I’m moderating a session on Friday, organizing runs every day at 8, and generally have time between a bunch of things.  I want to meet you!

My Panel: All About Communications

I’m pretty excited for my panel, which which will discuss the state and future of communication technology.  We’ll talk about the challenge of creating workflows that are more productive…when it may take a bit of learning before the new tool becomes practical (example: Google Wave).  We’ll explore where things are headed and offer suggestions for facilitating and designing more effective communications.  (It’s more interesting than that sounds, promise.)

I’ll be joined by Jay Cuthrell of Cuthrell Consulting, Daniel Raffel of Yahoo!, and Casey Whitelaw of Google (Wave).  If the panel is anything like our discussions have been, it’ll be quite entertaining.

The panel is Friday at 5pm in Ballroom C.  More information on the panel, “Wave and Communication’s (R)evolution: Better Than Being There?”…

Running

Conferences are rarely healthy experiences.  SXSW is particularly bad—late nights, a fair bit of alcohol, and a carnivorous cuisine.  So the running group should help to counter that.

We meet at 8am Saturday-Tuesday and get to know each other the way humans should—chewing the fat at high speed on the trails.

You can sign up for updates about the running here.

Meeting Up

That stuff above is probably a little more about roping you into my stuff.  But I want to see you!  The best way to reach me is to shoot me an email (jared AT technotheory) with a few times you’re around.  If you’re trying to catch me with something last minute, send me a text through AwayFind: https://awayfind.com/jared.  We’ll find at least a few minutes!

And a Little Bit of SXSW Advice

Last year I wrote a lot about how to navigate SXSW.  This year I took that to an extreme and planned a zillion things for Austin—it’s going to be so much better for it.  If you’re looking for some tips, here they are…

–

Hope to see you in Austin.  Be good.

A lot of work-life, at least for me lately, is uncertainty.  I’ve begun to accept that it’s a matter of perspective.  I’ll explain how I get there, hopefully it can help you, too.

Hope and Intention

I had a conversation with Dave Binetti the other day about the word ‘hope’.  I had just MMS’d a friend the photo above, but had no idea if she would receive it (depending on her phone/carrier).

“I hope she gets the photo, but with MMS you never know."

"That’s one of the few uses of ‘hope’ that I’m okay with.  I’ve stopped using that word, because to me it’s a red flag for someone saying they don’t have a plan."

Dave went on to explain that start-up founders shouldn’t ‘hope’ certain things will happen, but have a way of getting to those things.  They should "’intend’ to have 3,000 users by Q3," for instance.

But I do use the word ‘hope’, a lot.  My three New Year’s resolutions are yearlong goals with a windy path toward achievement…and generally I’m doing the best I can to get there.  I hope to accomplish all three goals—though I’ve made serious progress on them, it’s still a matter of uncertainty.

In the mean time, it’s been mentally taxing.  But perhaps Dave was on to something—perhaps it is a matter of getting from ‘hope’ to ‘intend’.

Video Games and Statistics

When I explained my mental state to another friend the other day, she said "you’re moving to a greater level of statistical probability."  Or something like that.
It took me a second to digest:

Though starting over was still a likely prospect, I was making progress.  Like in a video game, I might die on level 4, but I wouldn’t get to level 6 if I didn’t get past 1 and 2.  And, should I have to start over, I might make it through some of the other levels quicker next time.  (Or maybe not.)

This isn’t exactly rocket science.  But knowing that my likeliness of success was at least becoming more statistically possible was comforting to me.  So now I just needed to break down the levels.

Project Management?  No Way?  Way.

The best project managers know to separate the components, define the milestones, and list out the next steps.  It’s a top down process for them and a bottom up process for the team.

I do this for my team all the time.  "We intend to have a Gmail add-in and Exchange support in March.  Now you do this and you do that and I’ll write up the copy."  Easy, right?

Not exactly.  Not all goals are so tangible.  Try landing a government customer, selling a house, or finding a soulmate—there are all sorts of outside factors.  There’s a large degree of uncertainty.

Or is there?

I used to think so.  But out of necessity I can’t anymore.  Without a little feedback and progress it can get tough.  I needed a plan for even the uncertain.

I think most people don’t break things down to bite size components when there’s a lot of uncertainty, or a chance that all the work will be for naught.  But I think you have to—not only will it get you there faster but it’ll make it possible to be okay through the process.

I Hope This Made Sense

I’ve been working incredibly hard toward some difficult goals and haven’t had the clarity or the time to write lately.  So finding an inkling of clarity helped me to make progress, even here.  Does that make sense?

