My Small Business Saturday blog post on SmallBizTrends – In this post I shared an experience I had in Philadelphia last week that made me think a bit more deeply about what it takes to grow a small business.  Often times we get wrapped up in the latest tools & tactics.  But in reality, it’s the act of just asking for the business, good ol’ sales fundamentals, that makes the biggest difference.

My Small Business Saturday slideshow & article on MarketingProfs – In this article I laid out 7 ways to make Small Business Saturday a big success for your business.

Enjoy!

Here's a picture of the restaurant that inspired my SmallBizTrends post.

The Green Lanterns are supposed to not feel fear.  Instead, they exert their will.  Fear is what Parallax (the antagonist in the story) feeds off of.

The problem is, that’s not the way it really works.  We all have fear.  Fear is what keeps us from doing stupid things.  Exerting our will has nothing to do with fear.

In fact, I believe courage is the ability to address our fear head-on and still exert our will.

What do you think?

Steven Curtis Chapman inadvertently wrote the words of my heart. I had no idea how badly I would long to have a baby girl until that option was taken away from us with Jill’s hysterectomy. I was totally happy with three boys. Boys are easy. Girls are whiney, catty, & sassy. Now, all I want is a sassy little baby girl.

Heaven is the face of a little girl with dark brown eyes that disappear when she smiles.
Heaven is the place where she calls my name and says “Daddy please, come play with me for a while”.

I don’t have any clue why it was part of God’s plan to have us find our daughter through adoption, but I have to assume it is His plan. It’s too painful to think otherwise.

God, I know it’s all of this and so much more.
But God, you know, that this is what I’m aching for.
God, you know I just can’t see beyond the door.

To top it off, a couple of months ago we almost brought a foster baby into our home. We spent a lot of time with her and the outlook for adoption was good.  Jill and I wanted to take the next step so badly.  Yet, for some reason, after much prayer, it didn’t feel right.  What do you do when you want to do something good but doesn’t feel good.  It’s a strange situation to be in.  So, it just stings a bit sometimes. What I really want is just to hold her and know she’s ours; whoever she is.

So, right now heaven is the sound of her breathing deep, lying on my chest falling fast asleep while I sing.
And heaven is the weight of her in my arms; being there to keep her safe from harm while she dreams.

Please help us on our search for our baby girl. We don’t know where she is but we’re searching for her just as any parent would search for a lost child. Please help her come home. Share this link. Tell friends and family. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Heaven is a sweet maple syrup kiss and a thousand other little things I miss with her gone.
And heaven is the place where she takes my hand and leads me to You and we both run into Your arms.

Heaven is the face of my little girl. I hope I can see her soon.

The story of Stacy Francis was heart wrenching.  As a 40 year old woman, she’s been beaten down by the world around her.  No one has believed in her.  An ex-boyfriend told her she wasn’t good enough and she was too old.  Friends and family members encouraged her to give up her dream and move on.  The time had passed.

But somehow Stacy garnered the courage to put it all on the line.  As she stepped on the stage, Simon asked her “Why do you think this hasn’t worked out?”  She mentioned a bit about her story and then exclaimed: “I don’t want to die with this music in me”.

Tears.  Not hers.  Mine.

Her statement was overwhelming to me.  The music inside her was too powerful for her to go to the grave without her getting it out.  She KNEW this was her purpose in life.  To share that beautiful power.

And her voice?  Stunning!  She clearly had music in her that should never die unheard.  It was powerful and moving.  She had faced all her fears, all her doubters, all her anxieties, all of the world.  And she won.  I haven’t watched any episodes since then. I have no idea how far she has gone or will go with her music.  But, in my mind, she won.  She won at life.  She got out the one thing she had to get out before she dies.  And it touched me in a deep way.  Thank you Stacy!

So, my question to you is: “What is inside of you that you have to get out before you die?”

Are you willing to face your deepest fears to get it out?  Are you willing to face all of your doubters?  Are you willing to face hell itself?

If so, post it below.  Let’s get it out.  Let’s make it real.

Right as Gary was finishing his talk, I noticed Joe Sugarman (one of the greatest marketers/salesmen of all time) get up and leave.  I was particularly interested because it had actually shocked me to see him sit through all of the sessions, intently listening.  Often times, experts consider themselves too great to listen to all the sessions in a conference like that.  Not Joe.  I admired how he was still learning.

