Find me at LeeGTurley.com

Haven’t heard from me??? That’s because I’ve moved! I’ve decided to move this initiative to it’s own domain and put greater effort into providing you great value. I’m extremely excited about the new blog. It’s becoming a very true reflection of myself. So please, when you get a chance, head over and take a look!!! www.LeeGTurley.com

Thanks to all who supported this initial exploration of blogging!

Lee Turley

 

Smile and Listen

Read any book on the psychology of business and without a doubt it will tell you the value of relationships…. and if that book is a good one, then it will likely describe the commanding power of a simple smile and willing ear (see Dale Carnegie and Stephen Covey).

Of course you should try to stay as far ahead as you can, but when you don’t have the info you need or you’re against the ropes… why panic… at this point you have so little control there’s not much you can do. So just smile and go learn as much as you can from everyone you talk to.

It is absolutely amazing how something so simple can be so effective! We all know this though… and we’d all be great at it if we just knew how to keep our mouths shut. So this really isn’t a lesson in charisma so much as it is a lesson in being more interested in others than we are in ourselves. That’s the honey right there… how far would we get if we were so much more interested in the others around us than in our own agenda?

Challenge: Next social event you attend don’t say anything about yourself or your endeavors. If specifically asked be very brief and wrap it up with “how about you” to keep your focus on them.

 

“If You Build It but Don’t Believe, They Won’t Come”

Entrepreneurship is sales… You have to sell your vision in order to get investors behind you, sell your culture to potential employees, sell your dependability to suppliers, sell your superiority to customers, sell your worth to larger companies looking to buy your business, etc. The ability to sell is not a gift. It takes practice and persistence like most other things, so I don’t want to hear, “I suck at sales.” Let’s translate that into, “I hate sales” or “I’m not confident in my product.” I’ve said all of the above at one point or another. If you just don’t like sales then you’re going to need to find a way around that if you wish to proceed with your current path. If you’re not confident in what you’re selling (your idea, product, business, whatever) then you need to re-examine what you are doing.

People can always tell if you truly believe in what you’re selling. If you wouldn’t buy what you’re selling (given you were financially able) then they can tell and they will not want to buy it either. If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, then consider if it is even worthy of being sold.

If your product is awesome and you’re still hesitant, then call a potential customer right now! We must learn to take action and not just think. It doesn’t matter if you get rejected… you haven’t lost anything… but you have gained courage and if you’re smart you’ll find out why they said no so that you can improve next time.

For great things to happen great things must be overcome.

 

Keep the Blade Sharp

When you are trying to hone some of your skills, reading is essential. I like to keep it simple. . . find someone who excels at what you’re trying to improve. If you know them personally, then start spending more time with them, but if you don’t know them, read their blog or book. If they don’t have one, or both, of those then pick someone else.

You will learn so much faster through personal contact with someone who has the traits you are trying to improve. So start out by searching for people you know with those traits. I would even recommend telling them what you’re up to and ask them to help you improve those traits.

Note: If you picture an entrepreneur or businessman as a bad-ass who has it all figured out, or who never shows weakness, then this might not be your blog (or maybe you need to read this more than anyone). Humble yourself… don’t let pride get in the way of learning. More importantly, confiding in someone you trust will deepen your relationship, creating support that you will need when you hit steeper hills in your life.

Now, if you are looking for some more accredited mentoring, and you should always seek multiple perspectives, then you need to hit the blogsphere and iTunes. Trying to keep up with all the good blogs out there is a task of utter silliness. Naturally, you need to use an RSS aggregator, but I would urge you to take this a step further and ”follow” the people who have the good blogs. Sadly, I do not have the time to read all the blogs I want to read, so I just read the posts that those bloggers “share” through my “google reader”. This filter really weeds out some of the less important info. Lastly, I would suggest trading in all the non-fiction hardbacks for their audiobook counterparts, unless you can read a book in less than the time that it takes to listen to it. I really advocate audiobooks because, not only is the reading faster, but the completion rate is higher. I am now able to keep my 1-2 books a week commitment. The time that you save, or the increased amount of reading you are able to do, is SO worth the extra $5-$7 it costs to get an audiobook on iTunes (see The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss if you have a hard time recognizing the dollar value of time).

