I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
When I was a kid, I loved Mr. Rogers. My favorite part of the show was the very beginning when he would come into his house, take off his dress shoes, and put on his sneakers – signaling that he had left the outside world and his job behind. The fun was about to begin the moment he put on his sneakers.
For the full story, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d17-The-defining-value-of-entrepreneurs
Today, Tom sent me a post by Guy Kawasaki, founder of Garage Technology Ventures among many other accomplishments, that details Entrepreneurship’s 10 Commandments. It’s clever and witty and inspirational. My advice is to print this out and post it by your desk, whether or not you work for yourself or for someone else. They are tenants to live by in our working lives.
To read the full story, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d16-Entrepreneurships-10-Commandments
This weekend it’s been one year since we lost Tim Russert. It’s only fitting that I’d happen to be in DC this weekend with friends who are celebrating some very big events in their lives – weddings, new jobs, and a general sense of hope despite a tough economy. When Tim passed away one year ago, what stood out to me what the comment that he lived every day as if he had just won the lottery. I wanted to live my life that way, too, so I set about doing that.
I thought about every area of my life and put some ideas into action to improve each. One year later, I’m doing pretty well. It’s not the lottery feeling just yet, though there are many, many things that I am grateful for:
I have certainly expanded my writing: blogging daily with an eye toward publishing a selection of posts at year-end as a free e-book and blogging about entrepreneurship for my Examiner.com column.
With my friends and family, I have put forward a significant amount of effort to spend quality, individual time. I used to run around as much as possible to try to fit time in with everyone all the time. The trouble with that method is that I ended up short-changing each, and short-changing myself. The quality time method is working much better.
In my volunteering, I wanted to extend more effort in areas that really interested me. Along with a colleague at work, I am beginning to put together a social media plan for a theatre company I admire. I took my social media interest and knowledge, my background in theatre, and roll-ed it up to do some pro-bono work that will help me build up a portfolio in this area. Using a little creativity, I created a win-win situation for all.
The work side of my life is always a work in progress. With the economy in tough shape, it’s the area of my life where I’ve had to make some compromises. I am learning a lot every day – about product development, what to do and what not to do (I’ve found the later to be just as important as the former), and I’ve learned what kind of work is best suited for me going forward. I’ve really developed the insight that I am passionate about small business (thanks in large part to my Examiner.com column); whether that means working for a small business or working for a large company that helps small businesses, I’m not sure. At the very least, it feels good to finally have that direction in my career and it keeps me looking forward.
Winning the lottery in life is a process – every day, we have to make choices and renew our commitment to living the best life we can. It takes courage to get up and follow our hearts in each area of our lives. And no matter how much work it is, there is no more worthwhile pursuit. I hope Tim would agree.
Today’s post is an interview with Brian Chesky, one of the co-founders of Airbnb. I love this service and it’s been a clear whole in the travel market for years! The concept, like all elegant business solutions, is simple, straight-forward, and user-friendly.
“I have come to believe that job security is one of the worst things a person can have, especially early in their career. Getting fired gives you a chance to reinvent yourself. All of a sudden you have the whole world in front of you and you can now leap to a career that you may love more.” ~ Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari
Walter Murch, the Academy Award Winning film editor and sound designer of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather among other, gave his observations about film and life to the world through the book The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. In that book, there is a passage that was recently highlighted by Gretchen Rubin on her blog “The Happiness Project”.
In The Conversations, Murch says, “As I’ve gone through life, I’ve found that your chances for happiness are increased if you wind up doing something that is a reflection of what you loved most when you were somewhere between nine and eleven years old…At that age, you know enough of the world to have opinions about things, but you’re not old enough yet to be overly influenced by the crowd or by what other people are doing or what you think you ‘should’ be doing.”
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d8-Getting-back-to-9
The American Express OPEN forum is a great resource for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit. Today, Scott Belsky wrote a post describing three questions that every entrepreneur should answer. In the past five months that I’ve been meeting and interviewing entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that they have the remarkable ability to question themselves in an honest, straight-forward way. The most successful ones know who they are – what they’re good at, what they enjoy, and the trade-offs they’re willing to make to bring their ideas to life.
Scott Belsky’s questions are a great start that will help those thinking about entrepreneurship to be honest with themselves about their potential new venture, whether it’s their own company or a new project at the company where they currently are.
For the full article, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d4-3-questions-that-entrepreneurs-need-to-answer
Something very historic happened recently in the world of business and the story did not get nearly enough press. Ursula Burns was named to become the CEO of Xerox on July 1, 2009. She is the first black woman to lead a large American corporation and the first woman of a large American company to succeed another woman (Anne Mulcahy.)
Several months ago, I heard Ursula Burns speak, and she so impressed me with her empathy, confidence, and fervent belief that we must support one another in the workplace. She is a remarkable example of someone who rose up to great heights through hard work and ambition. Only a few days after Barack Obama’s victory, she offered a perspective on adversity that has kept me looking up, even in these dark times.
For the full story, please visit:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d2-Ursula-Burns
The above image was taken and run by the Associated Press.
As a writer, I am very interested in Lulu.com, a start-up that helps authors self-publish and promote their work. Gail Jordan, the Director of Publicity at Lulu, was kind enough to arrange an interview for me with Lulu’s CEO, Bob Young. Gail summed up Lulu’s mission very eloquently. “Lulu is a tremendous example of the entrepreneurship of our founder and CEO, Bob Young, as well as being a place where writers, who are often entrepreneurs themselves, are empowered to publish and profit from their work.” What an inspiring reason for being!
To read the interview, please visit:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d1-Interview-with-Bob-Young-CEO-of-Lulu
Christa Avampato 