Jimmy’s House

Before I tried to start my own company I was convinced that anyone out there that was successful had stumbled upon their success. That it was by chance that they made money or was doing well. I had a gamblers view of business. I figured that all these successful people had just rolled the dice and voila, MONEY!

Most people who win the lottery, if they don’t change their spending habits, will be back to where they started eventually.

The chances are that anyone who has had that kind of success in business will probably end up back where they started as well. I think our current economy is proof of that. There are a lot of businesses closing up around here in the Kansas City area. I’m talking about construction based businesses. I’m talking about cabinet shops, electric companies, trim companies and so forth. During the tornado of construction that existed during the end of the ’90′s and the first half of the 00′s many turkeys were flying quite well. I’ll call these lottery companies. All you had to do was call back whoever called you. It was so busy here in KC and there was such a shortage of labor and product supply that all you had to do was return a call to get work. That’s a lottery company. Very little effort had to be put into a construction business to experience success.

So, lottery time is officially over, for a long time if not forever. If you think you can start a business by just opening the doors and doing little else you are wrong. This isn’t the lottery. You can’t just patent something and expect everyone to buy it. You can’t just copyright something and expect everyone to buy it. You can’t just write one great book and expect to retire and just collect checks.

You are the missing element in your own great idea. Quit looking around for that one break to make your idea into a household name. It’s not out THERE, it’s in YOU. Only YOU can make YOU successful. You can hire all the coaches in the wold to give you advice but if YOU don’t get out there and work on YOUR idea it won’t be successful.

Business success doesn’t happen by chance, it happens by force.

If you’ve been in business for more than 5 minutes you’ve had thoughts of giving up. I’ve had plenty of them over the last 5+ years of running my business. None of those moments were as strong as a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of months ago we had a snafu on a job. It was supposed to be union wage rate and no one told me. We were ready to walk away except the project manager told me not to worry, this happens from time to time and they would be sure to compensate me. Well, I should have seen the writing on the wall. I didn’t and now I’m only getting $2,200.00 of the $5,100.00 that I needed to charge. When I got the call a couple of weeks ago telling me I wasn’t getting the right amount of money I was ready to just pull it all in and quit. This isn’t the best time for me to take a $3,00.00 bath. This was officially a HUGE test of my faith.

Well, I needed to come up with some solutions. Now, be warned some of these solutions will make sense and some of them are just….well….silly, but it worked.

The first thing I did was go to the bookstore. I needed a book encouraging me to persist. I needed a book that would tell me not to give up. I needed a book that would tell me that tough times are what it takes to even find success. In a conversation with Kevin Miller he mentioned a book.

Yeah, how’s that for a title? I’ll tell you right now that I’d put that book right at the top of the list of books I’ve read in my life. I feel like Mark Batterson wrote that book for me, for right now. It encouraged me in ways I never planned. Look, I’m not a fancy writer so what I’ll do is sum up this book by quoting some of the best from it.

“Faith is the process of unlearning your irrational fears.” “Lion chasers have a high threshold for fear because they have built up fear immunity.” “The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It’s Failure. The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It’s rejection. You’ve got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you’re afraid of. That’s how you build up immunity.” “Satan has two primary tactics when it comes to neutralizing you spiritually: discouragement and fear. He wants you to focus on past mistakes you’ve made” “The goal is to muster the moral courage to chase lions” “Lion chasers choose fear”

If you are afraid to step out and get started doing the work you love, read this book today!

Ok, so, what was another thing I did to get myself back on track? Now, try not to laugh too hard okay? I went to see the new Miley Cyrus movie! Are you done laughing yet? Hey, I have four daughters under the age of 12 okay! These are the kinds of movies I go to see. To be honest I was expecting it to be decent. I feel like Miley actually has a chance to be the kind of role model I won’t be ashamed of some day. She sang a great song at the end that really hit home and ties into that book big time. Here is the video per youtube.

I have to remind myself to enjoy the ride or as Miley puts it enjoy the climb. I think we can all take that advice. It’s not whats easy that makes us valuable in the market place. It’s overcoming the challenges.

Ok, so, finally here is the last one. This is a sermon by Andy Stanley. I love Andy Stanley’s stuff. If you are on iTunes and don’t listen to at least his monthly leadership podcast you are seriously missing out.

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Andy summarizes this entire blog post so well in this lesson. God’s hands are not tied and He, not you, is responsible for the results. We are to be faithful in what God has sent us out to do but He is responsible for the results. That was so freeing to me. I have realized that I need to just persist and let God handle the results. He is in control and He has amazing plans for me. He has not brought me this far to just let me fail. He will see me through this because He wants me to be a lion chaser.

It’s so easy to get too busy with life and forget to have some fun. I don’t mind being serious but sometimes I have to remind myself it’s ok to laugh.

Well, in my opinion, no one is funnier than Brian Regan.