Why I Hate Seth Godin - He is so damn prolific!

Do you know why I hate Seth Godin?

Because I have bought all his books – and read them, I follow his blog, I read his articles, watch his videos, download his PowerPoint Presentations and eBooks and just when I think he couldn’t possibly have anything more to say (that would be worth listening to) he comes up with more.

When will Seth Godin run out of ideas?

He is so damn prolific! I struggle to write a few articles each week and never make it round to all my blogs let alone get my newsletter out while he just seems to pump out quality articles, newsletters, eBooks and blog posts one after the other and never misses a beat.

Oh, you noticed? I’m jealous.

Well surely that just proves I’m human. He does what I want to do, and does it so effortlessly and well; what do you want me to do, throw my knickers at him? (okay, under pants but that didn’t quite work).

Then today I read his blog post Hope and the magic lottery and I realised that his life wasn’t always so easy. He once also knew the sense of frustration felt by artists and business people alike, when they feel that things are not happening fast enough. And that secret fear, that it may never happen. That feeling is the business equivalent of wading up hill in a fast moving stream against the current.

He knows that feeling and he has not forgotten.

Success - Is it what you really want?

It’s funny; when someone becomes successful they are often called an overnight success because “yesterday we had never heard of them; today they are famous”. But I have met many such people and they all say “It took me ten years (or in some cases, 20 years) to become the overnight success” they say I am.

Sure some people, a very small, and lucky, minority might strike success immediately or within a short period of starting. But while they may get a lot of publicity, they are the “lottery winners” that Seth mentions.

The trouble is that many people think that should be them. so they spend their life chasing that lottery win instead of working on becoming successful one step at a time. Mau Zedong famously said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” However, Seth covers that issue in his blog, I want to make another point.

Who is Really the One Impatient for Success?

In my experience, it is not always the artist or the budding business entrepreneur that is the impatient one. Quite often they are far too busy enjoying the journey to be impatient. More often, it is the family of that person and their friends who are the impatient ones and take morbid satisfaction out of pointing out how long it is taking to achieve “success”.

Of course they are often blind to the little successes along the way that like milestones, indicate the distance covered.

Sure, they are frustrated; they want the benefits that the aspirant promised would flow when they are a success. Maybe they missed out on spending time with the person while they worked on their project, maybe they feel that the person could have earned more money as an employee or may be they just fear being embarrassed if they fail.

Often, these hecklers on the sidelines do not have what it takes to do it themselves, either in talent or strength of character which would enable them to make such sacrifices at the alter of Ganesh*1. As a result they often harbour a secret jealousy against the hard working, dedicated and dare I say it, contented (possibly even happy) budding entrepreneur (or student, or artist etc).

The saddest part is that these “friends and family” often work hard actively encouraging their loved ones failure, doing everything in their power to make it happen. They withdraw their moral support, they promote every little failure and ignore any successes along the road, they sneer and put the person down in public and denigrate them in private. They sap their energy and their confidence. And if the one with the dream should fail, they show them no respect for trying but rather say things like “It was impossible”, “you were not up to the task” “you were talked into it”, “it was a silly dream”

And the worst one “Don’t ever try and do it again”

Over the years, I have seen many young adults leave home because they got no support from their parents for their ambition to be different. I have also seen marriages break up because one partner had a dream to achieve something and the other just wanted the rewards. Maybe they shared the dream in the beginning, but success is a long distance race not a sprint. Even instant success is often only a stepping stone to somewhere else. So somewhere along the line, the non participating partner, friend, parent or child drops out of the dream and to justify their failure, they actively pursue yours.

Can Your Family Survive Your Success?

Can you succeed in an environment that is hostile to success without splitting up? My honest opinion, it is difficult.

if your success is your partner’s failure, there is no team goal. In fact they can be as committed to your failure as you are to your success. Why? Because if you do succeed, they fear you will go on to a place where they cannot follow.

They fear losing you to the very success that you promised would bring the family such great honour and rewards. As surely as every success or failure along the way develops your character and changes you as a person, so the ones not experiencing these challenges, successes and blips, are in danger of receding further away from you intellectually.

Keeping the passion alive while you are passionately chasing your dreams

Your challenge should you accept it, is to ensure that you take them along with you on the trip. Don’t say goodbye at the beginning of it as you “go it alone” and expect them to be ecstatic about your success when you return (metaphorically speaking) 10, 15 or 20 years later.

Climbing to the top of the heap is not the real challenge, that’s the fun part; taking your loved ones along, that’s the bit that’s not easy.

[1] Lord Ganesh is the Hindu God of Success and overcoming obstacles

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Business to Business Tug of war over Payments

I heard a programme about business to business payments on ABC Radio 702 this morning. In short, they’re too slow at the moment and that poses a real threat to economic recovery.