I intend to reach my goals.  I hope to help you get there, too.

Tomorrow at 6pm EST, over 300 people will phone in to Jason Drohn and I go through the top seven productivity killers—and offer solutions.  It’s free, too.

I’ve been delivering productivity training for 8 years now, but never remotely to a completely open group. So it seemed like a fun opportunity to try it out, do it for free for a lot of people, and make it really really practical.

–> You can sign up here: Productivity Killers Sign Up – not sure what the attendance cap on the line will be, but I think we’re close to that limit, just fyi.

The content of this talk will have a bit of overlap with what I delivered at WordCamp MidAtlantic (Baltimore) and TECH Cocktail Conference (Chicago), and it may go through many material on the blog.  All of the content will focus on immediately actionable steps.

Examples of some of the productivity killers Jason and I will discuss include: interruptions, social media, email, meetings, and web ADD.

If you get to the site and see a sales page, don’t worry, I wouldn’t be leading you astray.  This is going to be my content and I believe it’ll be worth a listen.  Sign up here: Productivity Killers Sign Up.

If you can’t attend the session and you sign up then you’ll get the audio recording sent to you after the call.

Go have an awesome week, and I hope to catch you at 6 tomorrow.  If you have questions you’d like me to address on the call, feel free to leave a comment below.

Flickr photo credit: ashley_dryden

In the process I found what had invisibly guided the past year, and may be the key to every decision I make going forward.  Perhaps I found the meaning of it all.

Goals and Paths, Destinations and Enablers

Last year I was onto something when I suggested impact as my theme.  What’s special about impact is that it’s both the goal and the path—I enjoy both the process of making an impact and its result.  However, this year’s theme—to execute and stay solvent—was merely a necessity along the path to to doing other things like, say, making an impact.

Resolutions that involve ‘knowledge’, ‘money’, ‘power’, or even ‘focus’ are all just enablers.  They’re worthy things to strive for (and I could probably benefit more of all of those), but in and of themselves they don’t get you anywhere.  They’re inevitably explained by, “I want X so that I can…”

Working Backwards from the Goals

What I need to accomplish in 2010 is remarkably binary, which means there’s no middle ground—if I succeed in these goals I’ll have a pretty amazing year and if I fail then I probably won’t be too happy and may be in debt.  I’ll either sink or swim, hence the latter serving as the theme I wrote about.

So anyhow, I decided to list out my goals (sorry I can’t list them here, in a future blog post you may understand why) and see if there was something that could guide me toward them.  Yes, I needed to “swim”—to focus on my critical path and execute—but was there more?  Then in addition to these goals, I listed out some of the things that I hoped or dreamed to do in the next several years.

Then I categorized why I chose those as my goals.  It turned out that the goals fit neatly into three buckets, or themes—experience, impact, and relationships:

• I care deeply about experience—I love how aesthetics and careful application of experience design can be incredibly potent. 
• Both in depth and in breadth, I want to make an impact, and this is the largest guide for my work decisions.
• Nothing means more to me than the relationships in my life, both within and outside of work.

The Three Questions and the Calculus of Meaning

I believe that these three themes can guide me, both through simple actions and big decisions.  When deciding what actions to take, I can ask these questions of myself :

• How can I create the most immersive experience (for myself or others)?
• How can I most strengthen connections and relationships (mutually)?
• How will this make the widest or deepest impact (usually on others, but also on myself)?

And when evaluating options, I can weigh the extent to which each of these categories would be fulfilled.  The action that would have the greatest amount of impact, effect on relationships, and immersive or valuable experience would represent the option I’d select.

I don’t have to take things as far as Jeremy Bentham in his Calculus of Felicity or Benjamin Franklin with his 13 virtues, but it helps to have a heuristic (similarly to how Chris Brogan uses his 3 words as guideposts).

Is This Just Me?

Perhaps experience, relationships, and impact are fairly obvious, but they weren’t so clear to me before.  I guess I’ve always been diligent about holding onto my relationships, but I can pinpoint exactly when in recent years ‘experience’ and ‘impact’ took on such essential roles.  I would venture to guess that these will always be my big three, but I can’t know for sure.

I did find it interesting that Micah Baldwin recently posted how conversations with Gary V really drove home the value of people, which became his theme for 2010.  And if you look closely at Chris Brogan’s words for the past five years [linked here], you’ll note that all of them (at least in my primitive analysis) fit into these three categories.

How Do These Themes Apply To You?

I’m curious if these are some of the core guiding themes for you, at least in a more general sense?  Or if you’d add to or remove from this list?

