Quick random side note: I just finished putting a post up at WaxPorhetoric.com talking about keeping your eyes and mind open to new opportunities. I feel this is quite relevant in business also (my first example over there touches upon that) and it can serve us well all around. You should take a gander…I just didn’t feel like re-writing the entire thing to make it more business-oriented. Any astute reader can make the correlations though.

Now…back to the main topic of hitting our reset button. I recently spent a bit over a week away from Atlanta and made my way over to Santa Cruz, California. Great town…I’ve lived there before. I spent time catching up with friends, doing some networking, checking the local (“local” here also includes Silicon Valley. Perhaps you’ve heard of a few companies that reside in the region…Apple, Cisco, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo! and so forth) job scene, and taking it easy.

Did I get anything accomplished? On paper, maybe not so much. Set up a new blog (too cheesy to post here yet), updated the resume, put posts on two other blogs, networked a bit.

Would I call my trip a success? Hell yes. As my brain cleared itself of more clutter I was able to slam through a few things that had been bugging me. I came up with new ideas for business. I found new solutions to things I was trying to accomplish. And most importantly, I’m full of life and vigor and ready to crank on through new projects.

If you’ve got a full-time job, perhaps it’s time to take a little vacation. If you’re an entrepreneur, perhaps you need to go somewhere too. When you take some time off though, make sure you actually GO somewhere otherwise you’ll be thinking about and doing work. Why bother taking time off then if you’re just going to work?

One key thing I did…refrained from checking my email every day. In this day and age it sounds rather crazy, but if you set expectations right, the world will NOT blow up if you check your mail once a day or so. It was quite refreshing actually.

For me, I think these are the key reasons my reset was so successful:

1. Go somewhere far away…far from your home town – This should keep you from being around reminders of work and home stuff
2. Go somewhere FUN - This will help make the reset successful as your nasty home and work tasks leave the mind and you are filled with the fun experiences at hand. Snowboarding, surfing, exotic trip, good friends all around…whatever it is, make it fun
3. Leave the laptop at home - Each email can lead to you getting sucked into work and suddenly three hours later you’re still taking care of something that can be taken care of when you get back. If you can’t leave it at home, set aside half and hour a day to do spam control and look for emergencies (make sure you take care of ONLY emergency situations. You’ll be surprised at how many things can wait)
4. Make the trip fairly long – What good is a 3 day weekend far away when Day 1 and Day 3 are spent traveling? No good at all. Try for a week so you can actually settle into your new surroundings and immerse yourself into the goodness that is

There ya go…a simple prescription for a fun yet rejuvenating trip that will hit the reset button and have you refreshed and ready to tackle any task that comes your way. I can’t wait to see what kind of ideas I come up with on my next trip.

If you’ve come up with any great ideas on a trip, share them with the world and let’s rock it. If you think there’s something missing from the list, let’s add to it.

Happy resetting!

“C’mon Chia…you’re just rambling on there. Let’s be realistic”.
I AM being realistic. Trust me…over the years I’ve worked the gamut of jobs that have tested me in every possible way. There are plenty of ways to keep yourself sane while dealing with a crap job and now a crap job in a crappy economy.

Random note…I’m realizing these next three steps will be very good for applying to life in general. Therefore a near carbon copy of this will be posted on Wax Porhetoric, a site dedicated to keeping a healthy attitude in life, pursuing passions, and living life the way it should be.

1) Set some goals – Set a bunch of goals for yourself. Set financial goals, material goals (I want a new car, snowboard, stereo, etc), personal goals (travel, learn a language, etc) and other goals. Set both strategic and tactical goals. One month, three month, six month, one year, five years. Write them all down. Review them once a month and revise that goal sheet. Hopefully you’ve achieved your one month goals and perhaps more. I’m sure at some point your other goals will change. It’s fun to do this with someone else too so you can compare goals with each other and keep each other honest.

2) Keep your eye on the prize – Look at your goals and keep thinking about them. Don’t get muddled down with the mundane aspects of life, the crappy hours of your job, your finances. Keep looking forward to what you’re trying to achieve.

3) Break down the work – It can be daunting when you have a giant laundry list of things to do or have a giant project to work on. Break it all down into small manageable tasks. Suddenly it’s much easier to crank through it all when you tackle five small tasks at one time…five small tasks that in turn end up being nearly half of the original project.

If you’re working that job that doesn’t satisfy you, keep your chin up. Do steps one through three above. One of your goals could be to find a new job. Or perhaps just to better your position in your current company. Whatever the case may be, you CAN improve it. Let those who believe there’s nothing that can be done about the situation stay where they are while you improve your life.

And…as always…think about starting your own company. It’s more fulfilling than you can imagine…

Good health to you all!

“It’s too hard to start one.”
No it’s not. There are companies out there that handle all the work for you and help you choose between a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or LLC.

“It’s too expensive.”
No it’s not. You can do all the paperwork yourself and only have to deal with the licensing fees and such or again, you can get in touch with one of those company forming entities and lay down $500 or so and have them do it.

