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Can you believe the nerve of this guy?

While Jonathan’s lazily propping his feet in a hammock, we’re here slaving away for him. He’s sipping drinks with tiny umbrellas and playing with his family while we’re grunting away at our own jobs. I mean, it’s bad enough that he keeps rubbing it in that he’s in a tropical paradise, but what really chaps me is that he’s taking a vacation and asking others (like myself) to do his work for him.

It’s easy to be a little really jealous of Jonathan, but the truth is that we’d all be in Bali right now if we could. Vacations and breaking out of our normal routines are like espresso shots for our creativity. I expect some high-caliber stuff out of Mr. Fields once he returns.

It takes a lot of work to be able to relocate for a month to a somewhat-remote place, and the fact that Jonathan is pulling it off is pretty impressive. What’s most interesting about Jonathan’s trip is that he was able to effectively use “peersourcing” to help him get away.

This is a fantastic example of how community is pivotal to the success of an entrepreneur.

Or in Jonathan’s case, how to slack off more. (Ok, seriously… I love Jonathan. I’d gladly drop everything to help him out, as he’s helped me out so many times before. Just don’t tell him, ok? I’d never hear the end of it.)

I was fortunate enough to co-found the blog network LifeRemix a few years back. The network has some amazing people, with serious skills in many different fields. Bestselling authors, awesome programmers, marketing geniuses, financial wizards… we’ve got it all. (I’m quite lucky that I was a founder, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the cut!)

We’ve managed to help each other out with our writing and other pursuits of life. In fact, we’re a pretty close little community. We all have unique skills and knowledge about different topics, so really the network is like a massive pool of knowledge. Someone will ask a question in our email list, and usually four to five really smart people will chime in, offering help and advice. So it’s no surprise that when Jonathan told the network he was going on vacation and needed a hand with guest posts, we gladly answered the call.

Here’s the secret to being a successful entrepreneur: You need community.

You need help from other people. People who will challenge you and lend you a hand when needed. People who will expand your horizons with their expertise or particular walks of life. Thanks to this thing called The Internet, you can find people and groups to help you in almost any field and variety.

Forums, Google groups, open source projects… there are literally limitless options for finding a community.

Or maybe it makes more sense to find a local, offline community. There are plenty of options for finding groups of people in your area. Churches, business organizations and memberships, neighbors, etc. Just because someone isn’t in your exact niche–or even know the definition of the term “niche”–doesn’t mean they can’t provide you with valuable support and feedback.

Community helps us fill in those little cracks in our life that we can’t fill ourselves.

I’ll often ask our crew for marketing ideas or feedback. I’m a designer by trade, but my marketing chops are “meh” at best. Guys like Jonathan or Chris have saved my bacon many a-time.

Community also gives us a chance to give back.

I love this. I love the fact that I’ve got a chance to help Jonathan because he’s helped me so many times before. There’s nothing better than receiving and giving. It’s important to note that asking for help is just as important as giving. Oftentimes people feel like they’re being a burden by asking for help. But other people need a way to give back their talents and resources too.

At LifeRemix we’ll ask each other for help all the time. In fact, it’s encouraged. I dare you to find a successful person that did it “all on their own”. Everyone (yes, even Steve Jobs) has had people in their lives that bring the best out of them, both professionally and personally. Finding and surrounding yourself with these people is going to be critical to your success.

So if you really want to skyrocket your career, find a community to be a part of.

If you can’t find one, then start one within your niche. (All you have to do is ask.) There’s always something you can provide. If anything, you can be encouraging and supportive. (Sometimes the thing a community needs most is more cheerleaders.) The important thing is to just get involved. No man is an island. (Though certain renegades do go and live on one for a month or so…)

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Glen Stansberry writes about helping creative people create at LifeDev. You can also find him ribbing Mr. Fields from time to time on his Twitter account.

This week she shares some great insights on getting unstuck in business…

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If you are reading this blog, it means you are a pretty smart cookie.  You love to read, think, critique, improve.  Me too.

Reading at three.  High school and college, a breeze.  Graduated first in my law school class (more to do with over-studying as a result of massive fear that I was the dumbest person in the room than to innate smartness).

A smarty-pants.

With all this smarts, I was baffled by how hard it seemed to get ahead in business.  I saw people who were clearly not as smart making way more money, serving more people and making a bigger difference.

What was I missing?

It took me a few years to learn a reality that may be hurting your business success … in business, smart often translates to stuck.

As a business strategist to lawyers and other very smart people, I see it all the time – the smarter we are, the harder it can be to experience business success.

When we make every decision from our intellect, we tend to overcomplicate.  We see all the options, have a million big ideas, and either want to improve upon everything or convince ourselves of what won’t work.

Quite often, we get stopped in our tracks.  Sound familiar?

If you find your business not experiencing the kind of success or forward movement you think it should based on your previous track record of being the smartest one around, let’s take a look at what you can do to get a little more stupid and finally experience business growth worthy of someone with your innate intelligence.

1. Make a list of all your ideas and partially completed projects.

If you are like most smarties, you’ve got a million and one ideas and not a single one of them actually making any money yet.

It’s time to get realistic about what you really can accomplish and stop dreaming about all the possibilities.

Create a someday/maybe file and put all of your ideas and partially completed projects into it now, trusting that when the time is right, you’ll come back to them.  I know it can be difficult to put aside all the greatness, but if you don’t do it now, none of the ideas will never be completed.

2. Pick one idea that has the most promise to result in a financial reward within the next 6 months and commit to focusing on it no matter what, with no excuses.

Self-discipline is one of the most important success secrets of business.  Without a boss, it’s easy to get distracted by the next bright, shiny object and to give up on that idea or project that would have been successful, if you had stuck with it.

Block 2-hours of intense focus time each day (or a few times a week) and focus your energy, attention and action entirely on moving the one project you chose to focus on forward.  If you blow your focus time one day, don’t give up.  Get back on the calendar the next day and congratulate yourself for not giving up.

3. Get a clear vision of what success looks like for this project.

Create a series of celebration points for this project, the mini-successes that will lead up to the big one. Often, we are so busy looking ahead at the BIG success, that we miss celebrating the many successes that have to occur along the way before we can make it all the way there.

Celebrating your mini-successes will keep you motivated and moving forward.

4. Find a mentor who has done what you want to do and do what they did without deviation.

This can be one of the most difficult steps for the true smarty-pants because it means first asking for help, then doing exactly what you are told to do without making any improvements.

Now, be clear here – I’m not suggesting you never improve on what you learn.  Far from it. That’s not possible for a true smarty.  What I’m saying is that before you improve, discover what works and what doesn’t.  Don’t make assumptions based on what you think without having actually tried it out for yourself.

