Sunday, January 3, 2010

Business Hero Strategies- Small Business Flight Plan

Business Hero Strategies
Small Business Flight Plan
by Larry Moulton, Desert Community Bank

“I see a lot of change, a lot of opportunity. We're not just talking about taking the advances of the past and suffusing them out into 100 percent of companies. We're talking about new waves, and new ways of thinking...and that's going to keep all of our jobs very, very exciting.” - Bill Gates

First of all let me say that I am not a pilot. The comparisons I will make to flying are the result of my own perception, which I believe will be helpful for small businesses as they navigate through today’s troubled weather.

For most small business owners the things they are encountering today are different than any they have witnessed over the last several years. We are in the midst of a truly terrific storm that is pounding away at the principles we have lived by for many years. So does this mean we are at the end? Is it all over? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Small business owners today simply have to be smarter if they want to survive. I have some thoughts about how to be smarter using comparisons to an airline flight.

#1 You need to have a flight plan. Where is your business today, and be honest about this. Where are you flying to? What do you want your business to resemble over the next year, two years, five years? And, most importantly is how will you know when you have reached the end of this particular journey? These questions all require deep digging into your business plan, your financial history and projections. You also need to have a system to measure your successes and failures and a plan to respond to both.

#2 You need to check your equipment. Are all the tools of your trade in good order? Are your systems recording, tracking and reporting the information you need to make good decisions? Is outdated equipment hampering your efforts to do better? Now may not be the time to spend money for new equipment, but you should repair what you have, and prepare for the right time to invest in what you need.

#3 Lighten the load. Are you carrying around “dead weight”. This may refer to employees, systems, vendors, and even physical attributes. What can you do today to be more efficient? What can you do today to streamline your business?

#4 Staff Development. Are all of your employees trained to do their jobs well? Do you need to spend time and maybe money to enhance their abilities? Do you have the right employees assigned to the right jobs? This will lead to enhanced morale and more loyal employees.

#5 Pilot and Co-Pilot know and do their jobs. You wouldn’t get into an airplane if the pilot didn’t know how to fly, or if he was sick, the Co-Pilot wasn’t able to take over for him. This goes back to staffing again. Have the right people in the right positions with the right assignments. Also, you need to have a Co-Pilot. Who can handle your business when you are not available? Who do you trust to run your business the way you would. You need to find someone so that you can enjoy life.

This is a difficult time to be a small business. But, it is also a great time to reinforce your market position, promote your business to new customers and to consider new markets to enter into. The businesses that will survive are looking forward and saying, “How can I be a better company when this is over?” Dig Deep, Pull out the information you need and then make those tough decisions. That is why you went into business in the first place. You wanted to be the boss. Now step forward and LEAD. Have a great journey.

Larry Moulton is Marketing Manager for Desert Community Bank, a Service-Oriented bank. Please take a look at their website that features three new video shorts by Jim Howard, President.

Larry Moulton
Desert Community Bank
Larry.Moulton@desertcommunity.com
Office: 702-938-0500
Cell: 702-203-0451
www.desertcommunity.com
"BANKING BASICS"

The 3 Most Important Words in Life


The 3 Most Important Words in Life
by Murray Leitner


Photo: Murray Leitner, while stationed in Hawaii (1945)

Just as the three most important words in Real Estate are "location, location, location," the three most important words in "education, education, education." This has been true for me throughout my life, enabling me to enjoy material things as well as non-material things, like enjoying my work or or having a feeling of satisfaction after solving a problem. These could not have been accomplished without that importnant factor called "EDUCATION."

I grew up in the middle of the Great Depression when jobs were scarce. In those days, the government did not send checks or food stamps to people. They had markets made food baskets and deliver them to people in need. My father was a butcher who worked in one of those markets and my job was to come in after scheoll and help prepare and deliver food baskets to the people in need. As you can imagine, money was tight and I had no idea how I was going to be able to go to college. My parents told me to do my best at school and I did. I was elected to the National Honor Society and was able to obtain a scholarship to a small school in New York.

