How To Do More By Doing Less

There is a saying that “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”  Last night I was watching the Amazing Race.  It was interesting to watch a team try and land a LearJet simulator.  As an experienced pilot I found it remarkable how frustrated the teams got.  The last place team took twelve try’s and that was just a landing, no emergencies or bad weather.

Before I could laugh at the teams results, my wife said “Wow, I could never do that!”  and she has been in simulators.  Having nearly 12,000 hours of practice flying airplanes and simulators, I am pretty confident I could have done it in one try.  Two at worst, and if it took two I would be pretty embarrassed.  If asked to fill in for one of the teams like a “phone a friend” I would have gladly stepped in because after all of my years of practice it would be relatively easy for me to do.

Many books have been written on mastering a skill with 10,000 hours of practice.  The idea is that if you do anything for 10,000 hours you will be pretty good at it.  There are two other factors though.  One is natural talent.  

Are The "While We're At Its" Killing Your Day?

The Four Hour Christmas Tree and Train

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like you didn’t get anything done?  One of those days where you are sitting at dinner an hour late and can’t seem to remember actually doing anything?

Have you ever had a project take several times longer than expected?  Something you thought would take a day and it took a week or maybe even longer.  

Does this happen to you on a regular basis?  It used to happen to me all the time.  When I ran a custom home electronics company, something most people would call a “Home Theater” business, it plagued us regularly,  The builders we worked with called it the “While we are at its”.  During construction the homeowner would see something they missed or didn’t like and decide to change it mid stream and poof, two days are added to the project.  

NAS Drive or Server, Which Should You Choose?

One of the personality traits that the military and airlines look for in pilots is a combination of perseverance and dedication to perfection.  There is a slang for this, and yes most people just say I am a little xxxx retentive.

When you put that together with a guy who has started several different businesses including a business focused on small business technology, some people think they have found their “go to guy” when they have a technology question.  A good portion of the calls I get from clients have nothing to do with my current business, instead they are related to one of my past businesses.  Since this question is a regular one, and not everyone has my number, I thought I would share a little knowledge about Small Business Servers, Windows Home Server and NAS systems.  My apologies to those computer support people reading this.

Grow A Small Business By Doing Less

In today’s market, small business owners have more going on than ever.  If you have a small business you are probably wondering “What is going on?”  You probably feel like there are so many opportunities, that you can’t possibly handle them all, and if you don’t handle them, you might be wondering how you are going to stay in business.

I have a lot of friends and customers who feel just like you do.  After doing a lot of research to understand how some small businesses make it and others don’t, I found something.

Scott Bourquin in 68' Mustang GT

It is pretty typical for a business owner to fail once, twice or more before really hitting their stride.  I wondered why that was.  I know I fall into this category.  When I took over my dad’s little mail order auto parts business, I didn’t know anything about anything in business.  I knew I had parts for 67’ and 68’ Mustangs, and a couple of customers who owned 67’ and 68’ Mustangs.