The first concert I ever attended was on June 3, 1978 at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.

Unfortunately, the performer was Bruce Springsteen.

I say unfortunately, because as any number of rock ‘n’ roll enthusiasts will tell you, Bruce Springsteen just may be the best live performer on Earth.

And so after experiencing his speaker-climbing, story-telling, crowd-surfing, three-plus-hour extravaganza, I simply assumed this was the norm for live concerts.

That was a big mistake.

Seeing Springsteen first and then moving on to other concerts was the musical equivalent of dating Farrah Fawcett in high school and then moving on to other women (don’t judge me, it was the seventies).

And so, having been disappointed over the years, when it comes to concerts I lean towards indifference.

There is one band, though, that has always caught my eye: Train. (Again with the judging?)

Not so much for their musical talents (I don’t know enough to measure those anyway), but rather, for their versatility and word play.

From Hey, Soul Sister, to Drops of Jupiter, to Drive By, to Marry Me, I am constantly amazed by the range of songs I hear (and like) and the inventiveness of their lyrics.

And so when my wife Linda surprised me for Father’s Day with tickets to see the band last week, I was eager to attend.

As an infrequent concert goer, and knowing that security had tightened up quite a bit in recent years, I checked the Xfinity Center web site to see what they allowed people to bring in:

One-gallon clear plastic freezer bag (Ziploc bag or similar).
Small clutch bags, approximately the size of a hand.
Small bottle of water.

That’s a pretty short list (and a long way from the days when security was so lax that people would literally sneak in full-size video cameras in a backpack).

But it’s their venue, and they make the rules. If I wanted to see Train, I had no choice but to follow them.

You get to set the rules too

How about you? You may not own and operate a stadium, but when it comes to working with clients, you, too, get to decide who gets in, who doesn’t, and under what circumstances.

Most solos and small professional service firms, however, don’t think this way.

Other than vague pronouncements like, “we don’t work with people who treat us badly,” many otherwise experienced and capable professionals set the engagement bar just slightly higher than, “they are willing to pay us.”

After all, we need clients. As long as someone is willing to hire us, our job is to do what they want, how they want it, and when. Right?

Actually, no. That’s called “an employee.”

We are not that.

We are professionals, engaging in a mutually satisfying and productive arrangement between two parties, EITHER ONE OF WHOM has the right to set the terms by which they are willing to move forward.

(Do you think I typed those four words in all caps by accident?)

Employees follow rules. Independent professionals make them.

So try this: Create your own rules of engagement for those who would work with you. Things like…

• We require a 50% deposit up front before beginning work.

• I am available between 8 AM and 6 PM weekdays.

• We don’t work without a signed contract.

• We never reduce the fee without taking something of equal value off the table.

• I require a minimum of $X if I need to travel overnight.

These are just examples. I’m not suggesting you use these in particular or that you post these rules on your web site.

I am suggesting, though, that you take some time to develop a set of your own and that you write them down for yourself.

Doing so gives them power – the kind of power you’ll need when times are tight and you’re tempted to let anybody, no matter how they behave or what’s hidden in their backpack, walk past security and into your venue.

Discussion Questions:

1. What was the first concert you ever attended?

2. Was it Train? Discuss.

3. What are some of your “rules of engagement?”

Share your comments below!

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I won’t lie to you – horses kind of scare me. They are just so immense.

Of course, there are other large animals out there too. But you don’t often find yourself standing next to them.

Or, as happened to me recently, climbing onto their backs and riding them (whose idea was this?).

We were out in Western Colorado visiting my wife’s college friend Edie.

Edie and her husband, Gary, live up in the hills at about 7,500 feet. They are very resourceful – the kind of people where if you dropped them into a remote forest with nothing they would have power going in about a week.

And so it should come as no surprise that they own horses. Two, to be exact.

Now lest you think I’m a horse virgin, I want you to know that I have ridden these behemoths in the past.

But it was always as part of a “trail ride.” You know, where you show up at a farm, pay $20, and they lead you around the stable area on a geriatric steed named “Widow-Maker” or “Lightning.”

That’s not what this was.

On our first day there, Edie asked if I wanted to “go for a ride.” I naively assumed she meant in the car, to get ice cream or something.

Next thing I knew, I was putting my left foot in the stirrup and hoisting myself up into the saddle.

The next 90 minutes were the highlight of my trip (maybe my life).

