Aviation of Business

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Jul 16

Hooray! My first tag! I must be a real blogger!

Now that that’s over, on to the game:

Rosa Say, from Joyful Jubilant Learning, challenged several bloggers to come up with one song that makes their hearts sing.

Difficult? For me, yes. But not impossible. So I racked my brain and came up with a song that could be used both as one that tugs on my heart AND that expresses some business wisdom in the vein of my earlier post on Finding Business Wisdom Anywhere.

The rules of this tag-game are simple:

1. Post about the one song that makes your heart sing, and uplifts your spirit every time you hear it.
If you can provide a link to lyrics and/or audio that would be fabulous. But it’s not essential, so don’t worry about it if you can’t.

2. Include a trackback to this post

3. Tag three others and ask them to include a trackback to your post and this one when they post.

Rosa’s post was brought on by Rich Griffith’s. Rosa chose the song My Front Porch Looking In, by Lonestar. I’ve never heard the song, but the lyrics she posted were beautiful. Rich chose I’m Walking on Sunshine, which, he admits, may not be the world’s “deepest” song. It certainly cannot be argued that it is a downer, though.

I picked a song that many will think is a little odd, I think. Change by Blind Melon (find the lyrics here). This section of the song epitomizes the feeling of it for me:

When you feel your life ain’t worth living, you’ve got to stand up and
take a look around you then a look way up to the sky
And when your deepest thoughts are broken, keep on dreamin boy cause
when you stop dreamin its time to die
And as we all play parts of tomorrow
Some ways we’ll work and other ways we’ll play
But I know we can’t all stay here forever
So I want to write my words on the face of today

While I have not heard a live version of the song I like quite as well as the album version, you can find a YouTube acoustic video of the song here. In every live version of the song I’ve heard, Shannon Hoon changed the lyrics to “’cause when you stop dreamin’ you know you’re gonna die / and I don’t wanna die….” If you know anything about Blind Melon, you know that these lyrics are pretty ironic, since Shannon Hoon died of a drug overdose only a few years after releasing this first album, on which you’ll find the song. Most people remember the “bee girl” from the video of “No Rain,” but I suggest buying this whole album, as every song on it is worth your time.

I love this song because it reminds me that no matter where you are in life, no matter what your circumstances, you have a place in this world - we all “play parts of tomorrow.” And as long as you have dreams and goals, your life is worth living…

The business link is that dreams and goals are absolutely required to build a business, and each business and each person affects the world and the future, for better or worse. And often the only thing standing in the way of building that business and changing the world is a fear of change. This song starts with Shannon Hoon singing that people say “hey look at him; I’ll never live that way / and that’s okay… they’re just afraid to change.” And then it ends with people saying, “hey look at him, and where he is these days / when life is hard, you have to change.”

And that’s exactly how it is with business - people think you’re crazy when you start, but they envy you when you start to reach your goals. They seem to forget all the work in-between…

Now I’m supposed to tag three other bloggers, so here goes (I picked some of my most admired):

Verna Wilder @ Out of the Cube
David Askaripour @ Mind Petals
and
Tara Hunt @ HorsePigCow

Have fun - I did!

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 21

Here’s something interesting: Small Business Week coincides with Earth Day.  I don’t know if that is the case every year, but in 2007, here we are. 

President Bush has praised small business owners in the days preceding Small Business Week, but he has not latched on to the opportunity these shared celebrations present.  If you would like to read the full text of the President’s proclamation, click here (HTML) or here (PDF). 

Here’s the thing: we all know that the environment is in dire straights.  We’ve heard the hullabaloo about Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (both a book [aff] and a movie [aff]) and have seen the many recent reports on Global Warming (or Climate Change - choose your poison), a topic which has finally hit the mainstream as it deserves.

So what is to be done?  Bush missed a BEAUTIFUL opportunity to link Earth Day with Small Business Week.  According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), small business represents 50% of the United States’ private, non-farm gross domestic product (GDP).  In fact, small business ranged from 18 to 85 percent of each sector of the US economy!

