Tag: mindset

The End Part 20: Dancing Days Are Here Again

“Lost time is never found again” – Benjamin Franklin

If you recall, the opening quote from the last part was “silence is a source of great strength.” If Lao Tzu is correct, than I must be really strong. I sit here typing away after a year of silence. My last part of this piece was published last June. Why the silence? I am not sure, but if I had to guess here are my two best.

One, I just didn’t feel like I had much to say. That is simply a cop-out. There is always so much going on in my mind and in my life as a business owner that there is always something to say. The truth is that I have learned over the years that when I don’t fell like sharing or do not feel motivated is usually the most important time to dig deep and just do it. I simply did not do that.

Two, I felt embarrassed and a bit ashamed that this negotiation had been taking so long. Here I was wrapping up this series getting ready to finally close the Go-Go Babyz chapter that has endured for two decades of my career. I was just waiting for the ink to dry to publish the last details and my final thoughts.  The ink never dried.

I really think that I let this negotiation get me down. It started off very smooth. The buyer and I worked well together in the beginning and settled the majority of the terms over the phone. The troubles began when two of the buyer’s lawyers got involved. Things started going south fairly quickly. Just when I thought things were good, they would throw another curve ball.

Things got even more frustrating when their lawyers began working with my lawyers. Suddenly, the terms that the buyer and I originally discussed began to change and the fundamental structure of the deal that we were originally working on changed and left me way too vulnerable and exposed. For whatever reason, the buyer tried to change a very important detail in the agreement that we originally discussed that ended up breaking the entire deal.

It is very frustrating that so much time was spent on this deal and in the end it fell through. What is more frustrating is that I had a couple other interested parties that I had to table discussions with due to an exclusivity period with the current buyer at that time. Unfortunately, the ship sailed for the others. I can’t get the time back so I am trying to just be open to learning whatever lessons I can from this experience and use it to move forward better prepared what comes next. If I can successfully pull that off, then the lost time will not be a complete loss.

For now, dancing days are here again. I just need to find a new party to dance with.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

Ramble On, 6.20.2022

Gratitude. Hmmm. It’s such a mystic and elusive word, isn’t it? Maybe, maybe not.

It is, however, something that is easier said, or written, than done. I can only really speak for myself and in my experience it is much easier to say what I am grateful for by means of an oral or written list than actually living my life in gratitude. What does that really look like? Does it actually look like anything or is more of a feeling?

Let me step back for a moment and look at the other side. It easy to complain, judge, and be disappointed when things do not turn out the way I plan or want. It sure doesn’t feel good, though. It is also easy to focus on the things I don’t have and become jealous and envious of others. That sure doesn’t foster gratitude. Why would I want to live that way? I don’t. Then why do I continue to do so? Is it simply a bad habit? 

I could do a deep dive on this and still come up a bit confused so I will keep my rambling short. I do think there is more than one simple answer. Habits are definitely part of the discussion. Verbalizing or writing gratitude lists help form the habit of looking for the positives in our life rather than focusing on the negatives. The positives help us practice good behavior, i.e. good habits, while focusing on the negative perpetuate the bad habits.

I write this the day after Father’s Day on which I had a great day with my family. It was a perfectly enjoyable day. Today is June 20th which is the birthday of one of my lifelong friends that I have been romping around with since the diaper days. I say “one of” because I have quite a few from those days still in my life. If that is not something to be grateful for I don’t know what is.

Looking back just a few days ago I was experiencing intense bouts of anxiety around the sale of Go-Go Babyz. The anxiety came when I found myself in the middle of a deal and all of a sudden two other interested parties came out of the shadows. One in particular had been discussing their interest with another colleague for over a year. They asked that I talk to this other party as a favor. The ink was all but dried on the other deal and now this? I obliged and it went nowhere but generated anxiety for a few days. Of course there was much more but I am sure you get the point.

Looking back I could have avoided the level of anxiety I experienced by focusing on the fact that I had multiple prospects. That is a great position to be in an, again, something to be grateful for.

The point of all this rambling is that in order to change our habits, we have to think differently. Sometimes we need to act our way into thinking differently. Little acts are what will help change the thinking that will form the habits that create positive change in our behavior and life. That is why I believe in a creating gratitude list because writing them down or saying them out loud is a little act that can lead to bigger changes. 

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

The End Part 19: The Sounds of Silence

“Silence is a source of great strength.” – Lao Tzu

If the opening quote is true, look out world ‘cuz Ima gettin’ strong! Silence is the is present plan. Negotiations have progressed to the point that the prospective buyer has expressed their intent to buy and provided an exclusivity agreement to prevent me from discussing the offer or seeking out another offer from any other party while they perform their due diligence. We are getting closer and mum’s the word.

