Clinton Skakun

The question I’ve asked myself for a long time, and practically, it’s the reason why I chose to build businesses over working at a company for someone else.

The question is: How do I make real money?

How do I start a small business with a multi-million dollar vision in mind and build it to that level?

Because as entrepreneurs our key indicator of success is (1) how much money am I making and (2) how many people am I serving and (3) business longevity.

Does it have to be more complicated than that? Is the business profitable? Is it doing right by people?

I have to admit when I first picked this book up, I didn’t know what to expect from it. There are all kinds of tid-bits about productivity on the Internet, and thought I knew a thing or two about time management already. Liking the idea of learning “the art of stress free productivity” I dove into it.
Photo Credit: mslindz

What caught me in the beginning was the methodology Allen uses that focuses on clarity, keeping organized, and creating a system that puts your mind at rest and allows you to relax while working. What makes this book PRICELESS is the one concept I learned at the very beginning: the more you tasks you think about the more open-loops you have tugging at your brain, the more more open loops you have the less productive you are. The only way to get rid of open-loops are to be able to forget about them, by inserting them into a system(like on paper, a computer, physical space, what-not)

There are five core principles that Allen discusses in his book:

1. Collect – Get a load off your chest by capturing the instructions you need to remember, that you can return to, into what Allen calls “baskets”. A basket can be any number of ways to store and track your tasks. Paper, PDA, a physical space, e-mail, journals, or whatnot. What ever works best for you. Allen explains that in order to stay organized and updated your baskets need to keep reviewed once a week. This gives you a chance to update and empty your baskets.

2. Process – Do it(if it takes under two minutes–two minute rule). Delegate it(someone else can do it better if you can’t). Defer it(maybe it’s not something that needs to be worked on now). If an item does not require action NOW, file it, throw it away or give it a “maybe” for later.

3. Organize – There are different types of tasks: Next actions, projects, waiting for(stuff you’ve delegated), someday/maybe(e.g. “eat snails in Fiji” or “Add on to the house”).

4. Review – Do a weekly review on everything in your system. If you let things slip, you’re system gets out of date really fast, and that won’t maintain the quality of stess-free productivity you’re striving for.

5. Do – Probably the simplest part, now that you know exactly what you should be currently doing, DO IT.

These are the basic principles that the book covers, however, the book goes way deeper and gives more concise information on how to use the principles and apply it to your personal and business.

“Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up – not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at any time.” – Allen

If you haven’t read this book, READ IT!

Photo Credit: Button Shop

“… than you do one your job.”Jim Rohn told a story about how his mentor gave him this peace of advice many years ago, “…he said, ‘this is all you have to do: Work harder … on yourself than you do on your job.’”

“working hard on your job you makes a living, working hard on your self makes you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

See the more you learn how to fine tune, improve and enable yourself the better you’ll perform at your job and in every other area of your life. Because in reality which do you really want more, to perform better at your job or at your life? Focusing on your job will increase the amount of money you make, it will make you a valuable employee/businessperson. Focus on your job will tell you how to work longer hours, focus on yourself will get you wondering how to do more in less time, to make work an art, not a practice. But most people are caught up in the whirlwind, a life of urgency and necessity. And 19/20 people think that the answer to securing a job in today’s economy is going back to school and getting more education, because there’s no demand for the current position they hold. Not that it’s a bad idea to “get educated”, just note that many people who graduate from college or university find themselves jobless as their position either doesn’t exist any more or more experienced employees are being laid off already.

So what does working on yourself have to do with any of all this? Just this, who you are on the core radiates outward. That might sound fluffy and mystic but it’s really true. It really doesn’t matter what job you have(skill set wise) or what formal education you have under your belt. When we get down to the meat, you’re greatest life decisions aren’t best made by how well you did at your job or how valuable you were in the market place(all these things are important) but rather by WHO you’ve become. A large salary will never ensure happiness and it never ensures that you win at life. Let me put it this way: you work on yourself you will learn to make amazing and potentially successful decisions in every area of your life. You work harder on your job you begin to miss everything else life has to offer. And if your job is the center of your life you might even cut off ever getting the chance to get a better job or career in the future.