She led us up into the red stone hills, occasionally stopping on the edge of a cliff and just looking around. It was amazing.

You know what’s not at all like riding a horse? Driving a car.

Yes, they both can be used as a way to get from here to there. But one has a lot more uncertainty attached to it.

With a car, and barring any unforeseen incidents, you go exactly where you want to go at precisely the speed you choose.

Not so with a horse, particularly when you’re a novice like I am. My horse stopped to eat, walked beneath low branches, and even occasionally took off in a run. I may have been riding, but she was doing most of the driving.

Your business is a horse, not a car

Running your own business is more like riding a horse than driving a car. This is an unwelcome surprise to a lot of people, particularly those who are new to life as a solo.

From the outside looking in, other people’s businesses may seem “car-like” to you: smooth, steady, predictable. It appears as if they are just putting their foot on the gas and moving ever forward.

It’s an illusion of course, but like most good illusions, you can’t tell.

You, on the other hand, and thanks to your “view from the inside” regarding your own business, feel like you’re riding a wild animal. One day it’s fast. The next day it’s slow. Sometimes it stops without warning, only to suddenly take off again.

A horse is not a machine – you’re never in complete control.

The mighty beast has its own agenda. (Let me just pause here to say that “Agenda of the Mighty Beast” would be a great name for a band). You can exert some influence, but at some level, it’s going to do what it’s going to do.

I tell you all this for one reason: I want you to spend more time riding and less time worrying and wondering. About things like . . .

Why is that guy’s business doing so much better than mine?

Why was I so busy last year this time and now I’m not?

How come things aren’t the way I expected?

Simple. Because you’re driving a horse, not a car. Unpredictable, occasionally frightening, and outside your complete control – that’s just the way it is.

Can I give you a way to remove all the risk from your horseback riding adventure (aka, your business)?

No. Nobody can.

But I can share with you the same advice Edie gave me as we were leaving the barn: Stay loose, don’t fight the horse, and make sure to look around and enjoy the view every once in a while. The ride will be over sooner than you think.

Discussion Questions:

1. What’s the largest animal you’ve ever touched?

2. Would you go to see Agenda of the Mighty Beast if they came to your town?

3. Me too.

Share your comments below!

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You’ll be pleased to learn that as of yesterday, I have a brand new phone: an iPhone 6S. 

It’s by no means top of the line. But it is new and, unlike my old phone, fast, filled with extra capacity, and capable of running every app I want and need.

It’s also, I must say, a work of art.

Weighing just a hair over five ounces, and barely a quarter of an inch thick, holding it in your hand is like holding a warm ray of sunshine (assuming sunshine also has rounded edges and is made of glass and metal).

Of course, my new phone didn’t stay that way for long.

Because immediately after completing my purchase, I walked out the door of the Apple Store and directly over to the phone case kiosk in the mall.

Five minutes later, my beautiful, perfect, ray of sunshine was encased inside an Otterbox, an indestructible protective case within which my phone will live out the rest of its days, never again to be directly touched by man or beast.

But that’s just the way it works. We want our phones to stay safe, so everybody keeps them in a protective case.

Everybody, that is, except teenagers.

Walk up to the average teenager, ask to have a look at their phone and, immediately after they shut down the porn and hand it over, you’ll likely notice two things:

1. They don’t have a case.
2. The screen is cracked.

I used to think this meant they were careless and dumb (not that I am ruling that out in a more general sense).

But maybe, and unlike adults who are so concerned with what we might lose, teenagers are more interested in what they might gain. 

What I mean is that while my phone is certainly safe in its case, it comes at a cost. I never fully experience it in the way I’m sure Steve Jobs intended: sleek, shiny, perfectly balanced in my hand.

The teenagers, on the other hand, do.

Sure, sooner or later, their screens will probably get damaged. But until then, they will enjoy a beautiful run of perfect, as-it-was-meant-to-be, iPhone days.

Working for yourself may not feel entirely safe either. Like a phone without a case, there’s a lot that can go wrong in a hurry.

But – and I think this is an important but – the experience is one hundred percent real, every single day.

There’s no boss, no irrelevant meetings, no mysterious company politics churning in the background that leave you wondering what might happen (or what just did happen).

There’s just you and your expertise, looking for ways to package it, price it, explain it, and sell it to enough people who are willing to buy it.

Scary? Some days.

