Are you truly fit for Entrepreneurship? I stumbled across an article while surfing through Entrepreneur.com, so they deserve the credit for these questions. The title of the post was “How to Start a Retail Business.” Ask yourself in an honest assessment if you are truly fit for Entrepreneurship. These questions are related to starting a retail business, but the same still applies.

1. Are you good at multitasking? In your own business, you have to be willing and able to do everything yourself. When you work for someone else, you are usually responsible for just one thing and have limited control. You are supported by others with expertise or experience in different roles and functions. In retail, every day can be a stretch, as you encounter customers, employees, vendors and landlords. You can’t say, “That’s not my job.” It’s all yours.
2. What is your risk tolerance? In a startup retail business, you worry about being in the right place at the right time with the right goods and services for the right people at the right price. Do you adjust quickly to unplanned events or prefer more predictable, organized projects? Do you see risk as a threat or an opportunity?
3. Do you count on a paycheck? New business owners can rarely count on a regular paycheck. Startups frequently require more capital than planned. Something’s bound to go wrong or change even though everything is penciled out in your plan. If you break out in a cold sweat if you aren’t paid on the same day every month, you may want to rethink going out on your own. Most of the money you make will go right back into inventory and other costs of doing business.
4. Are you a self-starter and comfortable being alone? Or do you draw your energy from being around others and count on colleagues for support and advice? In your own business, you must lead, knowing what to do and when to do it, and be fully accountable for everything that happens. The buck stops with you. Sometimes that’s a lonely place.
5. Do you value predictability or prize diversity? Not only are there laws against discrimination in hiring and business practices, but America is a multicultural society. When you open your store or service company, you will be interacting with a wide spectrum of customers, vendors, advisors and employees. Retailers need to be people-oriented, flexible and good-natured. Can you manage conflict, see things from others’ point of view, and cater to their taste, not yours?

I can tell you, as an entrepreneur myself, these are right on the money. So if you are someone who is thinking about starting a business, whether a home based business or brick and mortar, make a very honest assessment of yourself and your abilities. Desire can only take you so far before you actually have to start thinking and acting like an an entrepreneur.

Have you ever had a desire to assist other people in their Entrepreneurial ideas but never really knew how to do it? While surfing the net for Entrepreneurship communities, I stumbled across a site call Kiva.org. It is a social site that allows anyone to sign up and ask for or give loans of any size to specific individuals from all around the world.

The slogan for this website is “Kiva – Loans that change lives!”

Starting at the top left, you can click on “Lend” and are able to surf through thousands of people from around the globe who are looking for funding for their Entrepreneurial ideas. It tells you the amount they are attempting to raise and how much of it they have raised so far. Very cool! People are raising funds for call centers, cattle businesses, motorcycle transportation, retail, grocery stores and all kinds of things.

So if you have always wanted to contribute to the spirit of the Entrepreneur globally, this is a way to give. It doesn’t matter how much you give. Give what you want  and give to those who you specifically choose. That’s the beauty of it.

Check it out sometime! Kiva.org

For the last several years, my wife Amy and I have been teaching ordinary people how to create success in a home based business. These people range from stay at home Moms to former military officers and all have one or both of these  common goals: Time Freedom or Financial Freedom. It seems that as people realize how much fun they are not having in their current lives, they start to look for alternate ways to provide them with a different kind of lifestyle. Most people, including you, want a change to take place in their financial life or their personal life. Most people have no idea what that change is, but they know they want it. Some people are very clear on what they want to change but have no idea how to do it.

This is where we come into the picture. We were at this same stage several years ago. I was in a job, knowing I didn’t want to be there, yet I didn’t know how to change it all. Hats off to my wife for finding the way to make that change occur. She discovered a simple system designed for people with zero experience in network marketing or internet advertising. It is a system designed to inspire change in people’s lives. It is a system created by visionaries who wanted that change to happen in their own lives and then in the lives of thousands of others as well.

The simple fact is, most people spend their entire lives just living day to day. They fail to plan for their future. They fail to plan for much of anything thinking they have a sense of security. Until one day, that security ends with a layoff or a dip in the economy and then what?

Why live your entire life enjoying the struggle when you have the ability to skip the struggle and just enjoy life. Time Freedom is reserved for those who step out of the ordinary. Financial Freedom is reserved for the ones who are willing to take a risk and stick their neck out on the line. To have both, it requires leverage. Leverage over your time!

That is simply all my wife and I do. We show you Leverage!

What is an Entrepreneur who is everywhere all at once without ever having to set foot outside his home? Wealthy! Wealthy with Time and Wealthy with Money!

I think it’s about time for you to learn how to walk the walk that most of the people you associate with everyday will never walk. It’s time for you to learn how to walk the path of Leverage!

As you all know I am currently here on the Big Island of Hawaii with my family. We are here for two reasons: Lifestyle and Learning. We are attending a conference along with over a thousand people from all over the world who have also come here for Lifestyle and Learning. We have been here since last Thursday and have been having an awesome time! It puts new wind in my sails to sit here and watch my children experience Hawaii for the first time. The light in their eyes and the excitement in their step fuels me and gives me a new passion for life. Life is good!

Throughout the conference I have heard a common phrase. The last two presenters, Shawn Achor and Erik Wahl, have both mentioned this phrase. I have always known this but it has taken on a whole new meaning to me within the last few days. The phrase is “The Path of Least Resistance.” Basically put, human nature. We, as human beings, are naturally programmed to take the path of least resistance. We will take the easy road. If we come to a fork in the road and one has a mountain to climb and the other has just a hill, we’ll take the hill. It’s in our nature. We’re not stupid right!?

