My love affair with books didn’t fully engage until late in high school. Well, that’s when it began. During my first semester of college it was full-blown. It’s been relentless ever since.
Before that reading was a favorite thing, but not books. Magazines. I loved Popular Science. Audio. Stereo Review. High Fidelity. Rolling Stone. Melody Maker.
Peppered in there somewhere were a few sports biographies, historical biographies and Mad Magazine’s Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions, Vol. I and Vol. II.
It dawned on me – don’t ask me what took me so long – that my reading habits are terrible.
One, I juggle too many books at one time.
Two, I suffer too much book envy.
So I’m going to attempt to change a few things. What about you? What do your reading habits look like?
In 1973 the Texas Rangers drafted a left-handed high school pitcher from Houston, David Clyde. Due to many circumstances beyond his control, his career was derailed by abusive ownership and management. Not yet ready for the major leagues, he was thrust into the spotlight in hopes of driving up fan attendance to a struggling baseball franchise that had just moved from Washington, DC to Arlington, Texas. He burned out. Physically. When a pitcher’s arm goes, he’s useless to his employer.
David Clyde is the poster child of “what could have been” in baseball circles. Just another sad story of a person put into a bad circumstance.
Andy Stanley has a leadership podcast that I listen to. Last week Andy talked with Joel Manby, CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment, about his new book, Love Works. In the interview, Joel talks about having been the North American CEO of Saab. One Easter Sunday he got a call from the Global CEO of Saab, calling him on the carpet for poor financial results. His boss demanded he get on a plane and fly to Sweden immediately. Upon arrival he was berated in front of all his peers.
From major league sports to corporate boardrooms to family living rooms – there are countless people stuck in situations that are holding them back. Preventing them from what’s possible. Catapulting them toward the land of What-Could-Have-Been.
I hope you’re not among them, but if you are — there’s hope. You can do something about it. You must do something about it, starting today!
Does failure have a time zone…or a time component? That is, if you’re unable to accomplish something in a predefined period of time…does that make you a failure? Or does it just mean you’re a slower learner?
Beware of the person who says they have no fear.
Remember when the NO FEAR brand was a big deal (well, maybe it still is, but I don’t see it much these days). I admit I had a few baseball caps from that company. I embraced the notion of moving forward in spite of fear, but I’ve never believed we could just make up our mind that we would no longer be afraid.
Sure, fear can be overcome, but isn’t there something about fear that makes us alive? Don’t we get our juices going when we’re afraid? How else can you explain the wild attraction people have to horror movies like SAW? Some of us enjoy being afraid.
Have you ever been scared enough to run? Scared enough to do something other than what you were doing? Me, too.
There are times when fear drives us to take actions we wouldn’t otherwise take. And there are also times when we have to face our fear – and do the thing we’re afraid of any way!
• iVideoHero – it’s a perfect example of a gap in a market that is well served with this tutorial product
• 37 Signals – they’re another great example of a company whose products stem from solving problems they faced
• Evernote – a wonderful tool that many of us couldn’t live without, now that we’ve got it
• GoatMilkStuff – not mentioned, but another fine example of a small business that grew out of a frustration/desire. This is directly from their website: “PJ’s adventures into soapmaking originated five years ago out of her desire to not use chemicals on the children’s skin.”
• My resources page has links to a variety of useful items…from premium WordPress themes, to membership site plugins, to sources for pro audio gear. Many of these companies likely began because the owners were frustrated. Maybe they saw no solution. Maybe they didn’t see suitable solutions.
People often go to one extreme or the other when considering today’s question. Sometimes I see people write down a full page of various things they’d like to be known for. If they lived to be 1000 years old they still wouldn’t be able to accomplish half the things on their list…and that’s assuming they had the natural aptitude for each thing.
At the other end of the spectrum are those poor people who struggle to write down a single thing. They can’t think of anything they want to known for. When I encounter these people I drive them immediately to a crisis center for counseling. I fear for their safety.
We likely fall somewhere in the middle. We don’t want to limit ourselves, so our list expands. We don’t want to live unnoticed, so we write down something.
Narrow your focus to business related pursuits and it doesn’t simplify things for most of us. Today’s question is why so many companies fail to properly identify their target market. Everybody can’t be your target, but neither can nobody. You need somebody!
As you consider what you’d like to be known for you must also ask yourself, “By whom?”
• An anonymous company that is not so anonymous. I ran across this company in the summer of 2007. Here in Texas it gets really hot and I was investigating ventilation options for a warehouse when a Google search led me to them. I instantly “got it.”
Take some time and give this question the attention it deserves. You’ll be rewarded with the clarity you need to make progress. Like most of these questions, it won’t be easy. Don’t rush it. Just keep on pushing forward sorting through all the noise in your head. When things quieten down you’ll likely be getting close to your answer.
P.S. Congratulations to the New Jersey Devils and their fans for advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. It should be a great series!
What’s does it mean to fail anyway?