” Entrepreneurs need to understand that even Facebook wasn’t built overnight.
• Successful musicians often carry a day job and practice their craft during the down time. Entrepreneurs need to be willing to do the same.
• Successful musicians don’t wake up one day and say, “I’m a musician.” Some people think all they need to do is change their Twitter profile to read “entrepreneur” and they’ll get funding.
• Successful musicians had to live with constant rejection early on – meaning they had to be in love with the art, not the process. Too many entrepreneurs pick projects based on pipe-dream payouts – not how willing they would be to do it for years with no promise of a pot of gold.

We know this intuitively. The success rate of startups is not a mystery. It sucks. Yet we want someone else to bankroll our idea without having done much more than write a business plan.

It’s time we start thinking like a successful musician. It’s time we build businesses. It’s time we dig in for the long haul. It’s time we pick projects that excite us because of the work, not the fantasy payout. I’ve got nothing against investors. They are wonderful people doing great things. I’m just not going to work for them anymore. I’m going to work for me.

I have a gut feeling money follows passion. Not the other way around.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please share in the comments below.

Do you want to be successful? I’m not talking about money, though that may result. I’m talking about getting from where you are to where you want to be – starting that business, getting that promotion, landing that new client, creating a new product line, etc.

I believe there are only two skills you need that will make up for any of those you may not have:

1. The Ability to Sell What You Believe In
2. The Ability to Deliver What You Sell

Everything is Sales

The economy runs on selling a product or service for money. Even if you’re a programmer or a customer service rep, you’re in sales. Everything is sales:

• Hiring Managers sell the position to potential employees. You want the best applicants? Sell them on why your company is the best place to work.
• Entrepreneurs sell ideas to potential investors. They hear hundreds, if not thousands, of pitches per year. Tell them why they should care about yours.
• Job Applicants sell themselves to a company. If two people with similar resumes apply for the same job, who gets it? The one who can sell themselves over the other person. I’ve even hired people with less experience just because they convinced me they’d work harder.
• Revolutionaries sell people on why the status quo needs to be shaken up. Every person who’s ever led a movement, first had to convince a lot of people to see things as they did. They sold their vision and ideas.

Bottom line? You’re in sales whether you want to believe it or not. Embrace it. Then learn to sell your ideas, yourself, your business and your dreams.

Deliver on What You Sell

The term “salesman” has taken on a negative connotation. Primarily because so many things or ideas we’ve been sold don’t deliver. We don’t trust salespeople. We think they’re lying. I don’t believe that most salespeople intend to be dishonest. However, I believe most people sell something and then don’t deliver. Delivering takes effort. Delivering takes diligence. Delivering is hard, constant work.

If you can learn to sell what you believe in, then deliver on what you sell – be it an idea, your skill set, your company – you will never be lacking for business or a job. Many people can do one or the other. Only the truly successful learn to do both.

Do you possess these two skills? How do you use them in your pursuit of success?

After having a couple of days to think about the Vikings loss on Sunday to the Saints (I really wanted a Favre-Manning Super Bowl), I realized there’s a great takeaway for anyone trying to do something great:

Your Objective Defines Your Perspective

Question: When is 10 yards worse than 5 yards?
Answer: When 5 yards is what you need to win.

When things don’t go according to plan, it can be easy to lose sight of your objective.

In the final minute of the game, the Vikings had the ball in range for their kicker. However, a botched play set them back about 5 yards and outside their kicker’s range. With another play left, all the Vikings had to do was advance the ball 5 yards, kick the field goal and walk off the field as victors. The objective was a few yards.

As the final play unfolded, the opportunity was right in front of Brett Favre – he had the room to quickly run forward and pick up the needed distance. But he wasn’t looking for it. He was looking further down the field. Favre’s objective wasn’t 5 yards, it was 10.

Unfortunately, he threw an interception and the Vikings went on to lose.

When things are difficult and you’re looking for an opportunity, you have to remember your objective. Your objective defines your perspective. If your objective is off, you’ll be looking in the wrong direction. You’ll try to force opportunities in the wrong areas.