Well, I guess I didn’t really think this through. How can I write anything if I am not allowed to say anything?

Looking back on my last post I realized that I didn’t really address the quote I used for the opener. I just jumped in and went off writing my thoughts and let them go on their own without coming back to my initial thoughts. That tends to happen, especially when my writing has been dormant for a while. Today I will step back a bit to address the quote from the last post by Leo Tolstoy; “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

Patience truly is a virtue and one that I never had too much of. I have always been more of an instant gratification type. The good news is I can become better at applying virtues in my life with practice. The better news is that I have become more patient over time, and you guessed it, it took patience and time, among other things.

A quote such as Leo Tolstoy’s begs the question, “what is patience?” According to the Oxford Dictionary it is “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.” In the context of my present situation I have to decide if this is something I can do. Do I have the capacity to be patient? If you have followed the entire piece you know it has been going on for quite a while. I have had to practice patience throughout in order to maintain my peace of mind and serenity. Now, I am so close I can taste the execution and ratification of a purchase contract. Therefore I just have to practice a bit more patience to reach the finish line.

Time. That is what I must endure. The ticking and the tocking of time manifested in reality as life moves into the future moment by moment. It is the most valuable resource. It is the great equalizer. We all have the same amount of time. It becomes a priceless asset when no one else has the power to control my time. It becomes even stronger and more powerful when I have the skill to manage it properly to maximize my efficiency, production, and quality of my life. It truly becomes a warrior on my side of the battle of life when I can harness the power from the ability to be patient and endure. There is no strength in allowing impatience to create frustration and suffering through the passing of time as the sands of time run lower and lower.

Life is lived in the moment. A lifetime is made up of a collection of moments. Slow, frustrating negotiations are simply pieces to the puzzle that paint the picture of a lifetime. What do I want my completed puzzle to be? A fiery mosaic filled with anger and frustration? No! This process is just a small section of my final masterpiece. I can practice patience and make the passing of time more constructive and enjoyable, or I can kick and scream and be miserable. I do not like misery. I will choose patience in this moment and grow the strength of my warriors.

Stay tuned to find out how my warriors fared through the silence.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

The End Part 18: Born Again

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

He there, do you remember me? I know, it has been a while. Truth is, I haven’t had much inspiration to write and on the sale of the business topic, there just hasn’t been much activity to share. The reality is sometimes you just have to stop, let go and walk away to allow things to happen. That is just what I did.

I’d like to say that it was a noble and calculated decision to do so. That it was all part of my overall strategy. If I did I would be lying. What really happened is life became so busy with the other business that time just continued to slip away. At some point I realized that so much time had gone by and that I really should focus on selling the business again before it’s too late. I did just that. I gathered all the basic info needed and listed the business for sale in April. I have had several interested parties and now I am currently in an active negotiation. I won’t get too excited but will practice cautions optimism.

We have been in talks for two business days and the prospective buyer submitted an offer. No need to get onto details that is not the point of this piece. The point is to illustrate, yet again, that once I let go and stop trying to control and force things to create the outcome I want, flow and life is to be restored. The distraction of the other business helped, but I let go of my attachment to the situation and what I wanted to see happen as the outcome. This allowed things to happen more naturally. I just had to do the footwork.

This lesson transcends business and applies to all areas of life. The more I hold tight to situations and try to control the outcome, the more stress and disappointment I experience. That is recipe for disaster.  The more I try to control, the more disappointment and failure I experience in my life. This creates fertile ground for anger, resentment and all their ugly cousins to come have a party in my head. Negativity feeds on negativity and the longer I allow them to live rent free in my head, the larger and stronger they grow.

Once I can acknowledge what is happening and face the negative tenants, I can send an eviction notice. That allows me to move on and create a space for productivity and positivity. As cheesy and cliché as it sounds it is true. It has been proven to me over and over in my life. I only have control over my own attitude and actions. If I feed the demons dancing with the monkeys in my head, things do not work out so well. If I acknowledge them and take away their power, life is good.

Today I choose to evict the negative tenants as I wait with cautious optimism for the final dance with Go-Go Babyz.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 2.7.2022

“Helping customers not only renders more sales, but also stimulates positive word of mouth” – Mark Joyner

As a small company, customers are our life blood. No customers, no business. They are what keep any business alive, and when you are starting out you can’t afford any bad word of mouth. The way to militate against that is by taking care of your customers, which you should be doing any way! Right?

The reality is, it shouldn’t be a question. Excellent customer service should always be a top priority and executed at the highest level. It doesn’t matter what size or type of business you are, quality customer service should be woven into the fabric of the company and culture.

