Self Improvement Information

The year 2009 will be remembered for a long time for being the year of economic downturns.  Jobs, houses, savings have been lost.  Many people have felt the pinch.  People have begun to realize that their jobs are not as secure as they had once thought.  They may be forced to  re-evaluating their goals and  career path.  As with all adversities, there are seeds of opportunity.

What is it that most people would love to find in their “perfect” career path?  In my years of business coaching, I have found that most people would like 3 things.

1.  They would like the opportunity to be their own boss.  Call their own shots.  Even though they deep down want this, many are fearful of it.  Being their own boss means calling all the shots.  It means, when failure occurs, the blame falls to them.

2.  They want to control their own destiny.  We have all discovered that corporate jobs are not very secure.  Whether a person is the custodian, or the big cheese with the corner window office, lay offs happen.  The only way to build security is through a business they own and control.  Many have been so beaten down, from their corporate jobs or they have “tried” to start something on their own and failed, that their self esteem is at an all time low.  They have forgotten their basic dreams.

3.  They want to work at something they believe in.  Everyone wants their life to matter.  That’s what keeps the human race moving forward.  Whether they are striving to “save the whales” or “provide a hot lunch for every school child in America”, to believe in what you are doing, matters.

How do we move forward towards our “perfect” career?  As John Assaraf once said, “When we step into our passion our genius shows.” It is important to find our passion.  What moves our souls.

If you are a leader looking to employ or work with top quality people, it is wise to look beyond their credentials.  Many top notch, excellent people don’t have the degrees.  They may not look so pretty.  They may be disguised to look like every day “Joes” or “Josephines”.

Most people in business leadership don’t realize that a person’s success is not hinged on what they, themselves, do.  It is judged by the number of people they have helped become successful during their career.  If you want to be someone special yourself, help someone else become successful.

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How do you know when being an entrepreneur is right for you?  The difference between Corporate America and being an entrepreneur is a completely different set of life skills.  Can they be learned?  Yes and no.

Many people find that a corporate job can be a great motivation to become an entrepreneur.  The corporate lifestyle tends to discourage the traits that are important to the entrepreneur.  In  the corporate world, or traditional “job”, a person gets paid for showing up.  For the entrepreneur, often times, isn’t paid until the work is completed.  They are work creators instead of work processors.

Things such as setting goals,  cash flow, buying your own benefits package, paying the upfront cost to get a great idea from drawing board to market place, among other things, can seem overwhelming to the new entrepreneur.  Here are a few traits to consider in becoming a success business owner.

1.  A desire to be somebody.  If you have a burning desire to be somebody or do something special in your life, the entrepreneur captains their own ship.  This can be a huge motivating force!  Without this desire it is much easier to cut and run when times get tough.  This desire can get the entrepreneur over the rough bumps.  As Anthony Robbins says, “There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once unleashed can make any vision, dream or desire a reality.”

2.  The will to win.  That fits hand in hand with wanting to be somebody.  If they want to be somebody bad enough they will have the will to win.  Even if it’s hard, keep going.  Even when it gets discouraging, move forward.  Even when there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel, keep driving on.  Without the will to win, discouragements and distractions can become a monumental blockage.

3.  If you aren’t looking for a hand out, but a opportunity to get ahead in life.  An honest opportunity can disguise itself as “hard work”.    An entrepreneur has to be willing to work hard, smart, and except a certain amount of risk to bring their idea to fruition.  They need to be able to, dream, hope and make a commitment to their business.

4.  They are willing to take a chance one more time.  People can become jaded from too many times having their hopes dashed. This is especially true for someone that has attempted the self employed role before.  It, also, holds true for someone that has been in the corporate or “job” world.  It is possible to get beat down so far that “dreams” get locked away and put on the shelf. A quote from Bob Proctor says, “The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces.”

5.  An entrepreneur must be willing to accept some amount of risk, especially in the beginnings of a new endeavor. If you can’t tolerate any risk, then a traditional job might be best.  I know many people that this point discourages them from even trying something new.  This can be minimized by doing it part time while still holding down a traditional job.  Saving money that can be used as a pad until the new endeavor pays, or as development capital for the idea.  If money gets too tight, or great debt is incurred, it can steal the dream of being an successful entrepreneurial business owner.

