Climbing the Mountain . . .

Very often, you will hear the metaphor of climbing a mountain when descibing starting a business. Soaring to new heights, the self made man or woman standing alone on the peak, bracing against the elements having achieved greatness. . .

Amazing people who have faced adversity without succumbing to it. We are all at different stages of climbing the mountain. Some are looking at the mountain; while some are off climbing. And there are those have returned to earth with some fond memories of the summit.

In Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth", he descibes a different take on the mountain, when the day to day struggles of mananging our businesses overcome us.

• the zest for the climb had turned into a terror of heights . . .
• the rock had become something to cling to rather than scale . . .

Often, when climbing you can't see the top. In Og Mandino's "The Greatest Salesman in the World", the author tells the story of the climber who turns back from the summit, because he was tired or frustrated. The climber never knows he was within a few feet of the top. The author sends this message as a reminder that you never know how close you are to making it, so don't give up.

So my dear companions, pack your gear, grab some water, we are on a journey. You may tire, you may fall – but we are your friends, we will pick you up, dust you off and help you continue on your way. Some people climb alone, some use a guide, while others rely on teamwork. It doesn't matter how, as long as you begin the journey.

Oh yea – wear sensible shoes!!

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by . . .

The quote by Douglas Adams seems very appropo to my life these days.

Having left the structured halls of corporate, I spent most of my first two years in business trying desperately to cling to deadlines and to-do lists. Most of which were self-defeating. Anyone who has had the toner run out, the computer crash, missed the FedEx deadline, and written it all off as a typical Tuesday knows business doesn’t always go as planned. Besides, I was missing the very nature of being an entrepreneur.

Creation!

The joy is in the creativity. Watching an idea take shape, nurturing its' development, managing its' implementation, watching a business come to life.

Working for oneself is a 24/7 endeavor. When I get home at night and peruse the mail, I am consciously noting how marketers are trying to win my business. In paging through a magazine, I am aware of lay out and copy. I leave myself emails at 2 am, I jot notes on napkins, I am always scheming, I have become an entrepreneur.

There is still a place in my life for deadlines, there will always be. But now, there is room for expression and it's starting to get interesting. Fasten your seatbelts folks, it's going to be bumpy ride . ..

Why work for someone else for 8 hours a day . . .

When you can work for yourself for 14 hours a day . . .

One of the challenges of running a small business is simply finding the time to do everything. There is marketing, business development, customer service, accounting, web master and the list goes on and on. In reality, I pick and choose using the squeaky wheel approach to management.

I have just spent two weeks updating and refining the website. In between, I scanned my computer 97 times for spyware (seems to be a regular occurrence), slipped in a few client meetings and very little else. Typically, leaving the office after 8pm each day.

Woo Hoo - are we having fun, yet?