Are some of us born to be successful and destined for greatness, while others are pre-destined to toil away in obscurity, making others wealthy? Or are we free to be as successful as we wish to be? And if it's the latter, as I believe, what are the biggest obstacles we have to overcome on our road to success?
When faced with something new that I do not fully understand, I immediately throw up obstacles to avoid making a decision, or to block the decision altogether. Why, I have been asking myself lately? Why do I do this? What exactly is is that I'm afraid of?
Because if you make a decision then you could be wrong. That's the crux of the issue, isn't it? It takes tremendous self-confidence to make a decision on something that you do not entirely understand, and how many of us fully understand the things on which we must decide? How many times have I avoided trying some new food with which I am unfamiliar, because there is a chance I might not like it? Often, that's how many. Perhaps the majority of times that I eat in a restaurant. Why? What is it that I fear? That I might find something new?
As I wonder why it took me so long to see the light with our new business, these thoughts have been on my mind lately. Is it failure that I fear, then? If I fail, then I am in the vast majority. So what is there to worry about?
I think the answer is that I am not worried about failure so much as it is that I am worried about how that failure would affect my ego, my view of my self, my self-worth. And yet throughout my life I have known very little failure, but in the end, I think that very fact is what sometimes holds me back. I do not want to risk the string of success with new ventures that might, or might not, succeed. I want to keep my record intact. Which I must say is stupid; nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
It doesn't matter how wonderful the company we have partnered with might be, or what a great investment or how ridiculously low the capital risk...those are all true factors, but what I really have to overcome is me. Do I want to be a success again or not? Do I believe in myself or don't I?
I am consciously choosing to be successful. It's just that complex, and just that simple. It won't be easy, as rewiring my brain will likely take a while. But at least I have finally started.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
There's nothing better than a fresh week
After a stormy Sunday the weather is bright and sunny and warm, with the grass and shrubs having that deep green hue you only see after a soaking rain. The morning coffee tastes especially good days like this, with a full calendar and the excitement of being busy because you are your boss. Lots to do today, too much, in fact, which means that life is giving you new opportunities and all you have to do is recognize them.
While finally having time to dig into the underlying structures of this new business venture, it dawned on me that the people we partner with will have to be terrific as people, not simply have a talent for business. Quality counts. That sounds like a cheesy advertising slogan, except that when you think about it, it really is true. If you're going to spend time with people making money, shouldn't you also have fun doing it? At least, that's my plan. To find people who are smart and funny and with whom we would enjoy spending time, and from whom we may learn new and wonderful things.
While finally having time to dig into the underlying structures of this new business venture, it dawned on me that the people we partner with will have to be terrific as people, not simply have a talent for business. Quality counts. That sounds like a cheesy advertising slogan, except that when you think about it, it really is true. If you're going to spend time with people making money, shouldn't you also have fun doing it? At least, that's my plan. To find people who are smart and funny and with whom we would enjoy spending time, and from whom we may learn new and wonderful things.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
New insights
The other day I wrote about my friend, code-named 'Raoul' because I both like Hunter S. Thompson and because it sounds vaguely mysterious. (Kathy wondered what the heck 'Raoul' had to do with anything, to which I might ruefully agree) Anyway, I wrote about how Raoul is stuck in the old ways of doing business and refuses to change, and how he was becoming increasingly discourages as the world conspired against his methods. But as we struggled through this weekend's two-day garage sale (never again!), I came to realize that I was more like Raoul than I had thought. I was not embracing new things, either, I was stuck in the past, and that needed to change.
One of the most surprising aspects of opening our new business has been the necessity for re-evaluating the priorities of how to actually conduct that business. Kathy and I both have other revenue streams, which means we have other jobs, but what has struck me the most is how different the personality traits are for this new business than what is needed for my other business, selling books.
You would think booksellers are a fiercely independent group of people who want to do things their way, and you would be right. At least, the old school booksellers are. But there is also a new breed of book people who use electronic devices to help them find inventory. I have always made fun of them, because these reliance on these devices often leads them to miss some terrific books. What I did not realize, until today that is, is that used properly these devices can be wonderful tools.
