See, I’ve failed in every way known to man. I know what the failure paths are, damn near intuitively. I been knocked around, you know? I know how to avoid bullies. I know what kinds of signals–the Gladwell Blink stuff–that leads to a failed project, aborted dream or misfired plan. It happens all the time. There are details that are either absent or present that scream ‘failure.’

Usually it’s an aversion to, or desperation for selling. Often it’s an entitlement mentality. But I’ve been asked for feedback. And I see trouble, the details that are missing to get money in the door. Something that will repel customers. I see this a lot.

So, I have three choices that I can see: I can say nothing. I can bite my tongue and let the oncoming bus shatter the toddler. I can also say, without passion a couple of pointers to improve. No urgency, just “hey, you might want to make it easier to buy without making the process feel like a job interview.” Or, I can want to preserve every chance they have.

“This is war, man, and you’re daft if you think that you can win with the army you’ve raised–what are you THINKING?”

But that’s rude. People don’t want to know what is wrong with their project. It stings me when people say things–even things I’ve thought my self–that hold me back. I imagine that it stings others as well. But you have to motivate them to action.

Because striking out on your own is a precious and American spark. Doing something, making something better, hustling more. Having the brains, balls and LaManchan dream to make something happen, even here, even now is beautiful. Letting that spark die is cruel and hateful.

So what do you do to convey passionately, with urgency when you know someone is in trouble? I’ve watched people’s businesses fail 3 years, weeks, or months later. For the reasons that I predicted, often. And the person blames things that they could control instead of the real causal things for the failure. It’s easier to blame others, it’s hard to own up to the real things: selling is flat out hard to start.

It’s easy once you punch through resistance, but it’s ALWAYS hard at first. And you can smell the funk of sales fail anytime you’ve been in the business. The revolting interruptions of that guy that wants you to like him no matter what. But you get an “I know what I’m doing, don’t be negative” reply.

As if being positive is the only way to support someone.

Most people fail, and all failure in business is a choice and a failure to adapt. Period.

As for me? I probably have things I’m gonna hafta correct before I get to the level I want to be at. I probably have stuff that I absolutely need to do better, stronger & more, and probably other things that I gotta do less. If you see them, point ‘em out to me.

Related posts:

1. Jack of All Trades Doesn’t Always Apply: Some People Are Just Smarter. (note: I have a ton of stuff to get out...
2. How To Deal With Real People. The last post that I put out there seemed a...
3. Do you bring Peace or Drama into People’s Lives? My life is good.  I have a few dear friends,...

Nobody likes a perfectionist, but nobody hates a masterpiece. I don’t want to sanitize my work to perfection because the kind of writing that is excreted by committees blows chunks. I’ve almost completed my book, and it’s been in an improving state of almost completion for weeks, even though it’s consuming 3-4 hours of my time each day. And it’s 3-4 joyful hours. I think I’m a week or so from releasing it, and I wanted it out there and in the world’s hands before christmas, hence the santa hat.

But, really, the content was drafted. I don’t have the capacity to write production quality content in real time. I was taking on big damn topics: Drama, procrastination. There’s a chapter called f—k your parents. Those things weren’t going to work if they were hamfisted or shrill attempts. The writing itself had to be more solid than anything I’ve ever written, and it’s certainly a project that is about as hard as anything I’ve done.

Realize, I’ve read about 500 books in the business/self help/personal development genre in my lifetime. Everything from the excellent “7 Habits” to the mediocre “Cheese” to some trite & dangerous crap du jour like the Secret.

Right now, I’m not unhappy with the writing. That’s not to say I’m done with it. I’ve gone through it 5-6 times, and it’s shaping up to look really friggin’ cool. The last week has been uplifting–the feedback from my throng has been good, and now I look for more negative feedback to make sure it’s sharp as hell before I release it. I should be doing work on the Blog I’ve made, but that’ll come, and I intend to continue to improve this throughout its lifetime. There’s also so much more to write, there were 24 chapters called:

F—k yourself:
f–k clutter
f–k perfection
f–k whining
f–k obesity (free sample)
f–k procrastination
f–k indecision
f–k drama
f–k slacking

F—k Your tribe:

f–k your team
f–k your guru
f–k your job
f–k your stroller
f–k baby boomers
f–k The Jonses
f–k lawyers
f–k meetings

F—k your programming:

f–k self righteousness
f–k manners
f–k fear
f–k egotism
f–k entitlment
f–k compromise
f–k materialism
f–k your parents

The interior design I absolutely love, and the collaboration has been an utter blast. The marketing is going to be fun, too, an ‘anti’ self help book. We’re going through it over and over again to make sure it makes sense, it’s solidly constructed. It’s more work than you think, but the work will pay off, provided that the entire consumerist economy isn’t a worse problem than I had thought.

This will probably be the last PDF I do. While doing a PDF gives you good control and SOME interactivity, the real promise of ebooks is what they do that’s not book. In other words, Brian Clark was again, right. And I’ve ignored his advice because of Zen To Done’s inspiration. That was a PDF that felt like the best of both worlds, so I gave ‘er a whirl.

Anyway, this beast has consumed me for a while. I look forward to getting it done and off of my chest. I’ll probably have some version of this for sale next Monday, but it’s unlikely to be the ‘final’ version.

Also: more stuff on freelancing is coming. For those of you that requested the book download–I’m sorry I got ahead of myself. I was excited about Keith’s cool Aweber plugin for WordPress, and wanted to put it to use. (That’s another project that’s almost done. If you want an aweber box that’s 100% customizable, and 100% compatible with every WP theme, let me know, Keith and I’ve got something cool for you).

See you tomorrow.  Back to th e mill.