When I look back on 2009, I’m most proud of the impact I’ve made, the relationships I’ve built, and the depth of the experiences large and small.  This helps to make it clear to me what I want out of life.

This year is a similar theme, but it comes from a very different basis—the word is swim.  I’ll explain after the jump…

IOU in 2011

Last year I tested a lot of things, and I gave back a great deal to my community.  I’d like to believe I figured out a formula for pulling through with my company, and I know I was able to contribute to the DC startup and arts scenes in positive ways.

But as I mentioned recently, AwayFind is in a sprint right now.  We’re building something pretty-frickin’-amazing, but we’re not charging yet / earning revenue.  When the livelihood of both you and your team are on the line, and when you don’t have much time to prove that your application has a market, that’s where you need to focus.

So, unfortunately, that means that in 2010 I may ask for things from you to help me get through this year and be able to give back more.  I’ll still be running Bootstrap Maryland and Ignite DC, but if things go well this year then next year I’ll be able to do so much for you all in 2011.  So, while this isn’t my theme for 2011, I want to thank you in advance because I’m betting the farm and could use your help.  More on that in future blog posts…

Back to the Theme: Sink or Swim?  I choose the latter.

I remember when I bought a house in 2005.  Turns out that wasn’t the best time to buy, and I ended up having a combination of respectable debt (mortgage) and less-good debt (home equity line + money owed to my family).  Within 12 months I paid off all the less-good debt and my business was kickin’ ass.  I was a little worried though.

Right now I’m in a sink or swim stage with AwayFind.  Sure, there’s no reason why the product would disappear, but the next six months will predict whether it’s a viable business in its current form.  As such, my team and I will be doing everything we can to put ourselves on the map and grow our userbase.

If you’ve ever had employees, you know that there’s no greater feeling than being able to support them in exchange for their hard work.  Even when times have been tough in the past (it’s been almost 8 years now), I’ve never withheld payroll.  And I don’t want to.  I want to hire and grow and make an impact on the world

I know what metrics I need to reach.  I believe I know what’s best this time.  And I’ve got a grasp of how to push things forward that one can only have when they’re at this stage in the game.  So, with every decision I make in 2010, I’ll be asking, how will this push us forward on our critical path to gaining more paying users–how will this help us to swim.

It Ain’t Glamorous

I’ve been thinking a lot about Tom’s Shoes business model—every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair to someone who needs it.  There are ways to give back creatively, and I want to explore that.  If 2010 is a successful year then 2011 will be an opportunity to try out some of these business models and to give back so much.

It ain’t glamorous to defer wonderful dreams solely for the sake of the mundane “stay in the black” concept, but that’s what I’ve got to do.  Reading Chris Brogan or Seth Godin or Tim Ferriss and their many acts of good and ambitions, it’s nice to learn about what we can do when our business is higher up Maslow’s hierarchy.  But that’s not the focus right now.

What’s your theme?

Since I wrote this article last week I have been thinking more and more about Chris Brogan’s concept of three words and about how I defined a more idyllic theme for last year.  And I think I stumbled upon something pretty big with regard to using themes to guide our decisions—perhaps even my own raison d’être.  More on that soon.  I am excited for 2010, even if I have to concentrate a bit on my own business.

I hope you have a pretty awesome year in store for you.  That you can grow your business and give back.  What’s your theme going to be?  Is there anything I can help with now?

Flickr Photo Credit: zen, Yafut

In my next post, I’ll talk about what’s ahead.  For now, I hope you’ll find value in my following up on goals and sharing lessons learned.  As always, thank you for the company.

Feel free to skip to the more interesting part—the lessons learned—if you don’t want to hear what I accomplished (it’s just that I owe you a follow up on the goals I set out).

2008’s Resolutions: A Mixed Bag

I didn’t accomplish many of my resolutions, but to some degree I’m okay with that—part of the reason why I didn’t list them publically before was because I wasn’t certain what was reasonable or even possible.  And even the ones I did accomplish, I question whether they were the right goals.  Perhaps there’s a lesson in that exercise:

When drafting our resolutions, we should strongly consider whether these are our most worthwhile ambitions.  We shouldn’t get caught up in the specifics of resolutions, but instead understand the spirit of them.

For instance, I’m glad I spent two months straight abroad (and a total of 84 days out of town in the whole of ‘09).  But a specific amount of travel is no longer a goal for next year, because the underlying intention was to allow a culture to affect me—and the length of time wasn’t the most important bit.  Since I understand better how to travel and how to let go, I won’t need so much time to adjust in the future.  However, I could’ve done a better job with learning Spanish…I made an honest effort by taking private lessons three times per week, but ultimately working in an English-speaking office was the fatal flaw (and thus my metric of being able to watch Spanish TV sin dificultad was not met).