I was in my third year of college when Pearl Harbor was attacked and all 18-year-old males had to register for the draft. I received my notice to appear before the draft board and they allowed me to finish the school year before going into the service. I served for three years and three months and when I was discharged was informed that, under the G.I. Bill, I could continue my education at the school of my choice, getting a month of education for every month I served.

I took full advantage of the G.I. Bill and got Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Mathematics, and a Masters degree in Engineering. I was hired by an aircraft manufacturing company and stayed with tehm for 35 years. I always wanted to teach, so after I retired, I taught at a local community college for 12 more years. The best reward for a teacher is when a student's face lights up and you know they uderstand what you are trying to teach.

So again, I say the three most important words in life are "EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION."
-Murray Leitner (2009)

NOTE: I met Murray a decade ago volunteering for a stay-in-school program. His wit, charm, and intelligence continue to draw in youth and adults alike. In discussing what he would write for the journal, I told him he'd have to live for another 85 years so we could benefit from the enumerable lessons he has to share. He said he would, so I'm holding him to it. -TT

Winter 2009-2010 Q&A


Q & A
Answering our readers' questions



In our Hero School® programs with the homeless, at-risk youth, business leaders, and educators, we encourage attendees to submit questions when they arise. Below are random questions that we've received recently, conveniently paired with the first answer that popped into our heads.

Q. I was an attendee at one of your Teacher Leadership presentations- just amazing. My question: when you said you didn't drink coffee or alcohol, is this because of your religion? - Las Vegas, Nevada

A. My religion is Heroism, and we really don't have rules regarding what to eat or drink, only when to eat or drink or where to eat or drink. I do admire religions that encourage their followers to not give in to alcohol - and even too much coffee - as long as they are given a good "why."

My last cup of coffee was in June of 1991. I was an addict. Nothing wrong with drinking coffee, but I was a slave to it and I have a problem being a slave to anything - or anyone. And I'm a Pisces. Hazel Dixon-Cooper, in her book Love on a Rotten Day, claims that if you're a Pisces in Hollywood, you're probably an alcoholic. Well, I wasn't in Hollywood, so I became a coffeeholic. The only way to break free from this substance - that I was so dependent on - was to make a quality decision to never have another cup, ever. After "trying" for years, the day I finally "decided" was the last day I was tempted and I never experienced any withdrawl. Realizing that I was "The Decider" over my own life, I stared at the cup of coffee - which had become an extension of my hand - and declared,

"I will never have another cup of coffee as long as I live."

And I didn't...I mean haven't, since I'm still alive.



"There is a real difference between managing and leading...My definition of a leader is someone who helps people succeed." - Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO

Q. "I saw the photo on Facebook when you were run over by a drunk driver as a boy. Why don't you speak out more against drunk drivers?" - Seattle, Washington

A. First, I'm not the same person I was in 1968 when I was run over by a drunk driver and his 6000lb car, nor the same person that spent the first 6 months out of the hospital in a body cast. I'm much more bitter. O.K., I'm kidding about being bitter. My sense of humor might have been caused by the impact. Isn't this Journal about moving past the past?

"Happiness appears to him in accord with a sedative." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Superman

The first step I've taken against drunk drivers is I've chosen not to be one. This miraculous feat was accomplished in 1997 when I decided never to drink alcohol. How easy was that? Actually, I quit drinking so that I would have the right to speak about using alcohol as a "sedative," particularly when we don't know how to quiet our inner conflicts through "self-control" and "self-outwitting." Instead of judging those who drink, or those who drink and drive, or those who drink and drive and sing along to Barry Manilow hits from the '70s, I focus on the source of the behavior:

WHY do some people feel they need to drink?
HOW do they justify driving after drinking to themselves and their families? WHAT is the root of the inner conflict whose pain needs to be drown in alcohol?

For me, it would be impossible to be a role model for teens if I felt I needed to drink, but told them not to. And no, I've never tried other drugs. I like how Forrest Gump put it: "Good, one less thing."