Well, this can be a damaging trait. Allow me to attempt to assist you in seeing this point through my perspective, or through my eyes. In life, what is the easiest path for you, getting a job or starting a business? Coloring a page with figures already drawn out for you or creating your own figures to color? Building a tree house using a manual or drafting and building your own design?

The answers are obvious right? The easiest path is the one that has already been laid out for you. Most likely, the life that most of you are living right now is a life that you have been pre-programmed to live, a life that has been, in a sense, mapped out for you. You went to college because that’s what everyone did. You got that job because that’s what most people do. You took the path of least resistance. It’s easy to follow something that you have been taught since childhood.

The difficult yet more rewarding path is the path of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship isn’t something that is taught to us as children unless it comes directly from our parents. It definitely isn’t taught in schools until you get to college, but even then, learning about business economics can’t teach you how to think like an entrepreneur.

To truly become an entrepreneur one must, more than often, head down the path of most resistance. As they do, they grow faster, learn faster, get stronger, gain more experience and are the ones leading the pack. They are the Rhino instead of the cow.

I can tell you this much, and all of you should already know this…..success evades those who always take the path of least resistance.

So if you find yourself doing what seems easiest, think twice about that decision. Sure, common decicions such as climbing hills over mountains are a no brainer, unless you’re goal is to get into shape. But if you are someone looking to create a wealth of success in your life, make sure your decisions are moving you closer to your goal. At times, that requires you to go against your natural programming, and if you plan on being an entrepreneur for long, get used to it!!

So, let’s talk about the cubicle, and more specifically, the work cubicle. To preface this post I did a little research on the cubicle and as I started to look at different cubicles, I started to feel restricted. I became less and less motivated as the time crept by. I think I actually acquired a cubicle phobia!! Seriously, do it. Just start looking at all the different types of cubicles on the net and see how you start to feel after a few minutes of doing it. It’s painful. At least for me it was.

Anyways, as I was looking up these cubicles, I ran across something hilarious. There are sites out on the internet that offer “Cubicle Etiquette!” Basically put, “how to behave in your cubicle.” I had to laugh and I am actually going to copy and past the etiquette right here for you all to read. Now, I have to give props to the person who wrote this information for having a desire to assist those who have chosen to experience the cubicle misery day in and day out. She has good intentions and deserves credit for her suggestions. However, why even choose to submit yourself to so much misery in the first place? That is beyond my comprehension. A $40,000 salary is definitely not worth the pain or even a 6 figure income for that matter. There are much more fun, creative, more exciting and fulfilling ways to make a heck of a lot more money.

Here is the “Cubicle Etiquette”:

PRIVACY

• Never enter someone’s cubicle without permission. Behave as though cubicles have doors. Do not enter before you have eye contact “permission” from the occupant.

• Try not to sneak up behind someone in a cube. Announce yourself at their doorway or lightly knock on the wall.

• Post a sign or flag at your cube entrance to signal when you can be interrupted. Avoid making eye contact with people if you don’t want to be interrupted.

• Don’t “prairie-dog” over the tops of cubes or peek in as you walk past each one.

• Don’t loiter outside someone’s cube while you wait for him or her to finish a phone call. Come back at another time.

• Never read someone’s computer screen or comment on conversations you’ve overheard. Resist answering a question you overheard asked in the cube next to you!

• Keep your hands off a cube dweller’s desk. Just because there’s no door doesn’t mean you can help yourself to their paper clips.

PHONES

• Try to pick up your phone after one or two rings. Set the ringer volume at a low level.

• Limit the use of speakerphones. If you must use one, keep the volume as low as possible. Use a meeting room for conference calls.

• Watch your volume when talking on the phone. A headset can help keep your voice low.

• When you leave your cubicle, turn your phone ringer off and let it go to voicemail or forward your phone number to your new location.

• Never leave your cell phone behind in your cube without first turning it off or to vibrate.

• With personal or sensitive calls, be aware that your neighbors can hear your end of the conversation.

TALKING

• Use your “library voice”.

• Don’t talk through cube walls or congregate outside someone’s cube. For impromptu meetings, go to a conference room or break room.

• Don’t bring clients to your cube to meet with them. Go to an office or conference room.

• Don’t yell across the “cube farm”. Get up and move to the other person’s location.

GENERAL NOISE

• Use email or instant messaging to communicate silently with your coworkers.

• Play radios at low volumes or use a headset.

• Set your PC volume to a low level and turn off screensaver sound effects.

• Set pagers to vibrate.

• Work out an arrangement with your neighbors to take lunch breaks at different times. This will give each of you some quiet time in your cube.

• Eat quietly. Avoid gum-popping, humming, slurping and pen tapping.

SMELLS

• A good rule of thumb is to never eat hot food at your desk. Food odors can bother your hungry or nauseous neighbors.

• Perfume and cologne should be avoided in a cubicle arrangement. Your neighbors may have allergies.

• Keep an air freshener handy.

• Keep your shoes on!

There were some great suggestions in there for those of you who work in a cubicle. I wouldn’t be such a critic if I hadn’t worked in one myself. Whatever reason it is that landed you in a cubicle job, make it completely temporary. Certain people are meant for cubicle jobs and certain people have so much more potential. If you feel like you are the latter, kick the cubicle to the curb. I know for Amy and myself, it has been the most profitable decision we have ever made…and also the most liberating!