The last few weeks have been chaotic here in the office, and with things in life. In addition to working hard here, Erin and I are both about to face our last finals week of our undergraduate education. All of us are getting ready for the holidays, and I will be leaving town on Friday to be with my family in Washington. On top of all of this, I just got engaged and am now in the throes of stressful wedding planning. Now, typically I deal well with a busy life, I even enjoy it. But I am also a stress case. I get sick at least every couple of months from wearing myself out with worry and concern. Last Thursday the stresses of recent weeks seemed to be evident on mine and Erin’s face. As he often does, Rich took us to the white board and decided to teach us an important concept.
He said that for everyone there is an area of concern, and an area of influence. In our area of concern are things we cannot control, like the weather, or traffic, or others’ actions. People typically spend 80% of their time in this area of concern, a place we can do nothing about. What we need to do is focus on our area of influence, and not just right in the middle of it, but right on the perimeter. As we utilize our influence in this way, it will actually grow. Rich emphasized this point more on Friday when he asked me to take on a task that is somewhat outside my comfort zone, pushing me to use my area of influence further than I normally do. He again explained to me that if I push through these sometimes awkward tasks, they’ll eventually become natural, and my area of influence has grown.
This has been extremely helpful in my life the last few days. As I studied for finals this weekend, I started to do the normal overreacting thing I do. I began to think about when my finals were scheduled, wondering if I would have time to study in between. I learned that one of my take-home finals is due sooner than I thought. And I began to stress out about whether my flight home would be delayed, and I couldn’t shake images of sleeping on the airport floor for days. But as I thought about Rich’s wonderful lesson to me, I decided to stop wasting my time in this area of concern. All my energy has been focused on doing what I can do to prepare for finals, and today on getting caught up in the office before I leave for home. By leaving behind that area concern, I have been more productive than I ever would be in my area of influence. Learning to love our limits can actually help us to expand them.

When I first got to this office I took up residence at the front desk and was told to make it my own.  In my head, that meant organize it the way that I wanted and feel free to buy supplies (pen holders, calendars, etc.)  As the company (companies) grew, I was able to concentrate solely on writing and editing and a new admin- Shanna, moved into the front desk.  She was given the instruction to make it her own, as well, and to “de-sterilize” the office a bit.  Resultantly, we’ve got some classy touches here and there that make the front room look polished and professional- AND she decorates for holidays.

Rich and Ron talk about company culture quite a lot- and one thing I’ve heard them focus on is making sure that the team members are comfortable and have up-to-date equipment.  Sure, you can get the job done anywhere, with almost anything- but it can be a big motivator to provide an attractive environment and nice tools.  An even bigger motivator is to allow team members to make decisions and changes based on their preferences.  As the owner, do you really care what kind of plants or pictures hand in the entry way?  Perhaps, to a certain extent.  But consider the freedom and respect your team will feel as you let them exercise authority over their main work area.

Also: I bought a new laptop for school, and for ease of travel have been using it for work as well.  Rich had one of our engineers set up a VPN so I could access the file structure from school, home, or anywhere.  It was perfect, except I beginning to feel a bit of eyestrain trying to see everything on my small laptop.  I asked if we could hook up a bigger monitor and actually expected us to take one of the old monitors from our pile of computer parts so that I could see things more clearly.  Instead, Rich went out and bought a brand new SAMSUNG flat-screen- and when I hook my laptop up, I can drag things from screen to screen.  I might be a bit of a dork, but the ability to have two work surfaces for one computer was a little bit exhilarating for me.  It was a cool new toy, incredibly useful, and beyond my expectations.

Let me clarify: you do not need to try and “buy” your team members hard work, but it is a sign of respect and an invitation to make the task their own if you provide them with tools and freedoms necessary to do their job.

A special emphasis is given throughout the book, and here in the office, on priorities. Rich and Ron believe whole-heartedly in the idea of always keeping priorities straight throughout the entrepreneurial roller coaster. Life is not constant, and never will be. But our priorities should be. There will always be something else that we could do, another opportunity or responsibility that can come up, that can cause us to push the important people and things into the background. Often we think it is just temporary, but many times it can become a permanent negligence. Especially in the world of entrepreneurship where so many sacrifices have to be made, it is so important that there are certain things we are never willing to sacrifice. For Rich and Ron, these things include the safety and security of their families, their relationships with their spouses, and very importantly, and frequently neglected in our world today, their relationships with their children. They are both so intimately involved in their family’s lives, and no matter what happens at work, continue to keep those relationships strong.
I learned personally the importance of this concept this last week, as I lost my cousin in a tragic car accident. She was only twenty-two years old, and was returning to Utah after spending Thanksgiving with her family in Seattle. The loss of someone we love seems to always cause us to re-evaluate our lives and our priorities. Seeing a life cut short so unexpectedly has made me reflect on my life, and truly face the fact that I may have neglected relationships, goals, and many things I enjoy. And what do I sacrifice these things for? It seems always to be something that is only temporarily important, but that takes priority. Maybe I don’t see an old friend because I have to study for a test. Or I have put off spending time with my brother and sister because I feel too stressed with work. As I have reflected over the last few days, the most important thing I have realized is that it should not take a loss so great for us to see the important things more clearly. We should not regret that we did not spend more time with someone only after we have lost them.
As Rich and Ron discuss in the book, the goal of entrepreneurship should not just be making money. In life we need to have a drive for the things we do. When we have pure motives for our actions, such as desiring to be successful in order to provide security to our family, or in order to participate in humanitarian causes, our most important relationships will not be sacrificed, because they are the reason we work so hard. The death of someone so close to me will never be easy to understand, but it has helped me to think about my motives for doing the things I put my time into. I have learned how important it is that I commit to keeping my priorities, no matter what comes up. The right priorities shouldn’t just be important when we have time for them to be.

This weekend my husband and I had quite the interesting experience: we found out that an honest-to-goodness criminal/peeping tom has taken up looking through our windows. John got home late on Friday night to find him in the backyard- and when we contacted the police and our neighbors they knew who it was, immediately. With their advice, we got going on a few projects we’ve been procrastinating. Projects such as getting a real lock for our front door (ahem…getting a real front door), fixing the lighting in the entryway, getting curtains and blinds for all the windows, and getting to know our neighbors a little more. We could have and should have done those things when we first moved in, but there’s nothing like a little fear to get you moving in the right direction.

Rich, Ron and I just finished up work on a chapter entitled Fire in the Belly, Nerves of Steel. One section in the chapter addresses the very issue I’ve been talking about here: fear, and more than fear, terror. Does the thought of starting your own business terrify you? Do you stay up at night wondering what will happen if your receivables don’t match the payables, or what you’ll do if you have to go without a paycheck for a few months? Whenever I hear about people leaving the corporate or “job” world and striking out on their own, it’s often accompanied by a great deal of fear, but can that be a good thing? I think so- you can use it. So you absolutely hate speaking in front of people, and you realize that as the business owner you’ll have to pitch your ideas to the clients. Well- let your terror motivate you to prepare; use it as energy and reason to be as ready as you can, and then, when it’s time to present, push it away and watch what happens. Whatever your fear, whatever your situation, make it work for you, and let it drive you toward success.