"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts." - Proverbs 31:6 KJV

By looking to help people find answers for their pain and lack of self control, perhaps we can offer them alternatives to drinking - and running over people like me with their cars. For those who still sing along to Barry Manilow songs, however, you're on your own. -TT

"A person hears only what they understand." - Goethe

Q. "Has there ever been a question from a teen or homeless person that has stumped you?" - Buffalo, New York

A. Yours, just now.

Actually, Yes, and no. I don’t recall ever not having an answer to question. But even if I don't immediately have an answer to a challenging question, questions often evoke answers from inside me, like something funny will evoke laughter, or like pulling the string of a See ‘n Say®...

"A Tiger says..."




There are some questions, however, that I will leave unanswered.
It took me a long time to learn that it is not always wise to answer
certain questions in the first place. Some people ask questions
not to get answers, but to test, tempt, and entrap.

"Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest he turn and end you with it." - The Proverbs of Solomon

About a month ago, a subversive young man in the shelter kept challenging the job strategies I was teaching to the other 40 men in the room. By questioning everything I said, this "devil's advocate" avoided being responsible for “doing” any of the strategies himself. He was also working to undermine what little faith the other men had in themselves to return to the workforce. Rather than answer his questions, I would instead return his words back to him, in the form of a question. When he challenged my instructions to be honest on an application, for example, I replied, “So you really think that lying on an application is the best way to get hired?” With this kind of person, whether he or she is a student in your classroom or an employee in your office, the best response is always a question, not an answer.


Tiger Todd with the homeless at Ethel Pearson Park, Las Vegas (1998)

Q. How much do you get paid for each homeless class?

A. Less than the homeless do.

The truth is, well, that is the truth. For the past 15 years, I've actually paid to perform Hero School classes for the homeless. While I volunteer my time, expenses for vehicles, supplies, insurance, and intellectual property still must be paid. The majority of these expenses I pay from my own income as a business management consultant. Recently we've been receiving donations and investments in Hero School to help with the financial load, and it has helped considerably. I am so grateful for the increasing number of heroes and heroines who are helping fund the cause.

"All I want to do is learn to think like God thinks. The rest is details." -Einstein

Q. "Can you give some examples of your best motivational strategies?" - Las Vegas, Nevada

A. Have you made a donation to Hero School lately?

Seriously, my first rule of motivation is to know who it is I want to motivate. I then reverse-engineer my words or assignments based on what they need to hear. For example, when I am working with homeless and displaced men who are predominantly raised in Christian homes, while they can be motivated to come to class for money or shelter, what motivates them to take action toward their own “Character Change” (my goal for them) might come by framing each practical topic within the context of their “calling.” When these men hear that an old guy named "Abram" was able to change into Abraham - the father of many nations and 4 religions - or that sissy-man Simon bar Jonas changed into Peter - the Rock - or that a “devil’s advocate” named Saul of Tarsus could change into the Apostle Paul – he wasn't even a disciple and he still changed into the one who inked two-thirds of the New Testament – most of them drop their excuses and get moving.

“When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on.” - Heinrich Heine, German Poet and Writer, 1797-1856

For you, it’s even easier to get moving. If you keep procrastinating about cleaning up your house or apartment, getting those pictures hung, and sorting your book and DVD libraries, just Invite your boss over - tonight! You will simultaneously clean like there is no tomorrow. If you don’t do it, there might not be a tomorrow. You'll also discover how much you can accomplish before you have to be at work!

Tiger Todd's COMPONENTS TO MOTIVATION:

1. Put your pride out there. Shame is a great motivator.
2. Set an uncomfortably-near deadline or a fast countdown timer.
3. Make a vow to yourself, your co-laborers, to the people you would never let down, and to God (Whom many of us have let down alot).
4. Decide to Live by Words, not feelings or circumstances.
5. DO what your written goal says do, not what you want or feel like doing.

Movie Message: Disney's Up

Movie Message: Disney's Up
Something tells me there's a bigger message here than the story of an uptight senior citizen who flies to South America...in his house.



Up is the poignant story of retired balloon salesman and widower, Carl Fredrickson, who finally embarks on his childhood adventure - at 78-years-old - by tying thousands of helium balloons to his house and floating "up" and toward the legendary Paradise Falls somewhere in South America. The plot thickens when a chubby 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell happens upon Carl's porch just as his house takes flight. The redy-for-anything Russell seems immune to both rejection and bitterness, but it is Carl, so driven to get his house to its resting place, that he nearly misses the many wonderful opportunities and adventures along the way.