But scary or not, once you’ve been out here breathing the fresh air for a while, there’s no way you’ll ever let somebody put you back inside that phone case. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you have sunshine in your pocket?

2. Please don’t send me pictures.

3. Does your phone have a case? Why or why not?

4. How do you handle those scary, “maybe I should get a job again” days?

Share your comments below!

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“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

– Irish Proverb

My wife, Linda, and I have been in Grecia, Costa Rica now for three weeks.

We came here as kind of an experiment: The kids are off to college and beyond; the house has been sold in favor of a maintenance-free condo; and we both work independently and more or less remotely.

So, in an attempt to sidestep yet another Massachusetts February, we thought maybe a month in the sun would be a good idea.

My tan agrees; it’s been terrific for any number of reasons.

Perhaps most interesting, though, is how much we now know about living here compared to how little we understood just a few short weeks ago.

For example, we know …

… that there’s a bustling farmer’s market on the edge of town every Friday and Saturday (bring your own bags).

… that all humans (and a fair number of livestock) seem to be required by law to greet everyone they meet in the morning with a hearty “Buenos dias!” But, if you really want to be cool, just toss out a well-accented “Buenas.”

… that the kitchen and bathroom sinks aren’t supposed to have hot water. And that the way to control the temperature in the shower is by varying the amount of water pressure.

… that if you don’t want your computer keyboard destroyed by sticky ash from the nearby and recently active Poas Volcano, you had better keep it covered when not in use.

… that you should never ask a Costa Rican for help, directions, or any other type of assistance unless you really mean business, because they will not give up until they solve your problem.

And on and on. Some of the things we’ve learned relate to Costa Rica in general, others are specific to the town of Grecia.

So here’s my question for you: Am I a Costa Rican expert?

No. Not by a long shot.

I know next to nothing about the country’s politics, education system, or history.

I’ve never been to a futbol game; I’ve never driven a car; I don’t even recognize half the fruit they sell at the market.

And Spanish? Well, there’s not a precocious three-year-old native who couldn’t talk circles around me. 

But, if you’ve never been to Costa Rica – let alone, Grecia, Costa Rica – I could drastically smooth your transition, save you a ton of missteps (not to mention cold showers), and guide you towards lots of great places to visit, eat and enjoy. 

In your eyes, Mr. or Ms. Costa Rican Novice, I am well over the expert bar. 

Do some people know more than I do? Sure. 

But when you are looking for help, the question is not, “Who is the best of the best of the best?” It’s, “Who can help me solve my problem for a price that seems reasonable?” 

Stop Waiting 

Lots of professionals don’t see it that way. 

They think they need to get better, learn more, gain additional experience, before they can work with clients, let alone think of themselves as expert. 

I think that’s a mistake. 

First, because the day will never arrive that a major news organization calls you up and says, “Congratulations, we’ve been watching you and have decided that as of today, you are entitled to think of yourself as an expert.” 

It doesn’t work that way “out here.” There is nobody in charge; nobody deciding whose turn is next. 

Second, because you are doing a disservice to yourself – not to mention the people who would benefit from your experience and perspective – by waiting for the day that you are finally “good enough.” 

That day is already here. 

The only thing missing is you … and your willingness to believe it.

I’ll be at the farmers’ market if you need me.

Discussion Questions:

1. Have you ever taken a cold shower in a foreign country? Send photos.
   
   
2. Are you worried that people will accuse you of being a fraud? Don’t bother – they are too busy worrying about the same thing to notice you.
   
   
3. You’re an expert – what do you think the third question should be? Please ask and then answer it, below!

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(Listen to this post, here.)

Almost exactly one year ago, things were shaping up nicely for my youngest son, Jonathan.

He was a second-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Denver and had just landed a summer internship at a cool tech firm near school.

He was thrilled.

The internship would allow him to learn some new things, make some money and remain in Denver for the summer, as opposed to moving back home for three months to live in a sleepy suburb with his parents. (I know, I don’t see why he preferred Colorado, either.)

And then, just days before he was scheduled to start the internship, the whole thing fell through (don’t ask).

He was devastated. Not only was he disappointed about the missed opportunity, it was much too late to find something else. It was looking like there would be no other option than to come home.

But then he had an idea…

Jon frequents a funky, local coffee shop and so he went in and asked if they were hiring. One thing led to another and by the following week, he had a summer job.

I asked him the other day how he felt about losing the internship. He said, “Best thing that ever happened to me.”

