Tag: startup advice

How to create more urgency to get more done.

One of the most powerful forces on human life is urgency.

Urgency, quite simply put, is importance that requires swift action.

But too often we take swift action on the unimportant things in our lives. Like social media, and the other things dinging and blinging on our phones.

Or we take swift action on other people’s important issues. (If you have kids or an underprepared boss, you know what I’m talk’n bout, Willis.)

However, we fail to take swift action on the things most important to our lives, our success and our most valued projects.

I bet that you have big dreams, goals and ideas that, if completed, would make a massive impact on your life.

Maybe you want to start a business, travel to amazing places, organize a fun event, get together with family or friends you haven’t seen in a long time, or create that art thingie that only you understand. Maybe you have something big you want to take on at work that would change your organization in a major, positive way.

But I am also willing to bet that you took no steps towards making that a reality yesterday. Or in the last week. Or in the last year. Or maybe ever. Like ever, ever.

The problem is that you have ideas, visions and goals, but you don’t have a motivating deadline.

Remember: It is the deadline that creates urgency.

It is the deadline that requires swift action.

But not just any old deadline will do, Buckaroo.

Most self-selected deadlines are far too far off.

Short deadlines drive action.

There is a very simple test for the effectiveness of your deadline.

Your deadline must require you to do something today to stay on pace.

If your deadline doesn’t require anything of you today, your deadline is too long, Duk Dong.

If your deadline doesn’t create a feeling of discomfort for work undone today, it is not effective.

If your deadline doesn’t influence your actions or your schedule today, there is too much slack in it.

Your deadline has to create constraint. It must create a friction that prevents you from letting important activities keep on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future.

Key Takeaway

To force dreams, goals and great ideas to life, you need shorter deadlines. A loose deadline has no power. Create deadlines that demand action today. Tighten your deadlines to force yourself into action. The tighter the better. Unreasonable deadlines can drive remarkable results. So trade in someday for this year, this week or this afternoon. And you will discover just how much you are capable of accomplishing.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media. And consider subscribing to Adam’s Good Newsletter.

Jealous of others making a job change? Then it’s time to make your own.

I have mostly loved my career. I have always enjoyed the work I do. But there have been a couple of brief periods when I didn’t like where I worked.

At one point in my advertising career, due to some business loss, we decided to shut down one of our agency’s office locations. Which meant that virtually everyone in that office had to find a new job. The whole experience was right out of a movie.

But I had a very surprising reaction to the situation.

Under those circumstances, it is natural to feel lucky that you are not affected by the office shutdown. That while everyone else is losing their job, you get to keep yours. It should feel like a win. However, instead of feeling bad for that group of my teammates forced to find the next chapter of their careers, I found myself envying them.

I envied that they had to make a change.

I envied that they got to stop what they were doing and find a new situation. That could involve a new company, mission, industry, a new set of coworkers, a new career path, a new level within an organization, or a new attitude, like Patti Labelle.

Meanwhile, I was going to stay in the same job, with the same shortcomings, the same cultural challenges, the same feeling that this place didn’t fit me. The same sense that I was better than this situation. The same feeling that the only reason I was still here was for the money. For the false sense of stability that this salaried employee job offered me.

But something in the feeling of envy for those forced to move on and move forward in their careers, changed something profound in me. I recognized that life is too short to spend unhappy and unfulfilled at work, in a culture, climate and a missionless or purposeless environment.

So my mind shifted.

I knew I needed to find my own next chapter that would make me feel all the things I wish I felt. I spoke to several advertising agencies about the prospect of joining their teams. I explored several different markets to live and work in. The exploration was energizing. And I knew I was on the right path.

Within a year of my profound mindset shift triggered by envy for my teammates who had to make a career change, I had discovered my new path. I started my own business. I launched The advertising and ideas agency The Weaponry. And my life changed in all the ways that I hoped it would.

The past 9 years at The Weaponry have been the most adventurous and rewarding of my career. All because I tuned in to what my envy was telling me. I was willing to make a dramatic change for the better. I was willing to risk the perceived safety and security of my situation for the control and happiness of an unknown adventure. And that has made all the difference.

Key Takeaway

If you are jealous when others are forced to write the next chapter of their career, it means that you have to find your own new next chapter. It is time for greater happiness and fulfillment. It is time to throw off the ropes of your current condition and sail for something better, more fulfilling, more exciting and new. Something that matches your skills and vision for your life’s adventure. Get going. There’s nothing stopping you but you.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

4 Keys to entrepreneurial success I wish I had known before I got started.

I am asked about my entrepreneurial journey a lot. It seems that far more people are interested in starting their own business than ever sail their own entrepreneur ship. If you are considering starting your own business, either as a side hustle or as your main hustle, here are 4 things that I have done that I highly encourage you to do too.

