Archive for April, 2007

I got it wrong…

Well, sort of.
If you know me, you’ll know I NEVER admit I’m wrong, unless of course I am…which never happens so therefore I never need to admit I’m wrong :-) But this time, I may just have got something wrong. Or at least missed something absolutely vital out.
My post, Why CHEK Practitioners Fail, missed one [...]

Well, sort of.

If you know me, you’ll know I NEVER admit I’m wrong, unless of course I am…which never happens so therefore I never need to admit I’m wrong :-) But this time, I may just have got something wrong. Or at least missed something absolutely vital out.

My post, Why CHEK Practitioners Fail, missed one crucial point…(and before I’m deluged with more comments from anyone misreading, missing the point or feeling the need to be defensive, this doesn’t just apply to chekkies but to absolutely anyone running their own business)…

That missing point? The thing that many people are missing in their plan for a successful business?

The end game. The mission. The direction. The ultimate reason why you do what you do.

If you don’t know where it is you’re going (in business, as in life), then you make things so much harder for yourself. Everytime you make a decision, you’re making a decision based on no direction whatsoever, so how do you know whether a decision is a "right" or a "wrong" one? Michael Neill quoted it best with the following…

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Chesire cat in a tree.

‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.

His response was a question: ‘Where do you want to go?’

‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered

‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.’

-Lewis Carroll, from ‘Alice in Wonderland

If there’s one big reason why most businesses fail, it’s this. Not knowing where it is they ultimately want to go.

My artist in residence

Artists are fickle beings. One minute they have an all-consuming desire to sketch, draw or paint. The next they throw a temper tantrum because it’s just not right and it’s just not working. I should know…I live with one.
However my artist in residence has just re-discovered his passion & confidence for drawing and is busily [...]

Artists are fickle beings. One minute they have an all-consuming desire to sketch, draw or paint. The next they throw a temper tantrum because it’s just not right and it’s just not working. I should know…I live with one.

However my artist in residence has just re-discovered his passion & confidence for drawing and is busily building up a portfolio. He’s finally decided to make a go of it and pursue the illustration career he’s always dreamed of.

What’s held him back for the last 20+ years?

Not thinking he was good enough, not wanting to even try in case it didn’t work out & he failed, worrying about what might happen if he tried but just couldn’t and not wanting to start for fear of ruining the perfect image he had in his mind, for fear of ruining the potential with the reality of possible failure.

But now he’s realised that that’s just stupid and so he’s going for it. You can follow his progress on his blog here >>> …and if you want any illustrations (for books, for articles, for programmes, for posters) or you know somebody who might, then leave him a comment on the blog…he’s looking for projects to work on at the moment (both paid and pro bono).

My most popular post of all time

So this blog of mine is part therapeutic and part marketing tool. I started it initially because one of my mentors recommended it and I didn’t realise just how much I’d love doing it.
It’s a great marketing tool – search for me on google and this is one of the first things that comes up [...]

So this blog of mine is part therapeutic and part marketing tool. I started it initially because one of my mentors recommended it and I didn’t realise just how much I’d love doing it.

It’s a great marketing tool – search for me on google and this is one of the first things that comes up – not any of my other websites but the blog. There’s several reasons for that which I’ve been into before & which I’m not going to go into again – but it constantly demonstrates to me just how powerful blogging is as a way of communicating with people & for being found by those looking for you.

What I find the most hilarious however, is that the most popular post I’ve written of all time, according to my blogging statistics – and the most commonly used search term for people who happen across my blog is…drum roll please….

"Where does cheddar cheese come from". Try searching for this on google, I think I’m number 3 on the list.

I think I get at least 2 people a week who come to my blog, having searched for the answer to this question.

See my blog post on it here – it was of course poking fun at my baby brother but perhaps his question wasn’t so silly after all. Unfortunately for those people who come looking at my blog, I don’t provide an answer – perhaps I should update the post and do so.

Or perhaps there’s a niche market out there for a blog about cheese…hmmm, now there’s a thought :-)