 

You’re Crazy!

Some of us will hear this more than others… depending on how direct our friends are haha… but we will all become very acquainted with the look that goes with it…. “That’s not wise”… “You have a future to think about”…. “There’s no money in that”….. and my favorite, “You’re crazy!.”

Saying no to the cycle, the “map” of life, and saying yes to your dreams and true desires is not my definition of crazy. Those other people are really saying…. “My fear controls me and it is now SCREAMING out that what you are doing is incorrect. Happiness would be nice, if it even exists, but I’d rather be safe.” These people could be your closest friends or even your spouse. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM! They love you, but they have not been able to shake loose the fear that you have already conquered. Do not regress. Stay strong. Stay the course!

Now that you are more aware of this situation….do not endanger people that depend on you! This advice is of utmost importance. Entrepreneurs are risk takers by nature, but we are some damn smart risk takers. There is no map for where we are going, but that does not mean we are flying without a carefully created, yet flexible, plan. Learn everything you can about the industry and make sure you start to expand your network within that industry. On the cautious side of things, you need to have a very realistic idea of when you will begin to make money, and then double that estimate. You need to have a plan or maybe enough savings to hold you over until your idea takes off.

Lastly, you will fail at some things. Do not be afraid. Know that your idea may fail and that if it does you can always get another job, save up, and start again. I retract my earlier statement that only the prudent will survive…. I should have said only the persistent will survive! Do not stop trying after one or even ten failures. If you feel called to be an entrepreneur, then sharpen your skills and use your resources to get there.

Now…. go crazy!

 

Race Horses

Imagine yourself as a young colt. They train you, get you to tolerate a rider and saddle. You run when he says run, you stop when he says stop. But they didn’t have to teach you how to run. Running is a naturally progressed skill for you, which is good because man do they run you, and run you…. and run you. Before you know it you are fully grown and very strong. Then one day they take you to the place you always run, put you in the gate, and then open the gate but this time you are not alone. There are several other horses around you and suddenly you realize…… you are a race horse!

In this picture we are clearly the horses and the “they or rider” is the market or change in your life that teaches you. You already posses most of the natural skills but you’re not so aware of this. You are progressing in a natural fashion, only doing and being what you know how to be…. a horse. It’s our parents our teachers our experiences that pick up on some of our unique abilities and subtly hone them as we grow. Then one day something clicks or the “perfect storm” appears, as my friend Mark calls it. The gates open and we see the world a little differently; there are other horses around you…. other options, new opportunities.

Becoming an Entrepreneur is something very organic. In fact, we have always been an Entrepreneur, we just have to realize it. But it is a rare beast in our society of ladders. Still some may go to school, get a job, get promoted, and even get to retirement before they realize the animal that’s been inside them looking for the right time to come out. When the realization comes is not important. Realizing who you are and what to do is.

But what does this look like?

When Mark calls it “the perfect storm” he is somewhat referring to the situation but he is mostly talking about the feeling. The urge that leaps out when it saw that work was becoming less fulfilling and realized that it had all the needed skills to run on its own. The circumstances are vast but the call of the Entrepreneur is the same. There is something in us that challenges us to go against the grain, a feeling that won’t let us settle for what we’ve done in the past. Ok, we understand the call of the entrepreneur, now what? Mark’s response was, “In all honesty, I just decided one day that I was going to figure out a way to do it, to go out on my own.” YES! THAT IS IT! It is obvious that we must embrace our call to set sail as explorers and pioneers. That we must seek our own path. But we need to have courage to actually DO IT.

Mark has shown his courage and put in his two weeks notice but he’s not done yet… Bellow I reblogged a post from Travis Robertson’s blog that paints a really good picture of this final step…

(Next post will be a look at the larger picture of making this courageous choice and how only the Prudent will survive!)

 

Burn the Ships

This is a clip from Travis’ post about how fully committing to you vision drives you to success. Click the link to read the whole article. “Burn the Ships!” – A Leadership Lesson from Cortés, Jan 2010″

We all cling to something that acts as our escape hatch or our exit strategy (in the negative connotation). It’s our safety net “just in case…” What we fail to do is honestly complete that sentence. We lie to ourselves. If we were honest, we would say, “This is my safety net just in case… I get scared.”