If possible, see if you can find a “salesy” as a mentor, instead of another smarty.  (Best would be to find a smarty who has embraced her/his inner salesy fully and without shame.)

This will very likely require you to seriously step out of your comfort zone because you’ll probably judge the salesy as not as smart as you and as missing important things that you can see because you are so smart.

But remember, it’s these smarts that have held you back.

So long as you have chosen the right mentor who has truly done what you want to do, do not let your judgment sway you from following your mentor’s advice to the letter.

Do not deviate or try to improve upon the guidance – do it exactly as you are told to do it the first time.  If you make mistakes, it’s okay.  If things could have been better, that’s fine. You’ll learn from these mistakes, make improvements and have a wealth of knowledge for the next time you do it.

Each time I’ve put aside some of my smarts and done what I’ve told you to do here, it’s been hard.  Very hard.  But, I’ve been rewarded every time.

Some of what resulted:

Stopped trying to be smart and serve every person in Los Angeles who needed a Will & Trust and instead hired a marketing consultant who helped me narrowed my focus to serving just families with young children in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.  Result: broke a million bucks of revenue in both 2006 and 2007 and sold the law firm in 2008.

Stopped trying to write a book that would show how smart I was by changing the world on a global level and becoming an instant New York Times bestseller and instead wrote a book about legal planning for parents.  Result: got the book published and in May of 2008 with the help of a book marketing mentor made it to #8 overall on BN.com and #1 in all its categories on Amazon.com.

Stopped trying to launch 3 different information products and coaching programs to serve 3 different markets and hired an information-marketing coach who helped me create and launch one specific program to teach lawyers how to engage more clients.  Result: sold over $117,000 in a 60-minute teleseminar and launched a business that broke a million dollars within 18 months.

And don’t think it ever stops.

Up until a couple of months ago, my inner smarty-pants had me hard at work on three different businesses, a television show, two different books and a few other projects.  But, I’m taking my own advice and narrowing my focus for the next 6 months on finishing one book and I’ve hired the right people to focus on each of the businesses so I can focus on making the television show a reality.

So now I ask you to consider:

How is your inner smarty-pants over-complicating, holding you back, keeping you from focusing and asking for help to do that one thing that will most move your business ahead?  
What is the project you are going to focus on, find a mentor to guide you with, and finish within the next 6 months?

I can’t wait to hear!

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Learn more about Alexis Neely on her blog and follow her on Twitter @alexisneely.

Imagine having no last name and more than 25% of the population having the same first name as you…

That’s how it works in Bali. Here, kids aren’t given any old name. Each of the first four children, in any family, receive the same name. The first kid goes by Wayan, the second by Madé or Kadek, the third by Nyoman or Komang and the fourth by Ketut. Instead of last names or family names, at three months, parents then choose a second name that represents either a quality they’ve noticed emerging in their infant child or one they wish the child to embody.

One person’s second name we met was Apple, because she apparently looked like an apple. Another’s was the Balinese word for Wisdom. So, with so many people sharing the same first names and having no family names, how do tourists and Balinese know where to find each other? Part of it lies in the community structure.

Villages, Crafts and the Rule of 150.

Balinese villages are organized on two levels. By family and by craft. When Balinese marry, it’s not unusual for the wife to move into the compound of the husband. And, it’s also very common for that compound to belong to the husband’s parents, and for them and all other male siblings to live there with their families. The set-up is part a function of tradition and part about the huge different in how much money it takes to buy your own home in Bali versus how much the average Balinese person earns.

Each family compound is surrounded by the compounds of other family members until a community is formed. They generally top out at 150 people before needing to form a new community, often just next door or across the road. Which is kind of fascinating, because 150 is a bit of a magic number in the world of corporate culture. There’s strong research that shows coherence falls apart once you exceed that number.

Between 7 and 10 communities of 150 or so people then come together to form a village. Each compound has it’s own temple, and there is one large temple around which the entire village life is conducted. By the way, when I talk about building, almost every structure is either partially or entirely open-air. When issues need to be resolved or ceremonies and celebrations need to be had, like the one that happens every 210 days in the name of Dewi Saraswati, the Goddess of Education, the entire village is called to the temple.

Each village is also known for creating something common to all communities. For example, we were driving along the main road in a village and everywhere you looked, thousands of massive stone and cement statues lined every shop. This, we learned was the stone carving village. Another was known for silver jewelry. Others for umbrellas, batik, woodcarving and more. Our driver, Wayan Santika’s village was known for painting.

The Driving Artist.

Turns out, the wonderful driver and guide who helped us get to know Bali had been painting since he was 10 years old. Driving was his way to supporting his family. He learned the craft from his dad, who also painted his entire life, but earned a living as an elementary school teacher. We asked Wayan if we could come visit his home, meet his family and also see his paintings. He agreed and we spent a wonderful afternoon with his parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kids.

And, when we saw some of the painting created by both Wayan and his dad (also Wayan), we were blown away. They use a process where they draw very fine, meticulously-detailed outilines in pencil on canvas coated with the filmy stuff that cooks off of rice.

They then ink over the pencil. This is done by taking a black, rectangular dry ink stick, grinding the head into a small saucer along with a few drops of water, then taking a cue-ball like black stone and grinding the ink in a mortar and pessel motion for one-minute to get it soft and consistent enough to use.

Next, they dip a fine, metal-tipped quill-pen into the ink and redraw all the pencil lines with ink. Then comes shading with that same black, then finally the color is applied. But, they work with such detail, in order the get the acrylics they use workable on a fine-enough level, they need to be watered down a lot. And, that means each color must be applied 3 to 5 times to get enough saturation.

The final product takes months to create and an insane amount of patience and vision. Papa Wayan, who was about to turn 60 and retire involuntarily from his 40 year career as a school teacher took me around to the side of the main sleeping building where a small, simple, partly-open workshop with a corrugated tin roof presented itself. This was where the two Wayans painted together.

He showed me his colors, a small tray of 4 or 5 tubes of acrylic paint, and demonstrated how he grinds the inks, applies the shades, then the color. Every drop of ink and squeeze of paint was precious, both because of the commitment to the artform, and because, in relation to what most artists in Bali earn, paint is very expensive and cannot be wasted. I have to confess to that making me feel a bit sick about the plastic container loaded with some 20 or 30 tubes of acrylic paint that sit rarely used in a cabinet in my apartment in NYC.

Before leaving, we ended up buying two paintings that were quite striking, one from each Wayan. According to Balinese tradition, we should’ve negotiated a much better price. But…seriously? SERIOUSLY? Though the paintings themselves were breathtaking, knowing the stories behind them and the men who created the canvases, along with their families, lent so much more to the experience.