When Go-Go Babyz started out we didn’t have much of a budget to speak of so we couldn’t afford much marketing. We used to get calls about marketing services and they would always ask “what’s your marketing budget?” or “what do think you can spend on our service?” Our response was usually asking them us to tell us what it would cost and then we would look at the bank account to confirm or deny if it was “in the budget.”

Marketing is a vital part of any business, especially new ones, but many times we just couldn’t afford the advertisements or other expensive marketing activities. That resulted in placing a lot of value in word of mouth. Obviously, what we needed was positive word of mouth. The problem is, a small percentage of happy customers actually go out of their way to provide that. I understand,  treating customers well is what all companies should be doing and customers expect that so why should they spend their precious time telling people how good of a job we did doing what are supposed to be doing anyway?

Because, I can guarantee that a high percentage of unhappy, disgruntled customers will shout it from the roof tops. There’s no excuse for poor service but it would be great if customers would give businesses the benefit of the doubt and contact them directly to resolve their issue instead of taking it to the streets. In my experience, most bad reviews are knee-jerk reactions usually posted while a customer is still in the red zone, feeling the blow of disappointment. They just want to be heard. Once they get it out it usually fades.

We always do our best to resolve any issue and take care of our customers so they will keep coming back and, because it’s the right thing to do.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 1.18.2022

“Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” – Confucius.

I call BS!

I don’t know who to attribute this quote to because there are so many people that have said it or a variation of it. I chose to put Confucius because he was the earliest figure of the bunch I have seen. Whoever said the quote above, I call BS on it.

There are two main arguments I have. First, a job is a job no matter how you define it. Whether you love what you do or hate it, you still have to put in the work. You have to suit up and show up whether you want to or not. Loving it just makes it easier.

Secondly, if you love what you do you are just going to work more and harder. That is my experience. Even more so if what you love to do involves owning your own business. In this scenario there are no set workdays with punching in or out. There are no forty hour work weeks. You just work and work until what needs to get done is completed. Work life balance is non-existent. There is always something pressing that needs to be done when own a business, especially in the beginning.

Having said that, It is also my experience that when you love what you do the work is typically more rewarding, making it easier to show up day after day to put in the time and effort. The hardest part about the work for me is finding the ability to let go and create some balance in life. There comes a time when you have to pass off some responsibly to others in order to minimize the time spent working. If you don’t do this you are sure to burn out.

Therefore, the key is to find work that you can enjoy to make it more fulfilling while putting parameters and boundaries in place so you punch out at quitting time.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

It’s So Easy, When I Keep It Simple

A very important concept to understand is that “simple” doesn’t translate into “easy.” It is important to make this distinction. Especially this day and age where the social media feeds are running rampant with the “get rich quick” pitches. It seems like the majority of my feed is selling some simple path to success, wealth, health, you name it. Any of the things one desires are easily achieved with little effort as long as you buy today. After the timer hits zero, the deal is over.

I know most are not get rich schemes but many are definitely presented in a way that can easily be interpreted that way. Now add the countdown timer and it becomes even more important to hurry up resulting is a rash, impulsive purchase. It’s easy to be seduced by the idea that in just five simple steps we can have the life we’ve always dreamed of. Or in just thirty days we can have our beach worthy body without any diet or any exercise. Now add that expiration date and it becomes even harder to pass up. There are always exceptions to rules and outliers but the reality is that any significant result or desired reward takes time and effort. There is not a magic pill or formula that takes the work out of it.

I am not saying that everything out there is a scam, but there are definitely bottom feeders that are looking for a quick buck by manipulating people. I have been seduced by them in the past and drank the Kool-Aid. Fortunately, I have learned from those costly mistakes. My biggest mistake was falling into the trap of thinking any of these things are fast and easy. When I think these simple strategies, formulas, or processes are actually easy and take little effort I have lost sight of reality and allowed myself to be manipulated. It is really not the people publishing the content; it is my own mind that is the culprit by convincing me otherwise.

The reality is simple strategies are great. They work and are effective if executed correctly. That takes both hard work and time. The biggest lesson that I have learned is that just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Simple plans take hard work to be successful.  That said. If there is a way to simplify the process I am all for it. I just do not believe there are any true short cuts that eliminate the work. There might be a proven process that someone has already tested and is offering. Great. Do the research and if it makes sense fits goals then go for it.

The second important lesson that I have learned is that I am my biggest obstacle. I search for the easier way because I am constantly making things more difficult. I can over think a very simple plan right into a state of paralysis. Then I find myself talking to the monkeys and squirrels in my head as I rock in a corner drooling.  That is not a fun place to be.

