Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Business

How To Be On-Purpose in Business & LIfe

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You never really know how your work touches another person’s life.While I’ve known Dr. Jim for over 30 years, I had no idea until this interview the impact of our working together on his 2-word purpose. Here’s the interview in its entirety.

Jim, as you’ll see, is a bright guy with a curious mind and a steward’s heart. His strong Christian faith comes through in this interview — as does mine. Thanks to his inquisitive mind, we go deep with some on-purpose principles. Given our relationship, there’s a natural comfort in our conversation, which I hope translates into a deeper appreciation and application of your 2-word purpose.   As always, your comments are welcomed.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Dr. Jim Harris

The Persisting Presences

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Saturday, June 10, 2023, Judith and I attended the Consecration and Installation of the Right Reverend Justin Holcomb as the Episcopal Bishop of Central Florida. It was a glorious occasion filled with pomp and circumstance, worship music, a bench of bishops, a pontification of priests and deacons, and a congregation of witnesses and worshippers for communion.  

Pictured above is the profound moment when Bishop-Elect Holcomb is in prostration (green circle) before the Presiding Bishops and bench of Bishops. Soon they will examine and lay hands of Apostolic succession upon him. This posture of submission represents a reverent obedience and total surrender to Christ. It is a breathtaking experience to witness.

This moment (to me) symbolizing the two persisting presences tugging and tearing on all our hearts: God and the World. Ironically, all those surrounding the Bishop-Elect individually and organizationally are the most likely candidates to distract him from this prime directive.

The prostration message is simple: God first. This isn’t just for Bishop Holcomb. This visual depiction of The Greatest Commandment is for all of us. First God, then God and Self, and finally Others is the key to a whole life within the chaotic and confusing swirl of competing interests. 

We are called to be conduits of service. Yet, as so many constituents draw down on us, the risk of putting service ahead of God is the path to being burned out and bummed out. How, then, do we remain committed and connected to the source, while not being drained by the calling of one’s work?

This wondrous notion and potential for an aligned, integrated, and fluid series of vigorous relationships is animated by a third persisting presence. Your God-gifted 2-word purpose energizes and makes the desirable outpouring of one’s Body, Mind, and Spirit personal, actionable, and alive, but most of all protected. This believed bond discerns what’s off- or on-purpose and reveals what’s wise to do, delete, or delegate.

Leaders, you don’t have to be a Bishop to commit to God first.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

PS: Here’s my bride and me with Bishop Holcomb

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Daring You To Be A Commonwealth Capitalist

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Let’s get some terms on the table to guide our conversation.

Capitalism is the economic system by which private enterprise is the chief means of production and distribution of goods and services in a nation.

Socialism is an economic and political system whereby the chief means of production is controlled by the government or publicly owned.

A Commonwealth is a nation, state, or political group that is founded on law or agreement to serve the common good or to serve to the advantage of one’s self and others.

Communism is an economic and political system with a single central authority with the collective ownership of property, labor, and means of production and distribution whereby its people are required to serve the greater good or the state’s agenda.

Individualism is a belief in the primary and moral worth of the individual to make decisions, to be self-reliant, and to be free to pursue self-interest.

Collectivism is a belief placing the community’s worth, morality, and interest first.

Materialism is a belief that the personal accumulation of money and physical comfort are the chief aim of the individual, at the exclusion of spiritual or intellectual endeavors.

Idealism is a belief that the basis of all life is rooted in mind, spirit, or soul apart from the material.

Clarify your beliefs to gain deep personal insight on the social, economic, moral, and political foundations defining how you operate in the world as an individual, a partner, a parent, a friend, and a business owner or team member.

Why am I daring you as a business person to be a Commonwealth Capitalist, basically the left side of the above list? You are capable of being an even better leader of your life than you already are. Yet, if you don’t take a stand, you’ll be squashed by your ignorance. On the other hand, better understanding who you are and where you stand provides you a meaningful opportunity to tap into a even deeper anchoring of who you are being and becoming. You may love your specific choices or doubt them, or reject them with greater insight and appreciation thanks to heightened awareness about the underpinnings of your thoughts.

Capitalism is proven to be the greatest system in the world for raising the standard of living for any people group. From the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers of the USA to today, the ideals of free enterprise, fair competition, personal responsibility, and rule of law have proven to create a prosperous nation. However, raw capitalism left unchecked leads to materialism and greed. Raw capitalism, therefore, must be checked by justice and further moderated by idealism and mercy.

