Significance: A Matter of Perspective
May 30, 2007
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Living in Western Canada and being landlocked it so easy to loose perspective. I forget that I am a biological being living in a biosphere called earth.
I get so wound up in my business, coaching clients, and writing books and blogs that I tend to think that the world revolves around me - until the other day when the ocean put me in my place.
Head Over Heals
I was swimming late in the day. The surf was breaking between 2-5 feet. My son and I decided to go for a swim to cool off. I decided I would try and body surf. Choosing my wave I waited for the biggest one and started to do the back stroke to get my speed up to catch the wave - just as I got my speed up - the wave broke picked up my feet and turned me head over heals, twice.
I finally figured out which end was up, had sand in my mouth, ears, hair, well you get the idea. I stopped to look around and all could see was ocean and lots of it.
Significance: Compared to What?
Comparatively speaking, we are a speck of dust in comparison to the world. What I love about the ocean is the connection I feel with nature. The power of the ocean is amazing.
When I went scuba diving I really came away with how ’significantly insignificant’ I was in the grand scheme of things. I began to wonder who was watching who - I thought I was watching the sea life when a small Yellow Tang seemed to stop and look right at me.
We swam further to watch a Hawaiian Lion Fish hiding in a hole in rock at about 40′ down - I suddenly felt this gentle but firm push on my leg (I was standing on the bottom) turned to look and I could not believe what I saw - a large sea turtle pushed my leg!
I moved out of the way and watched as he swam under a ledge, close to where I was standing when another smaller turtle joined him - guess I was encroaching on his territory.
Moral of the Story
There is much more to our world than our business, our life, and community - we are part of something much bigger - this biosphere we call ‘earth’.
When we are outside our comfort zone or in foreign territory I have learned that I need to make sure to pay attention, show reverence, and take it slow. In the grand scheme of things we are but grains of sand - we are significantly, insignificant - unless we choose to respect our biosphere.
E Learning, Passion, Genius, GTD, Capital Gains, Economic Conditions
May 30, 2007
It has been awhile since I linked to my daily blog posts elsewhere, so today I thought I would share what I have been writing about the last three days or so.
- E Learning is Shallow Yet Has Potential
- Passion Influences Entrepreneurs to Start
- Find Your Genius In Fargo, North Dakota
- Getting Things Done and Throw Away Your PDA
- What Do You Know About Lifetime $500,000 Capital Gains Exemption?
- Current Economic Conditions In Canada
More About The Face Behind This Blog
May 28, 2007
Who am I and why should you care? Dave has tagged me in a collection started by David Airey designed to show me in a light that you would not normally see here on my blog.
My Grandparents on my Mother’s side (whom I never met) came from Iowa in the early 1900’s and this painting is from an old B&W that was in our family photos I discovered in an old paper bag. The painting is by my Brother-In-Law.
Earlier this year I published my second business book and this is a photo of the copies the publisher sent to me after I opened the box.
This is my wife’s parents last summer, they were just leaving after spending a week with us at Mara Lake. It was nice to spend time with them at the beach and play golf with John.
Meet Toebee, the family cat. He is a Ragdoll that I occasionally call ‘blue eyes’. Toebee will be seven years in November. My Son named him Toebee because his ‘toes’ are sharp like a bee. I am sure my son, now 14, would really appreciate me telling you that story.
My Mother, Doris will have her 85th birthday this summer and we visit her as often as possible in Kelowna, B.C. She is active, walks daily with her Yorkie Barney. My was only 2 lbs. when she was born at the family home near Innisfree, Alberta. They kept her warm in a roasting pan on the oven door. They would bath her in ice cold water to make her scream to exercise her lungs due to her size when born.
By the time we leave Hawaii we will have spent 7 weeks in Maui. One of my more special memories was when I was bumped by a Green Sea Turtle while scuba diving. I was 40 feet under water looking at a Hawaiian Lion fish when I felt something push my leg, looked down and I saw a Green Sea Turtle letting me know I was in his world.
Here is a list of people who got involved in the meme early on.
- Gayla at Mom Gadget
- Char at Essential Keystrokes
- Paul at Reflections
- Rob at 2Dolphins
- Zep at The In-Sect
- Ingo at Stixster
- Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace
- The Paper Bull at The Paper Bull
- Lisa Sabin-Wilson at Just A Girl In The World
- Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com
- Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen at Petersen Inc.
- Randa Clay at Randa Clay Design
Finally, I am tagging the following good people, who I hope will share more of themselves and participate in this meme.
