March 2011

Keep it Real: Walk the Walk or DON’T Talk the Talk!

The internet provides a wonderful platform for free speech…I love that. But with it, comes a natural breeding ground for perpetrators and counterfeits. There is one area where bad information is festering more than anywhere else online, and that’s in the domain of entrepreneurship.

I created this not to criticize but to bring light to a trend that’s negatively impacting the internet – our precious platform for sharing knowledge and giving value to the world. My hope is that this information is viewed as a wake-up-call; on one hand for the offenders of bad information, and the other hand for established leaders – because your help and guidance is needed more than ever.

This is a Community Call to Action! I’ve discussed this very topic with many, including well established bloggers such as Frank Jennings, Marcus Sheridan, Hector Avellaneda and others. By the way, each of these folks are classic examples of delivering authentic, experience-based content to their audience…

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Street Smarts Reigns Supreme and Experience is King

We’re within an information evolution. Unlike the past, it’s at our fingertips. No longer do we have to go to the library or review outdated encyclopedias…we can click a few buttons and “BAM” – there sits anything we want to learn.

We spend hours online researching and learning; hours reading books (hopefully) and even watching educational programs on TV (ok, that was a stretch). The point is that we all have access to the same information.

Education’s New Model

Even colleges offer free online courses. Not familiar? Check out MIT’s free online courses (over 2000 of them for free!). If MIT’s program isn’t prestigious enough for you, then maybe you should consider what Yale has to offer. Many colleges offer free education as an option these days; it’s the new model. They give direct access to lectures (video), presentations (PowerPoint), and some courses even have tests (not graded, but for person assessment)…

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What is a Hustler, and Why it’s NOT for Everyone

It’s no coincidence that those who work the hardest get the best results. Getting what you deserve in life requires vision, action, focus, and drive. It’s obscene to expect freebies, to be gifted goals and get coupons to supplement hard work. If you want it, you have to get it…and this is the overarching philosophy of a hustler. This is not the philosophy of the status quo.

The Hustler Profile

Entrepreneurial-like minded, the hustler takes ownership of their aspirations and seeks achievement through action. There’s no limit, with all integrity, to a hustler’s effort to “make it happen”. It’s a mindset: hyper-focused on the bullseye (whatever that may be). Like a pit bull with his mind made up, a hustler’s approach is definite, tenacious and raises heads.

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Control Negative Perception through Personal Branding

Adversity is a bully. I’ve had many, many bouts dealing with one particular form of it; prejudgment. As you’re aware, this can negatively shape how people treat you, respect you and can limit your opportunities. The effects once put me in a bucket jumping in effort to avoid being missed, looked past, avoided, dodged, side-stepped, juked, hurdled, and any other action word that defines evasion.

Eventually I had a turning point. I realized that I couldn’t just pass the blame on everyone else…I had to take some ownership. Like a company going out of business from failing to bring appeal to their customer’s, I was failing to be adaptable. This realization brought me to the discovery of personal branding. I learned quickly that presenting myself in a more universal way saved me much of the hassle involved in overcoming the obstacles that ignorance put in my way.

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