Talent: Is it Necessary for Excellence?

Archive for April, 2011

Talent: Is it Necessary for Excellence?

By Joe on Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 | No Comments

I’m intrigued by the notion of gifts and talents. If someone is said to be gifted I used to think they’ve been endowed with a magical power at birth. That may or may not be true. It’s a fascinating study in any case. If some excel at artistic or athletic endeavors were they born immensely […]

Selling… a Dirty Word?

By Joe on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 | No Comments

Have you thought of selling as a deplorable activity? I encourage you to change your position on that. Selling is the fuel for a business. Without the fuel the business vehicle goes nowhere. Not long ago, selling was given short shrift. I think the sentiment is changing though. Browsing the local bookstore, Amazon.com, and Barnes […]

Feast or Famine: The plight of the Solopreneur

By Joe on Monday, April 11th, 2011 | No Comments

In times past, my quest to be as productive as possible led me into some difficulties. I got caught up in the day-to-day cranking of the widget lever without making sure I’d have widgets to crank tomorrow. The problem happens for freelancers, independent contractors, and solopreneurs because we forget to market our “widget-cranking service”. The […]

Visualization for Time Management Part 1

By Joe on Saturday, April 9th, 2011 | No Comments

“…your brain sees no difference whatsoever between visualizing something and actually doing it.” — Jack Canfield, The Success Principles. Visualization is a just a term for a principle that’s been around for a long time. Fifty or so years ago, Maxwell Maltz called it “Theatre of the mind”. Before him, Napoleon Hill wrote about it […]

Top Ten Tips For Having A Totally Unproductive Day

By Joe on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 | No Comments

I took particular enjoyment in writing this list today because the subject matter is something I have some experience in. I’m guessing you will be able to relate to this, too. 1. Sleep in. Might as well start the day off right. Nothing like sleeping in an 4 hours, waking up groggy and incoherent. Sets […]

How You Do Something is How You Do Anything

By Joe on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 | No Comments

Several years ago, I worked in a section of a manufacturing plant where we built custom household furniture. One day a new hire joined the crew. He was a “craftsman” who had 24 years of industry experience (by his own admission). The fellow boasted never having complaints about workmanship. In all those years, not a […]

Bad Habits Mean Low Productivity

By Joe on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 | No Comments

In the Monday March 4, 2011 article I mentioned that I recently did a time audit. Logging your activities and time spent is very enlightening. I also mentioned that my week wasn’t the most productive one I ever had. Beside the fact I was less than productive, The value of the audit process showed me […]

Be Productive in Small Chunks

By Joe on Monday, April 4th, 2011 | No Comments

Recently, I did a time audit of my productivity during one week. I logged every minute from when I climbed out of bed to the end of the day. Let me just say it wasn’t the most productive week I ever had. Very insightful though. The exercise was enormously helpful because I identified trouble spots that […]

Motivation for The Solopreneur

By Joe on Friday, April 1st, 2011 | No Comments

Ah… motivation. Volumes heaped on countless volumes have been written about this particular subject. An explosion of material is available with the click of mouse and within seconds you could have a year’s worth of reading material to sort through and digest. (I’m tired already. And not too motivated to read it either…) I won’t […]

Archive for April, 2011