Incidentally, if you’re heading to Bali and you need a driver/guide or are interested in authentic Balinese art, you can find Wayan Santika at wayansantika@hotmail.com or  call/skype him in Bali 081 7974 0580.

Balinese Dance and Gamelan Music.

Earlier that day, we’d also gone to see a Balinese dance performance at a well-known temple and outdoor performance area. The costumes were incredibly elaborate, the dance and the show was presented as a story, much the way a Greek tragedy would unfold, except with more acts. It was amazing to watch how much weight they gave to the placement of the hands and feet and to see how each hand position changed with each movement of the body.

In yoga, there is an entire practice called “Mudra,” much of which is derived from Hindu, that associated a wide variety of hand positions with specific changes in the body’s energy and vital status. I thought I recognized some of those Mudras as the dancers moved the show forward.

And, the “band” jammed behind the actors and dancers to ethereal Gamelan music that’s really hard to describe without hearing it. I’ve shared some images in the gallery below.

The Brooklyn-Bali-Berlin Furniture Connection.

A little more than a year ago, I shared a video interview with my buddy, Jason Lamberth, who makes furniture out of giant teak trees that were buried by the Dutch for shipbuilding years ago, recently discovered, dug-up and reclaimed. Back then, Jason was about to move his family from Brooklyn to Bali, where his workshop is.

They had an incredible year-long adventure (which I’ll write about another time), but by the time we arrived, Jason’s wife and kids had just moved to Berlin, where he was about to follow, then spend large chunks of time bouncing between Bali, Berlin and NY. Check out the pics of his workshop and some the the stunning teak furniture he’s creating in the gallery below.

Location Independence and Workflow Project.

So, if you’ve kept up with earlier dispatches, you already know that finding good internet connections, let alone places where the lights stay consistently on has been a challenge. Uploading video and audio from hotels, houses and even upscale resorts in central Bali was essentially impossible. Even text posts with images had its challenges.

So, partly in an effort to remedy that and in to find places where there were more kids for my daughter to connect with, we headed from the heart of Bali down to the coast where far more “real” tourists tend to frolic with higher expectations about conveniences and less interest in the heart of the Balinese culture and people.

We started out in a big resort that looked great, boasted in-room wifi, had tons of families with kids and was very affordable. Or, so the brochure said (noticing a pattern yet, lol?).

While the grounds were quite lovely, the rooms were so nasty I chose not showering for 3 days over having to use their shower…and wondering if I’d come out with some rare tropical fungus. And, mind you, I’m a pretty clean guy and this was in the tropics where “bathed in sweat” is a persistent state of being!

The wifi worked…when it was turned on every day…after 11am. And, the only place you could get it was down by the pool. I’m fine working with noise around me, so it wasn’t a problem getting everything I needed done for my own ventures and my clients, once I settled in. But, my one attempt at a skype call from that location ended up in a quick rescheduling.

After 3 days, we couldn’t take the room and most of the “kids” were actually late-teens on holiday, partying from Perth, so we gave in…and took our selling out to a whole new level!

People, Productivity and Luxury.

We moved to the Intercontintental, a massive 5 star luxury resort on the ocean in Jimbaran, about 45-minutes away from our previous scary place.

Died and went to travel heaven. The rooms, stunning. The grounds, awe-inspiring. The food, yum. Activities, lots (my daughter actually participated in a baby turtle release program that was run in conjunction with a local conservation group). In-room wifi, four bars.

We made instant friends with a couple from Western Australia, which is where most of the folks who visit this part of Bali are from, since it takes only 3 hours by plane. Actually, my wife made instant friends, then brought me into the loop after a morning on the computer in our room. And, they had a daughter the same age as ours, both girls had to be pulled form the pool hen it finally closed at 7pm.

I came to three realizations as the day unfolded.

One, much as we love exploring culture and new places and the idea of roughing it a bit…we’re still travel wusses at heart, meaning we still really like the nicer things in life. It’s very weird to own up to that when you’ve just left a part of a country that still lives around the poverty-level. But, it is what it is. And, I suspect that after this trip, we’ll find ourselves being more actively-involved in helping to have an impact on people and families who are less fortunate, one person at a time.

Two, at least for me, I create better when I’m able to build a consistent routine…and I’m not sweating like a bastard all day long. Which is why I kept rotating around to try and create routine and find cooled places to settle into whenever and wherever possible. Thankfully, too, being on the water brought a constant breeze, which changed the way I experienced the heat fairly dramatically.

And, three, no matter where you go, it still always comes down to the people. Our two best days in Bali were when we spent time with Wayan and his family and when we spent time with our new Aussie friends.

I’ve been asked many times what the best part of being an entrepreneur is and my answer is always that you get to pick the people you surround yourself with. It’s no different in life than it is in business. Nothing matters more than the relationships and experiences you build with great, likeminded people.

Great people can turn a bad trip or job into a rich adventure. And evil people can turn what looks on it’s face to be a dream job or trip into pure hell.

Which brings me to some changes we’ve made in our trip.

Sadly, we could only stay at the Intercontinental for one-day. I’m writing this from a cabana…at the Hard Rock Hotel Bali on the beach in Kuta…which is about the closest thing to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, circa 1988 I’ve ever seen. It’s a madhouse, but it’s got a ton of energy, the biggest pool in Bali, a town that’s buzzing with bodies, great wifi and, yes, even some serious shopping.

And, like it or not, it’s yet another expression of what parts of Bali have become, a tourist mecca and a linchpin in the country’s ability to survive economically. It’s one of the four Balis we’ve discovered.

Plus, we’re only here for 2 days.

Heading to Australia.

Why’s that? On the 20th, we’re jumping from Bali over to Melbourne, Australia for a whole bunch of reasons that include spending time with friends, connecting with and giving a talk to the vibrant social media community there and interviewing a few people for my book. Plus, my daughter spent a month studying Australia in school this year and we thought it’d be great to enrich book knowledge with actual knowledge.

One last thing as I wrap this week’s dispatch…

No matter where you go, in any of the four Balis, the tradition and ritual is just below the surface. Incense burns, Gods are worshipped, temples adorn every building, even waterparks and malls…even the Hard Rock.

This journey continues to be filled with surprises at every turn. But, stepping back, what an adventure it’s been…and there’s still more to come and share.

Stay tuned for next week’s dispatch. And, if you’re in the Melbourne-area, come play with me, Stephen Johnson and a cast of social media characters on Thursday night at 7pm.

