An Entrepreneurs Words Podcast

In baseball the stat line for a hitter who strikes out, flies out or grounds out in all of his at-bats during a game is shown as 0 - 4 or 0 - 5. The stat sheet for a basketball player who continually shoots and misses without scoring a point might show 0 - 7 or 0 - 10. In athletic terms this is an O-fer . . . O for 4 or O for 5 . . . O-fer.

There's a priceless element to an entrepreneur's success when it comes to his or her customers, employees and investors. This element can be broken. It can be elusive. And it can be very difficult to regain when lost. Of course I'm talking about "trust."

The 2016 presidential election results surprised everyone and created much uncertainty in many quarters. Often uncertainty produces fear about what's going to happen in the future. The Dow Jones Industrial average plummeted as much as 800 points then reversed course and closed up 257 points. What the heck happened?

"If you think life is magical or hard, either way you are right. Your thoughts are the source of reality." I love this quote by Dr. Debasish Mridha, an American physician and philosopher. And her's a phrase that is toxic to the entrepreneurial mindset - "It's too hard."

Saying that our society has become very polarized is a massive understatement. The 2016 political campaign was one of the nastiest and vile election cycles I've ever seen. I'd like to explore the long lost notion of respectful disagreement. 

I was talking with a friend the other day and he mentioned that he gets up tight speaking public. I've had conversations over the years with others who expressed varying degrees of self-consciousness about a myriad of issues. How do we deal with this in a successful manner?

I recently came across an article by Stefan Stern from the Financial Times publication dated November 10, 2008. "While cleaning out his attic, a British business leader stumbled upon some typewritten notes on leadership from the 1950s. 'Leadership is the art of influencing a body of people to follow a certain course  of action, the art of controlling them and getting the best out of them.'"

Lost in Space was a classic television show broadcast on CBS between 1965 and 1968. A young Billy Mumy played the part of Will Robinson who regularly interacted with the Robot. For those of you too young to remember, the plot centered on a modern day Swiss Family Robinson, marooned in space where the goal was to somehow figure out how to return to Earth.

In this podcast PM does not stand for nighttime. Instead it's all about Preventive Maintenance. In the world of buildings and real estate, smart operators pay a great deal of attention to Preventive Maintenance. We pre-check furnaces and air conditioning units prior to the heating and cooling seasons.  

Allow me to set the stage. Don, Shirley, Frank and Jessie all work for the same company. They are peers and interact on a daily basis. Let's pull back the curtain momentarily and observe what is happening. 

Earth, Wind & Fire recorded a song in 1979 called, After the Love Has Gone. And of course there was the classic 1976 tune by KISS, Love 'Em and Leave 'Em. There's an eerie parallel with these titles and our relationships - with our friends and with our customers. 

I knew a person who always seemed to have a black cloud following over his head. He encountered some of the most bizarre situations I've ever known. His drive to work was a harrowing experience. I'd hear tales of near-death situations involving rogue drivers forcing him off the road. 

Once upon a time there were entrepreneurs who cared about their customers. They understood what it took to make their customers happy and keep them coming back. Then their businesses grew and grew until one day they weren't small anymore. Instead they became large behemoths that cared less about the customers and more about bureaucracy, CYA, policy and how to squeeze more dollars out of their customers.

On May 15, 1963, astronaut Gordon Cooper blasted into space aboard Mercury-Atlas 9. The Mercury capsule was 10.8 feet long and 6.0 feet wide. The duration was 34 hours, 19 minutes and 46 seconds, at a maximum velocity of 17,547 miles per hour and an altitude of 166 miles. 

What do we dread most in our business and personal lives today? No, it's not losing. When that happens, we simply pick ourselves up and go after it again. And it's not being overwhelmed by our workload. 

Are you an "innie or an outie?" And I'm not talking about belly buttons. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Before you answer you should know that there are many common misconceptions about these terms.

I don't want our customers to be satisfied. Put another way, customer satisfaction is not our objective. I also don't want our team members to be satisfied. There, I've said it. I'll bet you're thinking that there's a punchline somewhere in all of this. And yes, there is. But let's dig a bit deeper before getting to the bottom line. 

"Tom's personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide," Belichick said, "I can tell you that in my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player (or) staff member, about football air pressure." Wow! Where did that bus come from?

An airplane wing gains lift by taking off into the wind. This then cause the airplane to defy gravity and fly . . . an entrepreneurial metaphor if ever there was one. Interestingly, in my pilot days I once experimented with a downwind takeoff (on a very long runway) and could barely get off the ground. I quickly put the plane back on the runway and ended the experiment!

Customers quit all the time. Many entrepreneurs work extremely hard to prevent the big screw-ups that alienate and enrage customers. Yet, even with this effort, there are still customers that leave and don't come back. What's up with this?