The rich man plans for tomorrow, the poor man for today.
-Chinese Proverb

Sometimes we’re positive-minded to a fault.

I’m a strong believer in the power of a positive mental attitude and that most people would live more successful lives if they trained their minds to think on what positive things.

I also see though that we’re positive to a fault, specifically when it comes to how we view our future circumstances – especially relating to finances.

The Up’s and Down’s of an Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, most likely your life’s circumstances will not be a 45-degree line continuing an up-and-to-the-right hockey stick curve. Instead it will probably resemble a ride at Six Flags – up, down, up, down.

My point is often we live and plan as if it will only get better, but most likely it won’t only get better 100% of the time. It may get better and hopefully will, but there will most likely be plenty of dips along the way.

This principle can apply to many areas of life, but I’d encourage us as entrepreneurs to apply it directly to finances. Instead of basing our personal financial spending plan on the ‘good’ times, base it on the valleys.

It’s Not Natural

I remember an ancient Hebrew story (from the Bible) about a man who went from being a prisoner to second-in-command of Egypt because he had the foresight (divinely given) to plan for famine while in the midst of a season of plenty. Read the story here. But wouldn’t that just be natural – not to treat seasons of plenty as if it will last forever? Well it seems it’s not natural.

When you have a good quarter or year it’s easy to act like it’s always going to be that way, and it may, but if it isn’t, you could be in trouble with unneeded stress.

Margin or Stress?

If you base your personal financial spending on the low times, you’ll have plenty of margin in the high times. If you base it on the high times, you’ll have stress and heartache in the low times.

Margin is our friend, overextension is the enemy.

Principle: The Valley is the Baseline, not the Peak

Try completing this statement, “I’m a better person when I…”.

A few completions from me:

• … read.
• … am around [this person].
• … am not around [this person].
• etc
• etc

I’m not saying you should make any major decisions based off your answers – just a reflection. I’m also not saying your worth as a human being changes – I believe we’re all created in the image of God, so you are of high worth – always.

I discovered Tom Peters while he accomopanied me on my 18 hour drive from South Florida to Central Indiana. It was more of a one-way-relationship because he was reading his latest book to me on audiobook, but I imagine he would have enjoyed the company too had be been in the passenger seat.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of awesomeness to share from my experience with Mr. Peters and here’s where I’ll start – a simple formula he mentioned that I thought just made sense…

Execute > Review > Adjust > Repeat.

This just makes sense.

And, while it’s not expressly in the formula, Record is implied between Execute and Review (because there’s nothing to review if there’s nothing recorded).

That’s it – no application from me. I just found this to be a phenomenal formula to implement.

Gary Vaynerchuck embodies confidence, but like 99% of other success stories, he wasn’t an overnight success.

When introducing Gary at the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami, Ryan Carson told the story of some enthusiastic guy coming up to him a couple years ago after a conference to meet him. Ryan even remembered thinking the guy was a little weird, but nice.

Two years later, after speaking at the same conference, I asked Gary what gave him the confidence through those years.

My Takeaways:

1. Know who you are

2. Care about the people you’re serving

3. Don’t wait for the Tipping Point. At the conference, Gary said that he had reached his tipping point with his first few viewers. He didn’t wait until he had a few thousand, or even a hundred viewers until he took it seriously. He knew that just one viewer was someone who gave him their attention and was important enough to serve.

Reader: what takeaways did you get?

I’m so Jaded.

I wonder if entrepreneurs are more prone to getting jaded than others. As entrepreneurs we try more opportunities and connect with more people and not only connect, but trust more people. I guess it just makes sense that we’re going to get hurt — jaded.

The more I experience the more I notice areas in my life where I’ve been jaded. I notice a typical curve – I feel negatively about it for a while, then days, months, or years later something changes. Often that something is my perspective.

I’m finding that holding onto those feelings could be keeping us from seeing with a better (or just different) perspective and may be keeping us from a next level of success.

Times change, people change, businesses change, and the best of all, we change. Plenty spiritual principles refer to guarding your heart – I think that applies here. Let’s be careful about getting jaded, and if we’re jaded right now, it might be a good idea for us to work to let that go – we don’t need any extra weight slowing us down.

So your life sucks – or at least it seems that way. Now is the best time to start setting aside some of your free time and start your business.

I just want to encourage you to get started. Now is the time – don’t keep putting it off.

I believe this is one of the most important messages for new entrepreneurs (video below – 2:27)

I subscribe big time to the idea that you focus on what you do best and outsource the rest.

I have a great team of designers and developers that work with me, and I’m continually adding to those partnerships.

When I add a designer or developer as a partner, I go through a very precise vetting process. Today, I found out that one of the designers I’m vetting ripped off a site considerably. I’m all for inspiration, not copying.

Things are working out well with the situation, I just want to encourage you to keep an eye on what’s going on with your partnerships. You don’t want to be the brunt of a lawsuit or bad PR.

When it comes to designer partnerships, here are a few ways to keep everything above board.

• Create partnerships. A partnership by nature requires respect – not just respect to you, but you need to respect your partners. Just because you’re the one paying doesn’t mean they don’t deserve your respect. They will appreciate that and act in kind.

• Promote communication. I let my partnerships know that communication is my top priority (followed by quality and efficiency). Make sure they know that every thing’s better when they communicate with you.

• Get the source files. If they’re creating a design for you, don’t hesitate to get the source files from them so you know they actually created the design. If you ever had a problem with someone saying you copied their design, at least you did your due diligence.

If you have experience in creating partnerships for a lean and productive company, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.