What does this have to do with our new business? Simply this: the people in the book business using these new devices want to make money, they don't want to fail, they are go-getters and forward-thinkers, and that is exactly who we need to partner with now. If they rely solely on those devices, however, and do not do the training necessary to learn their craft, then they will eventually fail. The last people we need on our team are the old-school types who are married to process and precedent, or those who do not want to put in the time and effort to make money while having fun. Neither are not the sort to 'make a living...living,' but the person who is always willing to learn most certainly is that sort of partner. I have been what I made fun of, but this new venture has forced an introspection that has lead me to understand this. If I achieve nothing else, this has made the whole experience worthwhile.
One of the most surprising aspects of opening our new business has been the necessity for re-evaluating the priorities of how to actually conduct that business. Kathy and I both have other revenue streams, which means we have other jobs, but what has struck me the most is how different the personality traits are for this new business than what is needed for my other business, selling books.
You would think booksellers are a fiercely independent group of people who want to do things their way, and you would be right. At least, the old school booksellers are. But there is also a new breed of book people who use electronic devices to help them find inventory. I have always made fun of them, because these reliance on these devices often leads them to miss some terrific books. What I did not realize, until today that is, is that used properly these devices can be wonderful tools.
What does this have to do with our new business? Simply this: the people in the book business using these new devices want to make money, they don't want to fail, they are go-getters and forward-thinkers, and that is exactly who we need to partner with now. If they rely solely on those devices, however, and do not do the training necessary to learn their craft, then they will eventually fail. The last people we need on our team are the old-school types who are married to process and precedent, or those who do not want to put in the time and effort to make money while having fun. Neither are not the sort to 'make a living...living,' but the person who is always willing to learn most certainly is that sort of partner. I have been what I made fun of, but this new venture has forced an introspection that has lead me to understand this. If I achieve nothing else, this has made the whole experience worthwhile.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I prefer to be happy
Before I forget, happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Yep, born on the same day. I'll bet Hobbit parties are something to remember.
Before I begin today's entry, let me ask a favor: if you read and like my blog, please subscribe. It does not mean much except to me. Thanks!
I was thinking today about a friend of mine who is also a bookseller. Let's call him...Raoul. (Any other Hunter S. Thompson fans out there?) A few weeks ago I was at a book sale, not so much because I needed inventory, but more because it's one I attend every year. I had been there about forty-five minutes or so, pushing my shopping cart and perusing the books, when Raoul kind of shambled over holding four books.
Raoul is a great bookseller, from the old school. He knows his stuff inside and out, he can tell printing editions on books I have never heard of from across the room. The guy is good. But since I have known him, which is about 15 years, Raoul has been growing increasingly morose. If I didn't know him so well I would fear that he might harm himself. How come he's like this? Because Raoul wants to sell books like he did in 1990, and that world is gone forever. He does not like the new world of technology and he does not understand it. Nor does he want to.
For more than a decade I have been offering to school my friend on the latest techniques in selling via the internet, how to set up a web-site, which database to use, which sites produce the best results for what stock...in short, I was going to give him all of the tools and skills which I had to learn completely on my own when I started billthebookguy.com in 1998. But Raoul consistently has declined. I offered again at that sale a few weeks ago, and once again he declined. Yet Raoul is utterly miserable, because he isn't selling anything and he isn't making the money he needs to make.
Raoul has seven storage lockers filled with books he has bought that he has not yet priced or processed. According to him, he has not laid eyes on some of them for more than 15 years. In all of that time he has been paying storage for them, but they are nothing more than dead weight on his business. And when he told me what he thought they might be worth I almost fainted...I won't reveal that here, but suffice to say it is well into six and possibly even seven figures, he has no idea.
If I had inventory in the six figure range sitting around doing nothing, I would work until I dropped marketing it, making a profit and re-investing the money so that I could retire early and be happy doing things I want to do now. Like travel! (Nice how I worked that in, wasn't it?) For most booksellers, the hard part is finding grade-A inventory. We wait outside houses early on Friday and Saturday mornings for estate sales to open, we get to book sales early so we can have first pick, we pay extra to get in early, we do all sorts of things to find good inventory. Raoul does not have that problem, he already has the inventory. Raoul just doesn't want to market it.
