Last week I had the privilege of attending a local mastermind group of internet wizards. To say their grasp of digital media, internet marketing and search engine optimization was awe inspiring is an understatement. Each with a story to tell…each with a company to build…each with a fortune to make.

For two content packed hours they traded ideas on things like Backlinking, Hub Pages, Article and Social Marketing. From a “being left behind in business” perspective, I was totally intimidated by the intellect and confidence in the room…until the meeting was over.

After the meeting I networked with the participants, saw the hunger in their eyes and asked about their businesses. One of the more successful in the room talked about how he is constantly launching product after product – each making money for a while, but none with traction.

Another pitched his business idea that was just like another company but with a twist.  Instead of doing what they do on t-shirts, they would do on shoes, but when asked the ultimate goal of the company he had no answer. That’s because at this stage of their careers it’s only about making the money now with little thought to the longer term. Something all seasoned entrepreneurs can relate to because we’ve been there.

Of this group, the successful ones will eventually learn that if it’s only about the money you’re nothing more than a new-age gold digger panning electronic mines looking for that ever elusive killer vein. You certainly need to have the know-how and techniques down pat, but in order to play at the highest level in business you need a vision from the soul that fuels your passion beyond that of making money. Meaning that the product or service you offer IS relevant.

Until you find your true passion within a business that feeds your soul as well as your bank account, you will continue to launch sky rocket after sky rocket in an attempt to “make it”. And oh by the way, you’ll probably do it while continuing to work for someone else…the man or woman with an actual dream.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

Some days you just have to simply stop and get off the merry-go-round of business. Usually it’s to reward yourself for a job well done and that’s important. But I believe that it’s more important to stop when things are most difficult or going totally wrong.

This is because what you’re experiencing in that moment is simply a manifestation of a decision you made 3-6-9-18 months ago. After all, the piper must be paid and he’s now collecting. However that’s not the way we’ve been taught to react.

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”

“You’ve got to gut it out!”

“Don’t stop until you drop!”

But, what if the direction you’re going in is the wrong one and you keep going? What if you spend another six months gutting it out and eventually drop from exhaustion only to find out that it was a losing proposition all along?

A very wise man once told me that “When faced with a disappointment, you must stop and ask yourself, what was the appointment?”

That takes deep thought and soul searching…which one cannot do if in constant motion. You need to stop and ‘go quiet’ in order to remove the background noise and properly answer that question.

Take it from someone who’s faced his share of disappointments in life. Doing everything right isn’t the answer…doing the right things is.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

I’ve spent this week in New York working ON my business rather than working IN it. Two days were spent recording my book at the offices of Audible.Com (to be released in a couple of weeks) and one day totally shifting my world at Seth Godin’s private conference.

For those of you unfamiliar with Seth Godin, he’s one of the great thinkers in business today. His perspective and blog are a driving force changing the face of business today and spending a day with him and a small group of other entrepreneurs was incredible.

I’ll not bore you with details but the main take away from yesterday were two questions – “What makes you remarkable?” As Seth put it, conversations only take place on the edges, never the middle. The second question was – “How does your product or service match the times?”

In those two simple questions he completely flipped my business planning for next year. In my last blog I asked the question – “2010 will be a good year if?” and now my answers have changed.

That’s why I get away from my business paying big bucks to attend mind shifting conferences or simply riding my bike – to change my perspective.

What would have been the cost of NOT attending his conference? By how far would I have missed my mark? It’s probably quantifiable in terms of dollars, but the true value is the time I’ll save having better honed in on my true destination.

Now a big part of me wants to sit down and immediately draft the plan but instead I’m giving myself today (Friday) off to walk the streets of New York and allow the ideas rattling around to better meld by NOT thinking of them.

Because just like a great gumbo, ideas are always better the next day after you’ve allowed them to settle.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – These are my thoughts, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you.

Wow, it’s mid November and I’m wondering what happened to this past year. Wasn’t January 1 just yesterday? Time tends to fly as the work gets harder and on top of that a new decade is staring us in the face.

The question is, are you ready?

We all have thoughts of the future but few of us take the time to document them into a plan. That’s because we’ve been conditioned to believe that a written plan should be something akin to War and Peace. “I’m too busy to plan!”

And to a degree I’ll buy into that argument. No entrepreneur, unless looking for investment capital, needs to write a 30 page document. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the time to compile a list of what it is we want to accomplish next year.

