Counterintuivity

Someone shared with me an experience they had with a major retailer's training practices and it made me laugh. It was a lesson in counterintuivity...

This person was in line at a store that was hugely overpopulated for the amount of customers in the store. The store was in the process of training employees to manage one of their new 'self-service' checkouts. Three employees were being trained on the use and maintenance of the system, while one was left to deal with the growing line of customers at the 'traditional' full service checkout.

Picture this, three employees standing at a checkout that is designed to free employees from needing to stand at a checkout. One employee dealing with growing line of frustrated customers.

Counterintuitive.

Unspecialized Entrepreneurialism

Everything I read tells me to be the master at one topic. Focus on a topic, and then spew everything you can think of in a topic. Offer 80 services based on one service or product.

My problem is I am unspecialized. I enjoy a bit of everything and there are few things that I jump into so enthusiastically as to be able to say it is a passion. I own two different domain names, one is for my home business, the other was intended to be a place where people could share their passions. I quickly realized that I knew nothing about passion and didn't know where to go with a website based on passions.

So although I own the domain name, you can't see it, for it is unspecialized.

I believe that it is a great asset to be unspecialized. I know a great deal about a great deal of topics and rather than fully committing my every resource and time into one thing I learn something about many different things. Most recently I've been learning the guitar and music theory.

In a business model, unfortunately unspecialized doesn't pay. Distracted product lines or services don't lend a business a lot of credibility in the eyes of the consumer.

As unspecialized as you may be personally, try not to be an unspecialized entrepreneur.

Learn Guitar Online

I came across a great site today that teaches you to play the guitar online using video and community support.

I haven't had the chance to apply yet, but I most definitely will be! This site has tons of courses separated by topic. Each lesson includes video, an explanation of all areas of the video as well as an area under each topic where you can leave messages for the instructor and other pupils.

Visit www.guitarmasterclass.net to check it out, a great way to learn the guitar.

Uncomfortable? Wait for the Growth.

I watched a video The Infinite Thinking Machine. The author was speaking about New Year's and what he wanted to see in 2007.

The best part of the whole video was the very end. The author said that for 2007 he wants to see people take risks, big risks, small risks, it doesn't matter. From the risks you may experience failure, and that is encouraging too. Learn from failure, evaluate, and grow.

Yesterday I was responsible for training 14 new employees who we had flown in from around the country. I was a little bit uncomfortable about the idea at first, being that I am a young man and all of my employees are much older and in many respects, much more experienced. But I was confident, presented my information, and gained a lot of growth from the experience. I imagine it will be a landmark day in my life.

If you're uncomfortable doing something, or starting something, chances are there is growth to be experienced. Once you get past the fear of change or the unknown, there is a lot for you to discover.

Why You Should

After a hard day of work, I was at a lounge with one of my bosses. We had a great conversation about how he started his business from the ground up years ago.

He said to me, "You know, there were a lot of people giving me a lot of reasons why I shouldn't or couldn't do it, now I'm here doing it and they are still waiting tables."

He is very successful, a young man who started something many years ago and made strategic alliances ever since to realize his vision. There were lots of reasons why he shouldn't have started the business, he had two kids, a wife, a mortgage, a salary at a regular job, and no money to invest in his new start-up. But all he needed was the one good reason to proceed.

One good reason is all it takes, rather than focusing on the reasons why you shouldn't, you should focus on the reasons why you should.