clear.your.mind

It has been said, that 90% of business never grow up like they could because their owners lose, sometime in the battle, the goals they once thought for their business. It’s hard out there, with a lot of business being created each day, that means competence each day. 37signals were the cool kids on the block until WeBreakStuff came out of the floor, right behind them. I saw that happened 20 times since I started my business, with blogs, with other business, with writers, with cool “marketing guys” of the moment (someone remember Seth Godin? how is he doing?) and it repeats once and once again.

Now, I never hit the sky with Emagiancion (yet) because I had lost my goals earlier, before I went into the “battlefield”. This is a 3rd world country gentlemen, it gets ugly sometimes down here and you may get your head screw up from time to time if you don’t move away from all the madness going on here. Yes, I admit it. I have lost the original plan, the goal and I’m now in the trenches with no map at all; I don’t recognize in what side are the allies, and in what side the axis are; totally lost.

But, there is a solution for that. Our job, our main job is to find solutions each day, to problems. Can be a website usability, a design that doesn’t fit well with what the client wants, users that are complaining about a specific feature and how it works, it can be anything, but we solve problems. And it’s a daily task in our business administration too; so the “lost goals” issue, has a fix for sure.

Make a plan

This is what I’m doing right now. Think about what you once wanted to accomplish by going into business. Yes, being your own boss, not working for [[insert boss name here]] never again, not seeing his/her face, working from home, making millions. Yes sure, those are good reasons in fantasy land. Here in reality, a business needs to make a difference; not just for you but for others. No business that makes a difference just for their owners goes anywhere beyond the backroom in the owners house.

Is not always about the money; but about what you can do for the others or what you can avoid to happen. Example: McDonalds is a fast food place right, the only reason for those business to exist is to make money for their owners right? wrong! they don’t sell hamburgers. No sir. That’s not their product. Their product is that you, or I, or anyone, all of us live in a world where nothing works as it suppose to work, everyone is always late, everyone is always running and not being there in time, everyone always have an excuse. You, me everyone.

Not in McDonalds they don’t. You go there, for a meal, ask for it, and under 4 minutes, you are on your way with what you asked for. That’s what McDonalds are producing, that’s their product, that’s what they sell. The peace of mind to know you can get a full meal within 4 minutes. Sure they won’t win the prize of the year for nutrition, but it’s not about that. Again, is about going there, asking for a meal, and witting 4 minutes, having it in your hand. Then, you walk through the door, and you are again, in the imperfect Real World ™ where everything fails.

That’s McDonalds business. The easiest example I can think off right now.

First, you make a plan. What are you going to change? what are you going to deliver out there? It can be changing something you know is wrong (37signals guys changed how the web works, they made web apps easy and accessible for everyone, by price and by features), it can be helping something good to stay how it is, it can be working to fix something that is absolutely wrong; you follow me? it needs to be real. It needs to be there, right in people’s face.

Once you have that, once you have your “cause”, you are ready. THEN, you make a plan. Then you work on how to go from here, to there, and what you will need.

The Plan Sheet

I made a quick plan sheet that folds into my pocket and I carry it everywhere. I actually carry it inside my Moleskine Pocket. I use it twice a day: when I wake up, and after I eat my yogurt ;) and when I’m about to leave my office. How do I use it? I just read it and imagine what’s my next move.

On that Plan Sheet I have wrote down where I’m, where I want to go, and how do I plan to get there, it’s a mini-plan, with numbers ($) and notations everywhere. It doesn’t need to look pretty, it just needs to work. Right in the middle of it, there is our “EmaStudios motto”, or our cause per say. I will reveal it once EmaStudios goes live. But, you can place it on the top, on the bottom, whenever you want, but it has to be there, big enough for you to see. Bigger than everything else. Dominant.

If you don’t forget where you are, and where you want to be, and if you don’t forget WHY you wanted to begin the journey in the first place, I believe you, as I, could go right to the top of our dreams.

It’s not hard. It’s DAMN HARD. And that’s why we are doing it, right?