His one and only source of selling on the internet is Amazon.com. There is no reason to go into the various venues available to booksellers, there are many, but of all of them Amazon is the worst for the seller. They take the most commission and keep the most shipping allowance. They are, in short, the least profitable. But they ARE the easiest. They are the easy way out.
Raoul could have been rich by now. He could still earn a very good living, even at this late date. He has done the hardest work by learning his craft and amassing his inventory. But years and years of beating his head against the wall with poor business practices has left him drained and defeated. He would rather work for someone else for a pittance, that someone else being Amazon, than invest a minuscule bit of time and capital to do something different.
As for me, I would rather try something new, even if I fail. Because maybe I won't fail. Maybe I will succeed. Or maybe, I just prefer to be happy.
Before I begin today's entry, let me ask a favor: if you read and like my blog, please subscribe. It does not mean much except to me. Thanks!
I was thinking today about a friend of mine who is also a bookseller. Let's call him...Raoul. (Any other Hunter S. Thompson fans out there?) A few weeks ago I was at a book sale, not so much because I needed inventory, but more because it's one I attend every year. I had been there about forty-five minutes or so, pushing my shopping cart and perusing the books, when Raoul kind of shambled over holding four books.
Raoul is a great bookseller, from the old school. He knows his stuff inside and out, he can tell printing editions on books I have never heard of from across the room. The guy is good. But since I have known him, which is about 15 years, Raoul has been growing increasingly morose. If I didn't know him so well I would fear that he might harm himself. How come he's like this? Because Raoul wants to sell books like he did in 1990, and that world is gone forever. He does not like the new world of technology and he does not understand it. Nor does he want to.
For more than a decade I have been offering to school my friend on the latest techniques in selling via the internet, how to set up a web-site, which database to use, which sites produce the best results for what stock...in short, I was going to give him all of the tools and skills which I had to learn completely on my own when I started billthebookguy.com in 1998. But Raoul consistently has declined. I offered again at that sale a few weeks ago, and once again he declined. Yet Raoul is utterly miserable, because he isn't selling anything and he isn't making the money he needs to make.
Raoul has seven storage lockers filled with books he has bought that he has not yet priced or processed. According to him, he has not laid eyes on some of them for more than 15 years. In all of that time he has been paying storage for them, but they are nothing more than dead weight on his business. And when he told me what he thought they might be worth I almost fainted...I won't reveal that here, but suffice to say it is well into six and possibly even seven figures, he has no idea.
If I had inventory in the six figure range sitting around doing nothing, I would work until I dropped marketing it, making a profit and re-investing the money so that I could retire early and be happy doing things I want to do now. Like travel! (Nice how I worked that in, wasn't it?) For most booksellers, the hard part is finding grade-A inventory. We wait outside houses early on Friday and Saturday mornings for estate sales to open, we get to book sales early so we can have first pick, we pay extra to get in early, we do all sorts of things to find good inventory. Raoul does not have that problem, he already has the inventory. Raoul just doesn't want to market it.
His one and only source of selling on the internet is Amazon.com. There is no reason to go into the various venues available to booksellers, there are many, but of all of them Amazon is the worst for the seller. They take the most commission and keep the most shipping allowance. They are, in short, the least profitable. But they ARE the easiest. They are the easy way out.
Raoul could have been rich by now. He could still earn a very good living, even at this late date. He has done the hardest work by learning his craft and amassing his inventory. But years and years of beating his head against the wall with poor business practices has left him drained and defeated. He would rather work for someone else for a pittance, that someone else being Amazon, than invest a minuscule bit of time and capital to do something different.
As for me, I would rather try something new, even if I fail. Because maybe I won't fail. Maybe I will succeed. Or maybe, I just prefer to be happy.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Business Basics
I get it. Finally. Now I know what people mean when they say they want to earn some extra money from home.
I can't count how many times someone has asked me if I know of any jobs that can be done from home to earn a few extra bucks, usually by a spouse who works outside the home. In my experience, the economy has either blocked that spouse's promotion and flat-lined their pay scale, actually reduced their salary or, God forbid, threatened their job entirely. Not to mention those who are laid off and remain unemployed. Naturally these folks want their household to be as financially secure as possible, and on at least a dozen occasions I have tried to help people start their own home-based business. And none, not one of them, has ever taken me up on my offer to help. Not one.
