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One of the most impactful 10-week seminars I ever did with Landmark Education asked the participants to look at their lives as a business. Me, Inc.
At that point in my life I was better, much better at business than at life… and maybe, if you look closely, I still am.
I am going to ask you the same thing Landmark Education asked us: consider your life a business. If you are suddenly experiencing an oh oh moment, or an ugh moment, you are not alone.
Almost everyone I know is guilty of misusing their assets, wasting them, and not paying any attention at the bottom line… so this will be a useful article, if you can just get over yourself, and get curious… and into learning mode.
Ready? No? Then come back later…
‘Your business is kind of like sex. If you’re not enjoying it, you’re probably not doing it right.’ ~ Bill Maher
Every life, every Me, Inc. needs to have a purpose, a product, at least one happy customer, transactions, assets, processes, and a bottom line: a business needs to turn a profit… that is the purpose of a business.
There are men (maybe women as well) who go around and save failing businesses. They are called turnaround specialists.
These experts go from company to company and set them straight, if they can see that the business can be set straight, and after that it will make enough money to make it worth their while.
They are not angels, not do-gooders, they are in the business of turning companies around, and make lots of money that way.
So the first question you may want to ask yourself: would a turnaround specialist would touch Me, Inc with a 6-foot pole, or not?
I literally don’t know anyone with a really successful life that you could call a successfully run business with real profits. Maybe I just don’t know enough people? Maybe.
So what does a turnaround specialist do?
The first thing is organizing a business as a business… most actual businesses lack a purpose, a product, have no processes, and no wonder they don’t turn a profit.
So that is the first thing to do.
The next, is to eliminate anything and everything that doesn’t actually serve directly the purpose, the product, and the processes.
Most businesses, and most lives are fat, bloated, and sluggish… leak energy. Most businesses and most lives also have unused resources, time, products, energy, that are not being taken advantage of.
I have a student who has 20 clients, he is doing their books and accounting, that he can turn around just by focusing them and leading them to use their unused resources… and make a pretty penny in the process… And have fun.
Working on someone else’s business is a lot more fun that working on your own.
But not until the necessary slimming process is finished… and that process is painful.
In my life I had to cut out an awful lot of activities that produced no ‘profit’ while they ate up a lot of time.
What is profit in terms of a Me, Inc?
Fun, health, harmony in relationships, growth, these are the actual profits in a me,Inc.
How much of those are you having at the present time? If you are like most people, not much. You are stretching yourself thin, with nothing much to show for your efforts.
But cutting away the ‘fat’ is painful, and takes, often, communication. Cutting away relationships that don’t turn ‘profit’… or at least make them minimally time consuming.
It’s time to be very very very self-ish. Unless you are, other people are using your energy and no profit to you.
You want to get to a skeleton business, doing only what is profit-producing. Only what is essential.
I know mothers who play chauffeur to their children. Anything that you can ‘outsource’, outsource.
I used to go shopping every week, three and a half hours a week… I got home tired, too tired to enjoy my life. Today I use Instacart. It works for me.
Those three and a half hours were essentially a whole day lost… not any more.
I can use those hours for stuff I like to do, like reading.
I could talk a lot more about this, but first I want to hear the feedback… to see if you are wanting more… Please let me know.
In the meantime, consider that your numbers in my Starting Point Measurements show me quite reliably how you fare as a business… And your health measurements show me how much fun you have…
When you are not having fun, your numbers are bad… Why? I am not sure, but that is my experience.
Get your Starting Point Measurements
