I have learned through the years that who you surround yourself with matters. Are you surrounding yourself with people that have similar hopes, goals, and dreams or are you surrounding yourself with people who attempt to squash your dreams for the future?

There have been a few different times in my life where I realized that the people I had been surrounding myself with did not have the same plans for the future. And by this, I don’t mean that we both wanted EXACTLY the same thing, but that our goals in life seemed to be polar opposites.

For instance I have had friends who wanted to spend all of their free time drinking, doing drugs, and chasing women, while I was not drinking at that time, doing drugs, and I wanted to chase the RIGHT woman.

At other times I have had friends who wanted nothing more than to obtain a “secure” job where their chances of being fired or laid off were “zero”, while I wanted to find a way to start my own business and make my own future so my working life would not be determined by the mindset of some highly stressed boss.

I’ve also had a group of friends that if at any time someone had a dream, a goal, or a plan to improve themselves this group would do its best to tear them apart in the guise of “helping them see how things really were”.

I have come to realize that it is best to surround yourself with people that are generally aiming in the same direction as you. So if you’re trying to start a business, look for others with the same goal. If you’re trying to grow closer to God, find a small group in your church with the same purpose. If you’re doing your best to have a loving and supportive family life at home, find other families that you believe are setting a good example and get involved with them.

On any of our adventures in life there will be plenty of speed bumps, pot holes, and breakdowns. However, we can help make sure we reach our final destination by surrounding ourselves with friends who have the same goals as ours.

ALL!

I just had to stop what I’m doing and go a head and address this SUPER AWESOME MILESTONE!

The first blog post on A Better Way of Business was July 20, 2011. Today marks the 29th day of blogging. As of this morning it also marks an accomplishment I was not expecting to happen for a few more months, honestly.

As of writing this at 831AM on Aug 17th I have 251 page views in less than a month!!! I’M SO EXCITED! I realistically expected 50 to 100 views during my first month simply because this is so new and I’m just getting the word out.

However, THANKS TO YOUR AWESOMENESS, I have already gotten more than 250 views in my FIRST MONTH OF BLOGGING!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I hope you all have been liking what you’ve seen, b/c this is just encouraging me to DO IT MORE!

YIPPY!

You guys rock!

Thanks for stopping by. I can’t wait until I can look back and go, “I got excited at that? I get a bazillion hits a day now!”

But it’s like the saying goes, each journey of a thousand miles start with one step. I see this as a HUGE step in the right direction!

~Ivan

Today I was listening to a great podcast by my friend Justin Lukasavige. Justin’s podcast is titled CoachRadio.tv. At least once a week Justin puts out a podcast where he explains to people how they can do business better. He also has a weekly series titled Your Story where he interviews entrepreneurs in various stages (from just getting started to successfully doing it).

Earlier today I listened to show 049 Your Story – Joel Boggess (GREAT SHOW! Please go listen to, link at bottom). Near the end of the interview Joel talks about getting distracted form what should have been his main purpose because he was being bombarded by excellent ideas from fellow members at Free Agent Academy, an online community dedicated to helping people start successful businesses.

With each new idea Joel would get excited and run off in another direction. Then another idea would be presented and Joel would chase that idea down. While each idea was valid in and of itself, it was not necessarily consistent with Joel’s main business idea. So his main idea started suffering while her pursued the various new ideas coming his way.

Joel finally received a piece of excellent advice. Focus on your main goal, which for him was getting his coaching business up and running. Once Joel focused he started seeing significant improvements in his business.

Listening to Joel, I instantly thought, “Shiny Object Syndrome”. By this I mean Joel kept getting distracted from his main idea by all the other ideas (shiny objects) that kept coming his way. With each new shiny object Joel would head off in a new direction, taking him away from his original goal of starting a successful business.

Joel is not unique here. I believe all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, fall victim to Shiny Object Syndrome. We know we should be looking up contact information for possible new customers online but we get distracted by the shiny object of our friends on Facebook or Twitter.

We should be determining which accounting software is right for our business but we get distracted by by the latest AV equipment on sale at Best Buy.

We want to start a car wash business and start marching down that road and get side tracked by what it will take to start an auto parts business or a pressure washing service.

As my brief examples suggest, shiny objects don’t have to be completely negative. They can be completely valid ideas, they just lead us away from our main idea. Our core purpose.

