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Risk-Taking: The Single Biggest Key To Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship, Video / By

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxXwRsjvl70?rel=0]

Honestly, I’m not sure there is a single biggest key to much of anything…especially business building or entrepreneurship.

• Connecting with people
• Gaining experience
• Knowing how to sell
• Good time management
• Having enough capital
• Blah, blah, blah

Some people think great “fill-in-the-blank” (i.e. business people, artists, singers and such) are born, not made. Others believe that hard work can accomplish most anything.

As is often the case, the truth may lie somewhere in between. I’d like to believe that all of life is what we make it, but I know much of life is beyond our control. Even so, I think we should tackle life with that perspective – life is what we make it.

If life knocks us down…we can decide to get up or stay down.

If life reveals an opportunity…we can decide to take it or let it slide by.

So it may be that if I were asked to single out one thing – one trait – that might likely serve as a key to successful business building, it might just have to be the willingness to venture into the unknown. To take a risk. To believe in what we’re doing, to have confidence that we can “make it” but to understand that failure is also possible.

Our culture is clogged with rhetoric likely based on this truth.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“No risk, no reward.”

Randy

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Selling Education: One Business Model With Up To 4 Offers

Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Video / By

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People want to learn stuff. All kinds of stuff.

And they’ll pay a lot of money to learn things that are important to them. Computer programming languages, playing a musical instrument, speaking a foreign language, shooting hi-def video, photography. You name it, somebody, somewhere is teaching it. And charging money for it.

What can you teach? Watch or listen (your choice) to today’s show and think about your own business. You’ve likely spent a lot of time and money to learn some things. Why not launch a business based on teaching others what you’ve learned?


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Special Post-Thanksgiving Day Episode: How To Figure Things Out Like A 5-Year-Old (Taking Action)

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Podcast, Video / By

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Max & Jake, this summer prior to many dives into the pool

NOTE: Today’s show was originally recorded as a video, but I encountered horrible sync issues. No matter, I look better in audio anyway. I’m including the video, but I’ll warn you – it will drive you crazy!

I don’t know if there’s any statistical accuracy to it or not, but I recently heard an Internet marketer claim that about 2% of the buyers of info products (i.e. Internet marketing training courses) actually take any action based on the course.

Think of it.

If we all took action on the stuff we’re reading, watching, and listening to – well, human productivity would sky-rocket. The world wouldn’t know what to do with itself.

Which may explain why most people don’t achieve more success. It also explains the power of Mark Amtower‘s message (both a speech and a little book about the speech, both bearing the same name), “Why epiphanies never occur to couch potatoes.”

Reading, watching and listening are easy. Passive.

Getting up off the couch. Doing something meaningful. Active.

And obviously, for many, quite difficult.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S. It’s a day full of action, mostly centered around crazed crowds falling for the lure of false bargains. I was wondering yesterday…how much must a person devalue their time to spend 2 days and 2 nights in the parking lot of a Best Buy to purchase a TV for $186? You do the math.

This appeared on Facebook yesterday afternoon. I thought it was appropriate…and correct. Yes, I “liked” it.

Stuff. Things. Content. Instruction.

Nothing inherently wrong with any of them. But without action, none of them will help you figure things out, or get things done!

It’s time to incorporate a new philosophy into life. Every 5-year-old already knows this. And does it.

When all is said and done, more is done than said.

Podcast: Download | HTML5 Playback

You’ll only solve it by using your hands and your head

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Your Business Model: 3 Pillars Of Successful Business Building

Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Video / By

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The books mentioned in today’s show:

• Business Model YOU: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your Career

• The 4-Hour Chef

The three ingredients mentioned are mandatory for me. I’m uninterested in interacting with, being around, or being involved with any business that isn’t going to make these three pillars the foundation of their enterprise.

I also give you a perfect illustration of the power of word-of-mouth. Discount Tire is where I buy tires. And no, I didn’t get any compensation of any kind. Oh, I’d happily accept a gift, bribe or payment…but so far, that hasn’t happened. Still, I’m willing to tell you how I feel about them.

The Audio Only: Download | HTML5 Playback

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I’ve Got Hundreds Of Followers, But I Lost My Wife To Her iPhone

Communication, Personal Development, Video / By

A little boy wants his mom to come outside and watch him do a trick on his bike.

In high school, he wants her to watch him play ball, but what he really wants is to impress a girl.

In college, mom has fallen off the radar, but there is a girl. He’s desperate for her to pay him some attention.

Marriage doesn’t change any of that.

He wants his wife to pay attention, but unfortunately, his tricks may no longer be worth watching. Much.

From our childhood to the grave we’re all craving attention. It’s the stuff of building relationships.

Not just at home, but at work. In our social circles. Even online. Only the lonely know the way I feel.

Years ago my wife and I stepped out one evening to grab a bite to eat. Across the way was an older couple. Yeah, even older than us!

They were already sitting down when we walked in. We were there for just under an hour. The entire time – and I mean, the ENTIRE time – she was on her cell phone talking while her husband sat in silence.

Their food arrived and she ate while holding the cell phone to her ear. Quietly, her husband ate his meal while she was apparently fully engaged with whomever was on the other end of the line. As they exited the restaurant, she was still talking on the phone, leading the way out the door, with her husband quietly in tow. My wife and I marveled at it and wondered a few things. Who was she talking to? What kind of cell phone plan did she have? Serious questions.

I was reminded of a John Prine song with these lyrics, “How the h-ll can a man leave home in morning, come home in the evening, and have nothin’ to say?” (You’ve likely heard the Bonnie Raitt version, but John wrote it)

It’s now very common among people of all ages. It happens in restaurants. It happens at the table in our own homes. Electronic connections have disconnected us physically.

It’s getting tough out here though. Much tougher than it used to be. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what we’re doing…and more importantly, what we’re failing to do.

Meanwhile, in my ears ring the lyrics to Angel From Montgomery.

P.S. No, I didn’t lose my wife to her iPhone, but I do often have to compete with Words-With-Friends. 😉

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