And, here’s this week’s expanded gallery (click on any image to enlarge it)…

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In the past few days I’ve talked with a dozen smart people who create content for a living. They write posts and e-books, record podcasts and vlogs, and are on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

These pros aren’t trying to produce one lone idea a day. They need to generate lots of lively and practical ideas that can be spread across multiple platforms every day. Their livelihood depends on it.

As far as tough jobs go, it may not rank with working in a coal mine, but it’s no cakewalk.

Many of these content creators are burnt out. They feel that, within their field, they’ve reached the end of their thinking. They’ve said everything they know how to say, and anything that comes out now is only a mild variation of what they’ve said before.

What might they do to revive themselves?

As a writing coach, I’d give them the same counsel I give myself when I’m working on an important project and find myself – not just stuck – but empty. I’d tell them to conduct a writing marathon.

Based on Peter Elbow’s Loop Writing Process and the technique of freewriting, a writing marathon is an exhausting yet liberating day-long writing session that’s part information dump and part exploration into ideas that they may have never thought about before.

In the end, they’ll have pages of thoughts and prose. Much of it will be junk. Some of it, though, will be startlingly original, and may well be the best stuff they’ve ever created.

Whether you’re blocked or not, you might like to try the marathon yourself. Here’s how it works:

Set aside a stretch of five to eight hours. If you’re a morning person, begin it in the morning. If you’re a nighttime person, schedule it for the evening.

Get a timer and a computer. You’ll need the computer, because if you try doing the amount of writing I’m asking you to do with pen and paper, you’re hand will cramp.

Now, set the timer for twenty minutes, open a blank document, fix your subject in mind (for instance, “How can service firms sell to mid-sized companies”), and start typing.

Attack the subject from a spot that, for you, has energy. In other words, don’t start writing about it from some point out of obligation. Begin where you want to begin.

No one is going to see what your writing unless you want them to, so be honest and bold.

Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Don’t worry if what you’re writing is interesting or even coherent.

Write as fast as you can, without stopping for any reason. And, if during the writing you feel like digressing, by all means follow those digressions.

What you’re doing is using the writing to watch yourself think.

When twenty minutes is up and your timer rings, stop. Now’s not a time to rest, though. Take a few minutes to read through your writing and note language and concepts that catch your attention.

If a line interests you — if it’s well-said or contains an idea you might want to develop — underline it. If a line strikes you as a considerable insight, bold it.

Once you’re finished making annotations, look the page over once more. The reason? You want find out what to explore next.

• Do you see a thought you’d further like to pursue?
• Is there an underdeveloped idea that needs elaboration?
• Do you notice a relationship between ideas that needs writing about?
• Are you struck by a thinking-error that’s apparent only now that you’ve written it out?
• Has a question occurred to you that bares investigation?

You’re searching for a new starting thought. It needn’t be profound. Again, you just want to begin writing from a spot that has energy. A spot that intrigues, delights, or annoys you.

Once you’ve come up with a starting thought, fix it in mind, set your timer for twenty minutes, and start writing about your starter thought.

As always, follow the dictates of your mind. If you want to stay on topic, fine. If you feel like going off topic, do it. Have fun. Be irreverent, provocative, even scandalous.

When twenty minutes is up and your timer rings, stop. Again, read through your writing and underline and bold the notions that grab you. Find a new starter thought. Repeat.

That’s the marathon. You do twenty minute sessions, punctuated by the search for starter thoughts, over and over for five to eight hours. Why that long?

You want to clear the brain. You want it to dig deep for facts, opinions, people, stories, scenes, details, ideas. By doing so, you’ll burn off the obligatory surface thinking that can’t be avoided. The party-line stuff. Your mind will have to start reaching. That’s what you want.

One of the keys to making the marathon work is by following Ezra Pound’s rallying cry, “Make it new.” Each time you formulate a starter thought, demand that it sends you in a new direction. I can’t stress this point enough.

You don’t want to merely parrot what you’ve already written because, if you hit “Save,” you have that writing forever. Why duplicate it?

You want new. Force yourself into uncharted waters, even if doing so seems artificial or uncomfortable. Pursue novelty and uncertainty. Head towards anxiety. Make yourself write and think about ideas that aren’t traditionally “you.” Get beyond the point where you write about what you know.

As Ron Carlson wrote, “ . . . if you get what you expect, it isn’t good enough.”

By the end of the marathon, you’ll likely have pages and pages of language and ideas that you can use as raw material for dozens of significant projects. The honesty and power of your exploratory writing may surprise you.

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Mark Levy, who founded the marketing strategy firm, Levy Innovation, is called, by David Meerman Scott, “a positioning guru extraordinaire.” Mark’s latest book is a revised, expanded, and re-subtitled edition of his bestseller, “Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content.” It liberates readers from their status quo thinking.

So, remember how I said we were gonna get a house to settle into in Bali?

Yeah, well that didn’t happen. This adventure is teaching me so much about being fluid. Actually, it’s kinda banging me over the head with the concept. But, in the end, I think that’s a good thing…at least it will be, once I’m totally done morning the loss of my routine.

And, the need to know what comes next!

See, here’s what happened. Our entire trip was built around a critical assumption, that our daughter would be in what seemed like a very cool camp that blended Balinese culture, sustainability and all sorts of cool outdoor activities. After visiting the camp, we were all incredibly impressed…with their marketing.

Man, those brochures looked good.

But, the vibe we got from the actual place wasn’t so good. Not horrible, it’s just that our expectations had been raised so high, the reality of what appeared to be something closer to a “half-decent” experience just didn’t cut muster. We got the feeling our kid would be a bit of a pioneer as the camp figured out what it was going to be when it grew up. But, that’s not what we signed up for.

There’s a great lesson in here for marketers and entrepreneurs, by the way.

Great marketing can get people in the door. But, if you can’t deliver the goods once they’ve arrived, you’ll likely not only lose a potential customer, you may also lead them to feel conned…and tell everyone they know.

So, we had a family meeting and decided to pull the plug on camp.

Which left us with a challenge, actually a bunch of challenges. The upside of our decision was that we now had a ton more time to explore the island and be a whole family. The downside was my wife and I are a lot more into settling into a routine around local culture than sightseeing. And, the 6-hours a day of kid-free time to work, play, shop, read, yoga-cize and relax that my wife and I had planned the trip around had just evaporated.

We also learned that the window we’d chosen to travel is considered peak PEAK season here in Bali…who knew?

LOL. Leaving us with house choices that were gorgeous, but required a minimum of a month commitment. And, with our new mega-change in plans, we didn’t know how long we’d last in any given location (still don’t). So, that went out the window. Breath in, breath out. Still, we had to get out of our hotel, because we were on top of each other. So, my wife and daughter spent a few days visiting fancier hotels with “villas” to rent. Oh, I should mention something else about now.

