Let’s sell some T-shirts

There I was sitting at the stop light, windows down, music blasting and the guy in the car next to me yells out : Let’s sell some T-shirts.

For those that know me I am always enterprising to find a way to make things better, start a business, fill a need or just analyse how something could be done more efficiently . I remember back when I was 15 or 16 (only a few years ago) I was sitting at my friend’s house trying to think of logos for a t-shirt.

 While at College in Hawaii (a few less years ago) I walked out of a surf shop in Waikiki and said to my friend we can do better than that, so we started a clothing company called Man Industries. Looking back it was more of a hobby but we garnered quite a following, placed our product in a few stores and nearly sponsored a team of boarders in AZ. While at Purdue (even fewer years ago) while getting my MBA,  I developed an Idea for a Golf Marketing company tested a few ideas but eventually succumbed to other ventures aka work, family and applying for law school. Fast forward a few years and I am in my Second Year of a 4 year evening program and can’t shake my need to chase that american dream.  Not becoming a slimy attorney, but to start my own business, be my own man, stake my claim.

It is about time that I tackle this urge and take action, focused to get results and make a difference.I have decided that is what I am trying to do; Make a difference and leave my mark instead of staking my claim. I want to be influential, motivating, inspiring. I want to be appreciated, I am a pleaser and now I need to be a doer.

What is it that you are trying to do?

“Occupy Today”

There are two Camps those that are empathetic for those who have occupied “Wall Street”, “Oakland”, Seattle etc. and those that are tired of those that feel entitled.  The only thing that anyone is entitled to is to “Occupy Today”.   Occupy Today would mean that you have evaluated your past and where you will be in the future, and are engaged today to correct your path, set goals and work with insistent intensity “TODAY” to achieve what you want.

From my experience I need to do a few things to ensure that I can be engaged to work with insistent intensity each day.  Health, Spirit, Mental, Financial, Relationships.

1. Health: Make exercise a routine part of your day, find the time at least 30 min. to break a sweat.  Eating the right foods in the right portions, will enhance both your energy and stamina. Eating heavy greasy processed foods although convenient don’t improve your quality of life. Try eating 4 smaller portions each day instead of 3 big meals.  One trick that I’ve used is to eat off of a smaller plate.

2. Spirit: Living at peace with your moral and standards. No matter what your beliefs are when you are acting in a way that your conscience is at peace then you are on the right track. I use prayer, meditation, and reading uplifting books/articles to better align my actions with my beliefs.

3. Mental: If you stop using a muscle it atrophies and you lose strength, however when you exercise and stretch that muscle it will increase it’s strength. Likewise flex your mental muscle everyday. My wife who so graciously stays home with our beautiful children.  You could say that her muscles could atrophy if all she did each day was talk with the kids and play games; however she reads books on parenting, blogs regularly and has recently started reading financial investment books, to further stretch her mental muscles.

4. Financial: Given the recession, most people including corporations have taken a closer look at their financial health. For many this meant to tighten the belt and spend less. I am in the camp that I need to find ways to make more money, to enhance my financial bottom line.

5. Relationships: I’m not sure this needs a separate category because I think that when focused on 1-4 your actions will naturally benefit your relationship. Nonetheless, relationships are materially important to one’s overall happiness, and being selfless in a relationship is the best way to enhance your relationship.  To me when I am hitting on all cylinders then my relationships naturally benefit.

What are your thoughts? How do you achieve insistent intensity?

 ”OCCUPY TODAY”

Twig or Kayak?

On Memorial Day! I took my little family on a hike near the American River in Folsom where I grew up.  It wasn’t a super intense hike but sufficient to draw blood tears and an exhausted family.  My two-year old son loved climbing every rock and picking up every leaf, and my daughter (5) took a spill towards the end of the hike and scraped her knee up enough to bleed which the sight of made her cry even more.  My wife came along for the fun as well even though she is  9 months pregnant!  It was so much fun seeing them explore, exercise and enjoy the beautiful nature around us. At the end of the hike we went out on a bridge and watched the river below. After a few minutes a group of kayakers paddled by up and back side to side.  That will have to be another adventure and another day for our family, but seeing the kayakers be able to go wherever they wanted on the river is exciting.