“I don’t have time.”
Really? Is “Wheel of Fortune” keeping you from achieving financial independence?

You don’t have to aim for the stars to get your own company going. Don’t think you have to compete with Microsoft, Target, Chevrolet…whoever it may be in order to succeed with your own company. There are so many niche things out there that you can do. Better yet, do what you like…and get paid for it.

Do you like to sew? Do it…sew to your heart’s content and then sell your goods online, at a flea market, at a consignment shop.
How about programming? I’ve seen some simple programs be the foundation of companies as they’ve grown over the years. You can do it too.
Photography? Design? There’s a need for that, both digital and print.

I just want to emphasize that you don’t need to make $100,000.00 a year with your new company to be successful. Wouldn’t it be nice to make an extra $20,000.00/year just by doing what you already enjoy doing? So why not do it? With unemployment rates the highest they’ve been in the past 14 years, it’s worth a shot. At least you’ll be pulling in some revenue in the unfortunate case of getting laid off. This can help you survive until your next gig. It can also hone your skills as you look for something new. If nothing else, it’ll show potential employers that you’ve got the will to succeed. It also affords you the luxury of not having to find such a high paying job out in the market place as you’ll already have this side gig bringing in supplemental income. That means you can have more jobs available to you as you get to lower your starting salary range.

Go on. Get out there. Start a new company. Many giant companies started in dorm rooms, in garages. If you want to be the best, there’s hope. If you want to keep it simple and simply have a supplement to your income, keep it small. It’s that easy. There aren’t many good reasons out there why you shouldn’t have a business of your own right now. Start up and have fun!

WTF Palm? Did you happen to notice this consumer electronics company Apple taking big bites out of the smartphone market? Perhaps you didn’t see the news about that little search engine company named Google that has a free phone OS named Android that will be coming out in two weeks? Seriously Palm…do you REALLY expect to maintain any sort of competitive ability when you push off an OS by an entire year? I predict there will be dozens of Android-based phones out by then. Apple will have yet more market penetration. Even Nokia will be releasing updated versions of Symbian as they have already purchased the remainder of it and plan to open it up. We’re in the 21st century Palm. One year is quite a long time in technology time.

I love my Treo 755p. It’s an awesome phone, but I can’t say I’ll be wanting to lug this thing around in a year when my contract is up for renewal and I’m eligible to get a discount on a new phone. Why cruise around town in a ’94 Civic when I can zip around in a 2008 Lexus? Loyalty only goes so far guys and you’re really really testing the limits of the Palm loyal fans.

I was talking to a friend last night and she asked “Do you think I have high expectations?” It wasn’t a tough question…I replied “yes”. However, I noticed the tone in which she asked me this. She asked as if it was a bad thing to have high expectations and almost sounded a bit disappointed when I said she did.

Having high expectations is a good thing. I’ve got crazy high expectations of myself and in others. Of course, there are a few things that must be taken into consideration for having high expectations to be considered a good thing. First, one must be aware that they have high expectations. If you aren’t aware of this, you could be in for a lot of disappointment as you wonder why nobody lives up to your expectations or why you aren’t getting what you want out of life. For instance, in a simple way you may prefer a hamburger with good seasonings on a good bun. These expectations are a bit higher than a fast food burger will provide you. Fine. Just be aware that it may take a bit longer to find this burger than it will to hit any of the fast food joints that pepper the land. This holds true in all aspects of life…finding a good job, a compatible mate, a nice house. Chances are you won’t find the perfect one for you right away but don’t get discouraged. Your expectations are higher and it will take just a bit longer to find that one that satisfies all your requirements.

Next up is to make sure your expectations are realistic. Sure it’s fine to hold yourself to a higher standard or to expect more out of others. But c’mon…make sure these expectations are achievable. Not everyone can live up to what you expect. Perhaps you are a surfer and expect to surf the best waves around. That’s fine. Just don’t expect to do that off the Georgia coast. That’s an unrealistic expectation. It’s probably unrealistic to find a 4 bedroom house in Santa Cruz for under $300,000…yet it’s not unrealistic in other parts of the country. 

Once we take these two key points into consideration and accept these for what they are, not only is it acceptable to have high expectations but I actually feel it’s better to have them. I’d much rather surround myself with people who expect more out of themselves and out of life than with people who are content to live status quo and who set the bar low. 

The discouraging thing is that in this day and time, business and technology moves along at a MUCH faster pace than it did even just a couple decades ago. Our product could be obsolete by the time this patent gets granted. Every month that goes by is tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed revenue.

We’ve heard of the USPTO reforms that are supposed to be taking place. When will we actually see these changes? How many millions of dollars must be lost before the USPTO becomes an efficient machine? The economy of the U.S. would benefit from these changes and the U.S. would also become competitive in the international marketplace. Until these changes take place, thousands of good ideas will fail to make it to market at a relevant time, businesses will fail to have a chance to succeed, and our competitive advantage will continue to deteriorate.