The movie begins hopefully, but soon takes a tragic turn with the passing of Carl's beloved wife Ellie. This event quickly establishes Carl's dramatic need and is captured brilliantly through a 4-minute montage of pure Disney - and movie - magic, spanning some 60 years of Carl and Ellie's beautiful life together. This montage is also reminiscent of the silent movies Carl and Ellie must have watched as wide-eyed children. Through their very full life together we are granted some solace, even if Carl and Ellie's dreams and a lifetime of adventure had been supplanted by the demands of daily life.

Carl remains haunted by Ellie's unrealized dreams, as evidenced by her uncompleted adventurer's scrapbook. Not only is Carl left behind to live with this pain, he is being forced out of the neighborhood and the home he and his beloved built together by the forces of progress and a determined developer. If only Carl had a session with the legendary psychologist Viktor Frankl to find some meaning in having outlived his vibrant wife, he may have also found a way to move past both his greatest love and even greater loss. Carl's hand is moved when an altercation with a member of the developer's crew creates the film's real turning point, leaving him with a choice between moving into a rest home, or finally taking action toward finally living his and Ellie's unfulfilled childhood adventure.

Our adventurers do miraculously arrive at Paradise Falls - albeit on the wrong side of the canyon - thanks to the magic of Pixar and an unexpected high-altitude storm. This was undoubtedly the same type of storm that delivered explorer Charles Muntz to this magical location many years earlier. As in real life, however, miracles usually only get us to the right zip code. History, religion, and ancient mythologies are replete with stories of "Promised Lands" that are one-part "miracle," and three-parts human effort, ingenuity, and heroism. Carl and Russell need more of the latter to get across the dangerous chasm between their landing spot and the falls, particularly since the balloons are consistently losing their ability to keep the house - and Carl's dreams - aloft.

It is also at this juncture where each character's deeper unmet needs and unfulfilled dreams rise to the surface. Even the viewers will see elements of their own abandoned dreams and missed opportunities rise up inside them as Carl, Russell, and explorer-turned-villain Charles Muntz wrestle with their own inner conflicts. Carl is not unlike Leo Tolstoy's character in "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." Though Carl had a much better wife, questions like, "What is the meaning of life?", "Was there more I should have done?", and "Did I miss the whole point?" can torment any of us who feel we have let too much of our authentic life slip by. With both Carl and "Ilyich," the agony of an unfinished life comes not simply from age or the effects of disease, but from the pressure of a clock ticking too quickly toward life's conclusion.


The real Paradise Falls, Angel Falls, is the tallest waterfall on earth at 979m with a clear drop of 807m

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James

Like so many people in the real world who today recognize that change must occur, Carl still only changes his location, when what needs to change is the character he brings into the next location. In the real world - and with nearly all of more than 30,000 homeless men we've worked with - change is often spelled e-s-c-a-p-e. Not surprisingly, instead of being grateful for having miraculously and safely landed at the famed Paradise Falls, Carl arrives as the same bitter, reclusive, and defensive old man he was when he left. And while Carl has every right to feel these emotions for what he has been through, seeing each new experience, new relationship, or even Paradise Falls through the past, only taints the view of the landscape and alienates us from everyone and everything we discover. I was referring to Carl.

Warning: Spoiler Alert

"But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press." - The Apostle Paul

Carl does complete his quest by landing his and Ellie's house in its ordained position above the falls, but not without conflict and great cost to his relationship and esteem in the eyes of young Russell, a boy already sensitive to abandonment from his absentee dad. Russell needs a male role model and mentor who will not only be there, but do what’s right, not just what’s expedient. Russell has chosen to save Kevin, and instead of join him in this heroic attempt, Carl dogmatically remains tied to his house. But something happens to Carl once his house comes to rest. Waiting again for Ellie to tell him what to do next, Carl gets the message.

