Confidence….or Cowardice?

In my Preparing for the HarvestSeries, I’ve tried to discuss and lay out some ideas, concerns and thought provoking concepts in hopefully urging you think and grow a bit. If you haven’t read all of my posts yet, I’d suggest that you take a few minutes to read them from the beginning in order to get a better grasp of my flow. Together, I’ve tried to push you into a bit of honest self evaluation, to be open, honest and transparent with yourself with respect to better understanding the entrepreneurial process and how it’s invariably linked to your faith, from which you derive HOPE.

Through this journey, I’ve actually had the opportunity to be open, honest and transparent with myself, and have been amazed with what God has revealed to me! Frankly, despite the hardships, pains and sufferings I’ve endured during this journey, I realize now that I HAD to walk this path, just like this. Sure, in hindsight I can see many ways, decisions and paths that I should’ve done or not taken, but I see now that I needed to experience what I have experienced in order to gain the perspective and wisdom I have, and how I can see my confidence, in many ways a mask for my cowardice. It wasn’t until just recently in being guided by my Christian mentors that I needed to surrender completely in order to realize that I could truly be able to grow.

Do you have confidence in what you do for a living? In the part you play in your relationships, as a father or mother, brother or sister, friend or acquaintance? I always have felt I do, but I realize that sometimes confidence, fueled by pride, can become a mask for true insecurities I feel inside. Do you feel insecure, and yet no one knows it? Confidence in many ways is a very useful attribute. But it can preclude objective input from those around you as it can cause you to be a know it all. I’ve fallen prey to this trap and have made avoidable mistakes and hurt people’s feelings in the process. This led me to not be the steward that God wanted me to be. I cowardly used my stubborn pride, err confidence, to block the input  of the tools and resources that God put in front of me to use. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve learned just how valuable openness, honesty and transparency can be. No longer will I allow my confidence to be a front for cowardice.

What about you (assuming you’re still hanging in there reading this!)? What about your confidence, or lack thereof? Well God promises that He will be by your side, ALWAYS. He wants 100% commitment from each of us, including you. If we realize that He creates all things and, despite how we might feel to the contrary, knows exactly where we are at exactly this point in time and LOVES us unconditionally regardless! How freeing is that? So I urge you, be open, honest and transparent with yourself…NOW! Not next week, or soon, but NOW. You will be amazed what you’ll discover, what you’ll finally be able to let go, where you can go from here. Then, find someone to confess it to, because then it becomes REAL!

Thanks for your read!!

There are two kinds of people…which are you??

It seems like too often life comes down to a choice of one vs the other. Republican vs Democrat. Either something from Column A or Column B. Lefties or righties. Leaders or followers. Shoot from the hipsters vs methodical organizers. So, where do you fall? In life, relationships and business, these personality traits really help determine success or failure and how we deal with either. So, have you decided which side you fall? The truth is, while society is quick to slap labels one way or the other, so quick to pre judge or stereotype based on which type a person is, it usually isn’t that simple…to be one way or another. Frankly, I think each of us have both traits, either actively or suppressed.

Entrepreneurs tend to be more visionary and consequently shoot from the hipsters who carry a great degree of confidence in their ability to get things done as they pursue their passions. For the most part, this passionate drive typically generates remarkable success from overachievement, but can also cause blinders to become callouses to second and third opinions. How do I know? Because that’s me. As the founder of two start ups, I constantly put too many things on my plate under the guise of just needing to get things done fast and then move on to the next fire to put out. While we got a ton done, I know that I didn’t rely enough on my partners and those working with me. Not even close. It’s a fine line between impatience and trust. Yet this impatience has caused me to blow through several stop signs and take the long way around to positive results by not allowing better input from my team. It’s taken a while, but I’ve figured it out.

For so many reasons, I completely adore and admire the SHB (for those of you who haven’t read my previous posts, the SHB is my Smoking Hot Babe of a wife of almost 30 years, Julie). She is the complete opposite of my entrepreneurial less than organized persona as a methodical organizer. She is the perfect complement to me.

So, which are you? The dreamer or the realist? Are you a half full or half empty person? Whether in business, your relationships or your faith, my suggestion is that you find a small group of peers that can be a sounding board that you can honestly and frankly discuss issues at hand. Don’t surround yourself with ‘yes’ friends if you really want to grow and at the same time avoid potholes (at least some of them!). Not only will you grow individually, spiritually and professionally, you will also be able to help others with your wisdom and insight. If we all did more of this, how much more fulfilling would our world be?