A Commonwealth Capitalist is a business person who eagerly accepts personal responsibility while also embracing and acting upon the moral urging of the soul to do right by others. Their “pursuit of happiness” is not a headlong charge of individual aggrandizement and enrichment. Theirs is a shared and uplifting journey that’s the epitome of the adage “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Be On-Purpose!

 Kevin

Daring Business Owners to Profit the World

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Why does your business exist? Pause and answer. 

Image of man fanning one hundred dollar bills with the question, Why does your business exist?

Over the decades, I’ve posed this question to business leaders and audiences. Here’s the four most popular and consolidated responses of my unvalidated survey:

  • 50% to make money or to profit the shareholders
  • 20% to sell goods or services to customers
  • 20% to provide jobs
  • 10% to raise the standard of living in society

So what did you answer?

The first three accurately describe what businesses do (missions), but not the reason why businesses exist (purpose). Confusing missions as purpose creates an “it’s all about me first” approach to leading a business. Such a self-centered orientation distorts the business and ironically diminishes performance. 

Unfortunately, this is the prevailing principle at work within the CEO-system of business administration. Most business owners are unwittingly placing mission ahead of purpose from ignorance, not malice. Regardless, the adverse effects remain the same.

Purpose provides a point of origin to meaningfully resolve, satisfactorily align, and fluidly blend otherwise competing interests in service to God, self, and others. Purpose (being) informs vision (seeing) and is expressed through its missions (doing) while guided by its values (choosing).

Businesses hold the special opportunity to profit (add value) to the world’s people. Business is first a social construct whose greatest potential to earn, sell, and hire ultimately relies upon improving the lives or standard of living of people — shareholders, team members, customers, vendors, and more. This common good mindset is akin to answering the question, “How does our business make a difference or the world a better place?”

If your business doesn’t have a 2-word purpose, you’ll find in Chief Leadership Officer the suggestion to use “We exist to serve by Increasing Wealth.” One caveat for using wealth (state of weal or well-being) is to embrace the whole person perspective (body, mind, spirit, and financial) plus working and living conditions — one’s standard of living. 

My bet is you don’t have a purpose statement. Rather you have a vision or missions and you’ve haven’t a clue what its costing your company in lost financial profit.

Business has a high and noble role to play in society. We are to profit the world–to make the world a better place. I dare you to re-consider how your business purpose is stated, communicated, and integrated throughout your company.

Let your business reformation begin!

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

PS: Need some help sorting out purpose, vision, missions, and values. Schedule a time to Pick Kevin’s Brain.

Are You a “Daring” Entrepreneur?

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 In the title, “Daring” is in quotes because we entrepreneurs may be risk-takers but we’re not gamblers. The beauty and artistry of launching a business is that a person can start with nothing more than an idea and bring it to life to enrich peoples’ lives. Daring, however, is best left for daredevils not founders.

Entrepreneurs typically operate in one of the following seven stages. Knowing this prepares you for your journey.

  1. Contemplating: What will it take to quit my job and start a business in my search of independence, opportunity, and wealth?
  2. Enraptured: In the “hands on” start-up of organizing the business — the honeymoon stage.
  3. Captured: All time, money, attention, and energy are imprisoned by this relentlessly needy foundling. 
  4. Emerging: The founder of this thriving business says, “Why didn’t I start this years before?”
  5. Expanding: Scaling a team, culture, and brand. 
  6. Exiting: Who will replace me as the leader?
  7. Exited: Moving on to what’s next.

Navigating from stage 1 through to stage 7 involves integrating an increasingly complex variety of disciplines. Each stage opens to frontier territory with a wondrous confounding set of challenges and learning experiences. Some of these roadblocks will bog down the emerging business leader for days to decades. The School of Hard Knocks carries a high cost of tuition. There is a better way!

May I serve you? I am a lifelong student of business and leadership. I began as a nine-year-old entrepreneur selling candy on the school bus. Business degrees plus a series of failures and successes decades later, authoring bestselling books, and advising top decision makers in all seven stages has honed my talent to cut to the root cause. It’s a jagged path with ups and downs but I can help you flow more fluidly from stage to stage.

Don’t be daring. Work smart. Set your company and team up for success. Recognize financial profit is a net result and not your reason for being in business. Build from your personal 2-word purpose toward the vision in your mind’s eye. Organize, delegate, and serve, and you will likely realize what you set out to achieve and then some.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

PS: Got a Puzzling Problem?