Deborah Cameron interviewed Damien Karmelich from Dun and Bradstreet who apparently keep a file on how quickly companies pay their bills. (to see the blog go to http://bit.ly/bVeP6p, unfortunately you won’t be able to hear this excellent segment as this is one of the few shows that the ABC don’t produce a podcast for).

This is not recent news, small business has been suffering since at least May 2009 and who are the worst culprits? I’m sure you will not be surprised to hear it is big business and government departments. Closely followed by small business who can’t pay their bills due to the above.

During the call in segment, small business people and in some cases their spouse or family member rang in with horror stories of how small firms such as plumbers were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for work done. I know they are not exaggerating, I have a number of small business clients, one is owed over $600,000, much of it from councils and the bulk of the rest is owed by property developers.

Of course the consequence is that these businesses pay their creditors late and in many cases there is nothing either party can do. Even if the creditor was inclined to sue, you can’t get blood out of a stone and bankrupting a company is not only expensive it almost guarantees you will never get paid or if you do, you get your money in such small dribs and drabs it is useless.

Damien also pointed out that many of the businesses that go broke each year do so not because they can’t get work but because they can’t get paid.

My client points out that many businesses are in a bind. If you have a council as a regular client or a large property developer you can’t afford to stop working for them because they will easily find another company that will but when times return to normal, you probably won’t get any more work from them.

In the mean time you need to chase residential jobs just to pay the bills. But this is a different kind of work and a company that manages to break into the world of big business is not necessarily still able or capable of doing this type of work at a competitive rate. They have invested heavily in big equipment and while you don’t need it to clear a blocked toilet, you still have to pay the lease. The big businesses and sadly, the councils, know this and use it to their advantage.

While to the CFO of these organisations this is just a case of  “managing their cash flow” the toll it takes on small business and frankly, on the staff, the families and the small business owner, is disastrous.

Has anyone calculated the cost to the country of supporting employees who lose their job because a big organisation wants to keep their cash in their bank? What about the cost in human suffering and loss of capital due to the break up of families often directly attributable to the stress that cash flow problems cause the small business. Or of the loss of experienced small business entrepreneurs who between them employ over 49% of all private sector employment (http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1321.0Main+Features12001?OpenDocument .

If anyone tells you that Australia has escaped the worst of the GFC (global financial crisis) just tell them to go to any suburb and speak to the small business owners. When you hear a financial analyst tell you that Australia’s fortunes are tied to China, ask them how many small businesses sell products or services to China?

When a politician wants to know how the economy is doing tell them to forego their boardroom lunch at BHP or Rio Tinto and forget the banks (they forgot you years ago) and go to their local plumber, electrician or retail shop and talk to them.

If they did I think we would hear a lot less about how well Australia has fared since the beginning of the GFC.

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One of my friends recently complained that he had to take his kids to “The Show”. That’s the Royal Easter Show which has been an institution in Sydney since 1823 and is still the biggest show in Australia. I couldn’t help smiling as I remember when I had to find entertainment every school holiday for mine.

But then I got to thinking that once people were hanging out to go to the show. It was the most important event in the calendar, so what happened?

A number of things have changed our thinking about it. First, there is no doubt, it has lost its purpose. That’s the real killer. Once an event loses its reason for existing and becomes a purely commercial affair, it stands or falls by what other alternatives are available and whether or not, compared to them, it is good value for money.

It was the later that my friend was questioning. Going to the Easter Show can be quite an expensive day and if you don’t think it is value for money or you don’t enjoy it as much as you used to, you won’t rush back. And maybe that’s why the organizers have to work so hard every year to keep the numbers up.

I wrote an article about this for ESTV and I suggested that it would be a shame to see the show die out and to avoid this happening we should rethink what its purpose could be in the 21st century. Unfortunately organisations tend to leave it until the event is on its last legs before they wake up to the fact that there is a problem. I’m hoping this one man campaign will ring some bells.

In the early days the Easter Show was the one time each year when the city folk got to meet their country cousins. Here the country folk showed off the crops they were growing and the animals they were breeding and they in turn got to see what new technology was available – as well as have some fun and possibly find a spouse for the young ‘uns. It was the networking event of the year.

Why would you go to the show today if it wasn’t to keep the kids happy for a couple of hours? Even “The Show” must find its unique selling proposition and prove it is worth the effort and the money.

I have one idea I think is worth pursuing, I think it could be a mini expo – a time to show off what Australian business is up to? Manufacturers could show off their latest products and hair dressers for example could promote their skills with shows and low cost hair does for the visitors (I think I have seen that happen before). Of course it would keep the entertainment precinct but it has to find a way to attract more than just young families. If it became an expo it would attract not only local business people and hordes of interested visitors but also overseas tourists. It could be a tourist bonanza for NSW.

I think the Easter Show could have a resurgence in popularity and play an important role in getting NSW back on its feet, if we only took the time to think about it. What do you think?

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