- Chris Brown: Branding and Marketing
- Troy Worman: Orbit Now
- Nike Sigers: Simplenomics
- Carol Osborn: The Boomer Blog
Live Large! Because when people get to know more about you they feel more connected.
What role does emotion play in your business?
May 28, 2007
Everything we do creates an emotional response. We could not survive without emotion and yet in North America we tend to give it no respect.
Emotion is our built in feedback system.
Emotions include joy, hope, fearlessness, affection, bravery, levity, sympathy, humility, sensitivity, gratitude, humility, unhappiness, despair, humor, pride, enthusiasm, pleasure, agitation, ambivalence, apathy, pain, calmness, dislike, shame, desire, like, mood, and gravity to name just a few.
Our state of mind is in a constant state of flux and change from joy, anger, love, hate, horror and hope. Our emotions reveal those instinctive, intuitive feelings.
We have a strange relationship with our emotions. Whether you wear your heart on your sleeve or always keep a stiff upper lip you are using emotions to help you make sense of your world.
I believe every entrepreneur, especially the more successful ones, have each mastered their emotions and developed a unique type of emotional intelligence.
- Manage: We use emotional intelligence when we work to increase enthusiasm and pride, communicating in a way that minimizes emotions in others, dealing with aggressive behavior, or reducing emotional conflict.
- Read People: It also includes being able to accurately identify emotions in others from facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.
- Deal with Difficult Circumstances: The experienced entrepreneur can have an emotionally charged conversation and yet still be able to get into action without getting bogged down in emotional quagmire.
- Effectiveness: Realize that your actions may sometimes have an unpleasant affect on others or that you will sometimes get negative feedback and yet be able to still take appropriate action. Know that it is not constructive to indulge in emotional control strategies.
Whatever emotions you experience emotional intelligence helps us increase your chances of moving toward a valued goal.
“Common workplace goals include innovation, collaboration, working well with others, motivating others, managing conflict, asserting rights, communicating feedback, and using feedback for self-improvement.” Via Linking Emotional Intelligence and Performance at Work: Current Research Evidence with Individuals and Groups (2006)
Remote Control CEO: Pay Attention
May 21, 2007
Back in April I wrote We Can Increase Our Mental Bandwidth and Unleash Our Capacity, “Our capacity increases whenever we choose to our attention on something deemed to be important. When we are mentally ‘present’ and not on ‘automatic pilot’ we pay attention to what is going on around us. In these moments, our attention is pervasive and dominant.”
Today I ran across the quote from Dog Hall and decided to write about this topic again because we cannot hear the message of being present, alert, or as Doug says “awake to the moment” too often.
“I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I’ve learned, is to be awake to the moment.” — Doug Hall: Professional inventor and idea guru.
I have read Jump Start Your Business Brain: Scientific Ideas and Advice That Will Immediately Double Your Business Success Rate and highly recommend it to every client.
Sincerely,
Live Large! Because when you are awake you can create any idea into an opportunity.
Discipline: Instruction, Practice, Self-Control
May 17, 2007
Just like an athlete, an entrepreneur needs to exercise self-control.
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.” - Jim Rohn
What are you doing to discipline yourself and build a performance ‘bridge’?
Thankful: What Hawaii Is Teaching Me About Life and Business
May 14, 2007
I was sitting in a chair overlooking the beach reading a book. When I looked up I noticed two gray Hawaiian (Zebra) Doves walking about the grass looking for tidbits. I only learned about Hawaiian Doves a day or two ago.
When I saw these Doves I was struck by how they stayed close to one another. The seemed like they belonged together and thought isn’t it nice that these Doves have a partner because most birds do not have a life partner. Which started me thinking about life and business.
How great it is to have someone to share our life and business experiences. Today is our 31st wedding anniversary and we are celebrating it in Hawaii this year. [Taken on a windy day viewing Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea’s summit, on Hawaii the Big Island].
I am blessed to have had such a faithful and supportive life partner. There are days when being a business owner challenges everything you thought you knew about life and business. Knowing that my wife Carol is behind me and appreciates my efforts makes it bearable on those challenging days.
The journey would not have been as rich or as meaningful without my family. I am blessed indeed.
Love,
Live Large! Because we deserve nothing but the best.
Marketing & Demographics: Boomer Business Women, A New Boomer Book, A Baby Boomer Blog
May 9, 2007
My ChangeThis email arrived and I immediately downloaded the ebook Turning the Generational Dial: A Plea to Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y [PDF] By Carol Orsborn, PhD.
