Going IT Alone…

Recently a woman I know was expressing her disappointment in her young nephew. He was training to become a mixed martial arts fighter and she thought the idea was horrible. Besides her natural fear that he would be hurt was her distaste that he was becoming “horrible looking” with all his bulky muscles!

Silly me, I said that there was good money in fighting or boxing. She then said out she didn’t want him to be like Muhammad Ali.  I said but getting hurt was part of any professional sport but fighting (MMA or boxing) was a “sports-business” and no one wanted to hurt the other guy so bad that he couldn’t “work” the next match. They would lose too much money if every fight ended with someone being maimed.

And besides I said, one the most “hit” men in professional boxing ever was South Carolina native, “Smokin’ Joe Frazier,  And he is alive and in his right mind living in PA.

I remember some sports writer or something did some kind of “hit counter” and that had Ali hitting Frazier 5-7 times for every single punch Frazier would land.  Man had a head like iron.

Ali was graceful and fast, fast, fast! But Frazier, even to my untrained eye, fought almost flat-footed  with his head out and had a boxing style described as being like a “chugging-locomotive”.

But was cool about Frazier was that he was frickin’ relentless!

He would shuffle around the ring, circling the other fighter, backing them into smaller and smaller sections of the ring. Then he would go in for the “kill” punching though their defenses. The other fighters would pound away at that big ole head of his and he would just keep coming back, taking it and chopping them down with sheer blunt force trauma. That’s how he successfully defended his title in his first fight with Ali.

And it’s what I want to capture in my little mirco-business. That relentless pursuit of results! Getting the damn job done, and getting it done right. Chugging away up the hill to financial freedom.

No more playing office politics, being politically correct for fear that some neurotic twit will get his or her feelings hurt, nothing matters but RESULTS!

If your website works and you get the lead generation and customers you wanted from it, then my job is done so just “show me the money” and I can head to the house. If your computer is running better now after I worked on it, great!

RESULTS! If I am making money, then I am doing something right. If things suck then I am doing something stupid. Screw the recession BS. My mother made a living during the depression with just a third grade education. Like she said, “if you can’t find work, it’s because you’re not looking hard enough”.

Not a J.O.B. but work. I do what I do for the money, honey. And I try to do it very well.

I don’t mind work or fighting for what I want. I always have. And if you are a dreaming the dream of owning that “perfect” micro-business of your own, then you need to join me in my Smokin’ Joe training.

Learn how to disciplined, learn do what you do and do it well. And be RELENTLESS!

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.” — Bertrand Russel

While working on an client-friend’s computer, I learned that they were going to take their first trip to Europe. Since they knew I had been in the Army and was stationed in Germany at the end of the Cold War (yes, kiddies, I’m that old), they asked about my European experiences.

I told them that I liked Germany and France fairly well (the Germans are control freaks except when it comes to driving too fast and drinking too much. And the French can be food, wine and clothing snobs…but they are snobs to everyone not native born so don’t take offense.)

I told them, the country, I liked best was the Netherlands (Holland in American). I told her the Dutch understand that in the long run basic human nature was an unstoppable force that they often took advantage of. The Dutch have always been big fans to letting people go their own way, while getting a cut of the action.

While the Dutch didn’t invent state sponsored piracy (privateers), They did learn very quickly how efficiently organized privateers could add to a poor country’s bottom line.

It’s the Dutch who have allowed the open legalization and use of dope smoking and prostitution (in limited areas). All state sponsored, monitored and heavily taxed.

The Dutch at first glance seem very laid-back and very forgiving.

But during my first trip to Amsterdam, I noticed that all the older houses  had very narrow frontages. In fact the guide pointed out one house that was exactly one doorway width wide. But it went up 4 stories and went back one block deep!

Seems sometime in the past some bright city official starting taxing people on “wide” their houses were. So in retaliation, townspeople started building things narrower and narrower, until you get what I saw; a one door-wide sliver of a house. This also lead to the invention of some the steepest stairways I have ever seen.

But it’s the Dutch’s willingness to try any new “workaround” (an alternative method that gives one the desired results without actually solving the problem) that I find so cool.

Americans used to invent and use “workarounds” all the time. We still do in small settings but as a nation we have fallen back on the “better safe than sorry” notion, especially in the workplace.

Oops, better not say that…the HR will hear about and sit you down for a nice, boring speech on being politically correct. Gosh, better be careful of what jokes you tell someone; even if the person  you tell is okay with  it, if your conversation is overheard by someone with big ears and a sensitive nature then you can tagged with being un-PC.

Do what you are told exactly no more , no less (let the boss micro-manage) because if you mess up and make a mistake, then you will be in the hot seat or worst.

But a soloist, you don’t have that luxury. If I mess up, I have to fess up and make it right, if I can. No more hiding behind (but “they” didn’t tell me to do all that…!)

My clients expect me to “know” or at least to find out and still do “all that” under budget and on time. They may know what they want but as the “expert” it’s up to me to produce the “how-to-do-it” bits.

It’s my job to advise clients that making their new website “narrower” or whatever will be cost-saving but it’s up to me to make that design will work in the long term.

So off comes the dunce-cap and on goes my propeller hat (the Dutch invented windmills didn’t they?) and out comes my latest workaround.

Bootstrapping, flying solo, micro-business owners, “lifestyle” businesses or solo-preneurs; it’s all the same thing when you boil it down…going it alone.

We all have seen or read about the successful small business person who has a “light bulb” moment and sets off to start their new budding home-based business.

After all their trials and tribulations they become a roaring success. We the public only hear about the three “Gs” - the Glamour, the Gold and the Girls (or guys).

What we don’t hear about is the fourth “G”. The most important one actually. This is what one small business friends named the “Grind”.

Admittedly my “solo” career is just over a month old as of this post, but already I know that it’s this last “G” - the “GRIND” that will make all the other rewards of business possible. We never hear about the this because the “Grind” doesn’t make good TV.

Great ideas are fine but its the “Grind” that takes a shaky concept and turns it into a workable process. You can be charming and charmed and do the meet-n-greet with clients. But it is the “Grind” that will keep them happy and returning for more business.

The “Grind” means doing the work, no matter what else is going on in your personal life.

The “Grind” means busting your hump for people who will disrespect you and what you do but whose checks help pay your bills.

The “Grind” means staying up late and getting up early, to get the job done on the deadline you promised.

The “Grind” to make a living can become all consuming. So how is the “Grind” different from a regular job with its stresses and strains? The answer to that is simple…when working on your own; you are doing what you love best.

That old saying, “Do what you love and you will never have to work again…” has a lot of truth in it. Being self employed is scary. VERY SCARY!

Without your love of your work, the “Grind” would be made up of just you, your “Big Idea” and a Internet connection; all alone with your fears in the dark.

But by doing what you love, you turn the “Grind” to make a buck into something different. Something less greedy, less self-serving.

Now you will still have to work hard, probably harder than you would like at first - that’s the “Grind”, but by doing what you love best (what you are good at) you start making a difference in the world around you.

And as you grind it out your life’s work, do some good and have some fun, the money will eventually come to you.

At least I hope so…

Tags: entrepreneurship