Over the past decade or so, the phrase “company culture” has become embedded in our vocabularies and used as an HR tool to attract the best and the brightest. It’s indisputable that today’s employees want to love the companies they work for.  But let’s go beyond the buzzwords and get to the heart of what company culture really means and why it’s important. Tristan White, described by Smart Company as “one of Australia's next generation of business leaders” and founder of The Physio Co., breaks down four key building blocks. 

“Company culture is not just about the good times and the parties. A strong culture helps you and your team get through tough times in business,” says Tristan. And he would know: The Physio Co, a patient care facility that focuses on elderly care, has been listed as one of “Australia’s Best Places to Work” for the past seven of the twelve years they’ve been in business.

His emphasis on company culture dates back to the start of his business. After five years of successfully running his company, he realized that he didn’t particularly enjoy going into the office anymore. “I had twenty team members, business had grown but there was no culture or vision for the company.”

In 2009, he and his wife took a trip to North America. There, they researched similar businesses and decided to take a values based approach to running their company back home. “Culture is built with vision, purpose, repetition and love. It’s a really big word that has so many layers, but at the end of the day, culture boils down to alignment,” he says.

Keeping employees aware and engaged with the BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) and shorter term goals is a great way to maintain this alignment. Tristan has found success in connecting employee’s day to day responsibilities with the overarching company goals. “When we achieve our goals, we celebrate! However, when these goals aren’t achieved – which is sometimes the case – authenticity and honesty is important. Ask your team for help. Tell them what worked and what hasn’t worked,” remarks Tristan.

While some may think they’re similar, Tristan breaks down the dichotomy between vision and purpose: “Vision is where you’re headed; purpose is why you exist. When you seek to define your purpose, I like to refer people to Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, Start with Why.” When your purpose is made clear, hiring people who share the same values becomes a breeze. The third tenet of a solid culture, repetition, can sound a bit boring, which is why Tristan refers to it as “relentless execution”. While it can bring back memories of a boring summer job as a teenager, age old concepts like having a daily huddle or tracking certain metrics periodically can have a profound impact on culture.

“Use repetition to tie actions back to the purpose,” says Tristan. In addition to the mundane tasks, he also subscribes to a “rhythm of celebrations.” Employees are celebrated once they come onboard as well as when they leave. Consistently implementing these initiatives allows for the company culture to infiltrate every aspect of the business.

The final building block of a solid company culture is love. Showing employees that you care about them for more than their output can make a difference. “Lead with care, lead with love and you’ll get long term loyalty in return,” says Tristan. Using these four metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your company culture will pay dividends in the short and long term. What are some tactics you use to keep your employees engaged? Tweet them to us after listening to the podcast.

We see it all of the time – entrepreneurs posting photos from their latest vacation or a conference they’re headlining or another notable event. However, people rarely talk about the guts behind the glory and what it took them to get there. Misty Lown has a different approach. Written on one of the nicest napkins we’ve seen on the show, Misty Lown explains her philosophy behind why rock bottom is a pretty good place for building.

“Everyone has a “ground zero” moment. I like to hear about those moments because they aren’t broadcast often. We do a great disservice to people by only showing the shiny parts of our story,” Misty explains. Currently, Misty owns nine businesses, including “Misty’s Dance Unlimited”, a dance academy Wisconsin where she and her staff inspire over 750 kids to be their best selves through dance and community involvement. Additionally, she operates “More Than Just Great Dancing”, a training school which teaches 145 dance schools worldwide on how to run with the same core values as her main business.  “My dance school is eighteen years old and the other [More Than Just Great Dancing] is four. And let me tell you, their ages and how they operate line up so much with parenthood,” says the mother of five children.

But things weren’t always so rosy. Misty’s beginnings in dance came from an unlikely start. She was born with a club foot (which was later fixed). “I thought that starting a dance school was [one of the last] things I’d be doing with my life,” she remembers. She admits to having been a troubled youth. She refers to those years as her “rock bottom”.

She recalls her days of partying and a devastating eating disorder, “My body was my tool and I was abusing it in every way possible. There’s no elegant way to put it, but it was just a hot mess. I had to do some hard heart work to figure out what I wanted to do with the gift God had given me.” At 18, she was accepted into the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. During the summer before sessions began, she realized her love for instructing – and, instead of taking her talents to the stage, she decided to take them to the dance studio. While she now sees the purpose behind her swift change, at the time, she referred to herself as an “accidental entrepreneur.”

In time, she began to realize that her rocky past wasn’t something to be ashamed of or hidden and made the intentional effort to begin to pay those lessons forward. She often ran into students who were facing similar difficulties and was able to provide them with her story as a source of guidance and inspiration. “Initially, I wanted to keep the shiny parts and remove the bad history. But, the benefits of owning your journey is to be able to tell people that you’re old enough to know better, but young enough to remember. During that rough patch, I wasn’t being buried, I was being built for something greater,” she muses.

Misty never regrets her decision to choose the classroom over the stage lights and applause. “Being in the classroom provides an ROI for a lifetime, especially when being compared to being on a stage for a few hours. I still talk to students from years ago; I wouldn’t be able to do that with an audience member,” she says.

As someone once said, “Successful entrepreneurs owe it to the next generation to pay forward their failures and just not their successes.” As Misty began to own her story, she began to find value in the creation and the process, not just the outcome. She shares this mindset with her teams and her family. “There’s great value in doing small things well. I didn’t understand this straight out of the gate and I still don’t have it perfect. Entrepreneurship is a muscle that needs to be built and exercised.”

Twenty years ago, Steve Sims was bored. “I was automatically depressed before I left the house. I realized that there was no fun, no passion, no excitement. There was nothing beyond getting a paycheck. Eventually I said, f*** no,” he remembers. The East London construction worker and motorcycle enthusiast talked his way into getting a bank job, which transferred him to Hong Kong in 1994. “I came on a Saturday and was fired by Tuesday,” he laughs. Stranded in Hong Kong and straddled with debt, he began working at a night club. After gaining clout within the nightlife community and high rollers, he developed a password in order for people to gain admission into his exclusive parties. The password was Bluefish, which would go on to become the name of his company, a group that creates customized concierge experiences. Around this time, he found his governing principle, “If there’s no passion, there’s no point. I actually have it painted on a wall in my office,” he says.

Fast forward two decades and this principle still guides his life. A large component of this philosophy deals with presenting one’s authentic self at all times. He recalls that he toned himself down for a bit, opted for a Bentley instead of a motorcycle and a suit instead of his normal garb. This ended up negatively impacting his business and no one could understand why. “When I changed back into my normal self, the clients returned. They couldn’t even put their finger on why they had stopped doing business with me,” he remarks, “Being me is so bloody easy, it takes no effort for it to be me.”

An additional component of his philosophy involves keeping the entrepreneurial fire burning by only doing the things he likes. “I do what I like and outsource everything else. I focus on doing just what I’m good at. When I do this, I go from maybe 10% productive to 60 or 80% productive,” he claims. Steve is also very aware of the people he lets into his space, citing that he will only interface with people who are incredibly passionate. He often opts to perform The Chug Test. In short, if a client was across the street, he assesses whether or not he would run across the road to catch up with the client and possibly chug down a coffee or beer, “I have turned away clients if they fail this test. I also ask my team members to put our potential clients up to this test.”

While entrepreneurs may view this as unreasonable or hard to maintain, Steve argues that it’s just like building a habit, like jogging or some other form of exercise. Just like the password became a filter to ensure that only the people who he liked could get into the parties, this test ensures that he only works with people who share his sense of passion and purpose. “This may come off as rude but that’s not my intention. This is my life; I’m going to die one day and I want to enjoy every single minute I’m alive.”