In all my years of consulting with various companies I’ve come to understand that “planning is nothing more than taking the time to think about all the things you know need to be done and writing them down.”

That’s why this time each year I take the time to write down the answer this question – “2010 will be a good year if…”

Answering this simple but powerful question is all it takes to begin your planning process.  You know instinctively what needs to be accomplished so take the time to write it down because it’s the first step to getting there successfully. 

In my next few blogs, I’ll share with you how to easily build a plan around your answer that ensures important things don’t fall through the cracks.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  If you’d like access to the tools I use in planning go to  www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

On December 1, Junior Achievement of Rock River Valley in Illinois will close its doors due to the economy. They touched approximately 2500 students last year alone and if you multiply any portion of that by the fifty years they were in business, you quickly see how great an impact this program had on this community.

Overall JA touches more than 9.3 million students a year…9.3 million! (Minus 2500 from now on). I’m left to wonder how many other offices are in the same trouble forcing them to close their doors and why is it that in tough economic times it’s the kids that always take it in the shorts?

When in banking, I volunteered for JA and had a blast in the classroom. It was in an inner city high school and the kids were great. All were interested in ‘making money’ and I truly felt the importance of showing them an alternative to the street life that surrounded them. 

And that’s the importance of Junior Achievement. It’s not to turn them into instant entrepreneurs or to save them, but to give them insight into our world of business. Think back to your youth and consider who and what crossed your path that peaked your interest in business. Heck, I have more mentors than can be remembered and each added something to the mix that’s become my business career and I’ll bet you have the same.

In my last blog I wrote how entrepreneurs don’t flock but we do love to talk about what we do and teach. So maybe we should flock en masse down to our local Junior Achievement office and volunteer to teach a kid about business. 

The future of your community depends on it.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

Everyday I get up and run my business without a second thought and on weekends I get to ride anywhere my mood takes me. Freedom is a wonderful thing and all too easily taken for granted.

My Dad fought in WWII making him part of the ‘Greatest Generation’. He was a quiet man who, at the age of 20 was handed a gun and told to go off and save the world. Then, when he came home was given a job and told to build a country. Oh sure, he had his share of complaints and struggles, we all do. But he woke up every day of his life and did his duty.

Today we’re doing the same thing with some of our best and brightest. Freedom isn’t won once and held forever, it’s protected every minute of every day. And often the cost is high.

How do we make sure it’s not an ‘us vs. them’ situation in that they wake up in some God forsaken land risking their lives daily while we wake up in the comfort and safety of our homes? What is our responsibility to these brave men and women who are carving out a large portion of their lives serving our country…serving all of us? How can we more personalize the sacrifice they are making to ensure we as a country can carry on?

I think we honor them by doing our jobs to the best of our ability each and every day…by working not only for ourselves and immediate families but them as well. By no longer playing numbers games for quick riches but instead building our businesses the right way and giving them an economy filled with jobs worthy of their sacrifice to come home to.

They’re making us proud for doing their jobs so let’s do ours. It’s our turn to make them proud.

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

I just read a press release disguised as an article on a new website that “is an integrated web portal that allows people with innovative ideas, talents, and skills to connect with like-minded individuals across the globe to help cultivate those ideas into successful business enterprises.”

Can someone tell me what the hell that means?

Sounds like an electronic club house for ‘wanna-be’s’. And the only one that’s going to turn this shell game into a successful business is the website itself (as long as it can find and attract enough ‘like-minded individuals’ to pay their fare).

The LAST thing you need when starting your business is to hang out with ‘like-minded’ individuals. Think about it, you’re just starting out, meaning that you’re clueless as to what’s coming next. So if you hang out with people just like you, you all end up wandering around in the dark trying to find your way. It’s nothing more than one big distraction with the potential to become a huge pity party when things don’t go right.

Instead go out and find others who have been there, done that and ask for a t-shirt. Get to know the entrepreneurs who’ve been at it 10-20-30 years and hang with them. 

It will help you separate from the back and ensure that you don’t become just another ‘wanna-be’. 

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

If you want to know there’s a God, saddle up with four close friends on a clear crisp Saturday morning at sunrise and hit the road. There’s nothing like feeling the cold air in your face while the sun comes to your left splashing bright orange and blue across the sky. Had Café Del Mar’s ‘Nueve’ playing softly on my Nano and all was right with the world. 