As he explained, he makes a lot more money at the coffee shop, he’s been able to continue working throughout the school year, he’s met a ton of great people near where he lives, and he’s become quite adept at creating “latte art,” a skill which, were the apocalypse to occur, is sure to come in handy.

Look for the Opportunity

I know of few people whose businesses have not been negatively impacted by what’s happened over the last couple of weeks. We all wish things would just get back to “normal.”

Hopefully, that will happen soon. But in the meantime, and in between watching your retirement savings fall to the ground like a drunken toddler (or whatever), why not look for the opportunities that have been newly created?

For your business…

Business has always been about helping people solve problems. It still is. So, what do your clients and others need now that they didn’t need two weeks ago?

Are you a writer who can help businesses communicate the impact to their customers?

Are you a leadership coach whose clients need help learning how to support remote workers?

Are you a financial consultant that can help businesses manage their cash flow in a time of uncertainty?

When it comes to your services, what can you develop, fine-tune, or modify that will satisfy a need and earn money for you in the process?

If you work for yourself, you’re already skilled at creativity and invention. How can you apply that here?

For your marketing…

I spend a fair amount of time networking with people over lunch and coffee. That’s off the table now (literally).

So I’ve switched to “virtual coffees” over Zoom. It’s not quite the same, but it’s actually much better than I anticipated.

And, unlike in-person meetings, it dawned on me that I can do these with contacts anywhere in the world, something that I probably wouldn’t have realized had I not been forced to find a new approach.

How about you? How can you tap into everyone’s heightened eagerness to stay connected and grow your business in the process?

For your personal development…

I used to love running. But I have a bad knee and so for the past few years I’ve been using the elliptical machine at the gym. It does the trick, but it’s pretty boring.

Now that the gym is closed, I’ve been hiking in the conservation land behind our house. Wow. I had forgotten how great it feels to be outside, by myself, exercising early in the morning. I may never go back in.

That’s just one example.

Since we can’t watch sports, go out to dinner, get together with friends or do a hundred other things that used to make up our daily routine, what can we substitute – maybe something new and better – instead?

Here’s the bottom line.

Unlike Jon’s experience, few of us will come out the other end of this crisis and say, “Best thing that ever happened to me.”

But there’s a big difference between gritting your teeth and counting the days until it’s over and looking for the upside – and there’s always an upside – that our new reality offers.

The choice is yours.

Discussion Questions:

1. What and where is your favorite coffee shop?
2. What skill do you possess that will come in handy post-apocalypse?
3. What have you done in your business or life to seize the opportunity that the crisis now presents?

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You’ll be pleased to know that in just a few short weeks, my son Evan will graduate from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee (school motto: We’ve never heard of you either).

In addition to his academic work, key accomplishments include fronting a (now defunct) band, co-founding a nonprofit newspaper for the homeless and launching a (recently venture-funded) business.

He’s had a great run and, needless to say, we are quite proud.

But I have to tell you, the one thing about his college career that I expect to remember the longest, is that every week, during the winter, he drove south into Mississippi, to play intramural ice hockey.

That’s right, ice hockey in Mississippi. If there’s an oxymoron hall of fame somewhere, “Mississippi Ice Hockey” has got a prominent display in the lobby.

The cost per season? Thirty dollars. And last year, when Evan began playing, he asked if I could pick up the tab.

It’s not a lot of money. But just handing over $30 seemed kind of dull. So I said, as I sometimes do, “Care to make it interesting?”

Then I proposed a simple metric: Instead of $30 up front, I’d pay him $2 for every goal he scored during the season.

He liked the concept, but not the number.

So after much negotiation and assurances from Evan that he wasn’t that good, we agreed on $7 per goal. And while I don’t mean to suggest that my own son bamboozled me, the season’s not even over and I’m already $42 in the hole.

But you know what, that’s what makes it fun. It’s not about the $30 or $42 or whatever. It’s about rolling the dice and seeing what happens.

To me, that’s much of what starting a business is all about: Getting in the game.

You launch a product … big success. You hold a webinar … nobody shows up. You send a proposal … the prospect disappears. You answer the phone … somebody wants to hire you out of the blue.

And on and on it goes, with every day bringing its own mix of ups and downs and in-betweens. You never know which will come when, but it sure is interesting.

A couple of years ago, I was a guest speaker on a panel, in front of a roomful of solo professionals. Someone raised her hand and asked how long it took for me to “become successful.”