That is why using a mentor or coach is so important. I have learned that I need to untangle my thoughts and ideas by putting them down on paper. Then I can search out solutions or advice from another. Once I can see the ideas in their simplest form, stripped of all the fat and fear I wind them with, I see a simple plan of action that can be executed one step at a time. Now, if I cam only remember this moving forward and keep it simple.

It’s simple but not easy!

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 1.10.2022

“The oldest, shortest words – ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – are those which require the most thought.” Pythagoras

Isn’t this so true? There are so many opinions on saying yes or no these days. If I am to consolidate the thoughts and opinions of all my mentors throughout the years I think it would come down to this…

In the beginning, say yes to EVERYTHING! When you are staring out and have not made any sort of name for yourself you should say yes to anything that comes your way.

Once you have established yourself, learn to say no. It seems to be a common theme that once a level of success, however one defines that, is achieved, saying no is what will provide the greatest opportunity for continued growth and freedom.

I am not going to argue with this but I do think there are exceptions to every rule and personal influences on them as well. The reality is these cannot be blanket statements. The rules for saying yes or no cannot be made as one-size-fits-all solution.

For example, I actually need to learn to stop saying no. I say no all the time. Too much I am told. My no saying issue falls into the knee-jerk reactive category. This type of reaction without any thought has caused a lot of problems for me. I need to learn to process the data and provide a responsive answer of yes or no. The truth is that many of my knee-jerk no’s have turned into yeses once I stopped and thought about the question, offer, or proposal in question.

The lesson for me is to work on responding rather than reacting. This is a lesson I have been working on, and getting better at I might add, for years. It goes beyond the simple yes – no dilemma.

Think before you speak!

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 1.7.2022

“Can you hear the Holy Mountains?” – System of a Down

The mountains are holy to me. They hold a sacred place in my heart.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately because the weather has not been conducive to certain outdoor exercises I like to partake in. These are mountain biking or cycling and trail running. I am not a fair-weather trail user but the snow and rain has made the trails near my house quite messy. This has forced me to ride a stationary bike indoors. I much prefer to be outside.

Yesterday on the way home from my other favorite outdoor activity, snowboarding, the song “Holy Mountains” came on and it just confirmed the importance of getting out to these special places. It is good for the mind, body, and spirit. For me, it is really any hilly terrain with trails that take me away from the regular chaos of the day and the crowds. They don’t have to be rugged mountains in the wilderness, just a trail far enough away from the daily noise that provides an escape and a means to quiet the monkeys and squirrels.

The song has nothing to with what it inspired in my mind but I am glad it came on. It reminded me that working hard is great but it is important that I always find time to get away and play. Heading to hills is more than a way to stay fit for me, it is a way to decompress, relieve stress, and reflect.

Remember to always find time to play.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 1.6.2022

A skill or talent left unused atrophies…

This has been my recurring thought of the year thus far, haunting my mind daily. That is why you are reading it. I have a very active mind an imagination. The squirrel cage in my head is usually in hyper drive with a full crew of monkeys surrounding it at all times.

Writing is a great way to get the noise out of my mind and slow things down. I do this every day. I have been doing it every day for a very long time. I just haven’t shared, posted, or published it every day. There really in no need to. Much of what I scribble is nonsense, simply random thoughts that need to be released from the cage to relieve some pressure between my ears.

Every once in a while, however, a thought emerges in my writing that I think others might need or want to hear. That said, I decided on New Year’s Day that I would start sharing some of these ramblings for a couple of reasons. One, because some of these thoughts might be just what someone needs to hear. And two, because I do not want my wiring muscles to atrophy as the opening thought suggests.

I am by no means asserting that I have any skill or talent in writing, but I do love to write and improvement and mastery comes with practice. I write often but the regularity in both writing and posting has dwindled over the last two years. I do believe that I have many years of experience in life and business and have some thoughts that many can find value in to assist along their own journey. With that, I thank you for being my victims and I hope I am able to help.

I plan to make the “Ramble On” feature short and sweet, sharing simple thoughts that I think will provide value to others. I do not plan to do this daily, but a few times a week to start as long as the inspiration fuels me. Don’t worry, I will do my best to refrain from sharing the chaotic, mumbo jumbo swirling my brain from the arguing monkeys and squirrels.

To close, the second half of the opening thought is that an unused skill or talent also deprives the world of gifts. When you leave a skill or talent in your tool chest to collect dust, not only does it wither away, it also deprives the world of the gifts you have to share. You never know who needs to receive what you have to offer.

Make 2022 the year you open up your chest, dust off the contents, and take that leap to share your gifts.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live