As a life-long entrepreneur, I often joke that I've never had a job. The reality is, I've always started companies.
As a result, I've developed a set of tools, tips, and techniques that can be applied to and across almost any industry.
There is much I have learned along the way; including the work it takes to be successful.
Past the classic mantra "work harder", there is also "work smarter". How do you work smarter? Books, tapes, TED Videos, columns like this one, all provide immeasurable ways to speed up your learning curve.
There is a saying "Experience is the greatest teacher; it's also the slowest". I hope to provide you with information that helps accelerate your success.
This new column, "The Tornado Technique and Why Isolation is a Good Thing" will attempt to give you the insights, tips, and tools needed to move you along your journey.
It's designed to answer the question; "What does it take to be an entrepreneur"?
For me, I started retail stores in college, wrote three books when I was 20, had an infomercial at 21, became a Vice President for a Fortune 500 Company at age 24, took my first e-commerce company Public, and sold a software development company, all before I turned the age of 35. Since then, there have been forays into enterprise software, Homeland Security (which was an accidental opportunity after 9-11 in New York), Mobile Technology, Water Conservation and Philanthropy, and now most recently, a photo sharing tool for major brands.
I share this not to impress you, but to impress upon you- that I've been there, done that. Having started companies from nothing more than an idea, to recruiting management teams and building world class advisory boards, I've been through the ups and down.
In future columns, I hope to share some of that insight, wisdom, and occasional rants, ramblings and prediction.
Some information will be specific, step by step tactics that you can take and implement almost immediately. Other times, it may be stories, examples, or exercises.
In all, I'm hoping to give you great content that you will look forward to on a weekly basis.
Unlike other Authors who may attempt to be folksy, or tell a story, I hope to provide practical steps that could be useful and easily learned.
I liken this to the difference between thinking about eating healthy, wanting to eat healthy, and actually "knowing" how to cook healthy.
Think about watching a seminar on eating healthy. You leave the seminar feeling all pumped up and excited. You might even better understand the virtues of a healthy lifestyle and a better diet.
However, once you get home, with no idea how to cook healthy, you are lost in the kitchen. You may resort to going to the grocery store, but once there you don't know how to shop.
Last, and most importantly, let's say you did by some groceries, would you have the recipe to actually be able to cook a successful meal?
See, knowing "which" ingredients to have is only part of the battle. The true success comes in knowing the "order" the ingredients should be used.
What's often needed is the "recipe"; a specific order of what needs to be done and how to do them and in what order.
Though you may have the right ingredients, you need the right recipe to lead to success.
The better prepared you are with to what to say, how to say it, in what order, or a specific sequence, the more likely you are to increase your chances for success.
Imagine you are baking a cake. If the recipe calls for butter, sugar, milk, flour, oven, in that order; and you did milk, butter, oven, flour, sugar, what would the success of your cake be?
My guess is not good at all. See, even if you had the right ingredients, if they are not in the proper order, you face potential failure.
The goal of this column is to help you be successful....at whatever you are most passionate about.
That being said, there are many things one can do to help ensure their success.
In over 20 years of work and service, I've developed a set of techniques that will be shared over time. Many of these steps are easily implemented, and will be laid out in a practical, sequential and easy to follow format. It's my goal to provide you with information that will make you more successful, in whatever your endeavors or passions may be.
Additionally, as a current entrepreneur, I'm right there fighting the fight with you. I will not be some armchair author writing from the sidelines.
It is my goal to provide you valuable information that can help be successful, help you grow as a person, as a professional, and as an entrepreneur.
The definition of Success is as follows: "The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted".
The definition of Work is as follows: "Something that one is doing, making, or performing, especially as an occupation or undertaking; a duty or task".
If you look at the definitions in order, you must do something first before you can achieve it.
Indeed, the only place Success comes before Work, is in the dictionary.