Hanging Out in a Nouveau Entrepreneurial Culture

Last weekend, I attended an international conference of new technologies and deregulated energy entrepreneurs.

Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.

So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.

What did I come away with?

A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.

Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.


THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.

In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.

Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.

Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.

He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.

A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.

And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.

What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.

No joke.

Some Thoughts on Unique Ability, Delegation, and Dog Poop

Thursday morning, Medusa, my daughter's Rottweiler-Yorkie mix, experienced what can only be described as DOG-HELL.

The cat next door, an animal who to Medusa represents the embodiment of evil on earth, ran through the back yard at the very moment the dog began to poop.

The dilemma of how to engage her enemy while dealing with a present urgency was emotionally, and functionally, gut-wrenching for her.

Of course, this scene naturally made me think of - well - the challenges entrepreneurs face.

All of us with entrepreneurial DNA have a passion for something, a unique process that will create value, and we will benefit from a sense of having made things better, and a profit to boot.

Medusa had opportunity run right in front of her. Unfortunately, dealing with the crap of her operations meant that opportunity quite literally passed her by.

Now, to be fair, Medusa did not have a choice.

You and I do.

We can make sure we stay fresh by at least once a week taking a 24 hour period, midnight to midnight, disconnected from our work. And when we take "vacations," we have to be faithful, and not sneak away for clandestine trysts with "Blackberry."

Then we stay rejuvenated, ready to identify opportunity and create value.

But don't forget to concentrate days devoted to working on the business, acquiring and building capabilities, and to deal with the messes of life.

Finally, concentrate time on the Unique Abilities(R) I alluded to above. Everything else delegate, or outsource wherever possible. You and I have an advantage over Medusa. We can delegate the things we find to be poop to people who are ready, willing and enthusiastic about taking it on.

You can find some great insight on how to do the above in two great books - Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want, by Catherine Nomura and Julia Waller, and The Time Breakthrough, by Dan Sullivan. You can find them at private.strategiccoach.com.

And as to Medusa? Well, outsourcing the byproduct of her success is - er - just not a doable.

Multiple Income Streams - Part Deux

This week, for a miriad (that means "alot") of reasons, I implemented a plan to develop three new businesses.

No, I have not quit my core business, as I still have much opportunity to create value there. I concluded, coming out of the recession, that I have to take responsibility for my own outcomes, trusting God for wisdom, but using what He has given me.

So, we are launching two businesses somewhat related to what we do in our law firm, and another related to new technologies/telecom/energy delivery.

None of the three are purely original, but each one was an idea someone who cared about me shared.

My job is to share the value of these ideas with the people who need them - some to help carry them further, and others to benefit from them - - -

And pay for them.

Dog Poop - The Real "Mother of Invention"

If you read one of my earlier posts, you know that my daughter's Rottweiler-Yorkshire Terrier mix, Medusa, ate a small screw Thursday night while I was changing a belt on our vacuum cleaner.

It had a blunt tip, so we weren't completely worried about damage from eating the screw.

Nonetheless, I was tasked with searching the backyard - a supply of dog-poop bags in hand. The objective was to palpate the bags of poop in search of a hard object.

Sounds like reading an Obama campaign position paper. But I digress.

As I have clinically dianosed ADD, I used the time searching for the Holy Grail of Dog Excrement to let my mind loose and see if anything creative occured.

It did.

I'd had a particularly irritating week. Between the challenges of making rain - which usually is great fun - and the process of delegating things that are not my Unique Ability(tm), I was feeling pretty stressed.

Then an idea came.

That idea was followed by another.

Then a goal came to mind, and from there a process.

After my sweep of the yard - several bags of poop - no screw - I texted my friend Erik.

Erik is another entrepreneur. If bad company is the ruin of good character, Erik is the kind of guy an entrepreneur wants to be sure to run with.

I gave him a date in mind for a rather grand goal.

That led to more texts with the goal fleshed-out.

Erik, as I knew he would, said he would guide me.

Invention had arrived.

And its mother is Dog Poop.

Multiple Income Streams and Having Evil Plans

Evil Plans by Hugh MacLeod is becoming one of my favorite business books ever. One of my heroes in the world of entrepreneurs, Dan Sullivan, recommended this book, and I am glad he did.

