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So, what's distracting you this week?  I have been distract for the last four days; its interesting what it takes to change things in your life.  Here's my story.  I came home last week, as I normally do, but quickly noticed that something was different; I heard a 'chirp' sounds.  I immediately knew what it was, it was the smoke detector notifying me that something need to be looked at.  For those that don't know what I am talking about, smoke detectors in America (I would assume elsewhere, but I only know what I can see) require a disposable battery to be installed, even if the unit is attached to the homes electrical system to act as a battery back up.  When the battery reaches a certain level of discharge, it starts producing a high pitch 'chirp' sound at regular intervals to get your attention.  Basically, its the detectors way of saying 'change my battery'.  Normally this is not an issue, put a new battery in and it's good for another year, but this one is different.  This smoke detector is in my living room at the top of a vaulted ceiling that is 30' feet tall.  This was going to be a challenge because, I do not have a ladder that will reach this height. What's distracting You - How to Handle A Distraction Now while I am pondering how to add the new battery, I am being distracted by the steady 'chirping' of the smoke detector.  At first it was not an issue, but slowing over time, I began to notice the sounds more and more.  I began to understand how someone can go mad from the sounds, similar to the beating heart of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tale Tell Heart", I am not ready to tear up the floor boards (yet).   This chirping sounds was very distracting and made it difficult to truly focus on anything else.  This allowed my to start thinking about distractions in general, they tend to occupy our lives and keep us from our task at hand.  So, what's distracting you?  Don't think I will accept the answer of nothing, there are distractions around us almost every hour of each day.  Imagine if you could remove one distraction this week, how freeing that would be.  What would you with this recovered time? Remove the Distraction Consider one of these tips below. 1.  Turn off smart phone notifications: Yes, I said it, now do it.  Our smart phones have quickly become one of the greatest sources of distraction in our lives. The average person now checks their mobile phone 150 times every day.  Is there really something that important on y

My family and I are fanatics when it comes to animated movies.  Perhaps fanatic is too strong of a word, what's a good word to describe people that know the all the words to their favorite movies and can quote them along with the movie?  How about dedicate fan, that sounds better.  You may be asking what does my family's viewing habits have to do with the topic of "How to Succeed at Failure"; don't worry, I'm getting at that.  One of my favorite animate movies was on TV earlier this week and it reminded me about the importance of failure.  Of course, if you are an animated movie buff, you will probably identify this movie as Disney's "Meet the Robinsons".  If you have not seen the movie, click here for more info on the movie from Disney.  Besides the brilliant animation, the one thing that intrigues me is the constant theme of failure and not in the way you would think.  The movie celebrates failure, as a necessity to success.  One of my favor quotes from the movie is: This quote really resonates with me because we all failure from time to time, but we normally try to ignore it or look at it as something that has no value.  It is ingrained into our collect conscience that you should succeed only.  I can understand because society doesn't reward defeat, but it does reward success.  Do you remember the immortal words of Jerry C. Bostick, a NASA flight controller, when he said “Failure is not an option,” during the mission to bring the crippled space capsule, Apollo 13, back to Earth.  That one phrase is forever etched into our culture and society. Succeed at Failure Failure is something that is completely misunderstood; I think the quote is right, we learn from failure, how else would we be successful.  Look at the great men and women of history, we see their successes easily but do you see the failures that led up to the success?  Take Thomas Edison, his invention of the light bulb has changed the world as we know it.  Think about it, how many light bulbs do you see in a 24 hour period?  It has been reported that it took him 1,000 tries before he developed a successful prototype of this revolutionary device.  A reporter once asked him  “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?”, Edison responded with  “I didn't fail 1,000 times, the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”  Edison say each failure as a necessary step toward his ultimate success.  Edison learn to succeed at failure.   Keep Moving Forward Back to th