1. I Took Action. 

Everyone has a dream. And I dreamed of starting my own advertising agency for a long time. But to actually start your own business you have to move beyond dreaming to doing. Starting in the fall of 2015 I took an endless series of small actions that led me to today. My business, The Weaponry, will turn 8 years old next month.  So if you want to make sure you don’t die with your dream still inside you, take action to make it real. (Also look both ways before you cross the street.)

Suggested readings to spur your action:

2. I Saved. (Not Like Jesus)

As a professional creative thinker, I take lots of risks with idea exploration. However, I am fiscally conservative. I have been cautious with our expenditures, our office space and our staffing size. I have been conservative about leaving cash in the business, versus taking it home as part of my return. As a result, The Weaponry has strong reserves to outlast downturns. This was a key reason I didn’t panic at the disco in 2020 during the Covid Cray Cray Fest.

3. I Planted Seeds.

Business development is critical to creating a pipeline of opportunities. Over the years I have stayed in touch with old friends. I’ve made one hundred billion new friends. I have had phone conversations, chocolate milk meetings and lunches. I have volunteered my time. I have guest lectured and given talks. I write a blog. I wrote a book called What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? I co-wrote a book titled The Culture Turnaround with Jeff Hilimire. I have given interviews and served on committees and boards.

All of those things are like planting seeds. You never know when they will sprout or what they will turn into. So keep planting seeds and watch what happens, with Andy Cohen.

4. I Delivered

The best source of new business is a happy client. And you develop happy clients by delivering for them. (Especially if you are an obstetrician, or a milkman.) The Weaponry has grown by keeping our clients happy and expanding our work with them. We are also expanding by having happy clients leave for great new jobs and bringing us with them to their new companies. I have a really great team. And I appreciate all that they do for our clients. It is why we are still here, and still growing strong.

Key Takeaway:

To develop a successful business you have to take action. Without action, you are just a dreamer. You have to save money so that you are prepared to weather the storms that will surely come. You must keep planting seeds by creating and nurturing relationships and providing value to others. Then you must deliver the goods. Nothing grows a business like happy customers. None of it is easy. And none of it is that hard. It is simply the price you have to pay to get what you want in life.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why baby steps are the key to big progress.

I bet you have good ideas all the time. Ideas about inventions you should create, businesses you should start, books you should write, and funny comebacks you should have said (#TheJerkStoreCalled).

We all dream of writing a best seller and starting the next cover-of-Forbes business. Unfortunately, for most people, these are never more than dreams. Because most people have no idea how easy it is to make their dreams a reality.

Baby Steps

There is one simple element that changes dreamers into doers. It’s action. To make a dream come true you simply need to step towards it. You don’t need a giant Giannis Antetokounmpo or Stretch Armstrong-size step. Any baby step will do.

Launching My Business

When I really wanted to start my own advertising agency I started taking little actions that moved the idea forward. First, I bought and read books about starting and running a business. I followed the advice in the books, and actually wrote down my plans. Then I started following the plans. I met with entrepreneurs and harvested their insights and advice.

None of it was hard. Within months I had started a business in my spare time that would support my family. All because I kept taking baby steps.

pexels-photo-2261282.jpeg
Not only is this a baby about to take her next step, it may be the cutest picture that has ever appeared in my blog. Credits go to Angeliz Olivares on Pexels.com

More Baby Steps

Over the past 2 weeks I have taken small but meaningful steps forward on several new projects:

  1. I have created a growing monthly meet up with my college track and field teammates that I think could have a major impact on many lives.
  2. I started writing a script for a live show that I think could become a template for live entertainment shows in every city in the world.
  3. I have taken steps forward to create a new food brand, because I recognized a wide open opportunity that no one else was grabbing.
  4. I contacted a publication and told them I was interested in writing a regular segment for them. I now have a meeting with the publishers in 4 days.
  5. I have started writing 2 different books.
  6. I have been actively studying real estate investing. Not just thinking about it.
  7. I have been sketching out new t-shirts I want to create.

What Happens Next

I am thrilled to have started all of these projects. But they are not reality, yet. They all require more action. In fact, none of the 8 things I started can or will move forward without me. So the baby steps have to continue. But if I keep moving I will have a new line of t-shirts to wear and sell, a food brand you could find at grocery stores, a real estate business, 2 new books, a regular meet up group format that could be repeated around the world, a regular column in a publication and a crazy live show you would pay money to see (even though everyone wears clothes).

Key Takeaway

Action is everything. It is the different between dreams that come true and those that vanish into the ether. Talk is cheap. Action is magic. If you just keep taking baby steps, before you know it, you will have completed a marathon of progress. So, when you get an inkling that you should create or do something, take a baby steps towards it. It’s how I created my advertising and idea agency. And it is how I’ll be able to bring all the other ideas to life too.

If you found value in this post you would also enjoy, The most important ingredient to entrepreneurial success.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.