Working harder on your job skill set wont get you this:

• Enthusiasm
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Optimism
• Ability to work in a team
• Empathy
• Persuasion
• Motivating people

Now don’t get me wrong, these skills can be developed and learned on the job though they are skills(yes they are skills that can be learned) that need to be worked on harder than any other job specific skills. Do you want a doctor who’s completely dishonest in his diagnosis and provides you with the wrong treatment?(he could have 50 years of education and it wouldn’t matter) Do you want a teacher who lacks empathy, who can’t listen to students and who is impatient? And yet, would I want to make sure that doctor and teacher have a sufficient amount of knowledge and formal education specific to their field? OF COURSE! All I’m really trying to get at is this…

COMPETENCE IS A REQUIREMENT! Any field you work in you must be competent to a certain degree(unless you’re in training or apprenticeship). But when your job leaves you and your source of job security is gone, what do you have left? Yourself! So work on yourself and any job will open up to you. Yes you need to get a degree for some or most positions but it’s not your primary source of hope and it’s not your most important skill set. Your most important skill set is the set of skills you use on the job as well as off the job. Yes, your ability to listen to others, to be honest, to work in a team(or to get along with your family), and a various other life skills.

This is what much research has found: A mediocre computer programmer with great people and communication skills is a better programmer than a high-IQ, computer whiz who is poor at listening and understanding the needed requirements for the software s/he is coding. For nearly 80 years or more, it has been said that 15% of a great employee is his or her job skills, the rest, the 85%, is people related skills. Now why may you ask do we spend so much time on our technical skills when we’re probably good enough already. Sure there’s always room for improvement in the technical area AND make sure you’ve spent more time improving that 85% than the 15% because it’s worth more in the long run.

And I’m almost positive that there are majority of people who read this that think it’s a load of crock. “Are you a f**king idiot, how’s working on myself going to make me a living?” Doesn’t it only make sense, work harder/get more education and earn more? Who needs enthusiasm or optimism to pick up a pay check at the end of the month? That’s why most people aren’t wealthy and why most people hate their jobs. If the majority of people disagree with me, it just makes sense. Why? Well, it’s only the way the 95% has been brought up: Get a scholarship, go to collage and get a good job with benefits, then plan for retirement(even though pensions are the saddest things on earth). The best advice someone can give you now days is: learn how to adapt to change, work harder on yourself and your attitude than you do on your job, know what you want and always be open to possibilities, do something you’re passionate about, beware of unquestioned convictions(don’t do something because they’ve always been done a certain way) and work hard(things are never easy, they just seem like that). Most of what is said here biased toward an entrepreneurial mindset though this new advice could be useful to anyone and everyone, whether you’re an employee, a business owner, a consultant or what-not.

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job” – Jim Rohn

Here’s a good exercise to clear your thinking:

What’s your dream for 2010?

You should be able to sum this up in one sentience or two. This is not a list of your goals but rather an abstracted vision of where you want to be at one year from now. What are three goals, that if accomplished this year, would make all the difference? Using this idea, write down a sentience or two describing what your life will be like one year from now(the changes in the next few months will be very exciting).

For an example here is mine: To build (exact amount is private until accomplished) passive income, retire from web development, contribute to open source GNU Linux coding projects(my passion for coding poured into my passion for open source), to move out on my own, to meet a lot of new people and to become highly proficient in people skills and personal development technologies/techniques. To lead a team of people. To kick back and enjoy myself more often(because all work and no play makes jack an egotistical, over serious ass hole).

Not too large and not too small!

One way to disappoint yourself is to expect too much too fast. “There are no impossible goals. Only impossible time frames.” If you’re starting from nothing try to avoid things like, “Make 10 Million Dollars”(one of my goals many years down the road), focus on the $100k first, or the $50k. You can’t always stop progress, but don’t try too hard to rush it either.