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This is a picture of me wearing my hat in preparation for some snowboarding

And now you can buy an extremely similar hat from The North Face on the Nordstrom’s website (and in the guys’ section even!).  So, to all the guys who teased me about wearing a girls hat I must say “HA!”  And a big thanks to my mom for being a fashion-forward trend-setter

At the start it’s nothing but a series of electrical pulses through someones brain.  It grows into a verbal conversation, or an email exchange perhaps.  Then, pretty quickly, it throws an individual (or a few of them) hurtling down a path they had only recently know absolutely nothing about.

From that spark of electrical pulses many people create businesses or business empires that turn millions, or sometimes billions of dollars in income. It’s completely FASCINATING!

Along those lines I recently stumbled across a great article from the guys over at TheArtOfManliness.com that chronicles the beginning of their fledgling business that creates a cologne called “Moonshine.”

Check it out, it’s definitely worth the read! http://artofmanliness.com/2011/11/16/from-idea-to-reality-a-one-year-case-study-on-launching-a-successful-business/

1. All Employees (and Contractors) have their ups and downs – If you have an employee who is having a bad week then it’s best to just sit down and talk to them, this can provide some good insight into what’s going on and, sometimes, just talking to them can take care of the problem.  Either way, figure out if the person is having a bad day or if they are just not working out.
2. Hire for Personality before skillset – of course skills are great and we ALWAYS end up looking for skills first but a personality that doesn’t mesh (or isn’t motivated) is a GIANT waste of time and resources.  I’ve found that finding employees who have the right mindset and the right attitude but aren’t as good skill-wise are far greater employees.  I’d much rather have a happy go-getter who needs a little guidance than an extremely skilled but lazy and pessimistic employee.  Work should be fun to go to every day.  If you’re the boss you actually have some control over that!
3. Hiring is a crapshoot – until you’ve worked with someone no amount of interviewing will really tell you how they work.  To combat this problem we test out applicants on test-projects before they get hired on.
4. Fire Fast – You’ve probably heard this a lot but it doesn’t pay to be a wuss about it, if you have someone who can’t make the grade then you need to fire them ASAP, give them honest feedback about why they didn’t work out and move on.  Easier said than done so think of it like you’re going skydiving.  It’s best to jump out of the plane before you think about how scary it is!

Caveat: Like most things in life, as I learn a little more I also realize just how much I do NOT know.  I’m sure there are plenty of things that I will learn even more about in the future so don’t expect this to be the end-all of advice on hiring.

SO, if you have some advice you’d like to share, please do that in the comments below so we can all benefit and fall madly in love with you.

Beth is 1 year 10 days and 2 minutes older than me so we grew up very close and shared a lot of good times.  She turned 29 this morning and in 10 days I’ll turn 28.  In the next 10 days I’m going to reflect on all of the things my family has taught me over the years.  So without further ado…

Lesson 1: Confidence is all in your head so fake-it till you make-it.

I’m lucky to have grown up in a loving family with 3 sisters, a mother and a father all under one roof, I’m the youngest and I had guidance from all of my family.  In addition to all of that my family was super supportive – I was regularly reminded that I was smart and attractive and I could do anything I wanted in life (the truth of their comments didn’t matter but the support meant the world).

As I grew into an awkward teenager I found it really easy to lose all the confidence and spirit I’d had before.  Pimples, voice-cracking and being smaller than all the girls made it hard to hold on to that built-up confidence level.

As I got into High School I realized that the guys who had all the friends and were going on dates with girls (because that’s about the only thing I thought about as a teenager) were the ones who were willing to talk to them.  And the guys willing to talk to the girls were the ones with confidence.

One day I was sitting at the dinner table when I realized that I could feel completely comfortable and confident at home with my family and it made me able to be the outgoing and interesting version of myself.  At that point I decided there was no reason I shouldn’t be able to act that way at school and around my friends.  I decided that the next day I was going to just act like that.  I started smiling at strangers with a big smile instead of a meek smile, I acted like I wasn’t afraid to be goofy or tell a weird joke even though I secretly wondered if people thought I was stupid.

Gradually over the next few months it became easier to act like I was confident because I was getting more confident.  I was beginning to realize there was no really good reason for worrying so much about what everyone thinks.  Sure, I got teased a little, but in the end my ruse won out and the confidence started to grow.  Now (over a decade later) I’m completely confident with myself, I’m not afraid to look like a fool – and my friend will tell you that it happens sometimes

Leave a comment and tell us what you think about confidence or your family’s lesson!

The folks over at Harvard Business Review have written a great little article on the type of people who are great at beginning projects but terrible at finishing them.  I happen to be a shining example of this type of person so they really struck home with me.

Heide Grant Halverson (the author) did a good job of showcasing just how a simple mindset change from focusing on what’s been done (to-date thinking) to focusing on what is left to be done (to-go thinking) can really help us move projects forward to completion.

I really like the psychological trickery here but I’d like to go one step further to say that I’ve been nice & lucky with next-step thinking in order to keep myself from seeing a mountain of work left to do and getting overwhelmed I find that focusing on the next 1-3 tasks really keeps me going.

Do you have any great ideas, tips or tricks to keep yourself motivated to see a project through to completion?  Drop them here in the comments!

Thanks to Mark Mann for the link!

The Ball is a CTRUS C1 by AGENT

Article from Gizmodo.com