How do you live with passion? Tweet us with your answers @PaperNapkin and click below to listen to this podcast.

We’ve all seen it before: the big houses, the flashy cars and the stories of how entrepreneurs made their millions, spread across the glossy pages of magazines. While this may look like success, Dave Mammano thinks there's a little more to it than that. Founder of NextStepU, an organization that helps teenagers plan their future, he explains how to live a more fulfilled life and reclaim hours in your day.

The road to this discovery began in college, where Dave initially majored in pre-dentistry. “My mother’s cousin was a dentist. He had a red Porsche and a big house, so I decided that I wanted to be one too,” he explains. After an unfulfilling internship, Dave really began to evaluate what he wanted to do and readjusted accordingly. His reasoning was not an anomaly; he finds that many teens base their career planning around what will make them the most money versus what will make them happy. Unfortunately, sometimes the same holds true for many entrepreneurs.

Back in 2010, Dave realized he was focusing all of his energy into his business and not enough energy into some of other the important areas of life. Once this began to take a toll on his health, he made it a point to intentionally design the life he wanted. “Because entrepreneurs are wildly creative and somewhat ‘ADD’, this was a challenge,” Dave confesses. After joining the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), he decided to take a step back and made his internal well-being a number one priority.

Dave encourages entrepreneurs to do regular internal audits to evaluate what success looks like to them. “To me, success is not what I amass in material goods. Rather, I measure it based on what I have internally. I think this is the number one recipe for success and happiness,” Dave explains. But with the hustle and bustle of today’s plugged-in world, how is this possible? “I encourage the teens I talk to, to do something that will scare the living bejeezus out of them. I tell them to put away their phones and any kind of technology. I tell them to go for a walk in the woods and think about what they like to do, what their values are and how they can map out a plan to make that happen.”

Introspective reviews can be tough. So, Dave has developed a system to assist with measuring his internal happiness and personal progress on a week by week basis. Journaling and meditation is fundamental to this process. Additionally, he holds himself accountable and works with an accountability partner to make sure he stays on track. He asks himself: What makes me happy and healthy in the areas that are important? “A healthy, happy entrepreneur is one who balances the work, the family, friends, faith and what not.” While this will vary from person to person, it’s essential for entrepreneurs to plan this out like it is a business to avoid neglecting some of the things that should take precedent.

In addition to improving his mental well being and interpersonal relationships, this structure allows him to “suck the juice” out of every minute. Within these journaling sessions, he plans out his goals for the each day of the week, month and year. He believes that this allows him to be more focused and organized.

Learn more about Dave’s system and experiences by listening to the podcast below!

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Entrepreneur Family, a new channel focused on how entire families share in the entrepreneurial journey and how it impacts not just the entrepreneur but their loved ones as well. 

Entrepreneurship requires that a risk-taking individual embark upon a journey: to launch their own business, using their own innovative ideas, in order to eventually earn a viable profit. Entrepreneur Amrit Mansahia discusses in detail with us her business journey, and the challenges she faced along the way. Specifically, she notes that most challenges are unforeseen, and only appear once the entrepreneur is already deep into the process.

Amrit Mansahia explains how one’s family is equally affected by the launch of a new business. Throughout an entrepreneur’s journey, there is more than one individual along for the ride. She says, “It is not me who is failing or succeeding; it is we.” As a spouse, both partners are on the journey together; it is a family affair.

The journey began for Amrit Mansahia when she was a graduate with an entrepreneurship bachelor’s degree, and a supportive husband by her side. They both embarked upon terrific jobs, working for others, until her husband had the idea of the spouses starting their own business. Amrit agreed, even though they had the responsibility of a new baby to also consider. Both spouses quit their jobs and began the business. Immediately, the struggles ensued: long work hours, no income, no money for basic necessities, including baby diapers. Amrit notes, “In one’s own business, there are so many tasks to complete simultaneously.” Focus and balance are very important, because every action and decision depends on and directly effects another action and decision.

Amrit Mansahia describes the entire entrepreneur journey as a rollercoaster ride, with many ups, downs, and unknowns along the way. However, in the end, she observes that having a viable company to call her own is worth the difficult journey it required, of not only her and her husband, but their entire family as well.

What would you do if there were no rules or set path to achieving success? In this podcast, Matt Ward explains his philosophy behind his theory that there are no rules. “In life and business, there are set patterns,” he explains,”but at the end of the day, you can do what you want to do.” And he would know -- Matt started out as an engineer but now runs an ecommerce company.”I was always the straight A student, really rules focused, a bit of a nerd. Great at math and science, not so great at English,” he admits.

After becoming dissatisfied with the corporate world and discovering his love for crowdfunding and ecommerce, he began exploring the idea that rules should be abandoned. He happened upon the idea after reading Eckhart Tolle’s bestseller (and Oprah approved) “The Power of Now”. The book asserts that there is no past because it's over, and there is no future. Additionally, Tolle believes that most problems technically don’t exist because they’re in the future. This was a life changing revelation for Matt, who ended up on a completely different course than the one he started on.

As the head of a Fulfilled By Amazon company, he breaks down how Amazon has broken the rules and subsequently changed history. While competing giant Ebay encouraged people to bid on items, Amazon allowed people to get the best product for the lowest cause. “Raw efficiency... makes things really easy for consumers and is one way Amazon is breaking the rules,” he says.

Matt also believes that many entrepreneurs are victims of analysis paralysis, “You don’t have to be perfect to launch. Perfectionist syndrome keeps people on the beaten path. You [end up] holding yourself back. That’s the main difference between “wantrepreneurs” and “entrepreneurs.”

He encourages entrepreneurs to change course if something isn’t working, a lesson he learned after stopping his crowdfunding story.

He leaves budding entrepreneurs with this advice, “Go do something stupid so that you’ll learn incredible things from it. Set outlandishly large goals. Plan goals over the next 12 months while having this mind set. If you shoot for the moon and get 10% of the way there, you’re going to have a hell of a success story… assuming you have a rocket.”

Check out the whole conversation.

The concept of working a 9-5 position isn’t ancient. You may not realize it, but it’s actually only a few generations old. While people in the 1500s certainly had trades and appointed positions, the work force looked very different prior to the Industrial Revolution.”The concept of going to a big dark building was so foreign [500] years ago. [But] in the last five to ten years, there has been a shift. Entrepreneurship is the future,” explains Clay Hebert, marketing and growth hack expert.

Prior to the turn of the century, the folks who approved or denied access to certain opportunities - otherwise known as gatekeepers - were the game changers. And although they still exist, Hebert believes they are a lot less relevant than they were in those days, stating, “All of the gatekeepers are gone. Except one. You are the last gatekeeper.” In this podcast, he explains his philosophy behind the quote, along with ways entrepreneurs and creatives can begin to rethink how they view gatekeepers.

Gatekeepers follow the standard rules and procedures that have been around for ages, which means that sometimes “[they] don’t have good taste”, he notes. In fact, J.K. Rowling’s first book in the Harry Potter series was cast aside by publishers and picked up by his daughter, who begged him for a sequel. Hebert came to this revelation after leaving his decade long position with consulting firm Accenture. “I worked with awesome, brilliant people, but they didn’t value entrepreneurship like I did,” he recounts.

In 2009, he studied under Seth Godin’s alternative MBA program and went on to help brands and individuals with digital marketing. After helping a friend hold a successful Kickstarter campaign for a film she was directing, he began to realize how gatekeepers were slowly going out of vogue. “In order to make her film, she needed to raise $30,000 for post production costs. But there were gatekeepers telling her no. With my help, she got past them and found another way.” The film went on to be shown at festivals and win awards, further cementing his idea that gatekeepers were a thing of the past.