The implication in her question was that there was some place you could reach where the ups and downs and risks would all go away.

I told her that I have just as much uncertainty in my professional life today as I had 10 years ago. The only difference is that today, I don’t worry about it anymore.

Because I finally realized that the uncertainty never goes away, and the daily ups and downs are a lot of what keeps it interesting.

Discussion questions:

1. Where would you locate the Oxymoron Hall of Fame?

2. Would you believe me if I told you that the name of Evan’s band was “Mississippi Ice Hockey?”

3. It wasn’t.

Post your answers (and comments) below!

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The truth is, I’m not actually afraid of heights … I’m afraid of falling from heights.

This may seem like a minor distinction, but it’s the reason why I have no problem inside an airplane, glass elevator or shaky gondola (a great name for a band), but break into a cold sweat (literally) when stepping out onto a fifth floor balcony.

And so it was with some confidence that I quickly and eagerly said yes when my brother-in-law Neale invited me along on a glider (AKA, “sailplane”) ride this past weekend.

Neale flies a “tow plane” at the airport in Stow, Vermont on Sundays and we happened to be up there for a visit.

The gliding procedure is very straightforward:

1. You squeeze into the backseat of the glider with your 16-year-old son, Jonathan.

2. A pilot named Bill sits directly in front of you.

3. Neale sits in a tow plane that is attached to the glider with a 200-foot long rope.

4. Neale throttles the whatever and we’re up in the air in seconds.

5. When we get to 3,500 feet, Bill releases the rope and Neale’s gone in a flash, leaving us to float along on our own.

In a word: Thrilling.

I count it among my top ten life experiences, somewhere in-between the afternoon I spent alone with Ben Stiller and the time I sat in for the drummer of a band at a crowded bar in my twenties.

But you know what was the most interesting part of our ride? It was watching Neale’s plane flying in front of us, during the ten minutes or so before he let us go.

It’s a perspective I’d never seen before; not in person or even in a movie. You’re very close to the tow plane; but you’re not inside it and it’s not flying by. Instead, it’s just kind of bobbing around in front of you.

And bobbing is the key word. It kept going up and down and rolling side to side. Generally moving in the right direction, but by no means a straight, steady line as I had always assumed.

People who’ve never worked for themselves often make this same erroneous assumption about running a business: They think it will be a steady climb, when in fact, it’s anything but.

In my experience, it goes something like this:

Up … up … down … sidewayssssss … up … more up … down … down … what the … maybe I should get a job again … oh look, leveling off … AMAZING! … sideways the other way … AAArrrrggggg!!! …. down … UP … UP … what the hell just happened?

And that’s all before lunchtime.

My point is simply this: It’s September, the time when we all get serious again and “go for it.” Nothing wrong with that; I intend to do the same.

Just remember, no matter how long you’ve been at it, it’s never a straight shot and there’s always a lot of bobbing. And even if you have a couple (or several) bad months in a row, it’s to be expected. It doesn’t mean you’re failing.

As they say in flight school (I’m assuming), no matter what appears to be going wrong, don’t forget to keep flying the plane.

P.S. For a bird’s eye view of Bill, Jonathan and me buzzing a fire tower, check out this short video here.

Discussion questions

1. How do you manage the emotional ups and downs of running your business?

2. Do you think Ben Stiller tells people about the time he spent an afternoon alone with me?

3. Me neither.

Share your comments below!

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My flight’s landing into McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas last week was aborted at the last minute.

Seriously.

Not an oxygen-mask-deploying, Denzel-Washington-piloting, grown-men-sobbing (hey, I never said I was brave) abort, but scary all the same.

We were coming in for what seemed like a normal landing on a beautiful, clear day.

Suddenly, with the runway already visible, the plane abruptly changed its mind and steeply banked upward for several minutes, going back up through the clouds.

We eventually leveled off, circled around and landed normally.

As the pilot later explained, there was another plane on the ground that had not quite cleared the runway in time and so he was required to pull up and try it again.

Rules are important. Not arbitrary rules, but rules that matter.

The trick, of course, and particularly if you own your own company, is distinguishing between the two.

Unlike when you’re an employee, where they literally hand you a manual of guidelines on your first day of work, there are few things regarding work as a solo that are written in stone.

Pay your taxes; don’t cheat people; no running with scissors. After that, it’s pretty much wide open.