I did manage to run several conferences, to do as much as I hoped for in the DC community, and to win the speaking opportunities I sought.  I didn’t end up creating a board of advisors for my company, but the timing wasn’t right.  Perhaps most noticeably to me, I failed at the goals I set for myself with regard to attracting AwayFind users—but that’s partially due to the completely altered course we took.  I’m okay with that, now.  Ask me again in 12 months.

2009’s Proposed Theme: Generally Met

I proposed my theme for 2009 as “impact.”  I wrote that I’d built a platform in the years leading up, and in 2009 I would use that platform for the betterment of my projects and those participating, rather than for further growing the platform itself.  Specifically, with every decision, I was to ask myself: “what will achieve the most impact?”

Unlike with goals where it’s easy to determine success (spending a certain number of days abroad or achieving a specific level of language proficiency), I didn’t have a metric for evaluating ‘the most impact.’

And to that end, I may have failed.

I did launch two successful groups/event series, both Bootstrap Maryland and Ignite DC have been at capacity at their events.  And I don’t think I’d like to put any more effort than I have into them—I’m proud of where they are and will continue to keep them at that level.  (Though of course, it wasn’t just me.  Particularly, with Ignite DC I was a co-organizer along with Steve Lickteig.)

But AwayFind didn’t get the love it needed in the first half of the year.  Since the summer we’ve been on a roll, and in 2010 I believe some remarkable things will happen.  But enough about my accomplishments—the short story is that I did a decent job in 2009 but I’ve got a ways to go in 2010 in a lot of areas.

Lessons Learned

The value of time alone.  I traveled a lot this year, most of it alone.   And back home I spent more time by myself than in years past (part of that due to not being in a relationship).  But regardless, I loved setting the pace and choosing the manner in which to experience things.  I’ve always valued time to myself, but I used to look at that as a lesser option, only when necessary.  This year I developed a much greater appreciation for that space.

The end of social media.  I used to read a lot of blogs about blogging.  I used to care a lot about growing readership.  Since the end of ‘08 I’ve been back to writing for me.  Writing much more in my journal.  Writing different types of articles here.  Etc.  It’s important to be true to your core.

A greater tolerance for risk.  Time with Dave McClure and talks with Art Jacoby have directly increased my tolerance for risk and trust in myself.  I’m not saying I’m about to fly to Vegas and put it all on red, but I’m willing to believe in myself in more places and take on greater risks all around.  It all works out in the end, especially at my age and without a family to provide for.

Good food and real exercise make a difference.  After a summer in Barcelona, I’ve been eating better.  Multiple courses, eaten slower, once or twice per day.  And running.  I’ve run everywhere I’ve traveled this year (and clocked in around 900 miles with an average mile time around 7’05”!).  This last week in the snow I didn’t run enough and I was feeling really antsy.  It’s amazing how much we’re a slave to our bodies…and yet, we can take care of ourselves and make our days so much more pleasant and effective.

I still need a community.  When I bought my place in ‘05, a big reason was The Perk, probably the best coffeehouse in the DC metro.  That was my second home and a community.  It closed in late 2008 (though it may be back in 2010…).  Looking back on this year, it’s strange to me just how hard I’ve tried to find community wherever I’ve been: I visited Bar Llacuna almost every day in Barcelona and have been to the College Park Diner 4+ times per week since October.  Nothing beats familiarity and community, and it’s something that I’ve realized (through my own unintentional actions) that I really need.

The Photos Above: Favorite Spots in 2009

Above I’ve pictured a few of my favorite places from the past year.  I didn’t include places like Parc de la Ciutadella or the Hirshorn’s Sculpture Garden, which I’ve fallen for in years past.  But I thought it appropriate to include them here (photos above are in the same order as the descriptions below).

Shinjuku Gyoen (i.e., Shinjuku Gardens) – I haven’t spent enough time in Tokyo to speak with authority on the best spots, but I took the photo above on a run from my hotel with a pocket camera.  The sheer beauty of that park in Spring while the sakura (cherry blossoms) were in bloom, made for perhaps the most breathtaking run I’ve ever taken.

Golden Gate Park – I never expected to love the park as much as I did, but going for several runs there with Loic and staying near there with my favorite Lauren led me to totally fall in love with how immersive it is.  Parks with depth like this are severely lacking in Barcelona, and while we have huge parks in DC, none have quite the same balance between nature and careful trimming—Golden Gate Park is both ideal for wandering past crowds and finding a quiet spot between trees.