Of course, some gatekeepers are useful. “I want to be sure that my pilot is trained and certified, and isn’t some hipster guy from Brooklyn that just randomly decided he wanted to fly a plane,” Hebert jokes. However, when it comes to more creative and entrepreneurial pursuits, he believes that people simply need to get out of their own way.

A big part of this is monitoring what you consume and becoming a gatekeeper for yourself. Whether it’s the latest vacation photos from an old high school friend on Facebook or the salacious headline in the paper, it’s important for entrepreneurs to keep a pulse on what they are “ingesting”. “99% of people don’t care about you or what you do. And that’s great news,” Hebert says, “Ignore them. so you can give value to the 1% that do care. That’s hard to do when you’re ingesting all of that noise.” He encourages entrepreneurs to subscribe to author Kevin Kelly’s concept of finding and nurturing 1000 true fans, while building from the ground up.

Click here for a special bonus gift from Clay Hebert and make sure to listen to the podcast.

What happens when you create a venn diagram that combines discovering your passion with providing unique value and figuring out where your audience is listening? In this podcast, Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of Moz, believes that is how you find your sweet spot.

As with most entrepreneurs, Fishkin knows a little bit about how failure can eventually inspire success. After dropping out of college in 2001, he began working with his mom at an agency where they offered clients web design and marketing solutions. However, they began drowning in debt, amassing over $500,000 from overhead expenses. In 2004, he started a blog called SEO Moz. “I spent four hours a day writing blogs. For the first year, it wasn’t really attracting anyone or resonating with a particular audience,” Fishkin recalls.

But after a year of publishing blogs five days per week, eventually the audience came: SEO Moz (renamed Moz) became a credible source of information about the newest marketing phase - search engine  . In fact, the blog became so successful that in 2007, he was able to pay off his debt. While discovering his sweet spot took some time, Fishkin notes, “I have not seen someone in the content marketing world where someone was automatically a massive success.

The founder of Buzzfeed had over 11 years of publishing experience before it became what it is today. It’s all about shifting your passions to an area where you can provide unique value.” Additionally, he notes that entrepreneurs should keep their ear to the ground to find where their audience is to avoid choosing the right platform to promote their service or product.

As a public figure and thought leader, Fishkin has a few nuggets for entrepreneurs. First, they must be willing to learn, adapt and change for their audience. Additionally, it’s key to experiment with new platforms without over investing in them, in order to continue to grow and learn. Find out more words of wisdom by clicking the link  ! 

Is there a formula for success? This week’s Paper Napkin Wisdom guest, Geoff Smart - CEO of lead consulting firm ghSMART - proposes just that . Dr. Smart, the best selling author of Who: The A Method for Hiring and the newly released Power Score: Your Formula for Leadership Success, holds a PhD in Psychology and has spent the last twenty years collecting and synthesizing data from over 3000 leaders and their teams.

While most books on leadership suggest that most prominent trait of successful leaders is honesty, Dr. Smart discovered that this wasn’t necessarily a special trait, and that most people (successful or unsuccessful) rated themselves highly in this category.

The Power Score (P x W x R) takes a look at the empirical data surrounding common traits of leaders and proposes that if teams are good at prioritizing, hiring the right people and building the right relationships, they are twenty times more likely to be successful than if they don’t have these traits. The concept was birthed by his publisher, who suggested that Dr. Smart take a more holistic approach to his new book as opposed to just providing tips on hiring as he had for his previous work “Who”. “The formula is multiplicative,” Dr. Smart explains, and akin to an athlete performing in a triathlon -- he or she must be good at all three in order to be successful.

The “P” stands for prioritizing and refers to the need for leaders and their teams to be equally plugged into the top goals and objectives of the organization. According to Dr. Smart, only 24 percent of leaders in the sample were good at prioritizing, while 90 percent said they had too many priorities. Working collaboratively to establish goals and a step-by-step process to achieve them is crucial to the success of any team.

The next letter in the equation, “W”, stands for Who. This value represents the team members themselves and evaluates whether they are all-stars or average from the beginning of the hiring process. To dig a bit deeper, Dr. Smart suggests asking the following questions prior to hiring a new team member:

• What does performance mean? What will it take for this person to be an all-star in this role?
• How was this candidate sourced? Was it a referral from an internal party?
• Am I asking the right interview questions and avoiding any hypothetical statements or situations in the interview?
• Am I selling this person on how great of a fit it is, how much time they’ll have with family, how much freedom they’ll have, the amount of money they’ll make and how fun it is to work here?

Because the majority of managers worldwide only have around a 50% retention rate for the staff they hire, these questions are pertinent in order to ensure the new hire will bring value to their new team.

Finally, “R” stands for relationships. “Simply stated,” Dr. Smart explains, the right people need to be talking at the right time.

Check out the latest podcast and Dr. Smart’s new book to learn more about the formula for success!

Two years ago Rob Simons challenged me to by flipping around the Paper Napkin Wisdom podcast and turning me into the subject and he’d play the interviewer. To launch season 4, he came back to turn the tables once more by interviewing me in today’s podcast. I’ve been thinking a lot since the release of my book, “Your Five Step Plan For Life and Business Success”. As business owners and entrepreneurs, many times we worry about reaching our highest potential, often because we don’t think we are good enough. Thus, my paper napkin for today reads “Make it bad, then make it better. But make it.”

This initially came to me when I created the first draft of my most recent book. I produced it before a keynote I did, and it was just my thoughts on paper. My friend and organizer of the event gave me one requirement in order to speak: they wanted me to give away 100 copies of my book. Having that first draft provided me with the opportunity to improve upon the product.

Let’s go back even further.

In 2009, my personal and professional life was eroding and I was looking for a magic wand to wave over everything. While I didn’t find the wand, I did find something better. And in 2013, I launched Paper Napkin Wisdom. At the beginning, I had no clue what I was doing. It took me almost a year to get the first paper napkin and I recorded everything with $19 equipment. However, while it wasn’t perfect, the conversations we had were still riveting. After doing a few hundred podcasts, of course it improved. Once the process got going, I did 70 podcasts in three months and collected nearly 100 paper napkins. Throughout this process of creating the podcast, I discovered ways to make it better. For starters, being genuine curiosity ended up being the key to great podcasts interviews. Over-preparing took away a part of the authenticity of the podcast. But I had to do it first in order to improve upon it.

“So, Govindh,” you may ask, “how do you go from having a goal to doing it and making it better?” The answer for that lies within the first napkin I ever had on the show, which read, “If you want to learn and grow, you have to do what scares you and do it in public.”

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over the years and came upon a revelation: many people who achieve great success only do it once or twice in their lives. Because of this, they often unintentionally overlook the process that enabled them to achieve these successes. In Your Five Step Plan, I highlight the commonalities I’ve discovered after talking to the most brilliant minds over the last few years.

1. Multitasking is for computers, not for leaders. In fact, you get an 8x better ROI when you focus on one task at a time.
2. There’s no such thing as priorities. There’s typically only one thing that you can focus on at a time. Deal with that and the rest will fall into place.
3. Your worldview affects your business decisions. To the aforementioned point, when deciding what those priorities are, keep in mind that how you view the world affects how you prioritize.
4. Distilled wisdom is key. If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
5. Be accountable. A study showed that people who wrote down their goals are 36.7% more likely to achieve them. However, those who wrote down their goals and provided progress reports to peers were 76.7% more likely to achieve their goals.

I often see time and deadlines becoming barricades to entrepreneurs starting on a specific goal. While timelines are important, they shouldn’t be used to be hard on yourself. As a career coach, Rob encourages entrepreneurs to learn from their process, even if deadlines need to be adjusted.

