There are two ways to succeed:

1. things turn out the way we expected; or,
2. they don't, and we learn something from it

There are two ways to fail:

1. we don't learn the lesson from Success #2 above; or
2. we quit before we have a chance to fail achieve Success #2 above

Continuing the Theme of Two, here are two ways for Fail #1:

1. we can't find the lesson to be learned; we looked, honest, and we can't find it; or
2. we think Success #2 is actually failure, so we don't even look for the lesson

If you're doing it right, here's how your business will look, from most frequent to least frequent:

1. Success #2: it didn't turn out, but we learned a lesson
2. Success #1: it worked!
3. Fail #1a: the lesson is impossible to discern

You'll note that Fail #1b and Fail #2 aren't even on the list. Eliminate Fail #2 by quitting after you've learned the lesson to be learned.

Eliminate Fail #1b by changing your perception of how the universe functions and realising that life is something you create, not something that happens to you.

Answering a question for someone, I realised this was a good summary of my latest thinking on selling.

Here are a few basic truths about selling:

1. People don't buy needs, they buy wants. If you're positioned as a 'need', they buy on price. Selling at the lowest price is rarely a good way to do business.

2. Businesses don't buy based on quality, or the best presentation, or even, who's a friend of the boss. They buy what will fit into their existing infrastructure with the least amount of red tape and politics.

3. People don't change from what they have to a competitor. They'll change to something entirely new, if it fits #1 and #2 above, but convincing them simply to switch phone services means that first you have to convince them that their previous choice was wrong. This is a losing battle.

4. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. You must earnestly believe that your product or service is going to change the world, or why should anyone bother?

So, to summarise: whatever you're selling must be sexy and irresistable, something you believe in deeply and passionately, something fundamentally different from what they're doing now, yet which will fit into their existing infrastructure without pain.

And that's why selling things like phone systems or services, office supplies, cleaning services, and the like, is so very hard.

If you'd really like to find work during difficult economic times, consider this: think of something you absolutely love doing. Not a business idea, just a thing you love doing. Now, think of the money you or others spend on that. See how you can build a business around your passion.

Doing something you love will not just make your life more fun, you will be much more valuable to others, and selling will become the natural process of sharing something you're excited about, and finding others who feel the same.

If you'd like to discuss that further, and get some suggestions, please feel free to give me a shout, either here or at my email address joel@bizba6.com

We just took the van in for an oil change and rear brakes in preparation for our trip(s). We noticed, standing in the long line which had formed even before the doors opened, that Chris McCarthy's certifications weren't on the wall any more; just three blank spaces where the paint was a lighter color.

When we got to the front we asked if Chris had left, and the chap behind the counter volunteered that Chris would be opening his own place across the street soon, but that they still had all the same technicians they'd had when Chris was there.

And I thought, so what?

I didn't go there for anybody's technical expertise. Most folks who can get and keep a job as a mechanic are competent at the technical stuff. The primary place auto shops fall down is in the ethics department.

We trust Chris McCarthy. I couldn't care less who his technicians are; I know he'll hire the right people, expect good work and honesty, and treat me with respect.

It's not about the technicians, folks. It's not about doing a good job. You can be the best in the world, but people do business with people they know, like, and trust.

Yesterday I was daydreaming about Tom Peters inviting me to take over his next TED talk, announcing his retirement and introducing me as his successor.

In the end, even if it's all about me, it's all about you. Daydream this for yourself and see.

What are you waiting for?

I heard what was in your head just now. "Wow; Tom is retiring. Wow." Okay, that part wasn't brilliant, but what about the next thought you had: "Maybe someday that'll be me."

That doesn't have to be you, and it doesn't have to be someday. I'm not the next anybody. I'm me, right now. You do not have to be the next anybody. You are you, right now.

You can't be the next Tom Peters. There's only one. Wanna know why there's only one?

Because that's all we need.

We don't need a whole raft of Toms or Druckers or Seths. Was Tom the next Pete Drucker? They'd both laugh at that. Is Seth the new Tom? Not unless one of 'em changes their hair style.

We don't need another Tom Peters, any more than we need another Seth Godin or another me or another you. We sure as shootin' need the ones we've got, though.

[Must have nodded off briefly; the next bit is about how having a job does not equal security, but I have no idea how I got there. Note to self: stay awake during your own speeches.]

You don't need anyone's permission to be brilliant. Well, unless you have a job; in that case, you need your manager's permission, and he needs his manager's permission to give you his permission.

What you really don't need is a job.

Smart people have been going to jobs for decades, over a century in fact, and it's all wrong.

"But I need the security of a regular paycheck!" I heard you think. Let me tell you about the security of a regular paycheck, and how my father got hit by a truck because of it.

Dad moved from Wisconsin to Beverly Hills to preserve his job security and provide for his family. He worked for 17 more years for this company, moving once again to San Diego so he could work in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border.

And one day they said to him "Wes, we still need you, but we don't want to pay you as much. So we're going to fire you, but you can work for us as an independent contractor. The nice thing is you'll be paying all your own expenses, so we get the same work for a lot less money."

He spent the last 18 months of his life wondering why his loyalty and hard work had been so betrayed. Then one day, riding his bike to work (he would have been riding his bike no matter where he was going, it just happened to be work) he was, literally, hit by a truck. He was dead before we found out he hadn't made it to work that morning.

