Month: June 2009

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com **

We are alive, as entrepreneurs. Sometimes your eyes can be bigger than your stomach, and that has been happening to me in the last weeks, but I am back in the routine, back in the game and back in The Entrepreneur Notes.
The last weeks have been interesting, I have been really busy, but I have moved forward on some of the important projects that were landing on my lap. Of course, I have not been able to accomplish everything I should (writing on here for example) but I am happy with the result so far.
Also last week, I began reading Pamela Slim new book: Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur (http://tinyurl.com/qwotgt). It is a great book, and I think a must read for anyone already on the Entrepreneur realms or thinking about jumping on this boat. Also later on the week, I was talking to a fellow entrepreneur and friend of mine about how different our objectives are in the entrepreneurship arena, how different our goals and objectives are with our business and entrepreneurship adventures. I am creating freedom, that it is the objective of my entrepreneurship, I am escaping from cubicle nation (do not laugh, at least I am escaping to my own cubicle for now), I am creating a world in which I can work from Los Angeles today and from Timbuktu tomorrow, I want the freedom to travel, but more importantly, the freedom to enjoy my family, to be there for my family. His objectives, even though put their family high in the lists are to be part of a public elite like Bill Gates, Donald Trump or Steve Jobs.
What it is your objective as an entrepreneur?
As an entrepreneur, I am sure there are two main objectives for me, one to get out of the rat race, second to create freedom. I am sure I do not want to to create my own rat wheel, and I love the story on Pamela’s book (Location 1277-1283 on the Kindle Version) when she got the opportunity to talk to a group of people in Washington DC. After consideration of the requirements and sacrifices she had to do in order to accomplish that, she decided that she was not the right person for the job, in my words, taking that opportunity would have been equivalent to creating her own rat wheel.
It is critical as an entrepreneur that you define your objective, you want to make sure that you do not create your own rat wheel, unless that it is your objective. I love to use Mindjet MindManager, and I have created many vision boards there, including one for my entrepreneur objectives, that include the kind of attire I will wear (at this time its crocs, shorts and polo shirts); the tools I will use (macbook and my iphone); the activities that I will do to complement my job (playing Golf, Biking, reading, meditating); and the things I will do as part of the job (yes there are some that I do and will do that I will not enjoy; accounting) but the objective is to make sure that I do the ones I enjoy
Have you defined your objectives as an entrepreneur? Do you have a checklist or vision board to keep yourself in check? And make sure you do not begin building your own rat wheel. Care to share?

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com **

I want to refer to an article I found this weekend, that was a great inspiration for me, the article was published on Write to Done (http://writetodone.com/2009/06/05/a-forgotten-key-to-blogging-success/)and was write by Glen Allsopp (@PluginID).
Any adventure you embark as an entrepreneur is full of fears, doubts and hopes, and sometimes we let those fear and doubts get in the middle of those hopes. I am aware, that I struggle with the english language, I have a good friend of mine tell me that my english expires at 3:30pm, after that all bets are off.
When I begin writing here, some of my friends first comment was my english was going to make me loose readership, and will hurt the message I was trying to send, to the point that I have been asking a great friend or my wife to read and correct my post before they get published. This has generated two issues, that I was not aware of when I ask for help. Number one is the time that takes to post anything since I have lost that inspiration since I am afraid of the mistakes, I am afraid to post in a moment noticed and that fear has also play a role in the frequency of posts. Second has take a toll on my self confidence for this adventure.
After I read Glen post, specifically after he mention Alvin Phang and Steve Pavlina, I stop and reflect. This is my adventure, I am not great at this, yet. I am working to get there, I am working to improve my english, my posts, my grammar; but my message and my content will only improve over time and as a organic evolution.
From this point on there will be grammatical mistakes, I will continue struggling with my english and I hope you can bear with this and stay. Otherwise, I hope you return when my english is good enough for you, I will focus more on the content, on the advice, on the message.
Thanks in advance to the ones that will stay, and I hope the best of luck to the ones that will not, and I hope that I can bring them back in the future.
All this thinking remind me of the following:
At the beginning you will maybe be not that great, at the end, maybe you will continue without been that great. In the middle you should work hard to have a great journey!
Augusto Pinaud