I realize I'm not a financial genius, but I have run my own home-based business since 1998 and I offered my assistance to all of these people for free. FREE. My time, your potential earnings. Mr. Nice Guy just likes to see his friends succeed and wanted to helped them just to be a good friend. Yet none of those people ever took me up on my offer. Not one. And today I finally realized why.
See, those people did not actually want to start their own business. What they wanted was a home-based job built with somebody else's money, where they could earn a lot of money without taking too much time or effort, and preferably one that was easy. They did not want to build their own business, they wanted somebody to hire them to do simple tasks at high wages that took little time.
Sounds good, right? Except, such jobs don't actually exist. They just don't. If you want to work from home, with a few exceptions, you are going to need to start some sort of business. But if I brought this up to these people and even mentioned spending a few bucks, such as the $700-plus to build a decent website, with associated fees (like hosting and domain names), and on-going expenses, they looked at me like I was nuts. What? Spend money to make money? Are you crazy?
If you want to make money from home, you can. It's going to be hard and it's going to require effort and you're going to have to invest some capital, although probably a lot less than you think. But the point is, you are going to have to invest in yourself, because nobody else is going to. I think the reason it took me so long to figure this out is because, for me, this has always been so obvious. I have lots and lots of capital at risk in my book business, far more than I do in The VTL Team, so for me this was just Life 101.
The folks who turned down my offer are all good people, they all have much to offer and most of them would probably be great business owners, if they would only trust the one person that matters most: themselves.
I can't count how many times someone has asked me if I know of any jobs that can be done from home to earn a few extra bucks, usually by a spouse who works outside the home. In my experience, the economy has either blocked that spouse's promotion and flat-lined their pay scale, actually reduced their salary or, God forbid, threatened their job entirely. Not to mention those who are laid off and remain unemployed. Naturally these folks want their household to be as financially secure as possible, and on at least a dozen occasions I have tried to help people start their own home-based business. And none, not one of them, has ever taken me up on my offer to help. Not one.
I realize I'm not a financial genius, but I have run my own home-based business since 1998 and I offered my assistance to all of these people for free. FREE. My time, your potential earnings. Mr. Nice Guy just likes to see his friends succeed and wanted to helped them just to be a good friend. Yet none of those people ever took me up on my offer. Not one. And today I finally realized why.
See, those people did not actually want to start their own business. What they wanted was a home-based job built with somebody else's money, where they could earn a lot of money without taking too much time or effort, and preferably one that was easy. They did not want to build their own business, they wanted somebody to hire them to do simple tasks at high wages that took little time.
Sounds good, right? Except, such jobs don't actually exist. They just don't. If you want to work from home, with a few exceptions, you are going to need to start some sort of business. But if I brought this up to these people and even mentioned spending a few bucks, such as the $700-plus to build a decent website, with associated fees (like hosting and domain names), and on-going expenses, they looked at me like I was nuts. What? Spend money to make money? Are you crazy?
If you want to make money from home, you can. It's going to be hard and it's going to require effort and you're going to have to invest some capital, although probably a lot less than you think. But the point is, you are going to have to invest in yourself, because nobody else is going to. I think the reason it took me so long to figure this out is because, for me, this has always been so obvious. I have lots and lots of capital at risk in my book business, far more than I do in The VTL Team, so for me this was just Life 101.
The folks who turned down my offer are all good people, they all have much to offer and most of them would probably be great business owners, if they would only trust the one person that matters most: themselves.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Thinking things through
I wonder if Thomas is getting tired of hearing from me yet; I know that I would be. Anyway, I called him this morning with my latest brilliant revelation, namely that all businesses put some amount of capital at risk and have ongoing expenses, that all businesses have a break-even point and a profitable point, and that our newest webbventure is no different. Thomas had a great response to my deep thinking: well, duh!
Okay, he didn't say that, but I could hear it in his voice. I guess I'm slow, but business is business and this is no different, except that this one is fun, and the capital outlay is extremely small. Much smaller than that of my book business, for sure. So chalk up yet another light-bulb moment for yours truly, who catches on slower than most folks, but can see through a wall in time.