One of the big challenges I had in the past was not having a subsequent goal after achieving a big milestone. However, in 2016, my biggest goal is to  get this book into your hands in an effort to “save an entrepreneur, and save the world”. I want to inspire each and every one of you to take your ideas and your business further, faster.

Are you ready to embark on this journey?

Listen to the whole conversation:

Shep Hyken is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, a grass roots entrepreneur, and a speaker. He’s a busy guy but he’s focused in a way that makes him effective and efficient.

He’s already been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Speakers Association, an incredible feat considering he’s still amazing crowds around the world on the subject of consistently delivering Amazing Customer Service.

In his Paper Napkin Wisdom, Shep shares with us a simple yet profound message. He says: “On successful people (and those that aren’t). Those that do, do. Those that don’t won’t!”

Don’t Hold Back

The first time Shep heard the above phrase, the last word was “don’t” rather than “won’t” but there’s a big difference between the two words and Shep believes his spin on it to be more accurate. “Won’t” conveys that we’re stopping ourselves, which is precisely what Shep thinks happens. He believes that some people hold back because they don’t see the bigger picture or don’t look for the positive strategic byproducts that happen as a result of doing new, different things and trying all kinds of different angels. In some cases, he says, there’s something subconscious that keeps people from doing things or it’s simply that they don’t like to try a little bit harder or work a little bit harder. It’s unfortunate, because a little bit of extra effort can make all the difference.

“Someone once told me it doesn’t take much more to go first class,” says Shep. Putting in that little bit of extra effort or that little bit of extra work can make all the difference in an experience and he says it’s what makes an experience memorable. It’s an element that Shep applies to every business relationship he has, but he’s careful not to over commit. He’s learned that in order to be successful and grow you have to say ‘no’ and delegate tasks. Delegating tasks allows Shep to do what he calls staying in his lane: he knows what he’s really good at and he stays focused on doing that. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t expand his efforts or that he doesn’t keep an eye out for new opportunities, but it does means that he evaluates potential ventures in terms of how congruent they are with what he does in addition to assessing how much time and money it will cost him.

Identify What Works

Shep says that part of success is identifying the things that you’ve done in the past that worked for you and trying to repeat them. He advises taking a look at what you’ve done from the beginning of your business to what you’ve done now and find the milestone moments, the moments that really made a positive impact in your business. Are there things that have worked for you in the past that you don’t do anymore? Shep says that our attention too often gets siphoned off into the some activity that gets in the way of us doing what’s always worked best. If we take the time to repeat things that have worked for us in the past instead of constantly innovating, we not only save ourselves time, we give ourselves the opportunity to see what strategic byproducts might be right in front of us.

“Things are going to happen that you’re going go ‘ooh, that’s a great idea.”

A strategic byproduct is an opportunity that arises as a result of some sort of current situation.”Along the way things are going to happen that you’re going to go ‘ooh, that’s a great idea.'” says Shep. He shares the example of how, when his speaking business was lagging due to the fear surrounding air travel in the wake of 9/11, a client mentioned how he wished Shep had content he could bring to the company. Considering what his client had said, Shep reworked his content into a training format and did just that. Recently, he’s even noticed that his income from training has begun to surpass that of his speaking engagements.

Shep has a really simple approach to getting stuff done, he just does it. By delegating the things that would otherwise distract him from staying in his lane, and putting in that little bit of extra effort, Shep is able to keep a sharp eye out for opportunity and move his business in the right direction. It’s a method that’s lead him to great success, where might it lead you?

Sean Costello is an entrepreneurial leader who values the right balance of culture and execution. He has founded multiple companies on the principles of patience and curiosity, and works hard to maintain a supportive atmosphere for his clines and employees. This has lead Sean to his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom: People all around you want to help, they just don’t yet know how.

In Sean’s experience, real connections become possible when you share with people how they can help you. We are all here to help unlock each other’s people and help each other succeed. In so doing, we ourselves will succeed by realizing our strength. Thinking of this another way, how effective would a sports team be if each player was wearing blinders and was unable to locate their teammates? The metaphor of the team can thus relate to family, an organization, a corporation, or any community of people that is reliant on one another.

The requirement or exercise within this philosophy, as Sean explains, is quite simple. It is about actively asking for feedback while simultaneously making it safe for sharing. Sharing, in this case, can mean everything from concerns to feedback to dreams. This creates an environment of possibilities.

Sean exploration as a microcosm for business - it cannot succeed without the appropriate amount of process, planning, preparation, and simulation. This has driven his fascination with the space program, while also helping him meet and develop a co-mentorship with someone he calls “Young Astronaut Abby”. Abby shared with him, in their first meeting, her dream of being the first astronaut to Mars. Sean challenged Abby to continue with and develop that dream, rather than dismissing it as childish whimsy. She has since spoken on a Ted X stage about acting and dreaming big, and leveraged her dream into other examples of success. This was able to occur because she shared her dream with Sean and gave him the awareness on how she could be helped.

Another example is quite personal for Sean. When his grandfather was about to turn 100, his family was flying into a remote town to celebrate. Sean wanted to offer him something unique to help him with that celebration, so on the flight there, he shared with the pilot the location of his grandfather’s farm. The farm happened to be near the airport, so Sean simply asked for a fly by. The pilot, of course, was more than happy to oblige and Sean was able to take photos of the farmhouse as they flew over to share with his grandfather and elevate his birthday celebration.

This is all to say that Sean enters every transaction, regardless of the situation, by sharing how he defines success with the other participants. For example, he was able to convince a customer to pay up front for a full year by offering a reduced price, all the while that up front cash was also helping Sean to succeed by providing him with financing.

In Sean’s experience, the best approach to relationships is to start by thinking “what do I need to do for them” rather than thinking “what do I need to demand”. The result will be more fulfilling for both parties.

For more than two decades, Alex Charfen has been creating and testing business philosophies specifically geared towards entrepreneurs. Alex has been an entrepreneur himself during this period, and has developed the Entrepreneurial Personality Type to help business owners grow their business and themselves. He has contributed to numerous major media outlets and brings his core philosophy to Paper Napkin Wisdom: “There is nothing wrong with you.”

Alex’s contribution stems from an observation that whoever has stood out in history has always had a restlessness - something that people constantly told them was a weakness. Ranging from the original great thinkers of Athens to Einstein to Buffett, opposition to this type of innovative thinking has always originated from a resistance to change. In the business world, entrepreneurs represent this archetype because we are highly susceptible to negative criticism.

At every level of business - and especially when starting out - the message is “fix yourself.” In Alex’s experience, however, entrepreneurs must discover how to identify strengths and abilities, develop protection and support, and lower pressure and noise. You may be surprised at how rapidly these efforts help in accomplishing your goals. Alex even goes so far as to recommend leaning into your personality (as opposed to tempering it) and make it a more prominent part of your business.

From the work Alex has done with entrepreneurs, he has identified three awakenings that each of us experiences: 1) a realization that we are fundamentally different, 2) an innate motivation to keep going, 3) the call of contribution. The first stage begins at an early age by learning “what is wrong with me” through systemic suppression and fear. This eventually grows, however, into learning how to get ahead, and learning that self improvement often requires breaking systemic rules. The next evolution becomes “how to get my partners and team ahead”, which finally results in “how to contribute and help everyone.” Think of Bill Gates as the perfect example: someone who began is career as selfish, driven, and cutthroat, but developed a philanthropic, generous spirit of contribution.

Entrepreneurial personalities tend to prefer momentum to feeling - forward vs backwards as opposed to happy vs sad. As such, chasing momentum is more rewarding than chasing happiness. Entrepreneurs tend to be momentum-based or highly attuned to whether they’re moving forward. As Alex describes it, pressure and noise = stress, frustration, obstacles, regardless of size. Protection and support comes from surrounding yourself with people who help you move forward.