In the process I also discovered her blog, The Boomer Blog and links to her new book, Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer-the Baby Boomer Woman. Here is an excerpt from her ebook:
The truth is that the generational dial will flip to a new channel soon enough. And when it does, there will be something society has never before witnessed: generations in power who will not have grown into adulthood anticipating the marginalized, invisible, powerless future boomers once expected to have—but rather, the promise of lifelong vitality, relevant entertainment and the thriving careers at midlife and beyond that boomers pioneered.
In her ebook Turning the Generational Dial: A Plea to Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (free) she makes some great points, like:
- with an AARP study finding that as many as 8 out of 10 boomers don’t plan to retire, it’s clear that we are all in uncharted terrain.
- now “older� consumers between 43–61 have been rediscovered by the mainstream market-place - driven by numbers too big and active to be ignored as potential consumers, and it’s making some of today’s 20– and 30–somethings understandably nervous.
The Main Four Points of Carol’s ebook is:
- It’s misguided to blame boomers’ continuing dominance as stemming from selfishness.
- The lifespan has elongated the life cycle for all the generations.
- Boomers have suddenly found themselves to be the “cool generation.�
- Nobody is more surprised to still be in the limelight than the boomers themselves.
Carol Orsborn also has a new book Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer-the Baby Boomer Woman in addition to her other two works, The Silver Pearl: Our Generation’s Journey to Wisdom, The Soul of Business.
If you are serious about marketing and business, you must read everything you can get your hands on regarding boomers and demographics because it all shapes the demand side of the “supply and demand equation” which of course impacts our revenues.
Carol, I am adding your blog to my blogroll and looking forward to connecting with you someday soon.
Sincerely,
Live Large! You deserve the best.
Live Large! Listen To You, Not Them
May 8, 2007
Shrinking and limiting beliefs are way to prevalent in our thoughts, words, and deeds. It is really starting to piss me off.
Do not let the missing tooth of Heather Bradley put you off - she has an amazing story.
If you have ever been told you could not do something, should just quit and go get a real job, or felt the pangs of doubt about yourself - you must check out Monday9AM.tv, there is an amazing 5 minute video of the story of Heather Bradley. She is supposed to be 95% disabled but refuses to believe what she has been told and has an amazing attitude.
Talk about Living Large… what a startling film. See the whole thing in just 5 minutes, check out Monday9AM.tv
Sincerely,
Live Large! Shrinking does not become you.
Bigger Small Talk, Live Large!
May 8, 2007
Jodee Bock announced she putting on an event in Fargo, ND called the Bigger Small Talk Summit, this is a conference I would love to attend. Will have to see if I can make it, since I am busy spending my wad here in Hawai’i.
Live Large!
Intellectual Honesty
May 7, 2007
I was reading Rosa’s book, Managing with Aloha: Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business, and on page 4 Rosa talks about Intellectual honesty. I did more research on the topic and found this great quote:
“…there are certain characteristics of leadership that tend to hold even among different leaders. A leader has to have, for instance, a healthy measure of integrity in order to inspire others to follow. Leaders also tend to have a capacity for reflection and a sense of self-awareness. This capacity enables leaders to periodically take stock of their standing, the way in which they are perceived, and the impact that they are having. In addition, it gives them a heightened clarity about what their personal concept of leadership is.” - Journal article by Nelson Fabian; Journal of Environmental Health, Vol. 67, 2004.
What I love about how Rosa approaches the subject and this quote by Nelson Fabian is that it expresses what I have been saying for years ,
“The great journey in business is to know yourself well enough that your business and personal life are in alignment.” Greg Balanko-Dickson
Now I can use two words, “Intellectual Honesty” to sum up the intent of what I have been trying to express for years. Mahalo Rosa.
Live Large!
Question of the Day: Time Management
May 5, 2007
“Do we need more time? Or do we need to be more disciplined with the time we have?” - Kerry Johnson
The other day I wrote a post about time management and today ask the question “Do we need to Stop Managing Time and Manage Our Energy?”
Seems to me that what we do with our energy within any given moment of time is what gives us the illusion that we have managed our time well. What do you think?
Has anyone read this book? The Science of Self-Discipline, if so, what did you think of it?
Hawaiian Business Is Alive and Well
May 4, 2007
I am sitting on the patio furniture overlooking the pool and ocean at Hale Hui Kai on the island of Maui, Hawaii. (web cam of the beach in front of the condo)
I highly recommend the Hale Hui Kai condo as it has a great beach, reasonable snorkeling, and is very well maintained.