Book me for a prepaid 45-minute business growth session. Satisfaction is guaranteed or your money is returned. Learn more at  www.PickKevinsBrain.com

How to Name (or Rename) Your Business Right for Success

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Creating a Right Business Name

Keep Your Business Name As Simple As Possible

Business naming is a combination of art and science. Done right, it sets your business up for long-term success. How? A good business name eases the marketing and sales process, builds customer and team member loyalty, and provides a strong ROI.

If your business name isn’t helping you, then it’s hurting you. Why settle for anything less? Let’s get your business name right from the start-up, or rename your business to gain a host of business advantages.

Business naming is a big subject. Let’s focus on the start-up entrepreneur and the small-to-midsize business owner. Large corporations typically turn to their internal marketing team, an outside ad agency, or strategy consultants like On-Purpose Partners for this work. Because you’re reading this, is it fair to assume you don’t have $1 million like Pepsi spent in 2008 to change their logo?

Creating a right business name is first a strategic process. Start-ups have the advantage of the proverbial greenfield to start fresh. In an existing business, a business name change typically means something isn’t working with the current name. Perhaps you need a new name because your business and another are merging. Beneath a new business name, something strategic is in play.

Business naming problems fall into broad categories such as being too long, too difficult to spell, or too hard to remember or pronounce. It takes an extra investment of time, money, and effort to establish a difficult business name. However, once established, the business name can become distinctive. Here’s an article from HubSpot on hard-to-pronounce business names that you likely know.

Creating a right business name has practical implications. The business name will visually appear in print and in pixels. It will be in use everywhere. It will also be spoken on video, podcasts, radio, and other audio formats. It will be converted into a graphic for placement on signs, doors, trucks, business cards, stationery, banners, and more. Your business name is tightly tied to your brand strategy and implementation.

Creating a right business name has personal implications. For many owners, your business name is a reflection of you personally. In addition to the physical assets of your business, your business name lives as intellectual property with a goodwill value for when you sell the business or pass it on to others.

Creating a right business name has creative effect. Do you want a catchy business name, a cute business name, a prestigious-sounding company name, or (to the other end of the spectrum) a short, nondescript name that you build into a brand? Do you want your business name to be bold or subtle?

How to Get Your Business Naming Process Started

Business Naming exercise
Business Naming Brainstorming Exercise

Here at On-Purpose Partners, clients periodically seek me out to help them name or rename a business, product, or service. Because they recognize I’m gifted with distilling big concepts into a few words, as in a 2-word purpose statement, I’m a natural for this work. I’m remarkably fast and accurate at naming businesses, programs, products, and such. Pushing the boundaries of the mundane to get to something magical is really a blast! And, as a business owner myself, I appreciate what all is riding on the business name. There’s an urgency to get the business name in place sooner rather than later. Otherwise, the business is can get bogged down and kill precious time.

Here’s the way the business naming process works:

Initial Consult: This is typically a 30-minute over-the-phone or video call where we mutually assess fit and appropriateness. If both of us agree it’s the right fit, engage me via a Small Business Advisory Package (as long as your revenues are under $1 million). If you’re a larger company, then our next step is a consulting engagement with the On-Purpose Partners team that I’m leading. The fees vary based on the degree of complexity, which includes but isn’t limited to the size (sales and people) of your company, the stakes involved, the number and level of decision-makers who need to sign off, and the speed of your need. We only work directly with the company owner, president, Managing Director, CEO, or CLO.

Engagement: Ready to get started? Below is the typical flow of a business-naming engagement.

Prep Me: In advance of our interview(s), send me links to your current website and LinkedIn profile. This helps me get a sense of your company and you. If you have an existing product or service, if possible, I want to experience it. Send me your available product and current marketing, brand guidelines, or business plans. If none of these exist, no problem — we’ll talk it through.

Give me context. The nature of your business matters when it comes to business naming. For example, business naming for a B2B enterprise versus a B2C company typically defines a direction.

Prep You: You’ll be given access to use ONPURPOSE.me to find your purpose in life. The best small businesses are ultimately the expression of a person’s purpose and passion. Your 2-word purpose provides a solid basis to craft your business name and to assess if the business name and your purpose are meaningfully aligned.