In Bali, there’s no such thing as a fixed price. Everything is a negotiation.

It’s kind of like the rate sheet for advertisers. Anyone who pays it is a straight-up sucker. So, my wife found a super cool little villa at a beautiful resort property…and promptly negotiated the rate down to half the public price. We moved in 20 minutes later, and that’s where we’re hanging out as we figure out which way is up.

As I write this, everything is in flux. Where we’ll stay, how long we’ll stay, what we’re going to do on any given day, how much the entire adventure is going to cost, and how I’m going to handle working while everything else is whirling and spinning around me is all a work in progress.

So, let’s circle around to my location-independent workflow project.

Because, you guys need to get something out of this beyond reading a travelogue. In a word, everything’s out the window. I’m winging it. If you remember back to the original plan, I was going to film a ton of footage then send it to my VA to edit and post. Then record audio and send it to my VA to transcribe and post…

Bahahahahaaaaa.

Even if I was capable of creating all that content on a level that didn’t suck right now, I have yet to find an internet connection, even a wired “broadband” one, that could handle uploading high bit-rate audio, let alone HD video. So, while I AM filming, it’s very likely you guys will have to wait until I’m home to see any of the footage.

So, I’m leaning a lot more on creating text-driven content, along with photo-albums for now. And, I’ve also just downloaded the ScribeFire plugin for both Firefox and google Chrome, which will allow me to write and set up posts offline, then just hit a button to publish them, once I’m somewhere with a decent signal.

Now, what about the client service side of my location independent workflow puzzle?

Some of it is working, some of it isn’t.

In my last post, I hinted at the fact that consulting is much harder to pull of as a location independent venture. Since then, I’ve managed to find times of day, decent enough connections and quiet enough areas to allow for decent skype calls. But, the conversations generally have to happen either first thing in the morning or late in the evening.

For calls that are more “scheduled updates and weekly sessions,” that’s doable. The real challenge comes when working on a project, say something in more of a start-up phase, where you’d really benefit from the ability to be able to jump on the phone, email or IM a few times a day to get quick answers, hash out ideas and share information WHILE EVERYONE IS AWAKE AND AVAILABLE.

Were I working on a 4-8 hour time difference, I could probably pull it off, but I’m 12 hours apart from most of my clients. And, that’s proving to be a challenge. One I’m still working on figuring out as I write this. And, something you guys should also consider when exploring location independent consulting. It may be doable for a few weeks, but as a lifestyle, I don’t see it being all that viable.

And, there’s one other thing. The heat.

From the reports I’m getting from NYC, Bali has actually been relatively cool. But, here’s the thing about Bali heat…it’s always wet…very wet…and it’s much harder to get away from. Most shops, restaurants, internet cafes and even many hotels and homes don’t have air-conditioning. Instead, they have fans, which makes it pretty okay. But, you pretty much walk around with what we’ve come to call the Bali sweat glaze all day long. For a lot of people, that’s okay. And, honestly, the sweat part doesn’t really bother me.

But, one of the things I should’ve realized is that both my daughter and I tend to shut down in heat. it’s just our constitution or, in y0ga-speak, our doshas. And, that effects our mood, our energy, our desire to do, well, ANYTHING, and, for me, my ability to create. And, oh yeah, did I mention I’m supposed to be writing my next book over here? Ack!

So, another lesson. Be sure to understand the nature of the climate you’re going to be operating in and consider whether it nurtures or negates your ability to do what you fantasize about doing.

Okay, so, let’s move on from location independent workflow to more juicy Bali stuff…

The Monkey Forest.

One of the first things we realized when the camp part of our plans was disappeared was that we were going to need to find a lot more cool things to do and places to go. And, while that’s a huge challenge to my ability to work, it’s actually a good things from a “seeing more of the country” and being with my family standpoint. So, we started simple.

Here in Ubud, there’s a place called the monkey forest. Guess who hangs out there? Yup, monkeys. There are no gates or cages to keep them in. They all cluster there because they know they’ll be fed a whole lotta bananas by silly Westerners like us. But, we weren’t ready for just how up close and personal the experience would get. Within seconds after walking into the forest with a black plastic bag filled with mini bananas (sold at the front), monkey began climbing up my wife’s body to get the bananas.

At first, she was freaked, we all were. But, then once we realized, they hand pretty human hands and they were just climbing her like a tree, not clawing, it got kind of fun. We bought a bunch more bananas and discovered that if you held them over your head, monkey would climb up to get them, then sit on your shoulder peeling and munching away (yes, pics are included in the gallery below).

Bali Dogs

One of the saddest things we’ve seen here is the huge number of street dogs, often sickly, ematiated and losing their hair. We stopped into one of the few shelters, where my daughter stayed to play with a bunch of rescue pups for about an hour. She wanted to take them all home.

The Balinese, according to the woman who runs the shelter, don’t really get the Western idea of dogs as pets. They are viewed more as just animals that happen to live along with families or in the wild. And, left largely to fend for and feed themselves. And, those are ones who are actually “owned.” The vastly larger population is wild and, sadly, there has been increasing government culling of the population out of fear of rabies and other illness.

Rice terraces.

Everywhere yo look, once you leave the main part of the towns, you find rice terraces. They often go on for hundreds of acres. At certain predetermined times, they are all flooded, starting with those at higher elevation, allowing the water to flow down into the lower ones. There, rice is germinated, then planeted in the paddies and harvested 2 to 3 months later.

Once the rice plants begin the grow in, the brown watery fields become lush green and the cascade of vivid green terraces is gorgeous (pics below)!

What looks fairly straightforward is actually a fairly complex, deliberate and complete ecosystem. Everything from the ducks, the cows, the rice and the even the variety of plants that line the paddies play a critical role in allowing the rice to reach maturity.

We are going to do a program that essentially allows up to spend a day in the life of a rice farmer over the next week.

Prices and tipping.

As I mentioned earlier, every price in Bali is a negotiation. And, nearly every restaurant or hospitality business folds in a modest (10%) service charge, making tipping largely unexpected. You can get a delicious multi-course meal for 3 people (without booze) for $15-$25 US. That same meal in NYC would cost about $75-$100. A 90-minute massage costs about $20 US. And, again, no tip is expected.

But, I’ve gotta be honest. Both my wife and I had trouble with the idea of not tipping above the 10% folded-in fee. Because, in NY, you tip 20%. That’s just what you do, because people don’t earn a whole lot on an hourly basis. They make most of their money on tips.

So, just because you don’t “have” to Bali, why would you change your tipping policy?