It was the start of what turned out to be a 385 mile trip Saturday through the back roads of Central Florida to Anna Maria Island and back. With the weather starting out in the low 60’s and never leaving the 70’s, it was a spectacular ride.

As you all know, I’m a big proponent of getting on the bike in order to think my way through issues and these days the pressure in my world has never been greater. But on this ride not one thought of business rolled through my head the entire time.

Instead I watched the birds take to the air as we rolled by and saw an old ride for the first time again en route to a part of the country I’d not ridden before. I laughed at fuel stops and enjoyed a great breakfast with friends on the Gulf of Mexico. Felt the wind buffet me as we rolled over the Skyway Bridge on our way through St. Pete and rolled with the cagers on Interstate 4 on the way home.

I didn’t solve a damn issue but the pressure definitely decreased simply because I stopped the background noise and just lived for the day.  It was a little slice of Heaven…

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. www.bikersguidetobusiness.com

I just read a very interesting article in the New York Times about how the brain trust at Disney is considering an image makeover for Mickey Mouse. They are completely re-thinking his personality, what his house looks like and even how he interacts with children. “The first glimmer of this will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland. “

My initial reaction was – HOW STUPID IS THAT? (I think Michael Eisner wants to die just so he can turn over in his grave at the thought!)

My second reaction was – This failure will be fun to watch and I hope to be around for the full ride (pun intended) because it’s going to be long and painful. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I live in the Orlando area and am most certainly NOT a Disney fan. Speaking from experience, I find them to be corporate bullies in that they have the typical “I’m bigger than you so it’s my way or the highway” mentality when dealing with smaller companies. 

And where I’ve always found them to be arrogant, this is beyond belief…and funny. Has any of their leadership learned nothing from business the past 50 years? Did they ever, as the article says, hear of New Coke? This bone headed move is akin to Harley coming out with a lavender scooter. Just doesn’t fit.

But it’s not surprising when you look at what makes up the leadership of major corporations these days. They tend to hire people with initials after their names like MBA who swoop in and multiply like rabbits eventually taking over. The main problem I have with MBAs is that they equate everything to numbers and cunningly use them to blind their leaders.

Leadership can no longer see the company for what it is. Instead it only sees what it’s supposedly worth…according to their formula that is. And the worst case scenario is when the leader is a card carrying member of their cult. They begin chasing short term gains at the expense of everything – people, resources, partnerships and eventually in the most desperate of moves, their souls. If you want to see how devastating these MBA types can be you need only look at what they did to our banking system.

I can’t wait to see Minnie in leather…

Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – these are my thoughts on the matter, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you. http://www.bikersguidetobusiness.com/

It appears that as a whole, we’ve adjusted mentally to the current economic situation and fear has been replaced with disappointment and resentment. Lots of 20/20 hindsight by the more mature business crowd wishing they’d have made this move or that. And the younger crowd is more resentful for the older generation ‘blowing it’ thereby making it difficult for them to get started.

There are many qualified individuals out there, no matter their generation, underemployed, now working at restaurants waiting on those fortunate enough not to be effected by the downturn. Its frustration city and people are looking for answers.

So the buzzword of the day is ‘entrepreneurship’ and how it’s time to rise up and take control of your future. But the question is how, and during radio interviews for my book, I’m often asked what advice I give to entrepreneurs, new and old, now that times are tough. The advice I give is no different today than it was 5 or 10 years ago. Success is a process…find yours, stay true to it and you’ll make it.

Sure, in some cases it’s a matter of timing, but the fact is that there’s no perfect time to be in or enter the great game of business. I know because in a lot of ways, I’m doing both. I’m currently 53 years old – my 16 year old consulting business is OK, but feeling some negative effects of the economy. And, I’m also in the very early stages of launching a new Internet venture.

Good timing…bad timing…who the hell knows. The only thing I’m sure of is that the time is now and in order to be successful I simply have to figure out the playing field. The crazy thing is that both ventures evoke the same emotions as I’m faced with the same obstacles and experience the same fears and frustrations in each, but from different perspectives. One is looking down the mountain and the other is looking up. 

The key is going to be my ability to maintain 20/20 vision on each. I’ll let you know in subsequent blogs how I’m doing.

 Dwain – The BusinessBiker

As always – These are just my thoughts, I could be wrong.  So, if you disagree or simply want to pile on, please do so either here on the BLOG or email me directly at Navigator@BikersGuidetoBusiness.Com  I look forward to hearing from you.