Complete the following exercise: think of a time when you experienced a high level of momentum. What were you chasing and how are you tracking your momentum? Who contributed to you and who have you contributed to? A perfect example of this formula is Rick Hoyt: a person who, with the help of his father, family, neighbors and friends, overcame a physical disability to develop strengths and abilities, and eventually make a contribution through inspiration.

John Spence went from being kicked out of college with a D average to becoming CEO of an international Rockefeller foundation and reporting directly to Winthrop P. Rockefeller III just a few years later. This turn around wasn’t an accident, it was something John did by maintaining a focus on innovation, personal growth, and a thirst for learning. As an entrepreneur, he has worn many hats, but has always maintained that focus on innovation. This is the inspiration for his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom: “II > EI”. Simply put, the equation means that to be successful in the future, the rate of internal innovation must exceed the rate of external innovation.

In the entrepreneurial world, when everything around you becomes unstable, internal innovation is required in order to maintain (or grow), especially considering the speed of change around us. Entrepreneurs know in their core that in order to be successful, we must out-innovate, out-create, out-experiment, and out-deliver our competitors.

The pace of innovation is faster and the scope is broader (global) in every industry, sector, and marketplace. Consider the modern smart phone: in 1982, to purchase something that had every capability that a smart phone currently has would’ve cost $3.2 billion dollars (with a B!) and been the size of two tractor-trailers. An iPhone now retails for $700 and fits in your pocket. In 10 years, you may be able to purchase the same capabilities for $5 at the size of a human blood cell.

The next question that most entrepreneurs will ask, according to John, is regarding intellectual property and the protection of ideas. While the open source economy is rapidly developing, the protection of intellectual property will require a heightened attention on process. This means a powerful commitment to continuous, daily, incremental improvement. In John’s experience, this also requires convening with like-minded individuals to bring new ideas and provide support (the oxymoron of personal connection in the face of technological disconnect).

In that vein, John’s work has provided him with relevant analysis on the younger generation of today’s workforce and produced surprising results. The so-called millennial generation values the opportunity to do important work, work with cool people, and make a difference. This comes from the realization that you can Google an answer, but not a question - it cannot ask you a question and cause you to think critically. The correlation for entrepreneurs is that the success of your business, regardless of size, is directly determined by the quality of the people that you can get, grow, and and retain. Even for “solo-preneurs”, this means your personal network - people who can challenge you and help generate ideas (the process is likely to be 90% give, 10% take).

From similar analytical findings, John’s research shows that the qualities people value most in leadership are asking great questions and the ability to listen. When listening to your key players, ask yourself the following: What does that mean to me? How can I use that? What can I do right away? Similarly, according to John, you must be bold enough and curious enough to explore different industries as a new source of learning and growth.

When thinking of this kind of exponential growth, consider this analogy: which choice you would make if someone offered you either $1 million immediately, or 1 cent that doubles every day for 30 days? The long-term satisfaction of the latter is a perfect microcosm for John’s philosophy on internal innovation.

Jason Womack is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and CEO, among other things. He is an avid practitioner of his own philosophies on work/life balance, productivity, and forward progress, and with Master’s degrees in Education and Psychology, is well-educated in the way we think. These facets of Jason’s life and work have inspired his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom, which is a simple straight line from point A to point B. The philosophy behind Jason’s napkin focuses on how to get to point B without getting knocked off course, how to persevere when the path gets rough, and how to focus when it gets easy.

As Jason explains, from a certain age, we are programmed to look towards “what is next” (e.g. in high school, we look towards college as the next step). This is the difference between destination-based goals and direction-based goals. “Getting through the day”, for example, is a destination-based goal - it is not necessarily a bad thing, but it may be limiting your perspective. After a few instances of concentrating on destination, however, you begin to understand your direction - the experience(s) you want to have, both in your work and your life.

Direction, according to Jason, is all about momentum. It allows you to experience - and learn from - everything along the path to point B. An exercise that Jason employs is to consistently acknowledge when something is complete, rather than rerunning it internally to find mistakes or weaknesses. This exercise not only helps to push forward, but also helps to commit to systems and processes. This creates a flow of psychology, sociology, and technology, which Jason says will help clarify your direction-based goals.

In terms of psychology (the thinking side), create an “at my best” list - an explicit inventory of conditions when you are most successful (e.g. eating a full breakfast, meeting first-thing with key players, etc). Think of this list as another version of strength-finder, where you create an opportunity to move forward. Another way to think of this is resilience. Most would consider resilience when faced with major, life-changing, negative events, but Jason encourages us to also consider everyday stressors and obstacles that you get past, which indicate that you’re making progress.

The second phase - sociology - is all about support. Ask yourself who are you going to hang out with next, and decide whether that person is someone who will help you get to the next level. You will eventually find yourself in an atmosphere of mentorship, friendship, family, and support. The “who” in this instance will always have a profound impact on the “why” the “how” and the “why”, and will further influence your movement, momentum, and destination.

Finally, Jason talks about technology. Rather than just the screen size, battery life, and cord length, Jason refers to any tool that will help with tracking and accountability. In other words, how do you utilize the tools - high- and low-tech - available to you in order to keep moving forward? How do you track yourself and what systems do you employ?

From these three areas, Jason has developed three questions to ask yourself on a daily basis to help focus your direction: 1) what did I complete today? 2) who can I acknowledge today? 3) what am I grateful for today? This exercise will help show that everything is relative - both the successes and the failures (e.g. the guy without shoes complains until he sees the guy without feet). It also creates a powerful historical record to show that something that seems significant now might not seem that way a few months or years later.

As entrepreneurs, we are experts in cognitive dissonance, according to Jason - the ability to notice a gap or when something is off. We must challenge ourselves also to notice what is there and what is “on”.

My very Uncommon Opinion: buying a house is a good investment

These days, it seems to be all the rage to tell people to “never buy a house.” Folks like Grant Cardone and James Altucher argue that buying a home eats up too much capital and never allows for a good return on investment. Well, to put this bluntly: They’re wrong, and I have the facts to prove it.

How much money are you really putting down?

If you’re an average millennial with decent credit, you’ll usually only be putting down 10% when you purchase your first home – far from some online arguments that assume a 20% to 40% down payment when arguing against home buying. That’s a big difference – $30,000 vs. up to $120,000 for a $300,000 home. Don’t rely on inaccurate assumptions; estimate what your down payment would be before deciding that buying isn’t for you.

People are overbuying on their first (or second, or third) house

When most people look at a mortgage offer from a bank, they purchase the most expensive house the bank will allow them to afford, which is a terrible idea. If a bank extends someone the credit to buy a $500,000 house, but a $300,000 home fits most of their needs, the less expensive home is a better financial and lifestyle choice. Remember, overextending yourself means you are actually buying a mortgage, not a house.

Many of the arguments against buying overlook making a sensible purchase, and use examples in which individuals are buying the most expensive home they can get their hands on. That seriously sways the numbers in favor of renting. Just because others are doing this doesn’t mean you have to – get a less expensive home so you can save and place more money into investment vehicles with a higher rate of return, or spend the difference on things you are passionate about.

Money spent on upgrading your lifestyle or yourself, such as traveling the world or finally firing up that great business idea, are a far better investment than a fancy address. Plus, you can always upgrade later, if you want.

Keep in mind, you have to live somewhere

One of the traditional arguments for buying a home is that you’re spending money on rent anyway, so you might as well invest it in something. This is still correct. As long as you make smart choices when you purchase a home, it’s better to invest in your own property rather than pay a landlord.