Javier Cabrera
From the EmaStudios HQ. Bs. As. Argentina.

I haven’t been using networking sites a lot lately (linkedin, facebook, etc) those are kind of boring to me, I hate going around “bothering” people with the “Javier asks if he can join your network” kind of message those web apps spread over everyone’s emails. Some people take it well (like me) others believe they are spamming them with those. I like more the one-to-one approach in which I just send an email to talk about things and see if I can invite them to have a beer or something; in case they are in another country, it gets more difficult, but not impossible.

Twitter is an excellent tool to let everyone know what you are doing right now. I know I know, I’m six months late with this, but believe me, it has a great business potential. I can let know everyone I work with (clients and employees) where I’m and what I’m doing all the time, even through my cellphone; which is invaluable. People out there is saying the BlackBerry is evil because it forces you to stay online or in touch 24/7, I say this is the cure for the BlackBerry syndrome. With just 1 minute, you can open your account and through your cellphone or instant messenger you can actually keep everyone up to date with what’s going on with you at the moment. This breaks with the urgency of “I will email Phill to see where my project is right now” or “Let’s email John to see if he forgot about our project, it is about a week now that I don’t get any answers from him”.

With Twitter you have instant update on the table; everyone will know what you are up to, and everyone will know what you are doing. Last week, it was an ugly week for me, lots of deadlines and lots of fun too (doing something that it may change some people’s way of working… it’s beautiful, will talk about it when the client allows me. Kevin, thanks!) and some other things that are extremely interesting (Branden! it is a go!) and Twitter has helped me with the rest of my clients and people I work with during those days.

It is an excellent tool for communication, and I will integrate to my blog when the new site comes live. Right now, you can find me at http://twitter.com/doncabrera

Previously in the Part 1 of Myth: The Entrepreneur, I explained how being an Entrepreneur is no easy walk, you won’t find anything harder than being at your own out there, is a big, ugly scary world. Of yours it will be fun, but that’s only if you like the adventures. That’s what I’m about to talk now, even if it sounds stupid at first but it will show it value later, I promise… in the mean while… are you a knight?

No more Princess?

It’s sad, but it’s true, there are no more princess to save. There are two kind of human being, the one who likes the danger, and the one who doesn’t. If you are trying to become a business owner, or if you are just thinking about it, then you know it better than I. In the past, we heard stories about Knights and Adventurers who fought with giants and dragons in order to save Princess and earn their kingdom. Today, those are just stories, there are no more Dragons to kill, no more giants to fight and certanly, there are no more Princess to save!

What’s left? just life. You will find yourself working eight, ten hours a day, boring at your desk, looking out the window and seeing there a part of yourself dying… that if you are an adventurer. If you are a guy (or a gal!) who just want to live a quiet cool life, then having a job in a company is a dream, the smell of the fresh coffee, the group work at the office, the meetings, the parties and the promotion at the end of the year, that’s really something and I mean it. It’s really exiting!

But there are a few out there… who think “that’s ok! but… it isn’t for me. I’m here taking a place which I don’t fully enjoy, and what is worst, here can be someone who really enjoys a company-office work… but I want exitement, I want something totally different.”

Well my friend, you want to fight a battle. And I’m not talking about war, I’m talking about business.

Continue reading this article »

43folder’s (http://www.43folders.com) Merlin Mann is going to start a serie of Podcasts with David Allen, the author of the GTD system. I wrote sometime ago about this paper based system to carry your life, work projects and everything that needs organization. The main objetive as you know is the affirmation out of sight, out of mind (which talks about how you can stop worrying about 40 projects if you just get organized on paper). So, tomorrow, Tuesday 10 of october you and me will be able to hear the Merlin Mann & David Allen Podcast, and here is a little preview of it.

Doing several projects at the time can be a nightmare, but if you organize well enough, you will be able to carry them all together; althrough I have to recognize, no matter how much you can organizate yourself, you will always be subject to life, and as we all know, life is always on movement; so getting things done isn’t just a miracle cure for everyone who is overlwhelmed on work or life; it just brings a little bit of peace to the situation so you can deal with it much better. And from now on, you will be able to hear a big fish coacher like David Allen (who coached companies like IBM, Microsoft, Sun, etc) from your computer speark and that’s not all; you will be able to make him questions through Merlin Mann Blog.