An "evil plan" is that concept, idea, process by which you express a passion, particularly as an entrepreneur, that even if most of the world thinks you are a complete idiot to pursue, you are joyously oblivious to all else but The Plan.

Sort of like sex.

Or the ground-breaking of the Barack H. Obama Presidential Library in 2013.

Or leveraging a Unique Process(tm) or two.

Inspiration, Hyper-focus, and Some Dangerous Handling of Wild Animals.

At the encouragement of my good friend, Hugh MacLeod, I have decided to finally start writing a blog.
Well - - - Actually I will write two of them- - One a professional blog, and the other (this one) an outlet for my inner adventurer who is forever rafting down a rain-swollen stream of consciousness.

And, I don't really know Hugh MacLeod, but I have read both of his books (Ignore Everybody and Evil Plans, Having Fun on the Way to World Domination). Like many readers, I feel a kind of connection to an author whom I like.

Earlier today, I posted as a Facebook status that I was "juggling wolverines." Somebody liked it, and I had a comment or two.

Those of you with ADD/ADHD, and those of you whose life is made a living hell by someone who does, may understand the idea of "hyper-focus." Someone with the "gift" of ADD/ADHD can indeed concentrate, but it is often to the extreme.

I had such an experience this evening with "juggling wolverines." I wound up obsessing over it like a guy who holds a door open for a nice girl, and after she says thank you, immediately sends out save the date cards for the wedding.

For years, My Reason for Living insisted that I had ADD. I blew it off as so much psycho-babble.

Then I had an epiphany.

In July 2004, I was in Evora, Portugal driving for TeamUSA in the 24 Hours of Evora, an endurance go-kart race that attracts drivers from F1 and Le Mans racing. Yes - - there is such a sport, and yes - - I did race for what amounts to the US National Team. The pic above is of me on the left, with Pedro Lamy, a Portuguese F1 driver, who went on to race for Peugeot and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It was about 10 pm in Evora. I had just taken over our kart from a teammate and was a few minutes into the 45-minute stint when I found myself on the second fastest point on the course . . . and my mind was wandering . . . at a rather high rate of speed, given that we don't use seat belts.

And this was occurring right before an extremely difficult, and rather dangerous turn.

Epiphany . . . test of bladder control . . . call it what you will.

Sooooo, upon getting home, I called a friend who is a behavioral pediatrician.

Given the fact that I am regularly judged immature, this seems a reasonable thing, no?

Actually, I had done some public policy stuff with this guy in the 90's, I knew he had ADD, and would be sympathetic.

Turns out he had taught my personal physician how to screen for it.

I went to said physician.

He screened for it.

He rolled on the floor, incapacitated with laughter.

"You have Attention Deficit Order." Dr. Mengele told me, "and I hate to break this to you so bluntly . . ."

"Yes, Doctor???"

"Frank, your case is TERMINAL."

More uncontrollable laughter.

For a brief moment, I rued the fact that in my day job, I work to protect the assets of doctors from "blood-sucking malpractice attorneys" (that is a technical term . . . forgive me).

He gave me a prescription.

I found an executive coach who understood entrepreneurs with ADD, and liked motor sports.

And I began a conscious journey to learn how to make having ADD a positive.

The good news is that it can be . . . and I thank God that I do have it.

Oh . . . the hyper-focus thing . . .

When something catches our attention, or we (those of us with ADD/ADHD) focus our attention on something interesting/important/exciting to us, we are pretty much like my Rottweiler-Yorkie mix, Medusa - on it like white on rice, and yapping about it to anyone who will listen.

You see alot of us in trial law, emergency room/trauma medicine, extreme sports, and racing. Get us in our favorite element, and with some exceptions (like I had racing in Portugal in 2004) we get into The Zone.

The rest of the time, we often find ourselves managing crises, and trying to select the most effective place to apply ourselves.

And, it often does not occur to us to ask for help, or delegate, or outsource, or GET ON OUR KNEES AND PRAY TO A GRACIOUS GOD FOR SOME HELP!!!!!

Thus, we find ourselves "juggling wolverines," mindful that if we drop one, it will likely express its displeasure at being mishandled in a rather painful way.

More later. For now I am hyper-focusing on a wolverine I just dropped.