Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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It's my opinion. You should have one too.

37signals logoI follow a few guys through social media channels that run a company called 37signals. You can find them on Twitter at dhh and jasonfried. These guys curse often, they’re kinda cocky, they’re really wealthy and I’ve never heard them apologize for anything. I love those guys. I love them because…

They have opinions that divide people so they know who is with them and against them.
They speak from a perspective of being successful.
They are consistent in their message.
They don’t hate people who disagree with them.
They don’t spend very much time worrying about competition.
They don’t get into politics, they just run a great company.

My hero is Jesus, there’s no doubt about that. But these guys are studs because they have opinions that challenge me. You should buy their book. You’ll learn something about having an opinion and it will help your business. A pretty good deal for 12 bucks.

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You can have it all…in four years

My dad sometimes buys everyone in our family a lottery ticket when we’re home for the holidays. That’s as close as I get to the lottery. Some days though I feel like business owners ask me how to win the “internet lottery”. The “internet lottery” is where you don’t have to do very much work to promote yourself and in fact Google does all the work for you. It doesn’t cost that much to play and it doesn’t take very long to find success. Sound like a lottery doesn’t it? The problem with the internet lottery is the same problem with the real lottery. You’re better off not participating at all. You’re better off depositing your time and energy into something more authentic, more personal and more likely to succeed.
I started my business one year ago. I help businesses use the internet to grow. Every day I work with people who want to be where I am in my business. Others want to be where the co-host of my podcast Cliff Ravenscraft is. Others want to be where my friend and favorite author on careers is. Here’s what I tell them.

[Read more…]

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Starting is not normal

There are two groups of people I talk to every day;

1. “I want to do….. for a living and I need help starting.”
2. “I want to use the internet to help my existing business grow.”

Both groups are similar in that they want to be the boss, they’re discontent and they’re taking action.  That’s not normal.  Starting is not normal.

I’m surrounded by “normal” right now. I’m sitting at a diner in downtown during lunch hour.  People are scurrying through the line, most of them needing to return to their cubicles in the next 45 minutes.  I think you can do important work in a cubicle by the way, but that’s despite the cubicle, not because of it.

The guys sitting next to me in suits aren’t dreaming about much of anything, other than 5 o’clock.  My dad was one of those guys I think.  He traded his dreams for a suit because he loved his family and wanted to provide for us.  It worked out for most of his life until he got fired when he was about 60.  I’m grateful for the work he did but I sort of wish he could have been a firefighter.  I think that was his dream.

I have no idea what your dream is but please don’t trade it for 45 minute lunch breaks.  It’s always hard to start or improve something, that’s why most people don’t try.  They stay where they are, they get 2 weeks of vacation and they work for someone else.  If that’s your dream then go for it, but if it’s not then from one starter to another, don’t give up.  Don’t be normal.  Start.

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Helping Seth Godin

sethgodinSeth asked his readers to spread this message to save on bandwidth.  I’m spreading it for that reason and because when Seth speaks I listen.  I think you should too.

Seth Godin’s 45-minute “Linchpin” talk

Seth’s original post

Things Seth talks about in this 45-minute talk:

Economics

  • Why we have jobs
  • Charts of happiness by culture
  • Why debt was created
  • Debt leads to compliance
  • What school teaches us
  • The most important lesson we learn in school
  • “You’re not as good as you think you are.” (Seth didn’t say that)
  • Six reasons why it’s hard for linchpins to be linchpins
    1. Linchpins don’t understand what’s at stake.
    2. Capitalist systems don’t include the idea of “generosity”
    3. Recognize that anyone can do this.  The lizard brain says you can’t do it.
    4. Acknowledge the lizard brain (“the resistance”).  The lizard brain is real and it always feels the same
    5. It’s hard work.  Pros do the work because they take it seriously.
    6. Shipping.  Making the product, hitting send or publish.  Revisions don’t count.
    – Reasons not to ship
    1. Fear
    2. Prajna – Don’t see the situation clearly or understand the world as it is.
    3. Not enough skill to do it well. (We all focus on this one)
  • “If you give some people a mile, they’ll take an inch.”
  • Less is safer

Joy

  • Is there anything wrong with getting paid to do something you love?
  • Is there enough money to pay you to not do what you love?
  • We sacrifice our art for money all the time.
  • Spike Lee lowered his need for money so he could do his art
  • Either you break rules or you follow rules – there is no middle ground
  • Break rules or follow rules – that’s why I wrote the book
  • If you race to the top and don’t make it that’s OK, you’re closer to the top
  • Honest Signals
  • Everyone wants the path to success – Writing or art…they all want a map
  • You don’t win any prizes for making the seventh version of Twitter
  • The “knowing-doing gap”
  • It is not OK to be afraid of certain things
  • Leadership is demanding change
  • Every 30-90 days you have to move your desk
  • “If you don’t fail soon, you’re fired.” – Seth to one of his best employees
  • Every product that ships late ships late for the SAME reason – Thrashing
  • Thrash at the beginning
  • Manage or Run a project – they’re different
  • This sounds really hard. “So?”
  • I have no plans to write another book
  • Some of us will use social media for good, some will waste their time