by Mark West | Jun 29, 2016 | Business, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Important, Marriage, Mentor, Success, Urgent
Last year I wrote about the importance of marriage in “An Entrepreneur’s #1 Partnership,” emphasizing the need to prioritize your marital relationship above your business. But it’s easy to write about doing so, and quite another thing to actually live it out on a daily basis.
Entrepreneurs and employees are often tempted to focus more of their attention and energies on their business or job than the relationship with their spouse. As an entrepreneur, I can affirm the struggle this dilemma often presents. And if you’ve spent any amount of time in business, you know exactly why this is.
Our businesses present a constant set of opportunities, challenges, and other “urgent” matters, that demand our immediate attention. If you’re like me, it’s all too easy to allow these demands to overshadow everything else in life. Whether it’s our relationship with our spouse, our kids, our personal health, or perhaps even our spiritual walk with God, it seems that all too often, the urgency of the immediate drowns out the preeminence of the important.
Granted, there are instances when a scenario is truly urgent in nature, requiring our immediate focus or else catastrophic consequences could ensue. These rare instances are not what I am referring to. Rather, the “urgent” issues I am referring to are the unlimited number of lesser demands that present themselves on an all too frequent basis.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see this reality clearly, both in our own lives and sadly in the lives of others. But in the heat of the battle, it’s easy to ignore that internal nagging voice that continues to remind us that the urgent is once again supplanting the important. And when it does, it can result in our cancelling that special dinner with our spouse, or missing our child’s ball game, because a last minute “deal” demands we do so.
So how do we overcome this temptation so that we properly address the urgent without sacrificing the important? There are at least three truths we can embrace to overcome this “urgent versus important” dilemma:
Involve yourself in an accountability relationship with someone you trust implicitly, whether individually or in a small group. Be honest and transparent with this individual in a manner that allows him to provide honest feedback. It is a rare person who can critique his own actions and choices in such a manner that he will self-correct and recalibrate his life when he veers off course. An accountability partner will provide that much needed correction to help us bring the important back to a priority over the urgent. The book of Proverbs affirms this truth when it reminds us that “…in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
The urgent will always be clamoring for immediate attention. The unexpected and unplanned seem to show up on a regular basis, and too often at the most inopportune times. And when the urgent rears it’s head, it seems all else pales in significance. You can likely identify this reality playing itself out over and over in your own life, if you think about it. So it’s critical that we begin to identify when the urgent has arrived and that we be prepared to counter this temptation with a predetermined course of action. Whether it’s one that you’ve devised on your own, with your accountability partner, or perhaps one such as the Eisenhower Decision Principle (named after President Dwight Eisenhower), have a plan ready to deploy when the urgent shows up and seeks to derail the important.
As hard as we try, there will be times when we succumb to the urgent despite our best intentions. One truth that we know about ourselves is that we often fail to live up to our own standards and expectations. It may not be that we intended to, but old habits die hard and we frequently revert back to our old self. But this is just another instance when we must simply acknowledge our frailty, both to ourselves and our spouse and/or family, and then recommit ourselves to steps 1 and 2 above. Meet with your accountability partner, evaluate your actions, and then learn from your mistakes.
I trust that you and I will continually remember these truths and we’ll take whatever steps we need to take in order to insure that we don’t wake up someday and realize that, while we were successful at accomplishing the urgent, we failed in the truly important areas of our life. including that most important relationship, our marriage.
by Mark West | Nov 3, 2015 | entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Leaders
Following my post last week, Capitalism, Greed and the American Way: Are they Synonymous?, I concluded that greed and capitalism are obviously not synonymous. A number of readers commented on the post so I wanted to explore this a little further.
Recently I reread an ancient story about a very rich farmer. It seems he was so successful that he ran out of space to store his abundance. So his solution was to tear down his barns, build new ones, and hoard all of his crops and possessions for his own personal benefit. His self-absorbed mindset concluded that the obvious response to his success was to simply “eat, drink and be merry” and waste all he had been blessed with on himself.
Yesterday I read another business story in an article at Bloomberg.com entitled How Two Guys Lost God but Found $40 Million. This rags to riches story relays the experiences of a couple of Jewish guys, Abe Zeines and Meir Hurwitz, who found a way to prey on small businesses via a venture called “merchant cash advance. It’s a legal way to lend money to small businesses at interest rates higher than Mafia loan sharks once charged.”
The two partners ultimately sold their business for $100 million in early 2015 and walked away clearing $20 million each. With their new-found wealth, the two men bought a mansion in Puerto Rico, and the following excerpt from the article describes their current life: “golfing, gambling and picking up women…” Interestingly, though, the two acknowledge that “making some money hadn’t made (them) happy; it just made (them) want more.”
So if the above ventures were capitalistic in nature, why did the owners respond so selfishly? Perhaps these four truths about capitalism will shed some light:
Truth #1: Capitalism acts as a portal into one’s soul
While capitalism enabled Zeines and Hurwitz to achieve millionaire status, it also was the portal that revealed what was already deep within their souls. Capitalism and the success that can come with it will simply reveal the best and the worst of a man. If greed lurks within the recesses of a man, it will be amplified as the man’s business profits. On the flip side, though, if compassion, generosity and concern for one’s fellow man are values of the entrepreneur, those same qualities will flourish and gain significance as that man is blessed with material gain.
Truth #2: Capitalism requires one to focus on the needs of others
We should remember that capitalism is not about me, as in the business owner, but rather it’s about others. In the book, “Business Secrets from the Bible” Rabbi Daniel Lapin reveals a secret that validates this truth: “Focus on other people’s needs and desires and you will never, ever be short of what you yourself desire or need.” Lapin goes on to say that “there is only one way to make money (legally): finding out what other people want or need and then providing those things to as many of our fellow humans as possible.”