The Kogod Courtyard within the National Portrait Gallery – I’ll admit, I meet everybody there now.  When it’s too cold to enjoy DC outside, this is the best spot bar none to relax/chat/work.  (The wifi sometimes even works.)  Norman Foster’s modern efficiency combined with the mid-19th century’s ideas for Roman architecture make for a European experience, complete with a cafe that can brew halfway decent espresso or even offer up the finest Robert Mondavi.

And you?

In my next post I’ll talk about my theme for 2010.  What about you, how did you fare in 2009?  Any lessons learned that you care to share?

The original photos on Flickr: Dagny, Shinjuku Gyoen, Golden Gate Park, Kogod Courtyard

There is a time to sprint, and not just because you want to work harder.  Consider this:

An Exercise in Human Resources

Assuming 9 months of work to create a product, which would be the best hiring strategy?

1. 1 developer working for 9 months
2. 3 developers working for 3 months
3. 5 developers working for (just under) 2 months
4. 9 developers working for 1 month

I’d bet most people would go with the middle options, but why?

• Their gut would tell them to dismiss the first option: 9 months seems too long to wait, maybe the market will have changed, perhaps having only one developer would put them at risk
• They’d probably dismiss the last option: 9 developers is probably really expensive, and it’d likely be difficult to catch a big mistake and alter it without spending too much on rework

The last option is a bit extreme, and for all but the most experienced of project managers with the most firm and well-thought specifications it’s likely unreasonable.   Chances are the middle two are the best options.  Both for the reasons above (which you likely considered) and also for a set of reasons that I want to stress below.

But I will also come back to this…as I’d be willing to bet most people (who aren’t answering this as a purely intellectual exercise) have actually chosen option 1 (solo entrepreneurs who build your own product, this is especially true for you).  Now let’s talk about all the reasons this is a bad decision, and in what cases the last option might even be the best one.

A Month Costs A Lot of Money

If you don’t know your monthly burn (the monthly expenses for your company) then, well, figure them out.  Depending on the size of your company, you might want to include your personal expenses in these numbers as well.  Anyhow, hold onto this number.

If you’re like most companies, you’ll find that a lot of this number comprises money that just seems to disappear every month—most of it may be salaries, but a lot of it is fixed/variable expenses you wish didn’t exist (insurance, office space, transportation, food, infrastructure, etc).  Maybe it’s just 2,000, maybe it’s 6,000, maybe it’s 12,000…but whatever it is, it’s significant.

Nevermind interest fees.  Or the fact that it’s a month of your life.

And of course there’s the the frustrating fact that you can’t put your head down and focus for too long (1 month?  2 months?  4 months?) without allowing the real world to haunt you with its responsibilities, risks, and bills.

Consider this: if you could cut three months of (non-payroll) expenses out of your project by making the project three months faster, how much more would you have available for developers?  How much sooner would your project be ready?

Solos: if you have $60,000 to work with, and gave yourself a year to build your product, consider how much faster and more relevant your product would be with other people on your team…and how much sooner you’d realize whether you were going down the right path and…

Time Flies By…and So Does Your Competition

If you’re in a competitive or quickly changing industry (like, say, web applications) then time matters.  I’ve learned of dozens of companies that have “validated” our market since I started working on AwayFind.  If I decide to slow down for a while, many of our core features would no longer be novel, let alone remarkable.

Cutting edge is no longer a quaint thought.  Every 6 months there’s a metamorphosis in which technologies are available (and which businesses are making money of them to do what you want to do).

Time Commitments Take Time

If you’re still chipping away at the same problem a year from now would you feel good about it?  If your team members also lacked that sense of completion, would they still be there?

When time goes by, there’s a chance you’re going to wander off.  There’s a VERY good chance someone in your team will move on.  So it’s in your interest to get as much done as possible while you have them.

But What About Slow Growth and Learning?

My team worked on AwayFind for a very long time, not putting many hours into it in the beginning.  These are our actual hours (Y axis) over 2 years (X axis):

This shape represents a company that wasn’t so sure how much time it wanted to put into its product, particularly when there was another (i.e., a real ;-) source of income (our consulting business).  It also shows a company that incubated a lot of information before realizing how to respond to customers and try again.

Let’s just assume that I didn’t have another business.  If I were paying 5,000 per month in fixed expenses then that would’ve been $5,000 x25 = $125,000.  If we had moved faster, I could have had access to some of that money.

I will admit that I learned a lot about building a web application and grew many relationships over this two year period.  While the purpose of AwayFind hasn’t changed (escape interruptions while still being responsive), its technology and experience are the difference between MS-DOS 2.11 and Windows 7.