There can be some fabulous rewards for the successful entrepreneur.  Flexible schedule, equity in their life, unlimited income, and participating in something bigger than themselves.  It is the road less traveled.  Only the individual themselves know whether it is the correct road for them.  As Henry David Thoreau said, “Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

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I was surfing around looking for self improvement topics that would add value for my twitter peeps.  I came across an article that really made me think.  It is called “Wishing It Don’t Make it So”. In this article, about an author by the name of Barbara Ehrenreich.  The premise of the article is that positive thinking is the cause of many unnatural and “bad things” that have befallen the United States.  Wow!  Doesn’t that statement make you sit up in your chair?!

The 2nd paragraph of the article says,

“In isolation, each of these facts may cause no more than mild disquiet, a sense that the harsher realities of life are being brushed aside. In fact, as a U.S. journalist and campaigner Barbara Ehrenreich has discovered, they are all manifestations of the ubiquity of positive thinking in the United States. When she began to put the pieces together, they revealed a nation in the grip of a collective delusion that does damage to people’s lives all the way from corporate boardrooms to those struggling with house repossessions and poverty.”

The article is written about someone who is from a very liberal or progressive bias.  In this article, my understanding of the premise, is that positive thinking is a negative and leading all of us down the garden path to global destruction.  Positive thinking has become so pervasive that “Anyone who was critical or unable to “get with the plan”, was got rid of, until there were no canaries left in the mine.” In other words, positive thinking has made it impossible for whistle blowers to do what they are suppose to do.  If anyone thinks negatively, they are cast out of corporate American and treated like lepers.

I have a hard time believing that all negative people have been thrown out of corporate America or are forced to change into beams of positive light.   If you aren’t  sunshine and lollipops there is no room for you in the corporate world.  My experience in the corporate world has been that really isn’t the case.

There is nothing wrong with feeling negative thoughts in the face of cancer, job losses, illness and death of loved ones.  Those are natural emotions born of frustration and loss of control in one’s life.  Those feeling should be honored.  But, to suggest that we all walk around raging about the dirty hand that life has dealt us, over and over again, seems to be a fruitless endeavor. Isn’t there enough negatives in our lives without listening to some one else?  If I was battling breast cancer, I certainly wouldn’t want to absorb someone else’s negativity.  That wouldn’t help keep my hope alive.  Reading someone on a forum talking about “sappy pink ribbons” seems like a personal affront to the Susan G.Komen for the cure movement.

I must say, that the “thinking only positive thoughts” might be a goal of some people and is taught in the self improvement industry, it rarely happens that someone is always positive, nor should they be.  The danger of that philosophy, that we attract negative things if we think negative thoughts, is the guilt that can be felt for not thinking positive and having the negative things happen to us.  We do need to take responsibility for our own lives.  To think that everything that happens to us is random is to leave us impotent and self victimized.  Rather than feeling guilt for the maladies that befall us “due to negative thinking” it would seem more productive to watch for the lessons in life that we can learn from experiencing the negative.

The natural order of things is that there are polar differences.  For every negative, there is a positive.  By experiencing negative things we can also experience the positive.  Isn’t whether something is negative or positive a matter of perspective?  Couldn’t one person’s job loss turn into an opportunity for something better?

Even the loss of our loved ones can have blessings wrapped deep inside the feelings of sadness and grief. But, is grief really a bad thing?  It may not feel the best, but to have loved someone so much that you miss them when they are gone is not a negative thing.  We shouldn’t stop loving because we may face grief later by their loss.

Call me Pollyanna.  You wouldn’t be the first.  I would say “thank you”.  To be able to turn the darkness into light doesn’t mean that you are deranged or hopelessly maladjusted.  I say, “live and let live”.  If you wish to choose the negative, that is your choice.  I, personally would rather look for the kernels of hope…after I have railed at my misfortune.