I’m just saying…

Staying Motivated…Even During Uncertainty!

Well, we all suffer from it, some worse than others. Don’t we? Staying motivated is difficult at times, even for the best of us and even in the best of situations. Throw in rough waters, “crossroads of life” dilemmas, and even the strongest willed can become paralyzed from the demons inside. “What abouts” and “what ifs” can be the most justifiable and logical reasons to lose motivation. I’m sure that whatever is sapping your drive (or mine…heck look how long it’s been since my last post!) is very important and needs to be taken seriously and all that crap, but really what is happening is the enemy is using these tools to rob us of joy. That’s right…JOY! Stealing, diluting or squelching joy is what the enemy’s goal in negating what God’s greatest gift is to each of us, and that’s to live lives full of joy.

“But Rick, why are you writing about stuff like this when you’re supposed to be filling us with business wisdom, etc?,” I can hear you asking! Well, so much of our ability, productivity and effectiveness resides squarely in the space between our ears. If we’re not feeling confident mentally, we lose momentum, confidence and our desire to press forward against the odds in order to passionately pursue our businesses, our relationships, our faith…really holding us back from living our lives. Losing motivation happens to all of us, admit it! Particularly now that we’re all immersed in our instant gratification society of smart phones, texts, tweets and the Internet. So how do we turn back on the motivation, particularly in the face of uncertainty?

My team at ECO are feeling a power drain right now. We’ve been trying to find new investors to help us meet the rapidly growing demand for our natural sunscreen products. We have fear that we may end up drowning in our own success by not being able to meet the demand we’re seeing for our products. Therefore, paralysis by analysis has set in! As a Spirit led business, we are confident in the plan God has laid out for us with ECO, but our human weaknesses mask desire and motivation to move forward. What is holding you back? Like us, what crossroads are you facing? I invite you to share it publicly in the comments below and let many of the followers and readers of my messages (thanks everyone!) whom you don’t even know (or they you!) share in them with you, pray for you and re-motivate you. Why? Well, I can tell you the best thing you can do when you’re lacking motivation, or your faith is weak or crumbling, is to actually look outside yourself and your circumstances and help someone else.

Trust me, when you start doing this, as HUGE as you think your problems are, in learning to look outside yourself and share in the concerns of others there’s a very good chance that your issues might well pale in comparison. I’m not saying that your issues aren’t important because clearly they are, but by looking outside your situation to others makes you realize that there is commonality and strength in knowing that you’re not alone or by yourself in your troubles. God gave us His Holy Spirit to dwell inside EACH of us…including you. So why shouldn’t we use the power of prayer more to help us through stuff? Hey, volumes upon volumes have been written on the “whys” we don’t, so I ask you directly…”WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?” To regain motivation…look outside yourselves, whether at work, with your loved ones, or even strangers you meet. How can you help them?

Times are still tough for a lot of people, so what’s wrong with this approach? Whether you’re religious or not, Christian or not, Christ set the example of looking outside ourselves to others, and I think the world can be a better place if we move in that direction…even a little bit. Start living your life like this, and you’ll find that staying motivated will be much easier, and you will never be the same. And that’s a good thing!

Thanks for reading! Now, share your comments below!

The Sting of ‘NO’…

We get our hopes up for successful conclusions that make all the sense in the world to us. We really try and ‘manage’ our expectations and not get too far ahead of ourselves, but the conversations are going so well we think. The indications of interest are spot on. So we get lost in managing expectations, trying not to get ahead in the what ifs of a successful conclusion. Then, unexpectedly, we hear NO. Huh? Whaaat? Can’t you see how well all of the puzzle pieces fit together? We sure can!.

This is the life of an entrepreneur. When you feel passionately about your venture, you THINK you know how all of the pieces fit together, how your business will be the one to succeed beyond everyone’s wildest expectations, it’s hard to get a NO, particularly when it comes in raising capital to sustain and grow your business. So, how do you handle NO? Particularly when you know it’s right? Well here’s what I do:

1) lean hard on my faith. While to some of you this may sound cliche-ish, it works for me. Every core of my body believes that God has an amazing plan AHEAD of each of us, so whatever ends that NO means that with that door closed a new one opens.

2) allow yourself to grieve a bit. One thing I’ve learned in my entrepreneurial journey is that when you’re ‘all in’ in your passionate belief in your business, it’s disappointing (sometimes bitterly so) to hear NO. In many ways, it really defies logic. So go ahead, be bummed…I’ll give you overnight.

