It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
ENTREPRENEUR.
This week while on a walk I was listening to a podcast, and Mark Randolph, the co-founder of Netflix, was being interviewed. They were talking about all kinds of things, then Randolph said something like this:
"Everyone has ideas. The difference between someone who has an idea and someone who does something with it is simply this: THEY START."
I stopped my walk, took a note on that, then just thought about that for a while.
THEY START.
My first job, as a budding entrepreneur, was mowing a couple of lawns in my neighborhood. My dad had a lawnmower, and he paid me $5 to mow our lawn. Why wouldn't my neighbors pay me as well?
I started my first lawn business at the ripe age of about 9 years old. I didn't mow a lot of lawns, but enough to keep me supplied in candy.
My second job, as a 10 year-old, was selling seeds door to door. Did anyone else do this? It was easy... they sent me a box of seeds, gave me a month to sell them, and I had to send half the money back in order to get my next order. I was going to make a lot of money! The problem was that I had to sell a lot of these little seed packets in order to make any money, and it was a lot of work knocking on doors over and over again. I also learned the response, "No, we're not interested". Why wouldn't everybody want to buy seeds from a cute little kid?
My third job, as an 11 year-old was delivering papers. This was going to be great because I had heard about the money you could make delivering papers. This lasted about a year, because I quickly realized that paper delivery interfered with my booming little league baseball career, and it was difficult to make practice when I had to deliver papers.
I've been thinking about these jobs. As a 9, 10 and 11 year-old, I learned how to START. I saw an idea, I jumped on it, I made some money.
None of these first jobs turned into careers, but each of them taught me something about discipline, about sales, about money management, about doing something I didn't want to do, about margins & leverage, about opportunity.
Tell me what your first job was or your first few jobs were, and tell me what you learned? Send it HERE.
Today I work with non-profit leaders all over the world.
Most of these leaders are leading organizations because they saw a need, and instead of just ignoring it, they did something about it: They STARTED.
Dave Ramsey, in his book, EntreLeadership, shares these definitions:
"A leader, according to Webster's Dictionary, is 'someone who rules, guides, and inspires others.'"
"An entrepreneur is 'someone who organizes, operates and assumes the risk for a venture'. The word entrepreneur is a French word, entreprendre, meaning 'one who takes a risk.'"
If you're a non-profit leader, can you share with me "what you did to START doing"? Why did you START doing it? Send it HERE.
For some of us, we've had the incredible ideas, we've seen the opportunity, but for some reason we didn't do anything with it. I have regrets about that, and I know I have missed some great opportunities. What was it that kept you from STARTING?
I hope you enjoy just thinking about this a little this week, as I have. I look forward to hearing from you.
"No one knows what's a good idea or a bad idea until you try it." Mark Randolph
"Pray like it all depends on God, but work like it all depends on you." Dave Ramsey
"When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts." Larry Ellison
Things I'm Reading, Listening To, an Watching This Week:
Dave Ramsey's book, ENTRELEADERSHIP. I was challenged by this book, then attended a webinar years ago. Some of the principles Ramsey taught I still go back to.
I was reminded of Simon Sineks work, "START WITH WHY". You can read the book, or watch an 18-minute Ted Talk HERE. Understanding your WHY will help you know why to START.
I listened to an interesting podcast entitled, "Our Boxes, Ourselves" on NPR. A really interesting conversation around our cultural identity and how the world is changing. It connected to my life as a Third Culture Kid (growing up in a different culture from my birth culture).
OK... found this playlist again this week, and it's so good. Queen Essentials. They produced so many hits for so many years, songs that we all keep humming and singing along with!
Gina and I were both able to participate in The Masters Program years ago. The Masters Program exists to: "To prepare Christian leaders and marketplace Christian leaders to change their world and build God's Kingdom." This week, I pulled one of my notebooks off the shelf, and dove back into some of the best holistic leadership teaching I've ever received.