Think about it this way – you’re going to lose a lot of money renting over the years. If you lose less money over time by owning a house, you’ve made a great financial choice.

Homes nearly always appreciate in value, especially with maintenance and ‘smart’ improvements

If you let your home deteriorate and don’t maintain it, it’s a no-brainer that its value will decrease over time. However, if you maintain your home by investing in improvements that can increase its resale value, it’s likely to significantly increase in value over time.

Examples of improvements with a high rate of return include installing high-quality floors, maintaining bathrooms, and upgrading your home’s kitchen. Unfortunately, improvements to the backyard such as landscaping have low ROI, so you should avoid spending too much on them if you’re trying to maximize your home’s value.

Will I be stuck in my house forever?

Unlike what some folks say, buying a home doesn't chain you to one address for life. Unless you get really unlucky and purchase a place for well over its market value, you’re not going to get stuck for long – just sell the house and move into another. If you can’t, simply rent out your property and rent another somewhere else while you sort things out and wait for the original home’s value to increase.

Is this a good time to buy?

The housing crash of 2008 is still in recent memory and it has many first-time home buyers scared that they could overpay, only to see their residence quickly crash in value. So, to determine whether the housing market is overvalued (and thus headed for a bust) or if it still has a lot of room for stable growth, check out an analysis done by The Economist for a quick snapshot.

The magazine’s data team looked at two numbers: the ratio of price to income and price to rent, and found that houses in most American cities appear to be at fair value when compared to long-term averages. Some cities, however, like San Francisco, have homes that are extremely expensive compared to average incomes (meaning they could be destined for a fast fall), so it’s a good idea to dig into a city’s price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios before buying property there.

Profiting off of your home equity using “The Smith Manoeuvre” (for Canadian homeowners)

In the U.S., home mortgage payments are tax deductible (as long as it’s a primary residence), but in Canada, homeowners aren’t quite so lucky. However, Canadians can take out a home equity loan in order to invest money in income-producing entities (like dividend-paying stocks or rental property), and use the tax return to further pay down their mortgages.

It’s called the Smith Manoeuvre, and while it sounds complex, it’s a fantastic way for many homeowners to develop a sizeable investment portfolio and pay their mortgage at the same time. If you’re considering doing this, you should be confident in your investing skills – and be prepared with a Plan B if you need to move and the market goes down.

The bottom line: You should probably own a house

Should everyone go out right now and buy a house? Well, maybe not everyone. But if you're like most young people who earn a steady income and want to invest in their future, it’s absolutely the right move. If you still don’t believe me, run the numbers yourself with this calculator. It takes into account rent prices, mortgage rates, inflation levels, taxes, and variety of other factors to compare the long-term costs of renting vs. buying a residence.

Jeff Hoffman’s career has provided him with many hats to wear: successful entrepreneur, proven CEO, worldwide motivational speaker, Hollywood film producer, and a producer of a Grammy winning jazz album. Jeff has had various roles in companies large and small, along with being the founder of multiple startups. Along the path of this career, Jeff one day noticed a sign that said “You may be successful, but will you matter?” Along with the concept of using your career to make a difference, that is the essence of Jeff’s contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom.

Conventional wisdom in the entrepreneur world states that you can either be someone who cares about doing good - i.e. a social entrepreneur - or you can concentrate on making money. In Jeff’s experience, however, this is not a binary decision - the two elements are not mutually exclusive. Your product may not change the world, but your life should: the results of your effort - what you do with your success, your life, your time - can make the world better around you. In Jeff’s mind, the definition of “mattering”: how many other people’s lives have you made better?

To think of this concept another way, money is often required to make a difference, so you shouldn’t feel guilty about being successful, as long as your success leads to positive change around you. The benefit you find from using your time to help someone else cannot truly be quantified. The story Jeff shares is of spending time with the elderly who did not seem to have anyone else to keep them company. More specifically, he regularly took one woman to a local diner because all she wanted was a piece of pie. It became such a joy for her that her caretakers at the nursing home described her as “counting the days until pie day.”

Jeff’s experience sharing his time with the elderly clarified something for him: entrepreneurs who are only chasing money are usually the ones who quit first. People that are driven by purpose, however, far outperform those who are driven by paycheck. When you know that your efforts and your work matter, it becomes a driver for your success. This kind of confidence also becomes contagious - for potential investors, customers, and employees.

Another vivid example from Jeff centers around the successful sale of his first startup to a Fortune 500 company. He began to notice that friends and peers were treating him differently - almost negatively. Instead of celebrating the success of the sale of his first startup, Jeff became depressed and somewhat resentful of his own achievements. Almost simultaneously with that feeling came a news story about a local shelter for battered women being closed due to lack of funding, so Jeff put two and two together and was able to assist the shelter financially. The logical lesson learned is the direct correlation between how hard he worked and his ability to make other people’s lives better, so he never felt guilty about making money again.

This accidental discovery became a financial and career philosophy, and also began to permeate his own company culture. They developed a system to take a percentage of their sales and put it into a pool, then allow the employees to decide as a team where to direct those funds (or the time that they can support). They call it the community project account. The philosophy Jeff created for himself became contagious for his team - a bonding exercise that a standard work environment could never provide.

Culturally, the end result was a stronger team of respectful, collaborative individuals. Jeff’s experience is the ultimate instance of leading by example - creating a personal philosophy powerful enough that it became influential for his team and helped strengthen/grow his business.

Dave Rendall is an entrepreneur who has worn many hats during his professional career, which started when he was very young. All told, he has delivered newspapers, been a stock boy, lawn boy, caddie, painter, janitor, tutor, resident assistant, job coach, supervisor, nonprofit manager, and senior executive. Just to spice things up, he also has experience as a leadership professor, stand-up comedian, and endurance athlete. Drawing from this vast array of experience, Dave’s contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom is rooted in reality: “What makes us weird, makes us wonderful. What makes us weak, also makes us strong.”

The common social reaction to uniqueness is one that nearly every teenage kid experiences at least once: rejection. Weirdness has a negative connotation; the word “unusual” is usually meant as a criticism. The resistance once receives for being weird is a push to be more conventional; to fit in. Robert Quinn once observed: “Deviants will always generate external pressures to conform when you perform beyond the norms, the systems will adjust and try to make you normal.”

It has been Dave’s experience, however, that the things that make you weird will also make you successful and remarkable. Those who are perceived to be weak may actually be quite strong. This perspective comes from Dave’s time working with people with disabilities (and specifically, helping them find employment). While it was common for others to focus on someone’s perceived disability, Dave explains that it takes a true genius to identify what’s working and what’s effective.

Dyslexia is a condition that provides a perfect example in the world of entrepreneurship. One study revealed that more than 50% of British millionaires were dyslexic, while another showed that at least 33% of entrepreneurs in the U.S. also have the condition. One person who fits into both categories is Richard Branson, who claims that his dyslexia has helped him to succeed. The logical conclusion: people with the condition don’t have weak or broken brains, they just have different brains. Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinkos, would likely agree; his dyslexia drove him to stay out of the office, improve his management style, and grow his business. Upon selling to FedEx for $2.4B, he claimed that not only would he not want to remove his condition, he wishes everyone could have it.

As with most entrepreneurial endeavors, there is a powerful analogy that comes from the sports world. Matt Stutzman is a competitive archer who won the silver medal at the Paralympic Games, all without arms. Matt says that he developed this incredible skill as a result of his disability by fine-tuning his core muscles and legs to the point of athletic superiority. He is even now facing legal action from those who claim that his condition gives him an “unfair advantage.” So perhaps the question you can ask yourself is: if someone without arms can be seen as having an “unfair advantage”, then is the weakness you face as an entrepreneur or as a leader really as strong as you think?

