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How Do I Start My Own Business, Part 1

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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No, this isn't me

Gal’s Note – Unlike other blogs who’ll tell you that working for someone else makes you a brain dead wage slave, I’m going to tell you that starting a business is not for everyone.  It’s risky, takes a lot of work to start and requires a lot of time to maintain.  There are no easy solutions here and no easy alternatives to a day job.  Some people will like this choice and some won’t.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working a standard job for someone else and if that’s what you like then by all means, enjoy.  In fact, if that’s what you want, I have a few other posts you may be interested in.

Gal’s other note – This was originally meant to be a single post.  However, due to the increasing length of the post and my own time constraints, I’m going to make it part of the whole Diamonds or Dogs series.  I’ll explore more aspects of starting my own business in the over the new couple of weeks.

So you want to create a business? Here’s a few things I’ve learned over the years, starting up both successful and unsuccessful businesses.  The basics of starting a business consist of:

  1. The Idea – What is it that your business will do?
  2. The plan – How are you going to launch your business?
  3. The communication – Who are you talking to about your business and why?
  4. The execution – Putting you plan into action.
  5. Adapt and evolve – What do to after it turns out that your plan was wrong. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Goals, Perfectionism, Starting A Business, Starting Out Tagged With: , , , , ,

Products Don’t Need To Be Perfect, They Just Need To Be Good Enough

January 18, 2012 By 1 Comment
This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Diamonds or Dogs

Steve JobsPerfection sucks. It’s the enemy of invention, it’s the thing that holds you back. Trying to reach it might be an ok goal but never finishing a project until it’s perfect is the work equivalent of dry humping, it feels good but you never really get to the point. Sorry, but perfection can go to hell, I’ll take good enough any day of the week.

I say all this because I’m struggling with finishing up Diamonds or Dogs, my gift site. There are so many things I want to do. I need more reviewers, more reviews, a better landing page, a better “about us” and more information on why the site is the way it is. That’s just the beginning of my to do list. However, the more I try to get the site perfect, the more I push off the important task of starting to drive traffic to the site. Yes, I want the site to look good but I also want to start doing marketing for it. I want to start linking to it, telling people about it, running an AdWords campaign and the dozens of other things I will need to do in order to get people to my site. I’m not doing any of those things because I’m working on the landing page… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Achieving Success, Making More Money, Optimization, Perfectionism, Step 1 - Priorities Tagged With: , , , ,

How Did I Do On My 2011 Goals?

January 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

Happy new yearBack in January I posted these goals as the things I wanted to accomplish in 2011.  Looking through them now, I’ve accomplished a lot.  Yes, some of these goals failed and some only partially succeeded, but I aimed really high in 2011.  I also learned a lot about setting goals and creating plans; information which I am going to apply to 2012 goals. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Finance, Goals, Health, Jobs, Life Lesson, Perfectionism, Relationships, Step 2 - Make A Plan Tagged With: , , , ,

Screw Reminders and To Do Lists

July 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

To-Do ListI am one of those obsessive people who has to write down everything they need to do.  If I don’t write it down, I obsess about it.  I think about it over and over, visualizing all the bad things that will happen if I don’t get this done on time.  I stress myself out imagining the ramifications of what will happen if I forget to this task and then I obsess about whether or not I will forget it.  This is true for everything.  From the most important task (get an officiant for my wedding) to the least (walk the dog).  Luckily for me, I found a solution to this problem a long time ago.  The solution was actually in a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done which I highly recommend for anyone wrestling with organizational issues.  It was a simple solution and basically called for me to write things down.

I know, I know, sounds stupid simple, but it really works.  Before you start obsessing over a task, just write it down.  That way you have a reminder which you can deal with later.  In the meantime, you’re free to go about whatever other work you needed to do without devoting extra brain cycles to other stuff.  It’s an excellent tip and one that has stayed with me for years.  Unfortunately, it’s also that drives me crazy sometimes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Goals, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Step 2 - Make A Plan, Stress Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Quest For Perfection

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m 36, I own a home, I have a wonderful girlfriend, I have great friends, I have a job which I enjoy and pays well, I am doing well in my career, I am in great shape. Sounds awesome doesn’t it? And honestly, it is. However, not so long ago, even though my life wasn’t much different than it is today, I was angry at myself, disappointed with my achievements, frustrated at my life and unhappy in general. Why is this? Why is it that I wasn’t happy even though I had a great life? The question lies with the quest for perfection.