Any way, I followed Joe out of the room to see where he was heading (No, I’m not a stalker).  Joe was not leaving the conference.  Joe was actually heading out so that he could be the first person in line to talk with Gary as he came out to do book signings.  The line was LONG.  Joe was first.

What humility!  What a show of great respect!  Not many people with that kind of expertise and experience in a particular field would do that.

I learned a lot this week at Clickbank Exchange.  But the most valuable lesson I learned was to always be learning – no matter how good you get, no matter how successful you are.  Be humble.  There are always people who know more about something than you do.  Thank you Joe.

You can listen to the radio show here.

He mentioned that in England, if you tell 10 people that you’re going to start your own business, 9 of them will tell you that it’s a stupid idea. He feels that in the U.S. the opposite is true. I asked him why he thought that was the case. He said, “I think its the pilgrim spirit. The kind of people that came here were hearty people that had to have a positive outlook. The journey and the hardships they encountered when they got here required it of them.”

He also told me that one time he mentioned to a German that 9 of 10 Americans would respond positively to a person starting their own business versus 9 of 10 Brits responding negatively. The German said, “That’s funny. You should come to Germany. We think the Brits are 10 times more positive than we are.”

The conversation eventually turned to politics and one of my favorite topics, nationalized healthcare. He mentioned that he was in the US during the Obama campaign & election and he noticed that Americans (I corrected him and told him it was only liberal Americans) have an unhealthy adoration of Europe. He couldn’t understand why people here wanted to emulate European government. He said, “Europe is a mess. Nationalized healthcare has good intent, but scope creep has ruined it. When you see people getting plastic surgery & other healthcare benefits fully paid for, it doesn’t make sense.”

So, I ask the question: “What’s with our adoration of Europe?”

Why do we not better honor the pilgrims? Why do we not hold to the highest degree the men & women who sacrificed everything they had to come to a free land? Why do we not pay tribute to those who willingly gave their lives so that we, the future generations, could live freely? Instead we honor the tyrants who oppressed our pilgrim grandparents. We admire those who stayed behind and have run inferior governments. Have we grown so selfish that we are not willing to pay the price our forefathers did? As our country continues to decline in strength & esteem, we have no place to look but ourselves and lack of strength to live the way this free land requires.

Visit our adoption profile.

Please help us find our baby girl.  If you know anyone who is in a position to place a baby for adoption, please direct them to our profile.

Thank you.

This acquisition was structured as a CVR (contingent-value right).  Basically this means that Sanofi has offered a cash payment of $74 per share along with a CVR which could bring an additional $14 per share.  The current market value of the CVR is estimated at $1.50 per share.  Sanofi has agreed to pay $1 per CVR share if certain production levels are acheived by Genzyme.  In the end, Sanofi is ensuring that Genzyme burden some of the risk – forcing performance in order to receive the maximum payoff from the acquisition.

This deal that relies heavily on mitigating risk and focuses on performance is akin to other markets making similar moves.  Real estate is no longer based so heavily based on speculation – smart investors are focusing on cash flow.  VC’s are seeking companies that are profitable – having the next big thing with sky-rocketing revenues isn’t so hot if the profit isn’t there.  Lenders aren’t lending unless borrowers have a hefty downpayment or collateral.

The new economy is correcting towards the right metrics.  The key to long term success will be to keep it that way.  Unfortunately, I fear that this focus on performance will be short lived.  Why?  As individuals and families, we still aren’t focused on performance.  Most families are still in too much debt and going further into debt with consumer purchases.  As a people, I don’t believe we’ve been humbled enough to truly change.  The Great Depression changed people.  It created savers.  I don’t see the saving mentality arising as a lasting benefit of the current recession.

It’s important to tease out what that means. Misinterpreted, those statements could cause some to believe that self improvement is not worthwhile.

If “strengths” & “weaknesses” are viewed as behavioral traits, and “talent” is viewed as innate ability, then things get more clear.

In our careers, we can each achieve greatness much more rapidly if we focus on the areas in which we have “talent”. Trying to develop new talent can often be frustrating & unproductive. Even when the new talent can be developed, it is often at a large cost. For example, it wouldn’t be wise for a non-technical , sales minded person to try to become a great computer programmer.

This is distinct from behavioral traits. A “strength” might be the ability to overcome procrastination. A “weakness” might be a propensity to anger. Overcoming behavioral weaknesses and developing behavioral strengths are things that each of us should be dedicating time an effort to.

When we develop our innate talents and refine our behavioral tendencies, we set ourselves up for success.