The Consultant’s Regret - Not commiting to a single cause
As an online marketing consultant, I get to help a lot of different people do some pretty amazing things.
These are all entrepreneurs with great vision who bring real value to their respective marketplaces in one way or another. This is mainly because if they didn’t have that, I wouldn’t work with them.
That being said, I have this creeping, slowly filling my consciousness, kind of urge to hyper focus on one thing and become IT. Find that one thing and make it mine. Put all my eggs into that basket, become the go to expert in the space and create a brand by the people for the people in that space.
Ideally, it would accomplish 3 major goals.
1. Make the world a better place to live for my children (only have one so far).
2. Be socially and environmentally supportive.
3. Make me enough money that I can step out, keep my bills paid and devote the rest of my time supporting or creating non-profit organizations to do additional good in the world.
The Plan is this.
1. Find the market or product that I want to “become”.
2. Create a new company or buy a company presently in the space.
3. Market the hell out of it and stick to my core principles.
I know it sounds hokey, I know I’m naive, but so far in life I have been able to accomplish my goals one step at a time once i recognize what it is that i want to achieve.
Here is where i need some help.
I need some people who share this desire and want to be a part of something special.
People who excel in their space but who are ready to attach them selves to something meaningful and personal.
In order to begin this process, I can think of 2 Individuals I would like to bring on board right now.
1. A Business Planing Specialist - This person would be able to help us create plans and practice due diligence on our ideas to help weed out bad opportunities and allow the cream to rise to the top.
2. An Operational Mastermind - I am a good strategist, motivator and sales person. However, I need assistance organizationally to pull off something of this magnitude. I would need a manager to help keep deadlines tight, create and implement support systems and help to keep things scalable as we move forward.
Now this may be one person to do all of this initially or I may need to find a couple of people to pull it off but I do want to find these people and soon. Initially, the engagement would involve at least a weekly commitment and would involve no cash.
Growing up, my older brother used to tell me “You will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” (pretty popular motivational phrase). I’m ready to take some shots and I’m looking for some people to join me.
If you are interested, or know of someone who is, drop me a line and let’s talk.
Matt Haverkamp Said,
June 6, 2007 @ 10:53 am
Hey Adam -
I would love to hear what you are thinking. Will drop you an email
Phil Said,
June 6, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
Very nice.
Thoughtful people are always examining their possible paths, with hopes of doing something both enjoyable and meaningful. These “examinings” come in different sizes whose dimensions include time (e.g., decisions that affect today, this year, this lifetime…) scope (e.g., decisions that affect a little bit of your world vs. a lot of your world) and significance (e.g., decisions that affect only yourself or many people). At the smallest size, we call these examinings “planning”. At a larger scales, we call these “personal quests” or “life goals”. And at the largest scale, they become “movements” or even “revolutions.”
Good luck figuring out what you want to bite off for now, and for making it happen. (And don’t expect perfection.)
Michelle Malay Carter Said,
June 7, 2007 @ 6:39 am
Love it! I have a similar dream of making a difference in the way employees experience work within organizations. To that end, I have a few questions to help you think through how you will take care of your employees, customers, AND get the work done. They need not be mutually exclusive.
Do you have a plan for ensuring your organization “sticks to your core principles” when it grows to the point that you are no longer directly involved in the day-to-day operations?
What will you do when you are the CEO of a 500 person organization, and you are practicing some management by walking around, and you stumble upon two employees at each other’s throats? Or when you receive a letter from a customer who has been treated badly by your employees? What happens when your company’s very own performance management system (designed to motivate employees) drives short-term thinking, and in order to get a good review, your employees short change product quality or customer service?
What happens when you no longer recognize the company you meticulously nurtured and grew over the years?
Systems drive behavior. Systems have values embedded in to them either consciously or unconsciously. Your employees, clients, and customers experience your organization at the hand of your systems. Allow systems to be designed by default at your peril.
The partner piece to effective and consistent systems is organizational structure. A work-levels approach allows you to create a translational organizational design structure in your organization. This facilitates a natural translation of your “core principles” from the top to the bottom of your organization without gaps or overlaps.
My calling is to help executives embed their core values, as well as the two universal values necessary for work engagement, trust and fairness, into operations. This will ensure your core principles are, indeed, a part of the legacy you leave behind.
Regards,
Michelle
LaSandra Brill Said,
June 7, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Since your in th early phase of getting this started I recommend you read E-Myth Revisited - http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280. It’s a great book and a quick read - I think it will help as you are organizing the roles of your business and putting a process in place. Good luck!