Travis Robertson

Why do so many people wait until they’re fired or laid off before they launch their own business? Why don’t they quit the job they hate and fire their boss? In this post, I provide a 3-step guide to firing your boss.

“Hey, you’re the same age as Jesus was when he died!”

Yesterday (August 23) was my 33rd birthday and the person who said that to me got me thinking about what turning “Jesus’ age” means. I like to think about what I would tell myself if I could travel back in time to when I was in my early 20’s. These are three lessons I would give myself.

There are a lot of people who talk about “one day” owning their own business. Yet, very few people actually end up even trying it. Why?

Usually it’s because they’ve chosen to believe one or more lies about starting a business. There are 7 common lies that people are telling themselves right now that will keep them from changing their dream of entrepreneurship into a set of goals they can accomplish.

As someone who’s self-employed, you’ll inevitably face bouts of crappy productivity and you’ll feel like banging your head against a wall. In my own life, those times generally occur when I let others set my priorities for me. So I took some advice and contacted a friend of mine (Justin Davis) who lives in the area and asked if he wanted to meet every Monday for coffee to set goals, challenge each other and provide a level of business accountability. Here’s how we make it succeed.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working with – and ultimately becoming friends with – Amber Lancour. We worked together at a company in Los Angeles and have kept in touch through email and through this blog and BadRoomie.com - a now defunct website I started with my brother (Amber’s had the craziest roomies).

Last week, Amber sent me an email with some kind words of encouragement about this blog along with her personal story about getting laid off and the forced transition to being self-employed. Read that letter here.

How are you likely to respond if I ask you the question “Who are you”?

“My name is Stephanie.” That’s your name. Who are you?

“I’m a project manager at Acme Design.” That’s what you do. Who are you?

In the final part of The Gap Series, I want to tackle how your will plays into the existence of the chasm between where you are and where you want to be. We’ve already discussed your heart (passion) and your mind (beliefs). Now I’ll let you in on the major thing you need to close the gap: persistence.

In my last post, I alluded to what I called “The Fantasy of Passion” – which is the ridiculous notion that if you’re doing work you love, you’ll always love it. In this post, I want to take the Fantasy of Passion and replace it with the Reality of Passion in the hopes that by doing so, you’ll be better prepared to appreciate the path you’re on (or will be on soon).

I’ve begun to see a pattern in the questions I receive via email or in conversations and I’ve realized something: There’s a large and often frightening gap between where most people are and where they want to be, but they’re not sure how to close it.

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: