business

(cover photo by Thomas Hawk. Used with permission.)

The following post is a reaction to page 6 of What Matters Now, a free ebook organized by Seth Godin. Please feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation.

*****

Fear.  Tell me about it. 

Ridding ourselves of fear is necessary to do great things, right? But what to do about the crippling fear of what others think of us? I believe this fear is the most insidious for entrepreneurs who are taking their first shot at something. I know. I've been there. 

We may have family members who think they are being supportive, but who are actually incredibly negative and harmful.

Example: "Dad, I just published my first book!"  Dad's reply:"Now, don't think you're going to make $10,000."  Interpretation: Dad didn't want me to quit my day job, and wanted me to stay financially secure. How it comes across is, "Don't think you are going to be successful. Plan for failure."  Do you have anybody in your life like that?

We may have friends who are not entrepreneurial, who are not risk takers, and who always find the negative.

Example: "I just sent an author a contract!"  Friend's reply: "Don't count on that author signing. The time isn't right/economy is bad/planet Mercury is retrograde."  Again, this friend wants to protect me, but it comes across as, "Don't think for one minute that you will be successful. Plan for failure." 

The following post is a reaction to pages 4 and 5 of What Matters Now, a free ebook organized by Seth Godin. Please feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation.

*****

Page 4 appears utilitarian, as it encourages the reader to 'click the grey box' in order to view the ebook in full screen. I clicked it, of course, and nothing happened. Perhaps it only works when using certain viewing programs. In any case, I know how to make the book fill the screen. This is an interesting choice--asking the reader to block out everything else, and focus only on this book. That is, essentially, what full-screen reading does, right? It follows an important rule of marketing: "Ask the customer to do something."  This is a feature for me to consider, when formatting the ebooks here. I may as well mention now, the book is in landscape orientation, instead of protrait. I presume it's because of the full-screen feature. Being able to block out everything else on your screen and focus on the task at hand is powerful, and something important to consider.

Page 5 starts with a short essay, titled, "Generosity," authored by Seth Godin. Only one page long, this essay discusses how being generous with our art will lead to better business. On first glance the current economy doesn't seem to support this, because right now everyone is focused on making sure the bills are paid. However, if we give generously, our customers notice this, and will continue their relationship with us. The ebook we are discussing here is an example of Seth's generosity--it's a free book, designed to be downloaded and freely shared. And here we are, talking about it, linking back to it.

The following post is a reaction to page 3 of What Matters Now, a free ebook organized by Seth Godin. Please feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation.

***

Page 3 lists all the contributors to this book. I recognize:

• Dan Pink
• Elizabeth Gilbert
• Arianna Huffington
• Ramit Sethi
• Guy Kawasaki
• Seth Godin

That's it! Do I need to catch up on my reading? Who is Gary Vaynerchuk? Why is his name so large and in the middle? My list appears to be representative of less than 20% of the contributors.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Which of these people should I read?

I am in the middle of reading What Matters Now, a free ebook, "...organized," by Seth Godin. It is a compilation of advice from gurus in all different areas of business. I think it would be a good idea to post my thoughts on this book, page-by-page, as a way to blog more regularly and engage you in conversation. Please click the link for the book in its title, above, so you can follow along.

Page 1: Oh. It's the cover. Pretty daisy, very striking. Moving on...

Page 2: "Big thoughts and small actions make a difference. Here’s what we’re working on and thinking about. Things to think about (and do) this year. What about you?"

This page sums up my thinking lately. I have been pushing myself to do 5 things to promote this site every day, surmising that small actions make a difference. Perhaps blogging about these pages  will help with my promotional efforts. What 5 things do you do each day to promote yourself? I usually make a Facebook post, a Twitter post, a comment on a blog, send one email, and read one good thing. Very often, Seth's Blog is the one good thing. I wish I had the time to blog each day, but I think blogging regularly (twice per week, once per week, etc.) is just as effective as blogging each day.

I have a big action I need to take, which is sending out the Call for Submissions for this site on a large scale. Crafting this call takes time, as I want my writing to show that I know what I'm doing around here. As I write this, I think it might be a good idea to send out the big call on January 1, or close to it. I want to reach blogs that have a crafty readership, but who are also technologically savvy.