Isn’t that more about who you are inside and the respect you have for those who make your experiences more enjoyable than “what the local custom allows you to “get away with?” Especially when pretty much everyone serving you earns way less than, even adjusted for cost of living, than their NYC counterparts. And, for the most part, while I love a good snarky NY waiter, the folks who serve you in Bali are far more universally lovely and appreciative than pretty much anywhere I’ve been.

Curious what you guys think of that?

Wrapping up this week…

Well, there’s still lots more to share, including making silver jewelry, watching my 9 year old daughter work a blow-torch, yoga, meditating with ducks and frogs and more, but I’ll save that for next week.

But right now, we’ve just finished dinner and wandered over to relax barefoot on cushions on the front patio at Ja Juice Cafe. Brownies, cookies and lattes are being served while, off in the distance, a three-dude Balinese band is doing small-town justice to some Skynyrd.

And, as I glance up before hitting “publish,” I notice my girls now fully reclined, drifting into the night…

Until next week…

Kicking off this new “every Friday” feature is my friend, Chris Guillebeau. Many of you know Chris already, but if you don’t, he’s the guy who travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at The Art of Non-Conformity. He is also the Chief Troublemaker of UnconventionalGuides.com.

And, he’s also about to become an author with the release of the forthcoming book, The Art of Nonconformity. I’ve seen an advance copy and it’s fantastic, reserve your copy today at amazon.

So, without further ado, I’ll turn it over to Chris…

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There goes that Jonathan Fields again… heading out to beautiful Bali while the rest of us hold down the fort with guest posts. What a lucky guy. I’m guessing his schedule today looks something like this:

10am: Wake up in the hammock

11am: Eat banana pancakes, Jack Johnson style

1145am: Quick email check

12pm-6pm: “Brainstorming time”

6pm: Post a TwitPic of the hammock

615pm: Quick email check

630pm: Begin drinking beer

8pm: Bonfire and barbeque prepared by the local Career Renegade staff

That’s how the “work from anywhere” life goes, right? Yep, that’s the life… of pretty much no one I know.

Plenty of people will tell you about the benefits of the work anywhere / location independent / off-the-grid lifestyle. Fine. But most of them will leave out the hard parts. (Most of them haven’t actually done it either, but that’s another story.)

Before you join Jonathan and co. in the Indonesian treehouse, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Misconception #1: Work Anywhere, Make Money.

I’ve been location independent for nearly ten years, but I could actually make more money (a lot more) by staying in one place instead of roaming around all the time. Working in North American time zones is more profitable than Indonesian time zones. Despite the welcome presence of the banana pancakes, money and working from Southeast Asia are not correlated.

Misconception #2: Passive Income = Cha-Ching!

Wake up to the inflow of funds before heading back to the hammock—what a life. Actually, Jonathan’s already been over this before… better take that post down quickly, man! (Unfortunately, he’s right. The reality is that most of us work pretty hard for that “passive” income. We have to feed the funnel, keep prospects coming in, and be available for clients or customers no matter where we are in the world.)

Misconception #3: If You Build It, They Will Come.

All you need to do is open a storefront and put out your shingle. W00t! Except not. Viral marketing means “spend a lot of time talking to everyone you know and hope they’ll do the same.” Building your project is 50% of the task; spreading the word is the other 50%—and that’s hard to do when you’re working from the road.

Misconception #4: The Whole World Is Wired.

Alas, “wired” means different things in different places. True, I had a surprisingly fast WiFi signal in Erbil, Iraq—but I’ve also been at a loss to get online in Tokyo, supposedly one of the world’s most wired places. I also spend a lot of time worrying about internet connections, especially when doing video interviews or uploading large files. If you need to rely on a constant, consistent pipeline to the world, you’re better off at home.

Misconception #5: You’ll Spend Your Days Chillaxin’ in the Hammock!

OK, this one is real… sort of. Here’s where we get into the reality of working from anywhere. By far the main benefit of establishing your plan of freedom is the ability to go anywhere, sometimes more than the actual going.

Remember the words of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” With that in mind, here are a few things to think about before you book your Thai Airways flight and head out across the Pacific:

• What are you really after? What’s the goal?
• How will your business bring joy to your customers?
• What does freedom look like to you?
• How will you build sustainable practices into the biz, so you can actually book that flight… or do whatever else you want?

Don’t get me wrong…

Location independence is awesome! Sign me up. But the best part of a freedom business is the freedom itself. You can be free wherever you are, or you can be stressed wherever you are. Better to solve that problem first…. then, start picking out your dream hammock.

When this post goes up, Jonathan will be in Bali, and I’ll be working from the road in West Africa. Sign me up for some banana pancakes! That’s no misconception.

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Chris Guillebeau travels the world (without a hammock) and writes for a small army of remarkable people at The Art of Non-Conformity. He is also the Chief Troublemaker of UnconventionalGuides.com. Reserve your copy of Chris’ forthcoming book, The Art of Nonconformity, at amazon now.

The great Bali Renegade Workflow Project has officially launched. For the better part of the summer, I’ll be operating out of Bali, working part of the time, exploring part of the time and enjoying my family and the pace of life all of the time.

In my post last week, I shared some the ways I’ll be experimenting with my content creation pipeline and workflow in order to get the most out of my time on the other side of the world. But, today, I wanted to spend a few minutes sharing with you all 21 pounds of technology that’ll be coming along on the adventure with me. Normally, I’d never travel this heavy, but since we’ll be more “living” in Bali for a month or two, rather than “visiting” for a week or two, it made sense to bring what I needed.

Also, because this is such a lush, rich part of the world, I wanted to make sure I was able to capture it with a level of technology that really did it justice. Which is kind of funny, because the other “capture” technology I’ll be leaning on is a few old moleskine journals, aka, the anti-technology.

For a more detailed review of the Ogio Epic bag I’m using, check out Chris Brogan’s great new travel site, ManOnTheGo.com

This Friday will start the official Summer Guest-posting Festival, too, so stay tuned for some amazing insights, thoughts and stories from folks who are doing powerful things with their lives…

Translation—for the most part, people don’t care a whole lot about the vehicle that gets them the benefit they want…they’re simply looking for the faster, easier, most enjoyable way to their desired end.

So, if you were selling drills, you could focus in on the features of the drill or you could focus on the fact that this bad-boy will let you bore a monster hole through concrete in 8.2 seconds. If you were a golfer, it’s not so much the graphite shaft, carborundum head and Corinthian leather grip you’re selling, it’s the 300 yard drive.

Except…that it’s not…in either case.

The hole and the drive are the benefits. They sell better than the features.

But there’s something that sells 10 times better than both…driving emotions.

If you can ferret out, then sell to the driving emotions, you make a beeline to the part of the brain that says, “OMFG, if I don’t have that NOW, I just might die!”