But there are periods on this graph where we could’ve and should’ve moved faster.

So When Do You Sprint?

If you look closely at that graph, you’ll see the last dip before the hours went pretty-much straight up (the dip was May 09).  From that point onward we’ve mostly been chipping away in product development.   Leading up to the first launch we also could’ve beefed up our product development, much more than you see here—it would’ve saved us months and probably $15-25k.

In the last few months I’ve hired 2 full time developers, a Director of Communications, and worked with several consultants.

I couldn’t have just tossed those people in at any time, but as soon as it became clear that there were multiple months of work for a new person, I’ve added that person.

Right now we’re sprinting.  We need to improve the UX on a number of areas, we need to better connect to certain email providers, we need to finish our marketing site.

I see very clearly what needs to happen on the product side, so I just want to move as quickly as possible to get there.

Back to the Exercise from Before…and the Right Answer

The more crystal clear your specifications and needs become, the better in a position you are to divide the tasks amongst multiple people and move as quickly as possible.

Of course, this assumes that you can find the right people for the right price, and that you know how to manage them.  All those things are easier said than done.  But those are relationships and skills that every entrepreneur can benefit from.

We all have a fundamental understanding of how to “control costs.”  But we don’t always know how to “control time,” particularly in relation to how time affects costs and our position in the market.  Next time you’re ready to sprint, do it–you’ll save a lot of money, hit your market, and have a better chance for success.

Flickr Photo Credit: johnthescone

This is a brief overview of why and how to quickly identify and minimize dissonance.  Skip to the end for the quick exercise.

Case Study: The Social Media Expert

For a while I was blogging a lot about social media, going to the events, speaking about it.  Today I see so many presumed social media experts, many who aren’t right for the position.  But I don’t fault them for taking on something that may not perfectly suit them, and I don’t think they’re just looking to make a buck.

People got involved with using social media for personal or professional reasons and realized they enjoyed it.  Then, lo and behold, there was a burgeoning market for coaching and consulting in it.  But many have started to realize they aren’t cut out for it.

Nevermind whether these people have acquired the requisite skills, it’s just that customer engagement and digital marketing aren’t where these people see themselves deep down.  There’s a difference between having a conversation and guiding a brand.  I’ve battled with this myself.

The Core

We’re all cut out for something.  But I don’t believe “we’ll know it when we see it”—I think we’ll only know it from looking back at the patterns in our lives.

When opportunities present themselves, it’s easy to jump on board and even enjoy it for a time.  But at some point we realize there’s a core to us: the ways we really kick ass, the experiences that feel truly remarkable, the facets that jive with our real self-identity.  And then there’s everything else.

It’s easy to do what we’re good at—to clear the food that’s on our plates.  But just because we’re good at something and it’s a way to make a living doesn’t mean that it’s true to who we are.  And when we get further from who we are, that leads to dissonance.

Dissonance

Much of my life has been a quest, as Adam Duritz puts it in All My Friends:

But everyone needs a better day
And I’m trying to find me a better way
To get from the things I do to the things I should

He was probably talking about how things work in relationships.  And I guess that applies, too.  But it’s important to be internally consistent in all parts of our lives, particularly in the place we spend 40+ hours every week.  To reduce cognitive dissonance.  To be true to ourselves.  And not just because its a romantic idea.  It’s because:

• When we’re true to our core, we have far fewer necessary evils in our days
• When we’re true to our core and we’re growing, we’re growing in the most valuable ways (as opposed to getting better at something that may or may not matter a year from now)
• When we’re true to our core, people see us how we want to see ourselves

So How Do You Find Your Core?

If you don’t look for your core, you won’t find it.  And a sheet of paper might help:

On on the left side…

• List out what you do at work
• List out what you do at home

On the right side, take some time to think through the patterns of many of your past jobs and ambitions, and then…

• List out what you’re absolutely best at
• List out what feels the most rewarding to you
• If there’s a mission or goal you’ve had for more than a few years, write that down

Sleep on it.  Then revisit the right side of the paper and tweak it a little.  Then compare and contrast the two sides.

And Now…

If there’s dissonance, how will you minimize it?  The obligations that weren’t necessary for me on the left (which weren’t on the right) I’ve completely cut.  I’ve begun to delegate the rest of these.  I’m trying to spend more time with what’s on the right.

What will you do to get closer to your core?

Flickr photo credit: MonkeyMyshkin

But these do not necessarily go hand-in-hand—they often make for a risky and stressful formula.  If you want freedom, impact, or authority, let’s talk about some paths to these beyond the “go launch a business” suggestion we hear all too often.