Zig Ziglar once said "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." This is  one of my guiding principles in life and business, or to put in a shorter form, I believe in giving back.  I consider giving back a founding principle life for a Pirate Entrepreneur.  Unlike most of the pirates that lived during the Golden Age Of Piracy, the Pirate Entrepreneur believes in help those on his way, just as you should.  You may ask why, so I decided to give you some great answers. Top 5 Reasons To Give Back 1.  It makes us Happy - Yes studies show that help others leads toward our personal happiness and well being.  US News today states "People who volunteer tend to have higher self-esteem, psychological well-being, and happiness,"  2.  Live Longer - Giving back and helping others can extend your life.  A study by JAMA Pediatrics shows helping others can lower cholesterol.  Their study also showed 3.  Feel Connected - Today's world is nothing like it was a 100 years ago, let a long 10 years ago.  With technology with us at every moment, we somethings don't realize that our 'virtual communities' are just that, virtual.  Giving back, allows us to reconnect with people and remember life exist beyond your iPhone. 4.  Add a sense of purpose and meaning to life - It doesn't matter how much money you make, or what kind of car you drive, without purpose, the value diminishes.   Serving others is a core principle of many faiths and beliefs and it should be apart of you.  Serving others gives us insights into ourselves while helping others in need.  If you are feeling less than whole, give back to the community and people as a servant and not for validation, and you may find that hole in you is now filled. 5.  It is the Right Thing To Do - Great leaders already know this and you should too.  To be a great leader, you have to give back and serve; not just do 'nice' things but to do 'right' things.  Doing the right thing reconnects us with employees, friends, family and society; it reminds us of our humanity.  Humanity is one of the last great things left, don't lose yours. Giving back, is a core necessity to your continued growth and success, don't forget to do it.  What do you think?  Are you giving back or are looking for a way to give back?  Leave a moment and let us know.

My wife had an urge to work in the yard today, trying to take our winter grass and clean it up a little.  If I had it my way, I would have ocean in the front yard and ocean in the back, but that is another story.  While telling me her story of her adventures in horticulture, she mentioned how hard it was to get the weeds out of the lawn and almost impossible out of the back flowerbeds because the weeds were firmly embedded in with rocks and hard soil, this got me thinking.  I starting thinking about what it is that makes some entrepreneurs incredibly successful while others seem to just disappear or slowly fade away.  Much like my now dominate lawn, why are some of the grasses brown and dead while these weeks seem to be growing and multiplying daily.  Then it hit me, the weeks have been designed to persevere and thrive in harsh conditions while other plants fail and die; this was their secret. Entrepreneurs have a similar design to thrive and I call that secret to growth grit. The Secret Ingredient of the Entrepreneur This is installment #4 of 4 from the podcast entitled “TPE 013: Building A Successful Entrepreneur” In episode 014 (The Right Stuff), we discussed what is the “Right Stuff” or what is unique about your core offering and in episode 016 (The Reason We Do What We Do) we discuss our destination and our vision.  In episode 017 (Reaching for the Prize) I discussed the power of goal setting and focus.  Now once again, I give the noticed that if you haven’t listened to Podcast #13, #14,#16, or #17 yet, I encourage you to go back now and do it.  If you have great!  Let’s get started. Looking back at Episode 13, we use the following formula to describe an entrepreneur: (((Skill + Talent + Experience) * Passion) + (Destination Location + Vision) + ((Goal Setting + Focus) * Persistence)) * Grit In this formula, I describe The Secret Ingredient of the Entrepreneur” =Grit.  Let’s do a deeper dive into this. The Secret Sauce It seems that everyone is looking for a "secret sauce" or magic pill on how to be successful, and I think I might have found it.  You notice in our base formula above, that all the aspects of an entrepreneur were added together and multiplied by grit.  This is no random act of grasping at a formula to use for a podcast, this is by design.  First, I have to assume that there may be someone reading this, that does not know what grit is.  Merriam and Webster defines 'grit' as: Grit is the intangible

Monday's have always been given a bad rap, in my opinion.  Although there is no scientific evidence as to why Monday's would be any different than any other day of the week, this has not stopped everyone from The Boomtown Rats with their song "I Don't Like Mondays" to the iconic comic character Garfield and his catch phrase "I Hate Mondays".  My guess is, Mondays have gained their bad reputation because traditionally, Monday is the first day of the 'standard' business work week and people have had the weekend to relax. de-stress and think. and now on Monday, they have to start the J.O.B. (Just Over Break) work again.  As a want to be  entrepreneurs or new entrepreneurs, Mondays are also the day we are occasionally plagued with looking at our potential / existing business and being disappointed that they are not where we want them to be.  The question of "Should You Give Up" usually pokes it's head up and doubt begins to enter you mind.   Should You Give Up Giving up is a difficult subject to think about.  Either self doubt or possibly other influences have you thinking about if you made a right decision.  Are you wasting time pursuing this path.  This is a difficult question to answer and ultimately only you can answer it.  The good news is, if your are thinking about it, you are in good company.  All entrepreneurs think about giving up one or more times, this is normal.  The info graphic below shows you that even the greatest entrepreneurs have had doubts and wanted to quit. I can't tell you if you should persevere and keep going or change (TPE Episode 17) but I can tell you that nothing is a failure until you give up.  If you are having doubts about your business try to look at it from a new light, are you giving your audience what they are wanting in the way the want it.  It could be as simple as your target audience doesn't know about you, so what are you going to do about it?  