3) reassess why you got the NO. This self reflection needs to be open, honest and transparent with yourself, your business partners and, most importantly, your loved ones. Learn from this, incorporate your lessons in order to chart your course from this point on. Maybe that means minor changes, maybe major, or, sadly, means the endpoint for this dream. Hey, reality really sucks sometimes.

4) maybe this should be number two (after your faith), DO NOT REACT, RESPOND, LASH OUT OR MAKE ANY IMPORTANT DECISION immediately after NO. Emotional decisions are dumb, typically cause even more problems, and are completely counterproductive. Worse yet, they can even be downright hurtful or devastating.

So, while you’re grieving, keep your thoughts to yourself overnight until your emotions dissipate. Then you’ll be able to really hear God’s small voice guiding you, encouraging you to press forward. My biggest inspirational thought when I go through this comes from the amazing actor, John Wayne in the the movie the Longest Day about the invasion of France in WWII (great movie, all star cast!), the Duke broke his ankle as a paratrooper when dropped behind enemy lines. When the medic informed him that his ankle was broken he said, “well, just have to lace up my boot a little tighter…” and off he strode into battle!

So, if you’re licking some NO wounds, better lace up your ole boot a little tighter…you’ve got a passion to follow!

Good Luck!

Finding Rest

One of the most difficult things to do as an entrepreneur is to know when to hit the ‘off’ switch. Nuh uhhh, Rick, you’re so wrong! Am I? In this day and age of inner connected mobile lives/devices, we really don’t have the ability to hit the off switch very much. We think, “Today I’m going to check out…and then DING in comes a message” and we gotta see who’s contacting us! Even when we’re with our loved ones, everyone’s checking their smartphones. It’s like being addicted to crack! Even in Scripture there are many references to the need for (and the gift of) rest.

Hey I’m just as guilty…so today’s post is going to be brief, as I’m heading out with the SHB to photo la to support her photography . So take this post as a nudge to turn off your devices and tune out a bit, while you tune in with your family. Get outside, but don’t forget your sunscreen!

If you’re cooking this weekend, try my home made Kentucky Molasses BBQ sauce, recipe below:
Kentucky Molasses BBQ Sauce
1/2 onion
1 jalapeño, seeded
8-10 garlic cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp roasted ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 bay leaf
1/2 c bourbon
1/2 c apple cider vinegar
1/2 c molasses
1 1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c water

1. Purée onions, jalapeño and garlic in food processor with 3 tbsp EVOO
2. Sweat the mixture in saucepan until translucent, 4-6 min. Add all spices
3. Add bourbon, simmer for 5 min, add vinegar, simmer 5 min more.
4. Add ketchup, molasses and water, simmer for 20 min.

God Bless!

Sustaining Passion

In my continuing series on Preparing for the Harvest to Come…, I wanted to continue my discussion on passion that I started last blog. When I think of passion, thoughts evoke of great dates with the SHB, which were great times but relatively fleeting in their duration. Yet passion that drives change in your heart, behaviors and dedications need to be sustained in order to create lasting, momentous outcomes. How does a Steve Jobs sustain his passionate fervor for what started out to be more or less a laughing stock sideshow to IBM? How did Columbus have the stones to sail off the edge of the known world to pursue his passion?

Think of Noah, who had to build an Ark for decades in order to preserve part of God’s creation. How did he, a man just like you and me, have the gumption to remain steadfast in the face of being the laughing stock to those around him? To me, what really illustrates my point is looking at Old Testament Abraham. Here’s a guy that was well beyond geezer status, never having been able to produce a child. He and Sarah just figured that God chose to pass them by on the kid allocations, yet there they were, older than dirt and God blessed them with a Son, Issac. Close your eyes and just imagine how you’d finally feel becoming a father at a bazillion years old? Tell me that kid wasn’t spoiled.

So when Issac had grown into a young man, God called Abraham to go to a special place and prepare to make a sacrifice at that altar. “Sounds great, done that a ton of times” I’m sure Abraham thought, yet this time was different, because God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac! Whaaat? God makes Abraham wait forever to have a son and watch him grow up to be a man, then he’s supposed to sacrifice him? Well, you probably know the rest of the story, where just before Abraham is about to kill Issac, God intervenes as he wanted to see if Abraham was obedient to the end in carrying out God’s command, which clearly he was. Well, after intervening, God gave Abraham the greatest of rewards (blessing) by proclaiming that Abraham would be the father of all nations through his offspring. Wow, talk about passionately believing in his mission! Could I be like Abraham? Could you? Probably not. However, I think this illustrates perfectly the point I want you to think about when I talk about sustaining passion.