What Part of Entrepreneurship Excites You Most?

Before you go on, consider first what’s most important to you: freedom of time/location, making an impact, or running and growing a business?  These are interrelated and far from mutually exclusive, but most of us want one more than the others.  If it helps, you can place “the thrill of…” before any of these as that may help you to see it clearly—“the thrill of independence,” “the thrill of changing the world,” or the “thrill of building a business.”  Which do you seek most?

The Danger In Going All Out

Nevermind that 90% of businesses don’t make it five years and 50% don’t make it past year one (SBA statistics).  I want to talk more about lifestyle here:

If you want to bake bread, work at a bakery.  If you want to sweep the floor, start a bakery.  In other words, if you want to practice a craft then often times that gets put on the backburner for all the other minutiae that’s involved in running a business.  Maybe you won’t have to sweep the floor, but you will have to manage projects, keep track of the finances, help with workplace conflicts, etc.  (I believe this metaphor was in Michael Gerber’s E-Myth, a great book on this topic)

If you want cash and freedom, don’t build a startup. Don’t hire a dozen employees. Don’t start borrowing a bunch of money to invest in your idea.  Being a consultant may be a good approach to banking some buck.  Selling an information product or becoming a reseller online may be a way to build recurring revenue.  (If you really want to know about how to find a market online and build recurring revenue, my good friend Clay just launched his freedom business school – and I can vouch for the program.)  The thing is, while it’s possible for there to be a (freedom) light at the end of the tunnel, most forms of building businesses take an insane amount of work to get you there.

Another Approach to Changing the World

I’m not trying to dissuade you from doing The Next Big Thing (TNBT), but I believe there are other ways to realize our dreams than by starting a business.  Here’s the gist of a recent conversation with a good friend:

Friend: I have this awesome way of [insert her special talent] that local communities really need to keep publishing alive and even thriving.

She really might have this talent—she’s been in the publishing industry forever.

Me: That’s awesome, but how is that going to scale?  How are you going to build all the other stuff needed before you can do that?

Friend: Well, I guess I’ll build a product and…

Me: So you’re going to build a platform for local news?

Friend: I’ll start with one city, like Craigslist. I’ll just have to find some people who understand the technology and I think I can figure out the business side of this as I’m studying that stuff and…

Me: Have you looked at the way Yahoo Local News and Topix.com and others are trying to do what you’re talking about?  Have you looked into all the geolocation services out there that have a hand in local?

Friend: No.

Me: I don’t want to turn you away from your idea, but what if you looked into whether there was a place for you at all these places that already have platforms?  So you could maybe kick ass doing the part you’re good at, the part you’re passionate about…rather than the grunt work and high risk part of trying to build (yet another) platform?  Or maybe you could build a plug-in for them that…

I’m not saying that this works for everyone.  But the thing is, we all get really excited about our ideas, but we don’t consider the market enough:

• What’s already out there?  This is not a 15 minute Google exercise.
• Do you want to compete with the existing companies in the space or could you possibly join one of them or offer a niche service to them?  (in which case you could immediately focus on the thing you’re good at?)

It’s somewhat naive to think we can easily land a job with authority at the incumbent or sell something to them.  But it is possible to effect change without starting from scratch or being at the top.

Just ask yourself, if impact is your goal is there a way to make the same impact without being a CEO of something that doesn’t presently exist?  Maybe you can have a greater chance of success with an existing group?

(and for all you 20-somethings who rushed to join not-for-profits at 25k per year as an office manager—this is not what I’m talking about—more on that later)

And as for Freedom…

Well, changing the world and finding extra time or money for oneself don’t always go hand in hand.  If you read The Four Hour Workweek, you’ll see that the types of businesses Ferriss advocates aren’t always in line with solving the world’s biggest problems.

But those aren’t for everyone—we all have loans to pay, mouths to feed, and ambitions outside of work.  Freedom businesses may be the best path to that—it’s not the traditional approach to entrepreneurship, but it is a valid one.  (Again, Clay’s program is one of many to learn more about that.)

The only point I want to leave you with on this is that the fastest way to freedom or reliable revenue is not to go out on your own trying to build something big.

So What?  And Tying It All Together

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about lessons-learned in business.  I get paid to offer business advice and I organize a group to help entrepreneurs succeed (come to our next event Oct 29th!).  But the first step is not to just start your business.  The first step is to figure out whether you want to make an impact, find more freedom, or just build a business.  Then the next step is to figure out what’s already out there.

Putting those two steps together you have all kinds of options for what type of career is for you and whether it makes sense to go it alone or to join something else that’s already off the ground.