In Dave’s experience, there is always someone that is “weird” the same way you are, who would not see you as weird, but as wonderful. It’s about finding the right fit and the best situations where your perceived weirdness works for you. Dave is a 6’6” man, so he already stands out - yet he regularly wears pink shoes and pink pants as an homage to his three daughters. A side effect to this is that it helps him stand out even more (i.e. be more memorable) - for a professional speaker in a crowded marketplace, this becomes a clear advantage.

In a business sense, to be different requires doing things that are weird and unusual, but most businesses measure themselves against competition standards or parameters. Everyone measures success in the same way. True success, however, lives in having the courage to be weird and think differently in order to separate yourself and define success in a unique way. If you’re able to differentiate yourself into true uniqueness, then there is no competition.

Kris Kaplan is a firm believer that if you’re not having fun at what you do, you shouldn’t be doing it. After a long career on the road as a rep, Kris decided it was time to create an organization of people who shared the same values as him and were wholly focused on a singular vision. He is now a coach to entrepreneurs, business leaders, and other high-performing individuals, providing them with tools needed to simply execute. It is that focus on execution that inspired his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom: “Giddy Up and Make It Happen.”

Kris’ personal mantra of making it happen originated from taking his own thirst for learning and turning it into action - step on the gas and go for it. Within his own business, he found himself in a learning mode, protecting what was his during the post-recession free fall. Dealing with that kind of negativity in his business - a focus on saving what was left - made the business gun-shy about being as forward/active as possible. It also drove Kris toward developing a philosophy of less learning; more doing.

Personally, this mantra inspired Kris to become more active and lose weight, mostly to keep up with his young children. Professionally, however, it helps to maintain a “north star” when traveling along your path, or what Cameron Herold would describe as a vivid vision. Kris’ experience has taught him to take the strategy that he crafted and make the decision to accomplish it. Entrepreneurs can become enthralled with strategy as a sexy topic, but tactics are going to move you forward. Focusing on execution will also help simplify your strategy and create/maintain alignment among the team. In other words, a return to a singular goal.

The motivation for this focus on tactics derives from Kris’ observation of the current state of success: we now accept the “stumbling forward” way of business can be acceptable, rather than striving for true greatness. Companies are merely surviving rather than growing - 10% growth is stratospheric rather than the norm. Ask yourself this: what if you do a little less business, but become true experts at what you do? Wouldn’t that ultimately push your business towards a more rapid period of growth? Especially considering that revenue is not necessarily the only way to measure growth and success.

The foundation on which Kris has built this philosophy is one of empowered entrepreneurialism, passion for the products he represents, and simple solutions. Simplify your vision - be the #1 provider of X - and that vision will eventually filter down to tactics and execution (e.g. achieving that goal means I need to make 3 phone calls instead of 2).

It is certainly a more difficult proposition for an established company to rethink their perspective, as opposed to a new company that is just starting out, but the reward is that much more valuable when it happens. The time might never be right, but the result will always make it worthwhile. As Kris says, think about “when is now a good time”. 

 Hybrid thinking has defined Matt Curry's career as an entrepreneur. His professional career started out changing tires and eventually working his way into a management role, but his entrepreneurial career flourished after he launched his first auto shop in 1997 and ultimately grew it into one of the largest auto repair chains in the Washington, DC metro area.

Having embraced the evolution of the auto industry by educating his line of business in the art of hybrid and electric car repair, Matt has also embraced the evolution of employee engagement through his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom: "You can't rule your world by email."

Whether your business is a brick and mortar operation or entirely virtual, Matt's experience has taught him that you still need boots on the ground and, as a leader, you still need to be involved in all aspects of your operation. This is a lesson learned from observing his four original locations, meeting with his key people, and maintaining a “two-minute meeting” strategy for alignment. It is a lesson that has allowed Matt to ensure that everyone shares the same vision for the organization.

Matt explains that once his business grew to ten locations, he noticed that his key people were over-relying on email to communicate, especially when issues arose that needed to be fixed. He quickly learned that, as the organizational leader, if you are present and keep your team on the same page, you’re able to create processes and procedures (and better guarantee team commitment).

A motto of “enforced reinforce” developed, which means threading the vision of the business throughout the entire organization, including every individual employee. As a tactical example, if policies and procedures aren’t followed, keys could get lost, business would be damaged, sales would suffer, employee morale suffers, and everything devolves into a downward spiral. The "enforced reinforce" mantra helped create a structure where Matt was able to identify gaps or errors early on, address them in those two-minute meetings, and quickly find a resolution.

It may seem counterintuitive, as Matt indicates, but you can embrace creativity while simultaneously adhering to a solid operational structure. The practical tool for achieving this is Matt's "two-minute meeting." While the name can be deceiving (it can sometimes last 30 seconds or 10 minutes), the point is to communicate with key managers, ensure P&P adherence, and guarantee quality service delivery. Emails can become an easy crutch for fast results, but if you focus your regular meetings on a single subject and relevant metrics, you can accomplish quality and quantity in lieu of electronic communication.

The direct result of implementing the “boots on the ground” philosophy for Matt: increase in sales, improved manager performance, higher employee morale (one location went from $30k at acquisition to more than $300k in a short time). In his experience, it is the difference between staying in business and going out of business: structure provides for a more efficient business, which helps employees create a better work-life balance. Ultimately, the vision becomes ubiquitous, as does person and professional success.

Michael Walsh has built his company, Kaizen Consulting, into something that allows him to explore his own personal freedom. By embracing the methods that he uses when working with other entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses, he has surpassed his own expectations for what the entrepreneurial life can bring. His Paper Napkin Wisdom was inspired from his work with a particular client who experience a five-fold increase in sales: "Thinking big is not enough."

This concept arose when Michael asked himself the following two questions: "What stops businesses from growing?" and "What moves businesses past those things that have stopped them?" The conclusion at which he arrived was simple: vision is exciting and aspirational, in the way that limbic energy is contagious. Vision without structure, however, either creates chaos or will fall flat. Vision is fast and compelling, while structure is slow and stable. (Conversely, structure without vision is like slogging through the mud). 

Michael observed that while entrepreneurial businesses are on the rise - 45% last more than five years today, versus 15% two decades ago - the growth of these businesses is missing. Of those businesses that succeed, 85% fail to reach $1 million in revenue; of those that reach $1 million, 95% fail to reach $5 million; of those that reach $5 million, 98% fail to reach $10 million.

In Michael's experience, the difference between being an expert and being an entrepreneur running an expert business is three factors. Along with excelling at what you do, you must hone your skills in sales/marketing, finance, and people management (picture trying to balance four spinning plates instead of just one). Now consider that you’re also balancing these four spinning plates while balancing yourself on a ball, otherwise known as a constantly changing marketplace. When you attempt to grow from this point, your balance point ultimately falters.

The one single thing driving most entrepreneurs is freedom, and, as Michael puts it,  growth equates to access to freedom. This level of satisfaction, however, doesn’t come from reducing the risk - satisfaction comes from winning in the face of the risk. In response to the businesses that approach him with questions on how to grow, Michael proposes three simple rules:

• 1.       Treat yourself as your company's most valuable asset
• 2.       Free yourself up to do what you do best (i.e. trust others to execute tasks that are essential, but not your area of expertise, such as bookkeeping)
• 3.       Focus on your own strengths and then concentrate your attempts to grow on those areas. 

Following this process will start to fuse all of those different spinning plates into one, cohesive organization. Eventually, you will find yourself experiencing better balance and the increased level of freedom that inspired your drive toward growth in the first place.