Capitalism enables us to serve the needs of others in the most effective and efficient manner. And the more people you serve, the more financially successful you will be (assuming the economics of your business are sound). Sadly, though, this truth does not guard against exploiters of capitalism.
Truth #3: Capitalism promotes the golden rule
A central core of Judeo-Christian values is the concept of the golden rule: Do unto other as you would have them do unto you. The clear teaching here is that we must treat others in the same manner we desire to be treated. This truth, while deeply engrained into our traditional Western values, is not universal as socialism and even some religions do not embrace this rule.
But capitalism at its core requires the golden rule for it to flourish and carry on. Consider that if a business owner mistreats his customers in a manner that he would reject if he were the customer, ultimately his customers will not return. While we can find examples of businesses who have obviously mistreated their customers, such as Zeines and Hurwitz did to their clients, in the long run, businesses or an entire industry like theirs will ultimately fail if they reject the golden rule.
Truth #4: Capitalism enables one to help another
If you’ve ever flown on an airline, you’ve no doubt heard the flight crew instruction prior to taking off informing passengers of what to do in the case of a loss of oxygen. Prior to helping others, including their young child, passengers are instructed to put on their own oxygen mask first and then help the child sitting beside them. The clear message is that one cannot help another if they are incapacitated themselves. Likewise, as we look around our community or world, we see many in dire need. However, before we can help those who are less fortunate, we must have the capacity to do so.
As entrepreneurs build and grow their enterprises with the right motives and a sound economic model, success is inevitable. And as that success begins to increase the owner’s resources, he is at an increased level of opportunity to reach out and help those in need beside him, or half way around the world. This is the beauty of capitalism: the entrepreneur meets the needs of his customers which in turn enables the owner to meet the needs of his family, his community, and his world. And this all occurs because of a voluntary economic exchange.
As we wrap up our discussion about capitalism, I trust that we will consider this sobering thought from Luke 12: “To whom much is given, much is required.” As individuals who have been blessed with the gift of capitalism, something that billions of people in our world do not possess, I trust that you and I will find ourselves faithful stewards of this great gift. May we continue to defend and pursue capitalism in a manner that acknowledges these four truths and preserves it for generations to come.
by Mark West | Aug 18, 2015 | Accountability, Entrepreneurship, Tools
If you’re an entrepreneur your time is one of your most important allies. Lose time, decrease productivity. Decrease productivity, profits slip. Profits slip, lose more time as you must divert attention to understand why profits are slipping. It’s kind of like watching a line of dominoes fall.
But what if you could go back to the first domino and keep it from falling to start with? What if you could back up and save the time you lost by simply downloading a free app that synchronizes across your desktop, smart phone and iPad? Could it really be that easy?
Well let me suggest that it really is. I began using Evernote a couple years ago and have found this app to be the one I use the most to manage so many different aspects of my life. In fact, each week I write my blog post in Evernote and then share it with my son, Nathan, and his company Solario Solutions then uploads it to my website.
But there are so many other ways in which Evernote can help your productivity and save you time. Here are just a few ways I use this app:
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Keep a running note of names of people I meet and a brief description of them. I simply update the note on the fly and can always refer back to it if my memory fails me.
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Take photos of business cards I receive to save the info for future reference. This keeps me from accumulating stacks of cards and wasting time looking for a person’s contact info.
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Copy photos or documents to Evernote for easy manipulation and annotations (arrows, highlights, boxes, etc.)
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Use Evernote on the fly for quick note taking, entering data either by typing or speaking into the app.
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Use the List option to track my To Do lists, checking them off when completed.
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My Evernote account provides me with a unique Evernote email. In turn, I use that email address to sign up for internet based newsletters and websites. This results in the newsletters and website updates coming directly to my Evernote account, bypassing my personal email.
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Evernote has a great audio recording feature. When I’m out walking or running, I frequently listen to audio books or podcasts. Evernote is the perfect tool to speak into my thoughts or notes from the books or podcasts I’m listening to for future reference. It is also a great way to document discussions and meetings I may have with my team members.
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The sharing feature in Evernote allows me to share my notes with others who can collaborate with me on the same note, offering three different options to the person I am sharing the note with: 1) View, 2) Edit, or 3) Edit and Invite.
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When I find articles on the internet that I want to either save permanently or read later, Evernote offers a one click option within my browser to send the article to Evernote in several different formats.
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These are just a few of the ways that I use Evernote. In addition though, Evernote’s vast search function is a powerful way to track down info that I stored days, months or years prior. The apps’ ability to pull up the info based on a word search or via tags is incredible and is another way that an entrepreneur will save valuable time.
Finally, let me acknowledge that even though I use Evernote daily and find it an indispensable tool for life and business, there are so many more functions and uses that this powerful app offers than I have enumerated above.
Many of these additional uses have been written about extensively by others, including Michael Hyatt. Here’s just one of many articles Hyatt has written about Evernote: 12 Surprising Ways to Use Evernote
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So, the next time you’re wondering how you can find some more time in your day, give Evernote a try. You won’t be disappointed.
Here’s the link to get you started: Evernote[/fusion_text][imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] [/imageframe][fusion_code]PHN0eWxlPg0KLmZ1c2lvbi1jaGVja2xpc3Qgew0KbWFyZ2luLXRvcDogLTE4cHggIWltcG9ydGFudDsNCn0NCjwvc3R5bGU+[/fusion_code]