In business as an entrepreneur, the whole starting thesis to your dream is an overriding passion about something. Whether its a new mouse trap, breakthrough widget, or quest to cure an un curable disease, something has triggered a drive deep in every core and fiber of your being. You just know that your ‘this’ really is IT. This passionate fervor allows you to deal with all the NOs you’ll hear, the doubting Thomases who’ll give you every reason why you won’t make it. It fuels your drive, your team’s identity in what you’re doing will in fact be for the better good. And, perhaps most importantly, relegate any lucrative financial gain you may glean from the eventual success of your business to a distant back seat to the core belief you have in the viability and efficacy of what your business is all about. So, when you discover something this passionate, embrace it, nurture it, and allow it to engulf you. In so doing, you will in fact develop a sustaining, deep passion. Be careful though, because it can be CONTAGIOUS!

Good Luck!

Lukewarm?

Are you lukewarm? Tepid? Just those words alone speak of mediocrity. Of acceptance, not excellence. How exciting does lukewarm sound? “I really feel like a nice, lukewarm shower,” BLEH! Well I woke up thinking about these words the night before last…by the way, why does that ALWAYS have to happen at 4:00 in the morning? If you feel like you’re just stuck with going through the motions, then it’s time to pull your head out and go for it! Whether in your relationships, your job, your faith, being a mediocre fence sitter isn’t the way to go through life! The Bible speaks very clearly about choosing a side, not sitting on the fence, being lukewarm men or women. Are you?

Frankly, I think all of us are from time to time (maybe even all the time in some parts of our lives). We allow fears, insecurities and ill conceived “what will they think of me” perceptions to rob us of excellence in our lives. Why? Well, to start with, because we’re human. And, we do suck some times at things we might like to do (trust me, I’ve heard myself singing in the shower…SOOO bad!), so I’m not advocating that you should step out your comfort zone and suddenly decide you’re going to finally try out bull riding or something (bull riding? Really Rick?). But what I am saying is explore what you feel passionately about, because I think we pursue too little passion in our lives. We too often suppress passion out of ‘sanity’ or ‘reality’ or a whole myriad of excuses and justifications as to WHY we can’t. I’m suggesting we can.

Life is so incredibly short. I’ve unfortunately witnessed too many early deaths in my family and I still, decades later, grieve for my lost loved ones and feel bad for all they’ve missed out on. That’s why I’ve chosen to try and at least be aware of not living a tepid life. I want to pursue my passions. This is one reason Poor Richards (my esoteric dream of some day running a fantastic restaurant) exists. I’ve self taught my way to becoming a very accomplished chef (thanks all you people who post on You Tube…it’s crazy how easy it is to learn stuff on there! Editors note: be careful what you try outside of your abilities…I did that with plumbing here at my place and now I know I suck for sure at that!) and feel passionately about getting even better.

What do you feel passionate about? What do you WISH you would be doing, yet you hold yourself back on for the most logical (at least in your own mind) of reasons? Well, STOP! Passion doesn’t mean you suddenly become some sort of adrenaline junkie or something, but it does mean that you boldly step out from your comfy confines you’ve constrained yourself to and live your life by pursuing your dreams. By the way, when you do this, learn to walk before you run. I don’t want to be responsible for breaking up marriages by hearing about sudden urges to quit jobs to try and get good enough to make the PGA Tour or something (ummm, I’ll write about that later, thanks to the SHB for bringing me back to earth. Editors note: for those of you who missed my first post, SHB refers to my smoking hot babe wife of almost 30 years, Julie).

God wants to bring Joy into our lives. To me, joy equals passion. I want to encourage you to live a more full life by feeling and pursuing passion. In business, your relationships, your faith and in those things you’ve always wanted to do. When you pursue things passionately, great things will happen! That I can promise. How do I know? Well, you’re reading the musings of a guy who was gripped with the greatest amount of shyness and insecurity a person could ever feel. One day, as I was sitting in my dorm room as a freshman at UCLA, I finally had my first epiphany, that I was just pissed at myself for this paralysis of fears that consumed me. I turned the right way on that fork in the road, met the SHB and now I’m writing mindless gibberish for the world to see. It’s also what has driven me to be a serial entrepreneur (fancy word for a person that does fricken EVERYTHING to make your company’s dreams come true!) who’s hell bent on changing his little corner of the business world…and I will!