In the drill example, the driving emotion isn’t the hole, that the benefit. The driving emotions might be the pride or ego fulfillment that comes from all your other workers and supervisors seeing you banging out massive amounts of work in less time. It might be the sense of empowerment that comes from a bigger, badder tool. Maybe it’s the fact that it lets you get home to your family faster and be less wiped out at the end of the day. Or, oddly enough, it might even be a proxy for a lack of power in other parts of your life.

In the golf example, the driving emotion isn’t the 300 yard drive, it’s the feeling of glory you get when you stand at the tee on the first hole, the one right in front of the clubhouse where everyone’s watching, and bang the ball straight to the green while everyone around you says, “whoaaaahhhh!!!” It’s the respect that comes from being known as the guy with the 300 yard drive. And, yes, just like the drill, it may even be a proxy for a lack of respect and connection in other parts of your life.

So, if you really want to sell, don’t sell the feature, don’t even sell the benefit…sell the driving emotion.

BUT, there’s a big caveat…you’d also better be able to deliver on your promise.

Because if you don’t, you’ll end up with a whole lot of clients and customers with buyers remorse, anger, returns and bad will.

Sell to the soul, then deliver…

The conversation around corporate responsibility over the last few decades has been, almost entirely, from the mouths of two warring factions. Those who believe in maximizing shareholder wealth by any means necessary and those who believe in corporate citizenship, which until recent years has almost always been viewed in the context of people, with a smallish bit of lip service to the environment.

Then came Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, followed this year by The Big Spill.

Longtime readers of this blog know I don’t get political here (at least rarely). Not that I don’t have opinions, this just isn’t my outlet for them. But, I do talk about business, and our responsibilities, dreams and quests as creators, problem-solvers, leaders and builders of legacy.

As a securities attorney, first at the SEC, then at a private firm in NYC, I was duty-bound by the law. And, so were board’s, officers and decision-makers of every public corporation. All were under a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder wealth. Without fail, the measure of shareholder wealth was stock price, profitability and dividend. In all but the rarest of circumstance, the notion of corporate citizenship was considered only as a “stunt” to create a perception that might engender a big enough bump in feel good vibes to generate more revenue than the stunt consumed.

I get the need to be profitable. You can’t have an impact without a voice. And, you can’t have a voice if you don’t have a viable means to sustain your efforts. Money matters.

But, I’m increasingly drawn to what Brian Clark might call the corporate responsibility third tribe.

A growing movement of C-suite executives who strive to build powerful, impactful organizations that profit and maximize shareholder wealth not as the result of the more traditional crush, dominate, slash and burn approach, but rather as a byproduct of a fierce sense of corporate citizenship. And, I am stunned at how profitable some have become.

Interface is an interesting example of this. After years in traditional carpet manufacturing, Interface founder, Ray Anderson refocused the company on sustainability, retooling nearly every process, shifting resources and vendors in the name of what he calls Mission Zero: “our promise to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by the year 2020.” And, in the process, the company created FLOR, a sustainable flooring product, lowered net greenhouse gas emissions by 82%, dropped fossil fuel usage 60% per unit of production, decreased water usage 75%…and decreased costs by $400 million, increased sales by 67% and doubled profits.

Similarly, Chouinard’s Patagonia continues to build on it’s legendary footprint as a leader in corporate citizenship with it’s “birth to birth” initiative:

So, as I look at what’s unfolding on our planet, when I look at the impact the “by any means necessary” approach to corporate growth has had on the world, when I meditate on my entirely selfish hopes and dreams for the world my daughter will inherit…these are the people and the companies I look to learn from. And, to emulate.

And, I wonder…

What might the world look like 20 years from now if a growing number of freshly-minted and not so minty-fresh entrepreneurs and corporate leaders did the same?

Just thinking…and hoping.

How about you?

1. Failure to evolve.

Markets change over time. People’s needs change over time. One of the biggest problems that I see with entrepreneurs and small businesses is that they start the business based on a single solution, or set of solutions, products or services, that satisfy one particular need or pain point in a market, and they may be doing it very well at that point in time.

But over time, markets evolve, needs evolve, pain points evolve and everything changes. All too often, the people who are providing solutions for those markets don’t continue to evolve with the markets and are left with a bigger and bigger gap between the need and the pain point of the market and the product, service or solution that they’re providing. Add a drastic change in the bigger economy and the speed at which these gaps open grows exponentially, as does the width and depth of the gaps.

The answer here is to keep your finger very much on the pulse of where the pain points currently are in the market and how they’ve changed from when you started your business. Create regular check-in mechanisms to see whether your current solutions are driven more by ego or the desire not to endure the anxiety of change or a continuing need in the market.  Then use that information to change the nature of the solutions that you’re providing, if needed, to keep them as relevant and powerful as humanly possible.

2. Perceiving R&D and marketing as separate functions.

Very often people start a business by creating some sort of product, service or solution and then turning around and asking the question, “How do I market this?” Truth is – product creation and marketing are two points along the same continuum. The more remarkable, the more powerful, the more effective you can make your solution, the less you then have to turn around and say “What do I have to do to market this?”

Building around remarkability and delight is the single most powerful way to market a product.

Because, when you get those down, people can’t shut up about how what you’ve created is blowing their minds on a daily basis. Thing is, these elements are cultivated at the moment of creation, not as some afterthought for the product. Focus your energies on how to make something remarkable and delight potential purchasers at the moment of creation and it will make your marketing much, much easier. In fact, it may even turn it into an afterthought.

3. Failure to understand the importance of culture.

A lot of companies roll along thinking, “If I create a solution which completely kicks ass, which solves a problem in the market, that’s really all I need to do.” If your solution is capable of being provided just through one person or completely commoditized and made as an online, downloadable business, that may in fact, be true.

But if you plan on growing a business – a company with people – the interrelationships between you and those people and between them, becomes paramount. You’ve got to focus on what type of culture you want to build within your organization. Same way Tony Hsieh focused on culture as a driving force in building Zappos.  The culture becomes a core driver of your business’ success and if its not built right – failure.

4. Over-working and under-thinking.

Very often there’s an ethic in business that says you’ve got to put in a ton of hours to get the job done. In fact, working hard is pretty much an important part of any major business accomplishment, especially in the very early days around launch time and the first couple of years.

But a lot of times the biggest solutions, the greatest breakthroughs, the most relevant and impactful innovation comes not when you’re working, but when you work hard and then step away and allow time for contemplation, and for breakthroughs. When you’re building a business, rather than focusing on how many hours you can put in, step back and really encourage – not only in the way you behave but in the way your employees carry themselves – time for pure thought, time for contemplation, time to remove yourself from the setting and the nature of the work and allow for the greatest revelations to simply bubble up.