Have you ever heard the term, “Reaching for the Prize” or “Grabbing the brass ring” and wondered where these expressions came from?  Warming up the old computing device and “Googling” the phrases,  I think we can trace “Reaching for the Prize” back to the Philippians 3:14, in the Bible, while “Grabbing the brass ring” can be traced back to the original carousel rides in the 1880’s  that dispensed rings to be grabbed by the riders but only one (or a very few) were brass to be turned in for a prize.  Both phrases have a common theme of “striving for the highest prize, or living life to the fullest”.  Although, I would love to discuss the theological meaning behind this (if you’re interested shoot me an email and I’ll buy the coffee), for this post, let’s focus on the human definition. Reaching for the Prize This is installment #3 of 4 from the podcast entitled “TPE 013: Building A Successful Entrepreneur” In episode 014 (The Right Stuff), we discussed what is the “Right Stuff” or what is unique about your core offering and in episode 016 (The Reason We Do What We Do) we discuss our destination and our vision.  If you haven’t listened to Podcast #13, #14, or #16 yet, I encourage you to go back now and do it.  If you have great!  Let’s get started. Looking back at Episode 13, we use the following formula to describe an entrepreneur: (((Skill + Talent + Experience) * Passion) + (Destination Location + Vision) + ((Goal Setting + Focus) * Persistence)) * Grit In this formula, I describe “Reaching for the Prize” = (Goal Setting + Focus) * Persistence. So let’s dive into what this means for you. Goals, Not Limited to Sports Have you ever wondered why scoring a point in soccer is called a goal or why in American football, the uprights are called the goal post?  Ok, so the analogy is not perfect; its call a basket in basketball, but stay with me on this, I am not a sports person.  I haven’t looked it up, but my guess as to why these are called goals is because they are the end result you and your team are striving for.  Goals for the entrepreneur are the same.  In podcast #16 we learned about our lifestyle destination, so now that you know it, how are you going to get there?  The answer is deceptively simple but monumentally difficult, it is by setting goals!  That sounds pretty simple, just determine the steps to move your business idea forward and do it.  Now the hard part, do it.  How many tim

The Reason We Do What We Do As an entrepreneur, people tend to ask me a singular question, "Why do we do what we do?" Once I hear this, I have two choices on how to respond.  I can either tell them what they want to hear or I can tell them the truth.  The reason there are two possibilities is that most people when they hear the truth do not understand, because they are not entrepreneurs.  Do you know why you are an entrepreneur or if you have not taken the step yet, do you know why you want to be an entrepreneur?  This is installment #2 of 4 from the podcast entitled "TPE 013: Building A Successful Entrepreneur" In episode 014 (The Right Stuff), we discussed what is the "Right Stuff" or what is unique about your core offering.  If you haven't listened to Podcast #13 or #14 yet, I encourage you to go back now and do it.  Don't worry, we'll be waiting for you to come back. In this episode we look at what I call Area II  The Reason We Do What We Do.  Looking back again at Episode 13, you remembered that we we use the following formula: (((Skill + Talent + Experience) * Passion) + (Destination Location + Vision) + ((Goal Setting + Focus) * Persistence) ) * grit = An Entrepreneur In this formula, "The Reason We Do What We Do" = (Destination Location + Vision) . So what does this mean? As I stated in episode 14, Don’t worry if you are not that great at math, because we are going to walk through this formula piece together.   Where Do You Want To Go? Many "want-to-be" entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to start a business without thinking of what is the end destination for the business.  What I mean by that is, there has to be more than money as a reason to start a business.  Being an entrepreneur is difficult at best, not to mention the high stress levels, irregular pay checks, loneliness, and increased divorce rate, so why do it?  This is a question that only you can answer, but maybe if I explain my reason, it will help you with yours. Many years ago (20+) I came to a conclusion that working for someone else was not going to work for me and I wanted more out of life.  Not that working for another person or company is necessarily bad, or anything like that, but it was not for me.  Where this starts is back when I was younger (no, I will say when, that might give a clue to my age and everyone that knows me, knows that I stopped aging at 29), and my first (1st)  "real" job right out of college.  My under grad is in electronic engi

