Jim Randel

Last week I was the business “expert” on a television program. One of the other guests was Kathy Ireland, former supermodel and Sports Illustrated cover girl.

After her modeling career, Ireland decided to start a home furnishings business. Like many entrepreneurs, she was told she was crazy and had no chance competing against the likes of Martha Stewart. But, she prevailed and today her business is amazingly successful. When the host of the TV show asked her secret to success, she said that her modeling career had taught her to deal with rejection and so she was very ready for the business world.

I think that there is something to this.

Whenever you try something new and creative, something that is off-center for you, you are sticking your neck out … and thereby risking the pain of rejection. This rejection can take many forms: people not taking you seriously, people ignoring your efforts, and even outright failure. And because rejection is so painful, many of us tend to keep our heads down … perhaps not content with the status quo but at least safe from the barbs of rejection.

Today I read an article about the two guys who started Twitter. Although not yet a financial success, Twitter is clearly a cultural phenomenon attracting millions of new users every month. One of the founders had bounced around in the business world before starting Twitter - for the most part he was unsuccessful in both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures. When asked whether he was discouraged by his many rejections, he said:

“No, I always figured that there was something wrong with everyone else.”

When we push the edges of our comfort zone, when we put ourselves out there for others to judge, we are risking negative feedback. Those willing to take this risk, those willing to confront the pain of rejection if and when it comes, are also those most likely to maximize their potential.

Rejection hurts. But so does staying with a lifestyle because it is safe - especially when you know it is not the right fit for you.

Jim Randel is the founder and co-author of The Skinny On™ series. His most recent book The Skinny On Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game is available at www.TheSkinnyOn.com

In last week’s blog post and e-letter I wrote about the need for each of us to think and act like an entrepreneur, the point being that one’s only safety net is the value proposition he or she offers to the marketplace. More on that next week.

But today, given the growth in the number of people following my e-letter (which makes me happy), I want to speak to the objectives I have for my writing.

I don’t need to tell you that the world is changing amazingly quickly. When it does, we can at times lose our sense of balance. As Alvin Toffler wrote in Future Shock (in 1970):

“When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation … he can no longer make the reasonably correct assumption on which rational behavior is dependent.”

In short, when there is too much going on, people (just like machines) can go tilt.

My hope with this post is to give you one or two thoughts or ideas every week that can help you move your life forward. This week I want to address inertia, the force of nature that will most assuredly having you do tomorrow what you are doing today (and so and so on and so on) unless you marshal your energies and focus to make the changes you need to. So, today my pitch is to be YOU. To stop the deliberation, the worrying and the uncertainty, and to start taking steps to bring your day-to-day life more closely into sync with your core values and dreams.

Studies have shown that when people look back on their lives, they regret inaction much more than they do action (mistakes). If you want to know more, see “The Experience of Regret: What, When and Why” published by the American Psychological Association.

Or, as newspaper columnist Sydney Harris said: “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”

Inertia is tough to resist…especially when everything is moving so quickly. We tend to find comfort in ritual - doing the same things over and over.

But inertia is the villain. We need to get off the path every so often just to check our bearings. We need to be sure that the steps we are taking are conscious decisions. We need to be sure that we are not just doing what feels safe.

Jim Randel is the founder and co-author of The Skinny On™ series. His most recent book The Skinny On Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game is available at www.JimRandel.com.

There was a time when having a job meant having a job. Today, having a job is more like a temporary assignment.

I’m not saying this is good or bad. My point is that in order to buttress your ability to make a living you need to see yourself as an entrepreneur - YOU, INC. - an entity that is self-dependent and always looking to add value to its “product line.”

In this rapidly changing and increasingly demanding world, the only real safety net you have underneath you is what YOU, INC. can supply the marketplace. Your ability to survive and prosper depends upon your singular skill set, your knowledge and information, your network and access, and how you are perceived and believed.

After watching survivors and succeeders for twenty-five years, and reading everything on the subject I could find, I have made a list of ten ways to add value to YOU, INC. I will address each one in future posts. For now, here is the list:

1. Mobility - an ability to respond to a demand for your skills

2. Liquidity - staying power during times of adversity

3. Personality - an ability to get people comfortable buying from you

4. Access-ability - who you have access to, i.e., the depth/breadth of your network

5. Curiosity - a willingness to learn and accumulate information that can help you

6. Physicality - physical health that can carry you during times of challenge

7. Intensity - a work ethic that will fuel your persistence

8. Visibility - a willingness to self-promote so that buyers know what you are selling

9. Adaptability - a facility for and fearlessness about change

10. Integrity - a long-term perspective

All you really have is YOU, INC. Get comfortable with that fact and now move on to do everything you can to make YOU, INC. as valuable as possible.

Jim Randel is the founder and co-author of the skinny on™ series. His most recent book The Skinny On Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game is available at www.JimRandel.com.

My office is on the perimeter of a golf course.  I enjoy watching the golfers.

There is a member of this club who is a world-class, amateur golfer.  He has won several international tournaments.  And here is what I have learned from him:  success is earned in the shadows.  Let me explain.

This man is out on the golf course practicing every day, usually at dawn or at dusk.  In fact sometimes there is hardly enough light to see.  But, he is always there - before or after his work day (he is a stockbroker).    

This man's example is a metaphor to me and how I feel about success.  

If you want something really badly, if you want to excel and be the best you can be, then ready yourself to earn your success in the shadows.  Understand that you will need to get up early to practice, study, prepare or review when others are sleeping.  Understand that you will need to work at your endeavor when you are tired and others are relaxing.  Understand that you may be very lonely at times when you struggle alone with a personal challenge while others enjoy friends and family. Understand that you will experience frustration, disillusionment and self-doubt as you seek to improve your standing, for success will never come as quickly or as easily as you hope.

Those who are prepared to struggle in the shadows, when it is hard to see the light, are  those most likely to find success in their chosen endeavor.

One of my favorite writers is a doctor named William James who many consider the father of American psychology.  In 1890 he completed a 2,900 page study titled The Principles of Psychology.  Here is an excerpt:

"(Some identify their goal) and know that the facing of its difficulties shall remain a permanent portion of their task ... They find a zest in this difficult clinging to the truth or a lonely sort of joy in pressing on the thorn ... which no passively warranted possession of it can ever confer.  And thereby they become the masters and the lords of life.  They must be counted with henceforth; they form a part of human destiny."

If you have a dream, understand that at times your quest will be painful and fatiguing, that at times no one will see the reality of your dream but you, that at times you will feel isolated and unsure, and that at times you will struggle in the shadows searching for the strength and the light to press on.

Jim Randel is the founder and co-author of the skinny on™ series. His most recent The Skinny on Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game is available at www.JimRandel.com