5. Going it on sheer will for too long.

Very often a company starts based on the sheer willpower and the sheer drive and energy of one particular person or a small team of people. As long as all of the tasks that need be accomplished can be handled by that person or team, the company continues to move forward. But inevitably, as you scale, you reach a point where those people can’t humanly work anymore.

And if the company will continue to grow in the way that its capable of growing, it will need to be based on a bigger, more systematic set of guidelines that other people can then be exposed to, adopt, and then tap, in order to grow the business more systematically. Once you reach that critical tipping-point where sheer willpower will no longer drive the business, it becomes massively important to have well thought-out systems to build your business from that point forward.

6. Playing prevent offense.

One of the biggest things that tends to happen in business is that they start out led in a sort of visionary, aggressive outreach, innovation manner and then once business starts coming in, the mindset shifts to thinking about how to preserve the wins or the gains that have already been accomplished, rather than focusing on constantly innovating and delighting existing and new clients on the level that they never expected.

This is called “playing the game with a prevent offense.” Instead of trying to consistently win and delight, you’re consistently trying not to give up what you’ve already gained. And, in the world of business and entrepreneurship, it’s pretty much the fast track to failure.

Entrepreneurial businesses can’t survive with a focus largely on keeping what you’ve got. The focus has got to be consistently on continuing to delight and surprise the clients that you’ve already retained while also aggressively moving forward, innovating and pushing to take that level of service to the next level and continue to lead the market. Sometimes that means it’s an uncomfortable place to be in, but it’s a far better place to be in than sitting back and just hoping and praying that you don’t lose a client.

7. Hoarding control.

This one hits close to home for me because I am admittedly a bit of a control freak. As an entrepreneur, and most entrepreneurs I know are control freaks, we have a lot of trouble giving away control and power. But, when you hoard control you not only limit your business’ ability to scale, you inadvertently demean the people that you’ve brought into your organization because even if its not overt, what you’re telling them is “I brought you in here, I told you I trust you.  I told you I’m going to hold you accountable to my vision and my growth goals, but I do not trust you to think, to create, to innovate, and to execute.”

When you send that message to the people who work around you and with you, you kill their will and you create a culture of dislike and distrust. Therefore, it becomes really important to take a regular check and take some risks. Allow yourself to feel uncomfortable as a leader in a small business. Hire amazing people and give them control.  Hold them accountable to a particular result, but give them the ability to take action, to execute, to create, and show you what they’re capable of.

8. Incentivizing innovation with a carrot and stick.

In Dan Pink’s recent book, Drive, he reveals some fascinating research which showed that for very simple, rogue, mechanical tasks, the traditional carrot and stick – meaning, if you do X, I’ll give you Y and if you do X even better I’ll give you even more Y – tended to work fairly well as a motivational system.

But as soon as you bring in tasks that are more complex, more creative, or innovation oriented, the traditional carrot and stick type of motivation not only doesn’t work, but it literally disincentivizes behavior that naturally would have been incentivized simply by the opportunity to do something very cool. So, when it comes time to figure out how to motivate those types of activities in your organization, take a step back and instead of offering money or particular tangible things as motivation, think about how you can facilitate mastery. How you can allow people the opportunity to move more aggressively toward mastery of something that they’re already intrinsically drawn to and that becomes about the most powerful motivating factor that you can have for people within your organization.

9. Focusing on hours over results.

One of the biggest gripes of a lot of people that I know who work for bosses, is a focus on what used to be called “face time.” You had to be in a place for a particular amount of time, you had to attend meetings because that’s just the way it was. You had to push a certain amount of documents, because that’s the way it was – these were the processes. Meanwhile, all these actions were being taken, meetings were being had, and clocks were being punched, but results weren’t being accomplished.

A much more effective way to grow an organization is to allow people a certain amount of freedom.  Allow flex-time.  Being at the office for a particular number of hours, being seen at an office, really isn’t relevant if the results aren’t coming. Focus on results. Task people with goals that are meaningful to them.  Give them the resources needed to meet those goals and then, step back and like we talked about in #4 above, tell people “I trust you to get this done by this particular date. How and when you do it is up to you.”

Not only will people feel empowered by that level of freedom and trust, but you’ll find them working on it in different parts of the day in different ways that accommodate their lives much better.  And they’ll become much happier employees because they have a work situation they can wrap more effectively around their lives and their lifestyles.  In the end, we don’t really care if something is within particular hours.  What we really care about is that it’s done well and on time.

10. Underestimating the delight margin.

People are creatures of habit. It takes a near seismic shift to make them change routine.  Even if the routine they’re in or the solution they’re currently using is sub-par. Even if they gripe about it every time they use it.  “Better the devil they know,” they figure. That means, if you hope to move someone from a competitor to you, your product, service or solution must not be 5% or 10% better, but 5 to 10 times better.

It takes that much energy, that much of a difference for you to move somebody to actually take action.  Fact is, if they’ve already taken action and committed to a competitive solution, you probably need to ramp that 5 to 10 times up to somewhere between 20 and 30 times better to move them away from a long-term competitive solution.

11. Forgetting the fun.

Most small businesses are launched, at least in part, in a quest to discover then mine the sweet spot between a viable economic niche and some product, service, activity or solution that in some way engenders joy in the founder. So, people like Tony Hawk build a business empire around the joy of the activity they love. In the beginning, it’s fun. There’s an energy to launching that keeps everyone feeling up. But, all to often, over time, that sense of fun begins to evaporate and the focus turns to efficiency, production, systematization, scaling and growth.

These are all critical elements. But, a funny thing happens when instead of being “added to” a sense of fun, purpose and joy, they “replace” those things…the energy of the company begins to tank, mood crashes, productivity falls, morale craters and along with that goes growth and success.

In business and in life, fun matters!

Genuine joy in what you’re doing matters. It infuses and impacts every aspect of your business. Maybe it can’t be there every moment of every working hour. I didn’t particularly love cleaning the toilets in the early days of owning a yoga studio. But, it was a minor blip on a bigger, more joyous radar screen. Do what you can to preserve as much sense of joy and delight as possible for those who help build your business. When you do, not only will you have a better time, your employees will, too. And, that will spill over into every touchpoint with your customers as well.

12. Bailing on your body and mind. Even if you love what you do, starting and growing a business includes a whole lot of stress and uncertainty. There is no way to eliminate them. But, it is mission critical that you develop practices that allow you to move through them without losing your mind and watching your body decompose. That means, like it or not, some kind of daily movement or exercise and some form of attentional/mindset training are not only important in your quest to stay focused, fit and capable of enduring the stress of entrepreneurship, they’re mandatory.