So, as you prepare for the harvest to come, start with an honest and frank look at whether or not your passions are matching up with what you’re actually doing day to day. If they’re not, then welcome to lukewarms ville. How do you like Tepid city? Decide today that you’re not going there anymore and start changing! How? First, pray about it as you take stock of where you are and ask God to reveal to you what you should pursue (remember, He wants you to have Joy in your life and I think having a foundation of faith at the center of your life is the key to gaining confidence to chase your passions). Second, unless you are a hermit, have a heart to heart with your significant other. They are part of your life and therefore are part of your passionate pursuit. Plus, they need to pursue their passions too! So, talk it through and make a plan TOGETHER. Trust me, when you do, your relationship will be much better too! Third, don’t tell too many others about your passion (that’s when ALL of the naysayers do just that, naysay!), but pursue these things for you! And fourth, Google and You Tube like crazy, because you can learn just about anything…fast! And, in our instant gratification society, this will fit right in! Finally, don’t give up if your first painting masterpiece looks like crap, or that first gourmet meal is universally hated by your loved ones, because one of the greatest attributes of passion is that it is so transcendent that you will keep pushing on and pursing until you master it!

Keep chasing your dreams!

Preparing for the harvest to come…

Well, probably what the world needs now is another blogger, but what the heck else do you do if you feel like a famous writer inside that’s never been released? Ok, perhaps that a bit strong, but after spending 54 years acquiring all of this vast knowledge on a myriad of useful (mostly, I hope!) trivia, life experiences and vast stubs of the proverbial toe, why not use modern communication to share them? My hope is that through this blog and what you glean from it, that your life can somehow be enhanced. Maybe you’ll be amused, entertained, taught or hopefully not bored by what you read. I guess that’s probably less of an issue because if you were bored you probably would’ve exited three or four lines ago!

A little about me: I am 54, live in San Clemente (yea, Nixon used to live here. I can’t tell you how many people from back East mention that when I tell them where I’m from, still to this day!), an idyllic beach town at the far end of Orange County, CA. I’m married to the most amazing woman, Julie, who is an amazing artist (cheap plug alert: check out her website www.juliesamplephotography.com). We met our second week at UCLA and pretty much started dating a few weeks after. She hasn’t been able to shake me since, almost 36 years later! What can I say, she’s definitely my best friend, but that doesn’t even really begin to describe what she means to me (did I mention she’s also smoking hot?). We have THE two most amazing daughters in the world (sorry everyone else, someone needed to be second), Sara, 27 and Lisa, 25.

I spent close to 25 years in the financial services industry, working for some of the largest firms in the world. I’m easy to find on LinkedIn if you’d really like to see my resume. During that time, I was blessed (you’ll hear me refer to being blessed a lot throughout my diatribes, because having a strong faith is center to my very being…more on that later) I was blessed to not only have a successful sales career, but was recognized early on to be a charger and go getter, so I gained tremendous exposure and opportunities even very early on in my career. One of my core philosophies in life is “some times you have to just be dumb enough to ask” which I did repeatedly. This opened doors, gave me experiences not usually given to young pups, and, most importantly, put me in a position to receive tremendous advanced training in critical business functions that I still use today. These included sales training, sales leadership training, sales psychology (“why do people like blue ones?”), Managment, corporate strategy, public speaking and even how to properly hire and fire. So, publicly, I want to thank EF Hutton & Company and Painewebber for this. You have no idea how these foundational teachings have prepared me for exactly where I need them today.

So, as the title of this blog says, Preparing for the harvest to come…, I want to share with you the knowledge I’ve gleaned and hopefully that where you are in your career, entrepreneurial life, your family, and even your spiritual life, something I write will help you. Heck, we all stub our toes as we trudge through life. Occasionally, we bloody our noses and have to figure out how to pick ourselves up and move ahead. But, if you stick with me and read my posts, I’m pretty sure I can help you stub ’em a little less often! I want to enlighten you on many different subjects, from how to attract capital, to how you deal with people, to learn how to incorporate your faith in all facets of your life (editors note, I’m not a preacher!), and to encourage you to pursue your passions, even if there’s no time in your busy life to do so (biggest load of crap excuse I’ve ever heard…you make time!). Therefore, maybe when I’m talking about preparing your company for venture capital, I might randomly throw in a new recipe I’ve created (I love to cook, and am pretty damn good at it! Sorry to sound cocky, it’s a huge, you guessed it, PASSION of mine!) So don’t read my blog if all you want are the cold hard facts and nothing else. Read it because you can relate to the quirkiness that is inside my head, because, and you may as well admit it, you suffer from the same quirkiness too!

Thanks for reading, now let’s get going…talk to you soon!