Oh yes… and Merlin Mann will be there too. ;)

This is a special day for us (you, me and everyone else who read this blog). For those who doesn’t know it, JoeGoals is a web application aimed to help you in your way to become a more productive person, in every aspect of your life. Today, on the joe goals blog I saw a post that made my day more happy than what it was planned to be. Joe Goals passed the 10,000 registered users; that’s amazing guys!

But there is more; it seems that all started when Ian Smith the founder of Joe Goals saw one of my posts about the system that Ben Franklin used grow as a person in life; the famous list of 13 Virtues; the post was called Gain More Virtues, by Benjamin Franklin. Here is a small part of the interview Matt Pressnall from EnjoyYourDigital Life did to Ian:

MP: What does Ben Franklin have to do with your Web 2.0 application?

Ian: A while back I saw a blog post talking about how Ben Franklin developed and tracked a list of 13 Virtues in his effort to improve himself. He used a pen to track his daily progress on a pad of paper he had printed up for himself. I thought the grid format was innovative and I soon figured out a way to incorporate it into my idea for a goal tracking application. A number of people even use Joe’s Goals to track Ben Franklin’s original 13 Virtues.

So, here is to JoeGoals! I hope you guys get 10,000 more registered users in the next couple of months!

So, a friend (and also a client) was talking to me today and we chatted about Workaholic. So I went up to Workaholics Anonymous to see if I’m screwed up, and here’s the test I took:

Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
I grew up working, I’m an entrepreneur, a business owner. Is what I do, and I love it. Yes, I get more excited about it than anything else, what’s the deal? everyone who is in my position love their job than anything else.

Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can’t?
Mmm depends, yes, I would answer yes.

Do you take work with you to bed? on weekends? on vacation?
Bed? what’s that? Weekends? Vacations? man, what’s that? yes actually, I do. Actually, I set all those things AROUND work.

Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
Yes, and movies. But work is a major part of my conversations.

Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
Absolutelly, and I want to work even more.

Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
That’s the way to work and have fun at the same time, what’s wrong with that?

Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
I do my own work, so yes, is my responsibility and nobody else. What are you saying here? we shouldn’t take responsibility for our own actions?

Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
I work a lot, and I get late sometimes, people know this, so they are used to. (this was the question right? my english isn’t clear)

Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won’t otherwise get done?
I like to choose the projects I’m about to work, so I don’t like to take on “extra work” because I like to keep focus on things.

Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
I get organized a lot to avoid those kind of situations, and yet, the world is a changing place, so there will be situations where we thought something will take X amount of time and it ends up taking a little more.

Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
You don’t? what if I offer you a job like a porn star? would you like to work part time? loving your work is the best venture you can get into it. Believe me, I know.

Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
If they are working with me and he/she gives me reason for it, I get impatient yes.

Are you afraid that if you don’t work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
With time, you will lear to be afraid of your own fears. No, actually.

Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
Yes, I’m always worry about the future, as Groucho Marx said, “is were I intend to live in the next few years”

Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?
Yes, I do that a lot!

Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
Yes, I do that! how well you know me! can’t believe it!

Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
Yes, my friends; but strange enough, not my family.

Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep or when others are talking?
Sorry, I didn’t got that question, I was thinking about something I have to do…

Do you work or read during meals?
I have meals during my work

Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?
My answer will have to be, NO; more money don’t solve any problems; it makes life easier, but that’s all. Money wasn’t made to solve problems, money was made to be exchanged for products and services, you and me were made to possibly, solve problems (if we are smart and lucky enough). I solve my own problems, no money. What you think I’m? stupid or something? quit with those tricky questions damn it!

So, my opinion is that, Workaholic is just a myth.

A Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen-a, /mɔləˈskinə) is nothing but a paper notebook, plain and simple as that. People usually don’t get why a simple product as a leather notebook can rise so many opinions, discussions and even market; because let’s face it, there are zillions of paper notebooks out there, of all shapes and sizes. The thing that differentiate a Moleskine from a regular paper notebook is: quality and history.

A Legendary Notebook

Moleskine is the legendary notebook that the European artists and intellectuals who made twentieth-century culture used: from Henri Matisse to the turn-of-the-century Parisian avant-garde, from Louis Férdinand Céline to Ernest Hemingway. Writer-traveler Bruce Chatwin picked up this tradition and made it famous.
We are talking about a two centuries paper notebook; that’s enough for everyone to guess there must be something good on it for people to love it so much. The main characteristics of this notebook are quality and practically. There is a lot of controversy about if Hemingway used a Moleskine or not, he actually does not made any reference about it, he just say, a pocket notebook and that’s it. Modo & Modo, the main Moleskine producer in the world may invented the story; who knows, who cares, the thing is just great and works fine for everyone.

It’s all about the elastic band

Everyone loves the elastic band. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend you to get one right now. The squared size paper notebook comes with an elastic band attached to one side of the leather cover, this helps you to keep the pages together once you used it too much, very cool feature. The other one is the pocket at the end of most Moleskines, yes I said pocket. You have a cool paper pocket to save post-its, notes, and any other thing you may want to save.

With the explosion of this product, Modo & Modo (as other independent companies as well) had launched other Moleskines models, like the one I have, with squared paper, or the sketch one, or the reporter one that are similar to the standard notebooks, except that they are bound at the top instead of on the side. They come in pocket and large sizes, and in ruled, squared, and plain styles, pretty neat, really.

Some history and trivia

This are some of the folks that used Moleskines in the past:

• Bruce Chatwin. Travel writer.
• Neil Gaiman. Writer of speculative fiction and graphic novels.
• Pablo Picasso. Artist.
• Vincent Van Gogh. Artist.
• Stéphane Mallarmé. Poet.
• Ernest Hemingway Author.
• Pete Doherty Poet and Musician.
• E. Annie Proulx Author.

On the tv:

• Amélie - The title character, Amélie (played by Audrey Tatou) uses a pocket Moleskine to keep track of a person she is trying to find.
• “Lost” - Claire Littleton writes in a Moleskine as a personal diary while stranded and trying to survive along with fellow survivors of Flight 815.
• National Treasure - Nicholas Cage has a Moleskine pictured towards the beginning of the movie, shown while he reads a riddle.
• Indiana Jones: indy’s father writes on a Moleskine about the Saint Grial.

So, where I go from here?

Well, you can try one. They are usually $10, $20 USD. I got mine as a gift from a blog reader (yes, incredible. Don’t try it at home) and I still didn’t return the favor to him because of work problems (I will, I will).

I know its expensive, but you will get not just a paper notebook; but a piece of heaven. Believe me, they are great. I’m not talking about the hype everyone is creating around them (which, is deserved btw), but I’m talking about the notebook itself. They are great.

External Related Links

• Original Moleskine Exhibition 2000
• Moleskine home
• Modo & Modo
• Moleskinere Blog

Howdy!
A while ago, I posted the tip my chap Tim Vaughan (http://www.eastendit.com/) told me for my Moleskine. People seems to love Tim’s hack, they found it very easy but until now, there aren’t any “basic” setups going on, so here is my first invention:

The graphic speaks for itself. Isn’t my best work, but is enough for you to see and understand what can be done with a couple of Post-its and a Moleskine. For all you GTD-fans, this is the ultimate setup. I only use three post-its because that’s all it takes for me, I don’t run errands so I don’t need a “street” section. When I need to write project’s a next action, I just turn the page (to the last empty page) and start there.

So if I have to work on a Wiki project, I just find an empty page and write @Wiki (@ is for “AT”). There you have it, a next-actions lists ready to get started. Every time I finish a page I just rip it off from my Moleskine… nah! I’m just kidding. I don’t do that (not anymore). You just turn strike every item (or the whole page if you like) and move on.

Fun isn’t it? What’s your solution?