Imagine what could happen if there was a strong call for small business to usher in a “green revolution!”  What if all small businesses began to run in an environmentally-friendly (even an environmentally-enhancing) way!  How great would it be if the ideas laid out in books like Green to Gold [aff] and Natural Capitalism [aff] were truly brought to fruition by the ingenuity and creativity of entrepreneurs and small-business owners!

Now think about what WILL happen if no small businesses think about the environment.  Nothing will change.  We’ll continue on exactly the same path we are already on - and, as we entrepreneurs know, avoiding change is not an option.  The status quo is a death knell for business.  In this case, the death knell would only warn us of the impending doom from climate change.  It may not end things, but it would DRASTICALLY change life as we know it.

So if President Bush won’t do it, I will.  I (and Aviation of Business) challenge all small business to try to think “outside their box” and “think globally while acting locally.”  And putting the clichés aside, I truly do believe that small business is up to the challenge of redefining what business can be.  I believe that small business, with its ability to change quickly and with its creativity and ability to mitigate risk (even though it can never be completely eliminated) is more likely to cause the environmental revolution than big, bumbling, slow conglomorates that slog through committees and make tiny, incremental changes so as not to misstep and (god forbid) make a mistake! </rant> Small business entrepreneurs know that mistakes are lessons, and that “incremental” actually means “slow and scared.”

So take the challenge, please!  Find any and every way you can make your business “green.”  Then let ‘er rip!  Leave a comment telling us how you currently “green” your business, and come back and add to the list if you hear about or think of a new, creative way to increase the “greenness” of your company!

Fair Winds,
Andrew

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Apr 3

A very close friend worked his last day at the company at which I worked for nearly six years today. He had been there for eleven years (count ‘em - 11!). It’s an aviation company, and as such it has seen its share of ups and downs. Over the past year or so, however, the company’s leadership turned to layoffs and generally bad management of its people to turn its financials around. Temporarily, I think it’ll work. Long-term, I think it’s a mistake. Regardless, I recieved the following message from my friend today. Talk about leaving with class!

This final message is to a select group of people who are particularly dear to me…

You are special to me, and I’ll miss you. [Our CEO] has said “it’s the people that make the difference” and I couldn’t agree more. [Company Name] is unbelievably volatile with change, and it has its share of corporate problems, but it’s as good as it is because of the folks who show up every day committed to doing a great job and never giving up on making things better. Each of you is one of those people and each of you has influenced me for the better.

While my career here is coming to a close and a new chapter is opening, yours continues. And like mine, your time with [Company Name] will continue to add to your skills, open up new opportunities, and give you many more chances to make that difference. Despite the setbacks, I look back fondly on almost 11 years of growth and development here, and I’m thankful that I’ve moved into the world of training through opportunities that came out of this company. I especially want to thank [Name Removed], who in 1998 took a chance and asked me to join him in training [employees] – that little effort forever changed the course of my career, and brought me into what I believe I was always meant to do: educate and develop people.

I’m also thankful for the countless projects and teams I’ve been a part of, for the learning I’ve done, and for the many areas of the business I’ve been in contact with. There was rarely a dull moment, and I don’t doubt that will continue. In that I’ve learned to seize the day, and take every chance to make the most of it. We must remain committed and determined – these are always rewarding whether in the company or somewhere else, no matter what the endeavor.

I also continue to learn not to let external factors determine my mood, attitude, or mission. It’s worthy to be true to yourself and even more so to your purpose – I believe there is a plan for every life and a benevolent God who created it. No matter what the world does or says, these things transcend it. Work is just work, and no company is perfect, nor can it provide the deepest meaning and purpose our hearts long for. So no matter how tough it gets, we can always look back and see benefit in our work and the companies that provide it. Even more so with the relationships we build.

May your career be blessed as mine has, even with the difficulties that come along the way; may they help us along as we mature and build character, all the while gaining valuable experience to contribute to our futures and the world around us. Thanks to [Company Name] for my career, and thanks again to you for being a part of it.

Best wishes,
–[Name]

We should all take a cue from my good friend and his departure message - learning to separate one’s self from one’s job and to look to many things for self-worth, mission, and attitude, as well as to use the good and the bad to build a worthwhile character and mature into who we are meant to be.

Fair Winds,
Andrew