BUSINESS BLOG

If you're a solopreneur, I have slightly alarming news. You are management. You are also staff. Marketing. Sales. Customer service. Possibly IT. And depending on the day, janitorial services. Congratulations on your promotion. But Dolly's quote raises an important point, particularly for small-business owners: The culture of your business begins with you. Not with your logo. Not with your website. Not with your latest marketing strategy. You.

Decide What “Rich” Means to You. Money matters. Let's not pretend otherwise. It provides security, opportunity, generosity, choices, and occasionally a really wonderful pair of shoes. But money is a resource. It isn't the entire definition of success. Ask yourself: If my life were genuinely rich, what would be in it?

We tend to picture brave people standing dramatically on mountaintops while inspirational music plays in the background. Real courage is usually much less cinematic. Sometimes courage is sitting at your kitchen table in pajamas thinking: “Well… I guess I'll send it.”

People are wonderfully interesting. They spend years encouraging us to grow. “Follow your dreams!” “Reach for the stars!” “You can be anything!” And then you actually change something. Suddenly it's: “Wait. You're doing WHAT?”

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle If excellence had a marketing department, I suspect it would be much more exciting. It would promise dramatic transformations. Lightning bolts. Epic movie soundtracks. Perhaps even someone running triumphantly up a mountain in slow motion. Instead... Excellence usually shows up wearing comfortable shoes. It quietly asks,"Are we doing this again today?" Not exactly the blockbuster we were

"Nothing is impossible; the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" - Audrey Hepburn The word "impossible" has always seemed a little dramatic. It bursts into the room wearing a flowing cape and announces: "Well... that's never going to happen." Our brains are surprisingly willing to believe it. We tell ourselves: "I'm too quiet." "I'm too old." "I'm too sensitive." "I'm too far behind." And before we've even taken the first step, Impossible has already unpacked its suitcase and ma

But success, in real life, is much less dramatic. In fact, it's almost suspiciously ordinary. It usually looks like folding the laundry instead of pretending it has become part of the furniture. It looks like writing one page instead of waiting for inspiration to descend from the heavens.