Charles Handy realised over 30 years ago that jobs were obsolete. He quit his job at BP and, as Handy calls it, went portfolio. Had my father had the same insight, he might not have died shortly after Handy made this change in his own life. (Yes, I hear you thinking something about fate; fate is for the lazy and the stupid; the rest of us have to make our own choices in life.) He might have gone portfolio himself, and instead of making significantly less money, made significantly more, for less work. He might still have been in the same place on the same day, but somehow, I don't think so, and I knew him better than you did.

[Fairly sure there was another 12 minutes of brilliance here, but I seem to have nodded off and forgotten it. Hopefully the summing up comes to me . . . ah, yes; here we go . . .]

We're all on this rampage to duplicate someone else's success—instead of creating our own.

Creating your own success is hard. It's scary. It's a bumpy road with potholes and cul-de-sacs [what, you actually want me to write 'culs-de-sac' ? I don't speak French, let alone write it] and plenty of wrong turns available.

It also has rest stops, where you can park, and nobody will ever make you get back on the road again. And then you die. Well, at least metaphorically.

If you spend your life trying to duplicate or support someone else's success, if you spend the rest of your life doing a job, if you spend the rest of your life trying to be the next anybody, you might not end up dead in a ditch. Might not.

But you're not the next anybody. You're you, right now.

What are you waiting for?

Entrepreneurs push. We don't just do what's easy. We push to finish, to deliver, to take the next step. We push to find new ways or new stuff or new ideas.

It's easy to push ourselves too hard; to start forcing it.

You need sleep. Caffeine is not a substitute for sleep.

You need time to relax. Doesn't mean expensive recreation or long vacations. It just means you need five minutes away from the computer, right now. It means spending the evening with someone or something you love instead of finishing that project early.

You need to eat. Yes, pizza is a food group, and if you have it delivered, you can waste less time cooking and spend more time getting things done. You also need to go stand in the kitchen sometimes and stir stuff in a pot, fry things in a pan, bake something in the oven. Nutrition, the kind vital to the entrepreneurial brain and body, does't come in a box or a pill.

I've started forcing it lately. I've been juggling too many things and I'm starting to drop some.

My Best Beloved and I have begun an experiment to see if our ability to work remotely will allow us, in fact, to live without a home, perhaps even without a car. We've started blogging about this grand adventure at Canfield Of Dreams. It's something we're both giant excited about, and the work just flows.

I just might be around here less often; might be spending less time actively promoting this particular aspect of my business heresy. I love the video and the writing and all that. I'll still be doing it. Might get back to a radio show, but that has largely fallen by the wayside.

Like everyone else, I have exactly 24 hours to use, each day. Rolf Potts reminds us that if we think of wealth in terms of time spent doing what we want, instead of in dollars and cents, we can all choose to be rich.

It's time to rebalance the boat, to shuffle some stuff around below decks and above, and keep on an even keel.

Marketing is about telling stories. (Read Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars.)

Change comes from emotions. (Read Chip and Dan Heath's Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.)

ChristopherLandry.com

Meet Chris Landry. He helps people just like you tell their story. He's like a spotlight that shows the world who and what you are. He's also good people.

As Chris says:

New Business Heretics Weekly Radio Ballyhoo thing posted wherein Tom and I talk about quality, real and perceived, tough ethical decisions, and finding a diverse brainstorming group.

So, how's this working for you? High enough signal-to-noise ratio? Anything we should be talking about, but aren't? Wanna join us?

Look; there's a comments section down there! Maybe you should say something.

Ever notice how a nearby sound is louder than something farther away? I was in the bedroom, with the radio on in another room. It was loud; loud enough, anyway.

The Little One came in and sat on the bed with a bag of chips and started crunching away. And completely drowned out the radio. Now, there's no way her crunching is louder than my music (trust me) but proximity created greater apparent volume.

Closer = Louder—But Should It?

Who sounds loud, just because they're close to you? Are your newest clients making suggestions or demands that wouldn't make sense to your old loyal cadre? Are your peers offering advice that doesn't fit? Is your mom or your brother or your neighbor telling you what you should or shouldn't do for a living?

It's a good idea to hear a wide variety of input. Hear it, but know what's loud, and what's close, and the difference between the two.

The primary reason I'm an entrepreneur instead of an employee is schedule. There are a dozen subsidiary reasons, like choosing what work I do and who I do it for; doing business the way that makes sense to me instead of someone else calling the shots; things like that. But mostly, it's about working when I want to work, and not working when I don't want to work.

Yeah, many entrepreneurs complain about the long hours, how their clients are too demanding, deadlines are deadlines. You can make every excuse in the book for losing control of your schedule, for not having time for yourself.

It's still your fault.

If you're an entrepreneur, you choose the work you do.

You choose the hours you work.

You set the deadlines.

You delegate or don't.

You're the boss. The buck stops with you.

And if you don't take some time off, it's gonna stop like a plane crash, in a big fiery ball, with you in the center.

Your brain and body know their limitations. You can ignore them, but that doesn't change them. At some point, your brain and your body will take some time off. I highly recommend you do it before you crash and burn.

No plane stays in the sky forever; they all come down, one way or another.

You can either land gracefully, or crash and burn. Your choice.

Don't believe me? Right there below, in the comments, tell me why you can't possibly take time off, and I'll show you how you can.

New Business Heretics Weekly Radio Ballyhoo posted. Tom and I talk about what you do when you're presenting, speaking in some level of formality, and you lose your place.

We also discuss briefly why chairs and tables should have three legs, and why they have four instead. It fits, really it does.

Oh; here's my clip from the show; the place where Tom got me to yell 'Bingo!' right in the middle of his sentence:

Signal and noise in your presentation