Do you need a business plan? Lots of people say yes; I’ve never had one.

Should you charge a fee when you refer business to somebody else? It’s your call.

Do you give away free advice to those who want to “buy you coffee and pick your brain?” And, if so, how much and under what circumstances?

The list goes on and on.

All that said, there is one rule that I strongly suggest you follow: Develop a list of rules that you follow.

Not other people’s rules – your rules.

Policies and principles that govern the way you work, particularly as it relates to interactions with other people and companies.

It need not be fancy. Just take out a piece of paper and start writing (click here for some examples, courtesy of past participants in my Marketing Nuts and Bolts Course).

Why bother? I can think of at least two reasons:

1. It will help you think clearly when you’re not thinking clearly.Let’s say, for example, that you prefer to get a deposit, up front, before beginning work with a new client. You’ve been burned before by nonpayment and you don’t want it to happen again.

   But it’s been a slow couple of months and you’re feeling kind of desperate. A company shows up and wants to hire you, but … they’d like to start right away and pay you “in about a month.”

   Depending on your frame of mind, you may agree, even though your more rational self knows that it probably won’t end well.

   If, however, you’ve got a rule – a written policy – that says, “I require a 50% deposit up front for any work with a new client,” you’ll find it much (as in, waaaaay) easier to stand by it, regardless of how the wind is blowing in your brain on that particular day.

2. It will make you powerful.“Clients pay us, so we should do whatever they say, whenever and however they want it done, right?”

   Wrong. In fact I’m pretty sure what you just described is a thing known as “a job.” (ewww)

   You don’t have a job; you have a business, a profession, an expertise that they need.
   

   Believe me, if your clients could solve their problems without going outside the company, they would. It’s easier and less expensive. When they come to you, it’s because they can’t do it themselves.

   That’s an important insight (which is why I shared it with you). They’re not doing you a favor by hiring you – it’s an even exchange. Their money in exchange for the value you provide. Everybody wins.

   But that’s easy to forget. Especially, again, when things don’t appear to be going so well with your business. That’s where your list of rules comes in.

   You get to make them up; you get to put them in place; you get to decide who you’re going to work with and how. And … who you’re going to walk away from. Like I said, powerful.

Here’s the bottom line. You don’t need a single client or a day’s worth of experience as a business owner to decide how and under what conditions your company is going to work.

But until you take the time to make some rules, somebody else is going to make them for you.

How about you? What are your rules of engagement? Share your favorites with us below.

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I run, but not very fast.

Drop me into a 5K race and you can pretty much set your watch by my 10-minute miles (not that I recommend this).

My children, on the other hand, are rather speedy.

Youngest child Jonathan, for example, runs cross country as a high school junior and is solidly in the top seven or eight among his 40+ teammates.

As a practical matter, that means that during a race with one (or more) other teams, he finishes in the front third or so of the overall pack. And so that’s where we’ve gotten used to finding him.

Yesterday, though, things changed dramatically.

The regular season is over and so the kids are now competing in much bigger, league-wide meets with many schools involved. Here, when the varsity squad runs, each team is only permitted to race its top seven runners.

As runner number eight, Jon got pushed down to junior varsity. When the gun went off, he shot out in front of 140 other kids.

It took me by surprise. As in, “Is that Jon out in front?!”

He was still leading at the one-mile mark, when they circled back around. And then again at the halfway point.

With 300 yards to go, and as the pack came over the far hill and back into view again, Jon was in the lead. And so he remained, right across the finish line.

Wow. Very exciting. I had never actually seen him win a race, especially not one that big.

Which is why it never occurred to me before that the front runner in a cross country race has one added bit of responsibility …

Not only do have to run faster than everybody else, you have to decide where to run next while you’re in the middle of doing it.

There are no lanes or lines in a cross country race. There’s not even a track – it’s just a big outdoor space.

All you have for navigation is an occasional set of orange cones, some vague knowledge of how the course is laid out and – if you’re anybody but the leader – people in front of you whom you can follow.

Your business works in the same way. You’ve also got two options:

1. Hang back and follow the crowd.

2. Get out in front and blaze your own trail.

Option number one is mentally easier. You don’t have to do a lot of thinking since those who’ve gone before have already revealed the path.

Option number two, on the other hand, is risky. You could take a wrong turn. You could run off a cliff. You could be eaten by badgers (unlikely).