When your objective is off, you’ll miss the opportunity to advance your position or your company’s position. Don’t redefine or misdefine your objective during a setback. Take a breath, remember your objective then go out and hit it. Don’t panic.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working to hire a Brand Ambassador for Ethos3. With a few exceptions, I’ve been shocked at some of the applications I’ve received. One person even wrote a “cover letter” that consisted of the following sentence: “I have a lot of sales experience even though my resume doesn’t show it.”

We live in a time with roughly 17% unemployment. People need work but complain that they “can’t find a job.” I’d offer up this instead: Those who understand that they are business developers for themselves can find work in almost any market.

Business developers create and nurture a network.
Business developers search out ways to use their skills and assets to help others.
Business developers look for creative ways to get new business.
Business developers know they have to clearly define how they can help.
Business developers paint a picture of how wonderful the partnership can be.
Business developers are intentional in every contact they make.
Business developers try to stand out from the crowd.

Start thinking of yourself as a soloprenuer – a one person company – that needs new business. You’re the business developer for You, Inc. Now, get out there and be intentional. Hustle. Want it.

In 1519, Captain Hernán Cortés landed in Veracruz to begin his great conquest. Upon arriving, he gave the order to his men to burn the ships. As I imagine it, someone then laughed and Cortés promptly thrust his sword into the man’s chest. After which, the rest proceeded to get hammered on rum by the glow of the blaze. Almost like a bloodier version of The Pirates of the Caribbean with Cortés played by Johnny Depp.

Here’s the lesson: Retreat is easy when you have the option.

Let that ruminate in your brain for a moment. I had to.

We all cling to something that acts as our escape hatch or our exit strategy (in the negative connotation). It’s our safety net “just in case…” What we fail to do is honestly complete that sentence. We lie to ourselves. If we were honest, we would say, “This is my safety net just in case I get scared.”

We postpone action until we no longer feel fear. Either that, or our actions are shallow attempts never designed to succeed. In reality, we must learn to act decisively in spite of our fear.

Burning Things that “Make Sense”

“That doesn’t makes sense.” We love that phrase. We love to hide behind it. We tell ourselves that certain things don’t make sense. It would have “made sense” for Cortés to keep a ship or two if not his entire fleet. But Cortés was on a mission and he knew that the only way to keep himself or his men from quitting on the mission was to take that option off the table.

What Cortés did was force himself and his men to either succeed or die. Retreat was not an option. I believe that to truly achieve the level of success we each desire, there are times when we need to “burn the ships.”

The question we have to ask ourselves is this: What are my ships? What am I afraid to let go of?

I can’t answer that question for you, but I can give you some areas to consider as you ponder the question, “What ships do I need to burn in my life?” Take a look at them, then feel free to add your own in the comments below.

As you consider each one, if it jumps out at you, ask yourself why. What is it that makes it hard to burn? Is it a false sense of obligation to it? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it fear of being perceived as a failure? What is it?

• Your Current Job – Are you afraid of trying something new? Are you comfortable? Are you convinced that this is as good as it gets?
• Your Field of Employment – Have you been dreaming of a career change? Does every ounce of your work drain you? Are you a people person stuck behind a computer screen? This is one I had to wrestle with.
• A Bad Business Deal – Why is it a bad deal? Why can’t you let it go? Do you feel obligated to the relationship?
• An Unrealistic Dream – Sometimes this is the toughest one to spot. I enjoy watching TV shows like American Idol because you get a chance to see people who are willing to put it all on the line in front of a national audience for their dreams. During the tryout rounds, you’ll witness as people who are ill-prepared give what they believe to be a stellar performance. Unfortunately, they don’t recognize the lack of skill in themselves. It’s sad because they are neither willing to put the work into accomplishing their dreams nor willing to modify them accordingly. Instead of dreams they have fantasies and that is a sad state for anyone to live in.

What are other “ships” that often need to be burned? What “ships” have you burned? How did it feel at the time? How does it feel now?