Last Lecture 2016

I can’t wait to go back and read the last, “Last Lecture” I wrote for a previous class.  I imagine it’ll be much different from this one because of all I’ve learned in that time.  I thought about going back before, but I think the contrast will be more telling if I’m not reminded of what I said.

This class can be summed up into one quote for me.  “Work on your career, not just in your career.”  I’ve changed the original quote because I still have very little intention of owning my own business, but I consider myself and my brand as my business.  What I need to keep working on is me personally. 

I will not improve upon me without specific and planned action.  It won’t happen just by showing up to class, to work, or to life in general.  Much like my Gym Membership doesn’t do me any good unless I actually workout, professional development takes work. 

When I show up each day, I now plan what I’m going to do, not solely so I don’t forget anything, but more so I’ll be able to see what I’ve done, how I did it, and what I learned.

If I have a meeting where I present, before I go in I ask myself what I’m going to get out of it professionally.  Am I going to be a more direct speaker? Am I going to make sure others feel heard? Am I going to show how much knowledge I have?  When I come out of the meeting then I go over what worked and what didn’t.  I get feedback from others if possible and I try to learn from it. 

By having this targeted objective I can make sure that I’m not just going through the motions for my employer, but really making sure I’m getting better at each and everything I do.  What worked well, what didn’t, and how will I improve upon it for next time?  Those are all things that are leaned when you “work on your career, not just in your career.”

Time Marches On

I believe “Time Marches On” is a song title, but it’s also how I feel about my life.  I can see the phrase works in business as well.  Time will continue to pass, with or without our permission. While we can’t control many things that happen around us, we have complete control over what happens within us.

In reading E-Myth and other articles over this semester my biggest takeaway is to be observant and plan for the picture.  It’s so easy in our work, business, or even family to get caught up in the day to day “operations” that we forget to plan for the future.

The past couple years I’ve been blessed to be in a position at work that gives me ample time for reflection.  That will be changing in a few weeks as I move to a new position that is much faster paced.  I will have to make time to make sure I “work on (my) business, not just in (my) business.”  My career is my business, it’s my brand and I need to be focused on growing it.  If I just go in and learn my job and get lost in the work, I’ll eventually get burned out and time will have passed with little growth done.  If instead I focus everyday on what I’m going to do to grow and then at the end of the day evaluate what went right, what wrong, and what I learned I will make sure that I’m using the time that’s passing to its fullest possibilities.  To me, that will be success.

Good Example

As we’re nearing the end of this semester I’m starting to reflect on what I’ve learned over this course.  I’m looking forward to going back and reading these blogs again as this has been quite an adventurous time in my life.

I feel lucky to have been able to read about some great business people and situations they have been in to help shape me.  I can’t believe how many times I keep coming back and quoting E-Myth or talking about an Acton Hero in my day to day work.

This week we were in negotiation on our house as the inspections had come back in and indicated a few problems, one of which we hoped we’d had more time on and that was the roof.  Watching our real estate agent work though was really impressive as he tried to look out for our best interest while still being realistic about the market place and the situation we found ourselves in.  He looked for the Win-Win.  He was a great example of all the things we’d been reading about.  He takes great care in making sure the customer is satisfied and often views everyone as his customer, because down the road they could be.

I’m preparing for the presentations of our $100 challenge and stating what I’ve learned from it.  I was certainly not successful, but I feel there are many things to learn none the less.

Working Together

I celebrated a birthday this past week; I’m now 36 years old.  I think the biggest thing I’ve learned in the past couple years is how little I know.  I know that I’m gaining knowledge faster than ever before, but part of what I’ve learned is how important it is to have great people around you to help when you need it and point out things you didn’t or wouldn’t see.

We’ve made an offer on a house in Georgia and have had the inspections done.  They came back with some work that needed to be done.  I feel great that I have an agent there who can help me decide what to ask for and how to negotiate this.  Like this weeks Acton Hero though said, it’s great to have people to do things for you, but you still have to know what they are doing and what it all means.  I’ve been trying to educate myself on real estate, negotiation, and home ownership all over again. 

My $100 challenge still isn’t going the way I wanted it to and at this point I’ll have nothing to donate to my cause at all.  In the end I’ll only have some books that I’ll be donating to schools, instead of selling them as I had hoped. (Although I guess that’s not the worst thing in the world.)

Business in Other Areas

Currently I live in the great Pacific Northwest, about 40 min. south of Seattle, WA and very fast pace.  I don’t think I ever realized how much so till I went on my house hunting trip to Georgia this past week.  My family and I are relocating there for business.  Everything just moves at a slower pace.

People are so nice in both places.  Traffic is bad in both places.  There are a ton of trees in both places.  Life though is much different.  From the airport personnel, to bankers, to real estate agents, restaurant staff and many other people it becomes very obvious that different things are important to different people. 

If I was to do business in one area vs. the other I would have to learn what is important and to whom.  The real issue comes though when you have a national business or even an international business.  How do you then make sure that you give each group of people what they, even subconsciously, desire?  It can’t be easy.  It’s where a balancing act of empathy, with speed comes into play.

On my $100 Challenge I feel like I’m getting behind.  It has been less than successful, but I also hope that I’m learning what not to do as well.

Life experiences

I’ve often been amazed at how much we really learn when we take what we read or study and try to place it in our own personal lives.  This past week we got an offer on our home in Washington and now I sit in a hotel room in Atlanta, GA getting set to go house hunting this week here.

In going through this process I’ve been able to look at a lot of service industry business.  I’ve watched the TSA, Delta, Hertz, Extended Stay America and many restaurant businesses as they try and serve my wife and me.  I’ve been very impressed with many of them.  Things that are so small such as Hertz programming my GPS to say, “Good Morning Greg Buchanan” when I get in the car.  These things really make such a big difference in my overall happiness with the company, even if I’m not thinking it.

Having taken this course makes me see that even large companies want to embrace that small company, personalized feel so that we have a good experience.  Often what falls through the crack is although the company wants that, does each and every employee?  If and when I ever run a company my people development will be my biggest focus.  I loved the example this week of Jet Blue.  There are many other companies that you come across that you know people just love working there.  It shows in everything they do.

My Recent Happenings

In this week’s blog I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned about business through preparing to sell my home, my status of the $100 Challenge, and the fun I’ve had reading E-Myth.

Preparing to sell and now listing my home has been quite the task.  My wife and I put a lot of work in over the past couple weeks to make sure everything was clean and ready to go.  On Tuesday we listed our home.  Despite us putting in the listing that we needed two hours’ notice for a showing, the first call we got from an Agent was at 4:22pm asking if we could do a 5PM show.  It was then I realized that I was going to have to be accommodating, but also put my foot down to set realistic expectations.  We agreed on 6PM.  We’ve had 11 other Agents come through the house with their clients.  Most have been wonderful to work with.  You can tell that they understand the importance of their brand.

Trying to move and continue with school work has proven very difficult and my $100 Challenge has suffered a bit.  I’ve been able to gather my product, but have yet to advertise or sell any of it.

The one thing I have been able to do is read E-Myth.  Actually I’ve been listening to it.  I knew in my situation that sitting down to read would be difficult so instead I bought the CD’s so that I can listen to them in my car.  I have a 45-60 minute drive to and from work so when I get to where I’m going I take a couple minutes to jot down some notes of that section I listened to.  It’s been working well and I’ll get through it in plenty of time to complete my report.  My favorite concept so far has been that if you don’t do it right, you won’t own a business, you’ll own a job.  I know many business owners who has fallen victim to this trap.  I’ve been trying to see it through their eyes.