And, since you’re out in front, alone and away from the anonymity of the pack, all eyes are on you. One stumble here and there’s no place to hide.

So which path is better?

I don’t know for sure, but here’s how I look at it: You can’t win from the middle of the pack. The only way to come in first is to get out in the scary front and take some chances.

Try some things that nobody has tried. Use some words that nobody has used. Go someplace that nobody has gone.

Here’s the bottom line. I’m all for educating ourselves regarding “best practices;” it makes sense to know what’s worked before.

But if that’s the extent of the creativity and innovation you bring to your business, you had better get used to running with a lot of people around you.

How about you? Do you think risk-taking and business success necessarily go together? Share your thoughts below.

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I live by two simple rules:

Rule #1: Never sit in the front row of a comedy or dolphin show. In both cases, you’re liable to be more involved than you’d like.

Rule #2: Never shop for food when you’re hungry. Here, you’re apt to buy things that you neither want nor need.

And yet there I was, just this past Sunday, strolling into the Hannaford Supermarket around 2pm.

I’d been running around all morning.

I hadn’t eaten lunch.

We were going out to dinner that night and this was my only window of opportunity to pick some things up.

It started out just fine.

Eggs? Check. Milk? No problem. Bread? Right there on the shelf.

But then I turned the corner and saw the Shrimp Tortellini in Alfredo Sauce. “Hmm… that seems right,” I said to nobody in particular. Into the cart it went.

A package of Swiss cheese and a pound of sliced turkey at the deli counter? Totally reasonable; I was back on track.

That is, until somebody (I’m pretty sure it was me) said:

“Oh, and can I get a medium container of General Gau’s Chicken and a quart of Seafood Chowder?”

It only got worse from there (I hadn’t even visited the chip aisle yet).

In the end, I left with about twice as much “food” as usual (General Gau was an unfortunate casualty of the drive home), much of which consisted of things I didn’t really want.

Indeed, Rule #2, when you follow it, is a good rule.

Which is why I hesitated – and ultimately turned down – a request to “jump on a content project superfast” for a company that called on Monday.

The problem is that they were too hungry. And hungry people, as my trip to the supermarket reminded me, make bad decisions (and lousy clients).

“Now hold on there just a minute, Mr. Clever-Food-Analogy-Guy,” you’re probably saying, in-between bites of chowder.

“Aren’t desperate, time-constrained clients good? They don’t have time to shop around and they’re generally willing to pay a premium.”

My answer? No. And here’s why:

1. Hungry people don’t consider other options.
    
   So sure, they’ll hire you. But without giving any real thought into whether or not who you are and what you do is what they really need.

   As a result, you’re very likely to butt heads throughout the entire project.

2. Hungry people don’t care how things taste.
    
   During the early stages of a project with a hungry client, they’ll happily eat anything you give them (because they’re hungry).

   But as time goes on and the urgency dissipates – as it nearly always does – they’ll start thinking more clearly.

   They’ll forget about how you saved the day and begin wondering about things like your higher than normal fee and the specifics of the arrangement they agreed to in the heat of the moment.

3. Hungry people regret what they’ve eaten.
    
   The guy in the store eyeing the chicken is not the same guy sitting at home a couple of hours later. At that point, his motivation and priorities have changed.

   Similarly, the desperate soul who calls you Monday morning begging for help will soon be replaced by an entirely different person. A person who, chances are, would not have bought what he bought, in the same way, had he not been under the gun.

4. Hungry people are already in trouble.
    
   I wasn’t hungry at 2pm on a Sunday for no reason. It’s because I did (or didn’t do) a number of things prior which led me to shop at the wrong time.

   The desperate prospect has also been travelling down a path long before getting in touch. Did somebody quit? Did he overpromise on the timing? Is there a crazy boss or client of his own on the other end of the transaction that you can’t even see?

   Whatever the reason, the minute you say yes to the project, you inherit all the insanity that led up to today’s fire alarm. (Hint: There’s more coming.)

Here’s the bottom line. Urgency on the part of a prospective client is a big (HUGE) red flag. Rather than being an opportunity for you, more often than not, it’s a sign that things are already off track and about to get much worse.

The only question is whether or not you choose to climb aboard.

Discussion Questions:

1. You’re still thinking about the shrimp tortellini, aren’t you?

2. What’s the worst, hunger-based food choice you’ve ever made?

3. What other red flags help warn you away from problem projects/clients?

Share your comments below!

 
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