They weren’t riding class 5 rapids but the exciting thing is they could go up-stream or down stream fast or slow etc. A twig on the other hand is at the mercy of the flowing water and whatever else may stop it in its path. 

I would much rather be a kayaker than a twig.  When we take responsibility for our careers and family life we are kayakers, when we let opportunities slip through our fingers and say ” I guess it wasn’t meant to be” we are twigs.

By knowing what you want to achieve aligning those goals with your personal values you start to control you path along the river. One of the hardest lesson to learn is to say “NO” no to assignments that won’t further your goals, no to activities that slow your achievement, no to being lazy and setting up rituals of success instead.

With the quickly changing technological landscape not keeping up with advances is being a twig, exploring and integrating new tools and resources into your daily routines is paddling in the kayak.  I have recently been exploring the different social media tools that measure impact/data and came across the program Klout.com which analyses based off of twitter and Facebook information your influence and influencers.  I like how the website gives you a score with different categories and shows who you influence. This has encouraged me to be more aggressive with my twitter use to see how my score changes. Again measuring results to track progress!

 

Lighthouse to Beach House

While driving home the other night, I drove past a park by where I live. For whatever reason (possibly the rain) I took notice of the Lighthouse replica at the park.  I started to think about the purpose of a lighthouse which is to guide ships to shore while avoiding dangerous rocks and reefs that during  storm or at night are hard to see.  If the captain of the ship fails to follow the light then the whole ship is at risk of colliding with destructive rocks. 

Since it is now June and most new years resolution and goals have been destroyed on the rock of destraction  it’s time to recommit (pat your self on the back if you have stuck with your goals) and refocus on the light that your goals should bring to your everyday activities.  It is only when you keep focused on your goals and make  progress  that you are able to bring the ship to dock, and enjoy the comfort of your beach house. 

A few simple suggestions for goal setting, remember SMART

S is for specific, make sure your goals are specific enough so you know what you are working towards

M is for measurable, anything worth doing can be measured

A is for attainable, a goal should stretch your capabilities but not be so far out of reach that you simply won’t succeed

R is for recorded, a goal not written down and in sight daily is just a dream

T is for trackable, record your goal and map out your progress

If you need to have others keep you accountable for your progress then post on your Facebook or tweet your little successes or tell others what your goals are so you are more likely to do them. You will be amazed at the difference this can make as you receive support and encouragement from others.

Fail Quickly

In my foray with Linkedin and Twitter, I have come across several articles that have suggested that a quicker way to succes is to fail quicker.  Yet I find that failure is often a mindset, and not an end result.  I had a client who was anxious to get their t-shirts recently and when I finally got the final product I was disappointed with some minor details.  After driving to school product in tow, I realized that if I changed my mindset to focus on the positives that everything would be fine.  I can’t explain how much that has changed my motivation and vigor to fight for www.Spottees.com to succeed.  What I realize now was that I need to not only change my mental package but the way that we packaged the shirts for delivery.

It was the delivery of my attitude and product that needed to be tweaked.

How often do you let potential failures stop you from getting results when the failure is only in your head. Treat hurdles as just something to jump over so you can get to the next hurdle quicker. Don’t fail quickly discover how to overcome quickly.

Results Update

I can’t believe that it has been almost a year since my last post, well actually I can given all of the change and commitments. Update I got a job in the greater Sacramento, CA area and started in Aug. 2010. I also got accepted into law school. So since my last post in April of last year, I moved my family across the country, started a new job and law schoool 4 nights a week.