Bill
Okay, he didn't say that, but I could hear it in his voice. I guess I'm slow, but business is business and this is no different, except that this one is fun, and the capital outlay is extremely small. Much smaller than that of my book business, for sure. So chalk up yet another light-bulb moment for yours truly, who catches on slower than most folks, but can see through a wall in time.
Bill
Monday, September 19, 2011
VTLing
Good morning fellow VTLs. For those who don't know, which is everybody, that means 'Venturers Through Life'. I thought about 'adVenturers Through Life', but that seemed clumsy. Or maybe we'll ignore the 'ad' until it's written out. Yeah, I know, I really ponder the big ideas.
Yesterday I shocked my neighbors by doing something I don't do nearly often enough: I cut my grass. (In my defense, my life seems to come with more than its share of 'gotcha' moments.) It was not actually two-feet high, either, that was just a rumor. At its worst it couldn't have been more than a foot and a half. So as I was hacking my way through the dense undergrowth using a machete, I had plenty of time to think about the new business. (Usually I'm wondering what to make for dinner, or who thought putting Ted Danson on CSI was a good idea.) In these early stages I am doing what I always do with such a project, I nitpick it to death. Is this really a good deal, or isn't it? Before I go all in, I wanna know it's worth it.
My brother had some pointed questions, but I was able to answer them, which was good, but I can come up with plenty of objections of my own. And I do. I find a slightly better price here, or something similar there, and I question. But then I find out that there is more to this that I don't understand, and a light bulb goes off. For example, the trip to St. Maarten turns out to be real. The condo complex is, in reality, a 5 star luxury resort, and Tripadvisor reviews rate it 4.6 out of 5.0, which is astronomically high for them. The rate is less than you could stay at a dump in Memphis. Wowzer.
It started raining but I finished the front yard. My neighbors were thrilled. Dinner was barbeque pizza. I answered the latest questions about the business, but I still have no idea why Ted Danson is joining CSI.
Yesterday I shocked my neighbors by doing something I don't do nearly often enough: I cut my grass. (In my defense, my life seems to come with more than its share of 'gotcha' moments.) It was not actually two-feet high, either, that was just a rumor. At its worst it couldn't have been more than a foot and a half. So as I was hacking my way through the dense undergrowth using a machete, I had plenty of time to think about the new business. (Usually I'm wondering what to make for dinner, or who thought putting Ted Danson on CSI was a good idea.) In these early stages I am doing what I always do with such a project, I nitpick it to death. Is this really a good deal, or isn't it? Before I go all in, I wanna know it's worth it.
My brother had some pointed questions, but I was able to answer them, which was good, but I can come up with plenty of objections of my own. And I do. I find a slightly better price here, or something similar there, and I question. But then I find out that there is more to this that I don't understand, and a light bulb goes off. For example, the trip to St. Maarten turns out to be real. The condo complex is, in reality, a 5 star luxury resort, and Tripadvisor reviews rate it 4.6 out of 5.0, which is astronomically high for them. The rate is less than you could stay at a dump in Memphis. Wowzer.
It started raining but I finished the front yard. My neighbors were thrilled. Dinner was barbeque pizza. I answered the latest questions about the business, but I still have no idea why Ted Danson is joining CSI.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Hey, I've stayed there!
I know this second post is close to the first, but there may be times when there are long gaps in entries. I send my brother, Master Skeptic that he is, the video to watch, but he won't have a chance until later. In the meantime, he beat me up with every conceivable objection and, much to my surprise, I was able to answer. Wowzer!
Then, just playing around, I did some searching in Vienna and found the hotel we stayed at when were visited there in 2006. Strange, I never even knew its name. The Hotel Embassy. It was great, too. Anyway, I found the listed room rate and compared it to others. They were all about the same, which I thought was terrific, since ours has a concierge that can deal with any problems that might arise, thus providing more value. Okay then, so far, so good.
Then, just playing around, I did some searching in Vienna and found the hotel we stayed at when were visited there in 2006. Strange, I never even knew its name. The Hotel Embassy. It was great, too. Anyway, I found the listed room rate and compared it to others. They were all about the same, which I thought was terrific, since ours has a concierge that can deal with any problems that might arise, thus providing more value. Okay then, so far, so good.