I Want To Be Perfect

I want to have it all. I want to be the president of the United States. I want to be the founder of the next Google. I want to have three beautiful daughters. I want to be rich. I want to make movies and star in them too. I want to have people whisper when I walk down the street “hey, isn’t that Gal?” As you can see, I have some big aspirations. Now maybe some of these are pure fantasy but it doesn’t stop me from wanting them. Even if I can’t be the founder of the next Google I do want to be CEO of my own company one day. Even if I can’t be president, I do want to have an impact on the world around me.

For a long time, I was unhappy with myself and my achievements. How could I be happy? I was so far from where I wanted to be. My goals and dreams and aspirations were impossibly distant and I my progress toward them was slow or nonexistent. This caused me to devalue my achievements and in turn, devalue myself. How could I be worth anything when I was achieving nothing? It’s a bad place to be, where self worth is zero, self doubt turns into self loathing and happiness is all but impossible.

So What Changed?

The first part of the change was in realizing that my achievements really did mean something. Was I the CEO of my own company? No, but I was doing quite well in my career. Was I the father of three daughters? No, but I had a wonderful girlfriend and plenty of time. In other words, maybe I didn’t achieve supreme success just yet, but I was doing quite well for myself. Still, this made sense intellectually but it didn’t sit right with me. It felt like I was compromising. It seemed to me like I was saying, “Sure, I’ve achieved all this so might as well stop aspiring for your dreams and settle for what you got.” Settling doesn’t come easy to me so I was still unhappy. Then I realized something else.

Recognize Your Achievement But Do Not Settle

Recognizing the fact that you’ve done well is not settling. I can be perfectly happy with what I’ve accomplished but still want and try for more. The trick is in recognizing what you have, being happy with it but keeping your end goal in mind. This is a tricky thing although it sounds quite easy. You have to really enjoy what you have and be happy with it and yet want more, which is difficult since those two are conflicting. Why would you be happy with what you have if you still want more? Why would you want more if you’re happy with what you have?

The key is in recognizing that life doesn’t have a finish line. Yes, I suppose death is a finish line of sorts but it’s not one most of us really plan for. Instead, we have a life that goes on as far as we can tell. We have a future of unknown length and seemingly endless possibilities. So I can be happy with what I have because I can recognize the hard work and accomplishments that got me here, and I can want more because I have a long life ahead of me and I don’t want to be bored.

Take A Moment

Write down some of the things you’ve accomplished. How about finished school? Raised kids? Saw the world? Helped friends through tough times? Climbed a mountain? Run a marathon? Helped strangers through volunteerism? There are an infinite number of possible accomplishments in this world and you’ve probably done quite a few of them. Each of us will define big accomplishments differently but we all have them. Take a moment and appreciate what you’ve done. Pat yourself on the back and be happy with all you’ve achieved. It’s ok, you deserve it.

Now take out another piece of paper and write down all the things you still want to achieve. Make a list, make it as long as you want. Remember, you have no idea how much time you have on this world so why not make a giant list of things you want to accomplish. Now go out there and live your life to the fullest. Go out and know that you’ve achieved a lot and you can still do more. Just remember to pause once in a while and check out how many items you’ve moved from the list of things yet to be done to the list of things you’ve already accomplished. Each time you do this, remember to be happy with yourself. Stop focusing so much on what you still need to do and remember all the great things you’ve already done.

On the great road of life it’s important every once in a while to stop and smell the roses. It’s also important to stop and look back at all the wonderful things you’ve seen and done. Cherish those accomplishments and never stop doing more.

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Thank you to My Dollar Plan for posting a link to one of my articles on their latest carnival. You can read more great articles over on their blog.

Filed Under: Goals, Perfectionism Tagged With: , , ,