No excuses in RoKnRol, accepting responsibility for actions is key. I have found over the last several years that the more I focus on the positive things in life then less excuses leave my lips. So I am committing now to continue to develop my blog and not try to conform to some “ideal” of what a blog or a Kareer should be but focus on my developed skills and knowledge and let the results flow (without losing that hard ROKnRol edge that I have).

Keeping with the theme of results oriented life I will open up my blog to my many intersts that make me, ME.

Enjoy!

Results Oriented Job Search

In this economy and new technology the job search has taken on new obstacles/noise. With unemployment rates above 9% and six qualified candidates for every position there is increased competition, and increased distractions.

Not only are there qualified applicants for every job, there are many more that will apply to any given job. This is not only creating recruiters jobs more difficult, job searchers are equally mired by junk jobs, ”non-traditional jobs” and a miriad of other job postings. Let’s not forget the 60% of jobs that are not posted “the hidden job market”. 

I am greatful that for the past year I have had an employer who allowed me to focus on my family and get things squared away on the home front, but now the job search begins.   Networking is the #1 way to land a job, or so I have been told, I have decided to post my goals for my daily job search and see where my Results Oriented Job Search will take me.  Obviously the end goal is to get a job that matches my KSAO’s (Knowledge. Skills. Abilities. Other characteristics).

The Job Search Game Plan: 1) Make ten contacts each day and request two referrals from each contact. 2) Set up two Face 2 Face meetings or Interviews each day. 3) Make at least 18 Networking Contacts per week. 4) Make at least 15 contacts with companies per week.

ROL perceptions

In order to maintain a Results Oriented Life I tend to find opportunities for relfection and application to my current situation.  I have read a book 6 times in the last week, no not NEW MOON! It is called 7 blind mice.  My child has had me read the story every night this week since getting it from the library. 

 The story goes that each day of the week one of the seven mice go to examine a new “SOMETHING” at their pond. Each returns and describes something completely different, albeit accurate from their own perception, wrong in the end. The last of the mice instead of hastily observing, takes the time to examine the “SOMETHING” from top to bottom side to side, front to back, and agrees with each of the previous mice, but concludes that the something is actually an “ELEPHANT”. 

Why am I taking the time to write about this simply story, to illustrate that we need to be self-aware of our perceptions vs actuality and what we do because of our perceptions.  For those that are completely infatuated with social media ask yourself is social media the ELEPHANT or one aspect of the something, if so how do you effectively implement this new media into your life to achieve the results you want.

ROK ON

While at work the other day a co-worker pulled a blog that runs statistical analysis on both college and NFL teams.  Another co-worker at first thought was baffled that someone would go through the trouble of calculating and identifying the probabilities and the true stats on the what if calls we all like to make from the couch or the stands. 

 As the conversation developed I was able to explain how the use of these stats allow the teams to adapt and change their plays and practices based off of given scenarios and likley outcomes, and then his lightbulb turned on and he really started getting into the various graphs and commentary. 

 I then posed the question, what if organizations were to track and make game day decisions based off of such detailed analysis, or what if, performance reviews were done this way, The final comment, there would be alot of people out of work…….really! 

So if the 10.2% unemployment rates have not awakened you to a sense of action, do so now! Work towards those results that will benefit your career. If you are currently searching for that next job, does your resume reflect the results of your work or the description of your job?  Show your next employer what you can do for them, not what brown can do for you.

iROKnROL

Contrary to  the title, this is not a Rock Music enthusiast group….. This represents my viewpoint: To achieve success one must be Results Oriented, In both Kareer and Life hence ROKnROL

(Results Oriented Kareer and Results Oriented Life)

Everything comes down to the results of our actions, weather in your Kareer or in your Life. I want to make one thing clear…. Oriented is the key word in this way of life, if all you work for are results than you start to walk a fine line of integrity, ethics and personal demise.  “Oriented” allows the flexibility to change, stop, correct, and adapt without compromising or diluting your personal “BRAND”.