Unit 205 is the 2 bedroom condo we are using, is owned by our friend Rosa Say and was recently renovated.
Doing Business From Anywhere
As a business coach I do almost all my work over the phone and internet with my clients. This is the third of my seven week experiment to answer an important question “Can I do business away from home?”
The answer is, yes.
The biggest adjustment in the beginning was the four hour difference between Mountain (MST) time and Hawai’i local time. The exchange rate is pretty close to par, I pay about a 13% premium when buying US cash.
Living and working on Maui is pretty affordable from an exchange rate perspective. IMO, the cost of living in Kihei, Maui is approximately 20-30% higher than Western Canada. The change of pace, beautiful weather, and beaches makes up for the higher cost of living and is a welcome change of pace. Cell phone coverage is pretty affordable with a Pay-as-you-go phone and much, much cheaper than roaming my Canadian cell phone.
Hawaii Business Environment
As you would expect the driver of the Hawaiian economy is tourism which means that food & beverage, hospitality, and activities (snorkel tours, sight seeing etc.) are the biggest employers.
Business owners here face the same challenges as anywhere else.
- Population Density: One of the unique challenges of doing business in Hawai’i is population density. The population of Hawai’i is 1,275,194 with some 70% 905,266 on Oahu.
- Business-to-Business: If your customers are other businesses the greatest concentration of businesses will be on Oahu, so if you live on another Island you can expect to do a lot of commuting via Air.
- Inter-Island Commuting: Hawaiian Airlines is great and the prices are affordable. There is a ferry service coming which will be interesting to see how that helps commuters and inter-island commerce.
Evidence of small business is everywhere. For example, you will be driving along a seemingly isolated highway and you will see a sign pointing to a local “Coffee House” in the woods. Plus the ever present tourist demand dictates that many of the small businesses are food & beverage, hospitality, and tourist activities.
Hawaii: The Three Island Tour
May 2, 2007
My family and I had the very great pleasure of enjoying the outstanding hospitality and Aloha spirit of Rosa Say and Toni Howard.
Suburban Oahu
Rosa picked me up at the Honolulu airport (on Oahu) for a lunch meeting at the Mariposa restaurant. Having visited Hawai’i following for belated ‘honeymoon’ some 30 years ago, I had a romanticized memory of Honolulu.
Honolulu has changed a lot as has every other part of the world in 30 years. I spent less than a day in Honolulu, but it boasts a tropical suburban experience. It’s a great place to relax on a pacific beach while enjoying all the amenities offered by a large US city.
Mellow Maui
Our base is on Keawakapu beach in Kehei, Maui. In my opinion Maui is the ideal place to enjoy the Pacific, snorkel and rest. So far we have visited Lahaina, Kahului, and the Ocean Aquarium on Maui. We plan on more snorkel adventures and a visit to Haleakala Creater to view what has been described as a spectacular sunrise.
Rural Hawai’i - The Big Island
With it’s wide vista’s, cinematic views, and varied climates the Big Island felt more homey than any of the other islands. To be fair, that is most likely due to my dear friends Toni Howard and Rosa Say.
Rosa and I flew from Maui early in the morn ing to meet up with Toni and my family, who flew to the Big Island the same day I left for Oahu. First on our list was the Dolphin Adventure. (that’s me with the Dolphin)
Rosa gave us a walking tour of the Four Seasons Hualalai that she talks about in her book, Managing with Aloha. We walked to Kona Village for a marvelous buffet lunch by the ocean. Rosa continued to escort us on a walking tour of Hualalai.
After saying goodbye to Rosa, Toni drove us to the north side of the big island while sharing her knowledge of Hawaiian history, folklore, and island highlights. She then set us up in a cabin in the rain forest not far from the volcano.
The next day Toni gave us a half day introduction to volcano. Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) Toni!
Back to Maui
Today, we returned (with Rosa) to Maui. First we visited the Ioa Needle Garden at Kahalui. I shot some video and will share it on my personal site soon.
Future Plans
Wednesday and Thursday I have the great pleasure to support Rosa Say in continuing to develop her plan(s) and discuss my dream of a World Tour to Impact a Million Business Owners.
I have been learning so much here in Hawai’i and expect to be blogging a lot more about those learnings soon as well as Rosa’s book, Managing with Aloha: Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business [blog], which I highly recommend - especially if you are interested in developing more ‘”intellectual honesty”.
Live Large!
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