Interviews: You’ll be interviewed about what’s working and what isn’t working with your business name as well as your business. It’s vital we establish a dollar value to renaming the business. It may not be worth it or it may be worth a lot. This metric is important. Otherwise, it is easy to put off working on the business. There are always pressing issues, and business naming is easy to put off. Here’s where my accountability to move the project along matters.

Once I’m prepared to meet with you, we begin a fun, exploratory process. My first question is, “What’s your gut tell you to name the business and why?”

You’ve been thinking about this for some time and I want your thoughts. Put your ideas out there. While you may not be gifted at business naming, you know your business. This is our starting point that tells me what you have in mind.

I’ll ask a number of related questions to assess the fit with your vision (where you envision your business going), missions (what you do), and your values (what is important to you). Surprisingly, we may be able to tweak what you have and be done in minutes. Business naming isn’t something you do on a regular basis so my best advice involves affirming your keen thoughts.

I may even throw a number of business names in your direction just to get a sense for your personal preferences and to hear your reaction. Ultimately, this is your business and you want to be proud of it. This fast, creative, instinctive process can produce remarkable results so you can get moving now!

The instinctive approach works best for start-ups and small businesses. This collaborative business naming approach gets to a business name thoughtfully fast. You’re relying upon my decades of business experience to absorb the spirit of your intentions and to translate that into an immediate and sustainable business advantage.

Beyond the instinctive approach is a more structured approach that most often comes into play for midsize or larger companies where lots of livelihoods are at stake. This typically involves a 30-day process and can range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, subject to complexity. At this point, you’ll have a written contract to sign.

If the instinctive process fails to produce near-immediate results, we move to a more structured approach. This is typically needed in midsize companies and larger.

Competitive Assessment: Give me the names of your top 3 to 5 competitors. I will assess how far behind or ahead you are of your competition from a strategic and marketing perspective for attracting and keeping customers and team members.

Set Criteria: Based on all I’ve learned, we’ll collaborate to create criteria to measure how well potential business names achieve the desired business goals and outcomes. For example, does LLC or Co. or Company need to show up in your business name? How long or short does the name need to be?

Suggestions: For existing businesses, we may write a briefing or produce a video to share that a renaming process is underway. Next, we launch a campaign to invite related parties (team members, customers, vendors), asking for their suggestions.

Collaborate to Create a List: Eventually, all those involved go away to just noodle on a new business name and send me their suggestions. I compile their suggestions, plus I do “my thing” as my team calls it.

I use a combination of internet research, the dictionary, mind-mapping, and conversations with consulting peers and creatives to come up with a list of names. During this creative process, I’m also searching for trademark and domain name availability so we don’t fall in love with a name we can’t readily use. I’m also searching for variations on the name, including misspellings. For example, Lyft, the shared-driving service, plays off the concept of giving some a lift or a ride somewhere.

Presentation(s): Depending on the size of your company and the number of decision-makers involved, I cull down the list to a reasonable number of business name options where we weigh the pros and cons against our gut and against the criteria. This may take a few rounds of whittling the list to the final selection.

A New Business Name!: Now that you have a new business name, this opens up a host of wonderful opportunities — plus work. You’ll need a new logo, an outreach campaign to announce your great news, and more.

Business Naming Lessons

Over my decades of doing this kind of work, I’ve learned a few lessons. Here’s a few:

Generally, the shorter the name the better. A short name works better for memorability, graphics, and efficiency in all communications. Simple sells better and faster. The more people can remember your business name, the easier it is for them to refer people to you.

Business naming is easier when business strategy is in place. At On-Purpose Partners, we help clients write their deep strategy of purpose, vision, missions, and values. These are defining statements that feed into the naming process.

Business naming draws upon the past while inspiring the future. Even if your business is a new start-up, you have a history that led to this point. You also have a vision for where you want it to go. And you need to act in the present.

Get it right the first time. Business name changes are a big deal. You don’t want to do them very often. Everything from filing a name change with state, federal, and local agencies to communicating with vendors and customers to graphics to banking and checkbooks and more are just some of the realities of a business name change. The corollary to this, however, is:

When your business name stops working for you, make the business name change fast. My father-in-law was a dairy farmer and had an expression about dragging things out: “It’s like cutting the tail of the dog off an inch at a time thinking it won’t hurt ’em so much.” Act and act decisively.

Digging deeply into your personal, career, and business history produces gold! By also exploring your dreams and aspirations, we’re more apt to land on a solidly meaningful name for your business. The added benefit of this is a significant strategic advantage because the purpose, vision, missions, and values of your business are clarified.