Fran Biderman-Gross calls herself the “Strategista” of Advantages, a New York City-based company that helps companies to get noticed through branding, marketing, and print production management. Her professional background includes more than twenty years’ professional experience in the niche print industry, but when it comes to her Paper Napkin Wisdom, she's all about turning things upside down (or in this case, on their side).

If you envision the traditional sales funnel, you see a Y-shaped graphic with all the effort of your business focused on eventually converting hundreds (if not thousands) of leads from the top to one or a handful of customers at the bottom. Tradition says that this is a numbers game - increase the number of leads, you increase the number of prospects, and eventually, you increase your number of customers.

Fran's take: tip the funnel on its side (so it looks like a megaphone) and concentrate on what you're projecting out into the world. What you project should be singular and simple; focus on this “one thing” that you put into the megaphone because it has the ability to spread - and what you wait to hear is the echo. The echo means articulating the purpose of your company so well that only like-minded people respond.

There certainly may be difficulty in accepting the idea that you should stop selling to people (and accepting customers) who don’t echo your message. By focusing on those that echo your message, however, you create ambassadors of your brand. You create an indirect sales force that gives you the flexibility to abandon those middling clients that you accepted just to help keep the lights on.

Think about Apple. If Apple communicated in a "traditional" way, they would talk about what they do and why they’re different. “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed and simple to use. Want to buy one?” Instead, they draw from the inside out - why they exist - through inspiration. “We challenge the status quo by thinking differently. We just happen to make computers.” Which one of those two messages resonates better with their customers?

As a result of this commitment to the projection of purpose, Fran’s business has grown in the neighborhood of 700% since she discovered this philosophy. In her experience, if you shrink what you do, you actually grow. Focusing on the “one thing” you’re really good at allows you to become the master of your field. The process to find the “one thing” was painful for Fran and her business - a trial by fire - until they started focusing on the client and service what they need (as opposed to trying to shoehorn their services in). Eventually, the trust that is developed creates a relationship where clients are describing a problem that requires a solution, rather than asking for a specific product or service.

Tip your own sales funnel on its side and project your true purpose to the world. Begin the journey by discovering what is important to you (and why). Then answer those questions for your business. The process is trial and error, but will eventually yield the ability to build the necessary trust with your customers.

Rich Mulholland has had one of the more an entrepreneurial careers of all the Paper Napkin Wisdom contributors. He started out as a roadie for bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi and eventually realized that there was a lack of energy in the industry during the winter months in South Africa.

Driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, he took the initiative to adapt the “rock show” model to corporate clients. He started out by dressing up corporate speeches and presentations with pyrotechnics and grand theatrics, but quickly realized that he was solving the wrong problem: he needed to work on the presentations themselves, rather than the theatrics surrounding them. This was a result of the intense hatred that Rich (and really, all of us) had for boring presentations - it is also the motivation for his contribution to Paper Napkin Wisdom: "“We all need to fall in hate with something.”

An oft-cited quote from Ghandi says that if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. According to Rich, however, this is antithetical to the entrepreneurial motivation: entrepreneurs tend to look at things we hate in the world and say “we can fix it." The entrepreneurial spirit, in Rich's mind, arises from a passion about something so frustrating that the desire to change it becomes overwhelming. This desire ultimately spawns two ways to approach a solution as an entrepreneur: fix a problem or fill a gap.

Contrary to Ghandi's perspective, if you end up doing what you love, your passion will become your job, and cease to be something you love. Rich's approach, on the other hand, has allowed him to separate life effectively - hobbies, loves, passions don’t get in the way of work and vice versa. He has become empowered to explore both avenues of himself - work and life - independently and learn dual channels of lessons. The resulting philosophy:  “love how you do what you do." It is much easier to be passionate about something that frustrates you; call it an itch to be scratched.

Looking back to Rich's origins in the music industry, we see the true motivations for an entrepreneur: for any market that lacks an expert, whomever puts their hand up first and says “pick me” is the expert by default. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs are so busy running their businesses that they aren't open to spotting a problem when it arises. "Being busy" has become a status symbol; a hallmark for success.

Having the capacity to solve the dilemmas of entrepreneurial businesses requires a freedom from "being busy"; a commitment to balance. If we think of our business as a support structure for our personal lives - having a better life means taking the time to do the things you enjoy and spend time with people you love. Once you reframe what success means, it is much easier - and you are more empowered - to prioritize.

Alan Miltz’s 20+ years of executive background ranges from founding director of Inmatrix Pty Ltd through to most recently, director of Pearl Finance Australia. Alan has extensive experience across all major finance fields, including financial analysis and debt finance boosting, and spends a large amount of time helping entrepreneurs handle their banking relationships, cash flow analysis, and other financial matters. His Paper Napkin Wisdom reflects this level of expertise: “Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash is king.”

In Alan's experience, most entrepreneurs and CEOs only want to talk about revenue, margins, profit, etc. Profit, as Alan puts it, is an opinion - you can manipulate it to any degree necessary to fit your message. Here's another way of thinking about the relationship between profitability and cash flow: businesses speak Spanish, but banks speak Portuguese. A competent business owner must be fluent in both because banks talk about cash flow as an ability to service your debt. 

There are four facets or chapters of almost every business, especially those of an entrepreneurial nature. The first chapter is that which every entrepreneur is already well-versed: profitability. Business owners understand chapter one well because it is reflected in revenue growth, margins, EBIT, and other familiar metrics. Chapter two - your working capital cycle - is also reasonably well understood by most entrepreneurs. This includes receivables and debtors, collections, inventory management, speed of bill for services, supplier payment.

Chapter three is defined by what you do with your business after the considerations of chapters one and two: infrastructure or other capital investments. How are you handling your cash flow and what are you doing with it? This, in combination with the first two chapters, is also how chapter four is defined: your cash flow. In Alan's experience, about 60% of companies are profitable but have very tight cash flow - this ultimately harms growth. After considering these four facets or chapters of your business, you must ask yourself: "do I have enough cash flow to finance my growth?"

Regardless of the answer to that question, you can rest assured that your cash flow will be defined by what Alan calls "the power of one", or a 1% positive change in one of seven levers that any CEO can pull at any time. Price, volume, cost of goods, overhead, payables, receivables, and inventory are your seven levers; the most successful entrepreneurs understand these seven levers - and when to pull them - in order to drive growth.

Alan's background means that business owners come to him when they have trouble working with their bank(s). His expertise tells him that when a bank puts pressure on you, it doesn’t mean they don’t understand your business. It means you have a cash flow problem that must be fixed through the power of one. Put another way, the power of one is a summary of strategic plan - price/volume = marketing, cost of goods = operations, overhead = everyone, collections = finance/sales, inventory = operations. Everyone in your business must understand how they impact cash and ultimately, behavior will change in a positive way when company culture embraces this philosophy.

I so often hear about entrepreneurs, leaders, and difference-makers wanting to get more results – scalable results – exponential results. They talk about their hearts being into it, but they are not driving the results they want.

The answer is simple, you have to couple passion and process to get crazy results – exponential results.

You have to be wildly committed to the goals that you set, and make progress on them every day. You cannot do this without a process that permits you to focus on them, to relentlessly execute on them.

If you want a structure to help you do this, I want to give it to you. Please go to www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com and sign up, we’ll send you the e-book that contains the secret structure that will build more scalable, even exponential results than you had thought possible.

You have so much to give, you had better start now.

Take Action is a short podcast, usually between 3 to 5 minutes long, and the focus is on the small, 1% improvements we can make in our businesses and lives. Small changes make a big difference!

This podcast will help you make small changes that will change your world, so we can together save the world one entrepreneur and small business at a time!

Based on The Book Paper Napkin Wisdom: Your 5 Step Plan to Life and Business Success … get yours now on Amazon or at Paper Napkin Wisdom.