Protecting our past memories and the wishes of those who have past is noble, but not when protecting the past comes at the expense of those with a chance at life, like Russell - or Kevin's babies. Russell needs a male role model as much as Carl needs to be one. Unfortunately, Carl's fear of losing his past life with Ellie has blinded him to Russell and Kevin's needs. Carl's only emotional connection is to his past, as evidenced by his cringing each time his fragile and clunky "house" - the storage unit for his past - is threatened by canyon walls or a meniacal villain.

"Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside the weight and the sin which does so easily beset us..." - The Apostle Paul

Great change can occur when we utilize those things from our past we have been dogmatically protecting, as resources for the future, whether for our own future or for the future of those who still have a chance to live out their dreams and great adventure. This epiphany helped transform Carl from someone who was first angry at Kevin for rummaging through his cupboards for food for her progeny, to a hero willing to "lay aside the weight" of his possessions, dumping his furniture so his house, rather, past, could become an effective vehicle again.

"Live as if you were living already for the second time, and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!" - Dr. Viktor Frankl, survivor of four Nazi concentration camps, and author of 'Man's Search for Meaning' and 30 other works.

Is your Past keeping you from your Future?

It was no accident that Carl and Russell were tethered to a house loaded down with nostalgic and metaphorical weight. Using the balloons and helium from his career helped Carl's dream get off the ground and take flight, but when the house ceased being a vehicle for the future, it became a burden everywhere Carl went. Further still, children like Russell could end up tied down to past of their families until their own dreams are extinguished by sorrow, bitterness, and resentment. How will families learn that "achieving" - as in the case of Russell's workaholic dad or Carl's goal of "arriving" at Paradise Falls - is not as important as the adventure or the journey along the way? Maybe but seeing themselves through the characters in movies like Up. Like Carl, we can begin to see that achieving our lifelong dreams may not be as important as the life we live dreaming our dreams, or as important as the people waiting for us to dream them with.

Hanging on to the past and forgetting, rather, avoiding the demands of the present, appears to be the greatest obstacle to both our heroism, and to the adventure that comes with living heroically. Yes, Up is much more than a movie about a cantankerous old guy who doesn’t want to sell his house to the developer. It's fundamental message is how the weight - whether physical or mental - of our memories influences our freedom to live in the "present." Carl's house, as a metaphor for the past that he drags or tows everywhere with him, delivers a loaded question to the viewer: "How much of your past are you trying to tow into your present and future life? Would you say your "house" is more like a single story, a two story with a 3-car garage, or a French Colonial with a hint of Antebellum?" Like the proverbial ball and chain, Up brilliantly illustrates how being tied to our thoughts and memories of the past like Carl was actually prevent us from living today's life today. We are not free to see the world for its many possibilities or to recognize that others have real needs, but instead drives us to focus on but one objective: keeping our memories of the past intact. Some of us drag whole storage units full of junk from the past with us everywhere we go - O.K., that was me before I got the message - which made Carl's continual dragging his house around seem almost normal.

While the "past" can be a tremendous resource for the future, it is a cumbersome vehicle. Men have a reputation for hanging on to "stuff" from their past, whether its junk they collect in storage units, stories of who they used to be, or actual houses too full of memories of a past life to let new people or experiences in. The problem is not the stuff itself, but living each new day through the murky glasses of the old stuff.

"Every man is my superior in some way, in that, I learn of him." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Up also reminds us that just as our youth today need wise and mature role models, our seniors also need present and future-minded youth in their lives to save them from the temptation to become calcified monuments to bygone eras. Hero School has been working for more than a decade to pair the great wisdom and brain trust of our seniors with the current population of under-parented young people who need them. Perhaps Up can be the vehicle that brings both groups to Paradise Falls and beyond. -TT

“We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.” - Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004


If past hurts, losses, or failures are holding you hostage, exercises like these can help put you back in time with the present:

1. Acknowledge the pain.
2. Grieve the Loss for a fixed period of time.
3. Forgive the person - and yourself.
4. Release the event.
5. Replace the thought trigger with a future hope.

“It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.”
Jim Bishop quotes (American Writer, 1907-1987)