What do you make of these commercials? Do you believe that Exxon, the company that posted $10.89 BILLION in profits in quarter…not a year…but a mere three months…is dedicated to other energy sources? Why should they? $10.89 billion. Staggering.

There has been talk of alternate energy sources (bio-diesel, electric, solar, etc) but none have taken off. Even with oil prices where they are, these alternate sources have gone nowhere. Why is that? Well…let’s think of the infrastructure we’ve got right now. We have cars that run on gasoline. We have gas stations peppering our lands. Buy an electric car, where are you going to recharge it? Bio-diesel? Can’t really find those gas stations anywhere either. So we’re stuck with what’s readily available.

Ponder this though. These petrol companies know consumers are feeling disenchanted with current gas prices. Hybrid vehicles and scooter sales are on the upswing. More people are taking mass transit. This means less gasoline is sold. So perhaps these companies WILL look for alternate sources of energy to sell to consumers. But…are you ready…here’s where it’s all about to make sense.

Let’s go back to that $10.89 billion in profits in three months. They easily have enough money to dump into R&D. They could come up with a product to sell to consumers. Next, they already have the most expansive distribution network available in the land. You hear people complaining about a Starbucks or a Wal-Mart on every corner, but what you REALLY see is a gas station on every corner. And in the most remote lands as long as there is a highway. 

So there you go. I would actually be surprised if I didn’t see one of the oil companies introduce a new non-petroleum based product. They’ve got the money, they’ve got the distribution, they’ve got the willing consumer. It’s only a matter of time before we see the next retro-fitting of our gas stations and what they will offer for their new methods of revenue generation.

It’s not just the business side of me that reaps these benefits though. In my every day life, I am now more confident knowing I can handle sudden emergencies without stressing out. For the most part there is this new attitude of “well this won’t kill me. I just have to deal with it while continuing on with my other work”. Not a bad way to handle life as a whole…

This way of thinking however does present an interesting problem when dealing with others. When surrounded by fellow entrepreneurs it isn’t that noticeable. We’ve all got that “let’s do this!” attitude and all understand the stresses of your paycheck being directly dependent on what we are doing. We can’t take life for granted and count on that steady paycheck…we must earn it.

There is also the difference of an entrepreneur having what may seem to be a rather nonchalant attitude to someone else’s problems. However, this isn’t always the case. It just happens to be that a problem that was once a level 8 on the stress scale is now a level 3 for we’ve dealt with this stress and countless others.

Being an entrepreneur is certainly rewarding. It’s amazing to see your baby grow…and your company is your baby. You eat, drink, sleep, and live for your baby every day. You may put in twice the hours of work than you would in a Corporate America job but you often don’t notice. When you’re working on your baby…it’s so much more rewarding when you put in the hours and finish a task.

I’d like to say “everyone should be an entrepreneur” but I know it’s not for everyone. The hours are grueling, some people (especially with families and houses) need more stability than a start-up may provide, and the stresses may not be worth it. However, I’ve seen first hand how the rest of my life has benefited from being an entrepreneur and I wouldn’t have it any other way now. If there’s an opportunity, I want to go for it. If I need to act fast on something, I will. Everyday stresses aren’t stresses anymore and the possibilities of what I can do with my life are limitless.

As I search for a new gig, I am reminded of the vast difference in business mentalities between the east coast and the west coast. My personal experience has been that the east coast looks at a resume and looks for specific titles (ie, Marketing Manager, VP Finance, etc) whereas hiring managers on the west coast look at your resume and extrapolate the skills that you have and what you are capable of doing. A Principal of a company may wear many hats such as a general finance person, marketing guru, web developer, sales person, and so forth. Out west, being so flexible is seen as a strength. Out east, that resume generally gets passed over. Or worse yet, you’ll hear that you are “over-qualified” for a position. I’ve heard that a couple times in the past few weeks and I will admit it’s rather frustrating. “Great buddy…thanks for telling me I’m TOO good and because of that I’ll be unemployed”. C’mon people…you’re getting a bargain here.

So what should one do in such situations? I’m still pondering that. Currently I’m on the east coast (Atlanta to be specific…generally regarded as a hotbed for business and growing tech out east) and am pondering if I should just bolt back to California (I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve had from 3,000 miles away based on my resume while Atlanta companies are baffled by my resume or think I’m over-qualified). Perhaps I need to “dumb-down” my resume and make it appear I don’t have so much experience if I plan on staying in the east. It’s a painful thought…to downplay my skills simply to get a job and pay my bills. I already have a few different versions of my resume (some focused more on business, other on the tech skills I have, etc) but to have a “smart resume” and a “dumb resume”…it’s mind-blowing.

Yes, there is a difference in east coast and west coast business practices. East coast is still very old-school corporate based with giant, slow moving beuracracies and old-school mindsets of conservative dress and 8-5 jobs that focus on titles whereas the west is more dynamic, entrepreneurial, quick moving, and focuses on who you are and what you are capable of doing.