Decide if you’re building a practice, a lifestyle business, or a business. What’s the difference? A practice is a business a professional builds. A lifestyle business meaningfully integrates one’s life and work to where profit-making is one of several measures of success. A business is a serious, all-in endeavor with significant aspirations and ambitions that will employ lots of people and serve many customers. This relates to the purpose, vision, missions, and values of the business and its owner(s).

Founders matter. Founders insert a spiritual DNA into a business that sets a pattern and mindset. Sometimes that is good and other times it isn’t. For example, renaming may be necessary to reinvent the organizational culture.

Your business is its identity in the marketplace. The business name and your business strategy, marketing, graphics, sales, and team culture are all influenced. Investing in such a vital aspect of your business on the front end has very practical human, operational, and financial implications. It’s a small forward investment with dividends through to a retirement or exit strategy!

Do I use my name in naming my business? Yes and No!

Ford or General Motors? Post Cereal or Generals Mills? Hewlett-Packard or IBM? The first business name in each pair bears the name of its founder. The second group doesn’t. There is no right answer, just the one that best suits your needs. There’s also change. Edison General Electric Company became General Electric Company in 1892.

Here’s some guidelines and examples:

Are you a start-up solo owner who is a coach, consultant, counselor, trainer, lawyer, CPA, engineer, realtor, broker, architect or other role that’s providing professional services? If so, then using your name in the business name of your practice often makes sense.

If you’re a personality-based business, such as an author, politician, artist, solo musician, TV or radio personality, comic, keynote speaker, etc. and that’s your gig, then use your name.

Using your last name in your business is fairly typical but not necessarily all that inspiring. For example, if I were starting a business, I could name it McCarthy & Associates or McCarthy Company, if it is available. Typically, this business-naming method conveys a small professional service led by one person and perhaps a small team. Frankly, I find these names bland from a marketing perspective, but they may also reflect the personality or lack of marketing expertise of the owner. Ironically, it is truth in advertising.

On the other extreme is the Trump brand. Heck, it helped Donald J. Trump become the President of the United States!

My colleague, Terry Pappy, is a talented solopreneur business advisor. She formed PappyClub to help her peeps build their businesses and brands. She included her last name in the business name to convey that you’ll be hanging out with Terry as she coaches and offers business and marketing insights. She’s very sharp, quick-witted, and fun to be around so being in a “club” with Terry matches her style.

What about using your first name? I engaged the services of Jan & Susan, a virtual assistant team. Jan and Susan are the two founders who elected to use their first names in their business name. Perhaps they were fans of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and followed their lead?

But using your name isn’t always right for naming a professional services business. Since 2008, Julie Holzmann has provided copy editing and proofreading services. She calls her business WordProofing. We created a tagline of “You write. Then I right. (That’s word proofing.)” The business name conveys what she does so there was no need to include her name.

The benefit of not having your name in the business is when people are looking to the business and not a specific person. That makes it easier to add people to the team and create more long-term freedom. Frankly, there’s an element of ego involved, hopefully healthy ego. And there can be an element of low self-esteem involved that prevents a person from naming their business with their name.

Name That Business!

Naming a business seems like such a simple task. To some degree it is, especially for start-ups, professionals, and small businesses. In fact, business naming is a vitally important, sophisticated task that touches every facet of your business, primarily because it is how people will identify, relate, and brand their experience with your company.

Related post: Insider Scoop to Naming Your Business: Ice Cream Edition

Have You Thanked a Business Owner Lately?

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The small business owner (aka solo owner, solopreneur, SOHO, or solo) is the unsung hero of modern society. Their pursuit of a dream is epic, daring, and brave. Small businesses dot the business landscape, and in the years to come more people will turn to starting a business for additional income or to replace a lost job or create one. Profit making is alive and we all benefit from the efforts of solopreneurs.

What does it mean to be in business? Being in business is a high and noble calling!

I love what the opportunity to start and run a business brings in terms of

  • creativity
  • production
  • value-adding
  • improved standards of living
  • funding of worthy causes

People who start businesses have my respect. Regardless of whether they’re starting a home-based business, a family business, or a high-growth/high-potential venture, they’re pursuing a dream with boldness.

Small business people are heroes. Every business starts as a small business. Business owners are to the Knowledge Age what the farmers were at the turn of the 20th Century: men and women who are willing to lay the mantle of responsibility on their shoulders and pull the greater load in hopes of a greater gain.

Business owners risk much in hopes of gaining much and giving more.

Certainly, profits and a better lifestyle are part of the anticipated gain. But there’s more. The measured ability to create and control one’s life, schedule, and vocational pursuits is the height of healthy individualism.

Truth be told, if you want to mature and grow into a better person—start a business! Government doesn’t build businesses, people do.

Find a need and fill it! That is the mantra of the business owner.

Like ants scouring a picnic ground for food, entrepreneurs search the marketplace for a business opportunity or find gaps of need in the market through inventive initiative. All types of businesses are launched—service, retail, professional, manufacturing, industrial, and, the hot item today, an internet-based business. Opportunity abounds!

Business owners do more than employ people.

Business owners create jobs when they manage their businesses prudently. Most of the business owners I know are generous with those in their charge.

For many, employment is simply another form of ministry.

I’m not talking charity here. No, we’re talking about

  • mentoring and development of others
  • providing opportunities
  • raising up leaders
  • entrusting managers
  • training the unskilled

Business owners see, find, and act on the good in others because it is simply good for business and, even better, for life.

Who’s typically volunteering? Look around and notice.

You’ll find small business owners serving on boards, volunteering for coaching, taking their lunch hours to serve the poor, being active in a church, driving Meals on Wheels, and more. These are the backbone of society. They’ve chosen a different path from their corporate counterparts who must manage vacation days, punch a clock, or otherwise account for their time to their employers in terms of ROI, not altruism.

So do this: Thank a business owner today for improving your community and life.

As you prepare to purchase gifts or engage services, make the special effort to support a local small business person. Investing your hard earned cash into a sale in their business recycles into your community in ways you may never fully grasp. Be thankful for them, for you know not their struggles and thhe hardships it takes to keep the doors open to be there for you when you need them.

———CLARITY_FOR_SOLOS_by_Adam_Dudley

Recommended Resource: CLARITY FOR SOLOS

My colleague and Winter Park neighbor, Adam Dudley, has written a book. I had a few sneak peeks along the way in the writing process and I really liked what I read. While our writing styles and perspectives are different, we share a heart for the plight of the solo owner.

Adam, a huge advocate of yoga, brings a rather chill, yet focused perspective to the realities of being a solo. He gets himself out of the way to care for your needs. Adam is a thoughtful coach who listens well, processes in your best interest, and then offers wise counsel. Below his peaceful nature, the wheels are spinning as he’s thinking about what you need to succeed.

CLARITY FOR SOLOS offers great advice for solo and small business owners who are confused, stuck, or unsure about what to do next. It’s available on Amazon.com. Click the image to preview it.

Do You Feel Like a Failure?

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Do you feel like a failure? How are you choosing to frame “failure”?

Unemployment, slow business, foreclosures, and underemployment are just some of the struggles pressing into the hearts and minds of many today. As debt stares you in the face and the opportunities apparently diminish, the personal repercussions can cause us to lose hope and begin to see our lives as failing.

This situational depression can weigh on one’s spirit to the point of discouragement and negativity if we paint ourselves as failures.

What if your perspective, not your current circumstance, is the problem?

Today’s On-Purpose Minute invites us to stop looking outward and begin looking inward and upward for a fresh approach that holds the key to grasping the present situation and life beyond.

Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, saw “failure” as information. (See the video clip “I Haven’t Failed” by my actor friend, Frank Attwood, who portrays Edison.) How many times have you tried and “failed” only to discover you were one step closer to success?

Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director, in the movie Apollo 13 is attributed with saying “Failure is not an option,” in the face of saving the crew in space. When failure isn’t an option, then what are the options?

  • Learning
  • Growth
  • Preparation
  • Creativity
  • Exploration
  • Work-arounds

Fresh and exciting options must open up!

When we play scared, we play not to win.

The best we can do is hold steady or lose ground. A shaky self-defeating cycle is set up that once it is in motion can gain momentum and overwhelm us.

Learning to play with reasoned abandon may sound like an oxymoron, but it isn’t. It means that we’re disconnected specifically to the end result, but we’re highly focused on the matters at hand. This frees us to play for the sheer joy and moment, yet aware that what we’re doing in the moment matters. Athletes call it being in “the zone.” It is preparation and hard work intersecting with opportunity.

Truthfully, you’re apt “to choke” the first few encounters, but in time you’ll grow through the experience and be on the way to success. That’s how failures become successes.