I have found that the best way for me to deal with my Shiny Object Syndrome is to make a quick note about what grabbed my attention and email it to myself so I can look at it later. That way I don’t forget what excited me earlier in the day, but yet I also don’t forget to spend time on my main goal.

What have you found to be the best way to deal with your Shiny Object Syndrome?

Here are links referenced above:

Coachradio.tv

049 – Your Story – Joel Boggess

Free Agent Academy

I do not profess to be a master of blogs or commenting on blogs. I don’t even profess to know what I’m doing for the most part. But even with my limited knowledge I would like to make a suggestion that I think could help you and your business out.

If you are interviewed for either a podcast or a blog I believe you should make certain to go back and comment on the podcast or blog you were interviewed in. If the blog or podcast is not setup to automatically subscribe you to that series of comments then you should click the subscribe button. By clicking the subscribe button you’ll then be notified when someone else comes along and comments on that particular blog or podcast. Whether it’s the same day, next week, or next year.

I suggest this because I’ve been listening to a lot of interviews with entrepreneurs lately. And I’m also prone to comment on those interviews. Typically with my comments I’m expanding upon a point made during the interview, asking a question, or making a suggestion. I would say that the majority of my comments could provide some benefit to the person being interviewed. But ONLY if that person knows I made the comment.

What I have found is that the MAJORITY of people that are interviewed DO NOT comment on the blog or podcast in which they are interviewed. Therefore the chances of them knowing that someone else has commented on their interview is not likely.

I realize that my comments may or may not have any impact on the person being interviewed. But can the same be said for all the other people that might leave a comment? I believe business is carried out between two PEOPLE. And by commenting on blogs or podcasts that interview you, as a business owner, you can increase your opportunities for getting in touch with more and more potential clients.

Commenting on your own interviews is just a suggestion, but one I hope you and I will both follow going forward.

Dictionary.com defines “scarcity” as: insufficiency or shortness of supply.

For the vast majority of my life I have operated under the scarcity mentality.

There’s not enough money to go around.

Ideas can only be used once and only by one person.

There are only so many “good” jobs out there.

Over the last six to nine months I have learned that if you operate from the stand point of scarcity you are GREATLY limiting your potential.

You won’t give freely of or invest your money because you’ll never have enough.

You won’t share your ideas with others because someone else might steal them.

And if you don’t get that one “good” job then you’re out of luck because there’s no other “good” options out there.

The alternative to the scarcity mentality is the abundance mentality.

Dictionary.com defines “abundance” as: an extremely plentiful or over sufficient quantity or supply.

With the abundance mentality you see that there is more than enough for everybody.

So instead of never having enough money, you constantly see ways to give it away or invest it. Because more money is just around the corner.

Instead of hording your ideas, you share them. Because you realize that if you have one idea and I have one idea, and we share our ideas with each other, we then both walk away with two ideas.

And you realize that there are countless “good” jobs out there for you. And if you don’t see the exact job you’re looking for, you take the steps required to MAKE that perfect job or business for yourself.

I believe that when you finally start seeing the world through the eyes of abundance instead of through the eyes of scarcity you will begin to realize the COUNTLESS opportunities that lie before you.

So it hit me today. Do you know where you stand? With your employer? With your employees?  With your customers?

In my time as a supervisor I do not EVER recall a single employee coming to me and asking how he or she was performing on the job. If I did not go to them with some piece of feedback my employees would wait to find out exactly how I thought each them performed at their annual performance appraisal. Why wait? Why go an entire year not knowing how you’re performing according to the one that rates your performance?

When I was an employee I frequently went to my supervisor and asked for feedback. I do not believe I allowed more than three months to go by without me having a sit-down meeting to find out how I was performing. Where could I improve? What was I doing that I should not have been doing? How could I help make his or her life easier?

Another area you should know where you stand is with your employees. As a supervisor of other people are you providing your people with what they need in order to perform the job you are asking them to do? Do they have the right equipment? Skills? Authority?

As a supervisor are you being consistent with what you say and how you act? Are you holding everyone to similar standards or are you playing favorites? Do your employees know how you think they are performing?

Knowing where you stand with your customers is key if you want your business to stay healthy and thrive in the years to come. When is the last time you honestly asked a customer how well do they think you are serving them? Last week? Last month? Have you EVER asked any customer how they think you’re doing?