In the beginning, there was skepticism.
According to the experts at the new company with which we are dealing, I should not be writing this blog. What we are doing is too complicated for a lot of people to understand without a formal presentation, and I have to admit there is something to this line of thinking. It's easy to describe in a soundbite, but not to describe accurately. There's a lot to it. But I'm writing the blog anyway, as that's what I do: I write. And when I write, I call it like I see it. No snow jobs, no BS, just what I perceive as the truth.
Having said all that, are you ready to rock?
Around the end of July Kathy called and said she was meeting with Thomas about a new business venture. Oh great, I said. Just what we need, something else to spend our time on. What was it this time?
As things turned out it was a business venture centered on travel. It took us a little while to clear enough time to really start looking into this, and that time for me started last Thursday when I finally found time to see the presentation. Then I followed that up with a meeting later that night. It was all very interesting and I was becoming convinced. The worst part was that if this did not turn out to be a bad idea, or a scam, then I would have to admit Kathy was right. After 33 years of marriage, that's not always easy.
But this was just the start of things. This blog is the next step. See, I'm a natural skeptic, some might even say cynic, but certainly a skeptic. I was up until midnight just last night trying to shoot holes in this new business of ours, trying to find legitimate criticisms on the net; I found criticisms, but very few of them sounded legitimate. Being a skeptic is a two-way street, and a lot of these sounded like competitors trying to run down the competition. You see this on Amazon.com all the time, where the author may ghost-write a favorable review of his book, but a rival may ghost-write a negative one. So, if I'm going to be skeptical of the company, I'm also going to be skeptical of the critics. I have seen this before, you see, people bashing something they don't like, and without a lot of merit. While researching an online school for a Master's Degree I read posts that were virtually identical to those I saw last night, making me wonder if there is a professional class of bashers out there who earn their living trashing new ideas and companies.
But I digress.
I found some critics, but I found a lot more accolades. So then I searched for price comparisons with the usual travel sites: Orbitz, hotels.com, expedia, etc. And I was surprised again. Sometimes they were cheaper, but sometimes we were cheaper. So now I'm ready to move on and find out whether this whole thing was the best idea we've had in decades, or the worst. Stay tuned.
Bill
PS: We're still designing the blog so if anyone has any comments about the layout, or the colors, like the color the text being easy or hard to read, please let us know. Thanks!
Having said all that, are you ready to rock?
Around the end of July Kathy called and said she was meeting with Thomas about a new business venture. Oh great, I said. Just what we need, something else to spend our time on. What was it this time?
As things turned out it was a business venture centered on travel. It took us a little while to clear enough time to really start looking into this, and that time for me started last Thursday when I finally found time to see the presentation. Then I followed that up with a meeting later that night. It was all very interesting and I was becoming convinced. The worst part was that if this did not turn out to be a bad idea, or a scam, then I would have to admit Kathy was right. After 33 years of marriage, that's not always easy.
But this was just the start of things. This blog is the next step. See, I'm a natural skeptic, some might even say cynic, but certainly a skeptic. I was up until midnight just last night trying to shoot holes in this new business of ours, trying to find legitimate criticisms on the net; I found criticisms, but very few of them sounded legitimate. Being a skeptic is a two-way street, and a lot of these sounded like competitors trying to run down the competition. You see this on Amazon.com all the time, where the author may ghost-write a favorable review of his book, but a rival may ghost-write a negative one. So, if I'm going to be skeptical of the company, I'm also going to be skeptical of the critics. I have seen this before, you see, people bashing something they don't like, and without a lot of merit. While researching an online school for a Master's Degree I read posts that were virtually identical to those I saw last night, making me wonder if there is a professional class of bashers out there who earn their living trashing new ideas and companies.
But I digress.
I found some critics, but I found a lot more accolades. So then I searched for price comparisons with the usual travel sites: Orbitz, hotels.com, expedia, etc. And I was surprised again. Sometimes they were cheaper, but sometimes we were cheaper. So now I'm ready to move on and find out whether this whole thing was the best idea we've had in decades, or the worst. Stay tuned.
Bill
PS: We're still designing the blog so if anyone has any comments about the layout, or the colors, like the color the text being easy or hard to read, please let us know. Thanks!
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