(I went off on a little tangent earlier about the unrealistic not-for-profit change-the-world path, and that’s because just joining a company is not the best way to make an impact there and beyond.  The best way is to build rapport with the exact company you want to be involved with and use the tactics in Charlie Hoehn’s Recession Proof Grad free eBook to land a respected job where you get to make the impact you want to make.  Seriously grab that eBook.)

So don’t just build TNBT.  Do what’s right for you.

Flickr photo credit: futureshape

Normally $50, I’m able to offer both mine and Joe’s analysis, along with the survey results, as a free PDF to Technotheory readers.  Read on for a couple snippets and a link to download the full article.

Creating the survey was fun, though I wasn’t surprised with the direct survey results, so I wanted to see if there were any correlations in the data.  Since I know little about regression analysis and sample sets, I contacted Zoë Thorkildsen (an economist/statistician who is looking for full-time or contract work right now—contact me for info on getting in touch, she’s in DC) and we discovered some fascinating correlations like this one from page one of the article:

Users with more than 100 messages in their inbox are…

• Less satisfied with the quality of their finished projects
• More behind on their projects
• Less likely to know what tasks they need to work on at the start of a workday

There were other interesting correlations about the way people prioritize their time, when they finish projects, and how much time they spend working after hours.  You can download the full article from Cutter Benchmark Review here (my article is pages 13-19 and all of the survey results are included.  Joe’s article, which really digs into the data, is also included).

                                  Download it here! – use code PERSPROD

While I think you’ll love the article (it’s amazing how much an editor can improve one’s writing!), here’s a snippet I wanted to make sure made it to Technotheory.  It’s my explanation of The Critical Path, a topic I’ve been meaning to explore here:

–The remainder of this post is from the article.  For much more, download it!

When analyzing the research data above, I touched on the urgent-versus-important prioritization.  A technique for visualizing and clarifying the most important items is plotting out the critical path.

Urgent tasks are ones that ought to be completed in the immediate future, like a memo due this afternoon. Important tasks are ones that will have a serious impact on your position or your company, like migrating staff to a new accounting system in which your company has already invested. There are times when an important task becomes urgent. There are times when an urgent task feels important. But to get my head past these nuances, I like to think of a third category called critical tasks.

My company has a software application, and if we don’t launch its next version, then we will go out of business. Thus, my critical objective — my most important goal as the company’s leader — is that we launch and that we do it in the fall. The tasks that get me much closer to launching our application are what I consider to be critical, as they’re on the critical path to the company’s (and my) success. It’s important to identify both your critical objective (or if you have two or three, what they all are) and the tasks that will get you there. Your critical objective is likely the accomplishment you’ll write down on your résumé some day as something you’ve done. It’s the item that takes a lot of work but will be transformative for you or your company. To determine your path to your most critical objective(s) follow these steps:

1. Grab a sheet of paper and spend five minutes brainstorming every task that you need to complete. List the small things and the big things, crucial tasks, and incidental tasks. List everything.
2. Grab another sheet of paper, this time lengthwise, and write out your most critical objective on the right side in the center (see Figure 1; while for ease of reading we’ve presented an example in a more formal way, yours may certainly be handwritten). If you have two critical objectives, write them both (one at a third up from the bottom of the page and one two-thirds up).
3. Draw an arrow (or arrows) from the left side of the paper pointing to the critical objective(s).
4. Using the list of tasks you brainstormed, plot the ones that will get you close to your critical objective on the line. Treat it like a loose timeline, with the tasks that must be completed first further to the left.

What you’ll likely find is that there’s a very small percentage of your responsibilities that are essential enough to be on your critical path. Every day you’ll want to make sure you make some progress on those responsibilities. They’re not just important, they’re necessary. What you’ll notice is that on the days where you address those critical tasks you’ll feel like you’ve made progress; you’ll feel like those are the best days at work. On the days where you get things done that aren’t on that path, you may actually feel worn out because, to some degree, you didn’t get the bigger project closer to the end point.

I’d suggest keeping that piece of paper near you at your desk. If necessary, you can draw up a new one every month as your responsibilities shift. You’ve probably heard of the concept of the “critical path,” but time and again I’ve seen people’s eyes light up when they actually grab a sheet of paper and go through this exercise. Visualizing your tasks and identifying those tasks that will truly move you forward can really change your perspective.

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Do you have any thoughts or questions about identifying your critical path?  If you’re interested, there’s much more in the Cutter Benchmark Review article (with more awesome illustrations), download it here.

Flickr photo credit: CarbonNYC