I think it’s time we all stopped being SURPRISED when it comes to where we stand. It’s time we start being PROACTIVE and ASK where do we stand.

So I decided that this will be a personal post. Feel free to skip over it if you’re just looking for my ideas on how to approach business from a better way.

I turned in my notice at my job on Friday, August 5th. I have known for some time that my present job is not the best fit for me. Without going into details I’ll just say that the frustrations and stress of my current position have caused my blood pressure to skyrocket on a consistent basis, I’ve begun to experience severe headaches in conjunction with blood pressure spikes, and I’ve started having asthma attacks for the first time in my life.

Skye has been requesting that I leave for some time now. But me being me, I’ve ignored her very sound advice. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the doctor explained the asthma attacks I’m starting to experience are due to work related stress. He then went on to say that my body is overwhelmed and that the consistently high blood pressure can KILL someone in their early 30′s, like I am, if it’s not addressed.

So I addressed my health issues by putting in my notice. And honestly, it feels like a 50 pound weight has been lifted off my chest. I can LITERALLY breath easier now. I’ve slept good for the past two nights, where as I don’t remember the last time I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night thinking / worrying about some aspect of my job.

So what are my plans?

I don’t exactly know. I have some ideas, but we’ll have to see how everything plays out.

My first thought is I’m going to look for some 3 to 6 month contract accounting positions. This will allow me to continue to support the family and will not tie me down to anyone spot. I want to have more control over my hours and my pay. Contract work will do both. To a greater extent I’ll be able to say whether or not I’m willing to work over time. Then if I do work over time I’ll earn overtime pay.

Also, by working contract positions I will not be giving the impression that I will be there for the long haul. That way when A Better Way of Business is up and running I can transition to that with out feeling I misled some organization about how long I’d be with them.

My second thought is I’m going to pour all my free time into getting A Better Way of Business fully operational (like the Deathstar baby!). Instead of watching TV, playing video games, or just lounging around with the family I’m going to make sure I’m dedicating my time to getting this business up and running.

So there you have it. I’m finally taking steps towards becoming the man God designed me to be. I’m excited. Scared, too, but mostly excited. I don’t know where this journey will leave me but I know I’m finally starting to go in the right direction.

So a friend of mine is at work on Friday doing her job when her boss walks in and starts yelling and screaming at her over something that occurred at their office. I didn’t ask what happened or think “I bet it was deserved”, instead I instantly thought, “That’s crap!” What sort of “boss” are you being if you yell and scream at your employees? What are you teaching your employees with that type of behavior? What sort of leadership are you displaying?

And then I started thinking back to numerous situations I’ve encountered in my working life.

I once had a manager call me “idiot”, while yelling at me, for doing something another manager instructed me to do and I was doing it exactly as instructed.

I have seen a person at a former job who would yell, scream, and curse at sales people whenever this person had to deal with them.

While working at a college I had a professor call me pretty much every swear word he could lace together. And it ended up being over a mistake he had made.

After running through several more of these types of situations a thought hit me:

If you, had to deal with you, would you put up with you?

Let me say that again.

If you.

Had to deal with you.

Would you put up with you?

I ask this question because in EACH AND EVERYONE of the situations above, had the roles been reversed, the original conductor of the unprofessional act would NOT have put up with the same treatment.

In the case of the manager I’m sure I would have been fired if I resorted to calling him names and yelling (I was almost fired anyway when I informed him in as level a voice as I could that I would not allow him to call me names no matter his position).

In the case of the coworker dealing with sales people, that coworker would not even talk to a sales person if they thought the sales person was being the SLIGHTEST bit rude.

In the case of the professor, I know that he complained to his department chair at the slightest insult or perceived insult from anyone on campus.

So my question for you, is if you would not put up with similar actions as those you carry out against another, why are you committing those acts? Why do you believe that you can act unprofessional, be disrespectful, curse, yell, and scream, but you get highly agitated when someone treats you the same way?

Why not perform a mental mirror test to your actions before you commit them. What I mean by this is before you send off that email, make that phone call, or march into another’s office envision yourself looking into a mirror and your intended actions coming straight back to you. How would you react to what you’re intending on doing or saying or typing?

We can continue to go through life believing that how we act and what we say to others doesn’t matter, but that’s just not true. I hope that each of us for just one day performs the mental mirror test and realize there’s a better way.