How to Start A Great Week Well, the weekend is now over and it is time to start a new week.  OK, now stop hiding in bed with the sheets pull over your head.  Monday's are not to be feared! My mindset is Mondays are made to kick start a week.  Have you ever noticed the difference in people that have a positive perspective on the week and those that 'can't wait until Friday' Here are some ways to take back your Monday and use to it catapult you to success during the week. 5 Tips To Make This Week Great         1.  Set aside some time to do good this week:  Besides just being the right thing, doing good can have many positive effects on your life, the least of which is the "Helper's High" 2. Set A Short Term Goal:  Is there a goal you would like to do this week?  Well then today is the day to do it.  Set a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound).  Once the goal is accomplished, celebrate! 3. Try Something New:  Stretch yourself this week and try something new.  Maybe it is a new restaurant at lunch or going a different way to work.  How do you know what you like or what you might discover until you try. 4.  Get More Sleep:  OK, maybe this is something you need to start on Sunday but if you start on Monday that is OK.  Sleep is the time the body goes into repair and rebuild  mode.  It is even thought that sleep can effect how we learn and what we retain and thus how we can grow our success. 5.  Be Positive:  When you get to work, or where ever you are going, be positive.  Research is beginning to show that positive thoughts do much more than just make us happy. Positive thoughts can actually create real value in your life and help you build skills that last much longer than a happy thought.   This is the week you need to get something good going.  Whatever it is, do it.  Don't let Monday be the start of a downward spiral; let it be you launching board to success.  What do you think?  Let me know!    

 The Right Stuff    Do you have The Right Stuff?  Or maybe a better question is, what is The Right Stuff?  In this episode we look at what I call Area I:  The Right Stuff.  Looking back at Episode 13, we use the following formula: (((Skill + Talent + Experience) * Passion) + (Destination Location + Vision) + ((Goal Setting + Focus) * Persistence) ) *  grit = An Entrepreneur In this formula, The Right Stuff = ((Skill + Talent + Experience) * Passion)

Today's Drink:  Starbucks Keurig Coffee   Today's Trivia: Q:  What is the only beverage more popular than coffee? A:  Water Q:  In which country it is law that a woman can divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee? A:  Turkey Q:  Which state is the only one in the United States that grows coffee? A:  Hawaii Q:  Americans consume roughly how many cups of coffee a day? A:  450 million cups Q:  After oil, what is the world’s second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries? A:  Coffee Who has a GPS?  GPS is an abbreviation for Global Positioning System.  It was in conceptecualized by Dr. Ivan Getting in 1951.  His ideas became the stepping stones to what we now know as GPS, which was tested by the Navy in 1960, with 5 satellites.  Between 1978 and 1986 11 satellites  4 Step Plan to Help Determine Your Destination 1.  Discover what excites you:  There are too many destinations in life to try them all.  They need to be narrowed down to what destination excites you.  Write down everything you can think of that has excited you in the past and present.  Is it baking, Fishing, Helping out at the hospital, etc.  Write it down now!  I'll wait  2.  Look for the paths the other people take:  When sailing a ship, a pirate either knew the routes in the shallow water and around the reefs or they ran a ground or at wort sank their ships.  Look at the routes other people have taken and see if they connect with what excites you.  If it does try an activity on this path to see if actually fits with with excites you.  BEWARE - People get stuck here!  It is like running a shore on a ship.  Many people think because they are excited by something that this step is leading them directly to a career.  Be warned!  Just because you like to bake does NOT mean you should go to culinary school to be a pastry chef.  You might hate culinary school and give up thinking that this was a less than logical choice.  Just because it sounds good in theory does not mean it is for you.    3.    Wash, Rinse and Repeat Step #2:  People get lost on step #2, their GPS stops working and they starting going back to the warn paths in their lives of trying to do better in their jobs, thinking that they will bring happiness and excitement is just around the corner at that next promotion.  Even it something looked good or didn't work out in Step #2, go back and look at all the paths.  A